the divine island

I returned this morning from an idyllic week in the gorgeous Bali. The plan was to rest, read, sleep, eat and recuperate. Our days were spent waking at 8.30am, doing a yoga class, eating a languid breakfast, drinking tea and freshly squeezed juices, and maybe a snooze or a massage. It was utter bliss.

I made firm friends with the resident pups who made our porch their sunbaking spot. The people working at the village were super sweet and friendly with big open faces and constant, genuine smiles.

We ate fish, fruit and freshly-grown organic vegies from the gardens surrounding our huts. We basked in baths with floating flora, and swam in clear salt water. We had Big Sleeps and watched movies in bed.

I won't forget this place or the people in a hurry.

Top Five Things to do on my holiday

Re-reading High Fidelity has reminded me of this fun game of making Top Fives.

1. Read
I will begin my travels well-equipped with reading material, namely three brand new books (well, not technically brand new; one has been well-loved and lent by a friend; and the other two are from book exchanges). Previously unconsumed by my eagle eyes, for sure. Three books in three weeks - sounds good to me.
2. Sleep - nuff said. I want lots of it. Unencumbered by musings and panicky awakenings a la competitions, events, radio and the half marathon.
3. Write
My Spanish memoirs won't write themselves. "Bars for the Loner in Barcelona" - catchy title, yes, just need to flesh out the other bits. That requires time and a beachside location.
4. Play with key people , familia and godsons
J and I will spend a lot of quality time lolling in the ocean/pool/ Tolkien-esque hut which is our glorious accommodation in Bali for an entire 7 days! Then she'll head off to Paris (que sorpresa!) and I to The River City to re-connect with The Two Godsons; I am sure they have been missing my life guidance and tutelage in my long absence. Oh there is so much to teach those boys; we'll have to resume our reading aloud from Spanish For Beginners, and maybe Will is big enough to get out the cricket set I bought him on his birth?
5. Swim in the ocean
Oh how I have missed this fun activity during my tenure in The Top End. It's truly torturous walking along a sunny foreshore in 35 degree heat, gazing at water the hue of Bombay Sapphire and not being able to hurl yourself into the crystal depths for fear of attack by estuarine reptile, stinging sea life or tropical bacteria... Nothing five days on the Sunshine Coast won't remedy.

life, tennis, dogs

Oh I do want to live beside the sea.

In a big, old house with a garden and a dog or two. I would be kept very busy with writing, yoga, family, friends, gardening, walking the dogs. Maybe I could open a book shop with an old espresso machine to make people coffee as they pore over the dog-eared pages.

Just finished reading The Great Gatsby; devoured in an entire weekend. The protagonists whose lives Scott Fitzgerald chronicles seem so glamourous and exciting. The bejewelled upperclass, and all their demons and eccentricities. Summer nights spent lazing in glowing garden parties, drinking mint juleps (they sound divine, even though I don’t know what exactly they are), taking drives as collectives to ‘town’ aka New York, and sitting around while listening to someone play the piano. I ran along a street yesterday and saw a house, set back off the road, with a tennis court out the front and two white-clad couples sitting at a table nearby drinking lemonade, assumedly after a few balmy sets. *Note appendum to my seaside abode dream: tennis court. No matter how old and run-down, it’ll add to the romance of it all.

Note Kent Nerburn in Road Angels: “I've watched the light go out of too many of my friends' eyes as their lives turned from a crazy garden of weeds and wildflowers to a well-manicured lawn. I'm not ready for that yet. I need 'bears behind trees' – surprises in life that are bigger than a plugged sewer line or an unexpected finance charge on my credit card ... If I don't have them, my life becomes just a long-term maintenance project.”

Leaving work with Fi

After gently coercing her to leave work on time, we broke the speed limit along Bagot Road, headed for Casuarina. Parking near Rapid Creek bridge, we walked towards the beach with a collective exhale. The sun was starting its daily descent, becoming more and more luminescent as it performs its nightly glowing show for all who are watching-the-west.

Fresh sea air, no shoes, sand between our toes, basking in the warmth of the sunset; my once-furrowed brow seems calm and my mind slowly clears. Smiling walkers with animated dogs off leashes. Fishos with their shorts rolled up wallowing in the shallows.

We made plans and strategems for the future. We solved problems. We resolved to leave work on time more often.