hi friends,
hope you are all well. here i am after couple of silent months with my “little update”. read on or just look at some pics.
we spent our last weeks in bali (may and june) searching for a new house.
last year dan had rented first house he saw – so we were not entirely prepared for the pitfalls of looking for a new place to stay in this particular country. endless hours looking trough various housing web pages, Facebook housing , talking to friends and friends of friends who knew someone whose second cousin was renting his wife place.. ((-; maybe not so much different than looking for a house elsewhere. the string of house visits was a bit exhausting – never entirely sure whether the person was going to show up, whether a place described as “a peaceful haven in the middle of nature” would have a huge construction site on the very edge of property or a hungry python living in the basement, whether (after you look around and really like the place ) they’ll inform you – NO DOGS – even if you told them beforehand you have got 2.. it was also inspiring as we met some cool people we wouldn’t otherwise came across – like Mr. Lawrence Blair who was quite incredible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Blair , if you are into documentaries and would like to see what Indonesia looked like couple of decades ago, check his series Ring of Fire – http://www.indonesianodyssey.co.uk definitely worth watching!
after much searching we finally found what we wanted, agreed on terms with (what seemed to be) our nice new landlord and really felt relieved that the search was over. lulled into complacency we really didn’t expect (silly us..) a call 2 weeks later, informing us that he changed his mind.. no reason given. hm. not to bore you – we managed to find another cool house later and are supposed to move in September. will let you know how that goes ((-;
dear visitors from dubai graced our place just before we left for summer – dom and linda were super happy to show their friends around, share jungle and rice paddy walks, snorkelling, puppy training, puppy saving, dry ice experiments and endless talks. and we were also happy to torture our friends with exercise and healthy food (with an occasional beer thrown into the mix). some serious uphill scooter driving (resulting in abandoning a broken scooter alongside the road:-) was also part of program.
kids and i left on 1st july, leaving dan – who mentioned a need to work?!? – behind. luckily he joined us soon after. we loved being back in prague, seeing family and our loved friends, our ancient cat oskar including. our (sometimes super hot and sometimes freezing cold) summer as usually consisted of endless chats, breakfasts, lunches and dinners with friends (in dan’s case even a weekend in the countryside with his KINDY classmates!), little trips, sightseeing and, especially for me, yoga. and of course i have to mention all the food we ate in 5 weeks.. and prosecco we drank ..
our prague summer ended with a bit of a shock as linda was diagnosed with (what we hope is a minor) cardiac arrhythmia. still more tests pending but i’m sure not only those of you who are parents themselves can understand our concern. but.. worry is not good for the heart so we are all doing our best not to worry.
dan stopped by in dubai on his way from/to bali and managed to see some of you – while dealing with a rather nasty surprise that was awaiting quietly there.. a little advice for dubai friends – make sure your helper REALLY has a new visa/work permit in someone else’s name before you leave the country. cancelling her visa is not enough. otherwise be prepared to let your bank account bleed or at least having your blood pressure rising to dangerous levels while you chase all the docs/people involved.
coming back to bali felt really good. our puppy girls went completely crazy and gracefully forgave us our absence. kitty was a bit annoyed as she wasn’t allowed to sleep in bed in our absence.. we had one day to recover before the school began. linda started grade 4 with some of her old friends, already making friendships with new kids from all over the world. dom entered into grade 8, last year of middle school. immediately jumping into soccer season, playing his first matches even before the jet lag wore off (-;
we got our first guests of the season soon after we arrived – good excuse to check out all our favourite spots (especially restaurants but jungle and rice paddy walks too 😉 and have some inspiring conversations. we have also booked some power/water/gas cuts so they can get full experience! nothing better than a candlelit dinner brought in (-;
we plunged into our bali life head first – with some super important ceremonies at the very start of our school year. we have experienced saraswati day (the goddess of knowledge) before – being widely celebrated in every school on bali – but resi gana ceremony (purification ceremony including animal sacrifice) has left us rather.. well.. puzzled. welcome to bali!
lots of love to all of you and if you have some time to spare, we would love to hear from you!
jarka
xx