2016
Ubud Calling Again
18 October 2016
My friend Sia writes that she does not know where I get all my energy from. Do I make these emails sound like I am constantly on the go? Alas the truth is, between occasional activities, visitors, lap swimming, dinner outings I need to take naps in the air conditioning. Am actually often drained of energy entirely, especially on these hot, hot days - wonder how I am going to make it through the long days of the writers festival next week, with all the running up and down between venues it entails. But am so looking forward to it. Adrenalin will keep me going. All the events I am involved directly with are on the first afternoon, virtually one after the other - the panel on Indonesian writers, then the interview with Ian Burnet, then immediately after, the official opening of the Black Armada Exhibition (no news on the permit yet!!) No afternoon nap for me that day!
Sunday's activity, besides a life-saving swim (Jazz is doing laps with me and Josh - an excellent little swimmer), was a late afternoon one year-old's birthday party. Dave's baby, Cody. They live just across the road. Well, it was like no other party I have ever been to except perhaps for one of Anoushka's famous themed events which she creates entirely herself (e.g. a Bollywood baby shower!). We were all invited. This party for Cody was for about 30 kids and their parents - mostly bulé fathers and Javanese mothers - very sophisticated women dressed to the nines. The whole affair was set up and catered for by a party company who must have come in and transformed the whole place. The pool deck became a playground with plastic play equipment. There were fancy blue and white balloons everywhere and helium-filled cartoon balloon animals weighted down in the pool and on the deck. Cody's name up there in balloons too. The cake was a three-tier Curious George (story book character) masterpiece. I took over the cutting from Dave who was trying to do it with one hand while holding Cody in the other, serving it out to a horde of demanding kids. Delicious too! Food was a vast catered tray of Indonesian goodies surrounding a cone of yellow rice- a selamatan - traditional rite of passage feast - in a very untraditional setting. There was a magician for the kids, two piñatas laden with sweets to be bashed with a stick until they spilled their guts- Jasmin's hefty blows dealt with one, but the hordes descending on the sweets left none for her! Josh lasted less than half an hour in this alien environment, but I stayed on for a few hours, mostly observing the crowd, as no one much seemed interested in engaging me in conversation, until Dewi Besar and her Irish husband Coonagh, whom I've known for years, arrived. Dewi used to live in Petra's house and go out with Dave back then. Known as Big Dewi to distinguish her from Petra's daughter, Dewi Kecil (Little Dewi), Jasmin's sister. Dewi Besar and her kids always came to Jasmin's birthday parties when I ran them all those years (ages 1 to 7) - very amateurish home-made affairs, with the local Balinese neighbours' kids, compared to this spectacle. Yesterday the biggest spectacle of all was provided by Mother Nature. The palm-covered ridge across the gorge below Dave's place seemed to catch fire soon after dark. I have never seen a bushfire in Bali, but that is the first thing an Australian thinks of when the bush glows red. But it was the full moon rising. Wow! And I did not have my camera for this spectacle or any of the spectacles of the afternoon's extravaganza. Waiting on Dave's FB posts to Josh - there was a professional photographer there. Jazz had a ball, although she was by far the oldest kid there. Was great with helping the littlies on the play equipment. And she threw herself into the magic show. She snaffled several of the helium balloons and brought them home to inhale the gas and talk like a chipmunk - I was somewhat concerned but Josh assured me it is harmless! Oh yes, every kid got a gift in an elegant beribboned cardboard bag of a Curious George-emblazoned white towel.
Enough of kids. On to the grown ups. Have just got word that ABC Radio National has put up the Crossing Boundaries website on the Indonesian writers that their Books and Arts program are going to feature in broadcasts in the coming months- and then the audio podcasts will go up too. Here is the link to the nine stories, three of which I translated. (Tears, The Groom's Price and Mother's Heaven)
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/features/crossing-boundaries/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-17/crossing-boundaries-new-voices-from-indonesia/7929946
This second link is the introduction by the presenter Michael Cathcart who will be here at the Writers Festival. He will be on the same panel as me. It will be chaired by my friend Pam Allen, herself a highly experienced translator and specialist on Indonesian literature. One of the two Indonesian writers on the panel is the author of one of the stories I did for this year's anthology, “The Dancer”, Royyan Julian. A truly astounding work.
Yesterday Josh and I made yet another attempt to submit Jasmin's passport renewal forms at the Consulate in Denpasar. This time, at last, we got the paper work all correct. (Previous attempts in Australia and here in Bali had been rejected. We had used blue ink and not black, someone signed with a tiny line outside the box - and in one case, my witnessing Petra's signature when I am a relative!) All safely submitted now. But what a degrading, impersonal experience it is - no warm Aussie welcome here. Huge security set up with four officers to frisk you, X-ray you and your bag, check your clothes for explosive material, take your phone away, etc. Have to pass through several steel doors then you deal with an admin officer behind sheet glass. I hate the way our world works now. I remember years ago visiting the old Oz consulate here where you just walked up the garden path into the consul's house-cum-office and sat down at a table with him.
From there I took a taxi right across the city (Denpasar is a city these days! Horrific traffic) to Canggu on the other side to see some friends, Denny and Axel, visiting from Holland. I missed seeing them in Den Haag back in May as they were out of town the very week I was there, but wonderful to catch up with them here. They are staying in a lovely little guesthouse called Papaya. We sat round a table talking for hours while the staff made us black rice pudding and later battered pisang goreng, every Indonesian's favourite snack - fried bananas, fresh from the pan, crunchy on the outside. Yum! After a refreshing swim I set out on the long taxi ride to Ubud through all that Denpasar traffic again. The driver was a gorgeous young university student from Flores, so of course, having just been to Flores, I was keen to talk with him.
Other highlights of the last few days include dinner (Kamasan by moonlight again) with Diana Darling. A regular get together whenever I am in town. Lots of "shop" talk regarding our work as translator (me) and editor and writer (her) and the coming festival. She is on a panel commemorating Bali's most famous bulé, Madé Wijaya (Michel White) who died suddenly in Sydney recently. I will certainly go to that session- sure to be some colourful stories.
A photo free email. I am slacking. No clicking of iPhone camera lately. If I had attempted a commemorative photo of the Oz consulate I would probably have been shot.
One nostalgia pic that Anoushka just sent to me. Her glorious wedding in Bali in 2004 that Josh and I attended.
Sunday's activity, besides a life-saving swim (Jazz is doing laps with me and Josh - an excellent little swimmer), was a late afternoon one year-old's birthday party. Dave's baby, Cody. They live just across the road. Well, it was like no other party I have ever been to except perhaps for one of Anoushka's famous themed events which she creates entirely herself (e.g. a Bollywood baby shower!). We were all invited. This party for Cody was for about 30 kids and their parents - mostly bulé fathers and Javanese mothers - very sophisticated women dressed to the nines. The whole affair was set up and catered for by a party company who must have come in and transformed the whole place. The pool deck became a playground with plastic play equipment. There were fancy blue and white balloons everywhere and helium-filled cartoon balloon animals weighted down in the pool and on the deck. Cody's name up there in balloons too. The cake was a three-tier Curious George (story book character) masterpiece. I took over the cutting from Dave who was trying to do it with one hand while holding Cody in the other, serving it out to a horde of demanding kids. Delicious too! Food was a vast catered tray of Indonesian goodies surrounding a cone of yellow rice- a selamatan - traditional rite of passage feast - in a very untraditional setting. There was a magician for the kids, two piñatas laden with sweets to be bashed with a stick until they spilled their guts- Jasmin's hefty blows dealt with one, but the hordes descending on the sweets left none for her! Josh lasted less than half an hour in this alien environment, but I stayed on for a few hours, mostly observing the crowd, as no one much seemed interested in engaging me in conversation, until Dewi Besar and her Irish husband Coonagh, whom I've known for years, arrived. Dewi used to live in Petra's house and go out with Dave back then. Known as Big Dewi to distinguish her from Petra's daughter, Dewi Kecil (Little Dewi), Jasmin's sister. Dewi Besar and her kids always came to Jasmin's birthday parties when I ran them all those years (ages 1 to 7) - very amateurish home-made affairs, with the local Balinese neighbours' kids, compared to this spectacle. Yesterday the biggest spectacle of all was provided by Mother Nature. The palm-covered ridge across the gorge below Dave's place seemed to catch fire soon after dark. I have never seen a bushfire in Bali, but that is the first thing an Australian thinks of when the bush glows red. But it was the full moon rising. Wow! And I did not have my camera for this spectacle or any of the spectacles of the afternoon's extravaganza. Waiting on Dave's FB posts to Josh - there was a professional photographer there. Jazz had a ball, although she was by far the oldest kid there. Was great with helping the littlies on the play equipment. And she threw herself into the magic show. She snaffled several of the helium balloons and brought them home to inhale the gas and talk like a chipmunk - I was somewhat concerned but Josh assured me it is harmless! Oh yes, every kid got a gift in an elegant beribboned cardboard bag of a Curious George-emblazoned white towel.
Enough of kids. On to the grown ups. Have just got word that ABC Radio National has put up the Crossing Boundaries website on the Indonesian writers that their Books and Arts program are going to feature in broadcasts in the coming months- and then the audio podcasts will go up too. Here is the link to the nine stories, three of which I translated. (Tears, The Groom's Price and Mother's Heaven)
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/features/crossing-boundaries/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-17/crossing-boundaries-new-voices-from-indonesia/7929946
This second link is the introduction by the presenter Michael Cathcart who will be here at the Writers Festival. He will be on the same panel as me. It will be chaired by my friend Pam Allen, herself a highly experienced translator and specialist on Indonesian literature. One of the two Indonesian writers on the panel is the author of one of the stories I did for this year's anthology, “The Dancer”, Royyan Julian. A truly astounding work.
Yesterday Josh and I made yet another attempt to submit Jasmin's passport renewal forms at the Consulate in Denpasar. This time, at last, we got the paper work all correct. (Previous attempts in Australia and here in Bali had been rejected. We had used blue ink and not black, someone signed with a tiny line outside the box - and in one case, my witnessing Petra's signature when I am a relative!) All safely submitted now. But what a degrading, impersonal experience it is - no warm Aussie welcome here. Huge security set up with four officers to frisk you, X-ray you and your bag, check your clothes for explosive material, take your phone away, etc. Have to pass through several steel doors then you deal with an admin officer behind sheet glass. I hate the way our world works now. I remember years ago visiting the old Oz consulate here where you just walked up the garden path into the consul's house-cum-office and sat down at a table with him.
From there I took a taxi right across the city (Denpasar is a city these days! Horrific traffic) to Canggu on the other side to see some friends, Denny and Axel, visiting from Holland. I missed seeing them in Den Haag back in May as they were out of town the very week I was there, but wonderful to catch up with them here. They are staying in a lovely little guesthouse called Papaya. We sat round a table talking for hours while the staff made us black rice pudding and later battered pisang goreng, every Indonesian's favourite snack - fried bananas, fresh from the pan, crunchy on the outside. Yum! After a refreshing swim I set out on the long taxi ride to Ubud through all that Denpasar traffic again. The driver was a gorgeous young university student from Flores, so of course, having just been to Flores, I was keen to talk with him.
Other highlights of the last few days include dinner (Kamasan by moonlight again) with Diana Darling. A regular get together whenever I am in town. Lots of "shop" talk regarding our work as translator (me) and editor and writer (her) and the coming festival. She is on a panel commemorating Bali's most famous bulé, Madé Wijaya (Michel White) who died suddenly in Sydney recently. I will certainly go to that session- sure to be some colourful stories.
A photo free email. I am slacking. No clicking of iPhone camera lately. If I had attempted a commemorative photo of the Oz consulate I would probably have been shot.
One nostalgia pic that Anoushka just sent to me. Her glorious wedding in Bali in 2004 that Josh and I attended.