After a late breakfast this morning the BP and I head for the pool while hubby goes to 'drop off the laundry'. Amazingly, he's back within about 15 mins which is the actual time required to drop off the laundry.
The BP and I are swimming a couple of laps when we hear the friendly voice of Alit, one of the housekeeping staff, calling to the BP. She swims up to the end of the pool where he's standing & they chat away. She's telling him that we stayed in the room that he's cleaning last Christmas and how we left carrots for the reindeer at the front door & a treat for Santa on the dining table.
Alit asks me if we want to move into the room as it's been vacated this morning & is available until 28 Dec. After a quick consult with hubby we decide to move & I go and pay the difference in the room cost (almost double the RP 880,000 we're paying for a 1BR garden apartment). I head back to the room to pack while hubby & the BP stay by the pool to keep out the way.
Half an hour later we're happily installed in the 2BR Emerald suite by the pool. Everyone's mood has instantly lifted (although we were pretty happy to begin with!). This is our room of choice at the VPA, and it's so much more spacious and bright than the garden apartments. Some people may prefer the coziness & privacy of having a walled garden, but we prefer open spaces. It was worth paying the extra $200 for our last 3 nights. I doubt very much whether we'd stay here again unless a 1 or 2BR Emerald suite is available, despite how much we love the place.
I'm in a generous mood so I tell hubby to go and get a massage & body scrub while I hang out with the BP at the hotel. There's a catch though - I make an appointment for a spa package at Glo for later in the afternoon. Just so the BP doesn't feel like she's missing out I book a massage for her by the pool for 2.30, just when I'll be leaving for Glo.
For some reason this trip, she's become extremely clingy & I hope this will distract her from me leaving.
Dad can go off & 'drop off the laundy', go bike riding, walk to the beach etc and she doesn't utter a word. I try to sneak off for a couple of hours & it's like she's never going to see me again. 'I don't want you to gooooo Mummy, but I'll miiiiiss you when you're gone, I want to come wiiiiith you'. All accompanied by tears and the BP clinging on to an arm, a leg or my handbag - whichever appendage is within reach. Far out, I thought we'd left all that behind, along with toddlerhood!
I make my getaway & stop to change money and then a quick diversion is in order. On the way to pick up our shoes yesterday I'd spotted a shop on the corner, near where I'll have to turn off to walk to Glo, selling rattan & leather handbags and more than one had caught my eye.
I walk inside to find the shop owner sitting on the floor, painstakingly hand-dying patterns on the handbags. I'm not sure how I thought these handbags were made but somehow I didn't imagine each one being dyed by hand. I try out the large tote I'd liked for size, and decide to buy it. It's trimmed with very dark chocolate brown leather and the weave is dyed in a vertical chevron pattern. Bargained down from RP 700,000 to 350,000 and actually felt a bit guilty when I thought about it afterwards. To tell the truth I think it's worth more. I'd seen similar bags at Ibisa, which had no leather trim and weren't anywhere near as nice for the same price. The shop owner seemed happy though & it's likely I'll go back and buy another bag as a birthday pressie for my sister.
On to Glo for my 2.5 hour 'Zesty Refresher' spa package - a 1 hour massage, ½ hour Lime & Ginger body scrub, 1 hour Biokos facial. Now there are a lot of places that are much cheaper around, but I like a solid brick wall between me and my fellow spa-ees. All of the smaller, cheaper places are curtain-between-the-beds establishments. Hubby doesn't seem to mind having to listen to the flip, flop of thongs on tiles and the grunts & groans of the people on the other side of the curtain but I find it bloody distracting and who wants to be distracted from their own pleasure?! The rooms at Glo are comfortable, airconditioned and, most importantly, quiet. The massage & body scrub were great but aah the facial, it was sheer bliss! Included an amazing head & face massage and I was so relaxed that I nodded off a couple of times. RP 455,000 and worth every cent! I also booked to have some waxing done tomorrow morning & then a Spa manicure on Christmas morning. Hubby will just have to 'drop off the laundry' in real time LOL.
By this time it's just after 5.30pm so I ring hubby & ask if he and the BP want to walk up to meet me at Massimo for an early dinner. I figure it'll be at least 6.00 by the time they get ready & walk up so I stop into the handicraft shop across the road from Glo, and next to the Wine shop (how convenient!). At home I've had a carved wooden hanger for hanging a piece of Ikat or Batik fabric sitting empty for about 8 years while I search for the perfect piece to place in it. My 8 year search is over! I walked into the shop and they had the same hanger that I have, hanging on the wall with the perfect Ikat table runner hanging in it, along with a narrower Ikat runner in a different colour. The shop assistant hangs a few different pieces in the hanger for me to see but nothing can go past the original combination so I buy both pieces - RP 450,000 for both.
Of course hubby has hot-footed it up to Massimo (one of his favourites) and my mobile rings while I'm paying. They've made it to the restaurant in record time & are sitting waiting for me. I walk the few minutes up the road and walk in sweating like I've just run a Marathon! It is incredibly humid tonight - the worst it's been so far. Hubby & the BP are sitting inside, not under a fan so I ask if we can move. Hubby says 'do you want to sit in the aircon?, we were in there but moved out here'. Do I want aircon on a night like tonight? HELL YES!!
The meals we had were all delicious - hubby had linguine with crab & chilli, I had a Tortoglione with prawns, tomato, cream & black pepper sauce (awesome) and the BP had calamari with a side of potato croquettes & salad. I don't know why we've waited until now to come back to Massimo, we enjoyed it a lot the last time we were here too. It was all round the best meal we've had so far this trip. I could eat that pasta again & again! With all the free extras that accompany the meal, we were way too full for dessert unfortunately. The little fried sundried tomato & bread balls, grissini & fresh bread with olive oil & Balsamic just tipped us over the edge of being pleasantly full to clutching our stomachs & feeling the need to lie down! The bill came to RP 545,000 which included a 500ml carafe of white wine, a cocktail for hubby & a couple of softdrinks. The BP managed to squeeze in a scoop of Gelato from the stand out the front to eat on the way home.
Strolling back, we pass the art shop & Ketut Teker is working on our painting again. Nearly finished, he says, there's just a few more figures to add in & it will be complete. The figures are almost 3D, the paint is applied very thickly and they take quite a time to dry so it comes along slowly but surely each time we pass.
Heading back to the new comfort of our big 2BR suite, I put the BP to bed and hubby & I relax out the front overlooking the pool with a couple of home-made Caprioskas. Another day in paradise is complete :-)