Newbie and expats? a bit of everything really :)

[doyle]

Hi,

I'm Sharon.
I've been reading the BTF for around a year or so now and just thought I'd pop in here and take a 'peek'. (Voyeuristic - that's me!) :wink:

Anyway, I live in WA and love Bali - what's not to love? My hubby and I last took our 2 children over 2 years ago. Am hoping to go back in September with 3 children this time.

As many probably do, we dream one day of becoming expats, (more than idealistic vision probably) but it's a question of what to 'do' over there. After all most probably couldn't just live in luxury as if on holiday. An incom has to be earnt one way or another. So....I guess if anyone's willing, I'm really curious as to what you expats do.

As for October 12th, well of course it shocked us and yes I agree with everything that's been written... anytime anywhere. The world has changed. And whilst of course our thoughts go to those tourists that were killed or hurt the bigger problem is of course the situation with the Balinese and their families. I have no knowledge of any way that I can 'help' but my thoughts are with them.

On the 'other' :wink: forum, I found a link to an 'adopt a school', after speaking to my daughters school principal, he was keen for me to find out what I could, in order for our school here to sponser a Balinese school. Alas, I sent my email however no reply. :cry:

Anyway, that's probably about it.....a bit long winded but...well no excuse... :)

Look forward to hearing what it is everyone does in expat Bali land!

Sharon

[BouncingTigger]

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Now where is your pic? :D :D

[Gloria]

Hi my dear...thanks for joining...I hope you will find interesting thoughts here and also post some food for thought on your chosen subject.We will look forward to your contributions along the way... Please feel free to ask questions and offer constuctive advice as you see fit...we are sure you will fit very nicely into our group. We are sensitive to flaming and would prefer a quiet forum,for the sake of sanity really, but who needs to flame when one has such interesting subjects to be involved with. So, you have centre stage now, lets see what is dear to your heart....fire away....G...

[juskiff]

Sharon: Welcome to CCF. Each day we are growing slowly BUT steadily...

Early this year my friends and I invited all school principals and some teachers (elementary, Secondary and high schools) from the Tampaksiring/Manukaya area where I live for a brunch at my house to discuss about students needs, and progress as well as what the expat community and tourism industry can do to help.

Needless to say that most government schools here especially in the villages are extremely under funded. It's common for one class to share one set of books. Students staying away from school just because they don't have uniform or can't afford to buy a pair of shoes... and the list goes on and on.

I would be very happy to try to hook you up with a school in our village and hopefully we can do some good here in Bali.

Please e-mail me so that we can discuss it further.

Augie

[Py]

Hi Sharon,

Expat occupations? gee, where do I begin? It runs the gamut from flash and cheesy characters who sell dime bags on the party/night life circuit to mansion living, multi-millionaire entrepreneurs that started out as broke globe-trotting hippies and surf bums.

We have and have had for the past two decades a long string of women who say they're in the garment trade but seem to disappear to Tokyo every two months (for two months) to shake their tassels on stage as 'giejing' strumpet for the hordes of sake soaked execs.

I have a number of 'retired gentlemen' amongst my friends and compatriots. We don't ask what they are retired from.

There are certainly a few shady types on the lam as well.

Computers have of course considerably widened the range of job descriptions.

There are several thousand expats on Bali and until the bomb it was escalating steadily.

We have world class French chefs, truly brilliant architects, who do you think designs all those fancy-schmancy villas? We got Bungee people and time-share salesmen, we got dollops of mystics and colonic irrigators, we have internationally reputed photographers, we got strait-laced hotel execs, heck, we even got an artist or several hundred.

The most common expat occupations seem to be haberdashery and import/export. Jewelry is up there as is furniture, you know the "Antiques while you wait" sort of thing.

Heavens to Murgatroid, some people have even managed to scrape together a meager existence by setting up free medical clinics and investing a lot of faith in a wing and a prayer as well as our better nature.

There are half-year people as well as full timers, both are considered expats in the general sense as the half-year lot just happen to have two places they live. I consider them the smart ones, unfortunately, I personally don't number amongst them.

There are folk who settled here permanently as a result of earlier wanderlust, there are those who came to party and never stopped, there are many who came for the world renowned surfing (yours truly amongst other things), there are those who came for cheap labor and those who came for sex and there are Sybarites that came for a life of indulgence and sensuality on a good exchange rate. Many more have come for the best and most noble of reasons, many have fallen in love with the culture and the religion, many have not.

The one thing we all seem to have in common is that when back in the 'world', we see a stack of dishes in the sink and three days later we still see a stack of dishes in the sink. Then it begins to dawn on you, "oh yeh, me! I gotta do 'em."

You dream it, you live it!

Py.

[xpat2b]

Py, I thought I was the only person on the planet who still used the phrase "Heavens to Murgatroid".

You tempt me to change my forum name to "shady type on the lam". We are moving there to retire, as in not work, but it occurs to me that this is a great opportunity to rewrite my personal history to make it sound much more darkly glamorous than it really has been. Now I'm glad I haven't posted a photo yet, because I can come up with one that fits my new history. I knew this forum was a winner from the get go.

By our third trip to Bali we had gotten to know a few expats, including an Australian lady who introduced us to her boyfriend, a retired psychologist from the USA. Since I am also an American psychologist (this week), we hit it off right away and had lots to talk about. He mentioned he was house sitting for another American who had become wealthy via (what else?) an export business and was married to a Balinese lady and they had a 1 year old son, blah, blah, blah. He said they were currently back in the USA visiting for his family's first look at the new bride, baby, etc. When I casually asked where in the USA, he named our own home town(and I'm not making this up)!! This is a town of about 85,000 folks. As we made more inquiries, it turned out we knew this character. He was the youngest son of a locally famous family, in which the father and grandfather were legendary law enforcement types, and the sons had all become successful businessmen, except this one, who had dropped from sight a few years ago. Now of course he emerges as this successful export entreprenuer expat guy in Ubud, where we are moving. Weird.

There's actually a dark ending to this story, regarding the relationship between the retired psychologist and the expat exporter for whom he was housesitting, but I don't want to go into it in a semi-public forum. It's not a bad story over coffee, however. Later....

[doyle]

Hi guys,

And thanks for the welcome!

Firstly, picture...where do I post a piccy, I'm guerssing in the profile section?? Will take a squizzy and see what sort of piccy I can come up with....do we prefer *elle* pics or *hell* pics?

Dear to my heart Gloria, well I have to be corny here and say my kids firstly! 3 beautiful daughters, Emily 10 1/2, Alina 6 1/2 and Aniela 14 mths.
Next I am a writer, so writing is dear to my heart! I am also studying...but *blah* that doesn't even come close right now! :oops: I love BLUE HEELERS....tehe...sorry anal type I am!

But in all seriousness, I am not a do-gooder as such and not of the opinion that I alone can save the world, god knows I'd love to tho. I like to instill good values in my kids and realised after Oct 12th that I had succeeded when my 6 year old walked around her school fete all day collecting money for the Balinese. If I didn't have family commitments then I would be somewhere in the world helping those that I could. I don't know how, but I would do something.

I live in a town in WA called Margaret River, some of you may have heard of it. It's another place where plenty of those with wanderlust and hippie tendancies congregate and stay. A place where if the 'surfs up' then the tools are down and work is forgotten. But also a place where it's relatively safe to bring up a family. My husband is a dairy farmer, now if only we could milk cows in Bali ! ! !

Oh and Gloria, flaming aint my style...I am the quiet shy and retiring type...*cough cough* *splutter splutter*.......

Dying for a BINTANG...

Sharon

[Gloria]

Great...Margaret River, geez I remember it well,beautiful place. The wine centre of W.A.....the taste of a good Margaret River red....mmmm. And you have a terrific op. shop there. Please when you come to Bali next could I beg a few clothes from the op shop ?? Getting short of comfortable second hand clothes for Mama and little Claudia.(age three).Look forward to talking to you more...G...

[doyle]

Great...Margaret River, geez I remember it well,beautiful place. The wine centre of W.A.....the taste of a good Margaret River red....mmmm. And you have a terrific op. shop there. Please when you come to Bali next could I beg a few clothes from the op shop ?? Getting short of comfortable second hand clothes for Mama and little Claudia.(age three).Look forward to talking to you more...G...

Gloria,

the taste of a good MR red or white or the taste of a bintang...hmmmmm me thinks the grass is always greener..... :wink:

clothes form the op shop ....for sure...as i said earlier hopefully in September, I hate it to be about *money* but it will depend on what the prices are then - and of course whether we can afford to come. Fingers crossed ! ! !