Ten Laughter Discharge Levels

Number 1: guffaw - unh-hunh-hunh
Number 2: titter - heh-heh-heh (a). snicker (b). snigger
Number 3: giggle - hee-hee-hee, ghee-ghee-ghee
Number 4: chuckle - hunh-hunh-hunh(1) cackle - yak-yak-yak
Number 5: laugh - (1) hah-hah-hah(2) yuck - yuk-yuk-yuk(3) crow - haw-haw-haw
Number 6: belly laugh - ho-ho-ho(1) with snort - on inhale
Number 7: bray - haw-haw-haw
Number 8: bellow - hoo-hoo-hoo
Number 9: scream - Eeeeeeeee!(loss of urethral sphincter control)
Number 10 shriek - Aiiiiiiiii!(loss of anal sphincter control)
Number 11: die laughing

Bali Bombing

In July I went to Bali with my thirteen-year-old son, we had the most wonderful time and it's a trip that we are both going to remember forever.

What has stayed with me is the beauty of the Balinese people we met. Today I keep thinking about a young girl selling tour packages at the entrance to the Matahari shopping centre in Kuta.

Her pleasant eagerness to sell us a tour. We ended up going with someone else we had already booked but now I wished we had gone with her offer. The bombs that went off in Bali yesterday exploded just meters from her stand, I hope she is all right. My son and I walked past the Raja restaurant countless of times while we were in Bali, we seemed to gravitate to the Matahari shops or walking to the KFC that my son would take me to once too often.



The other bomb went off in Jambaran, for those of you who have never been there, and I hope you go soon, Jambaran beach is lined with some fifty restaurants, it's multicoloured tables facing the glorious sunset. We rode pushbikes there from Kuta; I now find out is nearly thirty kilometres away, no wonder we were tired. My son took a bad wave that dumped him in the sand and scratched his back, after the glorious dinner of fish, prawns and squid we decided to get a ride back to town from the effervescent young waiter, first he found someone with a car too small to fit our bikes than he found us a convertible jeep and we zoomed back to Kuta with the young waiter accompanying us, that's him waving in the photo of the orange jeep.



The second bomb last night exploded in one of those restaurants, I couldn't think of a more idyllic setting for something so disgraceful to happen. To think that someone would place a bomb packed with shrapnel, nails and ball bearings while people are enjoying an evening like that. What saddens me the most is the people of Bali who depend so much on our money, our measly ten dollars which is what a seafood meal would cost on Jambaran beach. John Howard warned Australians not to travel to Bali, I hate that man. The fear that he instils in Australia is exactly what these heartless terrorists want us to feel. Australians will find another cheap holiday destination and the Balinese... well the Balinese will sink even further into their poverty. Candidasa, a dreamy resort town on the east coast of Bali, was a veritable ghost town when we were there, it's street of restaurants empty still recovering from the 2002 bombing.


I've lived in Madrid while the ETA terrorist group was active setting off bombs around us, sometimes blocks away from our apartment, but one thing the Spanish do is they never let the terror get to them. Life continues, if the bomb didn't get you life goes on, don't let them interrupt your life.
My heart goes out to the people who died but also to the people of Bali for it is them who in the end will continue in their life of poverty.