Ocular Walk-a-thon

While lying on my bed last night, writing on my laptop, I removed my reading glasses to see what little animal might have been squirming around on my floor, and placed the glasses on my bed. I then somehow, inadvertently kneeled on them. Egad. Which rendered them completely un-wearable. At which point it dawned on me that the low-maintenance, semi-restful Saturday I’d planned had flown out the window, because I’d have to plug in a visit to an optometrist (or two)…which I’ve never had to do before.

First stop (still last night): I posted a query on our local community Facebook page. HELP, where do I go?

Not for lack of trying (to avoid it), and notwithstanding a midday sun beating down on my umbrella, today ended up being nothing short of a marathon day. Walking marathon that is.

After a powerful and centering Iyengar class at the Yoga Barn, I needed to head up to a meeting mid-town; then I trekked up to Campuhan (to one of only two optometrist stores in Ubud), to see if they could help. No luck. Which meant that I had to walk all the way to the other side of town (my side, the ‘lower’ east side) to check out the other optikal shop.

An adventure, but well worth my time; I received such a warm welcome and friendly service, I’ll no longer wonder what to do should I have reading-glass issues. An added bonus? This shop is MUCH closer to where I live… 😉

I returned home and fell back onto my bed, thoroughly exhausted and anticipating a fine end to my day with a massage by Dewa. While waiting for his arrival, I started to wonder how far I’d actually walked.

Thanks to the magic of Google maps, it was relatively easy to find out. GRAND TOTAL: 9.0 km, 1 hour 51 mins (though it took me MUCH longer).

And then, the fine print, the astonishingly accurate caveat: Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.

It’s clear that someone’s been handing over to Google some of Ubud’s best kept sidewalk state secrets.