We have a pond!!!

Woo Hoo!

After 8 months it is finally finished, what an experience......it's been round, square, too big too small filled in dug out......and of course caused a few ...well maybe a lot of domestics along the way BUT it is finished and dare I say our relationship is so much better for it.

You know one of my Mantras is "everything will come together when you surrender"  but every now and then I get blindsided by a need to control.

It's small projects like these that really help us grow, I have grown some more patience and tolerance and cut back on control and demand, like when I went and sat on the bed and cried because Ken had filled a part of the garden with stones....

 Like my son says "first world problems". Now I look at the stones and think oh yeah quite creative and ask myself why did I want it all my way??

The pond is a huge crowd drawer, everyone loves Koi and birds here as I've said before, there are some serious competitors in these fields so the kids and adults come and watch and feed the Koi we love it.

Ken releasing some new fish.

Now here I go with another of my "magical" stories .....well Ken and I had to buy some Koi for the pond right, but the problem is they are so expensive for a decent size one your looking at around $100.

A couple of weeks before the pond was ready Wayan tells us that he has a friend in Tatiapi (just down the road) who wants to sell his Koi, he has 10 and will sell them all for one million ($100). So we all jump on our bikes and take of to Tatiapi we get there and the fish are a decent size but not that attractive I look at Ken and he says sold!

We get on to our bikes and I said geez Ken it was great to get some fish but they were pretty ugly....he says to me you need to be grateful give thanks to the Gods for what we've got...yeah yeah yeah.

So I go home and have a chat with God or whoevers listening "Hey I really appreciate you giving us these fish but did they have to be so Ugly can I have some beautiful ones please.

Weeellll no jokes one week later we were visiting the new parents Ima and Made to see the baby and 

Made says " Ken I want you to have my Koi, my pump is broken and they are too much work for me now I want you to have them please it's my gift to you. We walk outside and there in the pond is 15 of the most beautiful Koi all hand reared as babies by Made...some of them were huge!

Can you believe it!!!! We are truly blessed.

The little buggers kept us up last night, at 2.30 they were chasing each other round the pond, jumping and splashing for hours......they were spawning. I didn't know this about Koi and as the pond is under our bedroom window it did not make for a good sleep, even with ear plugs and then of course you've got the roosters, dogs and call to prayer greeting you at dawn. Ahhh kind of reminds me of Green Acres with a twist.

The latest craze here in downtown Dukuh Kangin is Knitting! Yep it started with me teaching Wayan's wife Dayu and Yannik, then a couple of girls, now we have a regular knitting group of 4 girls and 5 boys.....and growing by the day, the others are on hold until I get to Perth and get some more needles and wool.

Ok well it's by for now but just one more thing......our canary has arrived!! 

Ketut rocked up this morning with a bedraggled looking multi coloured canary that his friend gave to him and he has passed on to us. He has the voice of a soprano....a little beaut and we have named him Koming.

But before Ketut came Devi our masseuse/friend arrived with a gift on Wednesday, an unusual bird that has black whiskers, and mimics animal noises, mieows like a cat and clicks like a cicada! Can you fricken believe it?????? So now there's 8 and still counting.

So it's goodbye and much love and a special Thankyou for all the lovely messages from my last blog x

Happy Anniversary!!!

Woo Hoo, today I celebrate the 18th Anniversary of my life here since being diagnosed with a Brain Tumour so large I had three months left to live.

(This is the size I thought my tumor was, but unknown to me it was 3 times bigger!)

This time 18 years ago I underwent an 17 hour operation in which the ENT surgeon went through my left ear canal removed all of my inner ear to get to my tumour which was wrapped around my brain stem and had been growing for so many years it had misshapen my skull. Then my wonderful Neurologist held my brain in his hand whilst getting the bulk of the tumor out.....after that he took the fat from my stomach and made a pad around my brain stem where he lovingly placed my brain on to rest.....forever.

As I tell you this I am overcome with love, joy and excitement with what this tumour has given me. The tumour was so large they could not get it all out and over the last 17 years life's  been a bit of a roller coaster where I've had to have radiation and monitoring.

 BUT last year a miracle happened, I went to see my radiologist, and whilst sitting in the reception area I heard my Dr calling out "where's the miracle woman?" "I'm here" I called back (as I truly believe I am a miracle) and he said no I'm not joking  I can't see it .....IT'S GONE! 

So now I live a life without my little friend that was in my head. Like Wayan says "that God he have schedule Mam".

Wayan is one of the most prophetic guys I know.

It just so happens that today is also Bali's Independence Day, how's that?

 I come to a country that also celebrates on the 17th of August, at the risk of sounding corny I also celebrate my Independence......of self, what I mean is my tumour gave me courage, courage to live the best life I could for myself independent of what I was taught growing up, the shoulds and should nots, the how could you's and the ....blah blah blah's. I was Free! Free to be whoever I wanted to be and to embrace every day as a new start.

Guess what! We have a car!! Well a midget kinda toy car, but it's a car!

We have rented a Suzuki Karimun, Carrymoon in Balinese, it's a bit sahkit (sick) ie: it needed an oil change, new tyres, new lights and stuff for the radiator....hopefully that's it for a while but hey it only costs us $100 a month and is so much better than the scooter when it rains!!!

Wayan is so happy he's been doing lessons for the last couple of weeks, and we're still waiting for his license to appear as it takes some time but shouldn't be too long as we slipped a few extra thousand rupee of encouragement for the Police to process it. 

In the meantime if the Police pick us up (happened yesterday whilst on the way to the airport) we just slip another couple of thousand and all is well!!!

Will keep you posted on our travels, happy days.

I dedicate this blog to my amazingly wonderful family and friends who if not for them I would not be here today, as you can have the best surgeons in the world but it's love, prayer, hope and positivity that truly saves your life and these people (you know who you are) gave that to me in bucket loads.

                                                            

THANKYOU

 J.

Light and dark, happy and sad....

    Putu Putra

This week a baby girl arrived in our village. Her name is Putu Putra, she is the first child for Made the Sculptor and Ima the Nurse. We are all so happy and everyone has already visited the new parents, can you believe it? Putu was born in Denpassar on Monday and she came home on Tuesday and by the time Ken and I visited her yesterday (Wednesday) half of the village had been to offer her parents congratulations!! 

         Ima and daughter.

Wow I was so suprised the young parents were so cool, calm and connected. When I asked Ima if she had any painkillers during her birth she asked me. Why?

Birth and death are simple occurrences here yet everyone and I mean everyone is involved, our village is one big family.

Sadly Putu arrived one week after, another woman in the village gave birth to a baby girl who only lived for 6 hours, she came two months early and Wayan told me that when she was born they put her in the "oven" (humicrib) but she died. 

Not long after she died her father brought her home by motorbike at 10.00pm he was met by the people of our village who helped bury her and everybody sang long into the night. It was very sad and everybody was affected, she was Tomong and Wayan's baby sister they are two young boys who come for English and Maths, Tomong cried all weekend.

The acceptance here of death is so calming and reassuring grief comes but with the grief is an understanding that nothing is gone forever as the spirit lives on.

Made and Ima will find out in three months who Putra has incarnated as.....I will keep you posted.

In all the years (30) that I have been coming here, I have never had a negative experience, but last month Ken and I were talking over coffee about the middle aged Brittish Woman who had been murdered here in Ubud and Ken asked me what would I do if someone attacked me? Straight away I said that's not going to happen I'm not putting it out there later on that day I started thinking about what he said and I thought to myself be careful why couldn't that happen to you (warning). 

That afternoon Ken said that he could not take me into Ubud for my Buddhist class as he was going with Ketut to see the healer about his knee. I said no worries I will go in by myself, as evening approached I thought maybe I should get Nyoman our neighbour to take me in but then I thought no I don't want to put him out (warning). Isn't it amazing that we receive messages from our intuitive self but put them to the side.

                                                     Our local cemetery 

As I was coming home on the bike at 8.00pm it started to pour with rain, and I mean pour. I could hardly see and with the lack of street lights I had to go quite slow, after a while I started to notice another bike following me and as I rounded the bend the bike started weaving in and out by my side getting closer and closer to me.

I tried to see who it was but my vision was blurred because of the rain, all of a sudden the man on the bike came right up to my side reached out and grabbed my breast!

What a shock I couldn't believe the scream that came out of my mouth...after that he sped off into the night, not long and the anger kicked in and I started to go after him beeping my horn trying to attract attention to no avail. I went home and burst I to tears, my intuition kept telling me that day to be careful but I didn't listen. 

When I got home, I was suprised to see Wayan,Ketut and Yannick they had been waiting for me and were worried as it was getting late and there was so much rain. As shaken as I was it was lovely to have family looking out for me.

The next day Ibu made special offerings to thank the Gods that nothing worse had happened to me. I love that, such positivity, and gratitude that I was Ok, no victim.

I got many messages that night and the main one was that this particular Buddhist class was over for me and that I had received all that I needed to receive.....for the time being...anyway it's a long story ... one day I will tell you.

Hence to say I no longer ride my scooter in the dark!!! I guess I could be flattered that at my age a young man still wanted to grab my.....Su Su (breasts). ☺️

Much love J