I’ve just stepped back into the surreal world of Bali. The ice-cream man just rode by on his bicycle with his recording blaring “Jingle Bells,” alerting kids from miles around that he’s here and ready to sell. Invisible ants are carting off a six-inch dragonfly across the living room floor, my spayed cat just had kittens (I thought the stitches were in an odd place), and I just relocated my coffee tree forest to a new area of the living room.
The weather is hot, the pool is warm and the AC works. All is well in Baliwood.
The house staff is hard at work. They are busy cleaning the staff house, which looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned since the day it was built. It has required the use of a pressure washer and other arcane tricks of the trade. Putu and Made are running around in their boxers to keep their “uniforms” from getting wet. Nyoman is far too dignified for such antics. It all borders on being a Fellini film, with cameo shots of the kittens that couldn’t have been hatched.
More on cats: At the warehouse, on the other end of town, two new kitties showed up a couple months ago. Sugi, my warehouse manager, hates them. They make “stinky messes” and Mr. Clean can’t handle it. He laughingly tells me he hired a cat assassin. I’m not sure if he’s really joking. The cats are gone and he’s really happy…
The ducks are on parade down in the rice field below, quacking up a storm and playing follow the leader.
Yes, it’s Bali again.
