it's a rant, a rave

The facing island, a mortal blue, beckons, intensifies, vanishes.
- Peter Rose

I was cross yesterday. (Today's been much better and I am able to grin at it all again. Even though our power's out this arvo. What a lark!) If I had been able to whinge online, this is what it might have sounded like:

Nothing works – no net access, no water; not just for an afternoon, but for 36 hours. Everything is grating: work, length of the day, and town. Went into town for lunch and got grabbed by some idiot as I was buying a paper. Well “grabbed” is a bit nice: my arm was encircled by an iron claw. That refused to open. The owner of the claw wasn’t after my bag or anything, just out roaming with the intention to harm. He wouldn’t let go of me. I wasn’t in the mood, but he was stronger, and the bastard left a bruise. Also read (in said paper) that a politician wants Australians out of the country, claiming that they/we are making PNG a terrorist target.

It’s all little stuff that I’d usually laugh about, but still, some days it gets you down. My defences relaxed in Indonesia – which is one of the best things about being on holidays; that and laughing so much. Coming back is just a pain. Ah, holidays. When other worlds beckon, intensify, vanish.
**
update: went to a dinner party tonight, where 4 out of 6 white females have been robbed/hassled in the past two weeks; whiteskins are thin on the ground really, so that's actually a pretty telling stat. What to make of it though, depends on who you talk to. Princess Anne visited Moresby last week/week before, and the local mobile squad went down as reinforcement; they are still not back because they have not yet been paid for doing so; this is oneof the reasons given for the crime stuff. it'll pass; must simply act safe and lay low.