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while its amazing to be living in a country with a functioning postal system, i have to say that the canadian post is not exactly the speediest service around. several packages we have sent have arrived late, and for christmas this year many of the packages that people had sent to us also arrived late. for the holidays this is kind of good thing though, as it spreads the gifts out so we have time to appreciate them a little more.

this afternoon a package from aunty hana arrived with two fishing related lego sets. one of them is a rare one that we had watched a video for and lusted after. nayou is busily building in the living room as i type, and he wanted me to share this video with you all. disclaimer: there is a random justin bieber reference in there, and i have no idea where it came from.

another example of the generation gap between nayou and most of us – youtube is his television. its awesome because there is endless variety, and he can watch it on any number of devices. and it sucks because its hard to tear yourself away from it, especially when its available on a multitude of screens. still, its cool that he can access videos that thoroughly review the different kinds of toys that he is interested in.

one of his favourites is a user called EvanTubeHD, who is this cool, cute kid who reviews all kinds of toys, mainly lego and angry birds (no wonder nayou loves him). nayou has been using his own digital camera to record tons of reviews, often echoing phrases that he has picked up from evan. this video was taken this afternoon to showcase a new model that nayou built:

and here is a sample of evan doing his thing:

three months. thats how long we’ve been in sayulita already. the busy season is over and the whole town is taking on that tranquil, sleepy feel as summer approaches. its a nice change from the busy vibrance of the high season, although it is getting pretty darn hot. we have tentatively set our departure around the end of june, which is close to the time our visas here expire anyway. its weird to think we’ll only be here two more months – i feel like we could easily stay for much, much longer. we still have no idea what is next for us. i think its time to start putting out some feelers to see whats out there… we shall see!

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we have been busy with all sorts of small projects, but things are winding down. i’ve moved over to a lighter schedule with my yoga teaching, and this friday is the last farmer’s market for us. i’ve also been helping out people here and there with computer stuff in exchange for massages. still haven’t cashed in on any of my services yet, but i am so very much looking forward to being kneaded and pounded by some incredible body workers!

i landed a semi-regular yoga teaching gig at this incredible retreat center called haramara. it is a big honour for me to teach there because it attracts world class teachers that really inspire me. i was rather nervous for my first class, but once i got into the groove of it it was ok. and i guess they like me because i’ve been invited back several times now! the retreat is located just outside of sayulita in a big area of gorgeous jungle. the two yoga spaces are straight out of a magazine. the photos below hardly do it any justice, but if you are interested there are some more online here.

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somewhere in between everything we also started a semi-regular cultural gathering to promote community and raise awareness on a variety of issues. our friend nathalie has a gorgeous gallery space that she wanted to open up, so we organise the events and she gives us the space. so far we’ve only had one event where we screened the documentary “waste land“. it was a small turnout but really mellow and fun.

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i think the next one is going to be on wednesday. we’ll prob do another screening since its easy, but we have lots of ideas about other things we could do (yoga, art, slam poetry etc). if you happen to be passing through sayulita and you have something to share, get in touch and we’ll make it happen 😉

we’re still building lots of lego creations too:

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the humble pom-pom has been taking sayulita by storm lately, with all kinds of shapes and sizes popping up in storefronts, on bikes, bags and even in people’s hair! brenda has been making some great ones for the house and people are noticing. the other day a bunch of friends came over for a pom-pom party (potentially the world’s first ever pom-pom gathering?).

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the ladies got hooked up with some beanies that brenda made, and now those beanies have pom-poms on them. the beanie on the left is headed to nepal next month and should get some good use 🙂

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nayou has been into watching youtube videos lately. its amazing how much random stuff is out there – lego reviews, lego stop-motion movies, video game playthroughs. i always wondered who bothered to watch all that stuff, and now i know! one of nayou’s favourite channels is evantubehd. its run by a nine year old and is full of toy reviews and other random things that young boys would be into. sometimes he likes to bust out his digital camera and do his own little videos:

some more cuteness from brenda’s ipod:

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i finally got around to editing some video off our cameras as well. its a hodge podge of random clips but hopefully it will entertain you. enjoy 🙂

 

 

you would think that with our much less hectic life that i would have all the time in the world to take photos and blog, but its really the opposite. isn’t there a saying that if you want something done quickly, give it to the busiest person? personally i am loving the slower pace, not being in too much of a hurry to get things done. i do have to check myself from trying to stay busy all the time though. its all part of the decompression process!

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brenda’s old friend from seattle came down for a week with her husband. they were exactly the kind of guests we love – low key, up for anything, and self-sufficient. they stayed in a beautiful place with a pool, so we got some quality hang time in their neck of the woods!

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here is nayou demolishing some watermelon after a good swim in the pool.

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we are still very much into legos. right now its all about building various spaceships, training centers, cars, hideouts etc and then battling to see who wins (hint: its never brenda or myself).

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i love it when other kids come and play legos. its so cool to watch their individual building style. everyone always uses pieces in some fresh way that gets me all inspired too! here is nayou with kevin and jacob, two relatively new friends who are very chill. their mother takes care of a toddler across the street so hopefully we will be seeing lots more of them in the days to come.

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i love this shot brenda took. our friend sondra wants to take photos of her clothes on the line as a sort of diary, which i thought was a pretty cool idea.

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last friday at the market we cranked through ten liters (2.5 gallons) of green juice. this week we put some watercress into the mix and it made the juice really creamy. probably one of the best batches yet, in my humble opinion! its a good sign that we’re cranking more than ever, despite the fact that the busy season is coming to an end.

here is a little something i made for the three of us today. nayou is feeling a bit under the weather so there is lots of oranges, some ginger, wheatgrass, mint, celery, carrots, turmeric and parsley. it might sound weird but it tastes so good!

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the saga of our canine friend chappi had a happy finish today. ever since chappi came to live with us he has eventually wandered back to his old home. its about a fifteen minute walk across town from our place, so it was definitely a bit of a pain to go and get him every time. its not like he didn’t like it at our place – its just that when he went off on one of his adventures and it was time to go home, he just followed his first instinct and ended up at his original house.

chappi ran away about three days ago and this time we got a bit lazy and didn’t go and get him in a timely manner. brenda and i talked about it and decided to see if the owners would be willing to take him back if we provided the food. clearly chappi was comfortable there (he has a nice outdoor space and its peaceful), and he wasn’t causing any trouble.

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so we spoke with the lady who owns him this afternoon and she was actually happy to take him back! it turns out that chappi has been chasing away the neighbourhood dogs who have been coming in to chase their chickens, so they are cool with him being there again. which is a funny twist in the story considering they were originally going to get rid of him because he was the one chasing chickens. luckily for everyone he doesn’t do that anymore, so everything has worked out as it should 🙂

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see you around town, our little friend. it was great having you around! and we’re so glad that you get to be back where you feel most happy!

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there has been a slow burn of house-related activity in between my yoga teaching, our weekly stall at the market, and chilling at the beach. our favourite space to hang out is just outside the backdoor, where there is a palapa and a nice patio. brenda has put up a swing and made it a more festive place to be with cushions and tables and whatnot. here is nayou with his friend maximo (both obsessed with star wars).

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as i’m typing these very words, this is what is happening right behind me:

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we found an old plastic piggy bank in our backyard. so we spray painted it hot pink!

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oh, and guess who we saw on the beach? well, this was our second reunion but this time i remembered to take photos. rocky has a bit of a crazy look in his eyes because i had a stick in my hand. still as beautiful as ever, and packing some more meat on his bones too!

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nayou loves him some bouncy castle time. good thing there are plenty of them around town, including one in the plaza that pops up in the evening.

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little chappi is doing well with us. we took care of his fleas and his coat is all shiny and awesome. he’s a little more feisty with other dogs and people now but still so mellow in general. we had him snipped today so the por guy is comatose while the anaesthetic wears off. ouch!

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chappi’s story is that he belonged to this old couple in sayulita. they used to have him to catch chickens but then tied him up to a tree and fed him occasionally after the chickens were gone. so he wasn’t exactly neglected like some of the other dogs, but the owners were planning on dropping him off in the jungle somewhere because they didn’t want him anymore. so it was a good time to foster him.

he is super smart and likes to make sure our little tribe always stays together. old habits die hard though, and when he is off leash he runs away and eventually makes him way back to his old home. so we still keep him tied up when he’s at home which he doesn’t mind. we’re slowly going to wean him and see how he does. in the meantime, he is getting lots of walks as we take him everywhere with us.

these branches are nayou’s sunbrella.

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and some nice photos brenda took of things around our neighbourhood:

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i love this sign! so random.

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when its cloudy and windy with no waves, its time to fly the kite.

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… and do yoga on the beach.

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nayou came into the yoga room while i was doing my practice yesterday and followed along with me for a good ten minutes. it was so cool. i was trying so hard not to look at him but it was pretty much impossible. too cute! he’s got a pretty mean warrior a 🙂

this is going to be another post of bits and pieces. its easy to leave the camera behind these days when you leave the house with a surfboard, a boogie board and a myriad other things. but now that brenda is taking her ipod touch out and about we have many more photos of the goings on. first off, a couple of shots from our other home, the beach.

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my friend nick, whom i met at a yoga class, turned out to be an acroyogi and so he showed me some moves on the sand. he’s going to do a workshop at the end of march so we’re going to put a routine together to demo to the participants. its super fun stuff, but strong!

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and speaking of yoga, here is one of the studios where i teach. its a beautiful, calm space. love it!

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brenda and nayou took a fishing lesson from our friend jorge earlier this week. they just fished from the beach, learning about the rods, tackle and other fishy stuff. brenda managed to catch a snook (love the name), which apparently is a very wily difficult fish to catch. check out how big it is!

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ever wondered what nayou would look like as a rasta? wonder no more.

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nothing like some ice cream on a hot sunny day.

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to finish off, here is some video taken fresh today of nayou explaining how one of this lego creations work. enjoy!

lately we’ve been on an even more intense spree of lego building. nayou has been obsessed with lego for a long time now and his fascination with it hasn’t flagged at all. our creations have been getting pretty cool so i thought i would share some with you.

first up we have a double decker space ship. with a hidden luggage compartment. oh yeah.

a fire truck!

one of nayou’s specialties – a jail truck.

nayou has also been building space aliens and various modes of transportation for them.

i also made a hospital last week. i tapped into my inner boy for this one… building it totally reminded me of what it felt like to play with these when i was little 🙂

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!

 

 

 

i’m going to stop whining about how long its been in between posts. it seems like every time i sit down to write, i start off with something about how long its been. from now on, i’m gonna just write what’s up and leave the excuse making alone 🙂

things have been pretty cruisy lately. nothing major happening, but lots of day-to-day fun. we’ve been enjoying the small stuff this “winter” (sydney winter is like a wellington summer) – going to markets, playing at home or at parks, digging (nayou’s new obsession), reading, that sort of thing.

oh yeah, somewhere in there brenda and i did a ten day juice fast. compared to the lemonade diet that we used to do, it was super easy. i felt amazing afterwards and we have continued on with the juicing in the mornings. here is nayou getting acquainted with the fruits and veggies.

this photo is amazing because it was taken on the front lawn of the house i used to live in back in high school! we stopped by took look at the house on our way back from a market on the north shore, and the owners were super nice and gave us a tour. they are in the midst of a huge renovation – essentially a new house – so i was just in time to see our old kitchen cabinets before they went off to where old cabinets go to die. the owners also found an old box of books that we had left in the attic 17 years ago so we scored some pretty awesome new reading material too!