Crumpled Home

(Our cousins P and M from Melbourne have been visiting for the past couple of weeks.)

LR: P got to go clothes shopping with Auntie Jess today!

Mum: Mmmhmmm. Lucky her.

LR: It’s not fair!

Mum: You just got to go clothes shopping in America. You got lots of new stuff.

LR: But I want to go with Auntie Jess!

Mum: I don’t think Auntie Jess goes to your shops.

LR: But she could.

Mum: Why do you want to go shopping with Auntie Jess anyway?

LR: Because she’ll let me buy anything I want.

Mum: Mmm. This is true.

LR: Yeah. Not like you. You only let me buy APPROPRIATE things.

(a discussion over dinner)

LR: When I die, I don’t think I want to be burned up.

Mom: At that point though, it doesn’t matter. You can’t feel anything, because you’re not alive. The body isn’t you any more.

LR: What about you, Mom? What do you want?

Mom: I think I want to be cremated, and then you can take my ashes and spread them somewhere that I love where you can go to remember me.

RJ: I know where that is! Koko Black!

(Koko Black is a high-end chocolatier that recently opened a “salon” in Perth… Apparently, luxury chocolatiers don’t have shops or stores…)

Bali is absolutely packed to the brim with three things: motorbikes, temples and souvenir shops, often mixed in a kind of a petro-spiritual-capitalist melange. The markets and hawkers serve as a tense, bustling, confrontational entree, sitting in stark contrast to the quiet zen-like peace of the temples…

One of the temples we explored was Tanah Lot. Like most of the temples, it was calm and quiet… except for outside the cave containing the Holy Snake (a revered, venomous guardian of the Temple at Tanah Lot). That place was nuts.

We also visited Ubud, a market district renowned for its artists and crafts… and markets and temples.

Finally, we had a great time on the (heavily chlorinated) water slides and rides at the Waterbom water park.

PA and RL stand at one of the entrances to Tanah Lot!

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(in the car)

LR: I think maybe someday I would like to run a shop.

Dad: What kind of shop?

LR: I’m not sure.

Dad: Selling things that you like and know a lot about is a good idea.

LR: So maybe… horse things?

Dad: Sure. That could be a really useful place.

LR: But how does it work? Where do shops get the things to sell?

Dad: As a shop owner, you call up the people who make the stuff and you buy it from them. After you’ve got it in your shop, you put it on the shelves and sell it.

LR: But there’s a problem… How do you get money? If you sell something and get some money, then you have to buy something else to sell… You don’t have any money left over!

Dad: Good point, but there’s a trick to it. If you bought some riding boots for $10, you could sell them in your shop for more than that… for $20. You get to keep the extra.

LR: There’s another problem right there.

Dad: What do you mean?

LR: No one is going to buy boots for $20!

Dad: You might have to sell them for less than that, then.

LR: No. We have to sell them for more… We just need to have some ads to make them want to buy them.

(over breakfast)

Mom: (to LR) RJ and I need to go buy a birthday present for your friend.

LR: How about something from the horse shop?

Mom: Good idea!

RJ: How about something from the Indonesian Shop? They have lots of things and even horse stuff. It is expensive.

Mom: What do they have there?

RJ: Toy horses… and ones you can paint… You can even get food there! Like bagels, giant pretzels, juice… and almond dessert!

(For the record, we have never been to or even heard of an Indonesian shop, but it does sound pretty cool!)