The Bali Body

I've booked myself a holiday. Finally.

It took a leap of faith and some stern talking to myself to do this, but last week I finally went and bought myself a flight to Denpasar for a two week jaunt on the Indonesian island of Bali in April.

Oh, and my passport form, complete with appropriate photographs is in with the Passport Office. I should have a passport by the end of next week.

If I didn't book the holiday now, I 'd end up going nowhere. My contract at Sparks and Ladders ends at Easter with no chance of extension, so it's time to take a proper break. The last real holiday I had was in October 2010, when I took five weeks off and took in seven countries. This holiday was going to be nothing like that.

As for work, I can start getting my CV in March, getting my name out there, finish up where I am, drive home to Adelaide for Easter, come back and head off to Bali and start looking for work in earnest when get back.

Why Bali?

Why not Bali?

This was a a bit of a spur of the moment decision. I want to take a holiday, I didn't want to spend too much money and I don't want to do anything too convoluted. As much as I'd love to go back to Spain and walk the Camino de Compostella di Santiago or go and learn tango in Buenos Aires (okay, not really cos I don't dance, but I'd love to go to South America and see Macchu Picchu) or take off for a week in Japan looking at countercultures. There are so many places I want to go. There is so much of the world I want to see - but I also need a place where I can mung out, sit by a pool, do not very little and have a breakfast beer at 10.30 am.

Bali fits the bill.

The other thing about me on holiday is that in going alone, I like to know that people are around the place. You always meet people on holiday when you travel alone. Placing yourself in a spot where you are likely to meet some similarly-minded people is always a good thing.

So, the first six days of this break will be spent in a guest house in Ubud where I will go and nurture my inner hippy. The place is next to a yoga school and I can get $20 massages and there are monkeys about the place and there is a swimming pool. I don't need much more than that for the first part of the trip.

The second part of the break will be spend at a place near the beach. The only requirement is that the establishment isn't in Kuta. I'm looking at places in Seminyak, maybe Legian, maybe Jinbaran Bay. There are a few requirements - a mandatory swimming pool, air conditioning in the room, a telly and access to a good masseuse. As long as I'm not in Kuta surrounded by bogans, I'll be happy.

It feels strange to take a holiday where I'm not running around the place, skipping from one country to another, visiting one sacred site then another, checking out museums and art galleries.

This holiday will be about relaxing, and chilling, and reading books, and generally having the holiday that I never seem to get.

Now the hard stuff. If I'm taking a holiday where I'm going to be sitting by a pool, I have to get myself pool ready.

I have ten weeks to see if I can whip this body into something that wont be too dreadful in a pair of bathers. It gives me a project. See if I can tone up and lose weight sufficiently to maybe even find a pair of two piece swimmers.

As incentive, I've just purchased a red bikini off eBay. It gives me ten weeks to tone up my middle bit and see if I can present myself by a pool where nobody will gop and call Greenpeace and have me taken back to the sea.

Gives me something to work towards anyway.

It's one of my goals - it's been one of my goals for a very long time. To look good in a two piece swim suit. Not some string thing, but a two piece bathing suit. I've always had patrician one piece practical bathers. I want to be able to flaunt myself in something different.

To be honest, I can't wait.

Better get working.