A Decade in Bali

 Ten years ago today, Dec. 9th, 2013, Katrinka and I arrived in Bali with only carry-on. Where'd all this other stuff come from?

Matcha Latte

There's a snazzy Italian place, Dimattina, about five minutes away by foot which has deserts that should be illegal and and a roastery that provides coffee for a lot places. They have a matcha latte with oat milk that is so good and it's authentic or at least the matcha is. The owner buys the matcha for 70 bucks a kilo and it's made with a whisk just like in Japan. Their chai is terrible though - a tea bag. There are two place that make chai like it was India. Both of them take forever to make it and I'm glad they're not in walking distance because I want two cups and once a week or when I'm out and it's convenient is enough for that. The other day I had to go to the ATM and I need trusty Nyoman to drive for that because I only go to one ATM at our bank with a 24 hour guard so the Bulgarians can't screw with the machine and drain accounts. On the way I dropped a travel cup off with the barista at Batu Jimbar and picked it up on the way back and got back to work. I try to keep caffeine to work time.

I llke to take Bandi with me to Dimattina and sit at a picnic type table in a nice grassy area they have. I sit there and let Bandi run around sniffing and mainly watching the golden carp in their long pond. I get into a zone that's so nice. The last two times I've been there I've gotten an apricot crumble too. So good. Limit - not more than once a week. Every employee we pass or who passes us wants to visit with Bandi. People here tend to ask the dog's name first, then they squat down and see if she'll come to them. I tell them Bandi is from bandit and that her full name is Bandita and sometimes explain that the ita ending in Spanish indicates small and feminine.

Preparing to Give Thanks

We're having people over for a Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. I don't think there's any special Thanksgiving day here in Bali but it's so universal that at least people who deal with Westerners know about it. Our housekeeper and a driver we've used for years who was helping to set up the table for tomorrow called it shukuran. Shukur is gratitude. Everyone likes it. One of the most famous songs in the world was written for Thanksgiving: Jingle Bells. Of course we give thanks everyday all day but tomorrow is a special day for it.

Pembantu Pembantu - Helpers

I work with others. Have gotten so much help from others that I know what I'm doing is not really mine or even from me - it's from us. But I'd love to have more help right here at home. I dream of getting an enthusiastic young intern, better a couple so they can explore Bali while getting the home front organized beyond what I do - stuff others could do so I can focus on what others can't and I've got tons of that. My old psychic adviser Fred said always say thanks for what you've got and then politely ask for more. 

My wonderful Balinese assistant, Gus, (goose) is so busy helping to run a successful eco-villa (not his) and his own micro-businesses that it took him three months to get back this last time. Gus caught up with a list of what he does for me. Then we work together on other tasks either Cuke Archives related or not. He's helped a lot with online tasks for my music including working with me to translate the songs of mine I've produced here. This time though we spent the rest of the time setting up Team Viewer which my tech guy uses so he can work on my laptops here while he's at home. Now Gus can do that so we'll see how that helps. I used to think, especially because of my experience here, that Balinese couldn't do things at our level like the Chinese Indonesians can. The island laid back culture too embedded in them. No more. People can adapt to new ways quickly. And it's not just Gus. It's hard not to feel the same way in Thailand about the non Chinese, the Lao they call it - Thailand and Laos I gather are basically the same people. But I had the same sort of wake up experience there too. I talked to a therapist who has local clients there about that and he said at first he thought they had totally different issues but he'd come to see all people as pretty much the same. I keep seeing that too. But culture is strong and deep so I'm not saying many differences aren't still there. 

Gus is sharp, figures things out, gets a step ahead of me, and is occasionally on the phone about his own business. He'll say "Just got an order for 100 tee shirts from a high school with their mascot on it." He sells trophies and medals for youth sports events. Katrinka orders her favorite sparkling water from him delivered by the case. When the the small propane tanks we use got scarce I realized we needed two more but you can't buy them from the little stores, only put a deposit on them and get them refilled and they couldn't get more. The government subsideses refills for the small tanks because they're for home use. He had a couple of small tanks dropped off by his delivery truck. He arranged for us to get a better deal on our wifi. 

Katrinka loves to cook the meal but our housekeeper Kadek makes a lot of stuff for us, occasionally a dish, but mainly other stuff. Some of what she makes is local like jamu health drink, sambal (like their salsa), fresh coconut water. Much of it we taught her or developed with her - fantastic yogurt before I went off dairy, fantastic coconut yogurt, great muesli and trail mix, wet dog food, almond-cashew and oat milk. Gus liked the unyeasted bread she and I came up with. She calls it kue keras - hard cake. Cuts it up into 3" squares. It's less than half an inch thick, made from different combinations of whole wheat, cassava, and gluten rice flour, roasted nuts and seeds, raisons. But when he took a bite of the latest and highly popular creation, thin crunchy crackers made from cassava and gluton rice flour, roasted and ground up flax, chia, sesame, and sunflower seeds, almonds and cashews, he immediately perked up and said, "This is marketable."

The case of the Missing Moment Solved

Sunday Katrinka and I walked to the beach. On the way - like less than a minute on the way - I stopped at the salon on the corner to thank the young woman there for helping me out. She looked down at my right calf immediately and asked if it hurt. No. I asked her if she saw it happen. I was eager to know what happened because i had no memory of it. She said she did see it happen. I do remember her standing outside in front as I walked up that way. Usually I walk on the right side so I can see the traffic coming toward me. I call walking on the left side, the suicide. But up to that point on that street, the other side is better, walking space wider with no open drains on that street up to right before that point where there is an open drain. Usually I've crossed over before then but I guess I hadn't because I was waiting till there was no traffic. It's not a big street at all. She said that a teenage girl on a motorbike had whizzed by me too close and that it made me react and I'd fallen over backwards into the ditch. She ran over and called for help. Two guys from the villa right next to it came out and they pulled me out and walked me home which was very close. We walked over to it and she acted it out. Said my head and left shoulder hit on the top top edge of the concrete ditch on the far side and that my right calf hit on the right side. I came back and made a video of her explaining and demonstrating because I hadn't understood everything she'd said. I'll run it through a translator and will try to get the video done with subtitles. That would be neat. I saw my internist today at the nearby public hospital and she suggested I walk with a cane. I told her I don't think a cane would have helped in this instance. - dc

More on the Fall into the Drainage Ditch

Got a concerned email from a dear friend about my mysterious fall into the drainage ditch the other day after sunset but before dark. Here's what I wrote her.

Image: the scene of the fall - it's about 2.5 ft wide.

Young people fall in those things too. But of course it's much more likely as we age because our sense of balance, our gyroscope, can go south and sure has with me. I read once that falls make up a high percentage of emergency hospital admissions here. That's the first time I had a fall since five years ago when I had about five in a row. Oh I forgot a bad one in 1920 getting up to pee in the dark which I talked about in my first podcast and reposted by itself later (Nyepi Blood Bath). That was either a slip on a small bedside rug (actually a Muslim prayer rug) or fainting from fasting the day before. 

What did I do wrong?

 I don't remember how it happened. I came to with very concerned people pulling me out of a drainage ditch. My first thought was to save the tea to go that was in a covered container on its side. I grabbed it as they lifted me up. It was right near the entrance to our gang. By the time they'd walked me to the gate I said I could carry on from there. Our friend Jeffrey was for years a first responder in Stinson Beach and he happened to come by to get something. I was in our Japanese bath. He told me to turn off the hot water and turn on the cold. He asked me five questions like what's my name, what day, is it and I passed them. He checked to see what I could move starting with fingers. He put a bunch of alcohol on the bleeding bump behind my ear which was still bleeding some. He asked where I hurt - left shoulder and right thigh but they seemed okay. He gave me a bag of ice and had me hold it on my head bump for ten minutes. For a while it seemed I should go to the emergency room but I could move everything, got out of the tub and dried and dressed myself and Katrinka ordered dinner from Riviera. Got up and walked this morning and meditated and made tea and got to work.