Catching up with friends
Trip Start
Dec 29, 2010
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97
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Trip End
Dec 05, 2011
Changū, Bali, Indonesia
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Feeling more than a bit frazzled we arrived at Puribawana villa and wow what a place it was! Katrina had booked 3 families (the Wickens, Roberts and Steels) plus Simon into an unbelievable pad, set amongst rice paddy fields and with more space, style and cool than any of us had ever experienced before. And it was fully staffed with no less than 14 people! Which meant all our meals were catered, drinks were poured, laundry was done, beds were made etc etc. A perfect place for us all to relax and unwind.
The only glitch in the otherwise perfect villa was that despite having plenty of space for every family to have 2 rooms each, all the kids insisted on crashing on the floor or their parents' rooms on whatever makeshift cushions/day beds/sun loungers were to hand. Not quite what we all planned when we first set eyes on our gorgeously serene Balinese rooms.
The children got stuck in straight away, jumping in the pool and generally getting to know each other again after a year or so since they last saw each other. And they all continued to have a brilliant time all week. Everyone got on fantastically well with only the odd fight breaking out between siblings, and some new friendships were formed, most notably between Zach and Charlotte Steel.
Fi Steel, now White Collar Boxing Champion and total Gym Nut had everyone whipped into shape with varying levels of fitness training, circuits and other forms of embarrassment usually taking place in the mornings, for anyone showing even the remotest hint of enthusiasm, or not. (Pictures available!) All of this exercise was not necessarily helped by Ella Roberts and her wonderful array of one liners which included, - when exercising - "it really looks like you need to get a life" and my favourite, when Matt was exercising : "Daddy, you really are making that look very hard."
Most evenings were spent having gin and tonics in the beautiful pavilion overlooking the rice paddies, but one evening turned into an impromptu Jif Soc (the Uni drinking society) for the boys. We girls stupidly let them go on ahead while we put the kids to bed, but, not anticipating yet another mammoth stop-start journey into Seminyak, we arrived when the boys were already three sheets to the wind having had a 3 hour head start. They desperately tried to make us play catch-up, making us bolt glasses of champagne as well as shots. But it was all in vain.....the distance between us and them was far too great! So we let them move on to the more seedier bars and clubs in Kuta before even they threw in the towel at 2 in the morning.
