I'm currently watching Narcos and I can't believe I slept on this show for so long. It's so good. The blood shed and violence is diabolical. It also ties neatly into the Diego Maradona podcast I'm listening to in terms of a similar era and the level of extreme poverty in South America.

Yesterday would have been Boots third birthday. I miss him so much and think about him everyday.

This week has been a bit of a rough one. I started back at work on Monday which was great but unfortunately felt quite unwell Monday afternoon. I had the classic fever symptoms of muscle aches and shivers. I had a rough sleep on Monday night but with some rest and Panadol I was okay by Tuesday afternoon.

I was back at work Wednesday but sadly Emma was quite unwell from Thursday morning. It was classic Bali belly sadly. She needed an IV drip and a visit to the doctors. She wasn't feeling better until Saturday morning.

We had to unfortunately cancel some plans; another surf lesson for Emma and going out for dinner to celebrate Boots birthday. It's not the end of the world though; travel in south east Asia just means facing some illness.

Work was okay for me for the week though! I felt relatively productive and was able to get my tasks done. Next week we might try going to cafes more often to work in different spaces.

Here's a collection of some death defying holes in the footpath along our street.

Can't believe it's almost Grand Final time.

My tips for the weekend: Hawthorn and Collingwood.

I think that would make for a captivating Grand Final.

Little bit of an update from the past few days.

We've been to a couple of beach clubs: La Brisa and The Lawn. Both were excellent and we had a nice time.

The idea of beach clubs is you get a minimum spend on a table; so the biggest/comfiest day beds are well over Rp1 million but the basic chairs/table setups are around Rp200k. You get seated and you then need to spend that amount on food and drinks. The scale of the La Brisa beach club is crazy; it's a mammoth tree house structure that could comfortable service hundreds of people. We stayed until sun set and really loved the whole vibe.

The Lawn was a more chill occasion on a lazy Sunday afternoon. We got a cheaper table and enjoyed the pool by the beach.

We also had surf lessons with Dian Surf School. I'd never had a full private lesson before so to get some better insights into how to stand on the board and also get a push on the wave was really nice. I'd done a bit of surfing before so I felt a little more comfortable standing up but for Emma this was her first time. She enjoyed the experience but it was a little more challenging for her to stand. We've booked in another surf lesson just for Emma later this week where I reckon she'll stand up.

The surf instructor was a lovely local man and he not only helped us but also rode on a few waves too. What a cool job.

I managed to watch some footy on the weekend with the help of NordVPN. 7Plus just seemed to work with the VPN so I was a happy man watching the Brisbane Gold Coast game. Shame Gold Coast didn't put on a better performance.

I've been to the gym 3 times now which has been really good for me. It's been a while since I've done any proper lifting so I just need to build up into it. Everyone in Bali (at least in Canggu) I swear is a jacked influencer so it's a bit of a weird vibe with me the skinny man in the gym with them.

One day when we were out for lunch we also saw a Boots so that was nice too.

Two random side notes:

This is how you fill up with fuel in Bali.

It's quite literally a science beaker with labels denoting how much the fuel costs.

There's a couple of proper petrol stations around (far from our place) which are likely cheaper but this is insane.

Secondly, it's poured rain twice now in Bali since we arrived. Both times our place hasn't flooded but the pool has gotten very full.

This is meant to be the dry season too so not sure what the rainy season is going to look like.