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| Ants carrying off a dead gecko. |
“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”
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| Last night’s sunset. |
Chere Bork, a dear friend of mine from Minnesota with whom I’ve stayed in touch by email on almost a daily basis over these past 44 months of travel, reads our daily posts reveling in our travels along with us.
As a busy and much sought-after full-time registered dietician, national speaker, life coach, consultant, and blogger, Chere has all-encompassing experience and knowledge in the field of health and well-being.
Our online conversations are lively and animated not only centered around our mutual beliefs in living a healthy life to the fullest, each with quality of life and husbands/family we love and adore. And, also we share in the challenges we all face regardless of any degree of joy we experience in everyday living.
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| Dragonfly on our chaise lounge. These eat mosquitoes. |
Regardless of the gorgeous beaches, exquisite scenery, the interesting worldwide environment we explore and embrace, some days are better than others, some experiences not worth repeating, and others that grip our hearts and minds longing for more.
From time to time, my friend Chere suggests a subject for a story that we take seriously following suit within a few days on her suggestion. Other readers have suggested content through an email or a comment at the end of a post.
We welcome such suggestions and if befitting our site we look forward to the next opportunity to incorporate their ideas into a post. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and suggestions with us at any time.
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| Snake run over by a car or motorbike. |
A few days ago, after a comment I made to Chere in an email, she suggested I be more explicit on this topic in a story for our readers. “Hogwash,” I said. Our readers don’t want to hear us whine (“whinge” in Aussie or British speak) anymore on this topic.
Chere went on to explain, that our readers may prefer to “Hear it like it is, the good, the bad and the ugly.” And, folks, at times, I’ll admit to avoiding mentioning a lot of the ugly because, a) I’m “overly bubbly” attempting to look on the bright side and, b) We’d prefer our site not to become a deterrent for future renters for our thoughtful landlords and property managers who make every effort to create as perfect an environment as possible during our often lengthy stays.
Chere‘s preferred topic for today? Ants. Yep, ants. Those measly annoying, crawling relentless worldwide buggers…ants. They’re everywhere, especially here in Bali. (We’ve included no photos of ants today. Everyone knows what they look like).
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| Some type of cocoon we spotted in the ceiling of the cabana. |
Perhaps you aren’t interested in hearing about ants. We had enough ants in Fiji to last a lifetime when on the first night of our arrival, zillions were living in the mattress and bedding. Yikes! What a night that was! Read here for details. There have been no ants in the bed in Bali, just everywhere else.
Its not as if we didn’t write about ants earlier. However, we’ve been avoiding too much discussion on ants since our arrival in Bali, feeling as if our loyal readers may have had their “fill” during our four months in Fiji.
OK, Chere. Here’s our Bali ant story and then we’re done with ants until the next ant-infested society in which we’ll live. For easy reading of Bali ant experiences, I’m listing a few here in bullet points for your perusal, or not, whichever you prefer. Here goes:
- Although we don’t cook, nightly I toss our coleslaw salad with dressing I’ve made. When tossing the salad using the cut-up veggies the two Ketuts have prepared, I have to hurry to avoid ants crawling into the bowl. They don’t like cabbage and carrots but they love dressing. While I’m tossing the salad hundreds of ants are running all over the granite countertops. They crawl up my arms. don’t scream.
- When showering in the very clean en suite master bath, there are hundreds of ants running up and down the shower walls. Tom can’t see them when he’s showering while not wearing his glasses. I can and I do. don’t scream.
- Last night, when I opened my contact lens case there was a red ant inside. I didn’t scream although a little moan escaped my lips. I must have left the lid slightly ajar during the day. That won’t happen again.
- On numerous occasions, while lounging in the chaises by the pool, it’s not uncommon for either of us to jump up and start brushing hundreds of ants off our legs. They crawl up the legs of the chaises and for some reason love nibbling on dead skin on our legs. Yuck. We don’t scream.
- Ants on our keyboards and monitors which we clean daily. They still come to call.
- Ants crawling up the side of our plates while we’re eating (lots of flies too). Ants on our food. Flies on our food. If there’s more than one ant in on my food, I don’t eat that bite. We no longer comment during these incidences.
- Red ants crawling around the cabana and the cushions. Each day, we ask Ribud to spray the area but, by the time we use it in the afternoon after time in the pool, they’re back.
- Ribud cleans the pool six days a week. It’s impeccable. By the time we go swimming each day, there are lots of ants gathered along the edges and in the corners. We rescue the drowning grasshoppers but not the ants.
You get the drift, right? Chere, here’s your ant story. Oh, there’s probably more we can tell but I need to get the disgusting scowl off my face and get back to staring at today’s high surf, blue sky, warm weather, pristine infinity pool, and the cool guy at my side, who for the moment is enjoying an ant-free zone.
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| We save several grasshoppers from drowning in the pool each day. |
May your day not include ants and other such annoyances!
Photo from one year ago today, June 13, 2015:
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| As we settled into our new home in Trinity Beach, Australia, we were thrilled to see the pool. For more photos of our first home in Australia, please click here. |