Those who know her, would describe Aunty Mod as a bit of a ‘go-getter’; seriously, I believe she was born with my share of energy as well as her own. Now Mod is one busy lady and when she arrived in Bali, several days after my own arrival (I needed a rest before she got there), her list of expectations was very long!

Some list ‘must do’s’ included; trying lots of different Indonesian food, hot-stone treatment, see traditional dance performance, manicure/pedicure, stalk Japanese fashionista tourists (see below), yoga (shoulder stand minimum), site-seeing, shopping…You get the idea.

The item on her agenda which tickled my fancy the most was her tireless efforts in ‘mastering’ the language. Aunty Mod set about learning greetings and general pleasantries in Balinese. But it turned out she was speaking High Balinese and the locals couldn’t understand her. Then she tried common Balinese and ended up with Indonesian (why restrict yourself?). Copious note taking ensued as well as practicing on anyone who stood still long enough to be engaged in conversation, as well as correcting my, albeit pathetic, efforts.

‘Thank you’ is always a good one to know to any language. However we always got a laugh out of the Indonesian ‘terima kasih’, which we pronounced ‘Kerry McCuskey’ aka Aunty Lush. There was much tangling up of the whole she-bang, creating chaos and merriment of many shop-keepers, restaurant staff and me!

Kisses,

Aunty Beads xxx

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