Part of Annelise’s birthday gift from me and from family was money for spending on quilting fabrics. Today we had the opportunity to head to our favourite fabric store, Dewi Mas. CV, and get the shopping done!

We could enjoy a fun trip up into Denpasar City proper, and I also had plenty of opportunity to practice my bahasa Indonesia with our driver. His English was adequate, but not great, so occasionally I could facilitate conversation between Dad and him in the front seats by translating for them. I also had some Indonesian conversations, leading to some confusion on my part when Annelise, for example, asked the exact question I had a couple of minutes prior, until I realised that my question (and subsequent replies) had been in Indonesian.

Our driver also tried to teach Dad some bahasa Indonesia, with limited success. After a few tries I think Dad might remember bagus, but sangat bagus posed some pronuciation problems. Paling bagus and lebih bagus were a stretch! Dad, when you read this, at least you will know how the words are spelt, which might help.

In the store I also had a few conversations with the workers in Indonesian. Overall, it was much better than last time I visited, when I just gave a blank stare when given the price in Indonesian.

I spent some time perusing the fabrics, but also took Dad for a walk so that he could take a look around a bit of Denpasar away from the tourist districts. We wandered across a large park, Lapangan Puputan Badung, and also past the Indonesian National Army’s Bali headquarters, where Dad took a couple of photos despite the heavily armed guards.

Finally, after returning to our hotel, we visited a favourite restaurant for lunch: the lokal 80361. All up, this feels like (so far) a very productive and successful day!