can you drown in the mountains?

Posted on | August 22, 2007 | No Comments

i only ask, because it is STILL RAINING here!
however, it isn’t raining all over bali, o no.
it’s only raining in ubud.

maurice actually picked up a small goldfish off a pathway yesterday and put it back into it’s pond.
the pond was overflowing and the fish had ventured a bit close to the edge.
it looked half dead to me, but as soon as he placed it into the water, it flipped it’s tail and swam off fast.

my finished leather jacket arrived this morning, as promised.
it is marvellous and i’m so happy with everything about it.
i cannot wait to get it home, and get out there on the motorbike!
zips galore! it fits perfectly….how DO they sew in a short fat circle?
i just love the colour (it’s always a bit of a worry, choosing a colour from a tiny swatch….sometimes when you see it in real life size, it can be all wrong. but this is gorgeous).
it has lacing up the sides, so i can wear sweaters underneath in chilly weather.
when it softens and gets a bit of wear, it is going to be just fabulous.

i was kicking myself because i forgot to bring the saddlebags that got damaged when maurice had his motorcycling mishap.
they were vinyl, but quite expensive.
i contacted the american manufacturer to see if i could purchase just the right hand side bag; but they only sell pairs (daft, if you ask me).
i did think to get them re-made in leather over here, but was in too much of a rush last week to get them packed.
well, i asked yon if i could post a bag to him…..he said absolutely yes, no problem.
he was all au fait with international bank transfers and the grade of leather required for such bags, so i feel quite confident about organising this when i get home.
i’ve left yon’s card in our villa, but i’ll post his details later.

last night we went to warung enak for dinner.
they specialise in delicacies from all over indonesia and we always go there for a meal whenever we are in town.
it’s expensive (for indonesian food) but everything is just beautifully presented and carefully prepared and perfectly cooked.
and the decor is mad. sort of trad-balinese on acid. check out the website!
AND they will drive you back to your accommodation, which is very luxurious, but complimentary.
we ordered up a couple of watermelon juice + pineapple liqueur cocktails (jen told me to) and then a few different plates of various vegetarian things: balinese corn fritters, tofu in a sweet dark broth, tempe sate, fried tempe with chilli sambal, little packets of steamed rice, urab sayur (a green bean thing that i very much like…it is spiced and has shredded stuff mixed in….often coconut….and you eat it at room temperature….it’s ubiquitious), really delicious rice crackers and an egg fried somehow with chicken stock…..absolutely the most yummy egg i’ve ever eaten.
after the cocktails we had a bintang beer each and then we were too full for dessert.
maurice isn’t overly keen on asian desserts in general……it’s a textural thing….but i love all that rice and agar agar and coconut milk and palm sugar and tapioca and fried bananas and lurid food colouring.

i was very sad to hear that my masseur, who opened up his own shop on jalan hanoman in january, was already closed down.
apparently business had not been quite brisk enough in the spot he chose.
it’s a real shame, because he was an excellent masseur, with chiropractic skills.
i carried over a load of little bottles of blended essential oils as a gift for him….to burn in his shop and use in the foot-washing water…..so i gave them instead to his friend with another shop, on monkey forest road.

we purchased a huge orange bath bomb yesterday, with the intriguing name of “lucky cat”.
we couldn’t wait to get it back to the villa and run a large warm bath and throw the fizzer in there.
the water turned soft and smelled lovely and OMG…as the bath bomb fizzed away, a little wooden cat, painted with pink daisies was revealed!
we were both enchanted with this and the cat now sits watching us from the edge of the bathtub.
really….a very cute touch!

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