Back to Bali -Part 3

In our previous trips, we had not managed a visit to THE most popular spot on Bali according to something I read. The place: Bali Safari and Marine Park. They did have a resident discount so that was great. We paid 1/5 the entrance for tourists. They restrict your movement in the park quite a bit with shuttles to take you to the show areas as a first stop. Later you can walk around on your own in some areas. We really didn't see much of a "marine" element, but maybe we just couldn't find it?

 This is a new "show" at the Park. Elephant bathing demo.

 Speaking of elephants

 There is a short "jeep" type ride in a shuttle bus. You can see some animals from the bus.

 We drove right through the hippo waters ( on a slightly submerged road).

We finally found a small area with some fish!  Two different species of arawana.

While I thought the place was just OK overall,  I did love the fence posts in certain areas. They were so natural looking.

Another thing I thought was cute was a group of maybe a dozen guinea pigs running in parade formation around the edge of the "stage" during the small animal and bird show we stopped to enjoy for a few minutes.

Back to Bali- Part 4

We took a day trip to the village of Kintamani, one of 6 villages around Lake Batur. Batur is the largest lake in Bali. This is also where you find the active volcano, Mt. Batur. Batur has erupted 24 times since 1800. This area sees a lot of tourists due to the cooler, mountain weather, spectacular views and the tons of handicraft shops that line the entire road north through to Ubud ( past Kintamani). Just a few shops, side by side by side everywhere. I wonder how they can all make a living.

 Nearly in Kintamani.

The lone guy at the left in this photo was just finishing. We got to take his spot.

The view and lunch.

More view photos of the view.

 A gas station and mini mart.

After visiting Kintamani and having lunch, we were off to Tegallalang Rice Terraces. They charge the car just for driving through this area. Weird. Pretty.

The cutest thing in Tegallalang:

I think this was the day we stopped for a traditional Balinese Healing foot massage on the way back to the hotel.

Additional note: On this visit we saw a blue-black kingfisher, an olive-backed sunbird and a grey-cheeked pigeon!

Crafts, etc.

I mentioned that I had created some Christmas ornaments. While shopping for Christmas ornament parts, I noticed that the bead area of one shop was much larger than I had remembered. A staircase top to bottom filled with beads! Yes, on a staircase and in no particular order. The other disappointing part was you bought the box! However, a box was less than $1.50. 

 I have been slowly working on my 9 block quilt with lots of embroidery.  I finished this guy and this block (#4) a while ago. I am now slowly working on block 5- the center block- which has a large center block with a very long quote. Slow!

One of my closest friends has left the country and returned to her native The Netherlands. I made this mini-quilt for her, including the center appliqued panel. She wanted this particular color scheme after seeing my color palette on the quilt I was working on. I will really miss her. She'd been an expat for most of 18 years ( several countries) and had lived here 7.5 yrs including the entire time we've lived here.

 Here are the Christmas ornaments! ( The two sides on each are different.)

Nearby Construction Updates

I've mentioned we are surrounded by construction projects.  I even posted a map at one point. Here are updates to the 3 sites closest to our apartment building.

Site number one:

We believe this site will be an entertainment venue of some sort. Things have progressed slowly with periods of inactivity. We aren't sure why. This started before May 2017. For complete progress photos, search for construction in the posts. I've posted several batches of photos over the last 1.5 years. At one point they were constructing half walls of cement around parts of the various floors. On the sides of the half cement walls, the cement wall tapered down to the floor level. From what I could see they did this on every floor.  Then, suddenly, crews were removing all of the cement walls. They also built ramps up to the second level on both sides. These have been destroyed and rebuilt 3 times now.  I can't explain any of it. Over the last couple of months we've seen this:

October 4

October 22

December 8

Site number two:
They installed underground support structures daily for months. I'm not sure how there can be much space between them based on the number.
September 17

They constantly moved around steel plates so the equipment wouldn't sink.

October 4

Then it started to rain a little here. 

October 29

When the rains got serious end of November, all of the equipment and people disappeared and we were left with this lovely lake suitable for mosquitoes.

December 8

A pump has been installed, but they have to pump the water out uphill into our back alley. Maybe construction on this site is on hold until the rains stop next April?

Site number three:

This one is making the best progress now, but this project was on hold for more than 5 years. They do desperately need it. It's in the police parking lot and when they have events, and lately there are several a week, the various guests park on both sides of every roadway around here, illegally and it really jams of the traffic trying to get away from our apartment. I read this will hold 400 cars and even more scooters. It just doesn't look that large from my vantage point, but I hope it works out.

 September 17

 October 9

 October 22

December 8

Holiday Decor

The first post after the long drought is about holiday decor. It's been so long since I've written that I never posted this great shot of Halloween decorations at one of our Saturday malls for walking, lunch, coffee, etc.

And now let's jump to Christmas?  Well, to be honest, I put up our two trees (why we have 2 trees is covered in a post a long time ago!) very early so I could enjoy them before taking off to spend the holidays with family. Also, I had made 3 ornaments and I was itching to hang them on a tree. Photos in a later blog. Tree one (which is lightly flocked):

Tree 2 had a problem with the built in lights so I decided to remove them all and just use an add on strand or two. Whoa! I had no idea there were so many clips holding these wires to the branches. I worked for a while with my bare hands trying not to break the clips. After a while, my hands were getting sore, so  I switched to pliers and stopped caring if I damaged the clips.

Removing all of the clips wasn't easy, but the end result is lovely. The multi-color strand we got has 8 settings. One just sort of twinkles. It's really pretty though not in strong daylight. I took these shots so I have them to show potential buyers when I sell these eventually.

It's been a long time...

This might have been the longest time period without news from us. Much of my time has been consumed with the American Women's Association (AWA). You may remember I am secretary again. Our now former President resigned to take up a great business opportunity she has been offered so our Treasurer agreed to finish the President's term.  Enough said on that subject.

I am back in the consultant chair again helping another new President. I have a lot of information and experience others just haven't yet acquired I guess. Anyway, many, many hours are dedicated to helping the President and helping the organization as best as I can. The other day I tried to take one day fully off from AWA and the President panicked and thought she'd done something to offend me. She asked that next time I try to take the day off, please tell her. Ok. I can do that.

To add to the work load, the British Women's Association and the Asociacion IberoAmericana will be using our center.  Several months of efforts had both organizations holding huge garage sales to sell off furniture and accessories so we could combine into one space. As it turns out, both Ibu Tin and Pak Rapiudin (my driver- Oky is with Brad during the week) got great steals on cabinets we sold off. Basically I bought them because I give each of them cash to spend when we have these sales. Rap Rapiudin arranged to get a truck and they worked out picking up the furniture and delivering it to their respective homes. A new lease had to be signed and work was done on the center.

BWA is splitting costs per a shared lease and AIA will pay a usage fee. All of the organizations are struggling with lower memberships as so many oil and gas companies have removed employees from the area. Everyone is looking to cut costs while still providing everything their members need. So, BWA has moved in and will have 2 weekdays as theirs. We will have 2 weekdays as ours and AIA will rent one weekday a week.  The Canadian Women's  Association will also rent our space occasionally. Weekends are to be negotiated as needed. Contracts with sponsors, our paid staff ( security, household, bookkeeper) contracts all had come up for renewal.  I did some work on our website and new members can now join online!  I've streamlined proposals for activities/programs/events and all of that is online as well. I even helped with a cash count one day. I don't like counting money in a hurry! I work at the front desk and train anyone willing to work it. I could go on and on.

You are probably saying to yourself, "No wonder she's had no time to post to the blog!" (And the above is just a part of it!)