bali photo dump

By
December 23, 2011
Bali
2 Comments

its been almost two weeks since we began our stint in bali. so much has happened that i am no longer even kidding myself about writing it all. hana suggested i just do a photo dump, so here are some snaps. i’ll fill in the blanks as best as i can 🙂

this is the house that we stayed in for the first ten days. brenda found a post on facebook by a guy called shakar who was travelling over december. he was looking for someone to sublet his place and it looked nice so we jumped on it. the house is located on the north end of ubud, behind a family compound. yes, compound. bali is very much a collectivist (as opposed to individualist) culture, and the nuclear family unit is comprised of at least three generations. the compound will usually include the main house, a guest house and a temple. our house was located behind one of these compounds. living close to an indonesian family was a really good way to start our bali experience as we got a taste of real balinese life!


you are much much closer to nature here, especially the food you eat. there are the ubiquitous rice paddies, but also coconut trees, mango trees, rambutan trees (our new favourite), pineapples, chickens etc. there is also the usual assortment of lizards, moths, mosquitoes, frogs, spiders and other random creepy crawlies who probably don’t even have names.

oh yeah, that’s a snail.

nayou started hunting for eggs in the yard the moment we arrived. he’s been obsessed with chickens laying eggs. unfortunately the hens in ubud are skinny and scrawny and i don’t think they lay. so i started hiding store-bought eggs in the yard for him to find.

ibu kadek, the lady who lives in the compound in front of our house, has two sons – wayan and kadek. the balinese have this naming system where your name is automatically assigned based on your birth order. the first born is wayan, the second is kadek etc etc. there are some variations like kadek can also be made (mah-day), but it gets confusing quickly. everyone ends up getting nicknames, but they introduce themselves with their proper hindu names.

anyway, nayou, wayan and kadek all became fast friends very quickly. wayan is 12 and kadek is 6. perfect for nayou who loves older kids. they are both super sweet with him and its great to see him making good friends despite not speaking the same language. except for the language of play i suppose. i have some gorgeous video of them all running around together which i will upload soon. when we left the house for our new one, kadek was tearing up… so sad. luckily our new house is just a five minute scooter ride away and we are still seeing them regularly!

i’m not sure what is up, but they love to throw signs for photos. peesu!

here is ibu kadek (the mom), her sons wayan and kadek with brenda and nayou.

the porch was everyone’s favourite place to hang out.

ibu kadek lent us some traditional indonesian attire for a ceremony we were invited to. one thing about bali – there are a lot of ceremonies.

the ceremonies are just one manifestation of the very very strong hindu faith in bali. every morning you see people putting our offerings in their homes, storefronts etc. one of our taxi drivers was telling me that about 40% of their time and income is devoted to rituals involving hinduism!

it is the rainy season here, but it never rains for long. usually we get an hour or two of pouring rain a every other day. it can get pretty crazy though!

my friend joe from dr. d also made his way to bali and we got a chance to hang out.

ubud is a very cool town. its compact, but dense. lots of shops, warungs (cafes), and lots of raw/organic places. plus yoga as well. i’ve already found a teacher that is challenging and inspiring me, and the energy of this place is just conducive to contemplation, meditation and hippy things lie that.

this is our favourite raw cafe, soma.

by far the best way to get around town is on a scooter. there is a weird order to the chaos of the streets in ubud and now that i’m used to it, it just feels normal driving around on busy roads with no traffic lights or signs or anything. but don’t worry, we’re all wearing helmets!

oh yeah, they have a monkey forest in the middle of ubud. the monkeys are very cheeky. nayou got a fright when one of them squeezed his leg trying to steal some coconut husk out of his hand!

on the 20th we moved into our new house. its also on the north end of ubud, and its our little slice of heaven. we are subletting the place for three weeks from a girl called oksana, who we know from a mutual friend in new zealand (thanks jeanne!). oksana is a yoga teacher and also a conscious eater and a generally all round cool chick. we’ve only been speaking via email but we can’t wait to meet her in person!

the house is surrounded by three sides by huge rice paddies and comes with a pool, huge master bedroom, open plan living room etc etc. basically its awesome, and i’m still in shock that we are living here. i wake up in the morning and give thanks for being so unbelieveably lucky.

our bedroom:

this is the second bedroom upstairs:

and the view from the upstairs porch:

we have just settled into a bit of a routine in our new place. it feels great and now that we have parked ourselves here until mid-january i am really starting to decompress. i will try to do a video update soon. stay tuned!

 

 

 

… aaaand we out!

By
December 9, 2011
Australia, Sydney, Uncategorized
2 Comments

the movers are going to be here in about and hour and after we return the keys to the real estate agent we will be errand free! its been a very easy move for us and i like to think that this bodes well for the rest of our trip.

i am so excited to be going to bali! its is definitely time to just relax. although it always takes a while to switch from busy bee mode into “its ok to not be doing anything right now” mode. nayou has been a superstar while we run around getting things done. aunty yanny and aunty r’adele have been awesome too!

potts point was a fun place to live and we’ll definitely miss it. lots of cool people live here 🙂

the wifi at our house in bali isn’t working, so this might be the last post in a while. i’ll write more from bali!

turning 4 and other adventures

By
December 7, 2011
Australia, Sydney
2 Comments

its always a whirlwind in the final days before a big move, and this one is no exception. so busy, in fact, that i have neglected to post about a very exciting event that almost got lost in the mix – nayou turned 4 on friday! i can’t believe that its already been four years, but looking at him now he is most definitely a boy, not a toddler or a baby. he says so many funny things and has so many crazy ideas, its a joy to converse with this kid.

we had a low key day on the 2nd, opening presents, going to gymbaroo and then spending the rest of the day hanging out. as requested, we got him a remote control car for his birthday. a blue police car at that! its been quite a hit and it will be one of the few toys we’ll be schlepping to bali. we had a combined farewell/birthday celebration on the 3rd. we chose the only sunny day in the last week which was lucky! it was good to hang out with everyone one last time.

grandma sent him a very fetching hat, which we pretend is a constable hat. it makes it much easier to give out speeding tickets!

oh, and we got some cool new shark flip flops for bali as well! this one’s for hana 🙂 rrraaaa!

we’re almost done with all of our packing – just the bedroom and bathroom left to go! the house is looking pretty empty right about now. which is a bit sad, but not really when i think about where we’re going to be in just a couple of days!

 

the premiere

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December 4, 2011
Australia, Sydney, Uncategorized
1 Comment

one of the bonuses of delaying our departure was that i got to go to the happy feet 2 premiere tonight. originally they said the event was for crew only, but i asked for two tickets and got them! this time my hot date was nayou and not brenda – mainly because brenda’s still healing her knee, but also because there aren’t that many chances to take your kid to a movie premiere. we walked the not-so-red carpet amidst a flurry of fake snow.

robin williams and george miller were there to hype the crowd up, but they showed up 45 mins late, which is an eternity for kids to wait.

but the movie did start eventually and i must say i was pleasantly surprised. given all the problems that it took to get this film on screens, the end result is gorgeous, and the story is passable. its not going to redefine cinema as we know it but perhaps it will keep some kids entertained this year… for the most part nayou liked it, although some of the story scenes were a bit over his head. he did like all the chases and the parts with the rescue boat though!

41% on rotten tomatoes and counting! which is nowhere near as bad as some of the films i’ve worked on.

p.s. a birthday update is coming soon!

rain rain go away

By
November 26, 2011
Australia, Sydney, Uncategorized
3 Comments

finally, after four days of miserable weather, we finally got some sunshine in the afternoon. i’ve been going a bit stir crazy in the house, although it has been fun hanging out and doing whatever. we managed to scrub the house clean as well which is a good thing. a clean house is a clear mind! we’ve been busy with preparations for our bali trip too – we leave in exactly two weeks from today!

another thing that rainy days are good for – taking photos. here is a cool series that brenda took this arvo.

this one is from yesterday when we went to gymbaroo in bondi. the trenchcoat from grandma is perfect for wet weather!

the road to recovery

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November 22, 2011
Australia, Sydney, Uncategorized
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last friday brenda went in for knee surgery to fix a mensicus tear thats been bothering her. but first, a photo of the world’s largest bliss ball!

she has a decade old acl injury, and i think that gave rise to some weakness in the knee… basically its popped out a couple of times in the last year and it was time to take care of it properly! the procedure was only 45 minutes so she only had to spend the morning at the hospital. as the doctor told her, she walked in and hobbled out. she got her bandages off this morning and the doctor told her she is recovering well. hooray!

 

we’ve tried out a wheatgrass delivery service for the week to boost ourselves for recovery/support. the juicer we rented leaves a little to be desired, but harvesting and juicing is a lot of fun! nayou loves to eat the bits of fruit and veggies that come out of the juicer.

while brenda was resting, nayou and i have been making up for lost time. we’ve been on some big adventures in the last couple of days, starting with an impromptu outing to tamarama to see the sculptures by the sea. there were some really cool entries this year. i think my favourite was the big red asian dude. and the moais. they were great as well.

we also had a day at the pool which was really fun. yesterday we checked out the new park at darling harbour. if you live in sydney and you have kids, you NEED to take them there. its amazing – water features, large slides, sand pits with digging things, they have it all! nayou’s clothes came off within minutes of being there 🙂

we also had a peek at the show windows at david jones and said hi to all the toys for sale inside.

most parents seem to have a hard time getting their kids to eat their vegetables (or at least thats the cliche). not with my kid. he double fists his carrots!

nayou seems to have his heart set on some sort of remote control car or boat (depends on the day). he also told me yesterday that he wanted a toy baby and a toy buggy instead so we shall see what ends up on his final list for santa 🙂 he is also intrigued with all of the santas in different department stores. i’d love to take a trip in his head and see what mental picture he has of the whole christmas thing!

now that the surgery is over, we have booked our tickets to bali. december 10th is our departure date. not long now! we’re slowly getting our affairs in order which is good. there’s not long to go now! if all goes well we will be back in sydney for one month in february before heading out to namibia for the mad max shoot. i’m still waiting to see a contract, but at this stage its 99% certain we’ll be going unless warner brothers pulls the plug on the movie (again). fingers crossed!

 

what we get up to

By
November 15, 2011
Australia, Sydney

we’ve been having a grand old time this past week, despite me still catching up on sleep and getting over the obligatory post-movie cold. brenda has been amazing getting me back to my normal energy levels. i’m still a bit sniffly but i can tell that i’m going to feel amazing tomorrow. yippee!

here are some recent snaps.

i started drinking coffee again during the tough times at dr. d. now i’m completely hooked again. it doesn’t help that the best cafe in kings cross is close by. and run by some friends of ours.

an impromptu bath outside (the neighbours must think we’re crazy!)

… quickly degenerated into a mud pie factory!

today we spent the morning at boy charleton pool, probably the nicest public pool ever. just look at the view! nayou’s become a much better swimmer since i last saw him in a pool.

we practiced our handstands there as well. this little boy is super strong!

while i was out running errands this afternoon, the rest of my family was having a body painting party!

to gisborne and back again

By
November 10, 2011
New Zealand

tomorrow it will be two weeks since i finished work. the stress of it all is still lingering in the form of general tiredness, but i am so happy to be free and able to spend time with brenda and nayou. we have been in new zealand for the last week visiting josh and natacha in gisborne. the last time we saw them was over christmas three years ago when our kids were just a year old. now tahi and nayou are almost four, and josh and natacha have a new son miro! we had an amazing time hanging out with them. the vibe is so chill up there. i forgot how much i like new zealand. the pace of life, the open spaces, the people… just being there for a week reminded me of all the good times we had when we lived there.

the main reason for our visit was to go to a hui at the community land trust we have been interested in joining. we arrived in gisborne and left the next day to go and check it out. the land is about 70km from gisborne, in a really beautiful valley. i knew it was gorgeous from the photos on their website, but what i was interested in were the people. i didn’t quite know what to expect. it turns out that they are all friendly, generous, funny people, not too different from brenda and myself. most of them have children (or are pregnant) so after the initial shyness wore off we didn’t see much of nayou for the rest of our stay.

the settlement is still in its early stages. there are no structures there apart from a small house that is used as a common space. everyone is living in campers, converted shipping containers or other temporary housing while they work through the building codes with the council.

the bathrooms are compostable toilets. apparently the humanure is very potent and everyone fights over it to put on their garden!

 

as far as a community goes, these guys have their stuff together. they have a very clear vision of what they want it to be, from governance to land management to interaction with the wider community. its not cult-y or naively idealstic – i found their ideas to be well formed and realistic, and i especially liked the way that they are setting it up so that individuals still have autonomy while being able to stay embedded within the larger group. there are 25 people on the land right now and by and large that vision is manifesting itself there already. this is me with bob corker, the founder of the whole project.

our friend phil from wellington also came up for the hui which was awesome.

we spent the weekend walking around the land and doing lots of hanging out. the weather was fantastic, and we also ate very well, despite the abundance of meat on the menu (many of the guys there are big on hunting and fishing!).

the most inspiring thing for me was just seeing all the kids running around with each other. it was just so joyful and free, and a big difference compared to the way you have to keep an eye out for kids in the city. they bonded really quickly!



all the baths are outdoors and heated with wood. amazing!

here is dan cooking lamb’s tails for breakfast. mmm, lamb’s tails. he had a whole bag of them!

then brenda made oatmeal and the kids went crazy for that too.

we spent the night in a very comfy red caravan. nayou was very excited to be sleeping in it.

we said goodbye after just two days together, but we are definitely going to keep in touch with them and see how things develop. we aren’t in any position to commit to anything until at least late 2012 anyway so we’ll probably go visit again around then and have a catch up. regardless of what we end up doing, it made me really excited to see people putting their money where their mouths are and making things happen!

on our way back to gisborne we stopped at the morere hot springs. this place is the first place brenda and i visited when we got to new zealand way back in 2004. the place still looks exactly the same.

nayou found a big fern and pretended to be a cockatoo.

once we got back it was more chillaxing all the way until we left. i got a chance to surf a little, brenda got a chance to sew a little and there was a lot of hanging out. this whole trip was all about hanging out, really. which was just fine by me!

the sexiest man in gizzy is not afraid to flaunt it. love the gumboots!

they keep chickens in their backyard and nayou was obsessed with checking for eggs. whenever he would find any new eggs, he would select just one and keep it in a container for a day or so before eating it.

this holiday gave us one nice surprise in the form of a two hour layover at wellington airport on the way back. we managed to have a quick get together with julia, dawud, their son kasper and glen. the time was way too short but it was still so nice to see them again. we miss youuuuuu!

here we are on the flight back, exhausted but very very happy. thanks to everyone for their hospitality and generosity, especially josh and natacha. it was a super duper holiday!

its all about the love, baby

By
October 25, 2011
Australia, Sydney, Uncategorized

in terms of intensity, the past ten days rank right up at the top of my time in sydney. right at the point when work was at its most intense, a bunch of my high school friends from switzerland descended upon sydney for justin and peta’s wedding. they arrived a week before the wedding and we started burning the midnight oil right away. and never stopped. don’t get me wrong – its been an awesome, awesome time. but i will say that is was very hard to get out of bed this morning 🙂 even nayou’s magic kiss and cuddle was unable to rouse me, and that usually does the trick right away. i’m still a zombie now, so excuse any incoherent ramblings.

the festivities started officially last tuesday, when we all went to manly for justin’s stag night. in true stag fashion, thomas brought a sheep suit all the way from london, which justin was required to wear until he saw peta again the next day.

i love that its just that little bit too small for him. just to add to the humiliation factor. it was interesting walking behind him and watching peoples’ reactions. especially the kids.

the guys got a very swanky apartment overlooking manly beach. definitely a good choice of venue for hanging out. we even got a chance to see some whales!

i love hanging out with these guys. we’ve known each other since we were 15, although i only became good friends with some of them after we graduated from high school. we don’t see each other often, but its always a good time when we do. we decided to do some promo shots for our upcoming boyband. the guy in the sheep suit wasn’t invited.

mmm lamb korma.

the three of us headed down to kiama on friday afternoon. after getting lost and watching a lady ding our rental car in a mall parking lot, we made it safe and sound to the campground. the sign at the front of the campground claims its 4.5 star camping, and they were not exaggerating. we had a site with an ensuite bathroom which was cleaner than ours. the wedding party rented a cabin which had a jacuzzi, 55 inch tv and a washer/dryer! plus there was a playground and a pool, not to mention the beach a couple of minutes away. very cool. nayou had the time of his life down there 🙂

some kayakers gave nayou the biggest sea urchin, possibly ever.

thomas is one of the chosen few that nayou took to immediately. when thomas brought him ice cream on our first night in kiama, the friendship was sealed forever.

the wedding ceremony was at peta’s parents’ place, about ten minutes out of kiama. the weather was gorgeous all weekend, and the ceremony was truly a pleasure to be part of. you know its a good wedding when the bride and groom can’t wipe the silly grins from their faces the whole time. it was one of those unions that felt very genuine, and i’m so happy to have lost justin to someone so cool (just kidding. about the losing part. ahem.).

nayou made fast friends with the kids at the wedding and spent the evening running around like a madman with them. he even scored a lollipop which he devoured in record time.

and the once the wedding cake came out, that was all he could think about. his one track mindedness was exaggerated by the fact that he was exhausted. nayou tried so hard to stay awake for the cake cutting, but in the end he fell asleep before it.

the advantage to him pointing out which piece of cake he wanted was that i was able to get it and save it for him. the first words out of his mouth the next day was “did you get my cake?”. of course i did! parenting win! then he proceeded to have it for breakfast. parenting fail.

we went back to peta’s parents’ house for a late brunch before heading home. not sure when i’m going to see justin next…. perhaps in bali?!? the rest of the crew have scattered across australia, but i will get a chance to see them again briefly before they head back to their respective countries. by then i’ll be done with work so i fully expect some debauchery 🙂

and a happy and exhausted nayou conked out in the car. definitely the sign of a good weekend!