I Love The Way You Are Baby - Day 8

Modest Mouse - The world at large

Jewelry class today at Chez Monique ( I told you we had an agenda at Ubud :0)
Luke was going off to the market with Nurdi to get all the doings for our lunch. Would of loved to have tagged along on that too..never enough time in Ubud!
I hope to one day return to Madu and have some serious lessons from Nurdi, some of her dishes are just fantastic.

The serenity of Madu 

Whilst we were having a drink and a snack at Nomads the previous day, I had asked the waiter for some directions to Chez Monique.
I knew we were in the vicinity of the Jl but still hadn't spotted it. He had waved us in the right direction and on our walk back we checked out the multitude of signs pointing up that Jl but no Chez sign.

We got the Villa driver to give us a lift to the class in the morning and I'm glad we did or I would have arrived a sweaty mess. I do hills unhappily .

We found the small sign out the front of what looked like a residence and we wandered on in and down the winding path. 

We did have moments of uncertainty, as to whether we had the right place. The few people we encountered didn't want to make eye contact which I guess is understandable when they see another troop of Westerners wandering on through. Nobody was stopping us so we just kept on walking.

When we came to what looked like a classroom there was another Aussie family lounging about having just finished a class and they confirmed that we had the right place.
The staff were doing the no eye contact thing, understandable again when they didn't have much Bahasa Ingris.

THEN Sunarta came forth from a room out the back :0) Absolutely beaming, just have a look at that smile, with arms outstretched and wanting to hug everyone. 

Phew we had made contact.

He got everyone sorted at a work table and has folders full of designs to choose form.

 I had come with a plan and knew exactly what I wanted .

I have a silver ring that I bought on Lombok a couple of years back, which I love. 

My husbands ring I gave him for his 21st. gave up the ghost a few years ago. So I thought I would make him a new ring that was similar to my Lombok ring.

The soldering iron is operated with a foot pump.

Whilst the 2 bands of silver that made up the ring were flat I attempted to metal punch the word 'selalu' ('always'in Indo) on one of the bands.

Turns out that jewelry making isn't my calling in life.

I was too soft on the hammering and too hard on the filing. I handed it over to the professional when it became clear I was going to ruin it and he had to keep fixing my mistakes.

I really enjoyed watching Rob's custom made ring being made :0) and I was there every step of the way.

I'm very happy to say it fits him well, sigh of relief, always difficult to buy others rings when they aren't with you.I gave it to him on his arrival in Bali and it hasn't left his finger since.He loves it.

Darn if I had just moved the camera a little to the right I would of captured another winning smile from Sunarta.

Everyone else was much more hands on than me.

Min sketched her own stencil of an arrow.

Matt made himself a ring.

Pam's dragonfly in the making.

Jeepers ,Creepers where'd you get those Peepers Daz!

Oh that's right...from me and Dad ;)

The mind's eye.

Min's arrow pendant, she inscribed 'Et Live' on it (one life).

Peace and Karma Maddie

We all had a great time and came away with mementos we will always treasure.

I know for certain that Daz, Maddie, Min and Rob wear theirs constantly.

You can find them here ...chezmoniquejewelry.com

Last time I looked they were No.1 on TA's activities in Ubud.

Sunarta is very proud of this and when I commented on the lack of signage to his class, he said it was because they had become so popular and didn't need to advertise anymore.

He really is such a nice guy, I can see why his classes are a hit. 

Great with the quick replies to emails too, making  it a breeze to organise.

Very happily walk down them.

Rice drying in the sun.

Has seen better days.

And there's Matt's thumb ring that he made with a horizon on it. Shining brightly.

At the end of the Jl a spa and a cafe also shone brightly. 

Daz and Maddie headed back to the Villa.

Minnie headed up for a foot massage and the rest of us grabbed a tasty beverage whilst we perused the spa menu. 

After our drinks Pam and I decided to just head back for a swim and a chill. Wanting to just relax, could of had something to do with Pam's Margarita being too strong for her and me hating to see waste. 

We had booked Nurdi for a late lunch and this sounded like a great plan.

Lunch was great and I think this is when I fell hard for Nurdi's fried eggplant in kecap manis.

And her sambaal which we all loved especially Luke.

The path to success is to get your hands on some homemade, hand pressed coconut oil. 

This set us on a quest to find ourselves some of that..

After our late lunch it really was time to hit the Ubud market, this being our last day in Ubud!

Pam, Matt and I had been talking massages for days and still hadn't gotten around to it  (Yes I know over a week in Bali and I still hadn't had a massage!) and the XL Sheesha bar hadn't been visited yet either. It was time to tick some things off of the list.

And wouldn't you know the first stall I came across in the market was full of antique (looking) bronze statues. I ended up coming away with a lovely statue of the Goddess Lakshmi. 

The seller told me she is the goddess of food. 

When I later looked here up, she is that and more, being the god of prosperity, wealth, purity, generosity and the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm (definitely someone worth knowing). 

Interesting that the sellers idea of wealth and prosperity is food. Her world is much more innocent than mine

.

She has taken pride of place in our kitchen.

Goddess Lakshmi

She stands about 10in. high and has lots of detail..love it.

After the market we split up. Pam, Matt and I headed off in search of that massage and the others went off to one of Min's favorite places she had found, the second hand book store. 

We were all going to rendezvous at the XL Sheesha bar later.

I'm a fan of the Shangrila Spa and have had many lovely treatments there. We 3 wandered in and they could fit us in, in an hours time so we headed off to poke around in the shops some more. 

I bought a beautiful little hand carved/painted owl. The shop owner here was a real go getter and told us he was the only store that had these little owls. It ended up being one of my favorite purchases of the trip. 

There was a blackout whilst we were there and he broke out the torches so we could continue to shop. We all came away with something special from him.

We found the others at XL which is across the soccer oval from Jl Monkey Forest. I had been trying to locate it during the day with no luck but it's hard to miss at night with it's large purple, neon lit sign.

Luke has spent more than his share of time in the Middle East and the kids all have a sheesha pipe from his travels.

I know it looks illicit but it's just flavored tobacco's smoked through a water pipe and it's more like vapor than smoke that you just kind of roll around in your mouth more than fully inhaling it. 

It comes in flavors like grape, apple, cherry etc..

None of us are smokers and it doesn't do much for me but the kids like it.

We ordered some snacks which were pretty good especially the onion rings. 

I was showing everyone my little owl when the waitress asked where I had bought him and told us it is her family that makes them! 

Her Dad and brother do the carving and she and her Mum paint them. It made him all the more special to me.

Lovely staff in this laid back (literally :) bar. The band was good too, did a nice job of the requests.

Matt and Min stayed on and partied with the band.

It was Min's last night in Bali and she was in a 'fare-welling Bali for now' party mood.

The rest of us toddled off home. I went in search of a DVD store that I had bought some good discs from 7 months ago. 

A couple of very friendly guys who were just hanging around, sitting on the curb, asked what we were looking for and confirmed we were in the right place but the store had shut shop. 

After shootin' the breeze for awhile, one of them offered us some transport and I jumped at it for 20,000 rp. I wasn't looking forward to the walk back but the kids were still on the look out for an electrical store, so Pam and I left them to it. 

Pam wasn't sure about just jumping in, some strange guys van but when I pointed out the Winnie the Pooh headrest covers I think it made her feel a little better about it. 

It made me think that maybe I have become a little blase' about hopping into strange vehicles in Bali.

But then I thought just add it to the long list of other things that I only do when I'm in Bali!

Malam!