Bali

Dear Family and Friends,

Incase you have not heard Maxine and I have finally found a place to settle down and call home after almost literally searching the globe over for a suitable location. After my first job in Nigeria I came back to London briefly to gather my family and jump on a plane to Bali, Indonesia for a three week holiday of diving and surfing. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we have decided to move here for a year to do a trial period and see how it goes. So far so good.

There are great waves everyday, the weather is probably the best on the planet (that is if you like sunshine, pleasant breezes and an average year round sea and air temp of 82 degrees).

Culturally, Bali is an amazing place, Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world, however Bali is predominantly Hindu, the place is steeped in tradition and beautiful Hindu temples are abound, the locals can be seen putting their daily offerings to the different Gods out at all times of the day. The Balinese people are friendly, genuine, honest, happy, and a peaceful people. Healthcare is not free (the way we like it) but the quality is world class, just as good as anything in the UK, France, or America (health insurance is a lot cheaper though). Also the schools are very good quality, and one has the choice of putting your child through the British, American, French, Indonesian, or Balinese system.

One aspect of bali we love is the mix of people, places, and activities. All sorts of tourists and expats visit and live in Bali, if you want the beach lifestyle it is there, if you want mountains they are there, if you want peaceful arty countryside living it is there, and if you want the madness of Kuta with nightclubs etc... it is always there. As far as surfing is concerned it does not get much better, the only places that are better are farther out islands in Indonesia called the Mentawaiis. The diving is also supreme, Indonesia again in my opinion (and most marine biologists) has the best diving in the world. Not to mention it is cheap, you can get great meals for a dollar, sometimes less, and you can get really great meals for two dollars. Perhaps one of the nicest things is how cheap help is, the average salary for a full time maid is around ninety dollars a month! The biggest downside is the fact that we are half way around the globe from most of you reading this but in some cases that may be a bonus.... just joking!!

Seriously we miss you all and are giving you an open invitation to come and stay with us whenever you want, we have a spacious abode and would more then happily let you use our spare room, and if you want to bring someone Im sure Lilly wouldn't mind sharing her room. We plan on coming to the States once to twice a year but will see how it goes and what we can afford, certainly once Lilly turns two it will be limited to once a year.

Lilly is developing into a little toddler. She is almost 14 months old and nearly has a full set of teeth, she can run, pick her nose, stand in the shallow end of the pool, likes getting pulled around on the boogey board at the beach, loves sand but not the taste, is starting to have slight tantrums to give us a sneak peak at what to expect later, her favorite word is "no". She is constantly bossing our maid around and denouncing her parents instructions with the word "nonono". Lilly loves all the Bali dogs. Dog is her second favorite word, and apparently anything on four legs is a dog, kind of like anyone who drives a motor bike or surfs is dada.

Maxine is also doing very well and becoming accustomed to not having to clean up much of anything, although I am not so sure she ever has. She is still breast feeding Lilly and as such cant go on full day diving trips so she is being deprived of the underwater world for a few more months. Soon we will get a surfboard for her so she can spend some time with me whilst Im not away working. Speaking of work, Im starting to forget what that is... Actually the recession has affected my industry negatively and work is not as easy to come by as it was, monsoon season (which shuts down diving operations) in the Far East doesn't help my efforts either. The job in Nigeria ended because the vessel we were working on was not fit for the particular job we were doing and was demobilized. Nothing definite yet but I have had some job offers (which I unwisely turned down), am looking for work and am confident something will come up soon, in the meantime I will just have to suffer and surf. Most likely I will be going back to Africa or to Abu Dhabi which is in the Mid East, otherwise I will get something in the Far East when monsoon season is over in January.

P.S. getting here is not as expensive as you might think, we are experts at finding cheap deals so if your interested let us know.

If you have Skype look us up, our names as you may have guessed are Peter Fontaine Denton and Maxine Denton, usernames are monadenton and max1n3 respectively.

Lots of Love,

Fontaine, Maxine, and Lilliana