Memory fragments

If you haven't noticed yet, I've started uploading photos to my different Bali posts so you can see some of the beauty and magic I found there. It's a slow and painful process, though, so the full beauty and magic show may take a while for me to update.

In the meantime, I thought I would list (in no particular order), some of the mental images that I will take with me into the office and the grey Swiss winter (yes, it's still winter here) to keep my heart warm (mental images take much less time to upload than photographic ones...):

- trying to figure out how to place a lotus flower in the back of my heart during yoga (or how to breathe into my knees, or let my body be soft and juicy, or ...)
- the old man with a sling shot aiming at the monkeys in Uluwatu temple

- Puspa, my cooking teacher, joking about getting "married by accident"
- the feel of Gado Gado when you're mixing it with your hands
- the Balinese healer telling me (with a burp, to release evil spirits) that my soul belongs in Bali
- high-fiving Gaday, my surf instructor, after finally standing up on the surf board
- indulging on banana pancakes every single morning (at least when I wasn't sick)
- being carried first, by a very delightful man (swoon), then by two of the girls, all the way from the restaurant back to my bed after my sprained ankle started acting up
- eating fish with my hands at the Jimbaran beach barbecue on my last night

- getting distracted by the beautiful scenery and falling right into a very muddy rice paddy (if you are the owner of that rice paddy and were wondering what happened to that particular plant in the north-west corner, I apologise)
- sharing sad stories with eight strangers and ending up with eight friends

- nursing a coconut water for an entire evening, watching Ubud go by

- getting giddy at the giant ceramics store (even when I get spiritual, I can still shop)
- eavesdropping on hippies comparing and contrasting squatting laws around the world
- the Millionaire Martini at Potato Head (that's a martini with a champagne chaser, in case you were wondering)

- fighting off a small but deceptively strong monkey who decided to hitch a ride on my pocket to see if he could get his hands on my camera (I eventually won)
- developing a passion for the strange and wonderfully expressive stone carvings that populate every corner of the island
- the smell of incense, everywhere

- ... and so many more...

Oh how I wish I could place a small offering by my door, and recapture some of that Balinese happiness...