Cuacanya panas hari ini!

I woke for a lovely early morning meditation amongst the quietude before the girls woke.

It's hot today. So the pool beckoned us very early. The girls are having a BLAST with their new found friends. Skype is working great at the Villa, so it's really nice to have all my beautiful friends and family calling me. Moving to Bali as a newly labelled "single mum" has been a huge time for 3 of us girls, so seeing familiar faces and voices is so welcome. What did we do before the internet, Skype and mobile phones?

The Toothless Elder is at the door again blessing me as I type and local children huddle around the side entrance waiting to get a glimpse of the new "Orang Asing" in town. The house maid had given me a 3 hour local lesson on family life here, Balinese have an intense spiritual connection to their home..... and I thought I was too close to my Mother in Law (with a distance of Auckland to the Gold Coast!), consider this one girls..... as many as 5 generations can live under one roof, in-laws and all! When the sons marry, they don't move out, the wife moves in.... poor girls!

We visited the Dog Adoption Centre in Ubud - the girls are desperate for a puppy. As soon as we settle into our long term rental villa the girls will have an endless list of Pets .... all of which Brooklyn has already named, even down to a pet Spider Monkey .... yep called Charlie. Dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, Koi (called Yin and Yang!).... you get the drift. Thank Buddha that I'll be able to afford the House Staff here to help me look after all these new found family members.

We have been invited to our first birthday party on Sunday - friends have twins turning 2, so the girls will meet lots of expats and locals at the party. Instead of presents for the twins, they have requested that money be donated to their local Orphange.... now this is why we came to Bali!! Brooklyn already has a little Fund Raising Planner going on for when she returns to Ozzy, to raise money for local Orphanges (we hope to Sponsor one in particular). So be warned Hope Islander's when Brookies back in Ozzy, she'll expect you all to dig deep into those large pockets, for our Orphange Cause here in Bali! It costs $300 per year to house, feed, clothe and eduate ONE child! Only $300. That's .80c per day!

Catch up with you tomorrow .... off to the Monkey Forest for a walk followed by some more of Erica's motorbike antics through the village a little later on. x