Bali total relax holiday

After weeks of anticipation, we took off for our summer holiday: 10 days on the Indonesian island of Bali. After a long trip (two flights and a very scenic 3.5 hour car ride) we arrived at our villa directly on Lovina beach. Welcomed with drinks, great food and the sound of the waves, we put down our luggage and took a refreshing dip in the pool before falling sound asleep in the comfortable beds of the spacious thatch-roofed house. And that's pretty much what we did for the holiday: eat, drink, swim in pool, eat, swim in sea, drink, read, eat some more and sleep. We were positively spoilt by two lovely ladies who came to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for us every day. The kids never tired of jumping, diving, finding flowers in the beautiful garden and making new friends on the beach. One morning we got up before sunrise to go dolphin watching. A local fisherman picked us up in his boat on the beach in front of our villa. Patience required, but we did get to see quite a number of dolphins swimming and jumping right next to the boat. The kids were of course delighted. Two trips in bemos (local mini buses) to Seririt and Singaraja to see the local markets were fun too. On the return ride through the mountains to the airport, we were surrounded by the strong smell of cloves that were drying on tarps along the road. The spice harvest had just started. It was a great relaxing holiday and we went back to Shanghai with our batteries recharged.

On wheels in The Netherlands

We went to The Netherlands for a little visit prior to the Jaszkowo-Poland adventure. The best way to get around there is by bike, which Nina & Stasiu sampled in different ways with Opa, aunt Mirjam and of course by themselves. The scooter, that Anita used to ride when their age, was a great and much-loved alternative.

Baboe & Dziadek in China

In May this year, Baboe & Dziadek visited us in Shanghai. We walked on the Bund, visited the insect market and Stasiu showed Baboe his class where she read a storybook to all his classmates. One weekend we took the train to Beijing where we visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall. It was a busy and demanding schedule, but well worth it. It was wonderful to show them where our home is now and let them have a little taste of China, including hotpot, Peking duck, Sichuan mask-changing show and the simply relaxing view from our living room window :)

Frequent Flyers

Flying gets more comfortable when you are together with someone who enjoys a frequent flyer status. It gets even better when you share the same name as that person....complimentary upgrades for Mr. Stas(iu) Chlapowski and his mom and sister who accompanied him on the flight from Shanghai to Amsterdam.

Rendez vous in Jaszkowo

We just returned from a fantastic weekend in Jaszkowo where we attended a family wedding. It was great to see so many people again and the wedding, held at the same premises as ours in September 2005, brought back a lot of good memories.

Anita and the kids had already spent over a week in the Netherlands and drove in from there together with Baboe and Dziadek, while Staszek came in directly from Shanghai with less than 48 hours to enjoy Poland before flying back again.

It felt great to introduce Nina and Stasiu to the place and people that have such a special place in our hearts.

We were not able to return to Shanghai without the firm promise to improve our blogging discipline. Let this be the first post again of hopefully many more.

So, here is the first impression of two future amazones :)