My first attempt so please be gentle :)
Sunday 20th - Myself, husband and daughter. Flew out of Perth with Jetstar, left on time and arrived early there and back. Best landing we have ever had, did not feel the touchdown at all. Touch wood, we have never had any problems flying with them to Melbourne, Singapore and Bali. Staying at a 2 bedroom villa in Seminyak that shall remain nameless as I would really like to stay there again!
Tuesday 22nd - Booked to visit with sponsor children at Helen Flavel. Leave at 8am using one of Magnum's drivers (also owns Inner Glow Spas) as it is going to be a long day, we usually stay the night but this time decide to make it a day trip. Arrive about 11am just in time to catch all the kindy kids leaving to go home. There is a never ending stream of little people, we find out later there are now five classes and the finish times are staggered from 10.45 to 11.15. Next year (July) there will be seven classes! The fees from these littlies are used to cover the secondary school boarders so the more the merrier. Once John has arrived we head off to the market to pick up some staples for the family, added a kilo of tomatoes and some onions for our morning omelettes as they look heaps nicer than ones at Bintang or Matahari supermarkets (Rp10,000/kg!). As Kadek is in year one she is home when we arrive at the house, Putu finishes at 12.30 as he is now in secondary school. We are shown some of the children's school work and are amazed at Kadek's writing; it is probably as good as any of our upper primary kids. Her maths are all correct and also extremely neatly written. Putu has a daily timetable in the back of his exercise book, starting at 5am to get up, dress, tidy room, breakfast, chores, school, homework (2 hours), through to bed at about 9pm. After some time with the family, we head back to the foundation to drop John off and start for home.
I have wanted to see the Jatiluwih rice terraces but last year on our way down we missed the turn off, so ask the driver if we can detour to have a look. No wonder we missed it, there doesn't seem to be any signs until you are nearly there but that is after quite a few turns, so I'm glad I didn't try navigating it myself last year! The road is terrible, large potholes everywhere, but worth the view when we arrive. Hop out, take a few photos and back we go, quick look = one extra hour! Arrive back at villa at about 6pm. Long day, but a couple of things now crossed off the list.
Thursday 24th - Classic Afternoon Tea at the St Regis. As we don't have a Sunday in Bali during our holiday to go to the brunch, I have checked the website and found a daily afternoon tea instead at the King Cole Bar. All I can say is wow! We were slightly early as we caught a cab and he didn't know where the hotel was so took pot luck on the direction and he got lucky. He headed to the southern end of Nusa Dua and that was where it was, he was as surprised as us! Big grin and high fives all round up the driveway we go. So pull up and three people to open all our doors and escort us in. For the first 15 or so minutes it was just us, but then a couple more turned up and it looked like it would end up with maybe about 12 guests with at least that many staff to look after us. We were given a tea menu to select from and then served with a two tier cake stand with one layer of savoury (lettuce/egg, tuna, ham on bread and tiny rolls) one layer sweet (macaroon, tart, finger slice of lemon cake), after that it was buffet. The buffet was hot items - lobster pies, chicken vol-au-vents, seafood dumplings, cold - beef, ham, turkey, egg, tuna on bread/rolls. Sweets - tarts, cakes, macaroons, truffles, praline, carrot cake, banana bread, scones, jam and cream, chocolate fountain with strawberries and marshmallows, homemade ice cream, vanilla, coconut, chocolate with strawberries. And probably things I have forgotten! Plus of course tea, about eight choices, hot or cold, and then they offered coffee when we were tea-d out. Half way through a tour bus load of 35 Japanese turned up so then we had the manager apologising for the noise. It was all very nice and we had a man playing the grand piano during most of the time. Afternoon tea cost is Rp350,000 ea.