We are alive, fear not. Apologies for falling off the face of the earth for a few weeks but we've been stuck on a desert island and due to power cuts and rubbish internet we havent been able to update you all on our adventures...I know you're all hanging off the edge of your seats. So here goes....

When we left the Philippines we flew to Singapore, possibly Dean's least favourite places. I have never seen him dislike anything quite as much as he disliked Singapore. Singapore is a shopping Mecca, you can spend literally days in the Malls not seeing the light of day. Any brand/style/make of anything is available and they even have a centre that is open 24 hours a day!! I have no idea why he hated the place so much?!

We only had 2 days there so I packed in a lot of shopping, and Dean did a lot of being grumpy, I only saw him crack a smile when we visited the Singapore Zoo for the night safari. This was quite fun but to be honest it was very dark and it's quite hard to see a pride of lions or elephants or each other in the light of a street lamp. So Singapore was uneventful but I'm glad we got to see the super clean streets and apreciate the airconned Malls.

The original plan was to fly from Singapore to Bali and then spend a month travelling around Indonesia before heading to New Zealand. So tecnically we should be in NZ now....but we're not.

We have however just returned from a fleeting visit to Kuala Lumpur which lasted one day, just enough time to pick up a new two month visa for Indonesia, (30 days just wasn't long enough) and to do a bit of shopping.(yay!) The reason for our extended stay in Indonesia is....pure laziness.

Dean and I have decided to be the ultimate travellers and stop travelling. We're going to stay put for a while for a variety of reasons.a) The bags are just getting too heavy. b) We'd found the ideal spot to bum about in (a small island off Lombok called Gili Air) and
c) because we can.

After Diving in the amazingly clear waters off the Gili Islands Dean decided he wanted to be more than a 'fun diver' but a 'Master' of diving. Basically he's doing his PADI training to become a dive master, which means he will be qualified to take groups of 'fun divers' into open water and show them all the fishes and coral and stuff. The course lasts between 3 and 8 weeks so we thought we'd take the opportunity to enjoy the beaches and set up camp on a quiet, picturesque corner of Gili Air in a lovely bungalow on Bintang Beach (Bintang is their local beer!)

You may be wondering what I do all day whilst Dean is studying, well apart from 'Mastering' the art of doing nowt and reading alot of Martina Cole books, I spend a few hours in the evening watching the dive shop in exchange for dives....it's a tough life. Ok enough of the smugness.

We've really enjoyed settling somewhere for a little while and it's actually quite nice to be able to unpack for once. We will be back on the move again in a couple of weeks as we would like to see more of Indonesia than a little island and the airport. Unfortunately there isn't much to say about what we've been up to on Gili Air, mainly a lot of sitting and eating, and of course diving, which is amazing, loads of turtles and coral, tonnes of fish and a few sharks :) We've been away 6 months today, still loving it but missing a few home comforts and more so family and friends.

We promise you won't have to wait so long for our next update, we'll also try and fit some interesting stuff in too.

Happy Easter, lots of love

Katie and Dean x

p.s

Dean has had a hair cut....pictures coming soon!