Bali Belly and Blanco

So rather annoyingly I'm writing this blog entry first of all on wordpad as I first of all tried the WIFI at the hotel and it wasn't working, so I've then come into 3 Monkeys where I used WIFI a couple of days ago and it doesn't seem to be working - grr tedious!  Especially since I just paid 50000 rupiah for a beer!

So today was a bit different, I got up at a similar time, had breakfast, but my stomach felt a bit odd.  Rach messaged me to say that she had a bit too much work on and so I said that I was fine to amuse myself for the day whilst she got her work done.  Rach suggested the Antonio Blanco museum and gallery which I had regretted not visiting last time we were here, especially as we had to walk past it at least twice a day on the way to and from our hotel Tjampuhan which really was *miles* away! 

So I got back to the room and started to get ready to go out, but stomach just wasn't right, I didn't have painful cramps, but (and I'll spare you the details) the next 4 hours meant that it was very useful to have an en-suite toilet!  I read a load more of "The Hunger Games"  and snuck out to buy some Pocari Sweat (isotonic drink) and coconut milk both of which I know to be good at replacing fluids and salts etc when you are dehydrated.  I also made an educated guess at what a version of Imodium was over here and emailed the photo to Rach to translate (fortunately I was right, although I've not actually needed to take any of them yet thankfully!).  I napped for a bit and then woke up at 2pm and decided that I'd wasted enough of the day and so got up and walked down to the Antonio Blanco museum. 

It's probably only about 15 - 20 minutes walk, but I was just so hot that I was really hot, sweaty and horrible by the time I arrived there.  I paid my entrance fee of 50000 rupiah and then was directed to the restaurant for my complimentary welcome drink which was ice cool and much appreciated.  What I appreciated a whole lot more was the lovely cool towel that the waiter gave me.

I walked around the Blanco museum and he's clearly very odd, very close/friendly to Michael Jackson and obsessed with erotica, but I really enjoyed his art.  Here is one of his Jacko pictures (not my photo as obviously in a gallery photography is not allowed!)

The building in which the gallery was based was beautiful   Lots of very dark colours and gold, it should have looked horrendously tacky, but it was actually really intriguing and appealing.  His artwork was a lot of very detailed oil paintings, but also lots of collage work interspersed with writings and poetry that he had written.   The style (although definitely not the content) reminded me of some of the work that my friend Hayley has done - scrap book style with writing and text mixed with different collages of different media.  I really enjoyed looking at it and hopefully I'll be able to use it to inspire me to do some more creative embroidery.  He also had loads of really ostentatious frames for all the pictures which formed part of the overall impact of each of the pieces.

One of the descriptions attached to one of his paintings that I found both intriguing and deeply disturbing was when he was asked his opinion on the meaning of life and he said that it was the idea of fondling the buttocks of an 18 year old in one hand and a ripe mango in the next - or something like that.**  

**Edit - just found the actual description now that I'm back online and here it is:

Probably, because of the Erotic feeling in his painting, I am compelled to tell a true story that relates to this Mystic-Erotica.I received a letter from an enthusiastic Art collector from London in which he asks: "Antonio, you are rather Philosophic; what have you found to be the meaning of life?" My Answer: "When I am bitting into a ripe succulent Mango in my right hand, and at the same time fondling (with my left hand) the firm buttocks of an 18 year girl…..er…..Model, THAT I have found to be the closest THING to a MEANING FOR LIFE" Frame of red and gold exotic Blanco - design.

I wasn't sure when I went up to the second floor of the gallery whether I should go up onto the roof using the slightly rickety spiral staircase, but I did anyway and the view was fantastic - jungle and rice fields.  

The gardens in which the museum and gallery is set is pretty spectacular too, there are loads of vividly coloured parrots on perches which if you like you can have put on your shoulder.  I didn't really fancy this, but I did take a couple of pictures.  I then ventured into the gift shop via a place where they had a DVD playing depicting a dodgy acting out of Blanco courting his Balinese dancer wife and bought the "Fabulous Blanco" book getting a bit confused by the conversion price again.

 Needless to say that things are generally very cheap in Ubud, but I spent more on this book than probably any other book that I've ever bought before!  It looks good though so hopefully it will be worth it!  The lady in the shop complimented my perfume, but then tried to sell me lots of jewelry designed by Blanco's daughter, she was certainly persistent.  **

**Edit, I'm a bit happier with my purchase as I've just seen this as a description on Amazon: 

Currently unavailable.

We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

I then had buyers remorse for about an hour, walked back towards my hotel noticing for the first time a very well disguised Starbucks and then stopped off at Kenko for a pedicure.  It was the first place I ever had a manicure at the age of 29 so I thought that it was appropriate that I should visit the same place for my first ever proper pedicure.  I do think that they were laughing at me as so much dead skin was filed away from my hardworking and runners feet.

I headed back to the hotel for a well earned shower and started to watch The Hangover 2 on my netbook before Rachel came over to head out for dinner.  We went to a Cuban restaurant - Cafe Havana (Rachel, Coddy and I had a fab holiday back in 2007 to Cuba so it was nice to reminisce)  Kiran very helpfully fell asleep and so Rachel managed to eat tapas and drink sangria with one hand.  The tapas was really tasty and it was one of the very few restaurants in Ubud that seems to cater for children as they were able to provide Rachel with a baby chair which was useful until Kiran fell asleep.  I managed to get timings wrong and ordered another jug of Sangria before realising that Made was coming to get Rachel back from my hotel in less than 20 minutes!  I had to drink it pretty quickly which wasn't hard as I was thirsty and it was tasty, but it did feel a bit wrong!  I went back to my room, failed to pick up wifi as I mentioned, I tried again in the breakfast room opposite the pool and again failed, but I was also persuaded to move on as there was swimming in the pool in the dark which was a bit odd and worrying! 

Anyway, photos to follow when the connection speed is better...