Well hello there! It has been a long while hasn't it?
First - my sincere apologies, but I've had little choice but to keep my HNRs in my head until such time as I was able to get them typed out on a screen... Apparently iPads are not designed to be doused in vodka and/or tonic, or launched across a room onto a hardwood floor by an angry Mookie who discovered it lying around after Munch left it on the bed following a Balieats reconnaissance session; so after a few short days in Bali mine went on the fritz (for those readers in Adelaide I'm referring to something that is broken, rather than an iPad lying on a pile of formed spiced 'meat' - sorry for the confusion.)
After several attempts to type a HNR on my iPhone, and futile visits to the internet café across the road and to the left of Peneeda View, I lost the will to live and decided to take detailed notes each day instead.(...) Note - this internet café is a complete and utter waste of time unless you'd like to view the cute little logo variations that Google do from time to time. You won't see much else.
Now - where was I?
Oh yes - around about Part Six...
Today I have a complete and utter meltdown.
A few weeks prior to leaving for Bali, after having been glued longingly to the BTF in anticipation of my own holiday, I have read a few reports of people who have hired nannies to help with their kids. I tentatively ask Munchie if we could hire a nanny every second day. The suggestion was at first met with a deathly silence, followed by 'what for'?
I explain patiently to Munchie that we haven't in fact had a proper holiday in two years, and in that two years I have;
Been pregnant for 9 months, had another baby, feeding, sleepless nights etc...all WITH a 1.5 year old and working full time in my disgracefully stressful job. To top it off I also decide to accept a promotion and assignment to Malaysia in an even more disgracefully stressful job (OK, I secretly enjoy it, but it IS very intense work), and move house, countries, leave family and friends and set it all up again in a foreign country. Since moving to KL I have been travelling almost non-stop around ASEAN and sometimes I have no idea what country I wake up in.
I am exhausted and I need a break.
Munchie is still staring at me silently - clearly he doesn't get it. I persevere and try to explain that I KNOW that without help I will not get a single moment's peace, no afternoon nap, no lying on a sunlounge to read a book, no shopping without having a sweaty Mookie tied to my leg, I am staring down the barrel of three weeks being smeared with icecream, tugged at, climbed on, whinged at, and generally downtrodden. In short - absolutely no rest at all.
Still blank.
I decide to go ahead and do it anyway. I email a babysitting service that has been mentioned on the forum, they shall remain nameless here in fear of being branded as an advertiser, but as this story has a happy ending, you can PM me and I will let you know who we contacted...
Within a very short space of time I received a response: due to the Australian school holidays the service was entirely booked out - there was no-one available, so it seems I had missed out. Initially I was very disappointed, but stopped short of seeking other options - I decided that it was clearly meant to be this way, and that as a caring mother who loves her boys to pieces, I would simply forgo the rest I need and devote my time on holidays to making sure Snubs and Mookie had a ball - not so bad really.
Fast forward to my meltdown.
After six full days of experiencing exactly what I had imagined happening - including Mookie screaming the house down at the Dolphins yesterday and ruining everyone's experience, and the fact that both of them had been sick and grumpy for the past 6 days, and Munchie asking me pointedly every second day 'when are you going to relax honey?' I finally snapped... After embedding a chunk of Duplo into my heel while trying to get to the baby wipes so I can clean the chocolate off my iPhone (trying to write a HNR), I yell at the top of my voice 'If you tell me to f*#ing relax one more time I'm catching the next flight home so I CAN relax!!!' I can see the understanding that he has made a serious tactical error sweep across Munchie's face - *facepalm*.
I wipe my phone down and immediately email the service again - maybe there's a chance that they can at the very least provide someone for a few hours on the night of The Event, so I don't need to worry about Snubs getting stuck into the bubbly or Mookie drowning himself in a swimming pool while we herald in Munchie's autumn years. Again, a response was not far away... You're in luck - someone has cancelled their booking and you can have someone every second day as you originally asked for starting tomorrow if you like. *happy dance*. I nearly pee myself with joy... and calmly announce to Munchie that Ririn will be starting with us on Sunday at 10am.
I feel instantly better and we trek off to lunch at Kami Sama on the beach - very basic but delicious. Don't be deterred by the simplicity of the décor and the set up - if you're happy to eat Indonesian food they do a great job at a reasonable price and the Bintang was the sweetest ever (or was that the sweet nectar of 'I told you so' - can't be sure.)
Just one piece of advice - and this goes for all of the beachside restaurants really...avoid sitting right underneath the trees. They are gorgeous and give fabulous shade, but they are mostly inhabited by red ants with ferocious little nippers and they DO bite! Took me a while to realise that they actually drop out of trees onto the tables so you'll spend a bit of time flicking them off you. Just choose a table that is still shaded, but not directly under a large branch.
After lunch we wander back to the Sindhu markets to get the Christmas decorations we missed the other day - the opening price is 20k each and for the first time ever I'm a little taken aback and not sure what to do. 20k each? That's $2. That's very reasonable in my mind, so I'm barely inclined to bargain. I buy 8 of them, get 15% off and am happy.
Around the next corner is an abstract artist which we like the look of, and pick out two paintings of his that would look great back at home. They're quite large, but again, very reasonably priced - he asks for 300k for both straight out of the gate, and I try to convince Munchie that would fill the space just as nicely as the very large Barong would, at a fraction of the cost. Munchie is unconvinced, so we take a snapshot and decide to come back during our second stint in Sanur if we don't find anything else.
Dinner tonight is at The Downtown. Regret it.
Gary hasn't touched his bitterballen and still isn't back.
Sampai nanti...
Dutchnat