My final full day in Bali wasn’t to be a very busy one. After crashing at around 6:30am, I woke around 10:00 as I just couldn’t sleep any longer. I shook off the alcoholy cobwebs, showered and packed. I had to vacate my room by midday. Even though my flight wasn’t until 6am the next morning, I didn’t see the point in paying for a room for only a couple of hours’ sleep – my lift to the airport would be at 3:30am.

Packing, as ever, seemed to take an age. This is the longest I’ve been in one place for many months and I’d actually unpacked almost everything. OK, it’s only one rucksack and a day bag but it’s a palaver. Once I’d finished I realised that I had nothing else to do. So I sat and read for a bit. Then walked to the internet cafe where I sat for over an hour.

Next I walked up to ProDive, but they were closed. I waited half an hour but nobody came to open up. So I walked back to the hotel. Then went online again for two hours. Then sat and read.

Putu turned up to sort out the Divemaster paperwork which killed a few minutes and 7:00 almost came around when Valerie re-appeared from the beach. Annoyingly, she was in a really chatty mood. Not a bad thing in itself as she’s great company, but I had to be elsewhere. A shame she’d not come back earlier!

So finally on to my appointment with Wayan Batu at the tattoo studio around the corner. I’d dropped my design off the day before so he could get the transfer image prepared. If I’m correct, both the artist and the guy who runs the shop are called Wayan (younger and elder). Wayan Jr shaved my chest hair and rubbed me down with antiseptic and the like as Wayan Sr readied the equipment.

Sketching the design onto my chest in biro took around thirty minutes and already I was liking it. He then sorted out the paraphernalia, showing me the needles in their sealed blister packs to prove they weren’t re-using anything. Their autoclave is pretty impressive, too. Having worked at a vet’s and with a mate who’s a dentist I’ve seen a few of these and the one here is shiny and sparkly. While Sr was working, Jr was cleaning everything down. It’s a very clean and well-kept shop.

The major difference to a UK place was the lack of form-filling. No need to sign a sheet of paper saying you’re not going to sue him if you die or decide you don’t like the permanent picture you have scrawled across your forehead.

Sat in a fairly intimate position, have on Wayan Sr’s lap, I braced myself and let the fun part begin.

It hurt. It was awful. I could barely stand it.

But then the music on the stereo changed and I got some classic Guns ‘n’ Roses instead of Black Album Metallica. The pain subsided.

As for the tattoo, it varied depending on what was going on. As ever, outlines hurt more than the shading. As I was getting a few letters done, this meant short bursts of “owie” followed by a break as Wayan readied himself for the next section.

Overall, it took around 45 minutes or so for him to finish it all up and I’m well pleased with the result. Obviously, the accompanying picture is the finished product. I’ve just got the usual week or so while it scabs up and heals.

With the tattoo covered with some cling film I walked up to Gong Corner II to meet Fabio for dinner. Kind of gross, but as I was eating blood started to leak out of the edges of the cling film. Nice. Still, afterwards I disposed of the plastic and the tattoo’s looking good. As is my chest. Perhaps I should shave it more often.

After thanking the staff at GC, we headed up to Double-D’s to watch the football. Annoyingly they only have one satellite and about 15 TVs. The match being shows is determined by which one starts first, we we got to see the end of West Ham v Bolton, which meant we missed the first 20 minutes or so of Man City v Liverpool – and thus the first goal.

It also meant missing the first half of the Newcastle v Everton game – and three goals. Never mind, at least I saw the fourth and we got a point. Before our game I’d been falling asleep. Astoundingly this feeling ceased as I watched us play. Recently we’ve been having the opposite effect.

So here I sit in a cybercafe, killing time until my transport to the airport in about two hours. Actually, I best be off as I have a small amount of repacking to do.

Next post will likely be from Kuala Lumpur Airport (budget terminal) if I can get my wi-fi working.