To my dearest friends and family, hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and best wishes for the new year! ... may all our dreams come true!

Chinese food!

Telaga Naga, a Chinese restaurant in Sanur. We often drive past this restaurant wondering what the food is like especially when i am craving for chinese food. They only opened at certain times of the days so most of the time when we drive past, it is deserted. I found out later it only opens from 6.30pm to 10.30pm and that it actually belongs to Hyatt Hotel which is just across the road! (no wonder the beer was so costly!)

There are big tall red flags lining the walk way with bamboo poles litted up. Red lanterns are hung up everywhere like a typical chinese restaurant. The restaurant is set back about 20 metres away from the main road, into a tropical garden with a lotus pond surrounding it. A very tranquil setting. You can hear each other talk which is a plus point.

The restaurant has a pretty big menu, serving mainly Cantonese (yeah!) and Szechuan dishes. Serving size is just one standard size which is not typical for a chinese restaurant i thought. Hubby asked me to order whatever i wanted :). So i went for the 8 course dinner for 2!

It included:

1. starter: duck spring roll

2. soup: asparagus & mushroom eggy like soup

3. 2 meat dishes: stir fried beef with onion & pepper & spare ribs which tasted like char siew!

4. 1 vegetable dish: bok-choy with oyster sauce

5. fried rice, and

6. dessert was watermelon with sago in coconut milk.

they tasted so home-made! except for the texture of the beef which was quite chewy, we both thought everything was pretty good. we both felt we committed gluttony after LOL. the 8 course dinner cost RP. 140,000 nett per person. Given that the restaurant was part of the hyatt hotel, i thought the price was rather reasonable. What was obviously more important was that the food tasted good. I will definitely return to Telaga Naga. Maybe CNY?

As you can tell there are no pictures taken at all as i was too busy stuffing my face.

So here's the website if you like to make a booking:

http://bali.resort.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/entertainment/restaurants/index.jsp

Christmas arrived in a box today! :)

Thank you no. 1 :) . my sister sent me this M&S care pack with Spinelli coffee! Everything i loved! christmas has arrived! :) Thank you thank you thank you!

my sunday project :)

I made my own christmas tree! :)

christmas shopping :)

Hubby and i went downtown yesterday. Oh, downtown refers to denpasar, where there are shops, more shops, cafes, restaurants, book shops which i miss very much and people! LOL. We wanted to do some christmas shopping and we probably picked a good time to do so as well as there were sale going on everywhere! how strange i thought but i didn't waste time wondering why of course :). i had 1 hour and 1/2 to myself whilst he was in the dentist and i had ball actually taking my time picking, choosing, taking my time over the christmas decoration stuff and zipping in and out of probably every single store in Matahari!. I am finally going to admit that i MISS SHOPPING and WINDOW SHOPPING! my eyes were having a great feasts! Hubby and I walked through every single aisle at the hypermart that was next to MATAHARI and i was taking down notes on how much those worldly possessions that we wish to get for the new home we are building! 37" to 42" tvs (we do not know the difference between plasma or HD tvs. they all looked good to us), nice big huge fridges, microwaves and washing machine (i hand wash all our clothes at the moment!) and plastic plates and cups that hubby feels strongly about given that i am so bloody clumsy :).

We drove to Carrefour after and finally after all this time, i bought Hubby his first ipod. an ipod nano! :)

the nano is super light and so very thin! i bought a JBL speaker as well and as we speak, hubby is playing with his new toys in his office :). Merry Christmas hubby. I hope you like your gift! :)

if it's anything we are deprived of it's music! music in the car, music at home, music at work. the radio stations here are not brilliant and when you finally get a channel that plays an english song you get someone talking non-stop and it feels like eternity before the next song is played. Other times you get no signal whilst driving through the kampung areas. so if you are one of those that just cannot live without music, you will understand our grief and deprivation :).

We ended the day at Cat&Fiddle, a restaurant in Sanur which was on our way back home. The restaurant actually belongs to the british consulate here. If you like a nice big english or irish breakfast or pies and grills, this is the place to try out. The food is great here and i think we were both craving for that draft San Miguel that they serve as well :). it was raining and they had a local band playing. A very entertaining and lively band and they knew a wide range of songs. The liveliness made up for their mis-pronounciation which use to hurt my ears but now makes me laugh. I guess i am slowly fitting in and taking things in my stride.

I had a great day... it almost feel like a "normal" day out. i don't go out often lah! so it means a lot :)

homecook food, good company and music!

Gary & Theo are owners of Ari homestay which is right next door to us and they are great neighbours i must add :). Ari Homestay is a simple basic place for backpackers. Rooms are clean and you have the option of hot or cold shower. Tables and chairs are set up right by the verandah where you get the best view in Candidasa. Their big breakfast and great hospitality is something to look forward to and the icy cold beers of course .

We were invited to their place for dinner last night. Theo is fantastic cook! i never say no to an invite from them and especially home cooked dinner LOL. Ian & Julie were there. (it was their last night in Candi). And there were John & Linda, a dutch couple who are owners of another resort down the street whom we have have never met before! (yes after living here for 3 years!). Trixie arrived shortly with a flat tire.She is our South African friend who lives down the street. (The poor lady is having problem with jealous village people. Her tires get slashed every week!)

The Blues Brothers were blasting at the background when we arrived. I must admit to this: The name was completely unknown to me but i found myself singing to the blues! i grab the cover of the CD and i went oh! :)

i think my dad probably know their music pretty well. (well now i know what i am getting him for christmas present!). i loved the music and we started dancing to it after dinner! We moved the tables and chairs when the rain came and there were leaks from the roof over the verandah. But the music was so good we all started dancing on the verandah! :) The wet floor, the humid night,the smell of the rain and the half cresent moon made it almost like a tribal night, minus the bright florescent lights ;).

We were all very full from dinner and i think the dancing went on for a while :). dinner was grilled tuna in banana leaves, eggplant with sambal, gado gado with home made peanut sauce! i think most of us had two helpings. it was yummy!

time flies when you are having a good time.. i had a great time dancing. something i haven't done for a long time! :) even hubby was on the dance floor today and it was great! i think we have made the homestay verandah our unofficial dance floor for christmas party too :). 19 days to go !

occasions...

my sister received the flowers (in a teapot!) last night. its her birthday today and i thought i send her something :). we both think it's the first time i have sent her flowers LOL. i think we do so much for everyone sometimes and forget those closest to us.

We chatted on the MSN just a while ago and i am feeling all these emotions at the moment. I miss her and my family very much. I miss hanging out with them and having them close by. I am feeling depressed that i won't be seeing them soon. But i also feel very blessed and thankful to have siblings like mine and a mum and dad who in their own ways made sure we were ok and taken care of. I appreciate occasions like birthdays, christmas and anniversaries. It gives me a chance to show them i love them without going aboard with the mushiness LOL..