The sun was out to play this morning when we rushed to cafe Koko this morning to grab a takeaway before we met Yanick for the lift to the jewelry making course Mali had booked on airbnb as my birthday present. I stopped at the mini mart and bought soymilk because although they advertise it, they don't supply it. Unfortunately I bought the wrong brand as this was juice, so we had long blacks with leaky lids which was most unfortunate as a lot had spilt out over our hands by the time we reached the pick up point. The lovely staff promised to get some in for tomorrow morning, they are real sweethearts.
Yanick regaled us with enthusiastic tooting upon our arrival, we had been texting and ringing him using Cafe Koko's wifi, as he was fighting traffic. He kindly gave me a cheerfully wrapped present from his wife, a lovely sarong and waist band/scarf, it was sweet of her to have remembered that it was my birthday ( she cooked mea beautiful birthday dinner last year because it fell on Nyepi - The Hindu day of silence).
Although there was some congestion in places I really didnt mind as it gave me a chance to photograph our surroundings. It's actually preferrable to wait with rice terraces around you than the metropolis! We had a few long stints of patience on the way to Ubud but all things considered we arrived 10 minutes early. The venue was gorgeous, it was set in a rice field, with a large rectangular pond with bridges over to the accommodation section. We were a bit unsure of what to do as there was no one to actually welcome us.
As Ruaela noted later, we immediately put ourselves in a deficit position, because when we arrived we apologised to the Western casually dressed Balinese woman for being early, instead of welcoming us she replied in accentless English "That's ok, the artist is here already, just sit there." ( gesturing to the table) and she walked off (we later found out that she was the owner, we met her American husband, Mark, later on).
The silversmith artist ( who looked like a darker version of my cousin Jimmy who is also taciturn) didn't greet us he just gestured to the paper and pencil on the table, so we drew our designs. Throughout the lesson we had limited interaction with him, as he didn't explain any of the steps. He just helped and intervened when necessary. I think that as a teacher, I am very aware of structuring a lesson and letting student's know what the steps and objectives are in any activity. I'm not saying that we didn't enjoy the creative process and our end products I am just observing how we enjoyed yesterday's lesson so much more as we had an orientation and detailed goals and steps.
Both of the girls are very creative and made intricate earings, Rumali made asymmetrical cascades of leaves and Ruaela made flowers to remind her of a childhood game they used to play, I just drew an elephant ear leaf, I didn't put much thought into it, but in hindsight would not have made it so busy. All three of us although we critiqued the delivery of the session, want to come back as they have about 8 different art experiences with adorable accomodation set in the midst of the rice terraces. Making a bespoke piece of jewelry each was really a wonderful birthday treat and it was so sweet of Rumali to arrange this.
Going back to the deficit position I mentioned earlier, I have a focus in my 52nd year of life, not to immediately use an apology to forefront a situation, and I am aware that I will probably need to write down some alternative responses. For instance when on a narrow path and I am about to collide with the person from the opposite direction, it is always me who moves aside, says sorry, the other person doesn't say thank you ninety percent of the time. My new narrative this holiday has been saying "You're welcome".
Anyway we stopped on the way back from Ubud at a warung where we had quite boring noodles with morning glory and some chopped up marinated chicken, I said to Ru, that it was like leftovers that I used to give them as a snack after school. Both the girls loved it as it was so familiar to them, I hate paying for stuff that I wouldn't serve for dinner, but as long as they were happy.
When we got back to Kuta we were exhausted, after hugs with Yanick ( he was very sad, I understand it is very hard for him as we hasn't got any impending bookings and the worry of how to provide for his extended family is a huge responsibility) we walked back along the busy street to our hotel, it was good to actually see some items we wanted to buy, however we were not in shopping mode, we power walked back to Champlung Mas and raced back to our rooms to have a rest in the aircon, agreeing to reconvene in an hour by the pool.
The pool was lovely and we were able to score some lounges, which is very difficult as the hotel is populated by Aussies who come here in a big group, a lot of them have been coming for years and someone from their group will be there from breakfast onwards claiming half the recliners. The food here is as cheap if not cheaper than on the street, we've only had grilled corn but that was great, although they served it with tomato sauce, because they think all Aussies love tomato sauce on everything! After a swim and an evesdropping session (evesdropping on an Aussie couple with their adult daughter, commenting on the size of all the passing women's boobs and whether they were natural, they also had nicknames like trout face for a forty something who had a lot of obvious work done) we went our separate ways again, I had a bubble bath in the tub and chatted to Eric on Skype until my water was cold.
The girls came to my room and we planned to go to Warung Chef Bagus recommended passionately by Rizzy as having the best ribs ever ( they also had vegan options). Being St Patricks day, Murphy's law prevailed and it started raining as soon as we set out. Refusing to buy a poncho for $10 from a cheeky vendor on a scooter we trudged on in the warm rain. Mali had a poncho already and after Ru and I were quite wet we were able to secure umbrellas from a mini mart (I don't know why I listened to Yanick and didn't bring my brolly from home). Honestly I hate bartering I just like to pay the ticketed price, so not Asian.
We ended up paying $2 for a Bluebird taxi not to be confused with a Bluebiro taxi!! The restaurant was a proper restaurant with extensive prices for Bali, but the quality of the meat was supremely tender and non fatty. The girls remarked it was a totally Riz recommendation as he is a devotee of spare ribs, I remember this restaurant as being what he spoke about most excitedly when he came back from Bali.
The plan had been to go out to see some live music, dance and have cocktails however we were in a food coma so had to fly home via bluebird. The girls joined me for a tea in my gigantic room and Mali gave me a lovely journal for my morning mindfulness journaling, but we were so tired that we kept dozing off on the bed, so they left to their opposite ends of the building and we all enjoyed the luxury of private rooms, so wise at this age not to share!
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