Bali High

Where to start? What to share? There is oh-so-MUCH!
Now that we're back into our routine, we've run into lots of people who ask the obvious, "How was your holiday?" It seems a bit redundant to say "Bali was fantastic!"...but it really was (is!). Only a three-and-a-half hour flight from Perth to Denpasar took us to a completely different world. It's almost like Disney World; it even has a US$25 entry fee (temporary visa) and an AU$15 exit fee. Most Australians head for Kuta on the coast, and it's probably fair to say that (on a relative scale) Aussies have done for Kuta what Americans have done for Cancun. It's an inexpensive place for the big S's: sun, sand, shopping, service, and substances (well, alcohol at least, but that doesn't start with S). None of that appealed to us much. We have gorgeous beaches near Perth, so we opted instead for the lush interior, selecting a small hotel in the village of Keliki near Ubud in central Bali. Our flight times were odd, so we arrived at our hotel close to midnight the first night, only getting our first look around the next morning. Check out our view:


That's the volcano Gunung Agung, the tallest and most spiritually significant peak in Bali. Once the daylight hits the humidity, you cannot see it at all from Keliki, but early in the morning (before 7am), there it is. Magnificent.

Ubud is the cultural center of Bali. The villages all around it specialize in particular crafts. It's amazing. One does soft wood carving, another does hard wood carving, another for stone carving, gold and silver jewelry, clothing, miniature paintings...it's incredible. Being in one of the small outlying villages, we would pass through some of the others on commutes into Ubud, and the level of craftsmanship on display were stunning. I'd love to go back and rent one of the ubiquitous scooters/motorbikes to see them all. With two wee kiddos in tow, we felt teased by all the richness around us. The girls travel well and usually manage one for-the-adults thing per day, but that's the most we push them. At first, Markus and I felt frustrated by our lack of freedom to explore, but then he reminded me that the other option is not to visit Bali right now at all (wise man).

The timing of our visit couldn't have been better. Our hotel regularly hosts school groups, and we arrived the day before one group left and we left the day another arrived. In between, we shared the hotel with a maximum of 6 other guests (including one family of four from Germany). Essentially, we had the whole place to ourselves. The rice fields were ready for harvest, most of which is still done by hand in the area where we visited. In the larger world, Ubud was hosting its annual "Ubud Writers Festival" (which alas ended on the first full day of our visit). This has grown in consequence over the years, so that it attracts authors from all over the world to come and give talks and workshops. This year, it even attracted a Nobel Prize winner, a source of great pride for the locals, though none of whom (charmingly) knew who it was. On Wednesday, the Hindu-practicing locals celebrated the festival of Galungan. This was a source of endless delight to me. I couldn't get enough of their penjor and temple decorations. Families not only pray at their family temples, but also at the village temple, temples belonging to other families helpful/close to them and other functional temples (such as the temples where they work, including the one at our hotel). It is such a joyful holiday. I loved seeing their traditional clothing and big smiles on everyone's faces. The children have three weeks of school holiday around Galungan to allow for the multi-day preparations and celebrations. The day before is really busy, finalizing decorations and preparing the offerings. Balinese people don't eat much meat, but they slaughter chickens and pigs for Galungan. Our so-informative-and-often-funny host, Dewa, explained that chickens symbolize greed, because they peck peck peck for food all day long, never satisfied; pigs symbolize sloth, as they flop over for long sleeps as soon as they've gorged themselves. These animals are slaughtered as part of a cleansing ritual. Some of the meat is offered to the gods, but the rest is happily consumed in feasting. On Tuesday afternoon, Dewa told us, "Today is very good day for Balinese people...not so good for chickens and pigs."

I could easily do a blog post for each day of our trip (would you mind if I did?). There was so much to see and do and learn. We snagged every opportunity to learn more about Balinese culture and traditions, and it was wonderful and fascinating. Bali is the only part of a developing country that Markus or I have ever visited where we felt no threat of crime or violence or even social unrest at any time. Some people have more than others, but by Western standards, nobody has much...but almost everyone seems to have enough. There is a pervasive sense of harmony in the ritual of their daily lives that comes through to an observant visitor even before it is explained. Religion plays a huge role. Over 80% of Balinese people are identified as Hindu, but Dewa told us most Balinese people don't align themselves solely with that religion. They have a blend of traditional beliefs with most practices centered around the Hindu faith, which came to Bali centuries ago.

Of course, the girls cared about none of this. They did have a fantastic time, though. When you ask Ellie about Bali, she reminisces about ice cream and the pool. Baby Stephanie was enraptured with the chickens that were just about everywhere, along with a few cows, duck in the rice fields, and of course the special trips to the elephant safari and the Sacred Monkey Forest. This morning, she took my finger and led me to the front door, saying, "Wanna see 'phant. Wanna go Bali." I don't blame you, darling.

In the interests of not going on and on even more than I already have, I'll wrap up this post. I've uploaded well over 100 pictures from the trip to our flickr account, and you can access them all by clicking on the flickr badge on the sidebar. Please let me know if you'd like more details (where we went, what we did, what we saw...). I will be so happy to share!

No 'poo update: Week 2

Yes, I actually schlepped baking soda and apple cider vinegar to Bali.
No, I didn't cheat.
I did not fall off of the No 'Poo Wagon...although I have to say, I no longer enjoy washing my hair.

Having my hair washed has always been my favorite part of getting a haircut. Even washing at home, I enjoy how refreshed and clean I feel afterwards, how nice and soft my hair looks and feels. NOT RIGHT NOW. I didn't even want to use the pool in Bali because it would mean I'd have to wash my hair, and I just don't enjoy it with the whole baking soda business. My hair is not enjoying it either. I might not be following the program correctly or maybe I'm just in the throes of the adjustment period, but if my hair stays as it is now, I will definitely not be a convert. They say the low point is week 2-3, so maybe that's where I am. That's why I'll stick it out for the month, to see if we (my hair and I) get beyond the weirdness.

So, what is my hair like these days?
When it's wet, it is extremely heavy around my head from all the natural oils. When dry, you can feel oil on my hair (enough to see a slight shine on your fingers after just touching my hair), even though it doesn't look greasy per se (no lingering grooves from the brush). That's around the scalp. The ends of my hair are straw-like dry and a bit frizzy. This part is apparently not unusual for people with long hair, even after being poo-free for a long time. I really need to get on the coconut oil bandwagon, but I didn't schlep that to Bali and it didn't occur to me to buy some there (though I probably could have, now that I think about it).


Sorry for the dark photo. I keep forgetting to have someone take one for me during the day, so I just used my computer to do it now.

The good news is I am more inspired to style my hair to keep the world from noticing how crap it looks. I did a fun twisty-twirly thing with bobby pins today that was raw-ther impressive, given the fact that I don't have an extra mirror to see what I'm doing behind my own head. Maybe this no-poo foray will have the added benefit of motivating me to style my hair more often. For now, it's on to Week 3...

For Meghan and Eric

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We're back!

We're home again after a fantastic week in Bali. I've just uploaded 900 photos (yes, literally) to the computer. Once I go through those, I'll be posting and sharing stories and pictures from our trip. Hope you enjoyed a great week last week!

Itchy

All week this week, I've been feeling the itch. It's time to go, time to move, time to get out and do something different! Although I never thought I would be able to make a true statement like this, I feel so amazed and blessed to realize that thinking back, I can't remember the last time we stayed in one country for an entire year. I'm not just talking about moving (thank goodness!); we usually travel internationally at least once a year. When Markus and I started our relationship, we lived in different countries (US and UK), and a tradition was born. When I'd visit him, we'd travel on the continent. When we moved to the US, we still made various journeys: Germany to visit family, Costa Rica, Belize, Vancouver... Due to extreme circumstances, our time in Qatar was full of travel: US, Germany, Sicily, Dubai, Seychelles... Then, living in Holland, everything was so close that it was almost silly not to hop borders. Along with multiple trips by plane or train to various spots, we drove a couple of hours to Antwerp for the day at least once every 6 weeks (they praise Belgian chocolate/beer/waffles for a reason, people!). Ellie's passport was nearly full by age 3. It's stunning.

Since we've moved to Australia, it's been a different ball game. Frankly, we've needed (and greatly appreciated!) the time to deprogram from the past four years of crazy. We wanted stability. We wanted to stay put, so stay put we have done. Now, it's time to get out and about, if only for a week. Soon, we will start our journey to visit yet another place I never thought I'd be so lucky to see. I cannot wait!

Chick on my shoulder

Yesterday morning, the girls and I drove out to visit the Swan Valley Cuddly Animal Farm. The weather has been absolute heaven this week, Thursday was our one day without playdate plans (whew!), so off we went! Both girls love it there! Ellie was hooked from our first visit a year ago, but now baby Stephanie is old enough to enjoy it too. Ellie still makes a beeline for the baby animals indoors. Those are the smallest (mainly chicks, baby rabbits and baby guinea pigs), so she can cuddle them in her lap to her dear-sweet-nurturer's-heart's content. She has always been incredibly gentle and careful with the animal babies, and it is so beautiful to watch. By comparison, it's all the more frustrating to watch other kids be so rough with them. The babies seem to understand how loving Ellie is, and they settle down peacefully in her lap. It is so sweet.

It is still school holidays, so it wasn't long before the animal farm was overrun. We arrived before opening time, but Farmer Lin let us in early. That gave us some lovely time with the baby animals before the crowds took over. After a while, I tore Ellie away from the indoor portion to allow Stephanie to explore her favorites, the larger animals outside. She is so excited by the cows, the sheep, the goats and all their respective babies. There were several new goat kids (very tiny!) that enraptured both girls, so we went in the pen. As soon as we did, they surrounded us, nibbling gently and hoping for a bottle. This led to great excitement and not a little fear in my own kids, who both clung to me with incredible strength and alas, prevented any photo ops.

Despite the increasing crowds, Ellie dragged us back inside to visit the small babies again before we called it a day. It was so packed with people that we could barely make our way inside, and the baby animals were looking mightily harassed. I lifted out one last chick for Ellie to cuddle, and in our hands, it calmed down immediately...so much so that it didn't want to go back in the pen. When I opened my hands to place him back, he walked up my arm and snuggled down in the crook of my elbow. It was so cute that I let him stay for a while, but we needed to go so I straightened my arm to get him...and he waddled up to my shoulder and snuggled against my neck. Ellie snapped a photo for me.


Back outside, we tried to have a little lunch picnic before getting back into the car. Unfortunately, a huge tom turkey wanted to join our party. Baby Stephanie started shaking like a leaf at his approach, her little heart racing. She seemed to be debating just how little she liked him until he got right next to her and let out a loud "gobble gobble gobble" to seal the deal. She started wailing, Ellie clung tightly to my other arm, and it was time to go!

Sidewalk chalk extravaganza

Back in April, we bought the most beautiful box of sidewalk chalk for the girls (although I can easily see buying this for adults too; look at those colors!).


This week, the warm sun inspired us to take our creativity (and snacking) outdoors.

No 'poo update: week 1

I've been poo-free for a week now, so I figured I'd update those of you who are unabashedly using me as a guinea pig. I've done two washes and am due for a third tomorrow. During the first wash, I immediately noticed how heavy my hair felt around my scalp, presumably with natural oils. My hair definitely felt different during and after both washes, though once dry, it looked relatively normal and felt very soft and clean. Over the week, I noticed my hair getting increasingly frizzy, especially around my face. I was expecting an oily period of adjustment, but this is more dry. The frizz is not attractive. Thus far, I have resisted my urge to hot-roll it into submission, because I want to see what will happen as the experiment continues. The urge to abandon this project altogether was quite strong on Day 5, when I mentioned to Markus how weird the frizz was and he replied with a sheepish, "Um, yeah...your hair doesn't look so nice." Call me old-fashioned, but I really don't want my husband to find me unattractive if I can help it. I'm not trying to be vain and shallow here, but I do still cling to the fact that I won "Best Hair" my senior year of high school (I wouldn't win it right now, I'll tell you that much). I almost quit right then, but he started backpedaling and clarified his comment, saying my hair wasn't nearly as shiny or full as it usually is (which is true) but he's proud of me for giving it a go and thinks I should stick it out for the month. Okay.
A recommended help for long hair is rubbing in a small amount of extra-virgin coconut oil while hair is damp. Other natural oils work well too (extra-virgin olive oil, almond oil), but coconut oil smells the best. I bought some, but I cannot find it anywhere. Alas. After the second wash (day 6), I applied about a teaspoon of extra-virgin olive oil all over my hair. It was so minimal that I thought it would wear off on the towel or absorb in. It didn't. So today my hair is dry and clean...and visibly coated in a light slick of olive oil. Fabulous.

This is only the first week, and there was bound to be an adjustment period. By most accounts, the adjustment lasts for 2-3 weeks, so I guess I'll be sticking through it as my hair gets more freaky and I tweak the formula to combat long hair dryness.
Onward we go...

Oh dear...

Markus sent me this image as part of an email forward today, and I had to share it with you. I can't say I had ever made that association with the Christ image before, but (despite my best intentions) I might from now on. Since being amused by total blasphemy is most likely a big no-no, I'll be hoping not to get a seat too close to the public toilets while I'm attending Satan's orientation lecture. Thanks a lot, guys.

Warm sun means fresh local produce

And God created Roma tomatoes, so that man might enjoy pomodori al forno.
And He saw that it was delicious.
Amen.

Playdate madness

This second week of school holiday is shaping up much more beautifully than the first. I think the girls needed that week to adjust to being together 24/7, and now they are having a blast! Another factor must be this fantastic spring weather we are (finally!) enjoying. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing...not a cloud in the sky or dispositions! Ellie has playdates planned for almost every day this week. Today's friends arrived before 10am and went home again around 1pm. We all had a great time, but we are also, as they say in France, le trashed.

Red at night, sailors delight

...and ours too.

Hitchcock Down Under

Have you seen the movie "The Birds"? Alfred Hitchcock must have gotten the idea for it after visiting Australia in the springtime. The usual suspects are magpies, which swoop with vengeance during the mating season. Their vicious swooping lasts for about a week. The only real solution is to avoid them the best you can, be sure to wear a wide-brimmed hat and don't look up at them to provide a facial target for beak and claws. Fun!

Yesterday, Markus was the victim of a surprise kamikaze attack from a wattle bird as he attempted to leave the house for work in the morning. He always cycles to work. He always parks his bike in the same place. Wattle birds are very territorial (usually with other birds), but Markus wasn't in any new territory, so the whole thing was rather odd. Even more odd was noticing throughout the day that our resident wattle bird attacked cyclists going up the road. It literally chased them all the way to the end of the road, swooping and snapping the entire way until they turned the corner. Then, it flew back to one of the trees around our house and calmly observed its domain. Careful observation has led to this very strange conclusion: the bird is not swooping the cyclists themselves; the bird is attacking the bikes! Thankfully, it has no interest in pedestrians, so the girls are safe in the yard as long as they don't touch any of the bicycles. We can only take the advice of wearing hats, keeping our faces down, and hoping it stops soon. The whole thing is really crazy and not a little maddening for the people on bikes (Markus included!). Just in case you are disinclined to believe me, I captured this morning's attempt to leave for work:


Just one more item for the "Life is different Down Under" list!

No, Markus's arm isn't injured. He is holding at his side in what I assume is his best attempt not to whack the bird for all it's worth. It really is quite unpleasant to be dive-bombed repeatedly by a psychotic bird.

October is "No 'Poo" Month

I've recently read of a growing trend among greenies: stop using shampoo or conditioner to wash hair. The idea is that hair does not require all the chemicals and minerals in commercially-produced products to keep it clean and healthy. As people with oily hair can tell you, the scalp produces lots of natural oils that are intended to keep hair in tip-top condition. The more products (and heat styling) people use, the more damage they cause and the more products they need to combat/repair it. I'm a great candidate for giving "no 'poo" a go because I am so low-maintenance (okay, lazy) about styling my hair. I don't blow dry. I don't use styling products (hairspray, gel, etc.). I don't wash my hair every day (every 2-3 days does the trick just fine). An extra qualification is that I don't work in an office. With the change to being poo-free, there is a good chance of a transitional period when hair will become significantly more oily. The scalp has become accustomed to being stripped of natural oils by shampoo, so it overcompensates. Without shampoo, there could be an oily mess for a few weeks. In my line of work, that really doesn't matter. Let's face it, if it all goes pear-shaped this month (which I doubt it will), the last poo-free day will be Halloween, so my hair could be ready to go!

This is the "before" shot, taken today. I'm due for a wash tonight; the last wash was two nights ago.


So, how to proceed?
Shampoo will be replaced with a mix of baking soda and water in a ratio of 1 Tablespoon to 1 cup.
Conditioner/rinse will be replaced with a similar ratio of apple cider vinegar and water, with an occasional treat of rosemary tea (clipped fresh from my garden).
I have long hair, so I also plan to apply a small amount of coconut oil to damp hair each time.
Several sites have all-natural recipes for styling products (if needed) and deep conditioning treatments for once a month. I will forego those during my month-long trial period for purposes of evaluation of the basics. I'll let you know how it goes! Anyone interested in joining me?


To give credit where credit is due, my information was gathered from the following blogs:
Simple Mom
SortaCrunchy
Babyslime
The Herbwife's Kitchen
Clothesline Alley

Snippets of our morning

Ellie, proud and excited: "Mama, I just sneezed out a little piece of Rice Krispie!"

Stephanie, whacking her princess-dress-clad little body: "CUTE!"

My dad would be so proud

Tonight while tidying the kitchen, I noticed a sudden and potent foulness had crept into the room. I inquired with Markus about its source, and he shifted the blame to the organic fruit and nut bread he's been consuming at lunchtime. He went on a bit about how it sneaks up on him five or six hours later, that thankfully it doesn't last long but "boy am I glad that I'm wearing some fairly sturdy jeans!"

Inspiration

I am too much of a perfectionist to be content with what I draw and paint, but I really need to get over that. I am so inspired by Geninne's journal pages, and I am delighted every time she decides to share them.

Issues of jealousy

Yesterday was the first day of school holiday after a long weekend, which means our girls-who-thrive-on-routine had their routines all thrown to the wind. To make things extra fun, it was very cold and rainy for most of the day, so I couldn't do as my wise Grammaw would have done and kick them both outside to burn off the steam and energy. Both of them woke up in moods, and they competed heavily throughout the day for first place in the "Let's Drive Mama Nuts" category. During Ellie's last school holiday, Ellie was thrilled to be home, and baby Stephanie and I were thrilled to have her home...but Stephanie is older now. She's getting to the age where changes in routine are less welcome. While Markus was home for the long weekend, she was happy that we were all together. When he went back to work but Ellie didn't go back to school, well...it was noticeable for the first time ever that she resented Ellie infringing on her territory. She fussed, she complained, she had a shout or two. Ellie took the cue that this must be the agenda for the day, and she took it to the next level. They started to squabble. Neither wanted to engage in any activity I had thought up. Both were furious that I resisted their intentions to run around half-dressed in the cold rain. On top of all that hooey, we were scheduled for a rental inspection. Forgetting to eat breakfast in my get-it-done frenzy, I spent nearly three hours in the morning scrubbing, scouring and cleaning for all I was worth, blood sugar dwindling to rock bottom, making me more frustrated than usual about kiddie mess and generally P.O.'d about my day...only to get a bit more P.O.'d (and a bit relieved) when the inspection was canceled at noon.

I called two girlfriends mid-afternoon, hoping to commiserate a bit about wild kids and gross weather. One perkily related that she didn't mind the weather at all, since her kids had been with her mother-in-law since breakfast. She'd been to the gym, shopping and had cleaned the house...and she had another 30 minutes to go before picking them up. The other girlfriend had an easy morning too with her older son in school that doesn't break for holiday and then he came home to take a long nap with her younger one in the afternoon. She was going out that night too. I was jealous. I started forming a long list of gripes.

I was jealous that my friends had breaks from The Crazy.
I was jealous of the whole kids-at-the-mother-in-law's thing.
I was jealous about kids seeing extended family at all.
I was jealous that people who aren't renting don't have inspections.
I was jealous that their houses weren't invaded (or not, as it turned out today) by strangers who inspect your housekeeping along with checking for damage to the property.
I was jealous of people with more stable weather, because it was seriously unpleasant to keep forcing my cold, tormented little monkeys into shoes and socks again after two gorgeous weekend days of warm sun and sand.

The list of beefs grew as the day wore on and the kiddie challenges mounted. I wasn't going to write about it because I was in a seriously foul mood by dinnertime, and really who wants to read all about that? But this morning, I was still thinking about it, so I decided to share.

Most of the crud from yesterday is cleansed from my mental palate. I know why yesterday was hard, and I can't really blame the girls for it. They always struggle to readjust after a weekend, and this one was extra long. The unpleasant weather was a hard adjustment for them too, after such nice days. They were cold and grumpy and not in the mood to share Mama's time and attention with each other or even with Mama herself. But I keep thinking about something from my pre-inspection cleaning spree. I was down on all fours scrubbing the baby Stephanie food smears from all sorts of creative places, and I got to some handprints on the back door that wouldn't come off. They were made with paint on her hands as she grasped the door to help her step her way inside after an art project, and really, I so badly wanted to keep them.

So today, I remain a bit jealous of people who live in one place, who raise their children in their home, and who get to keep the tiny unexpected treasures their little people leave behind. Parenting does have a dark underbelly of Crazy, but there are so many gifts and joys that deserve much more attention. I love those little paint smudges at baby Stephanie level. Rental inspections or no, they will stay until we move.

Look what I made!

Yesterday afternoon, I made a dress for Ellie. My first-ever dress! Sewn without a pattern! And it's CUTE! I know that's a lot of little sentence fragments and a lot of exclamation points, but I am more the slightly proud of my accomplishment (my only other sewing to date has been one pair of pajama pants and two library bags). Ellie sat beside me for almost the entire process (which tells you right there how quickly it goes), asking "Is it done now?" with every pause of the sewing machine. Ellie was very anxious to try it on, though she was less than eager to model it for the camera. After two dozen attempts, I finally got her to smile for this shot:


Ellie practically lived in her two jersey smocked sundresses from Petit Bateau last year. She wore them until the elastic smocking came loose in a few dozen places. How excited was I when I found simple instructions on Martha Stewart and a video tutorial! Heather Ross is the presenter. The patterns for the child and adult versions are available in her latest book Weekend Sewing (which I really want to own!), and they are also available online here and here. My first attempt was made with cheap fabric from Spotlight, the Wal-Mart of Aussie crafts and homewares. I wanted to make sure I could figure it out before moving on to good stuff. I used ribbon from my stash for the straps, and I love how it looks. The dress is super-easy and really cute! Now that I know how it works, I plan to buy some nicer fabrics and make two each for the girls and one or two adult versions for myself for our upcoming trip to Bali. Hooray!

Baby Stephanie and the unexpected

Our time at the river on Saturday felt almost magical. Thanks to the opening of the Perth Royal Show, everywhere we went was a ghost town. The streets and shops were deserted. The day was so lovely, a tremendous treat given the past several weeks of general weather yuck and sick blah-ness. The sun was warm; the wind was minimal. The sand was the perfect damp for making "kuchen" (German for "cakes"; what Ellie calls sand shapes with make with plastic molds). Baby Stephanie was very happy to settle down in the sand for a play. Markus's attempt to push her along in the kayak was met with tears and wailing, we suppose because it just felt unfamiliar. Baby Stephanie is the most peaceful baby we have ever known. She is a peaceful, calming, happy presence almost all the time...as long as nothing unexpected happens. The unexpected is almost always unwelcome and the source of great upset.

I offer Exhibit A: Contently watching Papa and Ellie come in from a little paddle


The contentment continued for over an hour, happily shoveling and shifting sand from one spot to another. She wandered to the still water's edge and just looked and looked. She was so beautiful that I reached for the camera.
And then there's Exhibit B: As I moved to take her picture, a series of (very small) waves came ashore from a distant motorboat. This was unexpected...and unwelcome.


I clicked just in time to capture a moment that was so terribly sad and so sweetly funny. Poor wee one.