What is Reality?

I remember whilst reading the Julie Julia book mentioned at the start of this blog that Julie had used Adsense, which is available through Google to ask for and receive money from those whose who visited her site. This struck me as interesting at the time but I didnt investigate it.

Whilst googling today I came across this myteethtrick site quite by chance


The blogger, Cathy states that she lives in Denpasar Bali and quite by chance discovered a way to whiten teeth. she offers to sell the products to you .
If you go to the bottom of the site you will read this:


THE STORY DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL . RATHER, THIS STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

Why do I feel cheated by this kind of advertising? It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I feel slighty... violated..is that the right word?

On the subject of scammers, it was interesting listening to a conversation at the writers festival between a visitor and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka who is Nigerian. Nigerians are infamous scammers it seems and Wole spoke of his utter amazement at just how gullible some people are. I think however he also quietly admires he fellow countrymen for their creativity and ingenuity!!

OK and Hello

I have had a busy but enjoyable week overseeing and participating in events for the 6th Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.

As part of my chaperoning duties I spent an hour with two New Zealanders,the lovely Lauraine Jacobs (Editor of Cuisine Magazine) and Lloyd Jones the author of some great novels including Mr Pip. I had heard Lloyd could be difficult and was prepared to be rebuffed, but I found him very easy going and he, bless him, asked me lots of questions about me and my life.

I sat next to Vikas Swarup ( Author of Q and A ) at a dinner at the gorgeous Sarong restaurant, both of us in stitches listening to readings by Tom Cho and Dany Leferriere. I dont think Dany was consciously doing a stand up comedy routine but thats exactly how it came over. I listened whilst Vikas to my right and Asitha (Ameresekere..film maker) to my left discussed the merits and otherwise of writing for screenplay and writing prose. I, in the middle kept quietly eating and did not try to talk about things I clearly knew nothing about!

The lovely Tara (protege to Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka ) reclined in my lap whilst also seducing a very sexy Italian at one of the best parties I have ever been to ...the cutzy Japanese DJ was a perfect representation of a Japanese comic book babe, all long hair and wish bone legs in 60's boots and mini skirt. Great dance music though, lots of Stones..ooo yes that reminds me..I hung out with Sam Cutler, The former Roadie of the Rolling Stones..nice guy..limited vocabulary though!!!
thats as much as I'm telling at this time!!

I am sooooooooooo excited

In all my years here in Bali, despite having attended exhibition openings and various other social events at Bali's swishest and chic..est venues, I have never actually stayed at one of them. All that is about to change and I am sooooooo excited!!
My dear friend Ann ( who lives on the Indonesian Island of Sumba and who lives on papaya leaves and rice and who keeps getting Dengue and Malaria because she will insist in helping make peoples lives better) and I have booked into The Ayana in Jimberan for Christmas.Formerly The Ritz Carlton we are talking a real class act. The fabulous Rock Bar for example, you go down a cable car to the bar which is literally on the rocks...OMG!!! Can't wait. We are actually booked!!!
I really enjoy my simple life style, (comparatively), but I can also very happily do luxury too.
Roll on Christmas!!

Building a Beach House With No Hard Hats and Bare Feet

A friend and I found a piece of beachfront land available for lease in Candidasa in Bali last October. We went to Candidasa to relax for a couple of days and maybe shop a little. We didnt expect to come back to Ubud having bought the lease. It was a completely spontaneous decision. Well you should see the view, it is stunning. Views like that cost a million dollars in many countries, we paid considerably less.

So having parted with a huge wad of Rupiah..and I mean huge, all cash because the family dont trust banks!!! we found ourselves the proud owners of a derelict building with views to die for.

The old building has now been knocked down. The family organised this for us. We turned up one day to oversee the foundations work being done on our 'building site 'and found 4 men and 3 women wearing smiles, sunhats, trousers and t shirts and in bare feet mixing concrete and hauling baskets of boulders into the footings.

They have never heard of Health and Safety bless them!

The foundations were laid in a week. They are now waiting for us to give them some drawings so they can build. Hmmmm suppose we had better do some then.

Watch this space!!!

There are very few totally cloudless days in Bali

There are very few totally cloudless days in Bali, so it was with shock and a wonderful sense of awe and delight that whilst driving home along one of Bali’s main roads between Canggu and Ubud earlier today that I looked up to see this bloody great volcano right in front of me. It was always there of course, but for eight and a half years I have driven along this road and every time it must have been hidden by cloud as I have never whilst travelling along that stretch of road, seen it before.

Now the amount of traffic on these roads and the reckless driving of the Balinese is usually enough to have me gritting my teeth, keeping my head down and my wits about me, but today on coming upon that awesome sight, my mood changed dramatically. I immediately became thankful for the sheer beauty of it, and the traffic or at least my negative reaction to it totally dissipated. I was suddenly very grateful for the privilege of living here, for the clear blue skies, the stunning scenery and miraculously, near empty roads. Today has been a very good day. Feeling grateful feels very very good

For your Consideration

Im a tarot reader here in Bali and every day I get an opportunity to share insights with those I am reading for. This for today..


If someone gives you their attention, in a loving, blessed way, you can conquer the world!
We cannot rely on anyone else for our happiness or our success, but to have love focused on us undoubtedly raises our spirits and our confidence soars. We can achieve anything.

We can achieve anything without external validation, its not about being validated, its about feeling love. Giving love. Being love. Love conquers all. All fear, all resistance, all. Love is all there is. All you need is love. Love is all there is.

I have the titles

Just about everyone I know in Ubud has written, wants to write or is writing a book. What's going on? Is it the same where you are?
I'm not immune to this desire. especially since living here.The problem is I can't get past the titles. I think I have some good ones but I've had them for years and never got any further.

We have, so far...

The Slow Awakening of the Inner Thigh.
I like the idea of this for a book title.
I attended a Silat class with Marylee in Ubud and we were sitting on the floor cross legged trying to bring our knees to the floor, not an easy task for unconditioned thigh muscles.


Underpants on the Altar.
Why? Good question. I cant remember why…I know my marriage had fallen apart and I was struggling with that knowledge and with the loss. I remember now..I had thrown all of my husbands belongings away and then found a pair of his underpants in my chest of drawers..on the top of the drawers I had an altar. I put the pants there, wrapped in a scarf blessed by the Dalai Lama..I don’t know what I was thinking exactly when I did that…

The Tarot Café
I used to run a Tarot Café in Ubud. I imagined writing a book of short stories…each short story title being a tarot card. Hasn’t emerged yet..the book..the stories!!!
If you feel you want to run with these, please, feel free.