Bali and the long week that was

It's been a long work-free week for me. I was on leave for 7 days making a total of 11 work-free day in a stretch. Had such a hangover this morning. And I miss Joe already!
Here's what happened during my long work-free week.

Saturday 15th July

Joe played football. He's a natural!

Monday 17th July

We flew to Bali on AirAsia. It was not a very pleasant experience overall. I saw the ugliness of Malaysians. We were waiting to board the flight. There was a bunch of super kiasu senior citizens who started queueing at gate T7 way before any announcement was made. However, when the call for boarding was made, families with infants, children below the age of 12, expectant mothers and senior citizens were asked to queue at gate T8. Instead of going to the back of the line at gate T8, this bunch of extremely rude, uncivilised senior citizens cut queue and went in front of those already in line. Not only did they jump queue, they actually pushed and shoved others aside so that they could all stand together in front of everyone else. I was standing in line, carrying a sleeping Joseph in my sarong sling and trying to protect him. One bald old indian man actually bumped Joseph's head. I said a loud "excuse me". He just looked the other way and pretended not to hear anything. How rude can one get? And these are senior citizens?!?!! Or should I just call them a bunch of rude old farts! Who can blame young people these days if we do not respect our elders? We're merely learning from their example. Respect is after all earned. Not demanded.

Anyway, the flight itself was fine except for the 1 hour delay. We landed in Bali at 8.30pm to find out that there had been an earthquake and tsunami in southern Java. Reaching our hotel room at almost 10pm, we promptly went to bed.

Tuesday 18th July

The day was spent resting, rotting and exploring the hotel grounds. Joseph looked cool in his batik shirt.

Wednesday 19th July

Joseph busied himself exploring the hotel room.

We took a walk down to the beach. Joseph touched an ocean for the first time. He was absolutely at home.

Thursday 20th July

We have yet to leave the hotel grounds since we checked-in on Monday. This evening, we take Joseph to check out the playground. It's pretty well-maintained. He enjoyed his first time on a see-saw.

Friday 21st July

We're going home today. I'm actually looking forward to it. We extended our check out time to 5pm for an extra USD25, so that we can rest before our 8pm flight. This is our room that cost USD63 nett per night.

Nothing great about it. The place is actually pretty old but at least it's clean. For that same price, we would probably be able to get a much nicer hotel in Malaysia.

I find Bali is not my cup of tea. In fact, I think it's pretty overated. I couldn't find anything worth buying. The batik there is no different from the ones you find here. And I don't waste money on trinkets that do nothing more than collect dust. What I found eerie was that there was either an idol or a picture of one everywhere I looked. Every corner, every hallway, every room, every wall. I don't think we'll miss anything if we never go back to Bali again.

Saturday 22nd July

Ah...home at last. So nice to wake up in my own bed. Spent the morning at home. In the afternoon, I took Joseph to Bueh Yee's house in SS2 to see Rebecca. Joseph found the trampoline to be quite fun.

Then this is Joe and Rebecca watching Veggietales.

And this is Joe checking out his new guitar.

Monday 24th July

Rebecca, Mummy, Joe and I went to Midvalley after lunch. I needed to print some photos. They looked great! Rebecca went shopping.

Tuesday 25th July More shopping...Joseph and I spent the day with Rebecca and Reuben at Tesco, Ikea, The Curve. It's a first for me to be out with my siblings and my darling son. Rebecca went shopping for more dresses. We had quite a good time. However, Joseph refused to sleep taking merely 2 short 30-minute naps all day. At dinner time, he refused to eat. After cleaning him up, putting him in clean diapers and pajamas, he decided to poo. Right...my sister says babies like to poo in clean diapers just like how we like to use clean toilets. So while I was trying to wash the poo off his bum, he decided he wanted to splash around in the bath tub that still contained his earlier bath water. When I took him out, he started yelling and crying and throwing a tantrum. After that....he spent the next 2 hours crying in pain and discomfort. I spent 2 hours trying to put him to sleep. He would appear to have fallen asleep, and 10 seconds later start crying again. He arched his body backwards and wouldn't stop kicking. I was at my wits end. Didn't know what to do. It was 2 hours later that he finally fell asleep. My diagnosis is that his hungry stomach got filled with air and the trapped air was giving him pain. The more he cried in pain, the more air went in and the vicious cycle continued. I hope this trauma doesn't happen again. What a dramatic end to my nice long work-free week.