Birthdays and Bike Rides

Amanda turns 25

This month of March has been a very busy one, full of good things and good people.  On March 4th our Wednesday bible study celebrated Amanda's 25th birthday with her.  Amanda is one of my most loyal 'local' readers and she keeps me encouraged to continue to always write about my time here in Indonesia, both good and bad. Soon Amanda will be a far-away reader as she and her husband head back to the US, and even the thought brings me to tears.  However, as I have learned, even when we are far from friends, they still remain friends.

The March 4th weekend was a busy one, as we had Stacey 'pop over' for a visit from Thailand.  She and her husband were on a working tour, and so Stacey took the opportunity to come and check out our place for a day.  She arrived the eve of March 5 and returned the afternoon of March 7.  In between, on the Sunday, we celebrated Stacey's birthday of March 6 by packing our day full of exercise, food and shopping, all within the confines of Lippo Village.

Stacey comes for a 41 hour visit

Stacey and my Sunday started early, when we strapped on our backpacks and water bottles and rode out into the rice fields behind our home.  Earlier in the week the rains had refused to leave and so I had been praying that my ONE day with Stacey would be pleasant.  Sure enough, the skies were brilliant blue and the clouds puffy white. 

blue skies, white clouds, rice fields to the left  

a farmer's transport

rice ready to be planted

banana tree

papaya tree

Stacey in the 'jungle'

These are photos of a few of the things we saw, mostly fruit, grasses and rice.  The variations of green along the path are incredible and I don't think the camera even did them justice.

 After our bike ride, Stacey and I headed to Royal Beauty for a cream bath and foot massage.  We returned home, at dinner, sang Happy Birthday (of course!) and then headed to the mall for some souvenir shopping.  Later we realized that probably we should have done the shopping and then the massages, because going to the mall on Sunday evening is something I would do to my children as a form of punishment.

Even though Stacey was here for a short time, we had an excellent visit and we were able to catch up on a lot of the 'local'  news from our home town.  I know that there is skype, facebook, email and snail mail, but there's just something wonderful about sitting face to face with a good friend and having a really good chat.

As for my trip to Singapore this month, please click on the "Simply Celiac" link at the right, or click here.

Thanks for reading!