Greetings from Bali, Indonesia

August Bank holiday is behind us.. and it's almost September..

Soon I will be moving on.. but it's been nice to be back in Bali even if just for a short time. 

Last week I was telling you about Indonesia's 80th Independence Day.. and the very special way they celebrate this here. If you missed it, you can catch up here.

Quite big news.. I took a phone call from an unidentified UK number last week, around midnight Bali time. I thought it was the usual scam call... But it was a journalist from the BBC. They had seen our endless rant about Temu and Shein undermining British Retailers. Finally getting attention.. I chatted with the friendly guy and gave our point of view. Later, he contacted Katka in the UK, and a week later, this article came out...You can read it here... I'm really hoping that Keith Starmer will finally take action and take this massive loophole down.

A Cool Wave.

This week it has been strangely cool in Bali.. while UK, Spain and even China bask in heatwaves.. here has been a relatively cool wave. Well, cool as in 24c - but that's enough for the locals to be donning jackets and scarves. I was amused to see people wrapping up this morning on my way to the office. 

It reminds me summer is soon over.. and the next big thing is Halloween.. It's coming guys.. time to get spooky - time to get prepared.. 

Holly and Alex have been preparing the showroom in Sheffield.. and having fun doing it, I think. You can watch the video here.

Made with volcanic stones and symbolic decor - in gift boxes with texts explaining the story behind each piece.

The packaging was designed (in colab with the jewellery designer) by our man Bondhan. 

Bondhan is an accomplished musician - he plays in a next-level Heavy Rock band called - Kanibal

a little bit loud for my liking.. haha but that hard rock trash style is big in Indonesia. 

He can also play a mean Ukulele - and is the designer behind our range of artisan Ukuleles made in a music mad village in central Java.

The other day in our small office/showroom at our Bali warehouse.. I was telling him that we had some feedback from a customer who said it was hard to tune.. and I agree I was struggling to tune myself.. Bondhan explained that because they are artisan-made by hand, as you tune each string the tensions change inside the instrument.. you need to tune each string, then start again and re-tune.. when it comes good, you are rewarded with a lovely sounding.. and really easy to play instrument. 

We made a YouTube video to celebrate... where I interview Bondhan and explain the interesting details and exactly how to tune.