Happiest Year of the Water Tiger and a little report from ‘paradise’ – #24

dearest friends far and near!


it has been a while! sitting at my desk in our living room with no walls listening to the super loud cicadas and distant sounds of dogs barking (mine are sleeping on a sun bed catching their daily dose of vitamin D) i’m thinking of what you guys are doing. social media sometimes sucks but i got a glimpse of some of you skiing, walking in the fantastic forests of Massachusetts and Vermont, putting on more and more layers or enjoying yourselves on beaches, celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, your kids and pets… we are missing you – AND the winter – a lot! i also see a lot of judgment and divisiveness on various topics and that just makes me wanna have a digital detox. time for vipassana!

sunrise trek to mount abang 

i wonder which detox is easier – the physical or the digital. my panchakarma last february was great, especially once it was over! let’s just say the last five days were much better than the first ten. it made me miss india a lot, although here in bali we have a fantastic Ayurvedic place which i highly recommend: Amrtasiddhi. dan followed in my footsteps and did his detox too. he came home 10 years younger (-;

poor dan forced to read all my books

last year was pretty good for us, with school and bali mostly open and chilled. we decided to explore Indonesia a bit more and chose the mysterious island of Sumba. some of you might remember that dan visited this island in the past with a bunch of friends. chain of unfortunate events (including the forbidden cave curse) resulted in a spectacular shipwreck that everyone thank god survived, more by luck than anything else. so we were really looking forward to go! Sumba hasn’t disappointed us. first dominik refused to go. then, dan had a (minor) motorbike accident. the day before the intended departure dan had an epic fall head first in a little river while running. no injury though. then linda had a panic attack while having a pre-flight covid test. on the way from testing.. dan (who never falls) fell into a ditch and destroyed his toes and a knee.. and i was listening to my favourite podcast by Dr. Svoboda – the topic was ‘omens’… so the question was – what is Sumba trying to tell us?!? we spent the evening stressing about it. doesn’t Sumba want us? is it a sign we shouldn’t leave dom on his own? by that point it was clear dan can’t go, so is it safe for linda and i to go alone? Sumba has quite a reputation – most assassins in Indonesia are apparently born there – not entirely sure if this info was in any way relevant.. you can imagine the discussion. i think we really live here too long because there was no rationality in our decision making process. at the end another pangolin visited our garden and i took it as a good omen! off we went the next morning. i also felt it’s good to show linda that we don’t always need a man with us on our exciting travels ((-; 

our oracle/s
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Between 2 Worlds – #15

hi everyone,

it’s been a while since my last blog and i’m kind of wondering whether to write at all in my current moaning state (-;

but let’s start with something positive! may and june where pretty good. there were so many events at school that at some point i actually felt like i was living there.. i think most parents can attest to this end of year frenzy. i was especially intrigued by the final project of the green school middle school (including dominik) –  the so called quest. kids are engaged in a project of their own choice for couple of months and finally at the end of the year (and their middle school life) they present it in a TED talk style. i was absolutely amazed by the whole grade 8 class and their presentations – and especially by 4 local kids who were invited to join the project and did it with a great aplomb. the topics where super interesting, ranging from ecological/sustainability projects (like making surf fins from rubbish, creating non-toxic eraser from natural rubber etc) to deeply personal quests (how to deal with the death of your parent, self-hate etc) and the deliverance astonishing. dominik dedicated the project to his love of books – if your kids are interested in books and would like some recommendations you can check out his website: Wonders of Reading

dom in bali – credits to Ken Kochey

dom in prague (-;

the ceremony to finish the middle school was very moving and definitely one of the reasons i love green school – listening to khalil gibrain’s on children didn’t leave one eye dry! a little reminder if you haven’t read the prophet for a while..

and high school life here we come.. can’t believe i have a kid that goes to high school! can i feel any older than that???

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Garbage, Rain and Happiness – #11

hello from the island,

where the rainy season is at its fullest and it rains as i have never experienced it before. the noise is so loud that we don’t hear each other, everything is even damper than usually, washing never seems to dry, roof is leaking and the swimming pool is overflowing. some parts of the island were hit by floods and landslides, my kindle went mouldy (can you imagine that?!?) and i have experienced the rare moment of pure bliss while doing my practice on our porch – under the roof but so close to the raging storm i felt part of it.  i love the rain – not sure if that’s due to 8 years in the desert or because i don’t feel guilty doing nothing while the nature is going wild.. apart from the beauty of the rain we are hit by another yearly ‘natural phenomenon’ – garbage season. i didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when i saw this sign:

Balinese creativity at its worst

as i have said before, the situation is appalling. all the rubbish thrown into the forests, rivers, by the roads.. usually at least semi-hidden from us all is brought to light – and to the ocean – by the torrents of rain. it ends up at the beaches that are no longer beautiful. sad is not a word to describe it. we humans are such a disaster for this planet. Continue reading “Garbage, Rain and Happiness – #11”

Back to Bali – #8

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 ((-;

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