Weekend at Gemma's or A Smaller Version of Our Stuff

We started the day with breakfast at Melati so that I could catch up on internet stuff before we headed south for the weekend. I had a tomato egg jaffle, which usually has sliced fresh tomato inside, but this one had what tasted like canned stewed tomato instead. Not good.

We got a call from Sama Sama that our clothes were ready, so Lace went to pick them up while the kids went swimming and I played around on the computer checking email and catching up on blog posts. She had asked Sama Sama to have some of her pants ready this morning so she could wear them this weekend. She returned with a package that contained all the clothing we had ordered. We had asked that our scraps be saved so that they could be used for quilting. They saved every tiny piece! Ketut was going to lay them all out so that Lace could see not a piece was missing, but Lace told her that was not necessary.

Around 11:00, we packed up and went back to Londo so the kids could shower and we could finish packing for the weekend. Gemma told us to be there between 2:00 and 3:00, so we left about 12:30. It isn't really that far, but traffic and road conditions make the drive a bit long.

Dreamland is a new neighborhood/housing development on the Bukit Peninsula. I've never seen anything like it in Bali, but apparently it's the wave of the future. I'm reminded of the American 50's (not that I was there), when developers cleared acres of land and plopped down row after row of identical houses. (The houses in Dreamland are not identical, but the feeling is there.) How long before the traditional villages and way of life are gone?

After settling in and meeting everyone, we drove in to Kuta to meet several Aussie friends from the Bali Chat Forum at Rama Garden Hotel. Once all the introductions and hugs had gone around, and everyone was there, we trooped down the street to Bali Bagus, a tiny restaurant where our group took up half the tables. The food was good and the service was great. I think they had karaoke, but we didn't go there. When everyone had finished dinner and a round or two of drinks, the music was cranked up so loud you couldn't hear yourself think, so we left. (They've never heard of Jimmy Buffett here!)