The pre-amble or the waffle before the waffle - Thursday 1st September

It was five years ago, almost to the day, that Tiz and I visited Bali, not long after we had met.

It has been too long between visits but we have nearly run out of vanilla beans, which are very very cheap for some inexplicable reason in Bali, and we have both had a hectic mid-year and we really needed and deserve a break.

Way back when we booked the flights Tiz suggested we should go for two weeks but I, in a fit of all too common lack of logic, suggested one week would be enough.

I need to learn to shut up and listen because, now, I really regret not having taken two weeks.

As we have only one week to do “stuff” we planned on doing just a few things.

Those few things will include, but not necessarily be limited to, doing a cooking class at Deans Cooking School in Sanur, buying a shedload of vanilla beans at the Denpasar Pasar Badung Market AND visit the Temple of Enthusiasm, in Canggu.

I need to share a few thoughts relating to said Temple of Enthusiasm.

Deus Ex Machina, the owners of the Temple of Enthusiasm, is a company started by a guy called Dare Jennings, after he sold Mambo, alongside business partners Carby Tuckwell, a designer, and Barry Davies, a merchant banker.

The story of the company including what they do, why they do it and how they do it is fascinating (... to me, at least) and should be read in the light that Dare didn’t need to do it, given he was worth 10’s of millions of $’s at age 50 odd, but he had a passion for motorbikes, surfing, skateboarding and had an idea that he could meld them all into one business using clothing as the “glue”.

Read the story as it will be more enjoyable than my banging on.

The whole idea of the Temple of Enthusiasm takes a bloke, who is now 60, back to the ‘70’s when his mates were going over there to surf Uluwatu, Impossibles, Dreamland and Keramas amongst so many other perfect spots. 
They would head over with nearly no money and just survive on instinct the pure joy of riding of glassy barrels and the good will of the gorgeous, kind unspoilt locals. 

They would come back with glorious tales of 6ft endless tubes which always made me green with envy.  I didn’t make over with them as I was too busy saving money to buy a block of land and the closest I got was watching “Morning of the Earth”, repeatedly.

I still enjoy watching it to this day and the scenes and the music still give me goose-bumps and the biggest smile.

Here is a Youtube clip of a scene from it in Bali.

A few years ago a friend of mine, Duncan, who I shamefully don’t see much of at all these days, holidayed in Bali, in Canggu. When he came back he told me about it and I’ve been hankering to visit ever since.

This time Tiz and I are going to get there and nothing short of a full blown monsoon is going to stop us.    

It’s a Thursday night, the weather is getting as one would expect with the onset of spring, and we have two more sleeps before we catch the “big flying bus” to the land that so accurately portrayed by Bob and Bing when I was a kid watching them on a B&W TV in North Carlton.

For now,

Selamat tinggal



...... and please come back for more.