2014
Buzzing round Bali
12 October 2014
After days of translating and not having much to report, I have suddenly been active again! Well a little bit active. Not overdoing it in this heat! Jazz has been over at her mum's since Thursday so I'm not even playing my granny role, though I will be going over there tomorrow to see her and everyone in the family. Big sister Dewi has a day off work too. Looking forward to seeing her. She spent 3 months in Sydney with us earlier in the year. Then tomorrow evening her other big sister, Santhi is taking Jazz to Jakarta for a few days to visit a friend - Jazz is on a week's school holidays.
Today I went on an excursion to Klungkung and Kamasan (45 minute drive east) with Alex and another friend Lyndall to visit Siobhan who is back there where she did her PhD research a couple of years ago - now on an Endeavour Scholarship for a few months to do further research into classical Balinese art. Kamasan has just had six days of intensive temple ceremonies too, which Siobhan has taken part in.
Today I went on an excursion to Klungkung and Kamasan (45 minute drive east) with Alex and another friend Lyndall to visit Siobhan who is back there where she did her PhD research a couple of years ago - now on an Endeavour Scholarship for a few months to do further research into classical Balinese art. Kamasan has just had six days of intensive temple ceremonies too, which Siobhan has taken part in.
Alex, Lyndall and Siobhan all did Honours in Indonesian at UNSW together 15 or so years ago, so it has been quite a reunion for the three of them, here in Ubud during the festival and again today.
We met up with Siobhan in Klungkung at the textile market and had fun buying some lovely pieces of cloth.
We met up with Siobhan in Klungkung at the textile market and had fun buying some lovely pieces of cloth.
We had lunch in a Balinese warung. Klungkung is very much a "real" Balinese town, not at all a tourist town like Ubud or down at the coast. The main customers in the huge textile market are Balinese buying clothes and material for temple ceremonies - very busy on a Sunday. Then after lunch on to nearby Kamasan village where Siobhan has a room in the home of the most famous living artist there, Nyoman Mandra. He lost his wife six months ago so is very happy to have Siobhan's company. She worked closely with him during her PhD studies. I have visited Siobhan there three or four times before so have met him too and bought some of the paintings from his studio. Got a couple more today - Xmas gifts (I wonder who will be the lucky recipients!) Here is an example of the small-scale work.
Pak Mandra, despite his age and frail health, and his team of women assistants are working all hours to fulfill a commission of huge paintings for a temple ceremony coming up soon.
Siobhan's Javanese husband, Jumaadi is on an art residency in Charleston, South Carolina while she is here. My good friends there will be at his exhibition opening this coming week and will meet him. His current location in the beautiful pre-Civil War city of Charleston is a world away from Kamasan!
Thursday evening provided my other big excitement for the week. I went to Alex's recycled timber warehouse, Kaltimber, for one of the monthly “Green Talks” she holds. This one was on Waste Water Management and attended by quite a crowd of expats who are keen to install waste-water gardens when they build here. The speaker was a Balinese expert who used to work at IDEP with Jasmin's mother (who is herself an expert in this field.) Alas, a lot of the technology was over my head, and the diagrams on the PowerPoint came too fast for me to read the detail, but question time obviously provided the expats with the info they needed. Afterwards I went back with Alex to spend the night in their beautiful recycled timber home as I love to do for at least a night every time I come to Bali. Good to catch up with Yoga and their three gorgeous boys too, fast growing up at 16, 14 and 9.
Siobhan's Javanese husband, Jumaadi is on an art residency in Charleston, South Carolina while she is here. My good friends there will be at his exhibition opening this coming week and will meet him. His current location in the beautiful pre-Civil War city of Charleston is a world away from Kamasan!
Thursday evening provided my other big excitement for the week. I went to Alex's recycled timber warehouse, Kaltimber, for one of the monthly “Green Talks” she holds. This one was on Waste Water Management and attended by quite a crowd of expats who are keen to install waste-water gardens when they build here. The speaker was a Balinese expert who used to work at IDEP with Jasmin's mother (who is herself an expert in this field.) Alas, a lot of the technology was over my head, and the diagrams on the PowerPoint came too fast for me to read the detail, but question time obviously provided the expats with the info they needed. Afterwards I went back with Alex to spend the night in their beautiful recycled timber home as I love to do for at least a night every time I come to Bali. Good to catch up with Yoga and their three gorgeous boys too, fast growing up at 16, 14 and 9.
Am making headway with the translation of the delightful children's novel I'm working on for next October's Frankfurt Book Fair - 11 chapters out of the 43 completed, but no matter how many hours I put in I can't seem to get more than a chapter a day translated in draft form, typed up and edited. My slow and clumsy typing is the main problem. I am getting a lot of support from the author, Djokolelono - we email each other almost every day and he gives each chapter an expert edit too. The publisher Mizan wants as much as possible submitted by 1 November, but I only got the go ahead to do the 350 page book in mid-September. Ideal working conditions here compared to being at home in Sydney with all the distractions there! Some people might think Bali itself is a great distraction - it certainly can be, but post-festival I am happy to be a homebody. I can leap in the pool whenever I get stiff and hot.