Bali

Made a trip to Bali for a few days around August 2019 when James came to visit. This was my 2nd time in Bali but this time I spent much longer on the island and the days were centred around surfing all day and trying out different restaurants at night. Didn't manage to do any nature walks or trips to the mountains this time because we wanted to spend most of the day surfing and by the time we were done it was close to sunset and time for dinner. Some of the places we went to:

Ku De Ta 

The first night we arrived we had dinner at Ku De Ta which was in Seminyak itself and not too far from the hotel. They had an infinity pool overlooking the beach and huge plush bean bags and side tables with heated lamps next to it. Probably one of my favourite restaurants in Bali because it had such a chilled out vibe to it. The had music playing but not loud enough that it felt like you were at a club. I had the best lamb and olive pizza with mediterreanean dips.

Potatohead Beach Club 

The second night we had dinner at the Potatohead beach club which is probably the most elaborate restaurant set-up I have ever been to in my life. Its about 4 different restaurants in a dome shaped building with an infinity pool in the centre. The food here was so good, we had ayam berempah and terung belado with sambal belacan. I still get cravings for terung belado now. It gets quite cool at night and much less humid whereas its scorching hot in the day with so much humidity.

Finn's beach club 

Finn's was probably my least favourite of all the places we went to. Very much more of a club-vibe. People were literally bouncing of the walls and they had the music blasting. Food was really nice though, and they had everything from pizza and pasta to sushi. Would have definitely appreciated this place more when I was younger. I'm too old for the rave life now.

Motel Mexicola 


This was one of the best restaurants I've ever been to in my life! If you're ever in Bali you have to come here! It's based in Seminyak which was not far from our hotel. The food here was to die for. They serve tapas and there's so many options to choose from, but between the 2 of us we finished about 6 plates. We ordered the calamares, taco de pollo, empanadas, quessadillas and a few other tacos that I can't remember now. Everything was so good! Slightly dissapointed that we only came here for the last night because I probably would have gone here twice if I had known how good the food was going to be. It had the most beautiful art deco walls meet Coco furniture, tiki lamps outside, and overall very 60s glam but with tropical fluorescent lights. This was definitely one of the highlights of Bali.

One of my favourite holiday spots and definitely affordable if you plan ahead. Bali, we'll be back!

March Update!

In the last 10 days since I blogged about social distancing things have changed drastically all over the world. Malaysia now has 30 deaths and the restricted movement order has been extended for another 14 days. In the UK, Boris Johnson, Prince Charles and there are now 1,408 deaths when it was just 1,019 yesterday. Spain has 7,340 deaths and there are 35,000 deaths globally. We are still quarantining at home most of the time with the exception of a state allowed run to a nearby park every other day.

I'm facetiming home regularly where everyone seems to be much more panicked then I am here. Absolutely no going out in KL, the army has been deployed and people are sunning/ bathing their grocceries in dettol after buying them. I don't even have a facemask here since the guidance has been you only need a mask if you have symptoms or are sick. When we went to Sainsbury's there were little markers to show how far apart you had to stand from each other and only a certain amount of people were allowed in the shops everyday. The shops in Leeds aren't as well-stocked as they usually are because of panic buying so it feels a bit dystopian going in and half the shelves are empty.

It's a really strange time in the world. People are losing their jobs, businesses are tethering on bankruptcy, hospitals are over-loaded and are at capacity. The Home Minister of Malaysia released a statement that all Malaysians should return before all commercial flights are cancelled. I was quite sure that I wanted to stay here until the crisis was over but now I'm not completely sure if that's the right thing to do because they're saying it may last longer than 6 months.

Everyday Living 

Apart from that, I started Couch to 5K and i'm on Week 4 right now. So far it's going good and I feel like I'm actually enjoying running for once. It's quite easy to follow the podcast because it tells you when to run when to jog, how much further you have. Can't wait to finish the programme and be able to do 30 minutes without stopping. On the off days we do hiit workouts at home, surprisingly the lockdown is when I've done the most exercise in my entire life!

I've been baking alot more too! So far I've made pancakes, brownies, chocolate chip cookies and next on the list is a burnt cheesecake once I manage to get all the ingredients. Ordered a paint by numbers kit but it's going to take a few weeks to arrive. Quite excited to try something new! I think sometimes I actively avoid things that take too much effort. But spending time on things that have nothing to show for it feels a little empty.. like endless surfing or scrolling.

James and I have been playing this board game called Pandemic which is apt with whats going on right now. The premise of the game is that you need to solve objectives for each round based on 4 diseases that have broken out in the world. You have different roles like quarantine scientist, researcher, medics, dispatch. It takes about an hour to play a game and we got the legacy version so we have 12 months to complete.

Stay safe everyone! X 

Les 3 Vallées

After Christmas and over New Years this year I went skiing for the first time. We had a chalet in Les 3 Vallées in France which is also the largest ski area in the world. I was super excited because I've never gone skiing before, my family had gone skiing without me in South Korea a couple years earlier and I always felt that I really missed out on that trip. The journey there took a whole day because we had to get from Leeds to London and then get the Eurostar to Paris central station and then an internal Paris metro to get to another station to catch the connecting train to the Alps. It was such a journey and James and I wanted to try French McD's whilst waiting for the connecting train which took so long that we almost missed the train and didn't even manage to find the McD's. Paris was having strikes at the time so the Metro wasn't running properly and there was so much traffic because they had closed roads for the strike. It was pure chaos getting to the Alps. Once we got off the last train we got in a mini-van which took us up the mountain and this took almost 2 hours. Then we didn't know how to get the keys to get into the chalet and we were struggling with the passcode until this Russian group opened the (safe?) which had the keys. Got to the chalet and the air was so thin that I struggled to breathe a little bit. 

Day One 

The chalet is midway up a hill so to get down to the base of the mountain you need to ski down a blue. The difficulty of the slopes started off with easy greens, blues, reds, and blacks which were the hardest. That first day I could barely manage to stand on the slopes long with skis. Skiing down was a nightmare. Looking back I must have been awful to teach, I cried so many times and had multiple breakdowns. Skiing is honestly so difficult when you're first starting out. And I felt like I was slowing everyone down since everyone else in the group had been skiing for years. James was so patient throughout my many fits but when we got back he said I definitely needed private ski lessons tomorrow.  Skiied back up to the chalet and went down this monstrous slope called Purdue which is a green but for some reason incredibly hard. I just kept falling and basically rolled down the mountain. I fell down so many times and when we got back I couldn't get my ski boots off and cried about that on the stairs before going in the chalet. Got in the shower and realised I had massive bruises all over my hips and red welts on my back where the snow had rubbed up against when I fell. Took pictures to send to the family group and they said it was normal. If I'm struggling this much I have no idea how they managed South Korea. 

Day Two 

Had my first ski lesson today which was so much better than day one because we practiced on an easier slope. My ski teacher was this really chilled out guy who brought me down some easy greens that were Frozen themed. Learned how to snow plough, how to stop, how to balance on one leg, how to turn. Honestly ski lessons made learning so much easier. Came back and had lunch at this burger restaurant that took about 2.5 hours (not exaggerating!) to get our orders out because it was peak ski season and many of their staff had ski injuries and were off work. Skiied back up to the chalet and went down yesterday's Purdue. Fell down alot still but not as bad as the first day. 

Day Three 

Last day of 2019! Didn't have any ski lessons today but did some greens with James. Had such a bad fall here that my knee was throbbing the whole day. Only did half a day today and came back to the chalet for lunch and then drinks at this bar with the girls. The boys needed pro ski time and the break was needed for me. Prosecco evening girls time was probably the highlight of this day. Got back to the chalet, had dinner and then played board games and cards all night. Everyone was asleep before the midnight on New Years which isn't new for us because James can't stay up past 11pm. 

Day Four

New Year's Day and more lessons for me with my french ski instructor. Met with the same ski instructor again and we practiced on some greens and blues. Told him how difficult Purdue was for me and he brought me up and down a slightly different path which was so much easier. After the lesson I tried to navigate back the same path but I'm so bad with directions we ended up right back at the start of Purdue. It was not bad at all today! Managed to get all the way down without falling down even once. Purdue was the hardest thing on day one and two but manageable now. I think its harder for me to ski when I'm with James but when I'm with other people I just get on with it because pride and also they might just leave me on the mountain. 

Day Five 

Skiing in a group again today. I wish I remembered the names of the slopes that I went down a bit better but I'm horrible at navigating and just followed the group. Went down mostly blues today which were super icy and diffiuclt to turn. Didn't fall down once even thought whilst I was skiing all I could think about is I'm going way too fast and I can't stop and shit if I break something how will I get anywhere. Super pleased that I managed to keep up today. My knee was still throbbing and turns were getting harder but skill wise I was improving which made skiing fun at last. Craziest thing that happened was right before we broke for lunch Beth had a fall which didn't look too bad because she got up and skiied down not long after but after lunch she couldn't walk anymore. Had to call the emergency ambulance and be taken down the mountain in what looked like a mobile coffin. It was so horrible and painful and her knee was so swollen it was twice the size of the other leg.

Day Six 

Went skiing behind the mountain today so it was so much colder. Went down a slope called Jerusalem which had the most amazing views and barely any people on it. People were dressed so stylishly on the slopes in cute overalls or matching rainbow stiped top and bottoms. Had dinner out for the first time in a really good Italian restaurant. The desserts at this restaurant were really good and I had so much wine that walking back was such a struggle. We decided to walk back up the mountain on the snow instead of taking the steps and the air was so thin because it was late at night that I had an asthma attack and had to stop. Everyone else went up the mountain like they were walking up a flight of stairs even though the incline was ridiculously steep. Including James mum who was in her 60s. Had to make a detour and find the steps up and an hour later we were back at the chalet. 

Day Seven 

The end of the ski trip! Travel back to Leeds was again a whole day affair because the trains were cancelled so we had to take a 2 hour drive to get us to a different train station so we could get a connecting train to Paris Gare du Nord. Metro was running again so got on that in good time. Got back to London at around 7pm and then stayed over at Nottingham to have Annie's breakfast and then back to Leeds the next day.

This was such a nice trip skiing was amazing and definitely something you can pick up as an adult. Before I go the next time though I need to train alot more because you can't ski very well without strong leg muscles... and I am not as fit as I could be. 

Pictures from the Trip 

Social Distancing

For the past 3 months the news has been dominated with Coronavirus or Covid-19 which is a respisratory disease similar to Sars in the early 2000s and MERS. At first I thought it was going to be a pandamic similar to H1N1(swine flu) or Dengue both of which I had and recovered after a week or so. Not deadly, nothing to worry about. This March the death toll for Covid-19 increased rapidly with some countries going into complete lockdown like Italy, Iran and China and other countries banning or limitting travel significantly. 

Malaysia has implemented Work from Home for the next 2 weeks and most of my friends and family are off work and school. Most internationals here have left for home and the entire course has gone online. I've been at home for the last 5 days and the days feel so monotonous. I've had a cold for the last week so it's best that i'm self-isolating but the boredom strikes! I'm not the most socialable person but I do miss going in to classes physically and meeting friends. 

The scary thing about the virus is that it can be lethal to older people and those who are immuno-comprimised which is why everyone has to stay home to minimise the spread of the virus. Schools have closed, unis have closed, and most jobs are recommending work from home here in the UK. Everyday the death toll goes up and there's not enough tests available for everyone and the hospitals are overflowing. People are stock piling toilet paper and pasta and tinned foods. We had to go to 3 different places before we could find any toilet roll last week and so many items in our usual grocery shop was unavailable. I never would have thought that something like this could happen in 2020!

Some things that I've been up to recently is that James and I have been rock climbing consistently again. I've started baking more. The brownies and pancakes were a success but the cookies sadly were not. I wanted to start baking something new every week but James is blaming me for making him fat and has requested I stop for a few weeks. :( 

I tried a no sugar diet for about 3 weeks! It was so incredibly hard, there's sugar in everything! Even pasta sauce and bread and oats has about 5 grams of sugar without adding anything and we're only allowed 25 grams a day. I do think that after doing the no sugar diet my body needs less sugar and dessert. The first week was tough but the 2nd and 3rd week I barely craved sugar and now things that seemed normal to me before is suddenly too sweet which is good! You can condition your body to adapt to anything.