New camera - Easter – Ramalau becomes a beach visit – luck at the ATM – another bike gone – Palm Sunday – District visit coming up – Rebuilding a laptop - Late-night church goers in Dili - Onions

Blog ending 2013-03-30

Well the number of ‘threes’ in the date means nothing, but it does look interesting.

We had a quiet ride up to Dare this morning and I used my new Olympus camera to take some shots of the WW2 history banners at the café. We were pleased the café was actually open as Easter is usually, in NZ anyway, when shops are either shut or they charge a premium for the service. The main premium trick here is to allow any malae to pay for the coffee, even if someone else has already done so. So three coffees can be drunk while, in one instance, six are paid for . I am aware that despite having a new camera, there are no photos in this blog

Nearly everyone who could afford a ticket on Merpati (prices way up since Batavia Air went bust) has decamped to Bali for the Easter break. Others have gone to Atauro Island (Barrie’s is full). So Dili is pleasantly quiet.

On Friday, a Rav4 was available for use and three of us were all set to go to Ramalau for a climb, BUT due to the roads and the vehicle being borrowed, we decided against it and settled for an afternoon over the back of Christo Rae, at what used to be called ‘Kiwi Beach’. My chilly bin was excellent for the drinks + ice cream and cucumber. Tracy tested out the cucumber + vegemite on crackers and it wasn’t a bad combination.

Thursday was a big half day. A morning run from the lighthouse to Ocean View and back gave me a heel blister, but I have to get in the distances to do the June marathon. Just off shore, near Ocean View, there were 26 local fishing boats in a 700m radius. Rather intense fishing?
At work, there was a mass exodus at midday. Later, I went to pick up the new camera from Kees, who’d kindly purchased it in Bangkok, and then I passed by the ANZ ATMs, at about 7:45pm, on the way home. Hmmm, better get some cash, so I joined the queue and got straight onto the ATM with no queue, clever eh? Then discovered the ATM provided all services, except dispensing money. Huh. So onto the other machine + queue & passed out advice to new-comers, not to use that ATM. Withdrew $200. The next eager person behind me was disappointed to find out I’d taken the last $$ from that ATM. The ANZ had a notice up saying that they were shut Thursday and would re-open on Monday 1^st April. I guess that’ll be when more money goes in the ATMs. Maybe the ATM at Tiger fuel is not on the blink and MAYBE the ANZ ATMs at Timor Plaza are now finally working?

Three weeks ago, between 0100 and 06:00 Friday morning, a bike of mine got stolen. This was the 2^nd time. The bike was one I bought in November, after #1 was stolen. #2 was on the porch outside my apartment. The porch cannot be seen from the road and you have to go through a metal gate, then a courtyard next to another house with family members and two ‘guard dogs’ that didn’t bark. Curious. Fortunately, the bloke who bought the other bike (part of a pair donated to Rotary after the '2012 Tour de Timor')  in November hadn’t ridden it, so agreed to sell it to me for $500; same as he paid. Since I still don’t have the insurance from bike #1, bike #3 was purchased with funds snaffled from NZ. Now it is always locked up or is taken into my living room for the night. A water bottle went missing as well the following week. Misplaced trust appears to have been my problem. The new bike is working out really well and I just have to get hold of a carrier that fits over disk brakes. Borrowing Helen’s spare bike has been great as it has a carrier and is pretty good on the roads.

Three of us went to the cathedral last week for Palm Sunday. It was a very big event and preparation had begun the day before with many boys coming down the hill from Dare with big palm fronds stuck in bags or down the back of their shorts. Their bikes have no brakes and they were just dragging their feet on the road to slow down, so I showed them how to put their foot directly on top of the front tyre instead. Two of them had a point to prove and overtook me going back down to Dili.

The church service began at 07:15 when the bishop walked through the crowds outside and flicked holy water from what looked like a large, horse hair brush as one would use from lathering up a beard. I was still checking it out when I was blessed and my glasses got blurry. Then there was a parade around the outside and then Tracy, Sue and I went inside and stood at the back while the service went on for about 90 minutes. We then left. Outside, a large crowd arrived from Dili Institute of Technology (DIT), they had their blue blazers on and carried several banners. It is at least a 2-3 km walk from DIT. 

Next week my counterpart and I will visit three branches, over three days, to the east: Manatuto, Lospalos and Viqueque to attend to computer issues and make sure they are all set for the new financial system rollout.

My IT skills have been used a few times in the past six weeks. A recent example was a fellow volunteer’s hard drive dying. I got a new one and had it rebuilt in a couple of days, with virus protection. Very pleasing for both parties. 

This evening I was in a truck coming back from Railaku and we passed many people in their Sunday best, headed toward town. In Dili; same thing - many families dressed up and walking through town. I guess it is for a late night service before Easter Sunday.

I finally found some large onions for, not 'on' sale, today. Waving my five onions at the stall owner, I was informed they were US$1.5 each....WHAT?!. Reduced my purchase to two onions and decided to cut each into four sections. There was a nice tenderloin in the frozen meat section at Kamanek. Produced by AFCO and from NZ - a  steal at only $60 for 4.6kg.
Back to getting my protein from eggs, chicken and fish, I think.

Big trucks on the Dare hill road – dust – road trip to Suai and back via Balibo – Die Hard5 on the Dili big screen - Pathway near Beach Side Hotel – Tour de Timor 2013 – office chair delivery

Blog as at Sunday March 10^th 2013

We no longer have lots of trucks and vehicles on the Ramos Horta road now that Becora is open again. So much for my prediction it would be closed for months. Repairs on the Horta road have taken place to widen the twists, narrow and semi-washed out sections, so the heavy traffic can actually go past each other.

Last Saturday morning, Helen, Eddie and I cycled up to Dare for a coffee. No milk at the café again, meant I am being turned into a black coffee drinker.  Coming down we passed some heavy trucks with earth moving/road construction equipment going the other way. They must have been pushing 6m in height and their width meant some other large trucks going down had to do lots of back-up type jiggling manoeuvres to enable passing. The height meant that one of them caught a power line at about the same time. We’d stopped our biking to observe and let the road clear (twisty downhill section). I saw the first truck run into and catch the cable on the cab of the digger, loaded on the back. At  the last second it ‘snapped’ free. I waved at the next truck and pointed up, so a guy on the back used a piece of bamboo to raise the line up and over the top of their load. Easy, eh?. Considering that most of the Becora work had been completed, I wonder if this was a relocation of equipment  to the south?

Monday 4^th, in the afternoon, there was a petrol tanker on fire up the Horta road, just over the top on the Hera side . It (I wasn’t there, but an eye witness told me the details this morning) apparently was fully ablaze and the fire brigade turned up to spray a lot of water on it, to no effect. Then they tried a foam mixture and that worked; sending up clouds of white smoke. To finish off, a fireman climbed on top and opened the access hatch to the tanker and sprayed directly inside. He was completely obscured by the white smoke and steam. Rather dangerous technique I think.

All the mud washed onto the roads becomes a fine dust now and I am seriously thinking of wearing a facemask. Considering that much of the mud is washed out of the drains AKA sewer systems, breathing it in can’t be that good.

You know you've hit Same central when you see this

On Thursday 21^st Feb, Kate and I left Dili for a road trip to the southwest areas. We took her Mitsubishi Pajero Junior and it was the perfect vehicle for the conditions we encountered. Kate took all the photos, so follow the links to see the rest(!)  Dare view over Dili toward Christu Rei 

Day one was to Same and the conditions were good. Plenty of mist and cloud cover near Maubisse, but it is a mountain area and is usually cool and damp. The roads have been damaged by the heavy rains, so they are just about back where they were before all the money was spent fixing the Dili-Same road prior to the Bonaventura centennial celebrations in November 2012.

We stayed at a nice $15 place on the inside of a tight left hand turn on the road out of Same. The 2^nd floor corner juts over the boundary wall that comes right up to the corner, so good for balcony views, but a precarious corner for traffic and pedestrians approaching and leaving. There is a new hotel/guest house another 2km to the south and we went there for dinner. Finnish staff working on the new power plant in Betano (south coast) are staying there and we saw them. the work must be well paid, but relatively boring as there isn’t much in the way of local entertainment. One supervisor was dining with his visiting wife and they were about to visit Dili for the weekend. I recommended going to the new ‘Platinum’ picture theatre at Timor Plaza.

Next morning we went for a walk and found a ruined church + bell tower. The logo of ‘A’ & ‘M’, superimposed on each other was prominent on the remaining walls. The local story is that the church was destroyed by Japanese bombing in WW2. A special veterans’ conference was being held about 200m from our accommodation. This was happening at different places all over Timor that weekend. The veterans were the resistance fighters of 1975-1999

Day two we visited the Bonaventura memorial grounds, 3-4km south of Same. It is reached via a long, sealed procession way from the road. Flood lights are on both sides, all the way to a circular area with a large statue of the hero/rebel in the centre. A tree protected by a low wall is very close by, so there must be some historical significance there. The lights have exposed connections and the wires are laid directly on top of the ground. No one there except for 3 staff on the gate and about 10 others doing a clean up sweep. The thin sealed surface is already breaking up from the rains and the toilet blocks already have a dilapidated look to them. Hard to think the place was barely five months old.

Kate sitting on part of the fort, just south of Suai

We carried on to Betano and then west along the south coast to Suai. The roads were gradually getting worse, but the bridges were very good. One large one had only recently been rebuilt with Japanese funds. Average speed was about 30-40kmph for the day. After investigating an old Portuguese fort to the south of town, we eventually stayed at the Eastern Dragon Hotel. Expensive at $42, but the food was good and the AC + TV worked. Town very quiet these days as few malae visitors as so many, UN etc, having left the country.

Day three was back east to the inland town of Zumalai and then up the narrow road north to Maliana via Bobonaro, an old Portuguese ‘getaway’ place in the mountains during the summer months. The roads here were the worst I have encountered. One place showed that road works had been undertaken in 2009. We could see four road signs, but nothing else to distinguish the surface from the rest of the route.

The evidence of roadworks in 2009

 

Looking back up the narrow, washed out section

There was all manner of subsidence, cracks, washouts and in one case, a vertical drop of about 1m right across the road. The apparent line across the seal encouraged me to slow down for a better look and so avoid a nasty thump, or worse. The ‘best’ of the worst was a steep, twisty section of about 200m that was severely washed out on the right, leaving a width of a 2/3 of a normal road. Washout + narrow road The drop was about 60m+. The Pajero fitted OK (we stopped and walked down and up to make sure it was safe). Just prior to us reaching the section, a guy on a motorbike, with two matresses across the back, had come up that same way. Big load on a bike No trucks or buses could safely get across and I believe that another heavy rain or two will finish it off completely. No one seems to be interested in keeping the drains cleaned, so it all washes away. To me this is obvious, but maybe the locals have a different point of view. The road needs so much work over a 50km stretch that it would cost millions. The views were great and we stayed at an old Posada in Maliana that showed deferred maintenance dating back many years. The guest book showed 63 guests since May 2012. Average speed for the day: 15-20kmph.

Breakfast at the posada. The kettle handle was as hot as the coffee inside, so was too hot to hold

Day four was the home run over much better roads across the plain around Maliana then up into the hills and onto Balibo. I could just make out part of the word ’Austral…’ on the reporter’s house. Not bad after 38 years. The message has been protected behind a glass panel now. Above the house is another old Portuguese fort that the Australian forces occupied for several years around 2002. We moved on after exploring the runied building and walking around the fort walls and exploring the cells/store rooms under the walls - dank and dark. Lunch was at the border, Batugarde, and then we went due east back to Dili. Many road works meant a great contrast in stretches being almost four lane in width down to narrow, mud covered sections that had been recently covered by massive slips off the hills. Just east of Liquica, we stopped at a cleaned up set of ruins that used to be a Portuguese prison. The notice boards gave a history of the place and is a miserable one. About 100 years ago the prisoners were kept in water logged cells and some of them eventually chose to end it all by drinking sea water. Things didn’t improve much during WW2. With that sort of contrast, I think life is a lot better now by far.

I finally visited the new picture theatre at Timor Plaza to watch ‘Die Hard 5’. A no brainer, but entertaining and the resolution of the picture is like Blu-ray. The facilities are world class! During the film, 16.6% of the audience got up and walked out. She came back later, so maybe it was nature calling.

The recent flooding came into some ground floor rooms of the ‘Beachside hotel and also washed out part of the pathway that runs along the edge of the beach, by the road wall.

The 2011 Tour de Timor is being shown on the ‘Outdoor’ channel over six weeks, so I joined the Thursday night crowd at Dili Beach Hotel to view the first one. Good news; the tour is on for this year and is scheduled for September, so time to get practicing. Saturday I did just that and cycled up Dare in the morning in 45minutes, a new personal best and then again in the afternoon, in about 55 minutes (much hotter) to get to  Hash run from the monastery about 500m from Dare. It was a great run, over some new territory and took us about 90 minutes over roads, past houses and through back yards (with owner's permission!), over steep foot trails and up to the tops. I felt quite pleased to have all the way up there under my on steam, from sea level.

After a ride down to Dili in a fellow hasher’s truck, I started cycling home (dark by now) and missed a hole in the road. Cause and effect being what they are, I became aware of the circumstances immediately and picked myself off the road having kicked said road with my right toe and lost some elbow skin. The handle bars were a wee bit bent too. Back home it was iodine time and that hurt, but better than an infection later.
I was too wimpy too heat up a paper clip and burn through the toenail to relieve the pressure, so nature found a way. It looks so unpleasant, that maybe I could use it to extort money from a local bank. The wisdom of several beers does not hold up well the next day...

Earlier in the day I bought an office chair for home. The plastic chairs that everyone uses have little to no back support. The vendor had the back half of their premises full of double doored, grey-painted cabinets. All from the recent UN auction where people had to bid on containers they could not open. I couldn’t get delivery included in the price so I just put the wheels section on my carrier and looped one arm through the top section and cycled home with it. Is this going native?

Saturday rains and flooding - Telkomcel starts selling – Railaaku, frogs and mud - On the road x2 in one day + 2nd time with yellow paint – Waitangi day – BBQ – Fruit prices drop – Tour de Timor – ATMs update

Blog ending Monday 18^th Feb 2012

Saturday 16th was extra-special wet. I was at work in Motael and I heard the rain on the roof, mid-afternoon. Nothing special, so back inside again. Then it got heavy, so... outside for a look – impressive; back to work again. Then it got REALLY heavy, torrential I think. This went on for maybe 45 minutes. I left about 3:50pm and got a clue to the conditions when I went outside the gates. The road was a river and came up my shins. I managed to cycle through it to Comoro road and there were twin rivers flowing west-east down either side, past Tiger fuel. The bridge by the bike shop/President’s Palace was closed and there was a crowd nearby watching the raging stream. I had to go up the eastern side of the stream/torrent to get to Banana road. My side had a higher bank than the other, so the flood was all over the western road (leading to Bairo Pite clinic) and into the Palace grounds. Getting into my shared courtyard from the road was a little challenge, as there was a good stream flowing through it. My ground floor apartment is fortunately up on good foundations, so no water problem. A quick change, then off to the Dili Hash ‘Red Dress Run’ at Saigon where we raised about $2,760 for the local Red Cross. During the run we, surprisingly, ran down roads covered with water. Knowing that rain water had mixed with the drains, I advised the surrounding runners not to get any in their mouths, Two minutes later, one of the new runners started splashing his buddy and…some of it went in my mouth. I spat it out but thought ‘Too late, we’ll see what happens’.   That was about 5:30pm on Saturday. 03:00 this morning my insides were wildly rumbling and the throne needed to be mounted. The king held court until 06:00, before leaving and then going to the doctors for an appointment and antibiotics. No nausea, but this beats my 2001 experience in India.

The aftermath of the flooding is that the bridge is still closed (throttling Comoro road) as the water gouged out large 8m diameter circles from the banks on the immediate downside of the bridge.

This morning the traffic has been diverted down side roads to the beach road, where they try to meld in with the overloaded vehicles and motorcycles there. Chaos and people caught for hours, I’m sure. On the bright side, my bicycle never stopped; I just went around and between everything else. Now I’m home again with the first pills (Nizole and ‘Cipro’) beginning their work. A Dave Brubeck selection is playing; maybe that will help a bit. 

Telkomcel has their office, only one I know of, but you have to start somewhere, at Timor Plaza, very high profile as it is the only multi-level shopping mall in the country. The first couple of weeks the staff told of big things happening soon, they just couldn’t say what. There was nothing to actually buy, so that might have been an intentional advertising ‘teaser, but probably just a gap in a complex project of introducing a telecoms provider into a country. To lighten the scene, free wireless was introduced a week or two ago. You just have to be within about 20m of the office to use it. Late on the 11th I saw Telkomcel SIMs being sold outside the Timor Telecom office in Colmera.  Retailing for $3, but the hawkers were not shy about suggesting $5. The ‘pulsa’ or recharge cards are now freely available. A couple of hiccups: $10 per 100mb for internet and no calling between the TT and TKcell networks. The latter’s internet is pretty good. They say that a fibre-optic cable is being laid from Kupang, other end of the island, the Indonesian end and this will provide megabit speeds. Unless TT can improve from their satellite dish then the writing is in the wall. Plus a local business told me that new prices were about 30% cheaper than TT, so most people he knew would be switching. Spot the trend.

Yesterday (Sunday), three of use (Helen, Eddie and I) cycled up to the top of Railaaku Ridge. It is on the road to Emera, about a 4 hour there-and-back ride from Dili, via Tibar,. Lots of trees and a few areas that might even count as avenues. The local road kill appears to be frogs. I counted 16 unlucky ones in a 10 km climb. On arrival back in town, the mud by the flood-damaged bridge (President’s Palace one) was very gooey and stuck all over the bike. It made me think of mostly melted chocolate. I cleaned the bike by putting it in the shower.

Last Sunday there was 20 rider cycle over to Hera and then the loop back. The other side of Becora hill is easier to navigate now on two wheels, but the slips/landslides are so bad and the repair so slow, I think we won’t see four wheeled beasties up there before Christmas. After that ride I headed home for a two hour rest before cycling to Liquica to meet four others who were getting there by motorcycle. I had a tin of paint this time and painted some better ‘X’ shapes 20m further out from the bump. This is, apparently, still too close, so I’ve found a better marking paint in a 5litre pail that should do the trick at 50m out. But on some other weekend. All that riding had me pretty tired with 22km + 55km = 77km on a hot day.  

February 6^th is New Zealand’s Waitangi (national day). Like many other Kiwis, I received a formal invitation, so I broke out the NZ version of a Hawaiian shirt and gave the place some contrast. I was outdone by a work colleague who wore a light short, covered by a large, hand-painted tie with something by Miro on it. He was impressed that I immediately picked the artist (three years of art history is worthwhile kids) It was such a bold thing that I’m sure nearly everyone there recalled the tie, but little about the person wearing, unless they spoke with him. We Kiwis were invited to attend early so we could meet the Timorese President, but he didn’t show up until later. The sound system kind of let things down as many of us couldn’t hear the translation of the President’s speech nor the speech by our ambassador. The food was delicious!. Many Australians were there as well.

On the Saturday following, we volunteers were invited to a BBQ at a house up the Ramos Horta road. Beautiful place and very nice hosts, Steve and Rose. They put it all on as a ‘thank you’ for the work that the eight of us are doing here.

Coconuts (to drink) only cost $1 now and I can get a banana bunch or six passionfruit for the same cost. Coconuts are really good to drink after a run out to Christo Rei (Jesus Statue). I was listening to a novelty song last week and noticed that repeated: “You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up”, so Pia and I tried it on Thursday. OK and obviously different. Maybe it needs something else added as well?

My conversations with other riders do not provide good news on a Tour happening this year. Apparently (I will write a correction if I am wrong here) about US$200,000 was owed to the people who ran and promoted the event in 2012. The old Government sports ministry didn’t get around to paying them and the new one says it isn’t their job. Anyway, that $200k is either still in a Govt. bank account, waiting to be paid out or it is somewhere else…

A story I heard from the last tour, when it stopped for the night in Gleno. Someone stole a bike during the night. It was a spare, but still quite a loss, as they’re expensive. The tour lined up next morning and took off. Then someone noticed that a local had joined the riders and that person was riding…yup, the missing bike! The Timorese police accompanying the tour apparently stopped the rider, had a private chat (no charges laid) and the bike was returned.

The ATMs at Timor Plaza are waiting on parts from China and the ATMs in Lita and Leader will not be replaced. The one at Tiger fuel will probably be placed in its own room, for security. I got this from a good source, the ANZ bank manager!

Hash 400 runs x 2 – Diving into Piccadilly Circus – No right turn – Chilly bin + Yoga mats – Some optimism - ATMS again - Telkomcel

Blog ending Saturday 2^nd Feb 2013

Updated: Feb 3rd

Three weeks ago the Dili Hash visited Cameo Beach at Liquica for Tail light’s 400^th and last run in Timor. With runs only on once a week, this is an impressive number, spread over about 10 years. I cycled out there in about 90 minutes. Nice ride and good to be able to buy fresh bananas for $2 a bunch from roadside stalls to replace the energy stores. We started the run early and did some exploring up in the hills just out of town. Tough work to run uphill, but worth the views. Some of the seafront, not protected by gabions, had been washed away in recent high tides and the awning over the porch couch had to be temporarily taken down due to the seasonal north westerly winds, but the facilities at the beach ('Black Rock') are excellent and we 'beered', swam, wined and dined. After the run about 20 of us took a beer each into the sea to cool off; a pleasant ritual in such clean water. Next day was the cycle home, in about the same time. Kind of surprised me as I thought I’d have been faster with the back wind.

The next (last Sunday actually, Australia Day dominated Saturday) week was the GM’s (Daisy) 400^th run at the Beach Side Hotel. Another auspicious occasion with a giant banner with some great photos from the past few years. Daryl has and continues to do many great things for Dili and Timor under his Rotary role. One of the most high profile events is the 1^st Lady Run in November. Actually the first, ‘1^st Lady’ Kirsty Sword Gusmao. Very popular and the T-shirts are everywhere.

Last Sunday I went for my first scuba dive since 2006, also here. It was just a shore dive near Dili Rock and the water was fairly murky from the strong seasonal tides – OK, not the best time of the year. Eddy, Helen and I parked next to a Dive Timor van, their divers were already out. I’d bought a dive aide-memoire the previous day and discovered that no one uses the manual dive tables anymore – kind of like asking about the tape deck / CD player on a stereo system. A giant computer watch manages all the info about air and safety so we can just go and enjoy ourselves. I still feel uncomfortable about it all as I reckon it’s like school kids relying totally on calculators and not knowing their ‘times tables’ up to 12 x 12. Anyway, we wandered down the reef to about 28m and slowly cruised along and then back up. On the way back Eddie showed me the busy fish place known as ‘Piccadilly Circus’. Lots of wee fry and tentacle waving plants. There was one large groper-type fish, about  50-60cm long that didn’t hang around. Many lengths of old cord lying over the area from earlier fishing and a lot of damaged coral, possibly from Indonesian times when dynamite fishing was apparently popular. Visibility was about 4-5m. We stayed down about 45minutes and walked out onto the beach where Helen was reading her book after doing some snorkelling. She had some delicious Christmas cake and handed out about some bananas to eight local boys (aged 8-11) swimming nearby. They pounced on the food, so maybe they were very hungry.

The local intersection from hell (bridge by the President’s Palace and the bike shop) has undergone a big change. The police have changed the road rules by prohibiting any right turns, either entering or exiting the area. Since we drive on the left here, it is actually working quite well. I was dumb enough to fire off an email to the initial announcement by saying “This is warped and the locals will ignore it”. Happily I am quite wrong and it IS working. People haven’t learnt the trick of simply turning left to actually get into the traffic and then pull a U-turn within about 100m and go back in the direction they really want to go. 

A couple of UN people did a big house sale in Area Branca last week, so I cycled over to see what they had and I could actually remove with my bicycle. The loot consisted of: chilly bin (‘esky’ for Aussies) + 20 cooling pads. Item #2 was a large bag of interlocking mats used for a yoga room. Obviously succumbing to ‘buying stuff’ I now realise I haven’t done any yoga for about 18months and don’t actually have any floor space on which to place the mats. They are currently with a friend who might just have a use for them. Never the less, they were a bargain at only $20, OK?

Last night I took a break from building some laptop computers to do some grocery shopping at Lita + Kamanek then eat some nice Turkish at Tony’s. There I met Kim. She has been here about 13years and organises the annual sailing race to Dili from Darwin. She tells me that local Timorese have been repeatedly involved in the organising in recent years and several of them will be taking a higher management profile this year. The cruiser yachts have previously bought donated medical supplies for Bairo Pite clinic (about 500m from where I live), so that is great news – good karma. After dealing with my work challenges and wondering how to deal with how common theft is in the work environment, this ongoing success was a joy to hear. Apparently the yacht race was a revival. It was kicked off again after someone discovered the previous racing trophies, from Portuguese times, in the Darwin Archives(?).

This afternoon I will take my can of yellow spray paint & cycle part of the way to Liquica to mark that nasty dip in the road. It goes right across, like a subtle ditch that has apparently claimed a few car suspension systems over the past few years. Obviously someone should simply repair the road, but there is a long queue for that sort of thing and there is still the problem of ‘repairs’ failing within 12 months via washout or simply breaking up. Still, if major manufacturers can use ‘planned obsolescence’ with fridges, toasters, TVs etc, then the road repair companies here are successfully using their version

The two ATMs at the bank have now been working for the past two weeks. they will only dispense a maximum of $600 each.

Telkomcel have finally opened their office at Timor Plaza. No actual numbers being sold yet, just distribution of information. Since Telkomcel is the dominant telecomms company in Indonesia, most people think this is the beginning of the end for Timor Telecom (TT). No sympathy there, as the latter have made the most of their ten year monopoly. Recently, a friend bought back a Telkomcel phone from Bali and it works here in Dili! Slight problem with it requiring an international call to actually receive/send to TT and landline numbers here + no way to boost the credit. But it does show that the new cellphone network is actually functioning.