Nanna’s Journey

Gra and I are back from 9 days of total relaxation staying at Villa Hening, owned by a good friend who invited us to stay.  A truly wonderful host, making this holiday stand out as one of our best! Every day was incredibly hot, so we didn’t venture too far from the pool, enjoying uninterrupted views of Jimbaran Bay.

View from our room

The first thing we did was purchase a good set of binoculars!

It It It’s hIt has been 15 years since our last visit to Kuta, and we found it noticeably cleaner and tidier, much to our immense relief!  Visiting during the off peak season, it was lovely and quiet.

Our view while eating lunch in Kuta

A A Plane coming in to land at Dempasar Airport. You can see a red parasailer from the beach at Kuta

Flying directly over Benoa Harbour

We We

We Never tired of watching planes landing and taking off from Dempasar Airport.  At night, the lights of Benowa Harbour across the bay looked amazing with clear night skies full of twinkling stars.  Beautiful.

A Typical village in Bali.  Where a tradesman earns $4 a day.

Earthquake! One night, at around 3 a.m. Gra was woken by deep loud rumbling like a freight train and the whole room, including our bed, shaking. Gra woke me up (see, I can sleep through anything!) and urged me out of bed, quickly dressing we ran outside.  No one else appeared to be wake, we were expecting people to all come rushing out.  Nope, just us, giddy from sleep. We looked down the hill to the village, and apart from dogs barking like crazy, it seemed no one was concerned so we ventured back to our beds to sleep.  I must admit I lay awake   ..waiting   listening..  before drifting off.  Next day we found heard it was a 5.5 Earthquake, though most said they slept and had no idea.

What a great week we had on Fraser Island.  The weather was fantastic, considering it was the last week of winter.  The fish weren’t biting, well, we just couldn’t catch them ..but we did enjoy one meal of delicious smoked flathead, thanks to Gav & Lee. Tyson had a ball in the sand and he’s proving to be a real little water babe.

..and Erin is 2 months pregnant!

Waiting for the barge {in the deep soft sand. Opps!}

Our campsite, just North of Happy Valley, on the edge of the beach. Perfect.

Looking North

Looking South

Planes taking off and landing just south of our campsite

Lazy afternoons

Following in Daddy's footsteps

Fun in the sand - 17 Months

Bath time

Our Fishermen.

Long walks along the beach

My meesly flathead

Jenna, Erin & Tyson

Tyson with Lee & Jenna

Lee & Tyson

Poppy with Tyson at beautiful Lake McKenzie

Lake McKenzie

Lee & Jenna

Jenna

Jenna & Erin

Jenna

Gra, Gav & Tyson cool off.

Wave!

Maheno Ship Wreck

Sunrise. View from our tent!

Sunrise.

Tyson beside Daddy's ute

Fraser Island Dingo

Erin & Tyson at Eli Creek

Erin & Jenna wading in Eli Creek

Poppy & Tyson

Happy 28th Birthday Gav!

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Views taken from our room staying at The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore. Being our third trip to Singapore and having done all the touristy  things previously we simply relaxed, so all the photo’s are just taken where we stayed.

Sunrise

A storm building

In the distace, if you squint through the haze of smog, you can just make out the hundreds of ships in port. The freeway in this photo a continuation of the freeway in the previous sunrise/storm photos.

No idea what is being built here beside the freeway, but a hive of activity and an awsome display of bright lights at night.  Note the floating soccer field!

We had a corner suite so had many interesting views of Singapore.  Beautiful at night.

Bintan Island ~ Indonesia

An hour’s trip by ferry from Singapore.

Our villa with private pool/spa at the Banyan Tree is overlooking the South China Sea.  We both enjoyed every minute of our holiday here, eating banquets and lazing around. The perfect getaway.

Sign on the door inside the bedroom warned to close the doors at night to keep the squirrels and monkeys out!!  We saw several cute little squirrels but didn’t see any monkeys.  And the loudest insects we’ve ever heard!

View of the beach with lovely fine sand and crystal clear waters from the Thai Restaurant. We had overcast weather, but we could imagine how pretty it would have looked had we had clear blue sky days.

View while enjoying breakfast at the Banyan Tree resort

Resort pool

Look at how incredibly tall the trees are, considering the deck is built part of the way up the trunk.

We had a really relaxing time staying at the Banyan Tree Laguna Phuket. As we’ve been to Thailand so many times, we decided this holiday to spend the whole time lazed by the pool in the resort (far out it was hot!) and only went out to meet up with our friends Margit & Heinz (who live in Victoria that we met in Phuket 11 years ago and have remained a close friendship with ever since).

Photo’s

..back on the 21st.

Yes, I should be packing!

We’ll be back home on the 8th of December.

I’ve just arrived home from a short holiday down to country Victoria to visit Dad (at almost 85 is looking extremely fit and well) at Numurkah, and my sister’s dairy farm in Bunbatha, 20 minutes north of Shepparton.

At this time of the year the paddocks should be thick with spring growth. As you can see, the ground is parched with barely a blade of grass to be seen, so cows are being hand fed at an enormous cost. And the weather was hot, typical of February.

It really is a miserable sight.

Tomorrow morning we are off for a holiday to Japan, returing on the 8th of August.

Gra and I went shopping this morning and bought presents – a really beautiful Pregnancy Journal for Erin, and a gorgeous (and quite big) traditional teddy bear – complete with moving joints – for Gav.

The kids (they’ll always be the kids to us) came to pick up the cats this afternoon, to look after them for us while we are away and stayed for dinner.

Our home was filled with excited laughter as we all sat around eating pizza. Erin and I browsed a baby magazine, excitedly talking over each other, ooo-ing and arrrr-ing over all the baby must-haves. Gra & Gav raved on about how they were going to go off fishing!

I excitedly showed Gav a photo of a fetus (you have a heartbeat now) at 5 weeks. “That doesn’t look like me!” was his shocked reply.

That lead to a discussion of the many scenarios that could happen in the labour ward, then to the next hilarious statement. Gra has bagged cutting the cord should Gav faint! What the? OMG. I think he is serious?