If I hadn't already invalidated my warranty (apparently) by taking Quentin (my new laptop) out to the park to play music at Nicola's birthday bbq, I've definitely invalidated it now.
Basically, this morning Zoe and I got up at about half eight and sadly had breakfast. Then we mournfully waited for a horse-taxi, flagged one down and depressedly (is that a word?) held on tightly as it jolted us to the harbour, to get our Semaya One boat back to Bali. Now, on the way out I was in the front, with the water smacking the boat then splooshing over it. This time I was at the back. I had a roof over my head, as did we all, but the end was completely open, and although I had a top, front and two sides, the right hand side of me got gradually wetter and wetter. I moved my bag as far left as I could, but it still got a bit wet. However, Quentin still works! That's either a) his particular brand of toughness where occasionally bits of him fall off and I have to gaffa tape him back together, but he continues to function, or b) the combined waterproofness of the rucksack I won at one of my works + The Economist and other bits of paper, blocking the water from getting to him. So I got wet, and I'm still rubbing dried salt off the right hand side of me - I'm a human salt-lick! Maybe it's doing a lot of good to half of my skin. The two people sitting right at the back, with only top and front - no back or sides - well, they might as well have swum across. They were German, I think, and took it very good naturedly. The staff apologised and the man said, "Don't worry, we'll dry." I alternated between finding it fun in a roller-coaster kind of way (a bit of a rough crossing - well, rougher than the way out) and, increasingly towards the end, burping quietly to myself and telling myself not to worry, that I didn't feel sick. Mind over matter: it just managed to last the 1hr 45 (ish) it took to get across the water. The Semaya Fast boat people happily changed our shuttle to Kuta to a shuttle to Seminyak (apparently the 'glitzy' part of Bali). We looked in The Book (Lonely Planet), picked a hotel and went to it. That hotel was full, but they happily booked us a taxi, recommended a good place, checked it had space for us, and so now we are here, at the Seminyak Paradiso. It has all the prerequisites: Balinese (I presume) panpipey music playing to me as I sit in the cafe, ornate wooden carved bits, running water, paintings, slightly scary god/idol things. Only downside is the wifi is only available in the cafe/restaurant, not your room, and they seemed to want me to buy a cup of tea to sit here and use it. However I never mind buying tea, plus the man automatically brought me milk. Good work! Or perhaps Top Hole Old Chap, I should say, or something very English like that. Zoe and I have been for a small explore, and found a food place I think called Lucky Bar. The guy serving us was very friendly, and when he asked us our names and I said Jacqui, he was so pleased, because he is Jackie too - he said his friends sometimes call him Jackie Chan. He suggested - and we agreed - that we should take a picture! He was a great guy. We were talking to him about how we don't want to leave, about our madcap schemes to stay and work in Bali (Zoe keeps threatening to run away when we get to the airport - I might have to give some kind of letter to her parents - 'Zoe has run away to Bali, sorry!') and he was saying that it'd be easy for us to get work in a top hotel because we spoke English, and that would be in high demand. I said I was a teacher, and he thought that could work too! Jackie emphasised that in Bali money wasn't important - as long as you had enough - and that that was the secret to happiness. A fairly obvious truth to me and I'm sure to many people, but it's good to re-hear it from time to time. I'm hoping we could come back there tomorrow maybe, just to say hi to him. The food was delicious too and (unusually for Indonesia) was exactly what we ordered. (Yesterday I ordered a chocolate mousse, and what appeared was able to support the weight of a scoop of strawberry icecream and a cherry. It was nice. Very rich. Probably ganache - definitely not a light, fluffy mousse. Zoe said: "Welcome to Indonesia." Lol.) Oh, and this place gave me TWININGS Earl Grey tea. Yes! (Excited Jax photo.) Anyway, I'm going to go remove the rest of the salt from the right side of my body. So today we managed to be even lazier than yesterday. Yesterday we at least walked into the main 'street' for lunch and then back again, along the dirty tracks across the centre of the island, by moonlight and following in reverse the signs to our hotel (generally successfully), to try to have dinner at this place that sells something like chocolate salami as a dessert - but it was booked up for at least the next two days, by which time we'll be gone. So at least we did those things yesterday (and back again, by moonlight, this time walking the coastal way and hoping the tide hadn't come in too much).
Today we have not ventured out of our resort. And it's not that big. We got up for breakfast, Zoe then went back to bed and I, who'd slept well and snorily, with a nice dream in the morning about the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, who'd heard about this man with an amazing, lavish, rich rich apartment, and really wanted to see it - I went to the cafe, sat looking out at the sea and wrote. By 'wrote' I mean thought about Robin and I's film idea, and checked my emails and Facebook. Other than that it's been a day of reading, eating, drinking a really nice chocolate milkshake (another nice one - I had my first one from the resort yesterday), wandering on the beach/coral stuff (in my sandals - pointy!) finding shells, and bits of coral (obviously), and checking Facebook a bit more. And it is NOT a waste of my holiday. :) And speaking of Facebook - Zoe is onto me. And this has helped, because I was not until now onto me, or not completely. This afternoon, as Zoe and I were playing Uno on the sun lounger things (but under an umbrella) - occasionally having to catch the cards to stop them from blowing away - well, I had lost another game, although I have won a few, mainly by luck, and I said something, I can't remember what, but it was another incidence of me realising I am dopey, and Zoe said, "You know, I always say to everyone you're really clever, and I used to think that, but now...now....well you're not!" "I know," I said, DJ at work calls me the cleverest person there, and I keep telling him I'm not." (although obviously I enjoy the praise). I continued, "I mean, I have no body of knowledge, I'm not very good at working things out...." And I could have continued. Zoe said, "But everyone thinks you are." I said maybe it was because I had a masters, and people assume that means something, although it doesn't really - or not in my case. Zoe said, "Yeah, well I'm going to have a masters soon [in social work]." (She said it in a joking/scoffing way.) We thought for a little while. Zoe suggested it might well be me sitting around in cafes with my laptop looking like I'm doing something very important - when really I'm just on Facebook. We decided, however, that what I do, and the best way to get people to think you are clever is to go around saying everything is 'interesting'. Any time you want to describe something as 'nice' or 'pretty' or 'cool', just replace that with 'interesting' - try it out! As a final thought for today, before we have some dinner and watch a movie or two - yesterday afternoon, I heard this little girl having this brilliant conversation with her dad. It went something like this: Girl - "Daddy, Daddy, I've worked it out!" Dad - "What dear?" Girl - "I'm becoming a mermaid, with long green hair." Dad - "Ah, I see." Girl - "Maybe that's why they keep giving me juice." So last night we watched a DVD then had an early night. Today we managed to get up for the buffet breakfast (mainly because I was hungry). Zoe used her powers of reading to find the tea - it was in a coffee pot labelled 'tea', and I had dry chocolate cereal because I don't like sweet milk particularly. Or, at least, not when linked to cereal.
Other than that, just a wonderful day of reading (finished Good Omens, started Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay - spare World Book Day books I got from the prison, and will leave somewhere good before I return home), snoozing in the sun (with the kanga - apparently it's a kanga - Sarah Y got me from Kenya draped over my head. I lost it, then found it where I'd left it in the morning. Phew!), sitting in a cafe planning a timeline for the ideas I've been thinking about for Robin and I's next film, sitting - before that, in the morning, trying to write bits of the script. Zoe thinks the current ending sounds pants. It probably is. I must try to avoid quiet endings. I don't particularly enjoy watching them myself, so why do I always write them? Something to work on. I miss Bruce - our giant (well, biggish) lizard who lived in our bathroom in the last hotel. Here we do have a few tiny ones, but they're not Bruce. Most of the cats here are missing most of their tails. Why? My current two main theories are a) a cultural/religious practice of tail docking like with terriers, or b) cat tail soup. Well, now for the photos :) How did we get to our hotel on this island? By horse and cart. There's no cars here!
I did feel a little sorry for the people in the old days who had to do this kind of transport for long journeys - a lot of holding onto the side - but fun for 15 minutes. So, the next morning (I'm writing this from Gili Trawangan - awesome little island where currently there's some nice kind of fire on the beach - the intentional kind. Zoe and I, however, are going to order room service and watch a DVD :) ) So, the next morning Zoe got up at something hideous like 7am to go to the Yoga BARN (I got the name wrong in the last post I think) to do some yoga, suprisingly. I did not get up. I got up when breakfast arrived, ate my nice pancake, Zoe returned and went to sleep, so I went for a wander down the street and took some photos (see above).
On my return I woke Zoe up when I got back, or soon after - it was time to go back to the Art Museum for my painting lesson. The old man, called Pendet (I Wayan Pendet), appeared and I think partly because of time, but partly, it seemed, because of frequently being confronted by people less...like me...said 'I think your imagination will not be enough, so here are some sketches' (for me to fill in). I did not want to do a paint by numbers - although if I had we'd've got further and I'd have learnt more from him about painting - so I said if it was ok I would copy one (it was nice to have a stimulus for the imagination). I copied it, and then thought it looked a bit blank at the top, so I asked if I could add some tree branches and leaves falling. So then we were away - Pendet suggested (and drew for me) adding some rice fields, and then suggested I draw some trees - small trees, as they were far away. He then corrected my attempt (which I thought was ok!) at copying his picture. It was better his way...I think.... And after that he taught me how to do shading to make the painting look 3D. Using charcoal and water to make ink, an 'ink' paint brush, which you'd use down the edge of something, and then quickly go down and add water using another brush to blur it in. I was again a tourist attraction - we were sat doing this in the lobby, and quite a few people who were coming to the gallery stopped and looked at what we were doing. Good fun, and I'm pleased with the picture - although we ran out of time, even though he kindly went 15 minutes over. And then he showed me his painting that is in the gallery - it's an elephant made up of several women. Golden tones and pinkish tones; I liked it. Then I went to the Yoga Barn to join Zoe for some Tibetan gong therapy. I was early (because I allowed time to get lost, and had to register) so I then sat and read Good Omens (Pratchet and Gaiman) in this kind of wicker seating area with cushions and the like, surrounded by water full of fish, frogs chirping and the like. Sitting there amongst all that and reading an awesome book was pretty good therapy, but the gong therapy was good too. When the man walked near you with the gong the vibrations rushed through you like pulses (with the higher frequencies), or sort of rolled over you like a wave. I don't know if my chakras are sorted now, but it was a good experience, and I do think that we have physiological responses to sounds. Only problem was my hectic little mind wouldn't shut up. But then, it never does :) In the evening we went...somewhere for dinner. We were going to go to this place called Rendesvousdoux (spelling there is inexact), as it was supposed to have films playing on loop about the history of Bali and, at times, live music. But we couldn't find it. The place we went to was, from what I remember, quite brightly coloured. (I'm afraid I don't have a very good visual memory.) The strange thing about it was we were sitting there, with Zoe managing quite well at not being embarrassed by my inability to eat my noodles without getting juice all over myself and having to slurp them up, when a family came to sit down. I thought I recognised the two boys, but decided I couldn't because I hadn't taught English kids of that age. Then, twenty minutes of slurping and mess later, I heard them speak French. And I think I heard 'Prof'. I still have no idea of their names, and still almost can't quite believe it, but this was two students who, I think, I must have taught in Avignon (literally just working it out by their ages). The dad looked mildly grumpy - I guess because I hadn't said hello? But I wasn't sure enough to do so. I did, however, risk a half-muttered 'Bonjour' as I left, and I sort of caught the dad's eye. Weird. But what do you do? Should I have come over? And said, 'Hello children. I think I have taught you. I can't remember your names or even particularly what you were like except you, younger one, I have a feeling you were a little tyke, and you, slightly older one, my feeling is you were a bit of a knob.' I think I went for the best option. Next day (today) we got up at 5.30. Oh Dear God. Had breakfast, and then were taken on a drive where the main intention seemed to be not to stop (for example going onto the slip road type bit when there was a traffic jam). It was perfectly safely done - impressively so - but various laws of the road were ignored. Plus the usual load of narrow and steep and half-finished roads. The person picking us up also picked up two other groups, and we sat in silence (of course), squidged in, for the couple of hours it took us to get to Padang Bai (I think). Must write down names of places/look them up. Then we dumped our luggage in pile B on the street, queued to show our tickets to the man sitting at a desk in the pub, got on the boat, were on that for a couple of hours (and occasionally the water splashed over the top of the boat, but it was ok, because we it was covered over) - the group of Italians, adults but still rowdy (nicely rowdy - I might say bouyant) sang us a few songs, and we climbed around the edge of the boat, onto its front (prow?) and then down the ladder and onto Trawangan (Gili Island). My thanks to the Australian who gave me a hand up onto the prow. I read for a bit, had a rather long nap and now I've just ordered room service - another first for me! It's all about the new expe |
Jax BurgoyneI am a writer. (If I say this enough times...) Archives
September 2013
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