Confirmation…

Sadie gets a bath before "Mommy" gets home from her trip... Note the look of pure joy on her face...!!

The days I spent alone in Ubud seemed to drift by far too slowly… I had quickly settled into a routine of walking Sadie twice a day, and spending the time in between bringing my website up to date…

I took the Big Fella out on a few short rides but the volume of traffic generally prevented us from exploring the outer limits of throttle control, even on the winding and quieter country roads that stretched to the north of Ubud…

When I wasn’t writing, I was reading, trying to finish the two or three books I had been lugging around, so that I could exchange them for others before I left on the next leg of my journey…

When I wasn’t doing any of the above, I spent the time daydreaming about Patti’s return, wondering at the vagaries of fate that had brought us together, and trying to fathom why I felt such a strong and deep attraction to her after having spent such a short time in her company…

On the day of her return, I rode down to the airport in Denpasar with Kardi, one of the taxi drivers whom we used most often…

From across the road at the arrivals hall, I scanned the crowd looking for her, my heart in my mouth… Would her reception be warm and smiling or cool and distant…?

I needn’t have worried… She came willingly into my arms with a wide smile and those flashing eyes…

And that was all the confirmation I needed that this was the beginning of a bright new chapter in my life…

We spent the next few days examining and expressing our feelings for each other, often lost in the wonder of what was taking place between us…

Part of the Estate Walk that winds down steep slopes to the banks of the Ayung River bordering the property...

Patti immediately took charge of my “dietary requirements”, expressing utter dissatisfaction at my somewhat unusual eating habits, and vowing to make a healthier man out of me…!! A daunting task, as she has since discovered…!!

This involved far more than just eating more vegetables than I thought was absolutely necessary, but also a huge reduction in the volumes of sugar that I had previously believed necessary to keep my body functioning normally…!!

I am expecting letters of regret from chocolate manufacturers to begin arriving any day now…!! If anybody out there has share options in either Coke, Cadbury’s or Nestle, I suggest you consider reducing your portfolios now…!!

Knowing my weakness for the above items, visits to the local supermarkets have been carefully engineered to ensure that I avoid walking down those aisles that contain all “the stuff that’s bad for you”…!! I seem to be spending an awful lot of time in the fruit and veg section of Bintang these days, staring longingly through the glass partition to where I knew the sweeties lay waiting for me to make a triumphant return…

Trying to “make a healthier man out of me” did not stop there…!!

My system has since been subjected to further shocks by something known as “regular exercise”…!!

The path leads down to this rock pool in a jungle-like setting...

We passed the Sacred Spring (Teput Air Suci) that bubbles out of a rock face along the path...

It all began innocently enough with an “Estate Walk” through the beautiful grounds of Como Shambhala, where Patti is the Activities Manager… (See more on this exclusive property here…)

We walked along the narrow, well tended pathways, that led down to the banks of the Ayung River, to rock pools and the Pilates Studio, set amongst verdant green forest, and then back up to the grounds of the resort, climbing hundreds of steps that had me out of breath and dreaming of a cold swim in the pools we had just come from…

It then quickly progressed to regular yoga workouts, long walks and even a spot of jogging…!! When my various joints and muscles began raising objections to what they saw as “cruel and unusual punishment”, Patti decided that some Alternate Nostril Breathing and Meditation would take my mind off that particular problem…!!

Early the following morning, just before the sun rose above the trees bordering the villa, I found myself sitting cross-legged on a yoga mat, thumb and forefinger poised in front of my nose, navel pulled up against my spine, back straight, shoulders back, and my lungs saying “Wait a minute, Buddy…!! What exactly do you think you’re doing…!! You have two nostrils available to you, and until now, there’s been no good reason to use only one of them at a time…!!”

With a guide like this, I hardly needed urging to negotiate the steep climb back to the resort...!!

Yoga, Pilates, "Hula-Hooping"... This Girl is like a Duracell Bunny...!!

Patricia sweet-talks a guest from her office in Como Shambhala...

With Patricia guiding me, and the sun beginning to filter through the open window in front of us, bathing us both in dappled leafy patterns, I felt a calmness settle over me… Peace that I usually only experienced when I was alone out in the bush, with nothing else on my mind but my immediate surroundings and the fauna and flora that populated it…

But for the slight ache in my knees, I felt almost as if I was floating off the mat…

I cannot remember how long we sat there but when I opened my eyes again, the sun had climbed above the trees and Patricia’s gentle voice, seemingly coming from a long distance away, was penetrating the silence, bringing my first serious attempt at meditation to a blissful end… The world was a brighter place, and sitting next to me was the brightest star I had seen in a long time…

My first feeling was that I should hop back into bed, where I knew I would fall into a deep and untroubled sleep, and had I been alone, I probably would have done just that…

Instead, I floated downstairs, gave Sadie her morning feed while the kettle boiled, and then walked Patti down to where the Como car waited to take her to work…

Later that same afternoon, I tried to duplicate the feeling that I had achieved that morning, but I could not get my mind to break free of the noises coming from the building site next door, or the scooters that buzzed up and down the lane outside…

But that has not since stopped me from trying and achieving a similar state of peacefulness that I felt that first morning we meditated together…

We stopped to have lunch in a restaurant in Candidasa...

"Daydreaming again, Ronaldo...!!" Who me...?? Ok... Maybe just a little...!!

I have to admit that since practicing yoga and doing more exercise than I have in previous years, I feel that I am “walking taller”, and consciously making an effort to improve my posture has certainly made me believe that I have gained an inch or two…!! Ah…, the power of positive thinking…!!

Having what amounts to a personal trainer around me every day makes slacking off well nigh impossible, and with her boundless energy, Patti gives off a vibe that makes me want to feel part of it… Not content with the hours of Yoga and Pilates she teaches every day, on her days off, you would think that Patti would take a break from all the exercise…?? Think again…!!

She visits the Yoga Barn in Ubud to attend the public classes given there, and has “enrolled” me in classes there to ensure that I do not do any “backsliding”…!! She has also dragged me along on walks up on the Campuhan Ridge…!!

When I last weighed myself in Koh Lanta, I tipped the scales at a what for me was a hefty 88 kilos… (I have heavy bones, you see…!!) Then, more recently, at Como Shambhala’s gym, when I again hopped on the scales, I discovered that I had somehow shed more than 6 kilos…!!

Cries of “I’m fading away…!!” and “I’ll never be able to get the Big Fella off his side stand at this rate…!!”, have been met with a stern look and words like “Nonsense !!” and phrases such as “You’re lighter and stronger…!!”…

And when these have been administered with a kiss, I have found Patti very difficult to argue with…!!

But it hasn’t been ALL hard work…

We’ve also made a trip to the beaches north of Candidasa, where we spent a quiet afternoon swimming and soaking in the rays of a late afternoon sun…

Relaxing on White Sands Beach, Candidasa... Happy times in Bali...!!

Looking around me and thinking about the last few days with Patti, made me wonder how long it would be before I felt the call of the road again…

I had a feeling that I would remain deaf to it for a long time to come…!!

 ©GBWT 2011