Singapore Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all from beautiful Bali, Indonesia where we are spending a sunny and warm Thanksgiving at the beach!!We flew in yesterday morning-- spent the day at the pool and walking along the beach. We are at a huge Indonesian resort right on the beach.

Last evening we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, all the fixins and even pumpkin soup-- but no pumpkin pie for Sean-- too bad!!

We spent today visiting several Bailinese artist communities, and the local markets. Midday, we drove up to the volcano area and ate lunch a stone's throw away from the second largest volcano on the island. it last erupted in 1965-- the lava fields are still clearly visible all the way down the volcano. It is amazing that the rainforest hasn't overtaken the area after so many years.

We drove back to the hotel by way of the terraced rice fields. They are everywhere and so beautiful. We watched a young artist painting some rice field scenes and couldn't resist purchasing two of his paintings. Shopping at the markets is a blast-- so much to see. Even the kids have gotten into the shopping swing of things here.

Shannon is in cat heaven. There are hundreds of stores that only sell wooden cats-- every color, every size, every design of cat you can imagine. We had to take pictures of a few of the stores so we can show you all just how many cats!!Shannon loves spending her money here-- she bought one cat for 25,000 Rupiah-- that's a whopping $2.50 US. She loves walking around carrying 100,000 Rupiah in her pocket--feels like a whole lot more than $10 to her-- and it does go a whole lot further than ten dollars would in the States!!

Connor spent his time in the video stores where he enjoys bargaining for DVD's and CD's while Caitlin spent her time in the jewelry and purse stores. Sean bought some beautiful dragon kites-- but so beautiful they won't actually get used as kites. We plan to hang them on the walls of the family room in Singapore.

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We do miss spending the holidays with family but we are having a great adventure here. Tomorrow we are off to see the Balinese Temples and maybe a few more rice fields. In the evening we are going to a native Balinese dinner and cultural show at a beautiful outdoor theater.

We stay till early evening on Sunday and then it is back to Singapore.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Sending our love-- The Singapore Murrays

Thanksgiving Day - 2006
We had a wonderful day her in New Hampshire. It was a bit wet on Thursday but since then we've had blue skies and sunshine.
Fairly relaxing - although a mixture of soccer games (indoor) and horse stuff (riding and mucking) have kept the girls busy.
Today, Sunday, Annie is riding (!) in the woods with Erin, Sheila is working on a school assingment (!) and I'm readying for a post-turkey leftovers grocery store fun :-(
Here's a few shots we captured from Thursday.
Cheers! Martin

11/26/06 our Skype conversation today with brendan inspired me to create this masterpiece!

sheila a. murray

I can ride for miles and miles

Well...not as far as Biker Mike, but not too shabby for me.

My goal this year was to get 2,000 miles in on the road bike. it should have been fairly easy, considering all the free time i have. however, it wasn't until 2 weekends ago that i passed the mile marker.

I'm not sure it the bike will be put away for the winter or not. one never knows here in VA. it will be 60 and sunny one day and 40's and wet, the next.

I hope you're getting your miles in by whatever means necessary.

bjm

Stick with what works

The Blueman has worked for me in the past but i think it's now time to say good-bye. Although the ladies seem to love him, he didn't look the same this year. bjm