Living here has its advantages, none of which I moved here
for mind you, but yes I live right on the beach… a place I would have never
pictured myself in a million years. I am not one of those people who say: ‘I
feel the ocean calling me’. Had you asked me 15 years ago where I thought I
would be living in 15 years, I would have said: ‘in a cabin in the mountains
somewhere with lots of snow, chopping and piling my own wood, with bears and
deer and raccoons and squirrels.’ Yet here I am. Life is funny sometimes.
Regardless of what you have planned, how much you prepare,
or how adamant you are about creating your own destiny, shit happens. And
perhaps ‘shit’ is not the appropriate word as sometimes that shit is good
shit. Shit that expands your horizons, shit that opens up your perceptions,
shit you’d never expected that has you changing courses and diverting from the
path you’d set out on. Pardon my use of expletives, but in 'retreat speak' one might say the universe has other plans for you.
Take for example my plans for New Years Eve. The original
plan was to stay at home, celebrate with our friends and ring in the New Year
with good food, good snacks (which I’d spent the whole previous day making)
good music and of course copious amounts of alcohol.
Silly me. The number of years I’ve lived here equates
exactly to the number of New Year’s Eves that have completely sucked ass. Why
on earth would I think that this year would be any different?! Call me naïve,
but I thought THIS year would be different. It is the only celebration on the
Balinese calendar that coincides with anything where I come from. Here, there is
no Easter or Thanksgiving, no Halloween, no St. Patrick’s Day, no May 24
weekend , no Christmas. There is only New Year’s Eve.
Don’t get me wrong, there
are things to celebrate here, so many I cannot even count – from full moon to
days revering the specific gods of different things, like Saraswati Day (the
goddess of knowledge) and metal day where you make offerings to everything you
own made out of metal, be it a motorbike, a refrigerator or spoon. There seems
to be a ceremony for everything, but the difference is, they are all the same -
Go to the temple and make offerings come home and make more offerings and it’s
all good. There are no actual “celebrations” except for New Year’s Eve. And you
know sometimes a girl’s just gotta dance.
So here’s me, completely blanking the totally disappointing
previous New Year’s Eves, like the time in Dalung in the mechanic’s garage
where they’d all decided at 11:50 that we should ring in the New Year at the
local bar, only to find the place they wanted to go to was closed, so instead we
rang in the new year driving around in a car, or every other time when those
left standing (because everyone started drinking at noon) went home at 12:05.
Where I come from, the party starts at midnight. Not so here.
Call me a positive thinker. I had planned what I would wear
the week before. The day before I spent in the kitchen making party snacks, not
only to impress the friends and neighbours, but so I would not be relegated to
eating deep fried innards of some random animal.
On the day of, I showered and started to get ready WAY too
early. Armed with liquid eyeliner and a can of hairspray that Kadek’s mom had
left me when she was here the last time, neither of which I have used since the
early 80s, I put on makeup, sprayed my hair into place. Complete with my
frosted lipstick I was looking very farrah fawcette-esque, which was fine
because no one here knows who that is or that I looked like a complete
throwback to the late 70s/early 80s. I was ready – bring on New Year’s eve!
It was only 5pm and Kadek and Oda were still busy making
Ayam Betutu, which is one of my favourite Balinese dishes. Although a bit early
for lipstick, so far so good. Between my party snacks and the Ayam Betutu, we
had the ‘good food & good snacks’ part covered.
I’d decided to go visit the next door neighbours where
everyone else was that we’d be spending New Year ’s Eve with. They had been
doing Dangdut Karaoke since noon and when I went over, it was quite apparent
that that is when they’d also started drinking. I could feel my well laid plans
of a great New Years Eve party that would last ‘sampai pagi’, starting to slip
away and with that the reality of all of the sucky past New Year’s Eves came flooding
back. Feeling defeated, I happily accepted the glass as it came around to me
and the one immediately after that they gave me out of turn on the premise that
I had some catching up to do.
No! This year WAS going to be different. I made up some
excuse about how I had to go check on the status of the chicken because at the
rate I was drinking, I would be three sheets to the wind before 7pm, which not
for a good New Years Eve makes, not to mention the following day. When I get
back Kadek is still chopping spices up and then Oda’s mom brings out a plate of
food for the boys. Why are we making Ayam Betutu if they are eating? I was
waiting for the chicken to eat. I am then told the chicken has to steam for a
few hours. I was already getting hungry and consumption of alcohol on an empty
stomach is never a good idea, so I too had some food, knowing the chicken I had
been so looking forward to, I wouldn’t be hungry to eat…. And so it slips
further away.
By now I’d been ready to go since about 5pm and I’d already
had a few drinks next door and just waiting for Kadek and Oda to get showered
and changed, but they were apparently not in as much of a rush to get going as
I was. After coffee and some casual chatting, with me getting more and more
impatient and feeling completely ridiculous sitting there wearing frosted
lipstick, Kadek turns to me and says, we’re going to Kadek’s (another guy named
Kadek) house later. What? What about the chicken? What about my party snacks
I’d spent the whole previous day preparing? What about everyone else we’d
planned to spend New Year’s Eve with?
This new plan entailed us drinking a bottle between the
three of us first, going next door and hanging out a bit then going to Kadek’s
place as it was painfully obvious that it was doubtful that anyone next door would
even make it to midnight. After a half bottle, we decided to go over while they
were still conscious. At 7:00pm there were already a few people passed out on
various lounge chairs.
With the sun just having gone down, out came the flying
ants. The fireworks we set off early did nothing to deter them. So here’s me with my carefully sculpted
hairdo sprayed in place with about a hundred flying ants stuck in it.
After a few more rounds of karaoke and several drinks later
and a few more people succumbing to overzealous drinking, I was actually
looking forward to getting out of there and going to Kadek’s house. Accepting
and now welcoming the change of venue, I go back to our house to prepare to
leave. And damn it SOMEONE is going to eat at least some of the party snacks I
made. Deciding to forgo the tortilla chips and eggplant dip, I figured my tofu
and vegetable pockets would travel better. All I had to do was deep fry them. I
get them out of the fridge and started to carefully try to peel them off each
other and despite my having floured them so they wouldn’t stick together, they
were sticking together. I managed to salvage about 8, cooked those, threw them
in a bag with a bottle of sambal and proceeded to pack my other bag – Big
bottle of water, toilet paper, flash disk with party music, mini notebook in
case the speakers did not have a USB port, because oh yes, there would be
dancing and I would slit my wrists if I had to listen to dangdut and Indonesian
house music all night.
Oda’s well orchestrated plan of having his mom come over
next door to ask him for ‘help’ with something at 8pm had him peeling out of
there and headed to Kadek’s place before Kadek and I. I wish I’d thought of
that. Finally at 9pm, Kadek and I leave and as I run over to get my carefully
packed bags, Oda calls to us from inside his kitchen. He had come back to make
a cup of tea, but wanted to go back with us, so we waited for him to drink his
tea then finally left.
There were only 5 other people there, but with Oda, Kadek
and I just arriving and almost doubling the number of people, it made for an
acceptable little party. He had big speakers set up that he had hooked up to
his laptop, and everyone was on the front porch of his house with massive
amounts of beer bottles. There was a pitcher with beer in it and a block of ice
in a plastic bag, and as with all Balinese gatherings where people are
drinking, only one glass that goes around the circle. With the change in
beverage with significantly less alcohol than the Arak we had been drinking all
night, I welcomed the change.
After the third glass, though I was feeling rather full.
Time to get the groove on. I had bided my time to change the music, so I
wouldn’t look like I was trying to take over, which I was, of course. My dance
music playlist was accepted and for everything else that had not gone as I had
anticipated, at least there would be dancing… and there was.
Just before midnight we all went out on the street and
watched the fireworks everywhere, counted down to 12 o’clock and set off our
fireworks as well. They then moved the speakers and the beer out on the street
where we all sat in the middle of the road for about 10 minutes before everyone
decided it was time to go…. 5 minutes later than usual!
So another New Year’s Eve has come and gone, and despite my
grandiose plans to make this one the best ever, it was again mediocre and somewhat
disappointing.
As the Balinese are more day partiers than night partiers,
and New Years day people still have their speakers set up outside and left over
alcohol and because they’d had a good night’s sleep having passed out early, they
tend to continue the party the next day. I figured this just may make up for
the night before.
I woke up New Year's day at 7:30 and made myself a cup of
coffee and peanut butter on toast and went to enjoy it on the table outside set
up half way between our house and Oda’s house (Oda lives behind us). Pak Su
arrived for his usual morning drink. He gets a half bottle of Arak. Now many a
time have there been people drinking early in the morning asking if I would
like to partake. I don’t drink in the morning and I have always politely
declined. Oda’s mom comes over and gives Pak Su a bottle of jamu. Jamu is a
traditional remedy for just about anything, from high blood pressure and
diabetes to bad blood circulation and the common cold. Depending on your issue
will depend on what it’s made out of. This jamu was orangey-brown and thick.
Pak Su asks me if I want some. I told him that I would rather drink ‘that’,
pointing to his bottle of Arak, right now, than that jamu. He misunderstood and
poured me a shot of Arak. That was SO not what I’d meant. I then figured what
the hell. I actually drank it.
So here’s me drinking at 7:30 in the morning because … well
for no reason. It didn’t even seem like a good idea at the time, yet there I
was sharing a half bottle of Arak with Pak Su. We talked about our respective
New Year’s Eve experiences and the party where he had been also ended just
after 12. After the half bottle of Arak was done, he gets another one. As he’d
intended to drink the half bottle on his own, but with me sharing, it was
technically only a quarter bottle as he’d pointed out, so I was then required to
share another half with him. At that point it wouldn’t have made me any less
depraved if I had declined. Although being intoxicated early in the morning was
a new and interesting experience, I’ve now been there, done that with no plans
in the future to repeat. Once the second half of the bottle was done, I got a
call from a client who wanted something done today so they could get it printed
tomorrow, so I headed to my office. I’d almost finished but I simply could not
keep my eyes open. I had to have a nap. Just 20 minutes and I’ll be fine.
I was rudely awakened by my phone ringing. It was Kadek
calling me saying he’d forgotten it was Friday and that I have a class. I’d
asked him what time it was – I had no idea. He says 5. I know my class is at 5,
what time is it now? He says:”5! Find someone to drive you I will call them and
let them know you are on the way.” DOH! I literally slept through New Years Day
only to have to wake up and go teach an English class to the kids in
Penuktukan. As I am walking down the stairs to go find a ride and I can hear my
neighbours over their karaoke microphone calling to me to come over. So much
for making up for last night.
Living in Bali is very different from holidaying in Bali.
But despite the challenges, as we ring in 2016, I realize there is no place I’d
rather be.
