Month 3 in Paradise

The Japanese are flowing into town, it is their holiday, walking in single file along the side of the busy main Jalan Raya Ubud: sunhats, fanny packs and baggy shorts in place, camera on the belly, alternated by groovy printed hot panted ladies and colorful umbrellas, held up against the sun. The coaches, that just dropped them at the market, back up with difficulty, requiring many people to wave and gesture to get the job done.

“Tourists”, we tut tut under our breath, as we wait in the car to pass.

We have landed in Ubud, cultural and spiritual heart of Bali. With the Japanese, the Ee-Pels (EatPrayLove seekers) are here in abundance, Western woman by themself, of a certain age, who with other spiritual seekers talk about oneness and higher consciousness, words that sound as familiar here as spaghetti bolognese, which on the other hand is not said that often. A vegan diet is the natural choice for most, but a Raw Food diet is the definite superlative, and is generously provided for on the menus.

You can choose between the Tibetan Chiming Bells Therapy or do the "Stand and shake your body for fifteen hours a day" meditation at the Osho ashram: I just heard about that one. It is supposed to release many bad things in your body, including green sweat. Really.

It is the town where if you are sitting in the new vegetarian restaurant, and complain about the (jazz) music because it has been on repeat for an hour, they ask; ”would you like something more spiritual?”

All this is very well, but it sometimes has to be compensated by a visit to the famous warung Ibu Oka, opposite the Palace, for a plate of the most succulent suckling pig on the island, with a Bintang on the side.

Allard is now half way into his month long yoga teacher training. He starts at 6.30 and returns at 6.30 in the evening. He has started coming home grumpier and grumpier, so I am not sure the path to enlightenment is easy, or perhaps too easy. Apparently he is not sweating as much as he would like. Don’t ask him about Yin Yoga! It is not his favorite. As I understand it, it involves staying in a pose for a long time and not using the muscles. But on the other hand yoga is pretty much all he talks about. Those who know my husband might understand. He buys meditations from the internet. We discuss the relative merits of the Dahla Lama meditation and he demonstrates his new breathing techniques when he gets home at night.




(jungle temples)

Jip has a new world atlas and has made a list of places he would like to visit. Great Britain and Ireland are topping the list. Do you think he has had enough of the tropics already?

A year or so ago Rosie often went to school in her brothers t-shirts trailing down to her knees, demanding to be addressed as 'John'. Nowadays she will only wear outfits that match (usually lots of colors with lots of colors) and look 'pretty'. 'Cool' is not a description she wants to hear. In fact a little stamp of the foot might follow such a compliment.

Rosie sings out loud when she plays around the house, self made lyrics which may involve a princess being kissed on the lips by a prince or just a little ditty about coming and going.




“Rosie, be quiet, I can’t concentrate!” Jip will shout, but this does not bother her one bit.

She will continue and Jip will be forced to find a quieter place to read his book.

The new house in Ubud is great with long corridors and glass doors that are opened every morning, looking out onto green palm and papaya trees. We are warming the Japanese minimalist look in the house up a bit with Balinese cushions and strategic lighting.

Now if the rainy season would just stop.

The parents are taking Bali in their stride. Enduring the heat and the rain.







S1

czech road signs

This is a sign that there is more to come from the Prague department....
very soon !
S3

Bubbles

Greetings dear sisters.
The floating silver angels finally draw back the red velvet curtains to reveal what has been happening here these last few months.
It was a long winter and my keyboard was frozen. But the Bali vibes have melted the frost and spring is here , and so am I with a lot of catching up to do . To tell you the truth i was so amazed with the indonesian colours that i secretly thought that it would be hard to compete , hence the quietness.
But i realise in my wise youth that it is not a competition , it is a feast so i share with you in joy the latest news.


Here you see the latest winter spring fashion 2010 continental style , warm jumpers and patterns are all the rage.
Especially if you are an art student and you don't have that casual teddy bear look , then you can wipe that grin off your face.


Here is another art student who obviously doesn't have the teddy bear jumper ( hence the serious look ) but instead stylishly carries the beaded clock look .This is where i recently ate delicious pancakes where a classmate works.

Enough fashion for now , here is a beautiful fountain that i captured one beautiful sunny sunday when it was still cold , i think it was in march.


And here is a photo of all the footprints in the snow, and someone loves Irene. The last time there was so much snow in Prague was twenty years ago.


This is my very good tree blossom friend i met under a cherry tree in Japan , she is a primary school teacher in Hokkaido but was working for a year in Switzerland milking cows. She says that cows are very good listeners. She came to Prague for a week and we laughed so much we had muscle ache in our jaws and tummies. She says that in India exists a tribe that meet once a month and do nothing but laugh together. I like this religion, sounds healthy. This is a photo of my friends in our first 3D experience, we went to see the new Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and after that we had an Alice in Wonderland week in Prague.


And this is another good friend, my accordeon player for the puppet shows, this was his own concert and it was very nice indeed!


And this was my first solo exhibition in Prague ! I was a little nervous but lots of friends came and it was a really gezellige evening. I said to everyone that i wouldn't do a speech unless there was a microphone , thinking that there would never in the world be a microphone and ofcourse there was one ! Luckily I had cunningly planned a little speech before , imagining i would thank madonna and michael as my main sources of inspiration and that i would like to sing a song for everyone , total eclipse of the heart as a finale of the amazing speech.
It turned out though that i was speaking in czech and after i had said" Good evening" very slowly all my class mates cheered me on , clapping and yelping with joy. I said the name of the exhibtion was " Bubbles " because i believe everyone lives in their own bubble. Again everyone applauded and cheered. Just as i was getting into it and relaxed ( i think i started raising my voice a bit in the excitement and with the red wine ) , the organiser came along and casually whipped the microphone out of my hands ( thank goodness) So my speech was short but sweet, to the point i would say.


This is the banjo player that played experimental underground banjo songs at the vernisage. It was more for listening but in my excitement i did a little dance ( silly me ). I think im going a little bit folksy with all these banjo's and accordeon's . Dear family , will you ever forgive me ?


Here are some strange creatures from the prague jungle, they can fly and swim and like to eat bread.


And this is a detail of a wonderful czech artist that lived in a forest and made thousands of coloured woodprints, i went to see his exhibiton and it was amazing, very juicy colours , still fresh from 80 years ago ! His name is Vachal .


And here is my favourite song of the moment as an ode to the spring , hurray !
SUNNY SONG

Lots of Love
Sister numero 3

Lips 1 & 2

Lips 1



Lips 2

sounds of indonesia

Love, S1

Month two in paradise and finally, the amazing swimming turtles

Dear sisters,

You can't know how happy I am to be showing this video to you, which I had promised you in my last post. It took a mere three hours and twenty minutes to upload and that is not counting the five days of frustrated and frustrating attempts. Internet is neither a fast nor reliable medium in Paradise.





As you can see serious underwater swimming training has been going on in the past month. The first challenge of swimming a pool length underwater has been conquered and now the turtles are training for a length and back again, in a single breath.

The weather is hot and the living is still easy. Not much has changed, although we are both making slight personal progress on the yoga mat and in Bahasa Indonesian, which means I can now push my hands up to a backbend saying "saya suka ini" (I like it") at the same time. This, of course, is of no interest to anyone except me, so I will keep it at that.

We have seen ceremonies, cock fights, big birds, ugly birds, more sunsets and eaten good things. I am wearing flowy garments to manage the heat. In the evening we may watch an illegal copy of a recent movie, for purchase at 1 USD everywhere, with strange English subtitles, but usually our eyes fall shut before 10 pm.




And now it is alright for both of you to tell us all about you.

Love S1

healer

On the outskirts of our village lies a large concrete walled house with a two car garage, and what seem like watchtowers overlooking the rice paddies. Often when we drive past, a blue "taksi" will be coming, just as another is going. Frequently multiple cars are parked in the sandy gutter.



Here lives a locally renowned Balinese healer, who has a busy practice.

One day Wayan, our present driver, asked if we would like to see him. I stuck my hand up, so the next day he set off early to ask permission. He came back and said I was lucky, because the healer could see me at 9.30 the same morning. I borrowed a sarong from Putu, our cook, who could not hold a straight face as she tried to fasten it around my big white body. She also prepared an offering basket with pretty flowers and two sticks of incense. I would just have to add some money when I got there.




At the entrance to the house, a monkey chained to a wire, munched a banana.

Inside was a flowery courtyard with statues placed here and there. A pretty woman in Balinese ceremonial dress came out smiling to greet me. I smiled and returned her greeting. I was uncertain what to do next. Wayan coached me. He advised me to put 100.000 Rhupia in the basket, which is about 10 USD, not a local offering. I placed the basket under a golden statue of what looked like Krishna and Wayan lit the incense. Soon a friendly faced man dressed all in white, with a bushy mustache and big warm hands came out to greet me. His English was very good. "What can I do for you?" he asked with a big grin. Not quite sure what he could do for me, I said I had been ill not too long ago and wanted to know if I was okay.




"Come in, come in." I will first have to see you" he said as he ushered me into a small room with a low table covered in flowers and colorful fabrics, banana leaf mats on the floor. I sat cross legged on one side of the table and he on the other. "Now concentrate on my forehead", he said. "I must see you", gesticulating his hand in a up and downward motion. I concentrated very hard on the spot between his furrowed brows as he closed his eyes. At a certain point he lifted his left arm slowly over his head and flicked away a flower from between his thumb and forefinger, which I guess meant he had seen me. "You will be very lucky , he said. I can see that'" Then: "Your stomach, you have problems with your stomach (that's from our colonics I wanted to say, but didn't), lower back and neck". "Okay", I said, waiting to see what would come next.

"Come here and lie down."

There was another mat with a white pillow next to the healer. I lay on my back with my head on the pillow and he started massaging my abdomen very hard. I had to turn over on my stomach and he briefly massaged my lower back. Then I was asked to sit cross-legged facing him, lowering my head onto his chest, so he could massage my neck.

"I see your heart" he said suddenly, and made me sit up again.

"You have a very slow heart rate"

This, actually is true. Very often when I had my heart rate measured in San Francisco, the machine would start beeping because I fell under the normal range. There, nobody seemed too bothered about it. But the healer was concerned. My heart needed a massage too, he said. He prodded hard in my chest bone for a while. And then again.

"Now let me see you again" he said and I had to look at his face again as he closed his eyes, the lids not quite falling shut, so I could see the whites of his eyes vibrating ever so slightly underneath.

"You are good now", he eventually said, "Just a slow heart." "Keep breathing deeply" And with that advice, he fixed a fragrant flower in my hair, dotted my forehead with holy water and I was on my way.




And now for something completely different:

The amazing swimming turtles!