Selamat Pagi!

Waking at 5-6am overlooking Rice Paddy fields is just a beautiful sight. Complete calm. One can hear a pin drop - who would think this of Bali. One of the nicest things I've seen this week is watching the local workers fly kites all day long whilst they tend to their fields, both so they can have fun and talk to their Gods at the same time. Just loved that one.

As the locals try to find out how we fit into their "Village" ...we are constantly asked "where are we from and where are we going? ...when I reply with "we go nowhere, we have moved to Ubud to live" .... the smiles from ear to ear. They take great pleasure in knowing that they must be doing something right, for so many foreigners to move into their home. This morning (and 2x day) the local elderly woman stroll down our Villa path from the village road, and make offerings at great wooden front doors and greet me with great huge toothless smiles! The gratitude that we have chosen to stay in their Village, they believe the Gods have bought the 3 of us Yeats girls to them for a good reason.

What a welcoming that is! You don't find that in Hope Island ... my neighbours back home would call Noise Control/Security if my children so much as raised their cheerful banter or left their bikes on the driveway! :)

The past few days living in Mas (a tiny village south of Ubud) the girls have experienced the locals riding ancient bicycles, farmers working all day in the fields, only stopping for an afternoon break, eating a bowl of rice, taking swim in our local river, having a little siesta (half naked) by the river on Banana leaves. When the rains come in the afternoon, everyone grabs a huge Banana leaf ... the girls just love the "Bali Umbrellas".

All children in the village help with VILLAGE chores .... it's amazing how an entire village looks after one another, builds each others' houses, lives hand to mouth, so that everyone gets at least one meal a day.

The women carrying huge loads of concrete, food or shrubbery on their heads - Sienna just stops and wonders how they do it.

There are not enough words to descibe the shades of Green surrounding us here. It really is magical! The greatest thing here is the endless SMILES, there is not a person that is not smiling at any given time.

The pace of our new life in Bali is gloriously slooooooowwwww. :) Quite the opposite to what we have all grown up used to in the South Pacific.

Ubud has I think a population of approx 30,000. The roads are still rather busy even in Ubud. Yet the unspoken road rules are just amazing. Traffic keeps moving, hardly anyone stops, the entire goal is to not stop unless you HAVE TO. - BOTH sides of the road are yours when you need it. (that's another blog topic in itself, I'll save that banter for my first solo bike adventure in Ubud ... ummm maybe next week!)

As you all know my name recollection is rather poor - who would have guessed I'd love recruitment! I'm lucky if I can remember my own name most days ....so living here will be easy for me, I can't go too wrong, there are only FIVE names for BOTH female and males, depending on what number child you are.... yep, FIVE. How easy is that one?

Wayan, Ma-de, Nyomen, Ketut, Komang ...well if your child No 5, your then back to Wayan .... simple really! All I can say, is how do School Teachers get by?

That's Bali. Keep it Simple. A concept I'm sure Ive been directed here to learn.

Da-Da for now!