hour, but you get's the idea, right.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Photo's retry Cheers!
Well its all a bit random, I 'm rapidly loosing my free Broadband
hour, but you get's the idea, right.
hour, but you get's the idea, right.
Bali Hi May call you!
Salumat Pagi from Bali.
Now is 12 days from leaving NZ & still this adventure is just beginning! I am settled into sweet accommodation 20 min walk from the cultural/spiritual centre of Bali in Ubud surrounded by rice fields, chickens, ducks & gorgeous views in 3 directions. I’ll tell you more about this later, but first Singapore. What a buzzy geek place this is, everyone wants to sell you something & my tightwad Scottish heritage came in very handy in those situations!
I stayed in the Little India area, & would recommend anyone visiting Singapore to check out their market on Sunday evenings, very colourful, crowded & noisy. I will be returning to Singapore on the way home, & also to extend my Indonesian visa at sometime before my 2 month visa finishes, for the final 3 weeks!
Highlights of the brief 2 days in Singapore were the music & book shops which are using the latest technology, either having Ipods all set up in various music genres, you can very quickly sample listen to vast amounts of artists not known, or even explore your favorite’s latest recordings! The selection is huge because you have all the western stuff plus the Asian/Indian/Chinese/Korean etc musical categories. Borders store (book shop) even has their CD’s displayed where you can scan the bar code into a machine & listen to the first 30 sec of each track. Another shop had 100 CD players set up, once again in categories & cataloged so you could easily find your listening choice. I found the main Yamaha Music store and tried out (in their practice, sound proof room) the top of the line Soprano Sax Pro model, and wow was this a sweetie, clean and strong tone through out the whole range, good to get the experience of playing a $4700 instrument, so now I know I can indeed play a Soprano!
Bali is quite a place. The streets are full of sellers wanting to actively sell! “You need a nice woman for the night!---Where you going,---what country you from….downunder?---You want transport!---Massage!---Hey boss!---Just have look in my shop, no hurt to look---come on---what colour you like---yes you buy---I give you cheap price” etc,etc,etc. It’s all fun and they are soft and genuine, willing to laugh easily! I spent one night here, 2 nights there, checking out local accommodation options, prices, supermarket proximity, outlook & would I enjoy staying in this place! I settled on one for the princely monthly sum of $400NZ & paid the first week! Within 1 hour of playing my sax, an American neighbor (about 50 yards away & 2 houses over) spoke up and suggested I go somewhere else to practice, so I started looking for another place, and found this current one (which is actually in view of the old one) much better all round plus only $270NZ per month. Ah yes doesn’t the universe work in wonderful ways! After my first joyous practice session here I did have 2 complaints come to me & have modified my practice schedule with 4/30 minute sessions starting at 11am till 2 pm, with 30 minutes rest is good for all concerned. I shut the windows in some directions & play as quiet as possible (not an easy matter on Saxophone) hoping & expecting no further negative feedback!
Doing my own cooking here is a lot of fun, many new fruits and veggies to sample and play with. I even have a juicer here, so with papayas at $1 each, half a coconut at 30c NZ, tomatoes at less than $1NZ per kilo the options are endless! I intend next week to attend a Balinese cooking class ran by and expat Aussie woman who takes us though the Ubud market, buys the stuff then we go cook and finish the day with wine & our own self made banquet, all for $45NZ. Then I can explore the local culinary dishes in my own kitchen. I am impressed with the gas cookers, powerful, instant, yet can turn down to a very low simmer! I am waiting for the bewitching hour of 11am to continue my daily rituals. (Tai Chi @ 10.30am)
Checking one’s email at the numerous internet café’s is interesting, each one is different, keyboards, set up, operating programs, even sitting arrangements (lotus position) is available! My computer has found a valid wireless connection at a good strength, & so far my enquiries have found no one who can advise how I can connect , or whether it’s viable! Weekends I may go exploring the countryside, either on foot or by bicycle, The memory of frosts and the fine cool weather of Rosedale has been replaced with the balmy Balinese beautiful green rice fields of Ubud. So till the next nutur (story) & Blog….stay tuned!
Namaste & Arohanui
Jimu
Now is 12 days from leaving NZ & still this adventure is just beginning! I am settled into sweet accommodation 20 min walk from the cultural/spiritual centre of Bali in Ubud surrounded by rice fields, chickens, ducks & gorgeous views in 3 directions. I’ll tell you more about this later, but first Singapore. What a buzzy geek place this is, everyone wants to sell you something & my tightwad Scottish heritage came in very handy in those situations!
I stayed in the Little India area, & would recommend anyone visiting Singapore to check out their market on Sunday evenings, very colourful, crowded & noisy. I will be returning to Singapore on the way home, & also to extend my Indonesian visa at sometime before my 2 month visa finishes, for the final 3 weeks!
Highlights of the brief 2 days in Singapore were the music & book shops which are using the latest technology, either having Ipods all set up in various music genres, you can very quickly sample listen to vast amounts of artists not known, or even explore your favorite’s latest recordings! The selection is huge because you have all the western stuff plus the Asian/Indian/Chinese/Korean etc musical categories. Borders store (book shop) even has their CD’s displayed where you can scan the bar code into a machine & listen to the first 30 sec of each track. Another shop had 100 CD players set up, once again in categories & cataloged so you could easily find your listening choice. I found the main Yamaha Music store and tried out (in their practice, sound proof room) the top of the line Soprano Sax Pro model, and wow was this a sweetie, clean and strong tone through out the whole range, good to get the experience of playing a $4700 instrument, so now I know I can indeed play a Soprano!
Bali is quite a place. The streets are full of sellers wanting to actively sell! “You need a nice woman for the night!---Where you going,---what country you from….downunder?---You want transport!---Massage!---Hey boss!---Just have look in my shop, no hurt to look---come on---what colour you like---yes you buy---I give you cheap price” etc,etc,etc. It’s all fun and they are soft and genuine, willing to laugh easily! I spent one night here, 2 nights there, checking out local accommodation options, prices, supermarket proximity, outlook & would I enjoy staying in this place! I settled on one for the princely monthly sum of $400NZ & paid the first week! Within 1 hour of playing my sax, an American neighbor (about 50 yards away & 2 houses over) spoke up and suggested I go somewhere else to practice, so I started looking for another place, and found this current one (which is actually in view of the old one) much better all round plus only $270NZ per month. Ah yes doesn’t the universe work in wonderful ways! After my first joyous practice session here I did have 2 complaints come to me & have modified my practice schedule with 4/30 minute sessions starting at 11am till 2 pm, with 30 minutes rest is good for all concerned. I shut the windows in some directions & play as quiet as possible (not an easy matter on Saxophone) hoping & expecting no further negative feedback!
Doing my own cooking here is a lot of fun, many new fruits and veggies to sample and play with. I even have a juicer here, so with papayas at $1 each, half a coconut at 30c NZ, tomatoes at less than $1NZ per kilo the options are endless! I intend next week to attend a Balinese cooking class ran by and expat Aussie woman who takes us though the Ubud market, buys the stuff then we go cook and finish the day with wine & our own self made banquet, all for $45NZ. Then I can explore the local culinary dishes in my own kitchen. I am impressed with the gas cookers, powerful, instant, yet can turn down to a very low simmer! I am waiting for the bewitching hour of 11am to continue my daily rituals. (Tai Chi @ 10.30am)
Checking one’s email at the numerous internet café’s is interesting, each one is different, keyboards, set up, operating programs, even sitting arrangements (lotus position) is available! My computer has found a valid wireless connection at a good strength, & so far my enquiries have found no one who can advise how I can connect , or whether it’s viable! Weekends I may go exploring the countryside, either on foot or by bicycle, The memory of frosts and the fine cool weather of Rosedale has been replaced with the balmy Balinese beautiful green rice fields of Ubud. So till the next nutur (story) & Blog….stay tuned!
Namaste & Arohanui
Jimu
Thursday, July 13, 2006
visionariblog
visionariblog Travel times up ahead! Bon voyage friends family & fellow creatives! I leave in 3 days for 3 months mostly in Bali, Indonesia. In all my travels ( & there's been many) this is the first to the real Asia. I am spending a few days either end of the trip in Singapore to acclimatize going in & checking out the geek side of technology before returning home to the joys of spring.
As I type here in wonderful wet, cold, wintery Nelson with temperatures around 10 deg C, I look forward to the tropical warmth of Bali's 25-30 deg heat.
What am I going to be doing on this trip! I am taking this great opportunity, to ponder, to dream & to set in place what I & We, my wife and I (Christine) will be doing for the next twenty years. So this trip is really a spiritual retreat, part holiday away from winter in NZ, but mainly to go inward, to develop areas that will create an exciting future into retirement and beyond. I always said " huh I'll never retire, I enjoy working too much" well this form of retirement and its pondering is really very joyous!
I will be playing my Saxophone, doing regular yoga, meditation, and self massage, as well as writing a one man play (called a melodrama) on the subject of Leonardo Da Vinci. I have much material already saved on my laptop plus a few books, so time will have to be structured and my focus sharpened on a daily basis! There is much to be influenced by in Bali, and will be taking regular time out to reflect and return to the jobs at hand.
This is the first travels with a laptop, so communication with home and the rest of the world is available & therefore travelling alone need not be so isolating. I intend to do a Visionari Bali Blog every 2 weeks, Please feel free to post me on this blog, so we can all see how blogs work! So till then enjoy yourself at work and play.
Blessings/Peace/ & Namaste
Arohanui
Jimu
Friday, June 30, 2006
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Kia ora from New Zealand
Welcome. I intend to use this blog to chat to people about my interests and share some of my passions and spread a little more beauty around in this wonderful world that we live in.I am a professional Woodworker/Artist still excited about making things after 25 years, I still think I'm only just beginning.
In this blog I will post what I am currently working on and various other activities I do like I host a local Radio show called "The SaxMan Show" where I play only saxophone music. I live in rural New Zealand surrounded sheepfarms, kiwifruit, apple orchards and vineyards.
You can also view my web site at www.visionari.co.nz
I don't know very much about blogging, so this is all a new experience to me.
Creatively yours
Jimu
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