just because

a little help from my friends

Now we're home, Im back to banging on about the impending business venture. Im at a point where decisions about certain things need to be made and Im going to be shameless and ask all you readers out there for some help again. I need to understand how someone, other than me, would go about searching online for some produce bags to use at markets or to replace the plastic ones for fruit and veg you find in the supermarkets. If you were going to do a search online for some bags like this, what key search terms would you use?

a rude shock

We are home. Its going to take a while to adjust me thinks! Already i am missing the mad busyness, the beeping scooters that flock like insects, the teeming streets and crowded beaches. The smiles and bright 'hell-oo's'. The cleanliness, sterility and lack of colour and noise is dampening my spirits. As is the weather; grey, bleak, wintry cold. Shock has set in. I have forgotten how to plan for a meal, the thinking ahead.. planning has alluded me. We have no fruit or veg in the house and with no sleep behind us, certainly no inclination to think about lists. BoyBean... lunch? 'oops' yeah, right. OK. Shops. bread. cheese. milk. What else???
What im missing right now:
*statues wrapped in bright gilded fabric
*petrol stalls shelved with Absoloute vodka 'refills'
*the smell of frangipani incense everywhere
*scooters packed five high with family
*german army style fake Louis Vuitton bike helmets
*having to really 'look' where Im going else fall in a drain
*beep beep beeping
*feeling sticky with warmth and humidity
*the possibility of rice for breakfast
*a 6:1 ratio of boybean care to responsible adults
*outward chaos but communal slow
Not being responsible for maintaining life for a few weeks has taken its toll and will certainly take a few days to get back in the swing of looking after ourselves; a strange and novel experience. I look forward to getting back on my 'normal' feet again and getting the garden into some kind of order. The caterpillars have had a veritable field day in our absense, resulting in no beans left and some kale damage and the cat managed to rip its third eyelid (i had no idea they even had a third eyelid until the emerency trip to the vet in our jetlagged state) and is doing an overnighter in prep for surgery in the morning. Waking refreshed and normal is, right now, my kind of beautiful.

all or nothing

that seems to be how food gardens grow here. Either you're subsistence farming or you buy from the market. In our travels i have seen nothing that looks like a home patch of any kind, but that could be due to lack of recognition of edible foodstuffs than the truth... It makes sense i suppose. A province with a small middle class, labour and food are are both cheap and many are subsistence farming. Where we are staying was once covered in rice paddies, now the villas are crowding out the paddys and only a few remain. Its a strange dichotomy; just a few streets back from the high end of Balinese fashion and the latest in architectural finishes, adult rice plants sit in handkerchief sized fields ready to be threshed, leathered old men walk around in sarongs with sickles in hand and woven conical hats. Papaya, banana and mangoes grow everywhere, so street grazing is very very doable. Its all juxtaposed with trendy glass and stone buildings...rice farming in Seminyak will probably be a thing of the past in five years time.

Like everywhere with tourists and the temptations of modern living, there is plastic rubbish everywhere. There are garbage trucks (guys sitting in the back of a big pick up collecting rubbish from big woven baskets on the side of the road) but not enough and Im not sure if they dump it in a designated out of town landfill or just down a back street somewhere! Our back laneway looks like a tip! But it does support a pack of local dogs, a whole scurry of squirrels and a herd of cattle who graze the laneway and whats left of a unused rice paddy every morning. The bean loves to watch them from his his vantage point of the upstairs balcony and listen to their cow bells going 'donk donk' and mooing, His imitation 'mooooo' has definitely improved in two weeks!

OK. I just asked about the rubbish. It costs to have it picked up, user pays no compulsory rates/taxes to pay for garbage collection. Only main street business get rubbish taken away by 'council'. Suburban dwellers have to pay. So if you want your rubbish taken you pay 100,00 rupiah (average monthly income is 700,000) sooo, if you don't have the money you take your rubbish and chuck it! Hence the piles in the back lanes which are full of non recyclables. I have come across many guys carrying wicker baskets on either end of a bamboo pole which is carried across one shoulder sorting through these piles- there are the plastic bottle guys, the cardboard guys and the cans and glass guys, so some of it does make it to second use. One use for all the plastic bags that i have seen in use everywhere is to tie them every metre or so on the lines which crisscross over the rice paddies, acting as flags blowing in the breeze to deter the birds. But there is a long way to go.

Bali beauty

Hindu daily offerings, Banten, are a major part of balinese life, offerred 3 times a day and i have developed a bit of an obsession with them. They are platters, plates, bowl woven from strips of banana leaf and used to hold various offerings of flowers and food. These tiny offerings are made to appease the gods and demons and to honour the cycle of daily life. Every Hindu house has a temple; a giant structure, sometimes a whole compound of its own with many components, erected to honour family gone. The banten are placed everywhere here; in front of doorways, tucked into wall spaces, at the temple, even on the unused hotplate on the gas stove top.
Its beautiful, symbolic and deep with meaning and tradition. The main symbol of balinese Hinduism is the swastika,
found on the front a many temple gates and its taken me a while to accept it in aother, less sinister manner. I cant imagine what it must be like to live life according to such strict, aesthetic routine. Everyone gets changed into sarong and sash for the ritual of placing banten. Its a romantic notion for me. The shredded pandanus, that seems to be a staple of these banten, whirls around its incredible aroma every evening when the breeze lights up, and sends me to paradise as pandanus is one of the high note scents from the gods. Another offering to the gods which i think is just simply brilliant are the kites.
Not for the tourists folks, these enourmous flying pieces of art are also gifts to the gods and are flown just as a matter of course. I have seen a few being made on our warung road by men sitting on the street side and then a few days later... bingo! they're up above and darting around, anchored to a great clump of grass on the roadside.

At any given time we have about 6 flying above 'our house'. It really is no wonder Bali is such a popular place. Despite the tourist strips, you dont have to travel far to see the real Bali and be included in it. Yesterday on our way home from the waves we came across a huge procession about 150 strong of people clad in white, walking along the beach with gamelan playing. A cremation procession and ceremony was underway.
Gilded yellow and white umbrellas with ornate tassels and elaborate tasselated poles with many ornaments were carried and placed in the sand. A huge mound of multi storied banten covered a raised platform which i assumed covered a body. It was very beautiful. I have always loathed the western modern funeral which doesnt serve to comfort but fills me with dread. I didnt take any photos.
I have spent the last few days seriously contemplating on the throne and am only starting to feel a little better. Its put a bit of a dampner on things, but drugs appear to helping!

its a small, small world

Ive been meaning to do this cross post for a while. Its just a simple lovely story about how blogging can shrink the world and generate connections and enhance community where you never thought they'd exist. I 'found' Kale for Sale via One Green Generation last year sometime and loved her clarity of prose and her subtle humour, and of course her eco-interest and wonderful photos. I've been visiting ever since. So here's a lovely post written by her that brought tears to my eyes. The giveaway is over, Im sorry. Do read it, it speaks volumes about how blogging can potentially have a huge impact in our lives.

Haiku Friday

blades in my stomach.
cant sleep. my whole body aches.
small amusements help.