It was my birthday last Tuesday! It wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been seeing as though I had lost my cashcard the night before, I left my purse in a taxi. It probably won't suprise most of you who know me well, it was going to happen sometime!! Anyway I cancelled my card and spoke to my Mum who is going to send my new one to me when we get to Australia. Paul is lending me money at the moment.

My birthday was amazing! I woke up and Paul gave me some birthday cards, one from him and one from his family, it had some money in which was completely unexpected - thank you again!! My family had also put some money into Paul's account for me - thank you as well!!! We went into the town where all the shops were Paul had some things to do so we arranged to meet at 2pm back at the hotel. I went shopping with my money and bought some moisturiser from the Body Shop (it was the Nut body butter Monica, I've already ran out of the coconut one) , I bought some fake perfume which actually smells really nice and I bought a new bikini. I still had some time to spare so I decided to have a nice relaxing Indonesian body massage, was a bit of a mistake really because I felt bruised for days after and just ached all over. The lady either didn't like me, had a really bad day or maybe that was just how Indonesian massage is supposed to be like.

I made it back to the hotel for 2pm and when I arrived a Balinese lady stood there next to Paul with a bouquet of flowers for me. I couldn't believe it, we then got into a people carrier and drove to another hotel to pick up another couple, I still had no idea what Paul had planned, he gave me no clues and kept me guessing as we drove further and further away into the rural areas. When we arrived we were near a beach and I guessed straight away when I saw the horses. We were going horse riding along the beach!!!  Our horses were beautiful and we rode along the beach, saw a bat cave in the cliff and visited some temples on the way, we then went through a lake just deep enough for the horses to pass through, and on the way back we passed the local village. As we passed there were locals sat in front of their huts/houses waving at us and smiling, they were really friendly. On the way back the sun was setting and the sky was turning red. We came to a restuarant on the top of the hill overlooking the beach, a couple had just got married there and were being photographed. We had dinner there and had a glass of wine watching the sun set it was beautiful, you can tell by the pictures. We made our way back to the hotel and left at 10pm for a pool party which was at a hotel near by. We made friends with some Australian guys and some girls from Sweden. I got carried away and went straight into the pool with my watch on, this is the third time I've done this now, and yes I broke it, their not expensive here but you would have thought I had learnt my lesson. Me and Paul had a wicked night, they played some good music and the drinks were flowing, it was a brilliant end to an amazing day!

We leave Kuta for Australia on Sunday, we are trying to save money at the moment and go to watch the evening film at a bar every night. It's a really cozy place with bean bags everywhere and pillows and cusions, easily to fall asleep, especially for Paul. The other night put me off the place though, we were half way through watching Johnny Cash when I needed the toilet, I made my way downstairs where they were watching another film and around the corner, I took one step through the door and saw the biggest spider EVER!! I actually screamed and ran back up stairs to tell Paul. I couldn't even string a sentence together to tell him, when I started to make sense he just thought I was exgagerating like I normally do about the size of spiders, I told him to go and take a look for himself and take a photo with my camera. He came back up and aggreed with me that it was HUGE! Unfortunately we didn't have the digital camera with us, so we couldn't put it on the this site, but you'll see when I show you the pictures from my camera when I get home. It was actually probably the size of Paul's hand and was brown and hairy with long fat legs, I have goose bumps now just writing about it!! I really don't know what I'm going to do when we get to Australia and I see a huntsman!!!

You'll hear from us again next week, when we're in Australia!!! We're so excited!

Lots of Love to everyone

Martina and Paul. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx