A bit of fibre today

I succumbed and went shopping today. It is really difficult when you are by yourself – the sellers only have you to focus on. There don’t seem to be many tourists looking in the stalls, though there seem to be lots around in the restaurants and bars. The market parking areas are crowded, but these bikes belong to locals.

The stalls are rather boring. They all seem to have the same merchandise: tacky (sometimes very tacky) Tshirts, batik shirts, bags and sarongs, glitzy lacy tops and bling covered shoes. Not much I liked.

I finally gave in and bought two sarongs at different stalls. The red one is silk batik done using a traditional style copper stamp, the other is cotton (or rayon, I’m not quite sure which) on which the wax motif has been applied with a more contemporary looking stamp.



Neither is “real” Indonesian batik, but I think I will be able to use them later. And they were inexpensive.

I continued walking along the beach and eventually traversed the gardens of the Besahki hotel to reach the main road. A short walk and I was at Nogo. I was really disappointed. The shop didn’t seem to have changed at all since three visits ago. I looked at both garments and fabric, but nothing appealed. By this time I was hot and bothered so I took a blue (metered) taxi back to the hotel. It cost 7800 rupiah – less than a dollar – and no bargaining needed. Way to go!

A dearth of fibre

We have been in Bali 5 days and I haven’t had a fibre fix. I did have a look in the Animale dress shops in both Kuta and Sanur. Some interesting design details as usual. I haven’t managed to get to Nogo Ikat as yet – it is right outside the Griya Santrian which is quite a walk from where we are staying, but I may yet make it.

I am avoiding the market stalls clustered near the hotel.

Today we went to the Bird and Reptile Park which we really enjoyed. Some fabulous birds, including a larrikin sulphur crested cockatoo who put on his own performance while the bird show was on. He stayed in the same tree, but did not show off again. He had obviously wanted to upstage the stars. Kevin made a short video on my camera and has uploaded it to the family blog.

This is perhaps the closest to fibre I have been for days. The skin of these iguanas looks like soft velour and their bodies like a softly stuffed bean bag.


The texture of this riverstone paving is quite wonderful.

Flying the flag

It's been really cold today, at least as cold is counted here in Perth.

I have poor circulation in my hands (it's called T...s syndrome, can't think of the name) and my fingers go waxy white, then blue, then a rosy red. Hence flying the flag.

I was on medication for a while, but it caused me to retain fluid. Of the two problems, I prefer coping with the fingers because it usually goes away after I get moving. Bit of a problem till it does though since I have little feeling in them and no fine motor skills.

They were particularly bad today so I spent time on the computer rather than with fibre. As a result we are going to Bali for a week next month - no cold fingers there. We like Sanur, but I couldn't book the hotel we usually stay at. I even made a phone call, but they were fully booked. So we are trying another place.

Once my fingers were better I did a bit of sorting out of fabric pieces I have made and stashed away. Designing Women are having an ATC swap in July so I need to get myself organised for that before we go away, as well as for a workshop I am supposed to teach in early July, not to mention my piece for the WAFTA exhibition . . .

Does Washing Count?

Apart from a little stitching on one of the rainbow pieces I have done nothing related to fibre today. I have done a session of water aerobics, the washing and the shopping though. Close to 7000 steps recorded.

Why did I stitch on the rainbow piece when I have other challenges and this is not appropriate for any of them? Why do I procrastinate anyway? I have planned my base fabrics for the inch swap. Nothing concrete though. Apparently one of the participants has already finished, photographed her bits and sent them off !!

I WILL need to get moving on this - it is due a couple of days before we leave for the US, which would be plenty of time EXCEPT we need to take a trip to Bali to try and salvage a computers for schools project we undertook in 2004. I know, a trip to Bali is not hard to take, and I know we will have quite a bit of relax time, but Kevin is stressing re the logistics.

We plan to fly business class so we will have 60 kgs of baggage allowance and can take a computer, a couple of printers and various other bits and pieces. We have also been told by other people who have undertaken projects that we can request a few kilos bonus from Garuda if we ask in advance. However, the travel agent is not all that helpful and seems to regard us as just another couple of baby boomer holiday makers. I tried to book on the internet, but Garuda doesn't allow bookings that way. At the moment we are wait listed and still waiting for the agent to contact us.

If it works the way we want we will fly to Bali on June 16th, go to the school on the Monday to try to fix things (ie dump any of the computers we installed in 2004 that can't be made to work, plus install the others that were sent last year and apparently are just sitting there) and teach a few students the basics, then return on the Thursday or Friday to see if we can do anything else to keep the computers going. Please keep your fingers crossed. The school is up in the hills, no-one speaks English and we don't speak Bahasa. We do have an English speaking driver lined up and hope he will enjoy the challenge.