SEEN ON THE HIGH STREET

Because I have had very sore eyes of late, after my recent eye examination, we decided it might be better for me to have new glasses and also new sunglasses.  The new glasses weren’t really essential, the optician told me, but my sunglasses, that I have been advised to wear when outside in bright light, were from two prescriptions ago, and often made my eyes “pull” whenever I wore them.  So, the new glasses were duly ordered and I was invited to collect them today.

Mr. HCB wasn’t able to come with me, as we are waiting for work to be done on the fascias on the side of the house and the roofers don’t tend to come that early, so off I went.  I parked on the edge of Old Town and walked from there, passing this building on the way.  

According to Mr. Google, “Kioki is a new, sleek and contemporary venue that has an ancient Balinese twist.  They provide an array of the finest cocktails and spirits and are the ultimate bar, club, lounge and garden.  After a radical refurbishment work, a shipment of hand-carved treasures direct from Bali and over £750,000 spent, this Old Town venue has been transformed from top to bottom.”  You can even see some of the statues in the upstairs windows.

I did watch a YouTube video and apparently, there are lots of Balinese statues inside - so perhaps Mr. HCB and I should go up there sometime!  If we do, we will probably be the oldest people in there, but so what?  I would love a photograph of the Balinese waterfall statue, so working on the premise that if you don’t ask, you don’t get, I may even have to knock on the door sometime - and perhaps in exchange for some advertising, I may get a free cocktail!

Whilst taking the shot from across a very busy road, I noticed that the postbox had the initials GR on the front, obviously left over from the reign of King George VI - so that hasn’t been changed for 70 years - wonder if it will take that long to change it to CR!

On to Leightons, our opticians, where I collected both pairs of glasses - I’m happy with them and no doubt you will see a selfie or two in later Blips.  My main glasses are made by “Etnia Barcelona” and are really smart, and I also love the sunglasses, with frames made by “Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow”.  They are quite groovy - and again, I’m sure there will be a selfie or two soon.  You know how much we love our opticians - however, Kate the Manager, is away on holiday and one of the receptionists had a day off, so it was only Seb, Wendy and Hannah but I got a warm welcome from all of them.  I saw a different person, who fitted my glasses and made the various adjustments, but Wendy told him they love us!  I think I’d better go back with a box of biscuits for them once they are all back in the shop! 

I did ask Wendy if I could have one of their bags, and of course, didn’t get charged for it - but it is paper and not plastic, so perhaps that’s the reason, but I told her I would wave it around!  I also said I won’t throw it away, but stick a lovely picture over the name and recycle it as a gift bag.  Walking back down Wood Street, waving my bag around, I saw Dean, who works at the Magpie Coffee Shop - so decided to go in and treat myself to a coffee, and of course, placed my Leightons bag in full view of the various customers!  Well, one good turn deserves another, so they say and I got a lovely cup of coffee!

It’s now raining heavily and needless to say, the roofers have NOT turned up yet - Mr. HCB said he isn’t going to ring them as when he rang yesterday, because they were due to come at 8.30 and didn’t turn up until well after 10 o’clock, he was accused of being “aggressive”!!  Those who know him, will know he is the least aggressive person in the whole wide world - so it will be interesting to see if they apologise when they do turn up eventually!

“Life, religion, and art all converge in Bali. 
     They have no word in their language 
          for ‘artist’ or ‘art’; 
               everyone is an artist.” 
Anais Nin