Colourscape- Clapham Common 2021

My first proper gig of 2021 (AKA performing to the paying public) took place last Saturday on Clapham Common at the Colourscape festival.

If you're not sure of what Colourscape is, I have taken the liberty of  borrowing some information from their website:

Cwmni Colourscape is the partnership of Peter Jones and Lynne Dickens, who create Colourscapes. Peter Jones developed the first Colourscape structures in 1974. Colourscapes were preceded by 'Spaceplaces' from 1963, which were installations of coloured surfaces made inside buildings. In 1970 they became open-air structures. Experiments with air-inflated sculpture gave new possibilities of working directly with colour. Early structures used large primary colour chambers interconnected by tubes. Subsequently, many different Colourscapes, have been made, growing more complex in colour relationships. Cwmni Colourscape have several Colourscape structures, which they show at festivals and other events in the UK and abroad.
Cwmni Colourscape also creates and makes other structures - tensile canopies, wind sculptures and giant bubbles, all of which have generated and been part of many events. Many people have been trained with Cwmni Colourscape to make structures, to develop colour workshops and to run Colourscape shows

Eye Music:

Eye Music Trust (formerly Nettlefold Festival Trust) was founded by composers Lawrence Casserley and Simon Desorgher. In 1984 they founded a contemporary music festival in south London, the Nettlefold Festival, which was particularly dedicated to live electroacoustic music and music theatre. In 1988, seeking to expand the scope of the festival and to reach new audiences, they formed a charitable trust to oversee their work.
One of the most significant moments in the development of their work was the start of their collaboration with Cwmni Colourscape, which lead to the first Colourscape Music Festival, which took place on Clapham Common, London, UK in 1989. Since then the Trust have presented many Colourscape Music Festivals, numerous other events involving structures created by Cwmni Colourscape, and hundreds of educational workshops for people of all ages throughout the UK and abroad.

In 2005 the Trust was restructured as a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee (Reg No. 05466017) - and the name changed to Eye Music to reflect the connections between music and visual art. In 2008 Eye Music Trust became an Arts Council Regularly Funded Organisation.

Info from the Eye Music website 

I was performing with my Balinese Gamelan group- Lila Cita, on a beautiful Balinese Gamelan Angklung called Kembang Kirang which is owned by SOAS. Angklung is actually ceremonial music for Cremation but it is the most cheerful, bouncy-sounding music.

It's about the 4th Colourscape festival I have performed at, but it's been a good 10, possibly more years, since I did one, I suspect.  I forgot HOW amazing it is to walk and play in those brightly-coloured structures.  The colours are so mesmerising and you go on journeys throughout the chambers and see different shapes. As you can imagine, it is a joy to photograph.  We had a really appreciative audience who sat and listened to us for their allotted times as well as dancing through the chambers and delighting in the colour and light interplay.  A couple of times, I turned round from my suling (small Bamboo flute) to see a group of people in a far off chamber...or not so far off.... making up their own dances to music, I saw a small child leaning comfortably against an inflated wall looking content as he listened to us and when I smiled at him with my eyes, whilst playing, he smiled back in a way that suggested all was well with the world.

We played about 4 sets of music and paraded through the structure twice with our Baleganjur (street parade) music.

If you ever get the chance to visit, I strongly recommend it. It's wonderful.  I had a break where I leaned against a wall and read my book and it was so relaxing. I feel so lucky to have been able to take part in this performance.

And now, I will leave you to have a look at my photos of different views from Colourscape.  You might even find a video in there! Enjoy!

Uluwatu

 

When I lived in Bali, almost 20 years ago, there was this wonderful shop called Uluwatu in the tourist areas.  It was beautifully curated and full of beautiful handmade Balinese lace clothes, usually made out of soft white cotton or linen.  The shops were cool, spacious and envy and softly lit. I used to moon over the clothes in there that were so beautiful.  But, everything in the shop was expensive by Balinese standards. Most items in there cost as much as most of my month's rent so I never did buy anything in there, even at sale time.

Therefore I was delighted to find this beautiful top in a charity shop a few weeks ago.  A sleeveless cotton, lace top with scalloped edges in a loose fit for the grand sum of £3.  Here's some old Primark jewellery I wore it with.

I teamed it with my Fabindia blockprint skirt plus a Peacocks kimono (both secondhand) plus these Lotus sandals (£5 secondhand on eBay)

It was a really cool outfit to wear and one I would have loved to wear in Bali.  It only took 20 years for me to have something of the Uluwatu ilk!

I hope you are well. 

I had my first singing assembly since the 18th March 2020.  It was a joy and very well-received by the Year 5's and 6's.  We sang my song based on a poem from Roald Dahl's Enormous Crocodile.  Of course, technology failed me.  The dining hall (which we were all squashed into for a very small 15minutes) computer flatly refused to open my powerpoint at first and then crashed and refused to load so we had to learn the song from me singing it to them.  They were really good at memorising it and every teacher in the hall smiled and said how much they enjoyed hearing the children sing collectively again!

One Singing assembly of the week down, two to go!

xx

Memories of Bali- the day the street became a river

A few weeks ago, I shared an image of me with some kittens from Bali and reminisced about my favourite place to meet.

Today, I am sharing another Bali photo.  This one is of me again.  It was April 2003 and my wonderful sister had come to visit me in Bali.  She'd had a real wobbler with her boyfriend of 8 years about whether they should stay together and she thought she'd come and see me for a week in Bali.

I remember the moment she phoned me to say she was coming. I was at a rehearsal and I came out to chat to her and screamed when I heard she was coming.  She was the only member of my family to come and visit me there. My Mum couldn't afford it and the rest of my family didn't really go to places like Bali.

So, on about our 2nd day, we got the Bemo (local travel like a mini bus) to Kuta, the notorious resort where the Bali bomb happened.  We checked into a really nice hotel- it was so reasonable, 160,000Rp per night (about £13) but had a pool and hot water.  For me, that was luxury. I stayed in 50,000Rp places.

That first day, we went shopping in Kuta.  There are absolutely masses of shops, many all crammed to the brim with souvenirs- sandals hand embellished with a myriad sequins (I saw someone making some), shell covered boxes, wooden masks, bracelets galore.  Then there were the 'designer shops' and then the odd department store.

We went into the latter of these whilst the sun was shining brightly.

But, this being Bali in April, it was still the rainy season and when we came out the shop, the rain had been plummeting continuously and the street in Kuta was now a river!

I, having been there the entirety of that rainy season, was used to this phenomenom but for my sister who had never been to anywhere except Europe or America, this was totally flabbergasting! She was so shocked and we giggled about the craziness of the weather.

She took this picture of me looking comically sad.

Looking at these photos, I remember those clothes:

The nice floral sarong I was bought as a present; the grey vest top which was much worn that year; the Next Birkenstock-style sandals that slowly deteriorated and were munched upon by either rats or cockroaches in the garden; I could never determine which.

We still giggle now when we remember her incredulity!

xx

Memories of Bali- kitties and cuisine

Today, I spent the day at the Indonesian Embassy in London.  I was there to attend a reunion of people who had been in receipt of the Darmasiswa Scholarship, a programme run by the Indonesian Government by which people from other countries under the age of 35 are able to go and spend a year in a college/university/institution studying an aspect of Indonesian life- this might be music, dance, batik, carving, Puppetry, photography, language, general art.

I went there 16 years ago to study music.

I was sadly unable to attend yesterday when there were many wonderful workshops and performances from alumni from the programme but I hear it was fabulous.

I went along today and saw some performances, talked about feedback from the programme from different generations, talked about the future, ate wonderful Indonesian food and took part in some workshops. It was lovely to see some people I hadn't seen for ages and to meet some people I had heard about but not met such as the amazing Neil Sorrell, professor at York university.

We had one session where we were talking about feedback from the programe and I was struck by the fact we talked quite a bit about things that didn't work so well. However, I really wish I had stood up and said, despite all that, it was the most interesting experience of my life and despite all the difficulties, I am so glad for it.

They are putting together a book of alumni and we were asked to submit some photos of ourselves then and now if we could.

I was looking in the garage and found a box of my Bali photos from the pre-digital era and thought it might be nice share some of them here that I've never shared since that was life Pre-blog!

This picture brings back so many memories.

Oh, there were so many cats in Bali.  Tiny, scrawny mangy, scabby, pathetic creatures who I felt so sorry for.  In retrospect, I wish I had done more to feed them but I was on an extremely limited budget and meat was comparatively expensive to the largely vegetarian fare I ate most of the time. 

One place where the kitties didn't look too scruffy was a warung I used to eat my lunch in.  A warung was like a cafe/restaurant- this could be in a market place on a wheeled stall or in a fixed building.

These kitties could be found in what we called, 'The internet warung' as it was situated next to the Internet cafe, Nusahindahnet (a play on words on the road name).

I am very much a creature of habit and I adored the food in this warung and ate there practically every day. I never got bored of the same dishes.

How it worked was that you are served a bowl of boiled rice and there are a series of dishes on shelves which you point to and the server adds a little of that dish to your bowl of rice.

You go and sit down and eat it.

I liked this warung for the large selection of dishes they had and the cheap rice.   My daily lunch cost around 4000Rp (at the time the exchange rate was 13,600 Rp to the pound).

They had lots of different vegetable dishes which was not always the case everywhere.   They also had a really tasty shredded beef (you got a tiny little bit), nice little mini-omelette piece, a nice individual prawn in batter and delicious tofu and tempeh dishes.

Plus, I always ordered Ice tea, which you have to order WITHOUT sugar or they make it WITH sugar- they didn't charge me for my 'Es Teh Tawar' because it was the sugar that cost!

The girls in there were really friendly and I loved the little kitties who used to run around on the floor and would sneak them a bit of my shredded beef.

This photo was taken on my last day when I was going to say goodbye to the girls in the Warung and eat my last meal- I wanted to have my photo taken with my sweet little kitty companions!

It was amazing to eat Indonesian food today and it brought back memories of how happy I was in terms of diet during my year in Indonesia.  I never took meals there for granted and daily couldn't believe I got to eat so much delicious food.

And this photo, reminds me of the simplicity of my life there and I think, fixed my palate for life.  South East Asian food all the way for me!

x

All about the lizards

When I lived in Bali, there was one unique part I adored. The lizards.  Growing up in England, the only wild creatures that would get into the house uninvited would be spiders, mosquitoes, flies, mice if you were really unlucky.  But in Indonesia, it was something a little different.

Houses in Bali would have little vents at the tops of windows- ornately carved.  And the Cecaks would creep in.  Cecaks (pronounced Cheh-Chack) were tiny little lizards, of not more than about 5cm long, who would sit high up on the walls.  Their name appears to be onomatopoeic since the sound they make is a "Chak, chak, chak".  I was utterly delighted by these shy little creatures. No worry that they would come and crawl on you, they lived high up on the walls and would eat the bane of my life, those awful relentless Nyamuk- or mosquitoes to us!
One of the cutest rhymes I was taught by a child there was this:

Cecak, Cecak, di dinding
Diam-diam merayap
Datung seekor nyamuk
HAP! Gagal/Lalu ditangkap!

"Lizards, geckos, wall
Silently creep
Suddenly mosquito!
HAP! Failed arrest
(apparently according to Wiki!)

They were so sweet- always there. I always longed to hold one of them but they were very shy.  I told my neighbour Ayu I wanted to hold on and one day I came home from school to find a very disgrunted-looking Cecak in a clear plastic bag with air holes.  She'd caught me one so I could hold him! I did so and he ran off immediately.

The other type of lizard, I heard before seeing.  The Dokeh or the Gecko in our language!  You would hear this:
Gudugudugudugudugudugudugudu
DOH- KEHHHHHH!
DOH- KEHHHHHHH!
DOH- KEHHHHHHH!
DOH- KEHHHHHHH!
DOH-----KEHHHHHH!

Children used to joke that you could tell the time with a Doh-keh! He's winding himself up like an alarm clock and then he chimes!

When I finally saw one, they were much larger than the Cecak and would camoflage against a tree. Less cute-looking, a bit more Crocodilish but still handsized.  darker skin.  I never managed to hold a Dohkeh!

I learnt to perfect my impression of a Dohkeh!

The other type of lizard that I never saw was the Komodo-dragon.  You could see these in the zoos in Bali (which I never went to) but I met a few people from the Indonesian Island of Flores where the Komodo-dragon comes from.  I'd have loved to meet one.
My friend Va'clav said that there was a larger lizard in our garden there but I never saw it.

The lizards were one of my favourite parts of life in Bali.  Something about having such a completely harmless animal sitting around on your walls, keeping you company.

Have you ever fallen in love with a creature indigenous to a place you have stayed?
Do share any foreign animal stories!

xxx

The tale of the friendly Moor hen babies

Sorry about the mix-up with the brooch post- that's what happens when you mess up your html- you end up with JUST a link up! If you missed the next Brooch instalment, hit the last post!

Moor hens, I find, are rather timid.Unlike they goosey and ducky counterparts, they will scurry away from you regardless of your intentions etc.

Yet, there are two unusually audacious moorhens who were oblivious to me and just pootled around as I took these photos in the park!  My park is VERY well used. I had to perch my camera on a bench and take it nonchalantly in about 10 seconds between pedestrians and dog-walkers.

This outfit was one of berry shades I thought appropriate for the weather.  I don't think I've shared this dress on the blog before but it's charity-shopped from Jack Wills with tiny black spots on it and it's a great jersey t-shirt dress!
I teamed it with this country casuals belt (also charity-shopped) and worked from there- the navy rosette brooch matched the belt, the cardie, given by a friend moving back to Canada and the navy blue F21 tights. Deichmann boots and then I felt I needed a scarf.  This one is silk and I bought it in Bali from a Javanese stall at the International Arts festival a decade ago.  I'm very fond of it and I always feel like an art teacher when I wear it tied artistically around my neck!

The usual Autumnal/Winterish malaise has hit me and I cannot be bothered to photograph any outfits- this was from a sunny day 2 weeks ago! Pity as everyone loved what I wore to orchestra yesterday!

I hope that all is well with you.
xx

BEDM: Indonesian Pamper nostalgia

Image borrowed from Jakarta city life

I'm not really a pamperer in the traditional sense of beauty treatments and the suchlike. I'll have a pedicure every once in a while, usually one in the summer and I'll have my hair cut.  I'm definitely not adverse to the idea of a massage, pedicure, facial etc- I love them in fact, but I rarely have them. But, my idea of a pampering often includes lying in bed late on a Saturday morning, large mug of tea by bed, book to read, curtains shut but with a little light. This is my idea of bliss.

But when I lived in Indonesia, I was introduced to a wonderful form of pampering and how I long to experience it again.
It is called a 'Creambath' and that's what it is called in Indonesian too!
I was introduced to it by my private Gamelan teacher.  He was teaching me and our Thai friend Waewdao and the three of us went to a salon to try a Creambath.  We even used to nickname him Pak Creambath because he LOVED having a Creambath treatment.

You would take your top off  (with underwear) and wear a towel- velcroed or buttoned towel round your top.  You would sit in the chair and what happens is, they wash your hair and then after a little towel pat dry.
Then, they take a pot of rich, nourishing conditioning cream (based on your hairtype).  This is a thick mixture usually with some natural ingredients- there was one that involved avocado, coconut or milk, carrot also.   The beautician would then apply it to your hair along form the scalp to the full length and massage it into your head. It was incredibly relaxing. The massage was quite firm but felt like it was doing your head great good as well as your hair.  When they had applied it to the full length, they would then put you under one of those head steamers (you know one of those head-dryer things that senior ladies who were having a hairstyle set would be put under.  You would steam for some 10-15 minutes. Whilst that was happening, the beautician would massage your neck, upper back, arms and hands with moisturiser. It was very nice and they were very good at massaging those awkward knots!

Finally, they would wash your hair and then then dry it (I think- it is 9 years since I last had one).  Your hair would feel incredibly  soft, nourished and smell absolutely amazing after the treatment.
My favourite salon was one in Penatih where my teacher lived.  The treatment was very reasonable and cost me about 20,000Rp from that place (around about £1.60!) some 12 years ago.  It was also very important for me when I was there as I was using a traditional Kamar Mandi (bathroom) in the Kos (room) where I lived and only had cold water and a scoop to wash my hair- I wasn't so good at using the Kamar mandi for washing my hair effectively!

I think longingly of going back to Bali and a Creambath would be one of my first treats when I was there!

Have you ever heard of a Creambath or something similar and would you like one?
I'd also love a great big long foot massage!!! Do they do such things in the UK?

xxx


For a little more info, you can look at Jakarta Citylife article about it

The green trousers of Seminyak

Vix has talked about the fact she loves the fact that her charity shopped or handmade items have a story to them. I feel similarly about many items I buy. There's always something or some story (in my case, probably very dull!) in my mind associated with each one, especially the ones I keep for a long time.

When I lived in Bali, I had difficulty with clothes.  I am fairly tall, but for a girl, by Indonesian standards, I am super tall.  I was also a bad shape. I am quite pear-shaped and I just couldn't get any normal trousers to fit.  I have never really felt self-conscious about my shape in my life, I am lucky but in Bali, I did feel a bit of a heffalump! My rational mind told me that I of course I wasn't but when your Philippine Artist friend jokes that you backside is blocking out the sun as you walk up the hill in front of them, you can get a little sensitive...


By normal trousers, I mean, standard, plain, every-day trousers.  The only things I could get were loud patterned batik trousers with elasticated waists that no one wore in Bali. They are the type of things tourists wore. I wore them and I really liked the prints some of them (the Javanese ones were not as pretty as the Balinese ones) but they did make me stand out as a tourist- and the shape was not flattering- they just made me look frumpy and they were too short (I have long legs).  They also ripped and got maimed by hand-washing (I had to handwash all my clothes in a bucket. I couldn't afford to send my clothes to a laundry and I had no washing machine) and often in embarrassing places (crotch!).

I wore sarongs for a lot of the time, but if I was going anywhere on a motorbike (riding pillion), I did not want to wear one as either I had to flash WAY too much leg or ride side-saddle. Ever ridden a motorbike on crazy Balinese roads with motorbikes full of 10crates of chickens and whole families with cars ignoring you side-saddle? Especially when your driver is your Balinese Gamelan teacher  who is quite large or a lovely Czech giant fellow student and takes up most of the seat? It's terrifying!

I just had to wear my trousers brought from England, now woefully scruffy (and also not breathable material) or these ragged, holy trousers (I tried to sew them up).


It actually wasn't until very late in my year of study that I discovered or even thought to consider a tailor.  My friend Katarina, a fellow scholarship student, had found a good tailor in Seminyak, Kuta and had a beautiful pair of trousers similar to these above made.  The price seemed very reasonable and so I thought of this beautiful green silky material I had bought a while back and decided to give it a go.
I went to him and drew what I wanted roughly, also pointing out Katarena's ones, asking for mine to be more wide-legged (I like my trousers this way) and left him with the material.

When I went to pick them up, I was SO happy. He'd done a brilliant job of them! He'd cleverly sewn pockets from the material at the edges/hem, lovely button and tie detail and they were comfy, long and different! Ok,so they would still mark me out as a tourist but I wasn't there for so much longer and why take back trousers that look like those you can buy in a shop?

Sadly, they are not the type of trousers I wear regularly in England- I walk most places and they are quite long so I am scared to rip the hem, but when having a clear out this summer, I re-found them (honestly haven't worn them for about 6 years!) and decided I should show them some love. I wore them for most of the last week of the holidays and they were delightfully comfortable.  They are the perfect trousers for a light, not too hot, not too cold day. And they bring back memories of a different time, different place.

I had a few other garments made after that, some remain  in my custodianship, others have long gone to other homes. But these were my first.

As well as a very old, very loved George vest-top, I added these earrings from Dubrovnik (more on Dubrovnik soon-sifting through photos makes me lose the will to live sometimes!).
We'd just walked the city walls and I saw this stall with this woman making these.  She and her friend made them from different coloured wires and I loved them. They were so different to all the other jewellery places and I can never resist anything in turquoise! Wish I'd bought the magenta ones too!


Ha, BAD photo but the necklace says it all. I DO love having this little space where I can waffle, reminisce, indulge in a bit of nostalgia and some lovely people ACTUALLY take the time to read it. I DO appreciate you all! Thank you for your love and care!!!

xx


Linking up to Fashion Item Friday with darling Renae and gorgeous Claire Justine when Creative Mondays comes around and Passion for Fashion with Rachel the Hat.  Finally, with Ms Papelicos- whose Share in Style celebrates trousers or skirts this week.

xx