A Little Slice of Home Comfort

28th Oct

I had made it to Penang Airport just before 1am and was still shattered and feeling ropey. Then I had one of those moments when you're not sure what's going on but you swear you can hear your name being called randomly. I was by the baggage reclaim belt and I finally turned round after about the 3rd shout to see Jess waiting in arrivals, waving her arms around and shouting "Meeeeeeeegs! Hurry up, I'm totally parked illegally!!" Anyone who has met Jess can just picture this happening; it was priceless. Suffice to say, my case was naturally one of the last to arrive and I then had to queue patiently whilst the locals dawdled in front of me to put their cases through the scanner - I eventually got there!

There was a sort of high-pitched and very huggy reunion and then we made our way over to Jess' car to navigate our way back to hers (she told me that sometimes, the road signs may say they're going a certain way but that's not always the case so the sat nav can get a little confused!)

We caught up and I had the grand tour of casa de Jess but by about 3am we could hardly keep our eyes open so retreated to bed, especially as I had to be up just after 7am for my day ahead of me.

I still didn't feel brilliant but nothing was going to stop me from being super duper excited; even the fact I had to wait over half an hour for a taxi to turn up which made me late. I was off to the Shangri-La Al Rasa Resort on the beach to surprise one of my bestest bud's family; the Griffin clan. I'd found out when I booked the trip that they would be out there at the same time as me and had sworn Rach to secrecy so she couldn't tell them our paths would cross. Then came the planning with James (Rach's brother) to make sure everything was mapped out accordingly! He had booked me in for breakfast but told them all that they had to be awake and ready as he had planned something for the day. Poor Sandra was petrified thinking she was going to be subjected to water sports that terrify her but it was only little old me!

James met me by the lobby and we went up to their floor. I hid in the corner next to the door out of sight whilst he knocked and announced "come on then, let's go." Next thing they knew, I'd jumped out in front of the door shouting "surprise!!" and given them the fright of their lives haha. It was phenomenal and they were just as chuffed to see me as I was to see them. Having been to stay in Sheffield a lot with Rach and after going on holiday with them when I graduated uni, they've always been so welcoming and treated me as their own and I honestly feel like part of the family when I'm with them - I wholeheartedly love them as if they were my own family too! They made my day and we had the best laugh reminiscing about big Al on the holiday, so much in fact that James, Sandra and I were clutching our bellies and I had tears in my eyes.

It was the closest I could get at that point to being with my own family who I was missing so it was just what the doctor ordered. We had a great breakfast (the most food I'd seen in forever!) and they treated me to a beer and a club sandwich after we'd had a dip in the pool and played a few rounds of table tennis in the water to cool down!

They escorted me to the money exchange place down the road as they knew where it was, so I could change up my Vietnamese Dong into Malaysian Ringitt and then we headed back to their hotel. Like any mum, Sandra made me laugh and sent me off with all her remaining toiletries, sun lotions and mosquito repellents which was an absolute god send and would tide me over for the next few places. We then had big hugs and a final farewell before I headed back to see Jess as it was about 6.30pm by that point.

I called myself an Uber and caught up with Jess to see what she had been up to for the day and then we showered and got ready for dinner. We headed to the hawker stalls at Long Beach and bumped into the Griffin clan after they had finished their dinner, they just couldn't escape me! I introduced Jess to them and we chatted a bit before parting our separate ways. We chose a selection of yummy feasts to enjoy including veggie rice, daal with a few roti, samosas and some fried potatoes too, all washed down with a can of jolly lager shandy. After that, it was home to Jess', pjs on and a trashy film on Netflix; perfect!

29th

I was not in a great way on the Saturday morning. I couldn't put my finger on it but it could only have been a couple of things as I was really bloated and in a lot of pain; either the Imodium had done such a fantastic job of stopping me from losing my dignity on the plane that it had in fact reversed itself so there was no movement now at all or the influx of breads and other wheat and dairy products that I'd not really had too much of since I'd started traveling had been having stern words with my digestive system and asking what the hell it was playing at.

Jess took me down the road for breakfast at Let's Meat, a really cutesy and quaint American café just a stones throw away from Alila Horizon. I chose the smoked salmon, avocado, jalapeño and tomato salsa eggs benedict and washed it down with a French vanilla latte - it was absolutely dreamy!

After that, we headed off to Georgetown to do some hunting for the street art that's located on the walls of various buildings (it's what Georgetown is famous for!) and to see the jetty. It was incredible to see the different paintings and steel sculptures and the detailing on all of them was immaculate. What I loved about it most though was that they had set the scene using props like bicycles, chairs and swings to complete the paintings and bring them to life even more.

Where it was hot and humid, we had definitely worked up a sweat and my stomach was still really painful so I was relieved when Jess suggested a stop at China House café where she had a big craving for their lemon and poppy seed cake (it was a bit like Juliets in TWells only there were loads of books you could read, lots of art and people had drawn on paper cups and they were all lined up along the wall). I decided in the digestive state I was in, it would be best to swerve on the cake front so I just got a lemon, ginger and mint tea to see if it would help. What made me most excited was that each table had crayons on so you could draw on the tablecloth - it reminded me of going to Dillingers in Bromley when I was a kid! It was very relaxing too so I drew a Christmas tree and a pumpkin whilst Jess devoured her lemon mint drink and cake.

Back at Jess' place we managed to catch about 45 mins of sun lounging by the pool before we had to be back in the flat and getting ready to go out for the evening.

I can't tell you how nice it was to dress up properly and Jess had sorted out some face masks as prep - mine was Ironman haha!

I had my little black dress with me, Jess leant me a pair of her Miss KG heels and her Urban Decay palette so I could do my eyes and then I pinned all my hair up and applied the rest of my makeup using my usual bag of tricks; it felt great!

Tom was hosting the pre-drinks at his so we headed to the apartment block next door where I met Beth on the way. Jess had forgotten the hummus so headed back and I carried on with Beth which completely confused Tom when he arrived as he was like "how do you guys know each other and where's Jess?!" We did our introductions and the two of them told me I looked too glamourous to be a backpacker which made me feel even more fabulous than I had just putting on some makeup and heels!

Ash had dropped Beth off as it was raining and he arrived shortly after Jess so we all sat down and enjoyed the nibbles Tom had put on (bread and pittas with olives, home-made guacamole and a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dip) along with gin and tonics. They were all so friendly and welcoming and we had a laugh, especially as Jess was pissed on one G&T! It transpired that Tom was from Bexhill and did a short stint at Skinners for 6th form and his brother is going out with one of the identical twins that had been in my year for 6th form at TOGS; talk about a small world!!

Beth took a few photos of Jess and I on the balcony (we'd been stuffing our faces with cookies at this point and Jess had consumed even more G&T's and wine so was hysterical (I only posted one of these on Insta and FB but seeing as I'm blogging about it I'm going to include the rest as I think they just about sum it up!)

The first stop was the rooftop bar at the G Hotel after that where they served yummy pomegranate mojitos and the others had the unlimited hour of wine (I couldn't stomach the thought of that!) Whilst there, we bumped into another teacher the gang works with and his wife on a date night (Sarah and Adam). They joined us for some drinks and I got chatting to them about travelling and them moving abroad. It transpired they lived in Buxted before moving to Penang which isn't too far from me and Sarah grew up in Crowborough so we all sat and talked about Tunbridge Wells and the Pantiles; the world at this point was getting even smaller! Ash had really enjoyed himself chugging down the red wine, so much so in fact that he ended up going home early with Sarah and Adam in their taxi!

Beth, Jess, Tom and I got an Uber to Georgetown for a drink in China House listening to the jazz (we also stole some of Tom's tiramisu cake) before heading to the Halloween themed bar next door with a live band. I'd already spent quite a bit that day so only had a virgin mojito to keep the costs down whilst the others carried on! We stayed there dancing and singing along with the band until we got to the point where we were all hot and sweaty and ready for some food.

When it's the early hours of the morning, there's only one thing for it; McDonalds drive-thru! Luckily our Uber driver Keith was a good egg and had no problem taking us. He was really chatty and was telling us all about his motorbike and the tours he does so Beth was then talking about Ash and his bike that he would be getting soon so Keith passed on his details so Ash could go on a tour with him too. The rest of the journey was hilarious with a drunk Jess and Tom and Jess even called Keith Dad at one point which made me laugh out loud! In her despair at the error she was then repeatedly saying to us "but I don't even call my own dad, dad. Now I've called the Uber guy Dad." The lady taking the order from me at Maccys sadly didn't have the highest command of the English language so we were sat there for quite a while trying to order but the food finally arrived! Tom couldn't wait and devoured his burger, chips and half of Beth's chips despite protests from the rest of us to be careful not to ruin Uber Keith's nice car! Jess and I ate ours when we got back and although it was now only lukewarm, it was still just what the doctor ordered before heading off to bed!

30th

I woke up to the sound of a very chirpy and annoyingly not hungover Jess singing and dancing around the living room to Michael Jackson at about half 8/9 in the morning. She's a poppet though and came in with a nice smoothie for me, which I enjoyed in the egg cup chair on the balcony, although I was in lots of pain and was really bloated so felt like shit.

We got up and dressed with our beach stuff ready and met Beth, Ash and Tom in Georgetown for breakfast at the Black Kettle although by the time we got there, it was technically brunch/an early lunch! I had the chicken burrito and chips with herbs and a cappuccino hoping it would perk me up a little bit although I couldn't finish the chips as I was too full!

The others had forgotten their beach gear so went back to Alila to pick it up and the aim was to meet them at the beach. All was going swimmingly until the heavens opened and one of the most torrential downpours ever was hammering against the car. It was so bad at one point that we almost hydroplaned so we got in touch with the others and made the call to turn around and head back to the flat.

From then on, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful with the afternoon spent chilling at the flat watching trash, meeting Tom and going to the food court for mango rice which was only 5 ringgit (bargain - only a quid!) and then went back to the flat and watched more trash before going to bed.

31st

I was up early and excited about the day ahead as I was meeting Sarah and Alba at 9am to go to the Butterfly Farm with them. Everyone who knows me knows how much of an obsession I have with butterflies so it was right up my street!

Spookily, on the way there in the car as we were just about to arrive, A Thousand Years by Christina Perri came on which was one of the songs we had at Dad's funeral that I hadn't heard for absolutely aaaaages. When we got into the butterfly farm, there was an area called David's Garden and whilst I was walking around it, a huge butterfly landed on my shoulder. Call it what you will and I know many sceptics would rightly think I'm chatting absolute cobblers but to me it was all a little too close to home and coincidental making me feel like he was literally there with me, although the psychic I see at home tells me there's no such thing as a coincidence...

The butterflies were simply stunning and it was so peaceful watching them fly around; it felt like paradise to me. Alba was loving it and got really excited seeing all the other bugs and creepy crawlies like the scorpions, frogs, beetles, worms and millipedes.

On the way back to Alila, we stopped at Starbucks at Batu Ferringhi which was on the beach. I had a nice iced latte and sat next to Alba to look at a book and she was pointing at all the things I mentioned and showing me her favourites out of the options on each page. When she'd finished her sandwich, we headed out to the beach, using our iced latte cups as buckets to make sandcastles and collect the water. It was such a lovely day!

Once I got back to Jess' I headed down to the parade of shops where Let's Meat and the food court is but as both were shut, I ended up in Annabelle's Restaurant which was essentially a really twee British style restaurant which served afternoon tea, cream tea, cakes and a small selection of main meals. I went for the chicken with fettuccine and lemon iced tea which turned up in a boot, it was great!

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool and as Jess was at box fit after school and wasn't coming home until late, I went to the food court and got myself a yummy chicken burrito and an iced milo; delish!

After heading back, I just curled up on the sofa and watched another trashy movie on Plex.

1st

I'd been wide awake when I got into bed which had a detrimental effect on me waking up as I didn't get up until later. The sun was thankfully out again so I spent my day by the pool soaking up the rays as much as I could! When the evening started to creep up on me and the sunshine had gone into hiding again, I traipsed upstairs to get showered and ready to go out for dinner.

When Jess came home, we met Tom and she drove us all down to Miami Beach which isn't too far from the Shangri-La. Although it wasn't much to see from a restaurant perspective as there were about 4 or 5 plastic tables with plastic chairs, it was situated on the beach so it was stunning. On top of that, the food was great and I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken curry and roti washed down with a white Tiger beer; hadn't had one of those before, only the regular Tiger. The three of us fancied milkshakes to take away but sadly they didn't have any takeaway cups so we settled for ice creams instead and I absolutely devoured a chocolate cornetto!

Once we got back, I got changed into my slouchy pjs to make the fullness feel a bit more comfy and Jess and I resumed our sofa positions and watched a trashy film on Plex.

2nd

At about 10 to 8 in the morning, I heard movement in the flat and wondered what was happening as Jess had mentioned Amy her cleaner arrives at 9ish so I didn't expect to see her. When the hoover went on, I knew it was definitely her and had heard her briefly open the door to my room and shut it again in a hurry. I opened the door and went to find her and introduce myself and she appeared surprised to see me until I explained I was a friend of Jess' staying for a couple of weeks.

Luckily, I had to be up early again anyway and ready for another day out with Sarah! She had to get a few frames sorted for some photos so drove us over to Georgetown. Once that was arranged, we made our way into town and made a pitstop at a cute little café called Mug Shot for a cappuccino. Next door was a bakery that Sarah got her cinnamon swirl from but given the state of my tummy still being bloated and painful, I decided pastry probably wouldn't help although I could have happily sat my face in the tray of pain au chocolat and cakes! We wandered around having a look at some of the street art, galleries and souvenir shops and after visiting the jetty, we walked to little India and continued past it to have lunch at Yeap Noodles which was so yummy! I chose the chicken curry noodles, spring rolls and lemon juice but couldn't eat it all so let Sarah try some of the spring rolls too.

Afterwards, we travelled back to Alila so Sarah would be back in time to get Alba and I spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool until I had to get ready as Jess had gone bowling with the school lot and was due back at about 5.30/6.

Now I'm not usually one to get hangry or even remotely starving but I was absolutely RAVENOUS by about 6.30. Jess had got held up and I was just about to leave her flat at 7.30 to go to the food court nearby as I was starving but she walked through the door; absolute result!!

She drove us to the Hillside Restaurant where she occasionally goes for a Sunday roast. I loved it! The inside was minimalistic with log displays, comfy sofas at the front and colourful paintings on the wall but it had a certain British feel that made it homely and welcoming. I ordered myself a peach iced tea and had a chicken caesar wrap with chips which was really filling. Jess booked us in for Sunday lunch where they had beef on the menu and we then headed back to hers and watched a film.

3rd

I woke up and mosied on down to the pool for the day but had to wait for the sun to come up over the apartments at 12.30pm. Once it did come out though, it was happily an absolute scorcher and I spent my time back and forth between the pool and sun lounger. Irritatingly, the weather took a turn and was really overcast with thick black cloud so I went back in after a while thinking it would rain again. Typically, after showering and dressing, the sun was glorious again and out even more than it had been in the morning but by that point, I wasn't going to go back out again; was so annoying!

Jess wasn't going to be getting in until later and had decided to have hummus for dinner so I walked down to the food court just as the heavens started to open. Luckily I had my poncho on me otherwise I would have been soaked through to the bone! Jess had recommended the Taco rice which although it said it was a Japanese speciality (maybe it's the way they do the pork!) it was ultimately a naked burrito. Saving myself the faff of knowing what to have for lunch the following day, I walked over to the Mexican stall and ordered myself the beef burrito to takeaway.

It was a relief to get back to Jess' and out of the rain and I sat and watched a film and caught up with Jess when she got back before heading to bed later on.

4th

I overslept again where I'd been wide awake in the early hours unable to get to sleep. Opening the curtains made me want to crawl straight back into bed so I didn't have any rush moving about as I certainly wasn't going to get the chance to lay by the pool.

I happily devoured the beef burrito I'd bought myself the day before at lunchtime and watched Bad Moms as I'd been intrigued about it since seeing the trailer.

After some serious relaxing, I got showered and dressed and started prepping everything in the kitchen from about 5ish as I was cooking a two-course for Jess, Beth, Tom and I.

To start with, I did a baked Camembert with a twist; I'd seen the recipe on Facebook when I was in Vietnam and it had made me hungry for Camembert since! It was simple, you fried up white onion with lardons (we just had smoked bacon that I chopped into small pieces) and I also chopped up 4 cloves of garlic and added them in as an addition. Whilst you're doing that, boil a whole potato so you can slice it into pieces.

Hilariously, the potato was huge so I had to cut it into 4 so it would boil in the pan Jess had. You then split the Camembert in half so it looks more like a burger and top one half with the onion, bacon and garlic mixture and lay the slices of potato flat on top, positioning the other half of the Camembert on top like a lid. Next I put it on the puff pastry and wrapped it up like a parcel. They recommend egg yolk and a sprinkling of poppyseeds on top but weirdly the eggs we had turned out to be a Japanese snack and were already sort of cooked and we couldn't get the poppyseeds so I used olive oil instead. After that, it was complete so I shoved it in the oven for 25 mins at 180 degrees.

Beth turned up bearing edible gifts of the cheesecake and espresso ice cream variety with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough; girl after my own heart <3

No-one had heard from Tom and they couldn't get hold of him either so we just cracked on with the starter which I have to say was incredible even though we were massively committing carbocide! We left a quarter for Tom and I started to throw all the ingredients for the risotto into the oven dish and the girls gave up waiting for him, pretty much demolishing his part and leaving me with some crumbs to hoover up! I'd already cooked up the bacon and onions so just needed to mix the cream of asparagus soup with the stock (couldn't get veggie here so used a chicken one instead) and put it on the boil in the hope it would speed the process up a little!

Once it was boiling, I poured as much as I could fit in the dish over the risotto rice, mixed it all in and covered it with foil, chucking it in the oven to cook. After about 15 mins, I added the remainder of the stock and soup, mixed it again and put it back into the oven with the chicken, bacon and onions in it, topped with asparagus and halved cherry tomatoes. Another 15/20 minutes uncovered this time and it was ready to be served!

Later on at about 9.30pm a rather drunken Tom turned up! It transpired that he had dropped Andy home and been invited in to say hello to Jen and he ended up leaving a couple of bottles of wine later haha! Luckily there was plenty of risotto left and despite it being enough to feed two or three people, he absolutely annihilated it.

We polished off our second bottle of Fat Bird Sauv Blanc and Jess cracked open a bottle of prosecco before we jumped in for a few rounds of Heads Up. When you've all been drinking, turns out this game can be really hysterical and we certainly had a lot of laughs trying to work things out for the different categories. The last category we did was the hey DJ one where you can hum, whistle or sing the words to the song without singing the name. Try telling that to a bunch of people who are giggly, had too many vinos and are singing like it's the final hour in a karaoke bar; absolutely priceless. Beth and Tom didn't leave until after Midnight and Jess and I were rather wide awake so we're still up chatting and giggling until the early hours!

5th

We leisurely got up and headed to Let's Meat by 11 for breakfast with Beth. I could see why this place was popular but it's a shame it only opened from 7am-11.30am as having lunch there would have been great too! Not one to change the habit of a lifetime in the ordering stakes for that place, I chose the avocado, tomato and spinach eggs benedict with a French vanilla latte which was delightful.

Jess and I then headed back to the flat and chilled for a bit before going out to see Penang Hill in the afternoon. Ironically, it wasn't quite the uneventful afternoon we'd been expecting. After plugging Penang Hill in the sat nav on Jess' phone, we found ourselves in the middle of what looked like the entrance to the botanical gardens with loads of monkeys wandering around and a sign that said Jeep to the top of the hill. We didn't want to pay for a Jeep as I'd only heard of the cable car. Jess on the other hand was completely game for a walk but when they mentioned it would take about 3 or 4 hours I was relieved that we couldn't as it would make us late for our girls night out!

We wandered back to the car and put something else in the sat nav and thankfully it got us there in the end! Only problem was, by this point, time had moved swiftly on and where the queue was taking forever, it didn't leave us much time before we had to be back down again to get ready to go out. Luckily there wasn't loads to see but we managed to get photos of the view, wander around and even fit in a coconut ice cream; I had mine topped with peanuts too!

Thankfully the queue to head back down was much shorter so it didn't take even half the time, yet we were still going to be tight to get back, get showered and ready and meet the others. We let Beth know we were running behind schedule and it was a bit of a mad dash but we both managed to get showered and presentable in about 40 mins; I even treated my hair to a blow-dry and straighteners and borrowed a pair of Jess's heels thrown in for good measure - it was so nice to feel very feminine again and all dressed up for a girls night out!

We met Beth and she drove us to Ferringhi Garden which is one of Penang's more upmarket but not stupidly expensive restaurants and it was gorgeous, like being in a botanical garden with all the orchids and plants decorating the outside. We then met the girls (Angélica, Jen and Emily) who were all really lovely and ordered some food and drink. We had a bottle of the house white, shared some spring rolls, a bread basket with dips and a portobello mushroom dish and I had a tenderloin steak with chips for my main which came with a beetroot topped sauce and some veg - it was absolutely glorious!

After a lovely girly evening and lots of chatting and eating, we headed back to the flat to bed.

6th

Jess and Beth had been discussing a morning market and I was really keen to go but overslept so missed it and Beth got tied up elsewhere so couldn't go in the end either! I got up, had some breakfast and was showered and ready when Jess reappeared. We'd really wanted to go to the beach for the day but sadly the weather was against us again so it wasn't possible. Beth invited us over to hers instead as we had been telling her she had to watch About Time as she hadn't seen it. Jess turned up with a bag of fruit from the market but sadly not the peaches she needed for her play! She did however have mango and dragon fruit so we took that with us to Beth's, along with my iPad so we could watch the film. When we got there, Beth had also got scones with jam so we had a little feast along with a nice cuppa and watched About Time.

Jess and I were booked in for a roast with Tom so we had to leave before the film was finished but it wasn't an issue as we had plenty of time to watch it later and more to the point; I was starving! Tom picked us up and drove us over to Hillside Restaurant, parking in front of the pet shop with dogs running around. He wanted to go in before but I persuaded him against it as I was starting to get seriously hungry and knew it would be ages before we got our food if we went in there and then had to order and wait for it!! I had a refreshing lemon iced tea (was trying to keep the costs down otherwise I would have gone for a beer or a glass of wine!) and the beef roast which was incredible and hit the spot completely; was just what we needed.

I didn't need any more food but let myself get carried away and walked over to the dessert fridge with Tom to see what was there - I desperately wanted the red velvet cake as I love that stuff but they didn't have any left. Any normal person would probably think ok, stop there but I agreed with Tom that we could split the apple pie and ice cream and the chocolate brownie and ice cream. Both were really good but by the end, I had to lay on my chair partially horizontal as I was so full up I could barely move; well worth it though for that food!

Afterwards, we popped into the pet store to have a look around and there was a corgi pup bouncing about which tried to eat my flip flops when we went in; it was super cute. There were loads of other puppies in there too; boxers, a Labrador, husky pups, poodles, Pomeranian pups, chihuahuas and some other mixed breeds too. It made me sad as some of them were too skinny and looked a bit unkempt and in need of a bath where they had muck on them from being sat in the cage. Luckily in the UK, the vast majority breed dogs in the correct way so it doesn't have to be like this; it was heartbreaking leaving them all.

We headed back to the flat and Jess and I spent some time by the pool, ensconced in our food comas which led to a cheeky little afternoon nap on the sun lounger. We weren't really in the mood for dinner that night as we had eaten so much but when Jess went to get petrol, she bought us a starbar each, chocolate stuffed Oreos, peanut butter and chocolate stuffed Oreos and Chips & More cookies. I washed them all down with a Moroccan Mint tea whilst we watched the end of About Time which naturally resulted in me blubbing and clutching at the tissues before heading to bed.

7th

I was wide awake again going to bed (this time all the sugar may not have helped!) and there was a storm going on outside too with lightning and torrential rain so I didn't get to sleep until gone 2am. When I woke up the weather was still rubbish and I'd really hoped it would be better because of the storm; no such luck! I waited around at the flat for a few hours looking up bits in Bali and things to do in Penang online to see if there would be any change and I could lay by the pool. Eventually, I gave up and went and got showered and dressed and got myself an Uber to Gurney Plaza so I could get some money out, exchange some into Indonesian Rupiah for my next trip and pick a few bits up from Cold Storage supermarket.

I went down into the food court area and finally tried an Assam Laksa, one of the famous Penang dishes. It had loads of flavour but was spicy with lots of red and green chillies in it, plus the seeds too! I think even the guy who served it to me was having a bit of a laugh as he came over smiling with a wad of tissues saying "you'll probably want these!"

I needed to find some wifi as there wasn't any wandering around the mall so I headed to McDonalds and treated myself to a vanilla and Hershey's chocolate cone which cost about 50p - absolutely delightful and cooled down my tingling mouth!

After wandering around the mall a bit, I hit the supermarket and picked up a birthday card and some thank you treats for Jess (predominantly Milo related as she loves the stuff!) and some zip lock freezer bags so I could roll and condense my packing even more. It also helps as you know where each item is then too!

It was about 6ish by this point so I ordered an Uber and got the driver to drop me off at the food court near Alila so I could get a taco rice to take away and a beef burrito for Jess to take to school the following day for lunch.

I wasn't expecting to see her when I walked in as she was due to leave for box fit at about 6.30 so made a dash to my room to stash her goodies and then went to see her having a little lounge on the bed where she didn't quite want to move! She slowly got herself psyched to go and I sat in the living room eating my dinner and Skyped Grandma and Gramps for an hour or so which was really lovely; they do make me laugh! I also managed to get hold of Clare on FaceTime and she gave me the grand tour of her new house :)

When Jess returned, we sat and chatted and put some background noise on but didn't stay up too late, heading to bed ready to get up the following day!

8th

The sun had come out again so I got to soak up the rays by the pool for the day although it was rather cloudy for the whole day.

(Nice little garlic butter chicken salad for lunch!)

At about 4.30pm, I went back upstairs to get ready to see Jess and go out. Let's Meat had started opening on the occasional Tuesday night so Jess and I had decided to meet there after she finished school for the pasta night. It was a great deal, pasta, salad and a drink for 20 ringgit (about £4) and it was delicious!

The options were chicken pesto spaghetti or bacon and mushroom spaghetti in a white sauce. Neither of us could decide so we ordered both and shared them, washing it down with an ice cold ginger ale! Jess had been eyeing up the chocolate ganache cake too which looked sickly sweet and decadent but really yummy so she ordered a slice and I helped her out with a few mouthfuls!

When we finished, we ventured down the road to get some cash out from the ATM. As we were getting back into the car, I noticed how noisy the birds were in the trees next to us and mentioned it to Jess, telling her I was going to get in the car pretty quickly just in case. Her response was hysterical (even funnier given the Burtonian accent) "they can just fook off. If they shit on me, I'm gonna shit on them." I jumped quickly into the car and turned round to hear a little yelp from Jess "it's shit on me". By that point, I couldn't contain myself and was in tears laughing; not the most sympathetic mate at this point! I told her it was karma for saying what she said and handed her my last tissue so she could wipe her neck.

I was still laughing about it when we got to Green Farm the organic supermarket so Jess could pick up some salad and I could get a bottle of water to take with me to the airport. This however, was short-lived as the car wouldn't start when we jumped back in. Jess spoke to Ash who told her that Andy and Jen had some jump leads and she also spoke to Adam in the meantime too. Luckily for us, Andy and Jen were close by as they'd just had dinner up the road so they came to rescue us and luckily it worked and we were able to get back to the flat!

Poor Jess had endured quite a saga that evening with the bird situation and then the car battery being flat so I decided there was only one thing for it; tea, loads of biscuits and Bridget Jones' Diary so our lives didn't feel quite so complex!

9th

Amy turned up at before 8 again and was buzzing around with the hoover; not quite the wake up call you'd hope for! I'd woken up at 4.30 in the morning so had checked to see if there were any Uber or Grab taxis in the area to try and work out if I'd be able to get one the following day to the airport but it was not looking hopeful. When I got out of bed, I went and found Amy as she had mentioned to Jess that her sister-in-law would be able to take me so I needed to accept her offer!

I got dressed and ready to head to Gurney Paragon mall where Jess had booked me in for a leg and bikini wax. Boy, was my day about to get interesting! I turned up and was introduced to Kate my therapist who looked really sweet, filled in my details on a form and then she escorted me into a colourful room that looked a bit like I'd exploded onto the set of Austin Powers with all the florals and colours. She then handed me a wipe to use on myself and asked me to remove my underwear. Rookie mistake number 1; I'd worn my playsuit which left me laying on the treatment bed in just a bra with a towel to cover my modesty. I mean thank god it was a nice bra at least rather than a crummy old one that's falling apart; at this point it was my only saving grace.

In waltzed Kate, the latex gloves were out and before I knew it, she was wiping down my nether regions and applying the chocolate wax. I don't know what the difference is with the wax they use but it was actually less painful than the ones at home. By the time she'd finished, I definitely knew why it was termed intimate waxing and had been in need of stifling the giggles on a few occasions where she was basically face and fingers in my foof to inspect that the hairs had been removed, even using tweezers to catch the odd few in places that had previously not met tweezers before! I was relieved that violation was over and could only describe it as being able to sympathise with a plucked chicken! Overall though, no complaints as she'd ensured I was primed ready for the beach in Bali!

Similarly to Gurney Plaza, there was no wifi at Gurney Paragon so I needed to stop somewhere in order to get some. The weather was awful anyway so I treated myself to a Starbucks; even more excitingly they had a Christmas tree and the Christmas drinks so I chose the toffee nut crunch latte but sadly there were no festive cups.

As I was in no mad rush, I sat and messaged the hostel I'd booked into for the first two nights in Bali to organise an airport pick-up as I'd seen on the reviews that taxis often struggled to find it but I didn't hear back so wasn't sure if they'd received it.

When I'd finished my latte, I ordered an Uber to head back to Jess'. I'd accidentally told the driver it was Gurney Plaza though so I had to message him where I had no wifi and get him to come back to Gurney Paragon!

The afternoon was then spent packing and making sure I had everything ready for my early morning flight. Jess came back after school and we both got ready to go and meet Sarah, Tom, Beth and Ash for the last supper at Gurney Drive hawkers! Jess and I shared some dishes which were nice but I don't think it was as good as the hawkers at Long Beach.

We all had a hankering for something sweet afterwards so walked across to Gurney Plaza food court to get frozen yoghurt for dessert. I had mine with smashed up lotus biscuit pieces and lotus biscuit sauce. It was incredibly sickly but so good! I did however get to the point of no return so the appointed food hoover (Tom) finished it up for me!

Following that, I said goodbye to everyone and we got back to the flat where I could sort the last-minute bits before I had to set my alarm for 4.30am and head to bed. Although I was nervous as it would be the first place I was going and doing it proper back-packer style in hostels, I was really excited as so many people had told me how much I'd love it in Bali.

Quote for the day from Jack Kerouac: "Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent in the office or mowing the lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain."

Ciao for now xxx