Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The unfair interrogation of the Murdochs continues

James is doing a great job at handling incredibly unfair and perjorative questioning by a bunch of fools.
It is very hard to take these clowns seriously.  The House of Commons looks to be populated by morons focussed solely on personal publicity.

A good day

Today was our last full day in Bali.

This morning played with H - she was very happy and we had lots of fun. 
Warm and sunny, swam in the fantastic pool at The Purist.
Headed out for lunch at Sari Organic, just out of Ubud.  An amazing and beautiful 15 minute walk through rice terraces to the restaurant.  Good food and very relaxing.  One of the best things we've done in Bali.
This afternoon had a really good massage.
Tonight a delicious Balinese dinner.
Now watching the Murdochs being questioned (most unfairly) by the House of Commons Committee.

Murdoch

Watching James and Rupert being interrogated by the parliamentary committee.

ugly stuff. 

a witchhunt: the Murdochs are asking loaded questions intended to attract publicity and to make the Murdochs look bad.  It is apparent there is no intention to actually learn anything relevant from them.

An unedifying and unimpressive spectacle.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Bali photos

Mutiara, Seminyak












Eat Pray Love

We are in Ubud and M is watching Eat Pray Love as I write this.  It is making my stomach turn.  It is amazing how many colourful locals Julia Roberts' character meets everywhere she goes!  Foreigners are so cute and interesting!!  And they say so many wise things!!!

We are now at The Purist - a small resort of 7 villas a little way out of Ubud.  It is beautiful and very well designed and relaxing.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Bali #4

In Ubud, still having a great time.  We've been staying at Komaneka Bisma, an amazing hotel a few minutes out of Ubud built into a cliff overlooking rice paddies, a river and coconut palms.

Eating great Indonesian and Balinese food, wandering around very green and lush landscapes, exercising, swimming, relaxing.... it has rained a bit, which has forced us to stay in some of the time - which is not a bad thing.  Travelling with a baby is a very different pace to the way in which M and I have previously travelled. 

Had a massage the other day while still in Seminyak.  Pretty good (although not quite hard enough for my taste).  When I arrived I had to change into a robe and "one size fits some" paper underpants. Unsurprisingly, they were not a particularly good fit.
Ubud itself feels very different to Seminyak, and far more international (not dominated by Australians).  Lots of good-looking shopping, but we aren't doing a lot of shopping.  We don't particularly need batik in our lives.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Seminyak #3 - in the pink

Walking along the beach yesterday, we were fairly startled to see a middle-aged Asian man wearing a singlet reading "two in the pink / one in the stink".  A real conversation-starter.

A very quiet, fantastic couple of days.  Swimming in our private pool, reading New Yorkers by the pool, eating lots of great Indonesian food and some reasonable western food, going to the gym, a pretty good massage, sleeping well, good weather, walking along the streets dodging motorbikes, a walk along the beach from Seminyak towards Legian and Kuta and a sunset drink on a beanbag on the beach.

H is doing really well - she is a local celebrity and gets huge attention everywhere she goes.  She's had her first couple of swims and is loving it - she's now so happy in the water. 

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Seminyak #2

It is Sunday evening.  Had a really good second full day here...

Today we moved into the villa we're staying in for the next few days - our own pool, a garden area, an outdoor living area and a bedroom.  It's great; loving the privacy.  Spent most of the day hanging out at the villa and relaxing.  Randomly bumped into people we knew at a Melbourne-style cafe up the road while out this morning.  Dinner tonight at La Lucciola was good - a fairly competent Italian restaurant in an amazing location on the beach and with a great view of sunset.

Enjoying the Balinese and Indonesian food - I've only had one Western-style meal so far (dinner tonight) - otherwise keeping it Indonesian.  Bit off a little bit more than I could chew this morning.  Had rice porridge for breakfast - fairly bland - I asked for some chilli, and was delivered freshly cut chilli that was absolutely explosive.  Amazing flavour, but a little bit went a very long way.

Today was a big day of firsts for H - she had her first swim, plus she has become fascinated by her feet and has started putting her foot in her mouth.  She's having a great time - other than this afternoon, when M went for a massage and she screamed for me for about 90 minutes.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

Bali 2011 #1

Now in Seminyak; arrived very late last night.

The trip over was much better than expected... cognac in the Qantas Club, then a Jetstar flight full of Aussie bogans - but through a series of events which we are struggling to piece together it emerged that we had ordered all of the optional extras.  Plus immediately after take-off we were moved to the front row, which had a bassinet, and we had 2 seats each... H crying during take-off really worked in our favour! 

I felt like we were Kath and Kim if they'd won tattslotto; flying Jetstar to Bali but with 2 seats each and with all of the options (blow-up neck pillow, portable DVD player, blanket, food, etc etc?!?).

As soon as she was put in the bassinet H fell asleep, and slept pretty much the whole flight.

Late at night arrival in Bali... the journey through the airport was pretty good - going through immigration we were waved through the diplomatic aisle - the benefits of travelling with a cute baby.

A terrible night - after all of the commotion H decided it was morning (we finally got to bed about 130am local time, 330 Melbourne time).  She didn't sleep more than 30 minutes straight after that.  Looking forward to a better sleep tonight, hopefully.

Our hotel is pretty good - not all that close to the beach, but nice.  After a good indonesian breakfast, we went for a wander.  Our stroller is totally useless and we shouldn't have brought it.  The streets are crappy and falling apart and not suitable for a stroller, plus there is people and traffic everywhere.  Constant beeping by taxis wanting to attract your attention.  Lots of people trying to sell stuff to tourists (not on the scale of Cambodia, but still quite a few).

Sat down for a drink at Ku De Ta - a v nice beach club / bar / restaurant on the beach.  Very relaxing and a great place to spend some time.  The beach itself was pretty good, but not amazing.

Relaxed and swam at the hotel, then quite a long walk through busy and crazy streets to Made's Warung.  It felt like we had taken a few wrong turns and got really lost, but it emerged that by fluke we had headed directly there.  A really fantastic Balinese/Indonesian meal, and H slept through the whole thing (plus the walk there and back).

Now relaxing at the hotel, soon we'll watch sunset.  H is having a great time, and seems to be coping really well with the change in temperature.  M still has a ferocious head cold, but the weather seems to be helping.  I'm looking forward to finding time to read the MIFF guide properly.