Firstly I apologise for the delay between postings. Some of you would have read the first 6 days which I posted as a "Here now report" so this is a continuation from there. Those who missed those posts you will find 3 installments in the archives for August.
Sunday 16th August
Today was the boys' last day but after a very late night some time was needed in the morning to relax and recover. By lunch time everyone was a little restless so we headed off to Kuta so that at least Steve and Dave could say they had seen it. On previous years I have always spent some time staying in Kuta and thoroughly enjoyed it however this year was a different story. Kuta was very busy. We were dropped at the beach end of Poppies 2 and headed up towards Jalan Legian for a wander. We have a stall along Poppies 2 that we shop at each year so a quick stop was required to say hello to Wayan. As Mark, Caitlin, Jaimee and I had not had lunch at this stage we stopped in at our favourite café on Jalan Benesari, Enhay Café. The girls quickly started scouring the walls for where they had written on it in 2004. With that found we sat and enjoyed a nice lunch just like we usually do when here. We love this place as the food is always good and is cheap.
From Enhay Café we headed back to Poppies 2 with a quick stop for Mark to buy a new wallet. We headed left up Poppies 2 toward Jalan Legian. We pointed out the monument and Sari club site to Steve and Dave. From here it was quickly decided that we had all had enough and we grabbed a driver to return us to the tranquility of Sanur Beach Villas.
We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and packing for the boys' to go home.
Mark, Caitlin, Jaimee and I headed off to Gardenia for our final dinner as a complete family before Made collected the boys' from SBV to head off to the airport. Caitlin, Jaimee and I decided to say our farewells there as we knew we could not go into the airport anyway and by this time we were tired and ready for bed. As soon as the boys' had left we all headed to bed for an early night in preparation for our first day without them.
Monday 17th August
Today was the beginning of my time alone with the girls. I was looking forward to this part of the trip as it meant we could do all those girly things together like shopping, massages etc and not have to worry about Mark being bored or nagging us about how much money we were spending or what we were buying.
As we still had 10 days to go we decided to head to Hardy's to stock up on more snacks foods, drinks etc so that Jaimee in particular was not hounding me every hour for more food. Once had Hardy's we decided to take a stroll and grab some lunch at Billy's Café followed by browsing in a few shops on the walk back.
We also opted for a foot massage, pedicure, manicure and hair crème bath at Angel's salon in the complex of Hardy's. We thoroughly enjoyed our pamper session here and I had now finally introduced the girls to the luxury of beauty treatments while in Bali. This would make my life easier as I would be able to partake in treatments with the girls instead of trying to find ways to sneak off on my own for short periods alone.
With our treatments done and all feeling like pampered princesses we headed into to Hardy's to get our supplies. We stocked up on chips, cheeses, crackers, cups of instant noodles, biscuits, yoghurt, ice cream, cereal, aqua, flavored indomilk, coke and soft drinks for the girls.
With this taken care of it was back to SBV for a relaxing afternoon. The girls enjoyed some time swimming and we all watched DVD's and just generally chilling out.
With a huge late, lunch we decided we didn't feel like heading out for dinner so we just snacked and continued to laze around before heading to bed.
Tuesday 18th August
Today we spent the morning once again taking it easy and relaxing. Jaimee decided she had made a new friend with Ron and proceeded to follow him around like a shadow. Mid morning she went on the beer run with Ron to stock up on bintang in preparation for the BBQ he and Irma were hosting that day at Sanur Beach Villas. Later in the morning Jaimee also helped Ron, Irma and Komang prepare the kebabs. She had a great time doing this and I could definitely see the bonds developing between them all.
With all the preparation for the BBQ in place, Jaimee and Caitlin spent time swimming while I enjoyed some time relaxing on the verandah of the villa.
At 2pm the BBQ kicked off and between the guests staying at SBV and Ron's expat friends there was about 20 -25 people there. We all enjoyed some great food, drinks and great company. With food flowing all afternoon there once again was no need to head out for dinner tonight. Jaimee had a great time playing with a new friend, Maddie who is 11 and has lived in Bali for 3 years, and also Ray who is the 2 years old son of Pete from the Senia hotel.
After a big afternoon Jaimee was ready for bed by about 9pm and Caitlin and I were not too far behind.
More to follow once I get a chance to type it up.
All of our photos have now been posted on webshots and you can find them by doing a search for balibabejacqui.
Balibabe