2010
Waking Up To An Ubud Sunday
3 October 2010
The cocks are crowing, the cats are fed - or as many of them as have appeared from their night time ramblings. The rest of the house is sound asleep. Now that Cathy has arrived I am sleeping in the main area of the house on the huge antique wooden Bali day bed - looks like it is made of railway sleepers, but with a bit of Balinese wood carving. Much more comfortable than it sounds, thanks to the marvels of modern sponge rubber. And the excellent pillows I got Josh to buy in anticipation of my coming this time.
Cathy arrived yesterday afternoon, up from the Kuta/Legian/Seminyak coast where she has been on a week-long shopping, cocktails, massages and reading-by-the-pool spree with three friends, all of whom were in great need of battery charging - still all working full time, poor things! They had a great time in a lovely hotel by all accounts. Got to see the Bali Bombing memorial at Kuta - the 8th anniversary of that nasty episode in history is coming up in a week or so on October 12th. I mark it each year, albeit quietly – am usually up here at this time too. And terrorism discussions loom large in the Writers Festival program.
Saw Jasmin yesterday at her house in the morning where she was in no mood to let me near her. I followed her other granny, Dadong's suggestion that I just hang around and she will eventually come out - but that did not happen in nearly 2 hours - much toddler screaming from various parts of the house. Don't know why she is like this sometimes. Very strong-minded and absolutely won’t do anything she doesn't want to do - and no one attempts to make her. It is all part of the pembantu-style upbringing. However she apparently had a sleep and Lulik rang mid-afternoon to say she wanted to come up to Daddy's house. She was in a much better mood, but still not keen to play with Noni (what she calls me - a contraction of Nenek Toni) or look at her new books with me or Cathy when she had daddy and the cats.
Alex sms-ed to say she was in town, having dropped off Australian friends who'd been staying in their beautiful wooden guest house, and did Cathy and I want to meet for a coffee. We walked down to the nearby West End cafe, the pretty place where I had had my birthday brunch back in August on election day (we'd all best forget the fiasco of that day, eh?) - it's becoming famous for its Devonshire cream teas!!!! (Yes we are in Bali). I had wondered why she was free to meet us when her mother, aunt and two nieces were arriving that afternoon- but it turns out their Garuda plane had problems and they had to await the arrival of a new aircraft - their new flight would be arriving at 1.30 am!! What a bummer. I hope they weren't at the airport all day trying to keep the two little girls entertained during the huge delay. We might see them all tonight and hear the details. I was so lucky to have had such a trouble free flight.
Good to catch up with Alex and hear how the kids are doing, and the timber business. They have just had their first paying guests in the guest house - Dutch people, who loved it! And, in true Dutch fashion, got around on Alex and Yoga's borrowed push bikes.
Been to the Festival Office and got hold of a program - a big glossy, colourful production, all neatly coordinated to help you plan your activities each day - but nevertheless involves hours of reading to check every alluring session, venue, author and cross reference them with the book launches, special luxury lunch events, etc., to see how much you can feasibly fit into a day. You know me, I hate to miss anything. The two events I am personally involved in (the young Indonesian writers some of whose stories I translated, and the launch of Mirah of Banda and other recently translated novels in Lontar's Modern Library of Indonesia) are on one after the other on Friday afternoon in two different venues, only a 15 minute gap but also the venues are a 15 minute walk apart. Will worry about that later.
We are off to meet a former colleague of Cathy's from Bradfield High who has been here this last week as leader of a group of women from the Sydney Writers Centre doing a writing workshop (precursor activity to the festival). She contacted me for advice on Bali before she left and I gave her the drum on Ubud - not met her yet though. However when we got in touch by sms on her Australian mobile last night it turns out she has fallen into a drain (a very Ubud hazard, I'm afraid) and cracked a rib, then (I presume on another occasion) tripped over a glass coffee table - it was a very dramatic sms message. We will hear more no doubt. And guess what she picked as the venue near her hotel where we are to meet - none other than the West End!
Alas, Cathy has just got up and has had a terrible night of diarrhoea and vomiting- something nasty picked up down south - it wasn't my eggplant stew last night. Hope it is just a short-term thing and the worst is already over.
So folks, I hope life is treating you as well as it is treating me! Rest assured, I watch out carefully for all the uncovered drains.
Cathy arrived yesterday afternoon, up from the Kuta/Legian/Seminyak coast where she has been on a week-long shopping, cocktails, massages and reading-by-the-pool spree with three friends, all of whom were in great need of battery charging - still all working full time, poor things! They had a great time in a lovely hotel by all accounts. Got to see the Bali Bombing memorial at Kuta - the 8th anniversary of that nasty episode in history is coming up in a week or so on October 12th. I mark it each year, albeit quietly – am usually up here at this time too. And terrorism discussions loom large in the Writers Festival program.
Saw Jasmin yesterday at her house in the morning where she was in no mood to let me near her. I followed her other granny, Dadong's suggestion that I just hang around and she will eventually come out - but that did not happen in nearly 2 hours - much toddler screaming from various parts of the house. Don't know why she is like this sometimes. Very strong-minded and absolutely won’t do anything she doesn't want to do - and no one attempts to make her. It is all part of the pembantu-style upbringing. However she apparently had a sleep and Lulik rang mid-afternoon to say she wanted to come up to Daddy's house. She was in a much better mood, but still not keen to play with Noni (what she calls me - a contraction of Nenek Toni) or look at her new books with me or Cathy when she had daddy and the cats.
Alex sms-ed to say she was in town, having dropped off Australian friends who'd been staying in their beautiful wooden guest house, and did Cathy and I want to meet for a coffee. We walked down to the nearby West End cafe, the pretty place where I had had my birthday brunch back in August on election day (we'd all best forget the fiasco of that day, eh?) - it's becoming famous for its Devonshire cream teas!!!! (Yes we are in Bali). I had wondered why she was free to meet us when her mother, aunt and two nieces were arriving that afternoon- but it turns out their Garuda plane had problems and they had to await the arrival of a new aircraft - their new flight would be arriving at 1.30 am!! What a bummer. I hope they weren't at the airport all day trying to keep the two little girls entertained during the huge delay. We might see them all tonight and hear the details. I was so lucky to have had such a trouble free flight.
Good to catch up with Alex and hear how the kids are doing, and the timber business. They have just had their first paying guests in the guest house - Dutch people, who loved it! And, in true Dutch fashion, got around on Alex and Yoga's borrowed push bikes.
Been to the Festival Office and got hold of a program - a big glossy, colourful production, all neatly coordinated to help you plan your activities each day - but nevertheless involves hours of reading to check every alluring session, venue, author and cross reference them with the book launches, special luxury lunch events, etc., to see how much you can feasibly fit into a day. You know me, I hate to miss anything. The two events I am personally involved in (the young Indonesian writers some of whose stories I translated, and the launch of Mirah of Banda and other recently translated novels in Lontar's Modern Library of Indonesia) are on one after the other on Friday afternoon in two different venues, only a 15 minute gap but also the venues are a 15 minute walk apart. Will worry about that later.
We are off to meet a former colleague of Cathy's from Bradfield High who has been here this last week as leader of a group of women from the Sydney Writers Centre doing a writing workshop (precursor activity to the festival). She contacted me for advice on Bali before she left and I gave her the drum on Ubud - not met her yet though. However when we got in touch by sms on her Australian mobile last night it turns out she has fallen into a drain (a very Ubud hazard, I'm afraid) and cracked a rib, then (I presume on another occasion) tripped over a glass coffee table - it was a very dramatic sms message. We will hear more no doubt. And guess what she picked as the venue near her hotel where we are to meet - none other than the West End!
Alas, Cathy has just got up and has had a terrible night of diarrhoea and vomiting- something nasty picked up down south - it wasn't my eggplant stew last night. Hope it is just a short-term thing and the worst is already over.
So folks, I hope life is treating you as well as it is treating me! Rest assured, I watch out carefully for all the uncovered drains.