CHAPTER 2: Getting Sorted!

So the first couple of days were not anything like we had expected, it definitely was not a holiday! We had to sort our villas out and get the kids settled.

Kate and her family were staying with us, as their villa was not finished yet and to be honest looked like being a good month away! Every time we went over to ask the builders how long? They would say, "4 days" then laugh, so we really had no idea?

The first thing we had to sort out was getting our air conditioners installed and fridge for our food and drinks, because I can tell you its pretty bloody hard to live in a tropical climate without those two things! ha ha (i know i am being a princess!)

So two days later, which is straight away in Bali time we had some men rock up with their hand chisels to install our air conditioners and they also bought our fridges and stoves which were just dumped in my lounge room for us to install.

Next thing on our "To Do List" was defeating the bats! Everyone we spoke to about our problem laughed and said "ya ya one or two bats, no problem!" BUT there was not just one or two bats, it was awful! So our landlord sent a Balinese man around to hang about 30 CD'S from my ceiling, he climbed a long skinny bamboo pole and tied them to the rafters with fishing line. This is supposed to deter the bats, they hate their reflection.... Bouboummmmmm!!! No, the bats loved them, they now thought it was a bat play ground! Next I googled and apparently they hate "napthilene" which is found in moth balls, so i went out and bought 15 packets of moth balls and guess what...that did not work either! It just made my house smell like St Vinnies! Then I went out and bout some fluro lights..because they HATE fluro lights too! But guess what? Yep they loved the light as well! So the last resort was, not to get the pest controllers, but to go straight to the top and get the local "Holy Man". This had to work for sure! He came at midnight with a following of about 10 other people, bringing with them a midnight feast of chicken and rice. He did some awesome speed reading of his holy book for an hour, Kate stayed and watches and said it was amazing. Then after the feast, they collected all of the chicken bones and buried them in my garden! We waited in desperate hope for the next sunset to fall to see whether this holy ritual had worked. To our huge frustration and disappointment the ritual had failed and the bats were angry; they returned the following night, faster, louder and even more of them!

The only thing left to do was to buy some tulle netting to have like a curtain around or lounge room, we effectively turned our villas into wedding marques! ha ha...We had one of our local builders tack about 15 sheets of the tulle around the edge of the roof, it is certainly not attractive, BUT It worked! We could now sit in the lounge room in peace, no bats!

Our week settled down a little, every day Kate and I would go out in the car looking for furniture, bedding and house hold nick nacs. Its funny because I have always loved shopping, but this was hot and exhausting! We had to get EVERYTHING! Towels, sheets, knives, forks...EVERYTHING!

There were fun parts to this week though! Like the first time Kate and I drove the car to get groceries! It was so nerve racking and funny! We had no idea where we were going! We ended up getting to the shopping centre ok, but by the time we came out it was dark and I got sooooo dis orientated! We ended up pulling over and paying a taxi to drive home so that we could follow. The funniest part was, about half way home he pulled over and got out, walked over to our window and said "ok, so now you get in my taxi and show me how to get to your house." We just cracked up laughing and said "NO NO, NO, We are following you because we are lost! We dont know where to go!"...so he hopped back in his taxi, did a u turn and started driving the other way where we eventually got home!

There were also days where we bought so many things that we totally forgot we also had to fit in the car, so we had things hanging out of the window and could barely see! ha ha

The trips on the motor bike were also so much fun! You just feel so free when riding through the rice fields! The kids think its pretty special too! They sit and sing as we are cruising along. It also makes for a great family outing to the beach! And best of all to fill up our tanks it costs about $2.50! yey!

So this first week panned out ok in the end....... Stay tuned for week 2, starting school!

Where do I start? Bali chapter one...

CHAPTER ONE: THE MOVE: Bali; Paradise?

Bye Bye Currumbin House!

Ok so we havent been the greatest bloggers this year and I have so much to catch up on! Three Little Trees has given us so many opportunities, but i can safely say that moving to Bali has been the most life changing eye opening experience that we could possibly give our young family. Please keep in mind while reading each chapter, that we are totally happy now and Bali is a wonderful place

I am going to back track a few months until we can catch up.

Ok so the long 7 weeks of the Christmas school holidays was spent packing, cleaning, beach, renovating, more packing and then finally we moved! This felt very strange as we had lived in our house for the past 7 and a half years and it was the only house my 2 children knew! I think Lily realised what was going on but I think Kai felt that it was going to be one BIG holiday and I was getting worried about when reality was going to set in! We left our house and spent the next few weeks like modern day gypsys! We had sold our family car and were now driving around in what was actually my first car that turned into my husbands surfing run about! It had no air conditioning, rust and only 3 doors...which isnt very practical with 2 kids! ha ha

We went from one friends place to another trying to slip into their households without causing too much disturbance. We then met my best friend at a holiday resort for 5 nights to try and break up the visiting. I remember one day stopping at the traffic lights and looking out of the window of our rusty mobil the few days before we left thinking, "omg this is so embarrassing!" I had a washing basket with clothes and towels on the front seat, a few pillows and a doona and an esky in between the kids in the back. The windows were all down because we were so stinkin hot and we had no air, so we were all red faced and dripping of sweat! On top of that school had gone back the day before so it also looked like we were homeless and my kids werent even going to school! ha ha..... maybe i was getting just a bit paranoid!

We woke up very early the morning of The 1st February 2011...this was it..this was the day we were leaving Australia indefinitely and moving into the unknown of Bali!! The kids were so excited! Our airport transfer was picking Kate up at 4.30am and then us at 4.45am! The trip started very smoothly.. laughter, smiles and beaming faces.....

The flight 5 hours later wasn't quite as enjoyable! We had 4 kids that had been up since 4 am on a 6 hour flight smack bang in the middle of the day, the week that school went back so there were absolutely no other kids on the flight! I can tell you now that over excited kids in a 2 m squared space does not work!!!! OMG by the time we got to Bali Kate and I were ready to kill them! BUT all i kept thinking about was seeing our gorgeous new home and sitting down and having an ice cold drink by the pool! aaah breathe we were now in Bali all will be ok in an hour!

So after a 50 minute taxi ride we were here! I opened the front door and looked up...there was a pile of furniture in the middle of the lounge room, unmade beds with plastic and dust still over them...and worst of all there was no fridge and no air conditioners installed as per the lease agreement! It was 5pm and the kids were hungry thirsty and tired! Thank God for a very generous American friend, Nikky from down the road who welcomed us shortly after arriving with a hamper of fresh fruit, muffins and nibbles. It thankfully bought us enough time to unpack a little before thinking about going to dinner.

With no car, we walked to the cafe dragging our feet ate quickly so it wasnt too dark for the walk home; the kids were now wasted...we just wanted to go home and put them to bed and chill out with a Bintang. Bali however had different ideas....we got home to a lounge room full of darting, flying, squawking, rabies infested bats! ha ha...we thought the day could not get any worse! We tried clapping, screaming and swinging the pool scoop around but there was nothing we could do, it was like they had inhabited our home for the past 6

months and there was no way they were going anywhere. So the end of our first day in Bali was spent ducking through the hallway, being head butted by the fury little vermont creatures into our bedroom, where we tried to sleep in the sweltering un air conditioned stuffy heat.

Stay tuned for the Chapter Two...getting sorted!

The freaking bats flying around our ceiling! look closely.