What else, huh? Huh?

Well, we went to the Duck Carving village, where we saw men carving ducks, and to the Silver Village, where we saw men polishing silver, and we went to the Volcano, where we didn't see men carving a volcano, but we did see this:

and I focussed in a little bit on that hut over on the left hand side & came up with this:

Kind of puts it all in perspective, doesn't it?

And we stopped at an amazing temple, where we all had to don Sarongs.  I must admit I'm a bit fond of this picture, and may stoop to blackmailing the people in it:

And we saw amazing carving and painting:

And some rather beautiful waterworks:

and some nice aquatic plant life:

So peaceful!

Where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

Well, to be honest, Remaining Gentle Readers, I never really wanted to go to Bali.  Did I mention that in a previous brain dump?  Perhaps I did.  No matter.  I had heard plenty plenty bad things about the Ugly Australians who go, get drunk, do Bad Things, make a Bad Name for our country, you know, yadda, yadda.


Ahem.  My first indication that it was another world should have been when we arrived at the hotel via a taksi from the Airport.  Instead of having to stand in line and wait, they whisked our luggage away from us, made us sit down, gave us cold towels smelling ever so slightly of sandlewood, and put a cold drink in front of us.  I was in love, right there & then.  I got to fill in the registration form sitting down on the lounge in front of the Koi pond, then we were whisked to our room, shown all the lovely features and left alone.  Tip optional.

Breakfast was included, and in the morning, after a good sleep in the king-sized bed, Mr G and I wandered down to breakfast and enjoyed nasi goreng (well, I did) and chicken-something... Mr G had the most anemic looking sausages I'd ever seen (chicken, apparently), before being joined by my lovely Ma & Hank.  Whoosh, into a taksi, and off to Carrefore, which is the biggest supermarket I've ever seen, sort of a combined Woolies and Big W, where you could buy everything from a pushbike to washing powder, a fridge to mens socks.


Back to the restaurant for lunch, joined by the other two partners in crime, and the six of us ate like kings for not very much money, before being collected by Wayang, our driver for the duration.

Wayang spoke excellent English, had a wicked sense of humour and apparently endless patience, and he had us out of the Denpasar traffic and noise molto rapidamente.

It was kind of weird going up into Ubud, as the suburbs never really die away, all along the route from Denpasar to Ubud there are little roadside shops and stands, people doing business, waiting for business, hoping for business... then... whoosh.  Nothing but the village, and little roads with sharp turns, and then a sign "very nice house for sale", and the villa, a completely private, self-contained universe but with an excellent view of the local activity and colour, including this man who was herding his ducks through the rice paddies.

Quack!

Introducing Elliot Casper...

Mr Elliot Casper R* has been delivered, both physically and metaphorically.  I believe his new owner was delighted, both with her colour choices and the outcome, which I think was pretty spiffy; small problem in that I got his eyes every so slightly out of alignment, but hey, there are no straight lines in nature!

So, here is Miss Nelly with Elliot Casper (and we had to have a secret ballot to determine his name) - I thought Felix and Gilbert were pretty spiffy but it became clear quite early that, true Sagittarian that she is, although she asked for opinions as to the name of this pooch, and quite a hilarious time was had flicking through the baby book, she had already made up her mind and was not going to be moved from Elliot, but she did compromise in the best Sagittarian fashion by allowing the unexpected introduction of a middle name.
   

Now all we have to do is make him a collar & he's done.  The nose, in case you're interested, was a 10-year-old's stroke of genius (no pun intended), it's made of flannelette, and is extremely touchable.


Also, yesterday I lent a neighbourly hand to My Best Friend (aka Mother of the Kidlets) who cracked a bone in her spine, get this, when she was in the wheely bin, tamping down the garden weeds.  The bin toppled over with her in it, and she landed on her back.  Lucky she wasn't crippled, if you ask me.  Anyway, much pushing of trolleys, nipping in and out of shops and consuming of lunch was done yesterday whilst the Kidlets had some fatherly interaction, and then I nipped home to check on the Weeding Wonder and her progress.  OMG.  The garden looks amazingly messy, but it's because all the Trad is now in piles throughout the garden, along with various other piles of things she's collected, which need to GO.  

After that, I made a pouch, based on this pattern, but which I have amended slightly to make it a bit easier - I do like the way she's cut the corners out before sewing up the seams, but if you want to vary the corner sizes, of course you need to do your calculating beforehand & it's not as accurate as the original method but it is probably quicker.  Probably.


Anyway, these are gifts, one for my lovely Ma, and the other for Tonee, who is coming to Bali with us, on Monday.  

And that's it for me, for now.  If I get a chance, Remaining Gentle Readers, I will post from Bali, but no promises.  I fully expect to be working on my tan *snort* and drinking G&T by the infinity-edged pool, rather than burning up the bloglines.  See you soon!


Ciao!