A busy, lazy Balinese day

Just like a kid at Christmas, I didn't end up being able to sleep until about 2am last night as I was very excited to be here.  

This is the gorgeous view from my room window.

Breakfast was served between 7am and 10am so I set the alarm for 8am and made my way down to the dining area.  Breakfast was simple - pineapple, papaya, watermelon and orange (with a green skin) and an egg sandwich, but it was all very tasty and served in lovely surroundings.  

The guy cleaning my room came over and returned my key asking me 

"How long are you staying?" 
"12 days"
"12 days here?  That is too long"

Certainly customer service honesty there - either that or he was trying to sell me a tour!

Rachel then messaged to say that she was coming over and arrived with Made and the kids.  Maya was very excited about her belated birthday presents including Hello Kitty balloons and a Hello Kitty book and Kiran was happy to just try and bite the balloons.  Maya was very keen to go swimming so we wandered down to the pool and Maya was very happy and confident in the water and trying hard to get Rachel to go towards the deep end!  

We went back to the room and got changed (Maya into the green dress my Mum bought her which definitely fits and will do for a while!) to head out for lunch and Rachel put Kiran in the sling which looked very comfortable.  I can definitely see why these are favoured from walking along Ubud streets that are uneven with holes - Maya found some of them pretty tricky to navigate with her little feet.

We went to Three Monkeys Cafe and I had a Nasi Goreng which was beautifully served and very tasty and Rachel took the advantage to have some western food and had a Greek Platter.  It was all very tasty and there were some lovely patient waiting staff who brought out some fish food so that a mischievous Maya who had been carefully throwing decorative stones into the pond could feed the fish instead!  

Maya and Kiran were both pretty sleepy at this point and so I carried a sleeping Kiran back to the room and Maya went in the sling with Rachel.  They didn't do a great deal of sleeping, but we sat outside my room on the porch playing with toys and drinking Balinese coffee and persuading Maya that she didn't want to go running off down the steps as there was a big snake down there (she doesn't actually appear to be afraid of anything, so this was not as successful a deterrent as you would imagine).  I am in much admiration for Rachel being able to look after a very spirited 2 year old who is not afraid of anything (real or imaginary) and a very happy baby boy who launches himself towards perilous drops off the side of the steps given half a chance, I would be totally exhausted, but Rachel seems to be taking it in her stride and Maya and Kiran are both happy and lively children.  (Kiran has the most amazing shy grin that he does when you smile at him - it's gorgeous!

Made came and picked Rachel and the kids up and I went for a snooze and watched the end of Eat Pray Love and then headed out for dinner at about 8.30pm.  I went to Bumi Bali which was totally empty which worried me a little, but the food was lovely - I had a special for 130000 rupiah (about £8) which was a starter of cramcam - spicy chicken soup, duck with rice, vegetables and satay sauce and then for dessert - Godoh - banana fritters.  They weren't massive portions, but I was totally stuffed - the hot weather must be a good appetite suppressant!  I had a glass of Balinese rice wine too which was nice, but did taste a bit like the tea and raisin wine I attempted to make under my bed when I was 14.  I went into Bumi Bali as they seem to have Yoga classes, cookery classes and also some very good deals on  spa packages - traditional Massage, facial, hair cream bath (!), manicure and pedicure with polish for 4.5 hours in total and only 320000 rupiah plus 15% tax - about £22!

I then went to buy some more provisions in the form of drinks including grape juice and a couple of cans of Bintang (avoided the Tebz - tea & soda which does actually look like something I should make myself try!).  I popped into the restaurant attached to my hotel for a coffee (was contemplating venturing solo into a bar, but they were either full to the brim and very loud with live music or completely empty - neither of which appealed to me in my still sleepy and jet lagged state of mind.  Will do something more exciting tomorrow, I have promised myself)  

Sorry there are no pictures on this blog post, after a very successful first night of internet, it's been much more intermittent and temperamental today and also I forgot to transer my photos onto the netbook (the lead is back in the room, I'm in the breakfast area sat next to the wifi router!)  I'll update the post when I have better wifi connectivity!

Update - pics are all on now!

3 Airports, 2 flights and 1 lovely hotel in Bali

So I probably should go to sleep as in Balinese time it is about midnight, although in the UK it's about 5pm.  

My journey started with an East Coast Mainline journey from Leeds to London on Tuesday evening which only took 2hrs 15, was very comfortable and allowed me to play with my Netbook as though I was an important business person (I actually used the 16 minutes free wifi to mostly go on Facebook!)

I arrived into London Kings Cross and then made the journey back to see my parents travelling to Hampton Court Station - as the crow flies this is 12 miles and took over an hour!

It was really nice to catch up with my parents and my Mum made my favourite dinner - Aubergine Stew for when I arrived back at 10pm on Tuesday evening.  I spent the next day with my parents until my Dad drove me (and my Mum came too) to Heathrow Airport which is about a half hour drive.  I was worried about checking in my bag as I was limited  20kg and had a lot to bring over for Rachel plus lots of presents from me and my Mum.  I snuck in with just a little over and got through security with my bulging clear bag of toiletries.  

There was time to kill and I was a bit hungry and so I treated myself to Yo Sushi! which was very tasty, but I just ate off the belt to save time and wished I'd had a bit more time for some Ramen or Moochi.  

I flew with Singapore Airlines who were very polite and the food was really good, they also were kind enough to feed me some red wine so that I felt a bit more relaxed and sleepy for my first ever flight by myself.  I was intrigued by the uniforms of the stewards and stewardesses - which is a  sarong kebaya in batik material I'm guessing to incorporate traditional dress.  The different colours of the different batik designs designates different levels of seniority.  I liked them much more than what you usually see on Ryan Air etc, I'm less keen on the title of the page Singapore Girl it seems a bit chauvinistic as the guys have different colour ties that designate their seniority too.

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I didn't really get to see much of Singapore Airport as I literally had time to walk off the plane through the airport, get on the "sky train" to a different terminal before I was queueing up to get on the plane to Denpaser. 

On the first leg of the flight I watched - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which I actually really enjoyed.  It was sweet and romantic, without being saccharine or flippant.  There was a great cast of actors and actresses which helped and I have to say that I really do love Dame Judi Dench.  I also love how in the film Maggie Smith brings Hobnob biscuits, Branston pickle and HP sauce with her, but they won't let her take her pickled eggs on the plane!  On the second leg of the flight I watched Ted - not really my thing - I can summarise the plot for you as follows - talking bear that swears and smokes weed + Mark Wahlberg + kidnap and rescue of bear + a bit of relationship turmoil.  Far too predictable and not enough novelty to make up for this for my liking - still it did pass the time.  I also used the online game to learn some Indonesian phrases like "dua" - two and "Mobil" - car and most impressive "supermarket" - Supermarket.  I also bought The Hunger Games before leaving Heathrow and at first glance it reminded me of Battle Royale so far 5 chapters in, there are a lot of similarities, I'll let you know what I think when I'm finished.

Arriving at Bali Airport in Denpaser was fine, but it took over an hour to get through customs, immigration etc.  My friend Rachel and her gorgeous little baby boy Kiran met me at the airport gate and then we grabbed some drinks and her husband drove us all back to my hotel Sagitarius Inn which so far is lovely.  The room is a little basic, but for less than £20 per night it's perfect and has breakfast and free wifi included.  The grounds are really beautiful and I'll take some pictures when it's light as the flowers and plants are amazing.  Here are a couple of dodgy pictures of my room - sorry, but I'm very tired, better ones at a later date!

I got in, showered and then ventured down Monkey Forest Road and bought some bottled water, crazy additive only available in Bali Rhino drinks and some cheese and chocolate bread (don't know why, but it is tastier than it sounds!) - all of this was 300 000 rupiah which is about £1.93.

So now it's late and I've not had much sleep over the last few days I think I'll switch off the fan and listen to the sound of Ubud to get me to sleep.

Food, Craft, Medical Procedures, Indie Night and More Crafting

So I've had a very eventful and extremely stressful week.  The beginning and end were certainly better than the middle, which I can't go into here, but hopefully will be able to share in the future as a totally horrendous and almost seemingly impossible fictional story.  

So I started off the week in Angel as a very grateful guest of my friend Kate who was putting me up on Sunday night as I had to meet with a client in London on Monday to discuss a candidate short-list.  In payment I took her out for dinner at a gorgeous French restaurant which we went to the last time that I visited.  I highly recommend this restaurant - Le Mercury.  

I had poached pears with walnuts and blue cheese to start. For my main I had some really rich duck breast with some incredibly well cooked cabbage and beautiful creamy mash.  And for dessert, I had a very decent crème brulee. 

To burn it all off the next morning we got up bright and early and went to Virgin Active Angel, met one of my other friends Rachel and did a hardcore session of Circuits for 45 minutes.  It certainly woke me up and I felt much more energised for the day (although I did end up aching muchly afterwards).

On the train ride to and from London I occupied myself by practising the embroidery that Hayley had been teaching me last weekend and I started to make up the kit that she had bought for me (for 50p from Embroiderers Guild).  I used my friend Gemma's blog post who had also made the same kit up  as a guide to help me know what I needed to do.  The train guard was very confused by how I had managed to avoid stabbing myself.  The kit was based on a child's drawing and reminded me of this amazing post about children's drawings made into toys

Here are the finished results which I gave to my husband instead of a birthday card.

On Friday I had the not particularly pleasant (but at least not painful) experience of a Colonoscopy.  (I'm writing this in reassurance of anyone that might have to experience this in the future) There is thankfully nothing wrong with me, but more of a check-up, but I deliberately didn't google this before going in as I didn't want to scare myself.  

The reality was that I was fortunate enough to be referred by the NHS to The Spire which is a private hospital in Roundhay.  I don't believe that I received any particularly higher medical expertise or treatment, but I had my own private room and after the procedure was served a very tasty tuna sandwich with a garnish and a pot of tea.  There was also free wifi and a TV.  

I was given two Enemas which weren't as scary as I thought and certainly less painful that some things I've experienced in hospital examinations.  What was more painful was the embarrassment of having to walk up to the theatre in my dressing gown (fluffy and with stars all over - not embarrassing  and my only pair of slippers - a horrendously kitsch pair of elf style Christmas themed slippers - mortifying!)  The procedure itself was not painful, but more uncomfortable and probably the most off putting thing was lying on my side and being able to see in real time an Embarrassing Bodies style view of my own insides.   I have to confess that I did shut my eyes at  some points.  The good news was that I wasn't given a sedative before the procedure and so I was able to head out to join my colleagues on a night out leaving do.

We started off our night at Lazy Lounge where I was warned by helpful bar staff that a Gin and Tonic would cost £8, so I opted for a nice glass of Prosecco which was on happy hour offer at £3.50.  We then walked up to BRB on Call Lane and had pizza and a few more drinks before heading to Elbow Rooms for a few games of pool.  I'm *awful* at pool, but do have an odd ability to sneak in the occasional fluke shot and managed to pot 2 balls at once in opposite pockets at one point.  A few people started to drift off home and so some of us walked over to Mojo (where my WI Buns & Roses  originally used as their meeting place) and I had one of my favourite cocktails an Amaretto Sour.  We made a swift exit when a couple of over amorous ladies were chatting up some of the guys and we went next door to Verve.  Both bars played some really good music varied Indie and rock music, so I made the suggestion that as it was getting later (about half midnight) we could head over to Leeds Met Student Union and go to Fuel which seems to be the new name for Star which I went to every Friday night that I possibly could when I was a student from about 1999 through until I graduated in 2001 (in fact I discovered evidence of my frequent attendance when tidying through some boxes yesterday evening in a scrap book with 13 old tickets stuck in for posterity)  Impressive that it's only gone up to £5 from £3 in the last 10 years!  

We were out quite late and the night got mixed reviews as it's not the usual haunt for a bunch of recruitment consultants.  Star was a pretty straightforward formula cheap entry + cheap drinks + loud music + dark dank room + students and Fuel was similar with an addition or  Cirque de Soleil style rope acrobatics, pyrotechnics and more video screens.  Nonetheless I think that the general feedback was positive (I certainly had a good time) and in summary I remember dancing to Rage Against the Machine, Blink 182 and even this...

PS. Check out the lyric translation here - it's amazing!

Saturday was a much lazier day of crafting on the sofa whilst watching repeats of Sex and the City and The Bill.  I managed to finish off my Pumpkin Head Felt Zombie from the workshop that I did at Buns & Roses last year so the Standard Zombie has a friend.  

I then put my skills to good use - my boss has 3 boys and they all wanted the same cuddly pig toy for Christmas so I offered to help them differentiate by sewing their names in their favourite colours.  I suggested the ears, but she reckoned that (as they are boys) this location would be better - what do you think?  

Living La Vida Cocoa!

So I might just have mentioned before that I'm on the committee of Buns & Roses WI which is a lot of work, but really good fun.  This evening for example we had a chocolate making workshop courtesy of York Cocoa House which was brilliant.  Unsurprisingly our workshop was fully booked and so we had 34 lovely ladies together to make and enjoy some lovely chocolate.

First of all we got to taste the chocolate we were using which was gorgeously creamy milk chocolate.  This was then made into a ganache (chocolate + butter + double cream heated to boiling point, poured over and mixed together).  We piped out the ganache into what can only be described as "dollops" and then they went to be cooled.  We then tempered some more chocolate for using to make chocolate lollies and dipping our ganache to make truffles.  What do you think we used to melt the chocolate?  I can bet that you weren't thinking hair dryer!  Surprisingly this worked really well and we used melted chocolate to make lollies which we decorated with orange, lemon and strawberry flavoured chocolate buttons - yummy!

After making a lot of mess "shaping" the ganache and then dipping in chocolate we then put our creations into  plastic presentation bags (sampling quite a few along the way thank you very much!).

Laura from York Cocoa House was a great presenter, really engaging.  And I think it was great value for money - £12 for members and £15 for non members.  My friend Jenny also started off the evening really well by giving me some fudge that she'd made for me to try.  

I also have finished my embroidered art picture and so Hayley very kindly stretched and stapled it onto a frame for me - here is the finished article.

A day of stitching and motor bikes

This morning I was supposed to get up very early (about 5.30 am), load up the car and do a carboot sale near Leeds Bradford Airport, but when I finally woke up my phone said 9.40 am which was far too late.  

I got up (eventually) and then headed over to my friend Hayley's house for a day of stitching and crafting.  On the way I picked up an apple pie milkshake and a pineapple, strawberry and cherry smoothie from Shaky Jakes, some Bakewell Tart from Costellos and some porridge with raisins from Love Rouge Bakery strangely served to take out in a coffee cup.  All of these things were yummy (although can't personally comment on the milkshake because that was for Hayley as part payment for personal stitching tuition.)  

I first met Hayley at Buns & Roses which is an amazing WI Group based in Leeds City Centre (I might be slightly biased now as I'm on the committee, but I do believe it's awesome).  I was very disappointed that I couldn't go along to one of the workshops in August which was called Night of the Living Thread and the blog post is here if you want to read about it.  Hayley very kindly offered to teach me and so I took up far too much of her Sunday learning how to do some English Paper Patchworking, Fussy Cutting, Blanket Stitch as well as lots of other hints and tips like how to sew on sequins and spray paint fabric.

In between stitching, Hayley and Flower also introduced me to Moto GP (apologies Hayley if it wasn't, but I think this is what it was called) which I found far more interesting to watch than usual car racing.  The riders go around corners with their knees literally on the floor to take the corner as tightly as possible - this is not something that I have ever seen before!

Anyway, I've not yet finished my stitching project, but here it is as a work in progress - Hayley is going to help me stretch it over a canvas when I've finished it.  It's very orange, neon and covered with owls and skulls.   Thanks Hayley for all your help - I had a really lovely day.

Guys & Dolls at West Yorkshire Playhouse and an actual story from the 90s

I've had a lovely evening this evening.  First of all I finished work at 5.30 pm which is the earliest I've managed for weeks and went downstairs to The Roast for a quick glass of red wine to celebrate a very positive quarter with the team and the end of the week.  I've been so busy with work, Guides, WI and life in general that I've not had much of a chance to blog.

I then hot footed across the city centre to meet my friend Zoe for dinner in the pouring rain (my tactic of walk quickly and you won't get wet didn't work very well!).  She had recommended that we eat at Safran on Kirkgate opposite the Duck & Drake Pub.  Safran was really not at all pretentious in décor whilst being quite opulent at the same time.  This would seem to be an oxymoron (love that word!), but it had huge wall murals and chairs with flowery upholstery with gold thread running through it.  Zoe recommended a mixed starter which was HUGE and we also had some lamb kebabs.  The starter came with two massive naan type breads which were tasty and really light and we dipped into hummus, aubergine dip, tzatziki type dip, a pea and potato salad and another dip that was green and tasty, but I can't remember what it was called!

I also had some Turkish Coffee and both of us had a glass of red wine.  The bill came to only £29 for both of us which was amazing and the service was friendly, prompt and efficient.  I would highly recommend Safran and Persian food makes a nice change.

We then walked over quickly to West Yorkshire Playhouse to see Guys and Dolls.  It's the first time that I've been to the Playhouse (to watch a play - I interview candidates at the canteen there a lot!) probably for about 6/7 years.  I think that the last play that I saw there was either Johnson over Jordon (which was amazing) or a production by the same people that did Guys and Dolls Leeds Amateur Operatic Society of Jesus Christ Superstar which one of our friends was in I think back in 2005.

Now my expectations were low - I don't tend to like musicals and I've never heard much about Guys and Dolls so hadn't an awareness of the plot, songs or characters.  However, I was pleasantly surprised.  The plot was easy to follow (I'm terrible with musicals as I don't listen to lyrics in songs first, I listen to the music which makes it hard for me to follow plot if there is too much song in a musical), the acting for an amateur production was good and the singing was pretty decent too.  The costumes were a bit hit and miss, but it was certainly a colourful spectacle and amazingly I didn't fall asleep!  I have a massive problem with falling asleep if watching cinema or theatre when in a darkened room!  Helen managed to make a small faux pas in recognising the guy playing Sky Masterson who had slagged off one of her friends previously at Ok Karaoke and commenting on this to us.  Unfortunately for Helen, some of his friends were sat directly in the row behind us - slightly awkward (they moved to another row after the interval).

Going to the theatre for the first time in ages then reminded me of one of my first theatre trips when I really was a 90s teenager.  I went with my all girls school - Tiffin Girls School to see Dreams of Anne Frank in 1992.  Going to an all girls school and being only 12 years old somewhat limited the opportunity to meet boys and so trips out were a thing to relish the chances of seeing members of the opposite (and usually more immature) sex.  On this particular occasion, it wasn't so much the other schools watching the play that we were interested in, but the actor playing the part of - for want of a better description - Anne Frank's boyfriend - who was called Tim Matthews and was a whole 4 years older than us.  

After we'd seen the play, conferred amongst ourselves we decided that we quite liked him and one of my particularly bold and resourceful friends found the number for the Polka Theatre from the phone book (this was B.G. - Before Google) and one lunch time four of us crowded around the pay phone in the school entrance hall and dialled the number.  Amazingly someone naive or stupid put us through to this 16 year old actor and we giggled and chatted at him for as long as our 10ps would allow passing the phone back and forth to each other.  We did this on several occasions until close to when the play was finishing up and he then gave us his home phone number and we would ring him there and either speak to him, or chat away to his very accommodating Mum.  I have to point out that I was not the ring leader in this slightly scary stalking, but it did make lunchtimes a bit more amusing.  Tim I don't think ever quite hit the big time, although I was very excited when I spotted him on an episode of my now favourite ever crime drama The Bill.  It's strange the effect going to an all girls school has on your perception of the male species during your "formative" years.  I think that this was definitely good training for a later crush and obsession with Take That the following year...

"It could only happen to me"... embarassing/clumsy happenings

Now, in no way do I think I'm totally unique in my clumsy and sometimes unfortunate nature, but I do have a fair few "It could only happen to me" type tales that I remembered last night after adding to the list with my latest escapade.

GYM
Last night I had possibly the most embarrassing experience of my life!  I'd gone to the gym for a Saturday evening workout at Virgin.  I'd run a nice fast 5K in under 26 minutes and so headed back to my locker to get showered and changed before the gym shut at 9pm.  I'm not sure how I managed it, but I accidentally changed the combination on my padlock after throwing my dirty clothes and for some reason my towel into the locker.  I guess I must have been tired as I was left outside my locker, unable to open it with nothing but my glasses, a bottle of shampoo and for some reason my phone!  The gym was due to shut in 15 minutes and so I was stood contemplating whether it was possible to wrench off the locker door whilst naked to get to my clothes and towel or having to speak to someone whilst wearing absolutely no clothes and ask for their help! 

There was only one other lady in the changing room, so naked I walked over and asked if I could perhaps borrow a towel and ask for someone to help.  I was so grateful that instead this lovely lady  went out to the gym floor in her towel to get someone to chop off my padlock before the gym closed! Never had to ask a stranger for a favour before whilst being completely stark naked!  Whilst waiting for the bolt cutters, I did manage to pull out my towel that was poking out the bottom of the locker so my dignity was somewhat preserved when the lady chopped off my padlock.  (Strangely she did declare that the exact same thing had happened to her...)

TRAIN

Back in January 2010 I had taken the train from Leeds to York to visit a client for work.  It was very snowy and so some of the trains to get back from York to Leeds were slightly delayed.  I looked for the next train back on the boards and it stated that it was the delayed London Kings Cross Train calling at Leeds departing from platform 3.  I walked over to platform 3 and the train to Kings Cross pulled up and I got on and sat down.  

The nasal announcement came over the speaker as the train pulled out of the station "Welcome to passengers joining us at York this is  the Grand Central train to London Kings Cross calling at London Kings Cross" it was a couple of seconds before the reality set in - I had got on a non stop train to London!  I managed to find a very helpful lady who wasn't a guard, but found one for me although disappointingly told me "It's like a flight, once it's started we can't stop" (I did debate for about 10 minutes timing pulling the emergency chord to stop near a station - £500 might have just felt worth it!)  The guard was very helpful and said that if I stayed with him when the train reached Kings Cross he'd make sure I could get back on the return train and wouldn't charge me for a ticket (which could have been over £100!)  Fortunately I had my phone and this to read and keep me entertained (whilst being very angry and irritated at myself and the situation)

I eventually got back into Leeds at 7.30pm - it had taken me over 6 hours to do a 25 minute train journey!

BLACK EYE

So this is from ages ago, I was in Turkey on holiday with my friend Philippa back in August 2000 and I was completely sober on what had been quite a boozy holiday.  I'd just got out of the shower and managed to somehow turn around to pick something off the floor and walk into a wall.  I gave myself a very black eye which went from blue, to purple to yellow across the course of a week.  During the day it was easy to hid behind sun glasses, but when it was the evening, I had to put masses amounts of eye-shadow over it to cover it up - I looked very strange.

CAMP-FIRE

When I was 17 I was in Venture Scouts with a lot of my friends.  We'd gone camping one weekend and it was cold so a camp-fire was a necessity.  We were packing up to go home and needed to put out the fire.  I'd used up all the water and the water tap was a fair distance away so I decided to stamp out the embers with my walking boots - forgetting that we had burnt a number of items including pallets and chairs!  A sharp sting went through my foot and I realised I'd stood on a nail!  I sat down and proceeded to remove the nail with my hands, burning my fingers on the hot metal in the process.  My friends had realised what was going on at this point and got me some water to cool down the burns.  The huge hole in my foot had been cauterised so wasn't bleeding, but it had damaged some of my nerves so I couldn't walk on it.  My ingenious friends put me in a wheelbarrow, wheeled me to the car park and then eventually took me to A&E.  My two memories of A&E are being given crutches to help me walk around (harder than it looks) and a chav couple, the girl wandering over to me asking if I could help her find her horribly long fake blue and yellow painted finger nail.  Morale of the story - don't stamp out fires with walking boots if you have been burning anything with nails in!  It still feels weird to this day when I poke the scar.

CLUMSY GENES

I think that my inherent clumsiness comes from my Dad.  I have many examples, but probably my favourite is when he was helping me move into our new house and he was putting some folded up boxes behind one of these chairs (Picture isn't mine, but this type of chair):

My Mum heard a crash and went to investigate and all she could see was him face down behind the chair with his legs straight up in the air!  I have no idea how he managed it.

As my husband says to me every time I do a "clumsy" "It's like Keith Rider is in the room!"