2011
Days Before the Festival
1 October 2011
Alas, we lost Snuffler yesterday- he passed away peacefully at home, on his cosy bed. None of us was here. In fact Josh had been to the vet clinic on his way home to arrange to take him there and find out what they could do for him, and when he got back it was over. Everyone feels it was much better for Snuffler this way than to have had to go though the trauma of being transported to a strange place in a vehicle and put on a drip. Josh has buried him in the garden with a little stone with his name etched on it, and a candle burned for him all though the night. Oddly the other cats don't seem to notice he has gone - and Jasmin has taken it in her stride. Josh had a house full of mates come over last night - helped cheer him up. Snuffler was the only one of Josh's five cats that he has had from birth. He was the kitten of Oya, (one of the two cats passed on to Josh by an American who went home) and the only one of the litter he kept. He had a congenital nasal defect - hence the name Snuffler - and was the most physically affectionate of the cats, always staying round the house and close to Josh. He will be missed.
Jasmin wore her new dress to school - wanted to show it off. Alas it turned out to be a school picnic with parents invited and no one had passed this info on to Josh - (one of the hazards of the child with two homes!) Apparently Jasmin cried and cried as she had no one of her family there. We would all loved to have gone to her school. Will take her to Bali Bird Park today hopefully, but think she has to fit in a ballet class first - just started with this. She loves to dance but methinks ballet is not her dance style!
Anne has had her first day in Bali - taking in the street scene of Ubud - the shops, the cafes, the tailor where she has a whole new wardrobe being made, admired Puri Saraswati where we'll be staying next week, the Lotus Pond and the fabulous merchandise on sale all up and down the main street. We have not got to the side streets yet. She has over a kilometre of Jalan Monkey Forest shops still to come - both sides!!
The Writers Festival office and its new box office across the road are not yet geared up for customers - we have to try today - or more likely Monday, to see if they are ready to take bookings for festival special events and 4-day passes. I got mine however - a freebie as a translator and we now have the programs. I spoke too soon about the banners and lack of visual pollution this year - as we came out of the office a lorry was unloading a huge pile of bamboo poles and orange-coloured ANZ banners. Today when we go out Ubud will be transformed!
I seem to have bumped into most of the people I know in Ubud already. Alex when I rang her happened to be in the bank next door to where Anne was with the tailor, so I popped in to keep her company while she waited. And Ganesha Bookshop's owner Anita was there when we went there later. Anne bought an Indonesian cookbook, being a specialist teacher of culinary skills. Mary Northmore who runs Smiles here, the organisation which arranges facial reconstruction surgery for local kids, was with her computer in Kue cafe. Mary's Javanese husband, Abdul Aziz, was one of Indonesia's most famous artists - Neka has a whole room of his iconic works. She had set up the women artists gallery too and since her husband died she has devoted her life to Smiles. Good for Anne to meet all these people and see the richness of Ubud's expat society. She saw another side of it at trivia last night - mostly retiree expats living in Ubud, not the NGO or business ones - some are artists. Fun as always - and we lost by half a point - would have won if the scribe had indicated better that she did not know Kylie Minogue's birthplace - I knew it was Melbourne but she had written Sydney. Another person I bumped into in the street was an old Indonesian teacher mate who now happens to be the head of Australia's National Teachers Federation. He comes up to Indonesia, (with his fluent Indonesian), in a supporting role with the Indonesian Teachers Union, 3-4 times a year. Only a couple of weeks ago I was giving his son an Indonesian speaking-skills lesson over the phone at the Open High School! The name (and face on TV) of Angelo Gavrielatos will be well known to all the Australian teachers among you reading this. We had a great street corner chat – alas, his son has decided to drop Indonesian for Year 12, much to his dad's disappointment.
In the afternoon yet another visit to Neka Gallery for me - I am so well known there now I am given free entry as a tour guide! Talking of tour guides, there was a huge Belgian tour group with a very loud-voiced foreign tour guide just seconds behind us as we went from room to room, pavilion to pavilion. No matter which way we turned to avoid him and his not very attentive charges, his booming voice echoed in the tiled spaces. Dutch is no mellifluous Italian or soothing French or sexy Spanish - but Belgian Dutch is even less attractive. (No offence to my Dutch readers!) Still Anne enjoyed her introduction to Balinese art and the interpretation of the Bali scene by countless foreign artists who made their lives in Bali. Like me she was a bit worried by the large number of beautiful, semi-naked young men appearing as the subjects of so many of the European painters and our very own Australian Donald Friend.
I managed to sleep a little later today - but none of the household shows signs of stirring - now 7am here and I have been awake since before 6. Dying for a cuppa, so Polly will go put the shiny new kettle on.