Hi All,

  Randal and I now have television.  Randal and I now have a satellite dish which is why we finally have television.   Buying satellite service when you live on a boat and aren’t always in any one place very long had been impossible so far.  Here in Miri they seem to understand that even though cruisers move around, they are good customers who will maintain the service which subsidizes the real cost of the satellite dish hardware.  A cruiser here in the marina sent us to the shop he had used.  We biked there all excited and heard, “no have.”  “Never had.”  Hmm and RATS!  Then we biked over to our favorite hardware shop and asked their advice.  We were given the card of a satellite dish dealer and Randal called.  We also biked over to a second dish service storefront at the Mall.   They too were helpful but needed our passport to set up service.  We planned to return the next day but the first service called and that afternoon came to the boat to see us and set us up.  The next evening, Saturday, Peter and his wife Lena came with the dish to get us all connected. She had just come along to keep Peter company.   It took several hours of juggling wires and testing the best combination to get the best reception.  While Randal and Peter worked Lena and I talked.  Lena teaches piano and was very interesting to talk with.  At one point she had to drive home to feed their dog Lucky.  Finally everything was finished and they were able to go off for their Autumn Moon Festival celebration.  They were a lovely couple and it was more like making friends than having a satellite dish installed.  And now the Sox better win it all because we can get ESPN and they have the playoffs listed on the schedule.  We bought the Sports, Learning, and News channels.  We paid for a year’s service when we installed the dish so that’s all taken care of.  The total cost for the dish and 12 months service was $367 just about a dollar a day.  Hopefully we’ll be able to use the dish even outside Malaysia; Peter did say they were expanding their service but we will be in Malaysia through November anyway.

Peter and Lena

In December they will be going of to the US to visit LA, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.  They are connected to Amway and the entire company of 700 people will be going!

They had been to the US before.  But Lena was saying that since 9/11 it is more difficult to get a VISA.  They had wanted to drive the short way to Brunei to get a visa there, but since they are Malaysians and Brunei is a different country they must go to Kuching in Malaysia instead.  That means a flight there and back and perhaps an overnight stay.  Too bad paperwork makes things so complicated.  We encounter paperwork too even changing from one city to another if they are in different provinces of Malaysia. 

We do take it down when we make a passage and it can only be used at a marina.   At anchor the boat moves too much which interferes with the reception.  Apparently according to the Astro literature, rain also interrupts reception. 

Ru

DoraMac