24 Feb Illusions

When I was in hospital in Brisbane after contracting Pneumonia in Kiribati I suffered this illusion that the televisions mounted on the ward ceiling were very much smaller and were only inches away from my face. It was a strange experience but the same is happening here, not that there is any illness involved this time. My bedroom ceiling is dark timber rafters with a white lining between and is illuminated at night by the living room light which my hosts leave on all night (the bedroom wall only extending up to about 3 metres. Lying in bed I can wake and see the ceiling rafters as a pattern about six inches in front of me even when I move my head. I can put my hand out to touch the apparition but it just floats through it like a ghost – amazing! It must be what little babies experience when their brains are still working out how to interpret perspective in the outside world. There is probably some medical term for the phenomenon but there we are, no worries, just interesting!

Moving on from illusions to delusions (of grandeur) I am, in the guise of his Munificent Excellency the Sultan of Mandungan village arranging a garden party for St Patrick’s day when perhaps I can recover some of my reputation which was sorely damaged at Pak T.O.’s birthday bash. More details to follow as plans develop.

So, back to reality where ‘my’ first two houses continue to grow in between the tropical storms, which are prone to occur when I go out on the bike but are not going to be finished this month – the toilet and kitchen features have not been worked on since that first day when it was conceded that they would have to be provided. Pak T.O. insists not only that all five will be finished by the end of March but that the other 62 government funded houses will also be completed in time for magnificent celebrations at the time of the first anniversary of the earthquake in May. Time will tell but today I am visiting a farmers group up in the hills where apparently thay are well advanced into diversifying into eko tourism and associated with their flower growing activities – should be interesting and, touch wood, the sky is clear at present so we may get a close up view of the Merapi volcano at last?