Busy, busy, busy.........doing what exactly?

It's funny how my days have formed a sort of pattern and a mixture of the unexpected and the routine.
I hadn't realised that I hadn't posted a blog for ages: I seem to have enough trouble managing to put the odd photo on Facebook and keeping in communication with friends back home.

So here's a pictorial summary of life over the last week:

One of the great advantages of having a friend who lives here and is embedded in the community is that she gets invited to all sorts of occasions that I willingly can tag along to. Last Friday was the third birthday of the son of one of Alison's business partners and friends Putu, and his wife Wayan. Many years ago we had visited His family compound in the mountains of Bedugul so I was happy to retrace my steps. Abi turned 3 in Balinese years, which are only 7 months long, making him 21 months old. Since we last visited Putu had built a beautifully ornate temple in the middle of the backyard for occasions such as these.

 The holy man sat chanting and splashing the offerings with holy water for sometime before we all prayed. Abi wasn't overly impressed you'd have to say. He was more excited when he was playing bubbles with his two elder sisters, Anisa and Julia. The proud grandmothers looked pleased and after the rituals were over there was a delicious lunch which they had helped prepare. It was very Balinese: rice with a range of dishes made from lots of vegetables and spices and chili of course. They do use chili a lot but never extreme amounts fortunately. Dessert was a choice from a plate full of interesting cakes and the local delicacy. It's wrapped in corn husks and made from palm sugar which turns into a black sticky toffee when cooked: I loved it of course! After the ceremony and lunch was over everyone gathered on the verandah for a quiet sit and some arrack, which is locally brewed Balinese 'whisky'. It would be bad manners not to accept a shot glass full, which I did, but it burnt the whole way down!!

One of the Grandmas getting ready for the ceremony

So very cute!

Putu Wayan and family

Abi showing interest in the bottle of arrack

Even a holy man has to keep in touch on his mobile phone!

The following day we set off for an overnight stay at Amed, a beach resort which is on the easternmost point of Bali. After a great cup of coffee at a cafe called Loaf at Candi Dasar we dropped off two of Alison's friend. The coffee here in Bali is exceptionally good and often locally grown and roasted so it's no hardship to live here if you're a coffee drinker.

Loaf wouldn't be out of place in the middle of North Fitzroy : orange flourless cake, banana bread, chicken and leek pies, lemon tart etc. An expat from Australia was one of the partners who set it up and we went there on the way to Amed and on the way home. It's important to support small businesses we decided!
Amed is a diving and snorkelling hub with endless modest hotels and resorts along some lovely bays,very picturesque as you can see!. We snorkelled straight off the beach at our beach-side hotel and there were thousands of fish and lots of coral of every colour and some giant fluorescent purple starfish. Amed itself looks reasonably prosperous but many of the villagers have been pushed up into the mountains to live and these are some of the poorer villages that Rumah Sehat send their health services into. On the way home we wound our way through many of them perched on the sides of some very steep mountains. We stopped to buy a couple of vodka  bottles of petrol. They are the perfect size to fill a motorbike and all sorts of alcohol bottles are re-purposed for petrol here.

For the rest of the week it's been the usual round of gym, walking, shopping, taking the laundry to the laundry ladies, eating a lot of great food, finishing the Indonesian language classes and trying to keep up with the homework, practicing my Indonesian with my new friends the taxi-drivers who sit at the end of my lane, having a new kebaya made....all interspersed with the odd cocktail at Mingle of course!

Your never at home correspondent

Dianne

This was supposed to be a photo of a cute smiling little baby boy but once he took a look at my blond hair, and size he reacted the way most babies do!!!

When we headed off snorkelling I tried to ignore the fact that we had seen a dead highly venomous sea snake on the beach not far from us!