Leaving on a jet plane

Hi Kids,
Well we've been home for far too long so tomorrow we're heading off to the Philippines! Yep, Puerto Galera on the island of Mindoro to be precise, for 10 days of diving and fun in the sun. We're getting our advanced open water certification while we're there. Then we'll have 2 days in Manila to shop till we drop! I just don't know how many more cliches I can fit into one holiday description! Mind you the flight is looking very tight so we may not make it at all. Never fear though we have a back up plan, Broome, Perth and maybe the Margaret River region! OK gotta go and get last minute travel supplies. A full run down will be posted on our return. Caio

Decisions Made

I finally made my decision work wise a few weeks ago. As discussed previously in this blog, I want to stay at home with my boy as long as is feasible. Pretty much everyone knew this except my actual bosses...tee hee. So I went in last month and made it legit. I was really nervous, which is crazy really cos my boss has always made it plain that whatever I decide is fine with her. Of course she was totally expecting it and very cool about it all, she even shouted me curry after our meeting...gold. Not wanting to destroy all ties with my workplace and the industry I have remained on as a freelancer. Keeping in touch means I can return when I'm ready in a few years (after baby number 2).

This is such a great deal for me. They call me up when they need me, I trot along for a day or two of work, get paid heaps more and have a great time. I'm also open to doing any role, not just producing, this has been even better! So much fun to go along as the auto-cue operator or assistant and not have to sweat the details. I get to do the job and leave. Bliss! Not to mention hanging out with all my work-mates again, I have missed those guys. This all means I can still have the odd adult work day without sacrificing my time with my son on a daily basis. The best bit is I don't have to put up with any boss's shite! Sometimes things actually do work out how you want them to.

Ride Em Cowgirrrrl!

Been so busy blogging has once again taken a back seat. We have my bro and his wife down from Weipa, Ronan's christening this Sunday and all other sorts of thingies that have been keeping me away from my beloved puter. Ronan has started commando crawling in the last few days so I'm very hurriedly looking on eBay for one more safety gate to make our deck secure.

Yesterday I got right back on that work horse and rode it like a wild thang! Well not really, it was a pretty bludgey day for me as I was on auto-cue...easy peasy, specially when the talent decides not to use it. Full days pay for around 1/2 hour of work, fan-bloody-tastic! Never fear my friends I haven't gone back to full time work I'm still a mummy first. My job as a producer is not available part time so I have resigned from my position and taken up a freelance role with the company. This suits me fine. It means I stay in touch with my colleagues and the industry, earn a bit of cash here and there and still get to be with my boy. Tops as! It was so great to hang out with the boys yesterday and doubly fun without the pressure of being in charge of the shoot, I like it!

OK gots to go now ass my little one is awake. Hopefully will be able to blog before our next trip in November. We're heading to the Philippines to do our advanced diving certification and generally laze around.

Bali Dreaming

Ah Bali...what a fast-paced, crazy yet relaxing place....an enigma....so many shops, so many motorbikes, so many vendors, buy buy buy!!! But hey don't tax yourself, you're on holiday, here have a lovely cocktail. Hey why not get a massage, manicure and pedicure while you're at it? Should we catch some gnarly waves dude or laze by one of three pools? mmmm hard decisions. You hungry? Sorry all we have is super fresh seafood and around a gazillion international restaurants... I'm sorry but you'll just have to have the lobster whether you want it or not...here have a beer while you think it over. Is that your son? What a beauty! Let us all adore him to such an extent that it takes you twenty minutes to walk past three shops. Just one more cuddle, no you go ahead and enjoy your lunch, I'm going to look after him for free. Off to the spa again? You deserve it. Please have another cocktail. I'm sorry, is that sunset hurting your eyes? The people, oh yes they are friendly.

Legian Beach - Just a few bikes

We stayed in Legian a little north of Kuta on the same long strip of beach. Legian is a little quieter and more family oriented but still close to the action if that's your thing. We stayed at the Jayakarta which is right on the beach and has apartments as well as rooms, very handy for families. There is a private road running along in front of the resort that is blocked off to traffic...a godsend as crossing the roads in Bali is a bit hair-raising for those carrying babies! Take all the road rules, give them a good shaking and then just ignore them. There are so many motorbikes it's like a never ending bikie festival, if bikies rode mopeds! We saw entire families on one bike, mum, dad, and the little tuckers, I kid you not.

Ronan and I enjoying the pavillion - poolside at Jayakarta

The street vendors were not as bad as expected, if you told them "no thanks" they pretty much stayed away. They are not allowed on resort grounds or the private road anymore, this is good because in the old days you would get swamped wherever you were, which makes it kind of hard to relax. Still we did decline the beach massages, you say yes to one vendor then all of a sudden you are surrounded by people, each one working on a piece of you. Of course they all want payment at the end. We saw one guy with about ten people around him, you couldn't see anything but about four inches of his pasty white legs sticking out...looked like a bunch of thirsty uni students crowding a bar on two for one drinks night. We preferred the spa option, beautiful rooms with flower filled baths and glorious two hour treatments for little more than $10.

Spa overlooking rice paddies - Ubud

According to a few Bali veterans there were very few tourists compared to the old days. The Balinese are really suffering after the bomb attacks, with low tourist numbers leading to high unemployment. Despite this they are overwhelmingly friendly and the vendors have become less aggressive in their tactics, which is kind of odd really.

Kamandalu Resort - Ubud

OK lets head up to the hills...Ubud. More of the same but instead of sand and surf we have rice paddies, art, vicious monkeys and you guessed it markets and bargains galore. We stayed at the Kamandalu Resort, which is quite simply heaven. Imagine a five star Balinese village with villas all made of stone and thatched roofs, set out on a hillside in the middle of fertile rice paddies. We had our own garden villa, with a private garden and a tower with a large daybed overlooking the valley. The best thing was the outdoor shower, so great to have a shower while looking at the stars. So peaceful and serene, a great contrast to the hustle and bustle of Kuta and even downtown Ubud.

Our Garden Villa - Kamandalu

Ubud is an artist village so there's lots of work on show, it's a bit hard to work out originals from copies though so we just window shopped. It also has a great market and the Monkey Forest. The MF is where my beloved husband managed to receive a rather nasty bite from a vicious male monkey that wanted Ronans' nappy bag. Mikey fought him off but I dare say he may have come off second best. Thank god it wasn't rabid and antiseptic was on hand. The forest is lovely and has a few nice temple ruins but the fact that they let tourists feed the monkeys is probably not the best thing as they can become quite aggressive when they want something. One jumped on our pram and stole a rusk right out of Ronans hand. If Mikey hadn't already been bitten I may have found this funny, but knowing that they can turn aggressive at the drop of a hat meant I was shitting myself. Ronan took it all in his stride. Little tough man. So be wary about going there if you have kids, the monkeys look cute but are unpredictable.

Monkey bite - this was taken about three days later, it's actually looking better here...ouch! by the way this was through a T-shirt the monkeys teeth didn;t atually break through, thank god.

Monitor Lizard Sculpture - Monkey Forest

Ubud is also the fine dining region of Bali, so even more fabulous restaurants to try. Having said that, one of the best meals we had was from the village near our resort. Mikey found Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice with chicken and egg) for 75cents from a little hole in the wall that was out of this world. Needless to say we loved our time in Bali and can't wait to return. It's not as picturesque in the tropical beach way of Fiji or Vanuatu, although I'm sure there are places I haven't been in Bali that rival those. Certainly the rice paddies and forest around Ubud are gorgeous. I regret to say that we didn't do anything very cultural on our trip. This is extremely unusual for us, I guess that means we'll just have to go back!

Valley - Kamandalu Resort

There's just something about the craziness of Bali and the wonderful people that makes you want to return. Not to mention the very favourable exchange rate, so strange to go somewhere were our currency is valuable. Oh yeh and they sell petrol in bottles...this could be happening here if the prices keep going up!

The Month of Ick

I'm officially declaring July the Month of Ick. My darling boy, myself or my husband have all been taking turns doing the sick thing....and I'm so over it! First I came down with a head cold...not too bad. Then Ronan got an awful gastro bug which he kindly passed on to Michael, who shared the spirit of giving and passed it to me. Put it this way for an entire Friday I couldn't get Johnny Cash's "Burning Ring of Fire" out of my head...ouch...thank god for Bepanthan! We finally get over all that and have a blissful three days of health before my baby boy starts coughing like a diesel locomotive. And now I sit here with a head that feels like it's stuffed with cauliflower and a nose that thinks its running the New York marathon. At least my son is the giving type!

On the plus side I am no longer an Ebay virgin. I have been selling and buying like a mad thing. Seeing as I'm stuck in the house of sick this has become my new obsession. Well Ebay and planning our trip to Bali! Yeh that's right we're off again.....if we can stay well long enough. Mikey has an old buddy heading over to Bali to learn to paraglide so we're heading over too. Mikey can go surfing with his old mates and I can indulge in cheap massages and beauty treatments, boogie boarding, lazing in the sun, eating and playing with my boy. We're spending six days on the beach at Legian, a little north of Kuta and then three days in the artist retreat mountain village of Ubud. I can't wait. I'm hoping the warm tropical sun will blaze the ick germs out of us!

July is the month of ick...August will be fully sick!

Oh yeh Ronan is nine months old today...I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by....my little fella is nearly one!

Family Fun in the Far North

First stop Cairns. Spent around 6 days in Cairns hanging out with Mikey's brother's family and slipping in some awesome scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Cairns is very tropical so when we visit it's normally constantly raining or at least overcast with patchy sunlight. This trip it was blue skies the whole time, it was the clearest I've ever seen it, check out the pic below.

This is taken from a lookout behind the lot of land where Mikey's brother is building his dream house, not a bad view eh? In Cairns we pretty much lazed about with the family, Ronan loved having his three cousins to play with and it was just lovely to have that quality time. We did a trip up to Port Douglas to see Mikey's Dad, ate as many mangosteins as we could and as mentioned we did squeeze a dive in on the reef. The diving was fantastic, around 30m+ visibility and so amazing. Like being in a giant tropical aquarium, some great walls and of course a myriad of marine and coral life. We did two dives on Norman Reef right on the outer edge of the GBR. I also managed to fit in two snorkeling adventures as well, so all in all a very rewarding day. Then it was time to head even further north to visit my brother and sister in law in Weipa. Here we indulged in a day of fishing (the local way of life) croc spotting, 4wding, shark feeding - yes shark feeding, lazing on the beach - well as much as you can laze while keeping a constant eye out for crocs and other deadly beasties, feasting on super fresh fish and drinking nice wine and mexican beer. Here's to Weipa and catching up with much missed family.

The roads there, they are red. Bauxite baby! This was taken on the way home from Marpoon which is about as far north as you can drive on the west coast without having to head inland.

This is the very picturesque freshwater swimming hole we stopped off at to try and get some of that red dust off our hot and bothered beings! Fresh water so no salty crocs and crystal clear, sooo beautiful. Especially after half a day in a hot car on a dusty road. Ironically this swimming hole is only 15 minutes from Weipa....it's a long story as to how it took us all day to get there! Lets just say always check that the tyre pump is in the car BEFORE driving for two hours on a dirt track to go sand duning...oh yeh and actually taking the esky from the kitchen to the car is a good call too! Still much fun was had.

This is the local beach at Weipa near my brother's house. Emma and I enjoyed a couple of nice glasses of white while watching the sunset here. And I can tell you I never tire of seeing the sun set over water....love it. Goodnight Weipa.

A Quick Hello

Hi peoples! I have been away on a little trip to tropical and far north Queensland. Went to Cairns and Weipa to visit family, much merriment and fun ensued. Have pictures and adventures to recount and will attempt to post in more depth tomorrow. Love youse all!