Dear me, Bintan

Amazing - Bintan revisited, this time with Miz. What a lovely time we had, we just love this place. Miz even said best holiday she's had, as she's never done the Asian tropical beach type holiday. We got two sea facing rooms next door to each other - Amy with Mary and I, and Ollie with Miz. Worked perfectly, with Amy going back and forth from our room to see Miz and Ollie, in what she referred to as "her office" - ha ha!

Of course my two being my two we had to travel Emerald Class on the ferry to get there, kind of like business class. Very nice. Check out Ollie - he looks at home does he not!

Amazing in that so much has changed there now. This is Bintan about 5-6 years ago - it was funny when we walked past the people I told Ollie that I had memories of him hanging off a tree when he was in there swimming, and hey presto look what I found - the very photo of him doing that.

Here's and Ollie walking to what was a real nice restaurant on the beach, sort of surf and turf place with an amazing salad bar. Not any more - this is now a ferry terminal in final stages of construction. Yep you can catch a ferry from Singapore soon, straight to the hotel front door.

Here is the view from the hotel to the beach, as you'll notice nice clean beach and skyline (as well as a much younger me!).

But now, today, they have erected 3Degree - the MOST funky, bar restaurant on a beach I have been to. It would grace London, Melbourne easily, so so COOL.

It is AWESOME. The food was amazing, the people were wonderful, the views exceptional. Well done Bintan Lagoon, this is a must to come back to visit again. Here's Miz and Mary beachfront, I'll show some more of this place as it was really so very good!

Here's one of us all at this amazing place, jet about to start to eat a truly stunning dinner. It was SO good. Pricey, yes, but worth it HELL yes!

Just look at this place - dear me!

This is the bloody kitchen - looks like a London night club doesn't it!!!

The hotel is just lovely for the kids as there is a whole area dedicated for them. 2x swimming pools, slides, "Zorb" balls, laser shooting, bike hire, kids club, amusement arcade etc etc. Here is a selection for you to see the place we spent most of our time.

Sliding (she's maybe a little too confident);

More sliding Amy & Ollie;

Father and Son, lazy days in the pool enjoying each others company - very nice shot Mary!

Arsty time!

"MerKids" - ha ha. Look at these two.

Messing about underwater - cool shots of them both.

How good is her swimming coming along. Look at her go. She loves it in the water. But Amy my darling lessons are important too!!!!

This is a really cool function on my camera. You press it once and it takes a load of stills in quick succession. Here comes Ollie down the slide in the pool and in to the water. I ducked down as he entered to get him in action. It's good isn't it!

What was that film? "Man from Atlantis/Waterworld?" - no webbed feet and hands though!

And now Amy's turn to show off underwater swimming skills.

And now Team Kennett Synchronized Swimming.

Multi-tasking - so here she is bouncing away and singing a Japanese kids song. Well done Amy, very clever babe.

Ollie goes Zorb Balling - crazy man!

And then clearly needed a relaxing ice lemon team pool-side with Obachan and Amy.

Just being kids! I love these videos. Here is kids and Mary playing "what's the time Mr Wolf" and then the game that Amy and Ollie played New Years Eve (see previous Blog).

OK some posey shots of us all just having fun in Bintan - but the pool, outside the restaurant, just having fun.

This is "Facebook, Facebook!" Shouts Mary - so a nice shot of Mary on bridge, by pool. with soft lighting and all that. Lovely shot Mary, beautiful!

Walks along the beach, just stunning.

This one is for Amy, and her school teacher. Did you read the one re me and teaching to Amy's class re surfing? Well here she is, and if you look just to her right hand shoulder you can see actual surfers doing their thing. She was very excited about this of course!!!!

Although some cautionary as it is jelly fish and "blue-bottle" season. So warning signs everywhere. Huh thinks me, warning re going in the sea because of blue-bottles - why would flies bother you there. Aha! Blue-bottles Indonesia style are like little jelly fish that of they "bite" you caused inflammation, blistering and painful itching - here's one of the little blighters, very pretty but don't touch.

We saw loads of these along the beach walk. But who cares, look at the beach we were walking on.

We're in Indonesia, so with Indonesians - shorten that to Indians and here's the cowboys! (I know I know - you're all thinking POSERS!!!!)

My MockTail king! The final shot. Over dinner at the hotel, my number 1 son demonstrating his mother's side (bless), yes he is a connosieur of MockTails, in fact I think this was his 10th different concoction - go for it Ollie, you look like you're about 20 not 10 - plus you have boozy red cheeks he he, or is that from the Sun?????

And the closing image! This just sums it all up for me. Did we have fun? Was it an amazing little trip away? Check the face! Nuff said!

Fossicking & Grubbing

Well OK not really fossicking & grubbing but fishing!

Jo, a good friend of mine, popped a wee note that her and the boys and Chris were off deep sea fishing. They've done it before and liked it so much they're off again.

A boat was booked with room for 10 and we have 2 tickets available - yes please says I, put me and Ollie down for definite.

What a beautiful day we had! Left early from condo Kennett, arrived Changi Village at 8am at the fishing tackle shop, meeting Jo and family, and other friends and kids. Met by captain and deck hand and off we to board - what was in the end a bum boat (old ferry/fishing boat - renowned across Singapore) and off we went.

Dripping in sun lotion, with hats, glasses and copious amounts of water we were off! Here's the start of the day, Ollie and Ted (Jo's youngest) good mates about to start the hunt!

We fished from a number of different places, including going up as far as Malaysian coast line as you'll see from the shot below. Beautiful, it really was.

Sad thing was for a while it was girls 5 and boys 0 in terms of fish caught. Here's one of the girls pulling in a catfish, nasty barbs on it's back and fins that were cut off.

OK OK It's not exactly Jaws is it, but still a good catch! We didn't keep these, back they went. However we kept 5 grouper - yes that the girls caught.

One the way back from coasts of Malaysia we had to take a quick divert to Pulau Ubin, a small island off Singapore, as "The Perfect Storm" came in and engulfed us, very choppy, very windy, very rainy as you'll see here. Phew!

Here is safe haven amongst the small islands around Pulau Ubin, you can still see those very angry clouds above though. But very beautiful location here, calm and peaceful.

Time for Ollie to wet a line off the island. Very relaxing.

Yours truly casting a live prawn out with hope to catch something to take home! Shame it didn't happen like that though.

In the end the boys came good with I think 3 catches of catfish. ZERO for me and Ollie though, dear me! The girls easily out did us overall with the 5 grouper we kept - in fact Jo even donated one to us which Mary ended up eating and she said it was delicious.

But who cares what a great day out, great fun with Ollie and a lovely opportunity to have some 121 bonding with him - I loved it and can't wait to go again! Thanks Jo and Chris for a wonderful day!