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Wednesday 10 October 2012

survive and live!

Salemat Pagi! (Indonesian)
Sawadee kha! (Thai)

or in our language, Hello! 

Today I find myself in a very creative space.  A room that is lush with inspiration that on entering I began itching to create.  And seeing I am instrument-less, the art of forming words is what I have chosen.   

I am in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the moment with my friend Pash.  She works as a graphic designer for an NGO called Partners.  They provide aid and relief for Burmese refugees.  I am here in her office space and it is just gorgeous.  Massive wooden white tables, perspex with chalk pens, arty gadgets and dowhackys lying around, pens, pencils, paper.  Divine.  Whilst I will not pretend that I have the kahones for the intensity of the work they manage to do over here, I do crave to have a creative space like this.  Oh I am imagining right now the beauty of coming into work everyday to a space that is inspirational and lush, littered with friends and colleagues and creative projects and just getting my hands and head and heart in there.  I feel like right now I am getting a glimpse of something I want.  I will now have to start thinking on the how. 

But enough of that!  One must back the truck up a bit and catch you all up on the last 10 days.  The days of Bali.  Ten doesn't seem like a big number but I can report with a pleasant happiness that the days seemed long and full which often doesn't happen on holiday.  I went to Bali with five of my friends to celebrate one pretty lady's 30th birthday.  We spent the first three days in Sanur on the east coast, then up to Ubud which is in land for three days, and lastly Kuta for three days.   We decided collectively if we were to change anything from the trip it would be to start with Kuta and end with Ubud; for all its popularity, Kuta is anything but my favourite thing.  However I decided that whilst I lacked the love for Kuta I think it was essential to experience.  Every time we went somewhere new in Bali we saw something we hadn't seen before.  Bali has many facets and its extremes somehow create the balance that it is known for.  I think one of the most interesting things I learnt while in Bali was about the balance.  For me, as you will know if you have read my other posts, I think in seasons.  Our external world is affected and altered by physical literal seasons, and in life I often use the concept of seasons to explain my thoughts on the world and my position in life.  Whereas in Bali they don't have seasons.  They have dry and wet.  Male and female.  Ying and yang.  Good and bad.  Balance.  And I think it has given me a new perspective.  I guess perhaps naively I have considered balance to be the middle place between good and evil or the middle between busy and bored and so on and so forth.  But I think now it is having equal parts of both.  

And I think as a group we found that balance in Bali.  We had lots of laughter and lots of silence.  Lots of rest and lots of busyness.  We did a heck load of stuff actually.  We went for explorations on bikes and negotiated our way through a ruleless roundabout, we went to a silversmith class and I have a gorgeous silver ring inscribed with the memory of Bali, went to the markets and bartered it up, we lay on the beach and I fortunately avoided the burn, we experienced a Balinese Kecuk dance, we visited rice terraces and coffee plantations and saw pineapples growing "in the wild" (who knew pineapples didn't grow on trees?), we saw a temple, we saw the last of the sunlight setting over Jimbaran beach, I mean yeah, we did a lot.  But yet it was laced with relaxation and rest.  I think the only thing I didn't manage to do which I said I wanted to do was yoga, but hey, I can do that in Wellington :).

At the first resort we stayed at in Sanur we had a romantic dinner as we all honeymoon packaged it up, and it was lovely.  The hotel staff spent all day preparing the area we were to sit in, decorating it with flowers and woven flax and they left us a letter on the table which I picked up and read out loud to the group as we sat down.  Because we had already experienced some hilarious menu reading like corn plakes instead of flakes and cheese and ram pizza instead of cheese and ham pizza, I mis-read the word live (sounds like give).  I read it as live (as in jive).  Five or more times throughout the letter they said, 'Survive and live happy life!' which is lovely if you read it as live/give however every time I read it I used the live/jive sound and I was completely oblivious to my mistake.  My friends graciously didn't correct my mispronunciation until afterwards when we all gaffawed over my silliness.  In fact, it soon became the motto of the trip and we had to convince ourselves it was a bad idea to all get matching tattoos with that inscription.  

So to you all, I hope you are well and and happy and survive and live (jive) happy life!