Oh Lord - I feel like I'm writing a book! For those of you that are still with me - the story continues...thank goodness it can't go on forever!
Munch and O get picked up at 7:00am this morning for their Bamboo Shoots Cooking market visit and lesson, so we're all up early.
The morning is spent entertaining Snubs and Mookie and planning Operation Barong. Munch has been making noises to me that 'we should really go back and take another look at it, and see if we still like it.' Having been an active female retail consumer for at least 20 something years, I am well versed in 'Shopping Speak', and I am aware that what this really means is 'I want to go back and buy that painting of the Barong, but I need you to validate my purchase because it's bloody expensive'. Brilliant - this buys me some time, because while I hum and hah and erghhh, and pretend I'm really not a fan of it, I know he won't push the issue any further. I continue to extol the virtues of the other paintings we saw at the Sindhu Markets, including the fact that they're fraction of the price, and this sufficiently guilts him into silence. It's Tuesday - we move to our villa in Seminyak on Saturday, and the event is on Sunday - so much time left I could almost paint one myself.
Ririn arrives at 10am (cue choir of angels) and C and I begin scheming. The plan is - we'll go to the gallery, negotiate a price, get them to deliver it to the hotel and we can hide it in O&Cs room until we move. Then we'll get it sent in a separate car to the villa with instructions for them to hide it until we ask for it. Done. We jump into a bemo and head down the gallery to talk turkey with the guy there only to find that he's not there - minor hiccup. Instead a lady is caretaking the gallery who I've not seen before, even today I'm not sure if she's the boss or an acquaintance of the boss - but she knows her stuff. I trudge Cath upstairs and show her the painting - which she adores and then we skip back down and make an offer. She says she can't make the call on that one and needs to speak to the artist (fair enough) who is in Ubud for a few days and won't be back until Thursday. I ask if she can call him, but she says she won't be able to reach him. All of a sudden my timeline just got a little tighter but I very calmly leave her my bali phone number and ask her to get in touch when she has managed to get an answer.
Empty handed we head back to the hotel via Crema for coffee and cake. A word on Crema. I said Bali Deli in Sanur has the second best coffee in Sanur. Crema has the best for my money. Having said that - I must clarify further - the small Crema booth on the beach path has the best coffee in Sanur we could find, better by far than Luhtu's or anywhere else we tried. The Crema next door to Bali Deli is pretty good too - but it also lacks the atmosphere of the booth on the beach path, nevertheless, it's a lovely coffee shop. Having satiated the emptiness of unfulfilled retail therapy with an outrageous number of carbs, we waddle back to Peneeda when C spots gold...
There's a little "art" shop opposite Peneeda View selling a Mona Lisa with the face of Mr Bean and holding his teddy bear - 'wouldn't it be funny if we wrapped that up and pretended they switched the paintings on us!!?' Yes indeed it would. I like the way C thinks. We pay for the Mona Bean, and arrange to get it rolled into a tube for C to come and pick up later *insert evil laugh here*.
Not long after we return the boys are back - completely full but not raving about the day. To be fair, Munch and I did the Heinz van Holzen Bumbu Bali class two years ago and thought it was great. A visit to the wet market and fish market, then a very hands-on and informative class which was pretty high in participation - as most people learn by doing and not by watching, this is the benchmark for a cooking school for us. Munch commented that Bamboo Shoots was nice enough, but that it was more a demonstration than a class, and that considering the price was significantly lower than Bumbu Bali - it was a good class for a beginner. If you want to get serious about your Balinese cooking however, and you already know something about asian food, then give Bumbu Bali a whirl instead. The recipe book they send you home with is also excellent.
The final nail for Bamboo Shoots was that the food was over-salted which was probably an innocent error on the day, but the impression had already been made. I know that lots of people on the forum have raved about Bamboo Shoots - maybe the boys just caught them on a bad day :( so go along anyway and make your own judgement - for the minimal cost at least it's half a day's entertainment and a nice lunch!
Ririn has just arranged lunch for the Snubs and Mookie - today they've been down at the beach, gone for a swim in the pool - had numerous trips back and forth to the 'fiss' (fish - but Snubs calls them fiss) at Reception, and played 'shops' at the brochure stand in the tourist info section of reception. The boys are having an absolute ball!
The rest of us cool off with a swim and a few beers and C quietly excuses herself to nip back across the road and pick up the Mona Bean - bwah ha ha ha ha ha...
No-one is feeling like dinner except for Snubs and Mookie, well actually only Mookie - he's one and a half years old and eats like an adult - I shudder to think what he's going to be like as a teenager. So, after a lazy afternoon we come back to the room to find two clean-smelling little angels showered and ready to eat (repeat after Mookie - 'eat! eat!')
We head out for a light meal at a Thai place - didn't write down the name (eek!) but it's small, on the right as you walk out of Peneeda, and just a short way down the street. The food was great - very reasonably priced, served quickly (important when you dine with a Mookie), and tasty. As we often find, it's often these non-descript places that serve some really decent food - give them a try!
Tonight I notice that Gary is scoping out the Ukrainian family's place - traitor.
Sampai nanti...
dutchnat