California Dreaming - High Flyers Style - Day 1

Once again there has been a big hiatus in my blogging (well on here anyway, I've been keeping a more private journal online with some of the thoughts that are going around my head at the moment, but it's best to keep them separate from day to day stuff I feel)

Anyway, I couldn't go on holiday and not fill everyone in on the minutia of details of what I've been up to.  The post title is a bit of a clue...I'm currently in California and have had a really interesting week so far, but fairly limited time to sit and reflect and record exactly what has been going on.

First of all, this will be (for what I've managed to do so far) a fairly cheap holiday for me as my flights were paid for (bar a £65 amendment fee) as well as the first 3 nights of accommodation, food and activities for 3 days.  How you might ask?  Well I ended up doing pretty well at work last year and qualified for an incentive that we call in our organisation "High Flyers" although i'm not sure whether more accurately it should be "High Fliers"?

Anyway, when you are a High Flyer, it means that for 4 days you are treated a bit like a VIP/Royalty and given 2 extra days holiday and flown out to a destination with other High Flying colleagues.  There were about 15 of us in total that went on the holiday - more had qualified, but some couldn't make the dates.  We also had 3 directors with us to "supervise".  We met at Heathrow and made introductions and then shortly boarded the plane to LAX.  Being the extremely well coordinated person that I am, I managed to throw an entire Bloody Mary complete with ice down my jeans within 30 minutes of takeoff - I had only tops to change into, no change of trousers.  It dried eventually and I ended up smelling of tomato until I managed to get changed at the hotel.

My attention span wasn't great, so I managed to watch 2 films, but they were fairly low brow and I have to say, not very good at all.  In brief I watched For a Good Time Call it was incredibly predictable, but also really quite poorly characterized  so you didn't really care what happened to the characters who weren't at all realistic or in a realistic situation.  I then watched Smashed which was much more realistic and actually very sad - a mutually alcohol dependent marriage that changed when the wife decided to get sober.  Probably not the best preparation for a holiday where we'd be frequenting some high end bars - although it was a good sense check.

So we landed at LAX and took a long time to get through immigration, but fortunately we all made it through.  We were met by our rep who showed us to our transfer coach and then after a short journey we arrived at the fabulous W Hotel Hollywood.  We were welcomed with a cocktail and a seat outside as we walked through the truly awesome lobby.

We had about 45 minutes to get freshened up and accustomed to our hotel rooms before dinner.  The rooms were fairly spectacular - very white, bright and clean and with a very exciting, but expensive mini bar selection!

We went up to the rooftop restaurant of the hotel and had a really lovely meal which included 4 courses - although I had gone to bed by the time they brought out the desserts!  I particularly enjoyed a melt in the mouth steak with garlic mashed potatoes (although it probably had a posher name!)  The view from the rooftop was brilliant and the atmosphere was really good too, however at 10.30pm (equivalent to about 6.30am UK time) even an espresso couldn't keep my eyes from closing and drifting into mini sleeps so I snuck away and went to bed in my huge comfy white bed switching on the wave sounds machine to block out some of the partying noises from down the corridor.  I think that the rest of the guys were out pretty late - although everything in Hollywood does close at around 2am so not that late, but the equivalent of 8am for those who hadn't slept on the plane!

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...

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.