My mobile now is out of order.

I only read my friend’s email this morning. It has caused me to have nice dinner in a fine dine Italian restaurant in a big chain five-star hotel in Nusa Dua last night. When I met my Indian friend family a few days ago, we promised to let each other know if something cancels our appointment. I didn’t hear from them and of course I let them know that I was on my way.

Anyway, I don’t know what happened but I didn’t get any message in the reception so I had no idea how to find them in such a big hotel. I called their room three times and no answer. Later I found out in the email they were waiting for me at the Club Lounge. How would I know? Sitting by myself in the restaurant, I was pondering those days without cell phone that I survived a pretty smooth dating in my twenties. How did I do it that now I could not do? Or, people could not do it anymore. We have depended on our communication device so much that we lose our creativity to connect in ‘the jungle.’

I had no complaint. It’s just nice to be in different ‘island’ for a while. Nusa Dua and Jimbaran areas are like different island to me because of different atmosphere and vegetation. Later I sat with drivers and guides picking up hotel guests on road borders in airport waiting for a friend to arrive. Bali has really nice weather these days. I didn’t feel December in Bali last night, the breeze was cooler like end of winter in Bali in September. The sky was so clear so it was really nice to sit in open air.

Thinking that my friend might have thought I have a Blackberry that I could read his email real time, I smiled. Many people believe I use one. Knowing that I don’t use one, they laughed at me considering I’m stingy. I am stingy when it comes to updating cell phone to the latest model. Yes. I don’t like to say but I simply have ‘that feeling’ when it comes to BB (popular term for ‘that’). In my view, BB has changed people's behavior. They connect with virtual friends more than with people around them. In Jakarta it’s so easy to spot such scene where people sit together but all are busy with their device. And more, the other day, a friend told us via Facebook that he plans to get a low-priced computer to put in his helper quarter as the helpers want to... Facebook-ing. Oh wow!

Go to extremes, which I should choose? Engaging more with virtual friends via any device or disengaging almost completely like some?

I like real friends by keeping virtual ones. Like my friend said… Being a purist - insist on absolute adherence to traditional rules. I’m into that now.

Jakarta scene I caught last July.

Txs 4 yest jenk..

It took some time for me to comprehend what my friend trying to tell me. Oh ok. Sure, I also had great time last evening. We had dinner. Just the two us. Then we joined my friend’s gang (party of ten) to watch Balawan in the opposite restaurant where we had dinner. My friend’s boyfriend joined later. In the end, we were a big flock of different colors and age. It was fun!

The past days I was busied by friends visiting Ubud. I have quite a lot of things to do at home so I spent time with them a few hours only per day. I chose meal time to see them. Good quality time to be with friends without really taking my time. Some friends only called since time didn’t fit for us to meet.

I have a new neighbor since I got back from my trip. An American guy that I’m not sure if he stays by himself. I saw him with a little Balinese (I think) girl in some mornings. And today I saw him with a woman… they were wiping their windows. I was surprised because it was the first time I saw my sister-house’s windows wiped! I did mine quietly this morning. Our sliding windows can make quite a noise from opening-closing activities. So it’s interesting that we shared a weekend activity.

I spent late afternoon in an American well-known dancer’s house in Peliatan. My first Christmas celebration in Ubud. Singing Christmas carols with host’s friends of many nations (and Balinese that sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas louder!). I don’t remember I ever sang Christmas carols but I could follow 99% songs sung together till early evening. I enjoy Christmas carols since I was a kid. I recalled we had some Christmas recordings at home that either Mama or Papa often played. Anyway, with the help of notes distributed by the host, I sang almost all songs. Happily with my new Austrian friend. My Jakarta friend sat quietly in the back flipping the song book.

What a nice season with many friends: old and new. Like the spirit of the month. We had quite long dinner in a nice place with more friends coming from Jimbaran. Can the season stay? Noel, noel, noel, noel.

New friends’ head and hand.

Now there are millions of them!

My new friend and I talked about running business in Ubud. It started when I shared about how I gradually lost my passion for selling antiques… mmm artifacts because of tight competition in Ubud. I told her how I started art business ten years ago in Jakarta where the location and the trend were just perfect. My friend owns the first warung-internet in Ubud that I forgot to ask how long she has been in the business. She has been living in Ubud sixteen years. I remember I used to be her warung-internet’s patron eight years ago when I came to Ubud every other month and no wireless connection available.

Anyway, we also talked about the possibility of switching business that I still have on my plan. People share different opinions when I share my idea to switch. An Indonesian lady I knew said motorbike garage is a good business in Bali these days considering the population of people ‘on motorbike.’ I appreciated her idea but really I cannot start a business without passion. Another friend thought about open a funky warung and then the most popular idea of open a salon/spa. Hm… not my cup of tea. I put my idea to sleep at the moment but I don’t want to kill it.

At the moment, I’m still haunted by my year-end note that I haven’t got inspiration to write. I have received more and more notes from my friends in other parts of the world. Many notes are simple, Hallmark style, with family picture attached. I wonder if I’m going to end up sending the same. Time ticking. I feel a bit demotivated these days. I don’t blame others but it’s me. It seems I have to be back to my old me: share less so can focus more inside. Now I’m confused.

I had nice yoga today although I was a bit lack of energy. I didn’t eat well the past days because I could not take bigger meal. Yesterday I suffered for a couple hours after a dish I used to finish without problem. I also didn’t sleep well the past days that I try to see the connection with my intake habit. No connection. I just sleep short!

Hey I’m kind of excited with the transition I have started to welcome the New Year. My end of year ritual.

A mask from China in the museum I visited yesterday.

It’s unbelievable!

My new friend mumbled. Three of us visiting masks and puppets museum in Mas this morning. My friend from Jakarta drove us. Like often, my friend from outside Bali introduced me to other inhabitants of Ubud and to cultural places I have never been around Ubud. For the latter, it’s not necessarily because they already knew the place before I do but because they want to see the place and ask me to accompany.

I have got several invitations to visit the museum since I lived in Jakarta. I knew the owner back in my Jakarta years. I never tried hard to come to any cultural events he held in the place. So today I visited for the first time and it’s proper if I say I should have come long time ago. The place is just magical.

The masks and puppets are displayed inside four Javanese old houses in a vast lush green land. The Chinese businessmen who collect the masks and puppets from Indonesia and the world since ten years ago have genuine intentions for the culture: to conserve, to educate, to develop, and to entertain. It’s plain to see how they dedicate their wealth, effort and time to their passion to help the Indonesian to learn more about their culture. I enjoyed listening to the owner shared his ideals with us. The museum organizes programs to give the museum a life. And if I’m not mistaken, the museum also has facility for artists in residence in the museum complex.

Ten minutes before we left, the chairman of the museum took us to the museum storage. The museum has about 1,150 masks and 4,700 puppets (wayang) housed in the four traditional houses and, I thought, the ones in storage are already included in the calculation. The chairman said that another house might not be enough still to display the ones in the storage. I simply admire. I feel so rich as Indonesian. Like my American new friend said… It’s unbelievable!

So I thanked my two friends to have made the trip happen. Now I have a new destination to take my visiting friends in Ubud. I planned to see my visiting friends from Perth but after my friend’s birthday lunch, I could not think straight. It was sticky hot! We walked Jalan Dewi Sita to have a look at two shops selling unique masks before I called it a day. I longed for my cool nest back home. Ubud has shared a real December a bit. It was raining last night and this afternoon. It’s nice!

Wayang suket (puppets made of grass). A rare one.

Ouw… what a nice afternoon!

A friend mumbled when we walked out a restaurant in a mall in Jakarta where we spent four hours at least yesterday. My friend in Ubud happened to be in Jakarta so we got together with our mutual friends. It was really fun! And some will see us again before end of the year in Ubud!

Time flies. It’s a combination of slow and fast for me. I keep the same sleeping pattern so I was active since 4:00 in the morning. I was once ready by 9:00 and waiting for taxi to arrive. I didn’t remember that shopping centers open at 10:00. It’s good that I can do banking first. And in the end of a simple day, I thought, I spent seven hours at least. What did I do? Got home, I was so tired and could not function well.

I attended two family occasions. Bride shower on Saturday and wedding reception on Sunday. It’s nice to see people from the past that I didn’t see about four years. I’m not good as relative since I don’t visit family and relatives much. But I can enjoy attending bigger occasion where I can see everybody in one place. One stop. That’s when I try to attend more family occasions.

My writing juice has drained the past days. I just don’t have anything to write. Not so good news for myself.

My cousin after bride shower.

People do it anyway…

Balawan, my favorite guitarist, told us about how annoying is the fact that people got his demo CD via Internet by chopping the CD into parts so other people can download part by part. He didn’t like the idea of people getting his CD without pay, of course, but on top of that he just didn’t like the way the pirate edit. People do it anyway… so he chopped his CD into parts and upload the parts himself on his website. At least they get better version, he said.

I like his attitude. It also shows when he was on stage dealing with ‘uncooperative’ or simply slow-in-thinking mixer guy that he was not happy listening to his voice through microphone. He managed his crisis well. He sang the order to the backstage guy since he could not stop the music from keep playing. We had a good laugh! He was so fun on stage. He is original. Have lived in Bali for sometime, I found him really funny since he didn’t mind to show his ‘local touch' when entertaining. He is so authentic for a Balinese goes international!

I’m happy I had a chance to see his show in Jakarta last night. It was part of World Music Festival at Schouwburg te Batavia building in north Jakarta. Old building with charm. He jammed with four other maestros of different musical instruments (keyboard, guitar, piano, and Balinese drum). It was just brilliant! I really enjoy watching live music. There we can see ‘real’ people playing with facial and body expressions that we cannot catch through listening to a CD. Watching DVD is as nice as being in a music hall but of course it gives us different energy. Being with real people playing music and audience is quite an experience. New for every performance. Great!

He is undoubtably very creative in playing his guitar. Last night I saw him performing acoustic-guitars duet with a Chinese maestro guitarist. I saw him in different dimension. Electric guitar surely has richer sound variety and he is so good in exploring its variety. I have been in many concerts of him and every time he introduced a new sound or a new way to play with it. Concert like last night was more wow than his mini concerts in cafés in Ubud where his music then is simplified. I’m proud that Indonesia has good musicians. Many believed we have many artists in different fields that have good place in the world.

His voice sounded better and better. I really like his voice that has similar sound to the sound produced by his guitar. Of course the guitar can adjust to any kind of voice but it’s just nice that he synchronizes his voice and the guitar sound. When I knew him eight years ago, I often wondered about the same songs he played on and on in a café where he had gigs regularly. I thought I’m going to feel bored of his music after sometime. It’s good that he develops into much better by going out of his cocoon in Ubud. Observing a few talented persons like him, I’m happy to see his development.

The two guitarists playing on stage stairs.

Wis tutup ae…

A friend suggested me to just close my account on Facebook after I complained about Zuckerberg’s new simplified privacy settings. I thought he promised more sophisticated privacy settings since he talked about protecting minor. It seems that he just accommodated people who don’t like to read ‘manual.’ I observed not many people care about their privacy so they just go with the defaults that is share all to everyone! Since only a handful of people like me, the rest thought the settings were too complicated. With the new settings, I am more exposed to friends of friends at least. Now I cannot be invisible from them because I don’t have option to have ‘add friends’ button hidden. They can just add me. Of course, it’s up to me to accept but what’s social ethic of ignoring an invitation from somebody you knew or know? I don’t discuss invitation from somebody I don’t know. It’s easy to decide the latter.

And since I don’t like to share list of my friends with public, I have to close it. In the new setting, when I make my list of friends invisible to public then I don’t make it visible to my own friends either. Because of its simplification! It’s been a few days since the new settings introduced and hardly one commented on that. My guess might turn out right that hardly one cares! When Facebook changed its layout that I found it more ‘human,’ so many people complained about the new layout. So I don’t know now ‘whose side I am on.’

Enough about such way to connect with friends. I had nice day yesterday. Running errands that ran longer as I had predicted. I stocked up stuff I need in Ubud and got hair trim of course. I keep my hair quite short so it can last till next visit. And in the evening, two friends coming to have simple dinner in the house. It’s been long I didn’t have guests so I didn’t prepare well. I forgot to think about desserts! That’s quite bad. Anyway, we had really nice time yakking. My friend shared her idea to start a business that’s in line with what she does in a dance company where she works. The other was a new friend I knew from necklace business. She is my fan. Have corresponded via email and texts, we met first time last night. It was really fun!

I look forward to enjoying good music tonight!

My dear sunshine!

Expect the unexpected! :-)

I commented on my friend’s update via text about he’s composing a sort of ‘premarital agreement’ for his new boyfriend. It confirmed me that we have similar way to deal with crisis. If possible, we like to fence ourselves from potential crisis of whatever shape. In fact, we are good in managing crisis. We don’t hold grudge too long. My friend didn’t give his last ex boyfriend a chance to continue their relationship after he disappeared for a few days. Tiada maaf. The difference between us is… I don’t put my ‘agreement’ in writing.

So Expect the unexpected was also applied to me. Last night I heard on television about people’s plan to have big demonstration in central Jakarta to mark International Anti-corruption Day today. Some friends showed their fear of riot on Facebook that pushed me to be alert too. Great mass can trigger destructive act. My nephew giggled to the possibility I’d be stuck in traffic from airport. He was very right. He helped me to stock up food. I ended up ready with an energy bar, a bar of dark chocolate, a pack of fruity candy, and a bottle of ion drink that I didn’t have a chance to consume! Because… I got home from airport in 30 minutes only! It rarely happened. Simply because not many people with private cars went out today. It’s like Eid day, my taxi driver said.

It’s good to be home although I felt 'split' like often after I saw my nephew. We had nice time licking ice cream before sleep last night. He was so nice to buy it before home in the evening. I also missed Chiko but I only had a few minutes to say hi to my huge cat before arranging a business with my friend. It’s just odd that we often be in different city so it’s hard to catch each other. She will be in Bali tomorrow and when she’s back I fly back to Bali. Hallelujah…

I swept the house for stuff I need in the afternoon. I don’t want to forget things and I have a long list of what I need to get from Jakarta. I rechecked my appointments and tomorrow will start running errands early to get more items done in a day. In Jakarta, it’s easy to think about how to spend time. A day expires before we know it.

E-card I sent to a friend in Tokyo whose birthday today.