Paid off a bunch of bills, welcome home indeed. This is a brief respite before travellers and visitors return. Indeed, much of the afternoon was spent arranging flights for an uncle who will fly through Kuala Lumpur in March. I also rather regretfully told a much beloved aunt that I am not in town this […]
More success
This morning we went to Brahma Tirta, an art studio I had, after some really vigorous sleuthing, as the place where a batik wall hanging originated. I had seen this wall hanging in a shop in Bali, lusted after it, but then said nothing as I was not in the market for wall hangings. When […]
Great success
A highly successful morning. After a great deal of research and mulling I had found that a good place to buy batik was Bima Sakti, a women’s collective near the new royal cemetary of Imogiri. So we went there this morning and found ourselves in a really lovely village amidst the hills, with rice fields […]
Long drive
Another visit to Borobudur this morning, and again the school groups were in full swing. I suppose I can’t begrudge them, though I certainly got very annoyed at a little phalanx of Buddhists: all white, dressed in flowing robes, with fixed, desperate expressions (not even the la-la-enlightenment one saw in Ubud), circling the stupa and […]
Divine eggstacy
After the GF and his mother arose we booked ourselves a car to take us to the Gereja Ayam, a place I have wanted to visit ever since I first heard about it. Many years ago, a man had a vision, telling him to build a church for the lord. The church would be in […]
Big old thing
We arrived in Jogja last night after circling the airport for what felt like a really long time. Torrential rain had closed the airport. It also closed up the streets, so it was a long, slow drive to Borobudur where we were staying in a hotel attached to the site itself. It was very dark […]
Rush
We leave for Yogyakarta today, earlier than I thought. The flight is at 1500; I had thought we were to leave for the airport then. Of course, some work has come in and I won’t finish before leaving, so my computer accompanies me so I can work on the flight. I am not sure what […]
Too much travelling
A long-expected and somewhat dreaded phone call today – nothing disastrous or upsetting, but I have to go to Lahore as soon as possible to sign some documents that must be done in person. I spent the evening trying to work out when I could go. At first it seemed that I would have to […]
Again, get out
Rewatched Get Out. What a fantastic film. This time, of course, I watched it knowing what was to come, having thought about it for many months and read other people’s thoughts, so it was interesting to see how it was all put together. I also noticed the careful, confident ratcheting up of absurdity this time, […]
Tooth drawingly painful
I am trying to complete an application for a consultancy for which I am pre-eminently qualified, for which I have examples and even pre-written text answering to each point, and it still feels like hell.