scatterbrook

Marcello’s showpiece

With the encouragement and support of the Australian Business Volunteers organization we are delighted to return to this corner of paradise. The purpose of this visit is for me to be an ABV technical advisor at Gaya Ceramic, a pottery in Sayan, a village near Ubud. The company employs about 50 villagers to design and produce custom-made porcelain tableware for stylish hotels and restaurants, locally and by export. Their work has considerable design and technical merit, but Marcello, the owner of Gaya, ABV and myself are reckless enough to believe that my input can make a difference. Intending to spend the first couple of weeks getting hands-on experience with their clay and materials, and hoping that some promising variations on present methods might emerge, given the well-known creativity of Australians with fencing wire, baling twine and gaffer tape.

Continue reading →

Seminyak balcony, sunset, fish & chips

Di and Garry who have been volunteers in Bali for over two years have a wealth of cross cultural tales. Given the romantic image of the European journeyman artist who goes ‘native’, marries a Balinese princess, and settles down to a life of bliss and mango salad, it is difficult to imagine the reverse. Where a Balinese marries an Ozzy and settles down happily in Perth or Darwin. Loneliness, cultural difference? Not so. Di gives examples of the Indonesians who are delighted to find that a driver’s license is obtained by skill and merit rather than by bribery. Surprised to find that there are actually rules for behaviour on the road and elsewhere. And, overjoyed that people actually obey them. Di has a list of about forty ways to know that you have been living too long in Indonesia. These are some of the more choice:

Continue reading →

Vee said:  Fancy actually living in Bali. We only had two weeks there at a writer’s conference. It’s so beautiful…

Continue reading →

The locals next door invited me down to the beach for kite practice, next big competition being later in September. As you will see from the clip, the wind was not up to much, but there was a bit of practice in running, jumping and dragging the 100 metre tail into place for take-off. Mr. Anom, who is the owner of the Villa where we stay, and two of the kites, has asked me to be his guest at the next competition. So it seems I have to look no further for the next obsession.

Continue reading →

Ahhh. The green hills of Bali. Soooo beautiful. But first to escape the city traffic. For wheels we have a teeny tiny Suzuki jeep of minimal brakes and many rattles. Its lack of power is seldom a problem. The traffic code is very relaxed. They often take the shortest route around traffic islands, sometimes not the one we would have chosen. The occasional traffic light is taken as a hint or suggestion. Have yet to see a right turn arrow at traffic lights, but, if intending to turn right, one maneuvers to one of the rightish lanes, and when the lights turn green, one must start moving, turning across and into the flow of oncoming traffic including weaving motor bikes. I know it all sounds suicidal, but somehow it seems to work if you just keep steadily moving into and through the target area. You imagine that I exaggerate? And this is controlled by traffic lights! Attitude to issues of navigation and Oc health and safety are also very relaxed

Continue reading →

Much of Balinese life seems to happen in a sort of meaningless, random, slow motion. So it was a surprise to see that the tribal passions of the locals can be aroused. Not cricket or footy, and only the expats play golf, no, the real game is kite building and flying.

Continue reading →

As Queen Helen is about to embark on another adventure as a volunteer in Bali next month, it seemed timely to recall last years Bali sojourn.

Queen Helen and followers

In  September 2010 Queen Helen had been hard at work in Bali. A gig as a volunteer with Australian Business Volunteers, working with the College of Nursing to develop a new curriculum. Must have been successful as she has been used as the keynote speaker at a graduation ceremony and is now generally known as Queen Helen of Bali.

From Queen Helen’s base camp in an apartment in a once grand Villa, a brief jaunt to Hardy’s three-story emporium of stuff for expats was a 10 minute Bemo ride. On the way out of the store, after some half-hearted shopping and the purchase of some nice flip flops, we won the STAR prize! That means a digital camcorder, a week holiday for two in a resort somewhere, or US$500 cash, all for listening to a one hour blurb. Feeling magnanimous, in mind of our uncommonly good luck, we sort of agreed. Arriving at the resort we were shocked & stunned to find that we were not the only winners of the STAR prize that morning. There were, in fact, so many winners that there was not space enough for us in the lecture theatre. But that was OK they were prepared to give us the prize anyway. I had already imaged the idea of filming the grandsons on the camcorder at length after luxuriously dining out on the US$500. But deep in my heart I knew that when, under the eyes of the supervisor, I tore away the gold foil it would be revealed that I had won the resort holiday. Yes, it was the holiday. For an admin fee of $100 one gets the use of a broom cupboard for a week. Sir would like to have a room? A bed? Food? Bla bla. Transferable though, so anyone fancying a week in a broom cupboard, let us know.

Continue reading →

A couple of days in Singapore on the way home, to see nephew Scott, Val and the little ones. Pearl, age nearly one, has made her first step to stardom by appearing in a magazine, charmingly ‘works the room’ when we go for coffee. Life is good, nine floors up the thirty something floor Regency tower. Down below a swimming pool, gym, sauna, massage complex with a set of underwater exercise machines, bike, rowing and treadmill. Just around the corner, a café with a real barista who does proper one and a half late.

Long term pottery friend Soo Kim is still managing the family pottery business. He explained that the best way is to eat is in Eating places rather than restaurants. These are often out-doors with no frills and sometimes no menus. From time to time Soo Kim brings groups of students and collectors to Australia to visit potters and galleries, so Sweetiepie sat patiently through the technical chat over dinner.

The Singapore Art Gallery is in an old colonial building with a ‘Raffles’ kind of vibe. A fascinating installation in the gallery proper was a random stack of cardboard toy cartons. These had been painted white. In the darkened room, the original coloured art work was projected onto the stack from an overhead projector. The artwork exactly fitted all of the odd angles and sizes of the relevant boxes. But is it art? Unquestionably yes, for the challenge of guessing the technicalities. Continue reading →