Got woken up this morning by the TV blaring. I don’t watch TV. Turned it off and got into the shower. Came out and it was back on.. blaring again. The volume controls itself and apparently likes to waver around 80-90dB. Weird thing is it keeps going to a certain Latino channel. I had to unplug the damn thing to make it stop. Hope it doesn’t come on tonight or the hotel will have to collect their possessed TV from the flower bed down below. I’m just gonna chuck it from the balcony too.

I’ve been in this hotel for 4 months and never touched the TV. So it is odd that it just came on today. I’m wondering if it shorted out somewhere. That doesn’t explain why it would go back to the Latino channel every time. I switched the channels and turned it off at the power instead of the remote (full off) and it still came back on and surfed to the Latino channel as I watched.

I want to get to the bottom of this and figure out why it’s happening. I’m guessing this just a shorted circuit. I ruled out the remote playing up because I took out the battery and that didn’t stop the TV. I just can’t figure out why it would surf to a channel, then turn up the volume on that channel.

My other guess is someone is playing a prank on me. It has turned on while I’m on the balcony so I think it is unlikely someone is using a remote, since it wouldn’t penetrate a wall, would it? They could also be doing it without knowing it. Maybe the hotel walls are thin enough.

We spent the whole week in Vuda. What a nice break from Work and Suva.

Vara and Joana have been here since Friday last week. I came in during the week. We managed to get down to the beach, and swim for a while. Vara and Robbie had taken the lead, behind them, Joana and I nearly got lost trying to find a new path to the beach. The whole time Joana was saying - it’s kokay. I’m not sure who she was trying to reassure, me or herself. I don’t blame her, she was on my shoulders and I was lost in tall grass. If there happened to be an onlooker all they would have seen is Joana floating above the grass. Would have made quite a perculiar sight.

It’s approaching mango season again and the mago trees in the compound here are heavy with mostly green mangoes. The night I got here, which was around 12PM ’cause I caught the last Viti Minibus from Suva, a mango nearly fell on my head. I had told the Minibus driver to just drop me off at the turn in, and there I was walking along with absolute nonchalance when suddenly there was a loud thud right next to me that made me jump right out of my skin. It took me half a second to realize it was a mango, but too late, the mango had already skinned me - pwned.

We made a swing for Joana in the tree at the back of the house. She loves it so much you kind of get tired of pushing her while shes on the swing talking away, naming the objects around her - bird, tree, tractor. Yeah, tractor, they plowed the whole field by the house that Simon is developing. Joana and I took some sandwiches that Tiare and Vara had made over to the tractor drivers and Joana was quite facinated with the burnt sugarcane, plowed earth, tractors and all. Yesterday she was asking for the tractors again.

Well, Steven probably wants to get on and play some WOW, so I’ll get off.