Isolation Journal 89 & 90

Two in one entry today as I was away for the first time since March yesterday evening.

I woke up yesterday and checked my phone and had a negative Covid result from my test on Friday so I decided to go with my plan of visiting my parents and my brother.  I'd packed my stuff mostly the night before so I had some cornflakes, packed up the rest of the bits and pieces and set off just before 10am.

The roads weren't too bad, I had only planned to stop once for a toilet break and I always aim to get to at least Leicester Forest East Services on the way down and if I get to Watford Gap or further I'm over halfway and feel happy.  I got out at Watford Gap, tried to charge my car, but it wasn't working so I headed to the toilet.  I had no interest in stopping for food really as it was too busy and I felt uncomfortable and social distancing wasn't great.  I got back to the car, texted my brother and my parents and then carried on.  I had been listening to the Archers and then I swapped to some more of the Wind Up Bird Chronicles.

I ended up driving only for 3hrs 40 and ended up at my brothers around 2pm.  I had a protein bar and a banana for lunch on the go and he did offer me some lunch, but he'd already eaten.  When I arrived at my brothers it was just the 2 oldest girls Beatrice and Florence and they were very hyper and excited to see me.  My brother's wife came back shortly after with the two youngest boys Lenny and Winston.  They were also quite excited and Winston was doing ok after a couple of trips to hospital this week as he'd cut his hand and they weren't sure if he'd need it stitching, but fortunately he didn't.  They drew some pictures on the patio in chalk and then I headed over to see my parents in the garden.  I managed to curb my alloy wheels when I was parking the car and I really need to sort out my insurance claim to get them fixed up.

They've done a lot of gardening during lockdown including planting melons, aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes, cauliflowers, nasteriums, cucumber, lettuces and sweetcorn.   We sat outside and chatted and I gave them some malbec and some prosecco as well as a rag wreath I finished off under lockdown.

We went for a walk around the recreation field at the back of the house, it was a nice walk, but it's sad that at the back of the garages people have just dumped mattresses, fridges and other rubbish.  I used to think that the street was a really nice area, but some of it with my eyes these days just looks a bit tatty.

I texted my brother to find out what to do for food that evening and suggested I bought them a takeaway and he suggested I come back for around 7pm to read a story for the girls.  By the time I'd moved a few things around in my car it was five past seven and Beatrice told me off for being late.  

I read them Andy Pandy and Hansel and Gretel and made up a story about some cats stealing  a fish, they were very excited and out of routine and I felt a bit guilty as it took them a while to fall asleep and they tried hard to convince me that I should sleep in their room!

I went downstairs and we chatted whilst Steph fed Winston and he fell asleep and then we ordered a curry from the Raj using the Uber Eats app with a code that gave me £20 off and my brother a £15 off voucher.  By the time we'd faffed around the food was ordered around 9.30pm and I ordered some poppodoms with dips, Tom Yum seafood soup and a vegetable thalia and a portion of lemon rice which was way bigger than I'd expected so there were a lot of leftovers.  

We ended up chatting until around 1.30am discussing holidays and indeed lack of holidays as kids, something that seemed to bother my brother more than me, the fact that they still have a Range Rover in the garage and my brother worked out it was last taxed in 1995 and could be worth a lot these days - I said that when the time comes, he can deal with it.

I eventually fell asleep around 2am and woke up a few times, as I was quite warm and there were a few odd noises, but I was fairly comfortable on my sleeping bag on the sofa.  The kids initially woke up about 6.30am and came downstairs around 7.30am and I had cornflakes for breakfast and a couple of coffees as I was knackered!  The kids did some more chalk drawing in the garden and played with the bubble machine when it turned 9am and screamed a fair bit!  I had a shower which I desperately needed and then headed over to my parents for around 11am and we chatted in the garden some more and then had lunch of ham, cheese and salad sandwiches including home grown yellow tomatoes.  I went to the toilet in their house in my mask and sanitised before I went in and sprayed down the toilet after I left.  We went for another walk aound the field and I tracked it and it was just under 1K - they could make a parkrun there!  I managed to find a green parakeet feather by my parents house as they hang out there, there was also a nest in their kiwi bush and I couldn't work out what bird lived in it.

I set off home about 1.30pm and my Mum gave me fabric for some masks, some soap and some lemon drizzle cake Naked bars and an aubergine and nasterium.  The satnav gave an ETA of 6pm and it was a bit slow on the M25 and then there were some slow sections on the M1 with roadworks, but nothing stationary fortunately.  I chatted away to Alan for a big chunk of the journey and really missed him when I was away.  I then listened to more Wind Up Bird Chronicles - it's a very very long audio book!  I got to Leicester Forest East services just over half way and went to the toilet and it was a lot less busy than Watford Gap yesterday and so I braved the Waitrose and bought sushi as I'd been craving it as not had any for ages as well as some pepsi max and kefir.

I drove for another hour, but ended up stopping at Woodall as I started to feel too tired, so I went to the loo and emptied some rubbish to get a bit of a walk in and some fresh air.  Then my sat nav said an hour to do 35 miles, but it included a bit diversion through some South Yorkshire villages and so I was quite slow.

I was home for 5.45pm and about 3 hours 45 driving time and 20 - 25 mins stopping and break times.

I unpacked the car and said hello to Qubit who was hiding in a box and then had a cuddle with Alan and then a quick tea and sit down watching some cricket.

I decided to go for a run around 7.30pm and do about 8K and take it steady.  I listened to more Wind Up Bird Chronicles and did my Lumby Loop circuit and then as I got towards the end my stomach felt really odd and I had to run in and go straight to the toilet.  I then had a shower and Alan finished making tea of Carribean beef and courgette rice, I quick hung some washing out and we ate and watched Storage Hunters UK.  I prepped some strawberries and cream and then cleaned up the kitchen.

Balinese Batik and Japanese Dinner

Saturday morning I had booked to do a Batik class with I Nyoman Warta - booking was quite interesting as I'd had to wander into his house in person on Thursday at Jalan Gautama No 12 and speak to his son as his wife didn't have enough English to understand what I was asking!  I wrote my name in a book for Saturday and the money I wanted to pay which denoted the size of the Batik that I would be doing.  Anyway, weirdly enough it turns out that I had been trying to book with the very similarly named I Nyoman Suradnya who is at number 10 (i.e. next door!) and had emailed on Tuesday, but not received a reply, which is why I had gone along in person to book.  Just a bit confusing to have two Batik artists next door on the same street with nearly the same name!  You would think that they might try and differentiate themselves a little better!  The benefits I think from the class I ended up taking accidentally are that it was one to one tuition and cheaper from what I can tell from looking at the other teacher's website.  

So I arrived at the class and there was an Australian couple picking up their completed Batik (reassuring as it was literally his house that I'd gone into for the class!) and after a little confusion the teacher gave me some paper and told me to sketch.  I was at first a bit taken aback, I had though that a class would be very much him teaching me, maybe showing me examples or giving me some stencils to use.  I haven't really done any sketching since I took a drawing workshop at Buns & Roses last year!  I sat looking a bit lost for a while and so he suggested that I drew what I loved about Bali - I said that I loved everything and then I thought about the one thing that I love more than anything - Cats!  I took out my IPhone and scrolled through my saved pictures before coming up with the one of Pocky below to base my design on.

I started off by sketching the outline of Pocky with her paw draped over the side of the chair, but slowly changed the chair into a branch and made the underneath into a pond using some of the pictures of the fish I'd seen at the Holy Water temple to inspire me (as well as copying some of the pictures that the teacher had on display).  I also put some Frangipani Flowers in the top corners for decoration as one of the things that I love about Bali is their fragrance and the fact that *Everything* is decorated with flowers and often they are Franipani.  Here is my initial sketch.

After my sketch on paper I was then given a frame with cotton stretched over it and I had to transfer the design in pencil onto the fabric.  Nyoman told me not to worry if the pencil showed as the Batik process would hide it.  He then gave me a sarong to wear (I think to protect my trousers) and showed me how to apply the wax to the lines on the design that I wanted to keep white with a special instrument called a Chanting or Tjanting.  I practiced first on some paper and found it fairly easy to get the hang of, you just need to angle it right so you don't get too much wax rushing out at once and move it with confidence along the lines that you want.  Similar in technique I think to icing letters onto a cake.  Here is the next stage of my Batik with the sketch outlined in wax and a picture of the pot that is used to melt the wax.

Nyoman then provided me with 4 different pots of coloured dye - red, yellow, brown and blue and showed me how to apply the dye which you can do fairly freehand and don't have to worry about staying in the lines!  I used the brown for Pocky and then swirled a lot of the colour around with a reassurance that the next layers would add more detail.  Here is another process picture.

The next stage was pretty simple - applying some green coloured liquid over the whole screen - it looks like he's doing it for me, but he just showed me what to do and I filled in the rest!

The next stage was very simple - he asked his son to rinse the screen for him and then he dried it off with a cloth and left it in the sun for a few minutes to dry.

We then sat down next to the melted wax again and he showed me how to use a normal paint brush to block out bits of the picture that I wanted to stay that colour e.g. some of the fish scales, parts of the Frangipani flower and the whole of Pocky apart from her eyes that would be black and would be the last colour to go on.

The next part was really good fun - sweeping loads of paraffin over the main parts of the picture for "cracking" - basically I coated the whole of the "water section" and the "sky section" with a layer of paraffin.

The next bit is also fun - you run your finger nail underneath the paraffin covered areas to create "cracks".  

When you are happy with the cracks a layer of darker blue dye was put over the entire screen with a bit think paintbrush.

The paraffin cracking process is then repeated and this time red dye is put over the whole picture, first some more areas are blocked out with wax to keep the same colour such at the flowers.

The process is repeated again and this time black dye is put over the entire picture with special attention to applying it to areas that I wanted black such as Pocky's eyes and the fish eyes.  I also did some cracking along the tree branch to make it look a bit like wood.  To make sure that the dye made it all the way through, it's applied to the back of the screen too.

And then finally it was the big reveal, to remove the wax I had thought it would be a case of complicated ironing off of all the wax, but it was actually much  more straight forward - you just dunk it in a big bucket of hot water and it melts off into the water!

They washed it a couple more times to remove all the wax fully and then it was hung over a tree to dry and I chatted a little more with Nyoman who has limited English beyond teaching Batik, but was able to tell me about how he'd been due to exhibit and teach in Holland, but then his sister died and he had to cancel his plans to save for her cremation ceremony and then he had been due to exhibit and teach in Germany and then his father died.  He really was a lovely teacher and so genuine - all along he said that if I wanted a break and to come back later he wouldn't charge any extra as he charged per piece and not per day and how he felt it was important to only teach small groups at a time so that people didn't make big mistakes and were disappointed with what they created.

  

After my Batik had dried I paid Nyoman and walked back to my hotel room for a well earned cool down and break (Nyoman had even sent his son during the lesson to buy tissues as he could see I was so hot!)  

Rachel came over with Kiran who had achieved a record 2 hour nap!  It was getting into early evening so we decided upon an early dinner and walked over to her favourite Japanese restaurant - Kagemusha which has a lovely view over the rice fields and she'd often seen cats in!  I tried some local rice wine - Brem which was only 10000 rupiah (60p) per glass and was surprisingly tasty and we both opted for Bento Boxes for our main courses which came with loads - Miso soup, noodles, rice, vegetable and prawn tempura, chicken and some vegetables and pickles.  Kiran enjoyed the food, but enjoyed pulling himself up over the rails next to the ricefield and shouting with glee!

Right at the end of the meal we saw something that I've wanted to see since I first arrived in Bali this time - a Tokay gecko!  They are basically bigger versions of the small lizards that you commonly see running around all over the place, but make the most noisy and strange calls at night that sound like they should be made by a bird - you can hear them yourself Here.  And here is a picture that I took before this particular Tokay snaffled a moth it had been chasing. 

We walked back up Monkey Forest Road stopping to pick up some Snickers flavoured ice cream for dessert (diet starts when I get back to England, or maybe Leeds at least!).  We decided to grab a glass of wine and so went back to Arts Kafe which was fine until the band started playing complete with Bongo drums waking Kiran up who had very easily fallen off to sleep in his sling.  Wine in Bali is not cheap - it was 75000 rupiah in Arts Kafe which is particularly pricey and usually about 35000 rupiah, however in most places it's about 185000 a bottle which is what we paid for a bottle of Hatten White Wine in Arts Kafe - about £11.  A local beer in comparison is only about 15000 rupiah or £1.  Rachel walked back with a sleepy Kiran, I finished the wine and grabbed a grape juice and some water from the shop on the way back before heading to bed at an unheard of time for me at 10pm as I was totally exhausted!

Shopping and coffee drinking Ubud style

It's easy to forget sometimes as you are walking around Ubud just how pretty everything is as there is so much beauty everywhere.  A simple shop will have a beautiful floral decoration outside or a pile of offerings carefully crafted with many coloured flowers displayed.  Even the shops have their wares presented beautifully - all brightly coloured items either clashing in a very attractive way, or clothes arranged as per the colours of the rainbow.  I feel very fortunate to be able to enjoy this as I've yet to come across another British tourist - Dutch, German, Australian and American yes, but no Brits at all - where are they all?

Rachel came by after breakfast and we went out for a wander looking in some of the funky shops and also stopping off for a few coffees and drinks along the way.  First of all we went to Tutmak Coffee Shop where Rach had breakfast and I had a couple of iced coffees and a lemongrass and ginger drink and Kiran had....a very long nap on the comfy cushions.  

We then wandered past Hibiscus Bar which isn't a bar anymore and is actually a cushion shop

If your image of Ubud streets is purely based on Eat Pray Love, you'll be amazed at how much more chaotic everything is - there are *loads* of motorbikes everywhere, loads of offerings all over the place including the floor, random dogs and lots of people offering Taxis and in a way that makes it sound dirty "Nice massage very good price".  Here is a typical picture of the street

I like the chaos and the noise and the random blend of smells - rubbish and litter, incense, spicy cooking, a different blend of incense, and the general smell of tropical vegetation.  

There is loads of art everywhere in Ubud which is really interesting to look at - here is Rachel outside an art shop along with some slightly more random examples!  She's also wearing a slightly different baby carrier - Kiran seemed very comfortable and did quite a lot of sleeping whilst we were walking around.

We walked around a few more shops including a very plush shop with awesome, but very expensive children's clothes - it had some bird boxes outside.

Then it was off to Bar Luna for lunch which had some comfy cushions which helpfully were transformed into a soft baby prison for Kiran to stop him crawling off and falling onto the floor!

And of course we needed dessert so we stopped for some very reasonable sorbet at an icecream shop about £1 per scoop.  Rachel (and Kiran!) had passionfruit sorbet and I had lime sorbet.

We walked back in a circuit and past BAWA which is a sort of RSPCA equivalent.  Rachel adopted her cat Queenie from them, but she told me a rather worrying story where she reported a dog that had lots of puppies, and then another litter and they came to take photos of it and then instead of taking it away, came back and dropped off some more puppies for it to be a surrogate mother to!

We then walked past Monkey Forest and saw a couple that had "escaped" (Rachel is a bit immune to them as she sees them a lot - they probably seem a bit like squirrels to her!)

After all the walking around we were all hot and bothered so decided to go back to the hotel to cool off with a dip in the pool.  It was also a chance to give Kiran his first swimming lesson!  Maya apparently howled the first time she was in a swimming pool, but Kiran loved it!  He splashed around, smiling and laughing and even splashed other people in the pool!

So here is what I managed to spend some money on in the course of our shopping trip:  A lovely dress/long top and some aromatherapy spray - very refreshing in such a hot climate.

So Rachel then was picked up about 4.30pm and I went for a nap and then headed back to Bar Luna for dinner - apparently it's supposed to be a fairly social place for travelers  but at the moment, I'm the only one here and have been since the 4 people telling stories of getting drunk in Bankok and dropped off at a police station by a taxi driver left about 30 mins ago...I have to say though, I am enjoying my own company for a change and it's nice to be able to slow down and enjoy just doing very simple things like eating and drinking - slowly....  Bar Luna is famous for "literary" stuff and they do readings etc and so their menu is peppered with references to literature and so it's only right that for my dinner I had a "Graham Greene Salad" (I didn't even eat the bread - I'd be a rake if I lived here permanently!