The next day was Aba’s 50th birthday!!! Happy birthday, Aba! After sleeping until 11 am, we walked along the burning hot beach and the warm water was so inviting that I wanted to jump in with my clothes on!
We had a blissfully lazy day, but our time swimming in our villa’s pool is one of the highlights of my year so far. Troy went into the water first, and he couldn’t manage to lie down on the rubber raft! He kept tipping over or flailing or just plain sinking, and even though Asher and I tried to help him, he wasn’t able to succeed until Aba helped him!!!!!! We, on the other hand, were all able to get on the raft the first time with no difficulties. We played and swam in the pool and had a wonderful, wonderful time until dinner.
Troy had made reservations for a restaurant and we ate a very nice meal there. We gave him a pop-up card of a ship that we had bought in Hanoi decorated with some pressed flowers and leaves that I found, then we returned home and I gave Aba his present. I left it waiting for him under our tiny Christmas tree, and he was thrilled with the yoga mat sling I had woven for him! I used __ colors and made __ __ inch lengths of Chevron-style braiding. As you know, this took many many hours to make, so I’m very glad he liked it. After watching Prison Break, we went to sleep at midnight. We woke up at 11 the next day as well and I didn’t leave the house until dinner. It was such a profoundly lazy day that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like it before. I finished an extraordinarily well-written book called Mistral’s Daughter which I highly recommend, and after starting to read an Agatha Christie book I decided to swim. Asher and Troy joined me in the pool after giving Asher a haircut, but I stayed in long after, just floating on the raft. The jets under the water propelled me around the pool and I might have actually fallen asleep. I took a shower and, still in my towel, slept on a pool chair until it started raining. I brushed my hair and got dressed and then we went out to dinner. As we watched Prison break again, Dad called and we talked for a while. I also got to talk to my Nana and Grandad, Connie and Martin Efird. They were worried about us since they had heard about a tsunami in Indonesia that had killed at least 222 people that day. However, that Tsunami was in Java and Sumatra and we were in Bali, so we didn’t even feel the earth tremors. After blogging, we went to sleep at midnight again. The next few days were spent very leisurely. I read, swam, watched TV, and worked on Dad’s Christmas present for the majority of the time. Speaking of which, we had a very quiet Christmas. We cooked a delicious meal at the villa and watched TV, but we had a great time.
The next two days were spent much the same, very relaxed, but on the third day Gina, Troy’s sister, came to visit us. Gina lives in Minnesota with her family and designs and sells fashionable Barbie outfits online, a pretty sweet job if you ask me. Her son Zach was also supposed to join us, but his passport expired so he couldn’t make it. Gina is also a very laid-back person so we spent the majority of her time here by our pool.
New Years came and went. We ordered a cake which Troy, Aba, and I ended up getting food poisoning from and Aba and I walked along the beach to see the fireworks. There had been audible fireworks every night for the past few days, and as we were in Bali, while Aba and I strolled an illegal dun firework fired on the beach whizzed along the sand and fizzed out about four feet from Aba! I also called my friend Selene to wish her happy birthday. Even though I’m 100% certain you aren’t reading this, happy birthday, Selene! Within the next few days our neighbors from Boulder, Ling, Josh, Ethan, and Tamara Wurman, came to visit us. They had also been vacationing in Bali! We swam in the trash-filled ocean and ate lunch, but then they had to leave for the airport. The next day we went to lunch with Aba’s yoga instructor from the Bikram studio in Bali and her family, but other than that we did very little; reading, swimming, watching TV, working on Dad’s Christmas present, drawing a very detailed map for the history project Troy gave us.
We toured the island in a car one day, but the driver didn’t understand us so we didn’t see much.
We also went to see another aerial play in which I volunteered. It was good, but the best one I have seen so far (not including ‘O’ in Las Vegas, cuz that ones the best) was in Vietnam.
Gina left on the fifth of January and we were sad to see her go. She was a lot of fun to have around. Once again, the next few days were the same. Asher bought Dad a Christmas present that I think he’ll love and I figured out what I’m making Troy for his birthday and his anniversary for meeting Asher and me. I rode on a motorbike with our friend, Ayu, to send my friend Una a postcard. We are just about too depart for the airport (we’re flying to Tokyo!), so I’ll end this here. Kon’nichiwa, Tokyo! 7-6-6-11 7-3-11 7-3-3-3-3-3-11!!!!!
Ella
❣️
I love you too!!!! Kisses!