Here we are on the last day of 2016 what a year it has been for us and so many of our friends and family. For some losses beyond their vision, for others new joy and new beginnings...
with weddings, birth if babies and the lose of loved ones .
I know every is this way but some years touch you more than others... our year has finished on both a high and I guess not so much if a low as a word dear for the future'
With John's job coming to an end so quickly even though it is what he wanted it is still the unknown of that new life we are to commence.
The next stage in our life called retirement..... it is something we have talked about for a many years and now it is here. Life does as the Lord says life goes in the blink of an eye!

For me I will for now continue in the job I do get so much pleasure from, that being community nursing at Wowan.
Both take stock of our life and see what is the best way forward.

For now we have arrived in Ubud and today we have our breaky on the house for 2 days as they stuffed up our transfers on arrival in Bali and going to the island. Even though they have tired to say the island transfer was there we just didn't look.... we did so did the guy from Blue Water Express but no luck . So he organized a little slow boat to take us to Gili Zmeno we got there safely that was the main thing...

Anyway breaky today on the house, then we booked to go on the the shuttle to Ubud town to look around. We arrived at the Coco Mart with other guests in the van... turns out the other couple were from Yeppoon so close yet so far ha ha.... she had fallen down the steps heading to the spa and was a bit of a mess with bruises and extremely sore... but management were doing their bit with having her x-rayed, to check for breaks....flowers and daily massages. Doesn't help the pain but does make up for nothing being done which some Resorts do.... He was a very loud man who had been everywhere done everything and knew everything and had everything physically wrong with him. We got all that in the short 20min trip to Ubud.... Lucky Us....

Had our time in town looking around had some drinks, checked out the markets .. pretty quiet to be honest easy to get around and they didn't hassle you as much as they have in the past. Which was a bonus..
John considered hiring a bike could get one for $5 a day pretty good really... but for now we will stick to the shuttle.

We had come across a festival in progress when we first hit town, unreal when they have these festivals all dressed beautifully in the same computed outfits, men, women, children looks so fresh and adds to the celebration.

Had some lunch near the Monkey Forest, saw the monkeys on the street.
Headedback for a rest, a swim and a cocktail then to get ready for the Big Nights entertainment we were booked in for to bring in New Years Eve.

Meet another couple by the poo, who had just moved from Gladstone funny little le world. He works for Santos LNG program she's you guessed it a Nurse ha ha.... he asked what I did and made us laugh when I told him, he said he was being taken over by nurses ...had a good chat about this holiday club always handy to talk with others who are in it as well... learn tricks of the trade from others and like wise from us!

For NY The staff here had gone to so much trouble with the set up, marquee's everywhere very flash white satin Marquee's. Beautiful decorations and lights... so much went into getting it ready... it was a big banquet. Due to my eating issues I didn't participate in the banquet as there was no way I could eat so much food and it was very expensive.
So we got permission to have John do the Banquet and me of the normal menu...
they weren't real keen on this but we won out. As it was I couldn't eat the meal I got...
it was such a shame and we have seen it in so many places we have been. The resorts go to so much trouble to entertain the guests and hardly any participant. All up there was only 10 at the dinner 2 of them were the General Manager and his wife of Karma resorts Asian section, the 2 from Yeppoon . the English Indian and his wife... 2 love birds who kissed all night long must have been there honeymoon, John and I that was it. Very sad to see as there was food ++++!

They had a huge Balinese band of School children who won a competition in Bali and came 1st then went to on to become 3rd in Indonesia.

They were amazing. Especially the youngest little fellow on the drums he made the night!
The littlest guy was on the drums he could play to anything all different drums as well his coordination was unbelievable. But they all did well some being very young they played for 4hrs solid!

They finished the evening with all the staff over 30 for a resort with only 35 rooms heaps of staff... they had a presentation session with the GM... this took us up to 10mins to midnight.
Mind you they made out night none of it was in English. But they had us laughing with all their antics and just how happy they all were ... so good to see such great appreciation for what they had. So all done and with constant I mean constant fire crackers going off all night, John and I headed up to the roof to watch the fireworks and bring in 2017.....

My glory the fireworks from up there were unreal, a total sea as far as the eye could see of fireworks going off constantly... I tired to photograph it but just gave up in the end I couldn't get the right settings to capture it.

A great way to finish off 2016 to see all the colour in the sky. Goodbye 2016 bring on 2017 a new chapter in the CRUICKSHANK book.... in more ways than one!

Retirement, becoming grandies and new adventures to explore!!!!!