Winding Down...

We are enjoying our new temporary home and it’s so nice to have a lovely tropical garden complete with little plunge pool to relax in – talk about spoilt!!  We have had the place to ourselves for the past two weeks and are now sharing it with another two guests.  They have the room at the front and we have a room at the back both with separate bathrooms and sharing the kitchen.  It works well, there’s enough space that we don’t feel like we’re in each others hair and we’ve only got another 10 days and we’re outta here in any case.

Our room

  

We had a lovely weekend with the boys two weeks ago.  They loved the new place and frolicked in the pool for hours.   They have become the best of friends and get on so well together.

 
On the Sunday we hired a car, actually it was pretty rough and ready – no air con, no handbrake, no suspension. But with the windows wound down and hanging on tightly it got us from A to B – or Tulamben to Tirta Gangga to Tianyar and back so that was the main thing!  

Tirta Gangga was beautiful.  It used to be a Palace but it’s now public pools, restaurant and accommodation set in beautiful water filled grounds.  

 










We were there around five hours and the boys loved it.  They are like fish, they were in the water the whole time only stopping for half an hour to have some lunch and then back again.  There were little fish in the pools and they were having fun catching a few and putting them in an empty water bottle.  We made sure they went back in the water before we left.  They were dive bombing each other and Brent (the biggest kid of all) and we were pushing each other in and splashing around, it was great fun.

We managed to make it back to see “The Game” (for those of you who know not what I’m referring to, the Rugby World Cup Final between NZ and France of course!).  We were lucky to have Wayan’s Restaurant to ourselves and Wayan was happy to put the sports channel on for us.  We thought the boys would be bored as they are football (soccer) fans but they really enjoyed the game and Yogi in particular was enthralled by the size of the men and their muscles!  They loved watching the crashing tackles and kicking.  As we all know, it was a pretty average game for a final but we got the right result so that’s all that matters, isn’t it.  I suppose the NZ sports channels are still picking it to pieces as I write two weeks later…

Jeremiah and Sophie from my Writer’s Retreat came for a visit to the Yayasan last week.  It was so good to see them and show them in person what I had been talking about.  The children were great, they all came up to them and said “Hello, what is your name?  My name is…”  They spoke clearly and some asked where Jeremiah and Sophie were from as well, I was really proud of them.  Syda (also from the retreat) and her friend Pablo called in to see me as well but they unfortunately had to keep moving so didn’t manage to get to the Yayasan.  

With only two weekends left in Tulamben (for me) we went for a ride into the country side towards Mt Agung last weekend.  It’s so dry.  Actually, it’s beyond dry, it’s just dirt.  I don’t know how the people that live up that way survive, I really don’t.  There is no pumped water, they have to carry it, from god knows where, it’s harsh and hard and bloody hot!

I have one full week left of teaching and then I head inland to Desa Kurta (40mins from Ubud) to do a final three day Heart Mastery workshop with Rick.  Then I’m back on Monday 14^th November to pick up Brent and say goodbye to the children.  I’m dreading it, I know I’ll be a mess, but that's ok.