TODAY'S THOUGHTS

I had so much to write about but now I'm tired and have forgotten most of it. Dot points will have to do because I can't be arsed elaborating:

• Blogger fucking pisses me off sometimes. Should have learnt Wordpress.
• Fuck it, I've given up washing everything in bottled water. Tap water and drying with a teatowel will have to suffice.
• I'm over cooking with minimal cooking instruments. It takes so God damn long to feed everyone.
• I understand why, in the olden days, women spent most of their time in the kitchen.
• I'm seriously considering living on juices, fruit and anything that doesn't need cooking.
• Washing up 3 times a day sucks. Where's the fucking dishwasher?
• My fear of getting pissed off with Dave by spending 24/7 together has, so far, been unfounded.
• Dave and I work great as a team.
• Walking/running first thing in the morning rocks my world.
• Should be able to weight train again tomorrow. Soreness just eased today thank fuck!
• I've successfully navigated my fanny region with a razor today :)
• Razorblades in waterslides is another urban myth. Another childhood fear!

Note left in our room yesterday with fruit:

"Joy seems to me a step beyond happiness. Happiness is a sort of atmosphere you can live in sometimes when you're lucky. Joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love." by Adela Rogers St. Johns

COKELAT

I fancied a bit of chocolate this arvo so when Dave and I went to Hardy's to grab some groceries I found these babies being a "fine selection of Indonesian cocoa beans home-made by Belgian Chocolatier."

A FEW CERTAINTIES

There are a few certainties in my life:

- My dream to be a wonderful wife and mother.
- My goal to pursue my creativity, whether that is in writing or otherwise.
- I believe that I will be successful and happy beyond my wildest dreams.
- One day I will conquer all of my fears.
- My desire for a long and fulfilling life with Dave, Jason, Sofie, Jayden and other family members and my friends.
- I'd like to keep caring more and giving more and keep myself aligned with my passions.
- My quest to continue learning about spirituality.

I've well and truly got my dose of Vitamin D yesterday and today. Shelley LOVES the sun and now has a healthy tan to show for it :) There's a certain kind of serenity in sunbaking. It's like the sun infuses every part of my body with a relaxation drug. I lay here listening to the sounds surrounding me. The soft music playing in the background from the pool-side restaurant, the water flowing from the fountains into the pool, the birds chirping from afar, the laughter from the children in kids club. I open my eyes to see the quiet and hear a rooster cock-a-doodle-doing in the distance. I notice the calm, stillness of the pool with not a body immersed other than the lady sitting on the edge, dangling her feet whilst reading a book. I look down to see sweat beading all over my body and decide it's time for a dip to cool off. But first I need to put my bikini top on as I'm currently wearing a strapless mini sun-dress trying to avoid sunbaking lines and alleviate the ones I attracted yesterday. I curse under my breath that topless sunbaking/swimming is not the norm and socially acceptable. They're only tits for Christ sake. For a brief second I contemplate diving in topless and wonder what the consequences would be, if any. But then, being the good girl that I am, do the right(?) thing and dress appropriately. I am immediately refreshed as the coolness of the water embraces me. I float for a while before leaving the safety of the water to lay back on my sunbed and start the sunbaking/tanning cycle all over again.

How many people do you think piss in the pool? I'm not talking kids, I mean adults? Really? I remember as a child being told if you pee in the pool your legs would turn blue. Something to do with a chemical that detected piss. And ever since I've always been too scared to, even as an adult when I'm not sure if it's fact or fiction. It seems such an inconvenience to leave pool-side and the comfort of the sun-lounge to relieve my bladder especially with wet boardies. It's like trying to get your tights up when you've sweated profusely from exercise. They always stick and there's a bit of wiggling and jiggling to get them up and into their correct position. I'm not about to test the theory though. Besides my fear of turning into a smurf I don't fancy contributing to the piss quota so I'll pack up and piss off to my room - literally!

LIFE NOT HOLIDAYS

I've had to remind myself that this is not a holiday, it's "life." Ever since I made the decision, only just a year ago, to never go on a diet again I've had the feeling that everything would be okay, an even deeper knowing. Occasionally, I still worry though which leads to unhelpful and unhealthy thinking and still sometimes emotional eating, although rarely. In the past holidays meant "hold out for as long as you can and then go for it" and although I'm far more relaxed about it all these days it is here, in our beautiful, relaxed, calm setting that I must live now as I wish to live everyday no matter where I reside.

At the markets this morning seeing and smelling all the dead animals turned my stomach and was a reminder why I'm now a vegan. I'm not saying I'll never eat animals or their products again but for now it feels good and right. God knows, in the past, I've eaten enough fucking chicken to last me a lifetime.

Fucken hell I'm sore. What the fuck was I thinking yesterday? It's all good though, with 1 hour massages for $5 on a daily basis I'll be walking normally again in no time. Tough life but someone's gotta help the Bali women earn a living.

I'm feeling much more settled this evening now I've gotten my bearings and feel like I can settle into some sort of routine. On the cards tomorrow morning is a run towards the main street heading for the beach.

WORKED OUT

I did my first bit of exercise, since arriving, this morning. The resort has a smallish gym set up with benches, free weights, a couple of recumbent bikes, a stepper and a home gym which I checked out yesterday and decided this would suit me just fine to get the blood pumping first thing this morning and set me up for a fabulous feeling day. I stole the 7 July workout from Skwigg and adjusted it to suit me and the equipment available. I really enjoyed it. It was nice and quick and challenging also. Might do some more of these kind of workouts in the next couple of weeks.

Ask most girls and they'll all have a favourite make-up item. I'm guessing the majority would say lip gloss but for me it's mascara. I've not put a scrap of make-up on since we left Brisbane and have not done my hair other than put a brush through it after showering. I did however, use the hair dryer this morning trying to get the kinks out as naturally I'm quite wavy. I didn't realise how fair and fine my eye lashes are and even if I'm not doing the whole hog I'll still whack a bit of mascara on. So, adjusting to none is taking time.

The toilets in our apartment are quite different from home. They have a huge bowl filled with water so when you crap all the crap floats around until you flush. The beauty of this is you get to check out your poop before flushing so even if it's a beauty, the ideal sausage-like stool, it doesn't sink straight down the s-bend. And, c'mon, who doesn't check out the quality of their shit? There's such a thing as the Bristol Stool Chart which uses your bowel motions to measure your health and apparently it's one of the most accurate self diagnostic methods available. According to my shit, I'm one healthy chick :)

EATING IN BALI

Thank God I'm not all anal and obsessed about a high raw vegan way of eating/living. Eating raw food in Bali is a little difficult when you have to either wash everything in bottled water or peel it. Vegetarian/vegan food is easy to come by when eating out. Today at lunch I got an Indonesian dish of vegetarian nasi goreng. I asked for lots of veges but don't think they understood me or at least what "lots" means in Shelley language.

JOURNALLING

I'm secretly, well not secretly cause it's a public blog, keeping my private thoughts on our adventure documented here.

I typed up some thoughts in word this morning, before we had internet, whilst everyone else was still asleep, and Dave wanted me to put some of it on our family blog so here is just the extra stuff.

Thank fuck for blankets on planes. Why does it have to be so friggen' cold on planes? Can't they crank the air conditioning up a tad? Wouldn't it be easier and less work for the hostesses if everyone was warm and toasty and therefore sleepy and then they slept most of the way? I was rugged up for the whole trip.

My food was delicious. I didn't want to be too big of a pain in the arse and request gluten free as well (which I try and avoid but didn't really eat too many grains/breads much anyway) so of course received pastas and bread rolls for all my meals so I'm all carbed up/glutened out. I would have been just as happy with a bowl of veges and fruit but you get what you're given and be grateful for it! I did get a yummy little cake made out of quinoa flour too.

And lastly, the toilet situation. I was sooooooo pleased to finally arrive at our room so I could sit my arse down on a toilet seat and poo. The toilets on the planes are fucking disgusting and I wasn't sitting anywhere near them so held onto the rail and squatted just to pee but really wanted to shit. Lucky for everyone else on the plane I had a blanket and was able to discretly fart with not too much stench reaching the open air. Today my bowels have gone "arrrhhhhhh."

The apartment is very comfortable. The resort, so far, so good.

We went out for breaky this morning:

We haven't been shopping yet although we picked up a few items from a little shop on the way home. I was pretty excited to find these whilst Dave was excited with his guinness.