Crumpled Home

It’s a beautiful, bright, sunny day and RJ and Mom are in the garden. Deep within a ferocious tangle of tomato vines, Mom is pulling up plants and getting the garden ready for a new season. RJ walks purposefully outside… He clearly has an agenda.

RJ: Mom, is there anything that I can do to help you? … And then maybe earn a prize? … Like a new Beast Quest book?

Mom: Ummm…Okay. You can empty out the pool so we can put it away for winter.

The pool is four metres in diameter and 80 centimetres deep… It holds a LOT of water.

RJ: And if I empty out the pool, can we go to the bookshop right away?

Mom: Okay… It might take a while though!

RJ starts industriously emptying the pool, tiny bucket by little, tiny bucket. After half-an-hour the water level has dropped a little, but not significantly. Mom feels sorry for him and steps in to help out.

Ten minutes later, she has had enough and is seriously considering suggesting that they just go to the bookshop and leave the job for Daddy.

RJ: I know it’s hard, Mom. But if we want that book, we just have to keep going.

Mom: (Feeling guilty, desperately wishing the child hadn’t just said that, wondering if it’s bad parenting to discourage such industry) Mmmmhmmm.

Time passes. More water is emptied into the garden.

RJ: We’ll just keep going, won’t we Mom?

Mom: Okay…

RJ: Because we might not like it, but it just has to get done.

Mom: (sighs)

RJ: Even if it’s really hard work. We just have to keep going.

Mom: Yeah…

RJ: Because if we don’t do it, who will? There’s just nobody but us. So we have to get it done.

Mom: (looking around for candid camera set up by Dad) Argh.

RJ: I know, Mom. But we can do it.

RJ: (pauses, thoughtfully) Maybe you should get a book too, Mom. You’re really working hard.

More time (and water) passes and eventually they emptied the entire pool.

All of it.

And they got a book.

And Mom got a coffee.

(While in the car, a strange moaning sound starts from the back seat…)

Dad: Ummm… RJ, Are you okay?

RJ: Woooooohhoooaaahhhhhhhhh….

Dad: That doesn’t sound good. RJ? Is there a problem?

RJ: Yeeeahhhhsssss… But RJ is gooooone. There is only RJ’s ghooooost…

Dad: Oh no. What happened?

RJ: RJ is deaaaaaaaad. DEAAAAAAD!

Dad: What!? He was fine a minute ago, what happened?

RJ: The lollypop… THE LOLLYPOP… THE LOLLYPOP WAS POISONED!

Dad: Disaster! Treachery! Who would be so evil to have done such a foul deed?

RJ: It was… Daaaaaarth Vaaaaaader!!! He poisoned the lollypop with deadly bacteria-aaaah.

Dad: That’s some fast acting bacteria. I hope none of the other kids got those lollypops.

RJ: They did! They’re all dead too! But it’s okay because now we’re all ghosts and we don’t have to do swimming lessons any mooooooooooore.

Read on to find out about our exciting adventures with dangerous oversized animals at the Ulun Danu Beratan Temple at Lake Beratan. We get drenched by a massive tropical thunderstorm, and are amused/delighted/revolted by some hot beverages. Finally we end up having a meal at a great little place on the coast.

Mom leads the kids off to the Ulun Danu Beratan Temple!

Found it!

But it's guarded by lions... hungry lions... Careful M!

Look out, LR!

We'll ride the magic giant fish off to safety!

The sign said, "Beware of Giant Eagles", but did they listen? Oh nooooooo.... "No giant eagles around here," they said. Here's your freaken giant eagle, buddy.

"Spin us, Uncle Paul! As fast as you can!!!" ... The kids learned a valuable lesson that day.

Mom and P take M and RJ on a WILD ride on the swing.

On the way back down the mountain, we ran into our first tropical thunderstorm.

Rice paddies and farms on the side of the mountain.

On the way back to the villa, we stopped by this nice little coffee shack and tried their various coffees and teas, as well as the infamous, "Poo Coffee."

Poppa is awfully suspicious. In the background, you can see a big poster describing the process of feeding coffee berries to the lewaks, collecting their valuable coffee-bean-caffinated turds, and the washing that takes place before roasting and grinding the beans. They did mention washing the beans, didn't they? Lots and lots of washing?

No RJ! Don't eat that bit!!! Ha ha... Actually, the hot chocolate made from their own cocao beans was really fantastic.

Mom refused to try the crappy coffee, but did give the lemon tea a go... and it was actually great stuff. The kids loved it too.

After a long day, we went to the Potato Head Club to relax and have a great dinner. The place was extravagant, decadent and completely over the top... and we loved it. Aunty Bron, Uncle Troy and Poppa enjoy a drink while trying to get Shazam working on their phones.

Aunty Carrie, Grammy and Uncle Paul sit down for a cup of tea... Hang on a second, that's not tea in that pot!

Mom watched whle the kids had a brilliant time swimming and jumping around in the pool.

We even enjoyed a tiny, 2 minute sunset. There was so much cloud that the sky didn't really light up.

The kids kept swimming and playing into the night while our dinner was prepared.

Sophie checks out the menu... Yep, just about everything on there looks delicious.

Uncle Paul waits for Auntie Carrie at the bar... The place felt like a scene from a movie.

After dinner, LR and the other kids danced on the grass to the loud, thumping music, while Dad cheered them on.

PA. prepares to launch her sky-shooting glowie -- a tiny light on a pair of wings.

Bali is absolutely packed to the brim with three things: motorbikes, temples and souvenir shops, often mixed in a kind of a petro-spiritual-capitalist melange. The markets and hawkers serve as a tense, bustling, confrontational entree, sitting in stark contrast to the quiet zen-like peace of the temples…

One of the temples we explored was Tanah Lot. Like most of the temples, it was calm and quiet… except for outside the cave containing the Holy Snake (a revered, venomous guardian of the Temple at Tanah Lot). That place was nuts.

We also visited Ubud, a market district renowned for its artists and crafts… and markets and temples.

Finally, we had a great time on the (heavily chlorinated) water slides and rides at the Waterbom water park.

PA and RL stand at one of the entrances to Tanah Lot!

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Our trip was filled with new experiences with a lot of things that we’d never get the chance to do back in Perth. We stopped by a lodge where they take retired elephants and spoil them by feeding them melons all day (in exchange for carrying tourists on short walks through jungle and rice paddies). They had a couple of young orangutans who we were allowed to play with, as well as an albino python that RJ thought would make a terrific pet. Finally, we had a fantastic meal at a great, but confusing restaurant motorcycle shop skate shop place called, “Deus Ex Machina”.

Hungry elephants LOVE to eat melons. If you're not careful, they'll even stop along the track to stomp on a jackfruit and eat that too!

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In April of 2011, we embarked on a terrific adventure to the island of Bali, in Indonesia. It is actually closer to Perth than the other capital cities within Australia, so it’s a popular holiday destination for Western Australians… which is one of the reasons we’ve been hesitant to go.

After a tiny 3 hour flight, we met Poppa, Grammy, the cousins (P. and M., Auntie Bron and Uncle Troy), our aunt and uncle from the US (Carrie and Paul), and finally, our second cousin Sophie and spent a week there staying at an incredible, luxurious villa (Puri Angsa, in Canggu, Bali) together.

It really was like staying in paradise, with each family having their own cottage or series of rooms, most of them directly overlooking the pool. The villa even had their own pet monkeys, which conveniently avoided any potential ‘Enchanted Monkey Forest‘ disasters that we had worried about.

We arrived at our gate with plenty of time to spare and some amazing colours in the sky.

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March came to a close and it was a big month for the kids. LR competed in a diving competition, where she was the youngest, as well as the only kid representing her school. RJ also stepped into his first trampolining competition and took third place! Congratulations kids! We also had a few dinners at the beach and the river in the evening, and spent lots more time outside enjoying the cooler weather.

… and Mom looked ridiculous.

LR steps up as her name and school are read out.

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RJ: You have to be careful, there are leeches around here.

Dad: I don’t think there are. Remember, they told us that the leeches are all upstream at the waterfall.

RJ: Yes. There are, but not the sort they were talking about.

Dad: Really? What are these ones like?

RJ: They’re small and white, and have antennae with little balls on the end. If they bite you, then you get really sick and die.

Dad: How do you know this?

RJ: One of them bit me last time we were here. I nearly didn’t survive.

Dad: Glad you made it then. I’ll keep my eyes open.

It’s been a while since we posted a bunch of photos, so here’s a quick wrap-up for February!

LR lost another two teeth this month, and the kids did some home experiments with dry ice. RJ discovered a fascination for disguises and interesting clothes. Mum sang her heart out at a South Pacific concert and we had a couple of trips to the beach to have fish and chips for dinner. Mum and Dad even got dressed up for a party, and at the end of the month, it was the kids turn with an evening picnic and disco down at the school.

One of the last pictures of LR with all her upper teeth... One of her front incisors came out the next day!

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For the past several days, we’ve had a run of warm humid weather (35C / 95F), and the forecast looks like there’s no change for the 7 days ahead. Here’s hoping that a few pics of the kids in the pool might help cool us down.

To add to her busy after-school schedule, LR has taken up diving and is loving it. The combination of gymnastics and swimming seems to be a perfect match!

RJ is as much of a fish as his sister and has been working hard at swimming lessons on the weekends. His biggest problem is actually spending time near the surface — he’s much happier diving for toys and other objects off the bottom.

LR listens to her coach and prepares to dive.

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