If I could carry a tune I'd break into song and say...... "and I'm feeling good!" LOL
Today was full. After another delicious breakfast served on our patio to the sound of the water fountain in the garden and the birds in the trees we got to work. Lynda spent the morning helping Ketut with his English while I was online with a Board meeting.
Once that was behind us it was off to Bali Buddha where we had an appointment with Komang, our agent. She had out passports ready for us to pick up and we owed her a bunch of money! The cost is $65 each for each month of extension we get to our visas. This first extension (that takes us to Feb 14th) was a lot more effort as we had the fingerprint/photo day in Denpasar at immigration. Subsequent months will just mean we have to give the passports to Komang (a week prior to expiration) and she will look after getting them to immigration and filling out the paperwork for us. Each month will be another $65/person.
After our appointment with Komang at 2:30 (she is a busy lady!) we headed off in search of a new place to have some lunch and we found another great warung. So for less than $10 (total) we both had a substantial lunch and drinks and that included a very healthy tip!
Once lunch was over we decided to walk up a road we've never been down before and after a while Lynda found a little path that looked like it might take us all the way across to Jl Hanoman (one of the main streets in Ubud). Luck was with us again and sure enough....we popped right out on Hanoman where we met a really nice guy named Made who just happened to also be a taxi driver. Since it was starting to rain and we'd had enough walking we decided to take him up on his offer of a taxi. The usual fare is $5 to go anywhere in the centre of town. That might seem like a lot but it is because the roads are one way and there is a lot of traffic in the afternoons so it takes the drivers a long time to get back to their "station". Made dropped us right off in front of our place and wouldn't you know it....the rain had stopped so we decided to walk a little further.
We weren't too far up the street when we both had the idea to go for coffee and dessert at a place we both like where there is a couch facing the street so you can watch the activity as life goes on in this interesting place. Perched upon our couch and wearing our imaginary crowns (since it is kind of a fancy place) Lynda ordered a pot of earl grey tea and I a latte. For dessert Lynda decided on the lemongrass apple tart (she'd had it before and liked it so much she wanted it again) whereas I went with a new option. I ordered the molten chocolate lava cake. OMG! It was sooooo good I guarantee that I will go back there to have it again at least once more before we leave this town that is an absolute gastronomic heaven. As good as our desserts and coffee/tea were we learned that we prefer to come here after dark as by then there will be live music at the place across the street and the ambiance is just that much better. No complaints from either of us that we're just going to HAVE to come back here again to make sure the after dark option is definitely the one we prefer. :-)
With dessert behind us it was off to reflexology for me and a stop at the spa for new polish for Lynda. An hour later I felt like a new woman as I left the reflexology place where my guy Sujita had worked his magic once again. On top of that I hadn't taken more than half a dozen steps when I heard a bike come up behind me on the road, stop and a voice say...."want a ride?" I turned to see Pasek there and didn't take more than a second to reply, "absolutely!" I hopped on the back of his bike that was facing the wrong way on a one way street. We had no helmets so the breeze felt fantastic. It was just starting to turn dusk so there was that almost mysterious vibe in the air and everything looks just a little different than it did by the light of the day. We zipped down Monkey Forest squeezing past oncoming traffic (as all motorbikes do) and in no time I was hopping off the bike at the entrance to our lane. As I walked down the lane I couldn't help but smile as I thought about what a great day it had been.
I found Lynda back in the room just having returned from her spa time and with her new toes looking very pretty in their purple polish. Our conversation couldn't help but go to the topic of how fortunate we feel to be living here in Ubud and how proud we are of ourselves for moving to action on creating this opportunity. Having just past the two month mark we can already feel the value of living in a space and a place where the focus of our day is quite simply ourselves. Certainly we do other things too and have some responsibilities (like our passports or my meeting this morning or english class or yoga or a reflexology appointment) but the pace of life here is slower and it is easy to stay in the present and to not feel the overwhelm that so often makes its way into a day in the life at home. One of the things that I will take away from this gift of 5 months living in Bali that I've given myself is the feeling that comes with not over-filling the daily 'to do' list and the value of ensuring that somewhere on that list is intentional self-care activities. Certainly being here has made it so affordable to have regular reflexology and massage and living here has meant that we can afford to eat out so there is no groceries to buy, food to cook or clean up to do. All of those things help make it easy for us to focus on ourselves and I intend to figure out a way to keep some of that once I return home.
But enough of my story..... LOL..... please just know that we both wish for all of you who are reading this that you're gaining a little self-care time as you follow this blog and that you too will move forward in your own lives with your own intentional self-care practice as a focus in your daily plan.
It's just 8:30 and we're back in the room and ready for a game or two of cards so until next time.....
L & L
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