2016
Cop shop and Girls Galore
16 October 2016
Let's start with the girls! A trio of them cavorting joyfully around the garden and in the pool today. Aisha and Amira came to spend the day with Jasmin while Anoushka and I settled on the verandah for a marathon chat session. Fun for young and old - (me being the old). Anoushka used to tutor Josh for his Indonesian correspondence studies when he was at high school (he wouldn't let me do it) so they have known each other forever too. Josh at age 10 came on that school trip in 1989 with Noush too, and a dozen other teenage girls, as you read in my last email.
The girls enjoyed their visit to Pelangi school for Jazz's class presentation on the human body - small groups in turn with their home-made graphics explaining all the body's systems - (though not the reproductive system!) Not sure about the RespirAtory system -American pronunciation??? Balloons for lungs. They were very funny and at the same time quite informative. Listed and acted out all the ways one can keep the systems healthy - what not to eat, etc. - (we had just received an email from the school regarding the coming Halloween celebrations, urging parents to donate "LOTS of candy"!! Mixed messages here!) Aisha is writing up her Bali trip on an iPad app and found ten differences between this Bali (albeit private) school and an Australian school - e.g. taking shoes off outside the classroom. We met the principal on our way out and Jazz's former teacher, and both were very positive about Jazz's development. The school visit was a good experience all round.
The school uniform is the blue Pelangi t-shirt and any "bottoms" the kid chooses to wear.
The school assembly was followed, for me, by the visit to the police station. I met Ketut from the Agung Rai Museum where the Black Armada exhibition will be held, and we drove to the station together. The admin office was very helpful but it was all very drawn out. There followed almost two hours of paperwork, at the end of which I found we had barely begun the process of obtaining the necessary permit to hold an event. All the letters and samples of the display panels, guest list for the opening, etc. were regarded as "attachments" and a formal letter to the police requesting the permit was required. We were about to be sent way to obtain this when I suggested we write it there and then - good idea! When Ketut and the officer came back with the letter for me to sign it was stating that this was a joint Australian Consulate and Writers Festival event, when the stream of emails over recent days included strongly worded messages both from the Consul and the Festival stating this was NOT their event. I re-worded the whole thing as an Australian Maritime Museum and Agung Rai Museum joint enterprise and got the consulate off the letterhead. I signed the letter on behalf of the Exhibitions Director of the Maritime Museum whose letter was one of the attachments - no one questioned my authority to do so. Then we had to write in Indonesian a synopsis of the 20 minute film made in 1946 which will be showing - (I neglected to tell them the Dutch filmmaker was a communist) - then we had to make up a list of speakers and the order of ceremony for the Opening Night. A good thing I was there! And that I speak Indonesian. I foolishly thought they'd put a stamp on it and we'd walk out with our permit, but no! All the paperwork has to be vetted by the Ubud police chief, and once we get the go-ahead, duplicates have to be taken to the Regional Police HQ in Gianyar, a town some 15-20ks from here and we go through it all again. I certainly hope it all happens in time! The opening is 27th. Another trip with Ketut next week - hopefully it will be next week!
Got home eventually, exhausted by the heat. No rain for days, just when we had got used to its daily cooling down effect! An afternoon nap restored me sufficiently to consider going to Friday Night Trivia at the nearby Fly Cafe - always fun and great for one's general knowledge - now I know Jupiter has 67 moons and British passports used to be dark blue, but are now magenta. And after human beings, whales are the most widely-distributed creature on the planet. I joined a table of expats I have got to know on previous occasions and was welcomed back as if I was there just last week with them. We did not win!
Got home eventually, exhausted by the heat. No rain for days, just when we had got used to its daily cooling down effect! An afternoon nap restored me sufficiently to consider going to Friday Night Trivia at the nearby Fly Cafe - always fun and great for one's general knowledge - now I know Jupiter has 67 moons and British passports used to be dark blue, but are now magenta. And after human beings, whales are the most widely-distributed creature on the planet. I joined a table of expats I have got to know on previous occasions and was welcomed back as if I was there just last week with them. We did not win!