Grateful to Have My Retractable Clothesline Installed

Day 63 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful to have my retractable clothesline installed."

Even before moving, this retractable clothesline I found at Ace Hardware already attracted me. I thought it was such a good way to hang clothes under the sun without having the big physical look of the clothes dryer. The new house is small and we hardly have any space for storage. I had to give away some big furnitures, paintings and printed canvas photos when we moved. To buy a new clothes dryer that I couldn't store anywhere but at the garden was silly. I mean, the biggest attraction of the house is the garden, why would I want to disgrace it by placing a clothes dryer, right?

So I bought this retractable clothesline. It's simple to use and you can hide it when unused - which is most of the time. I think this is one of the best inventions this decade!

The Retractable Clothesline from Ace Hardware

The nice, helpful manager of the villa helped me install the clothesline. Now I can dry the clothes easily and enjoy the smell of the fresh drying clothes mixed with the freshness of the garden smell. How nice and convenient.

Grateful for My Appreciation to Tea

Day 62 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful that I've come to appreciate tea as one of the greatest things in life that give me comfort."

I used to hardly notice the existence of tea. I always grew up with it, though drinking tea had always been optional instead of compulsory. But since I spent slightly over a year in Tegal, a sleepy town in Central Java whose biggest produce is tea, I put more appreciation to it.

It's clearly that town that changed my mind. It's definitely the strong fresh smell of the tea that attracted me to it. It was probably because I had no better option, since buying water cost me money while plain warm tea was free in any restaurant. I didn't realise it back then I was already hooked to tea.

It was only after I left Tegal that I came to miss tea. And the widely-sold, super practical teabags were no longer enough. So I've ventured every shop and supermarket for the real tea leaves to brew. Fortunately in Bali you can get almost everything.

This morning, I'm enjoying my solitary with a warm cup of plain tea. No sugar.

Life is good.

Grateful to Be Waking Up to the Sounds of Birds

Day 61 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful to be waking up to the sounds of birds and to the magnificent view of rice fields and mountains as I open the bedroom window."

After over 4 years living in Bali, I finally feel like I'm living in Bali. :)

Grateful for My Beautiful Garden

Day 60 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful for my first-ever, most beautiful little garden."

The new house has some nice features that I love... such as the wooden second floor, the thatched-roof style, the smart dining table and the spacious bathroom. But the centre of the attraction is really the garden. I've seen huge gardens with swimming pool, etc. and my garden is far from huge. But then big doesn't always mean beautiful. Big gardens that feel empty suck a lot. But small gardens with careful planning and care make the perfect ones. I'll say no more and just let the pictures speak.

Yeah, I'm that one lucky girl.

Grateful to Have Moved to the New House Despite the Hangover

Day 59 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful that we've managed to move to the new house today, despite the terrible, terrible hangover."

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope the year 2012 brings you lots of happiness and success in whatever you do. :)

Second of all, who in their right mind thinks that moving to a new house right on the first day of the year is a good idea?

US. Vincent, especially, but also me for agreeing to it. And of course, we were so damn wrong.

But the timing couldn't have been worse. We just arrived from our travel just a few days before we had to move. And if we'd have stayed longer in the previous house, we'd have been charged daily rate. So for the New Year's eve this year, we planned not to party. We planned not to go home early in the morning like we usually did. We planned not to drink too much to celebrate it. We wanted to be sober and excited as we entered our new beautiful house. After all, we were all tired - Vincent from the jetlag and me from packing things into the so many boxes.

But none of the plans worked out. Naturally. Greg called to invite us to have a small celebration at his place with one other couple. Vincent said we would just go there, have one drink and go to celebrate New Year's eve on our own, just the two of us. That never happened. :P

Don't get me wrong, it was a nice gathering with nice people. I enjoyed it very much. However, when we went home at 3 (still earlier than usual), we were absolutely drunk. And dead. And nobody heard the moving guys ringing the bell at 11 AM. They tried to call me three times and I only answered the last ring. Then it rained.really.really.hard.

It must have been a sign.

Vincent was so sick he couldn't get up. So we asked the guys to come back later when the rain stopped.
They did go, except that when I felt better at around 2, they refused to come back because they were out enjoying the New Year's holiday. Perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

My maid called another moving company, and we were lucky to get one that worked on 1 January. We agreed on a price, which was a lot more expensive than our previous guys, but we just couldn't wait until we could be in the new place.

It was drizzling during the move, Vincent and I were both sick, we arrived at the new house and the manager wasn't around to open the door and give us the key to the gate. We couldn't even get into our own new house! Yes, you can laugh now.

So.... we were stranded outside of the villa for at least half an hour, or maybe it was an hour, until someone handed in the key. Alas, the loading and unloading process only finished at around 8 PM.

We thought we were dying. And starving. So Vincent wanted to order some pizza. I was ready with my phone to order it until...

"What's our address?" I asked him.
"Shit. I don't know," he said.

And after half an hour waiting for the SMS reply from the owner of the villa about the address, Vincent gave up and said, "I'll find something to take away."

Dinner was at 10.

Grateful that We Will Be Moving to a Better Place Tomorrow

Day 58 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful that we will be moving to a better place TOMORROW."

It's a busy day today. We're preparing for our big moving day tomorrow to a new better place in Umalas. It's only 10 minutes ride from our present house and the building itself is smaller than the one we are living at the moment, but it's got a beautiful, beautiful garden. And jacuzzi. In the garden. Yay!

We decided to rent this house - or villa, as it claims to be - long time ago after our trip to Sidemen (remember my birthday and diving trip?) We compared the house we were staying in Sidemen with the one we were living in Seminyak. The Sidemen house was also a much smaller house, but all around it was so green and peaceful and lovely - not very surprising since it's located at a very strategic spot by the foot of the moutain. Of course it would have been too much to expect that there would be many places in Kerobokan that had such an excellent view. But really, a garden would have been enough. Also we thought it would have been a better place for Mouche the cat. She never really had a chance to explore outdoor world. And she will never now. :(

Anyway, it's still exciting to be moving out of this house. There had been more pain than laughter taking place in here, and both Vincent and I could use a little more spark in life. The new place is expensive for our budget but I hope and think it'll be worth every penny.

Here's a YouTube video Vincent found on the house we will be moving to tomorrow.

Grateful that Vincent is Back

Day 57 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful that Vincent is back."

These past two weeks felt like two months. Time went by sooooo slowly. But nothing matters anymore. He's here.