My Bloggable Day

I made a self indulgent video of our time in Bali

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Bec

Just when you thought I couldn’t possibly blog once more about Bali…

I’m always filming little snippets here and there, with the grand plan of editing it into a neat little video I can watch when I’m old and frail. To remember when my skin was at premium elasticity. Mostly these snippets sit dormant in my camera forever, but not this time. I actually followed through:

Such a masterpiece! I think the reason this one actually reached fruition is because I edited a little bit each day as it got filmed, instead of waiting until the end. So that’s my tip to you if you want to make a video, not that you asked for it. Do you make home movies?

Posted in Travel | Tagged Bali, Holiday, Indonesia | 6 Comments

Bali, days: 5 and 6

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Bec

I am now back in Australia, nursing a fairly aggressive strain of Bali belly… I doubt I got a wink of sleep last night, but I’ll save you further details. So while watching everyone post their fabulous Melbourne Cup outfit choices on social media I am on the couch (closer to the bathroom than my bed…), sorting the rest of my photos.

On Thursday, having been joined by Elly (once our housemate, but who now presents weather in Darwin) and her sister Annie, we returned to Potato Head for a second round. But it was different this time.

Coconut juice, didn’t have these last time

I had Prohibition Ice Tea this time around, which was a citrusy blend complete with dry ice, so the pot was steaming away like hot tea.

Clever.

I had a bagel this time.

The gang

Shortly before or after the above photo was taken, a couple of vile, loud mouthed idiots covered in tatts (including the ‘my brothers’ keeper’ tattoo synonymous with the Bra Boys from Sydney- ‘bra’ standing for Maroubra) reached new heights in obnoxious behaviour by pulling their genitals out onto the swim-up bar for a photo. One of them got naked again as they were getting kicked out by security… Such class.

In other news, we got given flower leis.

Shrimp

Some kind of beetroot thing

Crab cake

Sunset ❤

We left and went to the Salty Seagull, which does tacos and wings and sliders and other American/Mexican stuff. Which seems to be all the rage in Bali at the moment. (can’t believe I just said “all the rage”…)

The decor was pretty great

We had an early dinner and then met up with some of the guys we met at the pool. During the night one of the guys slipped over holding glass and took chunks, literally chunks, out of his arm and had to go to hospital. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what it looked like. So gross. Weird night.

The next morning we did some shopping and got some massages. In the afternoon we had the high tea Bec and Claire had organised at Biku as part of my birthday present back in August. The tea came with a side of tarot card reading.

We took turns having our cards read by a heavily accented woman. It was nice. She said some pretty insightful things that surprised me. Who knows?!

When not having our cards read we feasted on the treats on towering cake stands.

My favourite is always the scones.

I could live on them

We drank delicious iced teas instead of hot, which would have been awful given the oppressive humidity.

That evening we went to my favourite restuarant in Bali; Mehri Puti. It was Halloween and on the way there we passed hundreds of people dressed in ghostly attire headed to many parties.

It’s hard to decide whether the best thing about Mehri Puti is the food or the surroundings:

The cocktails were also pretty good.

Coconut espresso martini

Bec and Elly

Salmon tartare

We left sufficiently stuffed. Only one more day to go!

Posted in Travel | Tagged Bali, Food, Travel | 10 Comments

Bali, day 4: how do you feel about lunchtime margaritas?

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Bec

I’ve fallen behind! How unsurprising. On Wednesday we took a hideously long taxi ride to a mall in Kuta to go shopping. We took a suspiciously long route in a non air conditioned cab #firstworldproblems

After showering back at the hotel we went to Sea Circus for lunch.

We went last year and loved it.

Kicked things off with a pitcher of maragaritas, consumed from jars. I love the word ‘pitcher’. Far superior to ‘jug’.

Pitcher.

Jars, chevron striped tables… Sea Circus is a Pinterest dream

Chips, salsa and guac

I had prawn, pork and battered fish tacos. I’m salivating at the thought of the prawn one.

Yessss

Some ice creams to wash things down.

Mango

Pistachio and me. Sans war paint ugh

Just after the above photo, Bec stubbed her toe on a random concrete brick and it has since gone black and blue and swollen. Just more evidence that I didn’t break my toes the other night (because they are neither black nor swollen)… Through teary eyes I did try to convince everyone they were though, including the hotel receptionist. Awkward.

That evening Little Mac (our friend and former housemate Elly’s sister, Annie) arrived from Perth. The four of us then went to dinner at Petitenget ahead of Elly aka Big Mac’s arrival from Darwin later that night.

Mojito

Claire, Annie, Bec and I

We drove past Petitenget a million times last year but ran out of time to try it.

‘Beef bites’

Peking duck salad

Seafood platter

Farm veggies and goat’s cheese

It was good, but no Sea Circus.

No underwater photos in this post! Who even am I?

Posted in Food, Travel | Tagged Bali, Petitenget, Sea Circus, Seminyak, Travel | 2 Comments

Bali, day 3: How many underwater photos is too many?

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Bec

Day 3! I thought I would have given up long before now, although I can tell my photo numbers are dwindling, which is probably a good thing! On day 3 (Tuesday) we spent the morning shopping at a mall in Kuta before returning to Seminyak for lunch at The Bistrot.

The decor was incredible.

We shared rice paper rolls for entree.

Claire had a niscoise salad.

Bec had some kind of other salad.

And I had ribs.

#noregrets

Which looks bad comparatively, but there was a side salad… Well, coleslaw.

After that we went back to the hotel to do some poolside work.

We spent a good half an hour taking underwater photos, cackling loudly and no doubt irritating the bejesus out of people trying to relax by the pool.

The Surprise

The Floating Buddha and Nirvana Baby

The Surprise again

The Triple Underwater Sandwich Selfie (this one took 4 takes…)

Taking a moment to regroup

The Ring-a-rosie

The Shirley Temple

After exhausting all known poses we went back for a couple more drinks.

Which took us to sunset.

Derlos and the sunset

After singing loudly, jumping on the beds and attempting three part harmonies (our neighbours must hate us) we went out to Mozzarella in Legian for dinner. It was highly recommended by Bec’s sister Paris and was delicious.

I know, I can’t believe I only took 3 photos as well! Until tomorrow…

Posted in Travel | Tagged Bali, Food, Pool, Seminyak, Travel | 6 Comments

Bali, day 2: Is Potato Head the greatest place on earth?

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Bec

Short answer: definitely.

Yesterday we spent 7.5 hours at Potato Head. Seriously. We got there at 11am, snagged the last sunbed and didn’t leave until after the sunset at 6:30pm. It was time well spent. For the past few weeks I’ve been dreaming of being there, especially after last year’s trip resulted in 24 of the most fun hours of my life.

The weather this year was far superior.

I started with a Bells and Whistles, my favourite cocktail from last year. Bizarrely, it wasn’t as good as I remember?!

Derlos aka Claire

The view above

We grabbed Claire’s camera with its under water casing and went for a dip.

Making a beeline, of course, for the swim up bar.

Making tough decisions

I went for a classic mojito.

Can’t lose. Thanks to the water for my seriously distorted legs.

Claire got a caipirinha

Bec was feeling a bit dodgy, so went for water

Pool ballet induced torso distortion. Seriously, I look severed.

Back on dry land Derlos and I had some delicious mango concoctions.

And then we had salads all round with a side of fries. Balance is important.

We got back in the water without waiting the requisite 30 minutes (or whatever we got told as kids) between eating and swimming. Dangerous.

Unsurprisingly, no one drowned or suffered cramps. Is that still a thing anyway? The not swimming after eating thing?

Strawberry daiquiri

As the sun started to dip I went for a walk to check out the view from upstairs.

Not too shabby

Time for some cheese:

Those labels #lovethem

We caught a really pretty sunset:

And then Bec and I went for pre dinner massages. Motel Mexicola was our dinner destination.

When we arrived it was absolutely pumping, but it soon died off unfortunately. We later learnt that three hens parties had been the source of most of the dancing and frivolity.

We ate a large assortment of delicious Mexican food washed down with a jug of margaritas.

Shredded pork taco

Chicken quesadilla

I love the vintage Mexican style decor.

Seriously great day, especially for a Monday!

Posted in Travel | Tagged Bali, Potato Head, Travel | 12 Comments

Bali, day 1: Is Rock Bar worth the hype?

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Bec

(Warning: stupid amount of photos ahead)

Tough day at the coalface yesterday. Started with buffet breakfast, massages and a spot of shopping.

We then headed to the pool on the roof at our hotel, Ize.

The rooftop bar had 11 kind of mojitos on the menu. I went for marshmallow. Followed by lemon and basil.

Marshmallow mojito

Having proven myself so adept at underwater photography on a recent trip to Exmouth (ha!) I was keen to get some snaps on Claire’s camera.

#crazyeyes

Lemon and basil mojito

We then went and got ready to head to Rock Bar at the Ayana Resort in Jimbaran, about a 45 minute cab ride away. On last year’s trip we wanted to do sunset at Rock Bar but never got ourselves organised in time.

We certainly did not have that problem. We got there at 4pm and admired the swanky gardens and pools on our walk down to the bar, taking in incredible views along the way.

When we got down there we quickly snapped up a table in the sweltering sun. There is limited seating for people not guests of the hotel. Because it was so stinking hot everyone took cover under massive black umbrellas.

So classy

The afternoon then took on an air of ridiculousness, as we huddled under our umbrellas, faces melting into our exorbitantly priced drinks, wishing the damn sunset would hurry up.

An overpriced strawberry daiquiri

Under the umbrella

Singing in the rain

It was pretty hard to admire the view from under those things. But it was just too disgustingly hot to go without some form of shelter.

Gin berry slushy

Chips and popcorn chicken with dukkah

Mini corn dogs with the most amazing butter sauce

I gave up trying to hold the umbrella and eat at the same time. And thankfully by then it had cooled down ever so slightly.

Margaritas

“Wish the sun would bloody set”

As the sun got lower, the selfie sticks were out in force down on the beach and at the bar.

Backs to the sunset, trying to capture the magic

Everyone it seems, has a selfie stick these days. We saw heaps of them today as well.

Low clouds on the horizon kind of blocked out the sun, but the sky still looked amazing.

We wandered back to the lobby and caught a taxi back to Seminyak. Was it worth the hype? At this point we are saying yes, but that could just be because we invested a lot of money in the experience…

We went to a bar near our hotel for ‘one drink’. Multiple drinks later and having been a little too rowdy during a music quiz for which the prizes were free shots we stumbled back to the hotel. Along the way I stubbed my toes really hard on a brick sitting in the middle of the footpath (walking anywhere here is a total nightmare) and convinced myself and everyone else that my toes were broken.

They are not broken. An excellent day! Have you been to Rock Bar?

Posted in Travel | Tagged Bali, Rock Bar, Seminyak | 6 Comments

High tea for two

Posted on October 26, 2014 by Bec

I love tea. And cake. And I love having a guilt-free excuse to consume both. Recently, my friend Lauren and I were invited to sample high tea at Rydges Kalgoorlie as part of their Cancer Council Pink Ribbon fundraiser. All this week (Monday to Friday 2-5pm) you can go along and have high tea and support breast cancer research at the same time.

First things first: tea. We plumped for English Breakfast. Classic.

Shortly after tea arrived so too did a towering stand of treats so tall it completely obscured my dining partner.

From the bottom:

Assorted sandwiches

Middle tier:

Raspberry cheesecake and chocolate brownie

Top tier:

Orange cake and red velvet cupcake

We wasted no time getting stuck in. Unless you consider photographing food a waste of time, which I don’t 😉

It’s a tough call, but I think the brownie was my favourite. You really can’t beat a good chocolate brownie.

The orange cake packed a real punch and was deliciously moist.

I was too stuffed to eat my cupcake, but I did pose for a photo with one.

I had every intention of eating it later but it didn’t survive the car trip unfortunately. Not the first cupcake to come to grief in a car under my guidance I can tell you.

#sopink

It was a lovely afternoon and something different to do in Kalgoorlie, which isn’t famous for serving tea, high or otherwise. The only thing that could have made it better was perhaps a glass of sparkling. But seeing as I’m typing this poolside in Bali, that could just be the third mojito speaking. It costs a very reasonable $25 so if high tea tickles your fancy give Rydges a call to book 9080 0800.

Posted in Food | Tagged High Tea, Kalgoorlie | 10 Comments

What are you reading at the moment?

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Bec

I’m headed to Bali tomorrow for a week and these are the books I’ve packed:

Not that kind of Girl, Lena Dunham (aka the most Instagrammed book in the world)
The Rosie Effect, Graeme Simsion (follow up to hugely popular book, The Rosie Project)

I think I need one more though because I have a 6 hour train ride to Perth, a 3ish hour flight to Denpasar and then countless hours by pools, swilling cocktails. So comment with your recommendations please! I’m not into fantasy though, so no Hunger Games or GoT or Twilight etc.

I went through a very long period at the end of last year and the start of this year where I just couldn’t read. I couldn’t concentrate for long enough to get through a few pages and then I would pick the book up again and have to re-read parts and it was just a disaster. I’m no expert but I think it had something to do with constantly being plugged into my iPhone, work computers, Macbook etc. I was constantly stimulated by multiple screens and a book just couldn’t cut it. I’m so glad I’ve moved past that!

Last Bali trip I read an incredible, laugh out laugh, tear inducing book called How to talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper. So that is my recommendation to you. It was completely unlike any book I would usually read, but so great.

Has anyone read Gone Girl? I saw the movie and now I’m curious about the book, is it worth picking up?

Posted in Misc | Tagged Books, Reading | 14 Comments

Regional Arts Australia Summit: the final night

Posted on October 23, 2014 by Bec

On the last evening of the Regional Arts Australia Summit a group of us went along to see the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre’s production, Farm. There were tears. And laughter. Farm tells the story of life on the land in Australia, from harvest to drought, to fighting bushfires, rogue kangaroos and soil salinisation. It was so cleverly done, with incredible puppets and these kind of raised flower bed type sets that could be rearranged around the stage. Definitely worth seeing if you can.

Later in the evening we went back to our favourite venue, the Krunchy Club. Shortly after we got there The Chipolatas started playing. Part band, part circus clowns, they were amazingly entertaining and talented.

The Chipolatas

Do the splits while playing a mini guitar? Why not?!

A very special kind of tightrope walking.

We then headed outside to watch the Gascoyne Circus do some stuff with fire, which had been rained out earlier in the Summit.

Those lights ❤

My housemate Bec and I #STRIPES4LYF

Kellee, Rosie, (some random woman) and Emilee

The performers got up close to us with the fire which was as amazing as it was terrifying. As well as surprisingly warm.

Who wouldn’t trust that face?

The show was ~~amazing~~ ~~incredible~~ dazzling (I’m starting to run out of adjectives). Not that you could tell by this highly amused looking bunch:

Emillee, Rosie, Kellee (all from the Create Tank team), my regular Emily, regular Bec and I were cackling pretty much the entire time though.

Fire whip

And just when I started to wonder how they could finish the performance with a bigger bang than we had already experienced, out came the fire rocket launcher.

CRASY

After that we boot scooted our little hearts out to a country band from Perth and then trotted around the corner to the Gold Bar. An excellent way to round out a week of incredible arts. And now Kalgoorlie is back to normal and I am missing my Summit friends and fun. Until next time.

Posted in Art | Tagged Kalgoorlie, Regional Arts Australia Summit | 6 Comments

The Humans of the Summit project

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Bec

I mentioned in the last post I was involved in a Young Reference Group, called Create Tank, which did three projects for the Regional Arts Australia Summit held this week just gone. Our group of seven, Hayley and Owen from Country Arts WA, Julian and Rosie from Geraldton, Kellee from Mandurah and Emilee from Bruce Rock and I got to know each other through video conferencing in the lead up to the Summit. We are all ‘young’ people from regional areas with a connection to the arts.

One of our projects was a facebook page called Humans of the Summit. Inspired by Humans of New York, I pitched the idea to the group a few months ago so we could get a nice overview of the conference delegates as well as local Kalgoorlie people over the week. Hayley suggested getting photographer Stuart Holden from Humans of Western Australia to come to Kalgoorlie and give us a workshop on taking portraits. Stuart brought five Pentax cameras with 50mm f/1.8 lenses for us to use, which were a dream. I was reluctant to give mine back.

After a crash course in light, composition and framing we practiced taking portraits of each other.

Kellee from Mandurah

Emilee (aka the most photogenic person in the world) from Bruce Rock

Hayley from Country Arts WA

I also practiced on food, because food ~~photography~~ is my favourite.

Then we were unleashed on the streets of Kalgoorlie to snap innocent passers by. It was a very quick lesson in accepting rejection! I heard some wonderful excuses for not wanting to be photographed, but thankfully no one was rude.

Here are some of my favourite snaps:

“I came to Kalgoorlie 10 years ago with my missus and we had a child. We went back to where her parents live but we broke up so I came back to Kalgoorlie again,” “Can I ask why you didn’t want to smile for the photo?” “I broke my front tooth on peanut brittle.”

“My business partners are my biggest inspiration. They are fabulous and amazing.”

The following portrait is of a lady called Fiona. I met Fiona in the Social Change Hair Dressing workshop on Friday morning. It was run by a fabulous drag queen known as Star Lady and her off sider Mel, together they head into remote indigenous communities and teach hairdressing skills and provide an unconventional meeting place and social venue.

With absolutely no hairdressing skills whatsoever, Fiona allowed me to shave one side of her head and then bleach it. Unfortunately then I had to run off to a panel, so someone else dyed the bleached section purple. Thanks for being so brave and for giving me artistic licence with your hair Fiona!

Fiona

To see more photos from the project head to our Facebook page, there will still be photos coming through over the next few days. I think I will definitely be purchasing a 50mm lens. The shallow depth of field was amazing for blurring the background, getting rid of distracting elements in the photo and just making people ‘pop’ out of the photo.