The Shaky Negotiation

I was half asleep when I heard the familiar noise. My windows rattled lightly. It could not be.. again. I was fully awake then, sat in bed, waited. No. Earthquake? Yes, dogs in afar confirmed the earth moving by long howling. Confused, I got back to sleep. Slow asleep as usual…

And again a moment later, but it was more vigorous. I turned on flashlight I always have on side table. I watched the room moving in the dark. I heard no one out there, only the dogs again. I was concerned about my Bali roof, I watched that carefully while laying out escape plan. I slept with vague dreams about escaping, not to forget grabbing cellphone and laptop. My communication means. I didn’t even think about wallet. Oh yes, I also thought about my nightie, if presentable enough to wear out of house :-) Path is clear. I went asleep.

Plan is plan. No plan works in emergency. Believe me. I didn’t even think about taking my cellphone which I put by the flashlight when ran to stairs with flashlight in hand. The shake that had awoken me two hours later was harder and longer. The rattle noise scared me. I had counted the time in bed before decided to stand close to the stairs. The roof. I held the banister while kept looking at my shaking bed posts.

I went blank when walked back to bed. I must have been alert till morning. I didn’t have good sleep. I had vague dreams hanging that gave me a lesson about no such emergency plan. We are powerless and have no control over nature. Preparing it’s always important but leave our fate to nature is also nice. Just relaxed…

I managed to push myself to finish an article of my work yesterday. It took me harder today especially because my negotiation to get better rate for the hardest part – Indonesian to English – reaches dead end. In reverse, they offered me higher rate for the easier part – English to Indonesian. Strange. I cannot see the end of this negotiation. So illogical. But now I know what to do next time,…

I’m not productive today. It’s too late for me to start working. It was too hot in my studio when I started just before noon. I had taken the morning slowly with cleaning project again. I washed dusty standing-fan in my bedroom. Never ending project in any house.

Photo of sokasi republic. My morning project two days ago.