Fantastic Holiday @ Bali

Just returned from a 4D3N holiday at Bali with Ryan, Dear and MIL.
It was a fantastic holiday especially for Ryan. He was super happy throughout the entire trip (except during the flight back home)

Thinking back of my previous trip to Bali, which was done about 5 years ago, for my wedding shoot, when Dear and I still had the time to go for white water rafting and surfing, this time it was more subdued and relaxed, with a focus to go much slower than what we did years ago.

I guess MIL was the 2nd most happy person for this trip (after Ryan boy). She was so fascinated and happy with all the foodstuff and clothings that she could buy from the local markets at extreme low prices. It was after a while then I started to understand that nice & expensive stuff is not what makes her happy. It is the joy of getting extreme value for money (read: ULTRA CHEAP buys aka SUPER BIG DISCOUNTS) that makes her happy. My mum does the same too. Probably our mothers' generation are too used to scrimping and saving for their whole life, that is why they derive so much joy from amazingly low priced discovery. So I just played along and kept emphasizing to her on how cheap the food is at the restaurants that we ate at, compared to the price that we will pay for the same thing back in SG.
$4.70 for a chicken Ravioli, $10 for a Risotto, $10 for a huge chilli crab with fries, $9 for a medium sized red snapper, $2 for gelato, etc.

Obviously the small boy is the happiest one in the group. From the moment he stepped into the villa, he just kept running around, in and out of each room, laughing all the time. And he continued doing that for all 4 days that we stayed there. He was very cooperative and well behaved (except during meal time) for the entire trip.

Best part of the trip for me was when I left Dear and MIL at the foot massage centre for a 1 hour massage, and I brought Ryan together with me back to Legian beach for a walk. After carrying him on the hip seat for most part of the day (and he didn't complain much), I thought it will be nice for him to be able to walk on the sandy beach after seeing other older kids running around freely where he wasn't allowed to. So after telling him that he had to hold on to my hand after I placed him on the ground, he got extremely excited and elated, and started to pull me along to run on the beach.

It was a genuine moment of bliss.

We ran and ran and ran, and Ryan just pulled me along, looking back at me at times and giving me his most sunshine, boyish and happy smile. Ryan melted daddy's heart just like that.


Although I did not get to do any of the water sports stuff which I'd have loved to do on Bali's famed beaches, the run with Ryan was rewarding enough for me for this entire trip.

Of course Dear will have enjoyed the trip much as well. It is a long awaited break away from work, and an even longer wait to return to the much anticipated Ultimo Italian restaurant that we dined at 5 years ago. The only downside is that we walked a little too much for her. Carrying a heavy tummy ain't easy.

Next holiday: Cebu Philippines in July/Aug 2015.

Shinjuku Incident

Movie

Caught this show on Saturday with dear.

Was quite taken aback by the story and presentation of this show, which is soooooooo un-Jackie Chan style.

Though the show is not too bad, seeing a different side of Jackie Chan rather than the usual side-splitting bumbling joker, it has pretty dark under-tones and is more of a documentary on Japanese Yakuza than anything else.

More realistic stuff with minimal Jackie Chan stunts.

Overall worth watching.



Holiday
Just went for a 4D3N cruise trip with dear and her mum, with the ship docking at Penang and Phuket for a few hours apiece.

Conclusion of the trip: NEVER EVER travel with a bunch of Aunties (no I'm not referring to her mum). Horrible experience for the land trip...

The stay on the ship is still quite ok. Been there done that so nothing new for me.
At least dear got to experience it for once to know why I say that there is nothing to do on the ship other than gamble (which I abhor) or sleep apart from eating.


Work
Morale hasn't been high in office ever since the financial crisis started, with most of us out of the office most of the time.

The impending deathnote doesn't help, but it seems like everyone is just silently waiting for the
annoucement.

Perhaps we will have a clearer picture 1 week later...

Short break coming up

Been hearing some news of late from various sources .
With different sources pointing in the same direction with the same timeline, it seems like something is imminent.
Let's see what happens then.


In the meantime, I'll going for a short holiday with Dear to Penang + Phuket this coming weekend.
Good time to rest now after the last 3 crazy months, and my major projects coming to a conclusion soon.