29-Apr-2024, Last week has been such a long and tiring day, that I am taking a different approach this week. I didn’t move to Bali to always be working, I also want to enjoy some time off. Instead of working 5 days, I’m going down to 3,5 working days. After all, I also need some time to work on this blog and editing all those videos I am making. Believe it or not but editing all these videos also takes many hours of cutting and pasting. Having free time doesn’t mean I am sitting still.

After a long week of work I continue working on my new motorbike in the weekend. I am building in a dashcam, both a front and rear camera hidden in the bike. Just for fun really, but sometime I see some crazy stuff on the road, this you would not believe possible if you don’t see it with your own eyes. It’s a fancy dashcam set, including a GPS module and microphone. It takes me a couple of hours to remove the covers (to install the cables) and to come op with a plan on where to hide the camera.

The back camera is hiding in the little light holder of the license plate, I only had to cut the holder a bit but it sits perfectly. Nobody will notice it if it’s not pointed out – its looks great! The front camera is installed just above the front wheel, and although noticeable, hopefully not too obvious. You never know if they try to steal it (already had my helmet stolen once). Such a camera might look appealing to some thieving youngsters but it won’t do them any good (but thieves are not that smart and might take it anyway).

The Saturday and Sunday are completely occupied with mounting the cameras but Monday it’s back to my little bamboo house:

Monday – I start bright and early onsite and Mr. Madé and I work a very long day today. Tirelessly we keep going until six p.m. We are still working on the Pelupuh tile roofing. It’s a tremendous amount of work to install them one by one with more than a dozen little nails per tile. We are repeating the process for hundreds of times; 485 of them to be exact. With, literally, thousands of nails. It’s very labor intensive but I am so happy we manage to finally finish it. At least on one side (the north side)… we have to repeat the whole process again on the other side of the roof of course.

Effective working time on the roof: 7 hours.

Tuesday – No work, but instead I take a Padel clinic (a group class) in the morning. I work on my video edits and take a yoga class in the evening. Ayu has been renovating her new office and needed my help as an experienced home-renovator on how to do a proper paint job. I was happy to come and have a look in the evening and give my advice.  

Wednesday – Labor Day here in Indonesia (first of May), which means a public holiday. Mr. Madé is not working (at least not in the morning), andI spent most of this morning with a grinder in my hand, trimming all the edges off the roof and ridge. At first, I thought it would be a quick job but I spent nearly 3 hours doing this. The most challenging part is reaching the upper parts and balancing off a dodgy scaffold, with a spinning grinder in my hand. It is also my least favorite part with all that dust flying everywhere, including into my eyes and lungs, despite wearing safety glasses and a good mask.

For the rest of the afternoon, Mr. Madé and I spent a few hours changing the scaffold from one side to the other. To make sure it’s all ready and set up to work on the other half of the roof. I cleaned up all the rubbish lying around and called it a day at 5 p.m. Cleaning up and doing a lot of preparation work doesn’t always feel rewarding but sometimes I have to remind myself that this is also an essential part of building. Once again I drive back home from work exhausted.

Effective working time on the roof: 4 hours.

Thursday – Almost a replica of Tuesday but in a different order. Yoga in the morning, then video editing and a friendly padel match in the later afternoon. It was a good and fun day.

Friday – Mr. Madé and I absolutely smashed it today; meaning we had an amazing day onsite. In one day we finished the complete Pelupuh ceiling, put the row of the edges on, and even started 1 row of Pelupuh tiles. What took us three days on the previous side, we managed to do it in one day. We are in a very good flow; we are on fire. I am really happy about the amount of work we did today and the best part; we didn’t even work until late. I went home at four p.m. Tired again, but very satisfied. I treated myself for a delicious dinner in a fancy restaurant.

Effective working time on the roof: 8 hours! Yayy!

Saturday – Normally I take the weekends off, but because we are in such a good flow on Friday, I decide to come in on Saturday as well – at least for a few hours in the morning. Within 3 hours Mr. Madé and I manage to put down a few more rows of tiles. Things are coming along on the roof. Unfortunately, we could work very long as it started to rain at 11 a.m. The rain is not heavy but enough to make the bamboo and scaffold wet and slippery. We had a good morning-run and I went home to take the rest of the day off.

Effective working time on the roof: 3 hours.

Even though I spent a lot less time onsite this week, the hours have been much more productive. It feels great and it’s a great motivator to see this project all the way to the end. Because if I am honest, sometimes I feel like quitting and just lying on the beach and chill. Sometimes it feels like there is no end to this project.  We have one more week before we meet our deadline (the one I set for myself).

The timelapse video of the week:

~ THE END ~