I am travelling at the moment.

Enjoying the beauty of Bali.

I am currently writing to you from this smaller region called Sidemen. Well, I thought it was small.

My tour guide yesterday informed me it was actually quite big, which proved to be right as we ventured through it.

Small is probably not the right word. But boy, was it pretty. Exactly why I came here. Enjoy my pics. It has currently been untouched by mass tourism, which makes it all the more serene.

I am currently writing to you from my villa. I can hear some birds chirping outside the forest and the rain is pelting down. It’s only 8:20pm at night.

And it’s peaceful.

Quite the contrast from little old Adelaide, where I am from. No jungles or rainforests at my doorstep each morning.

At home there is just a yellow parking line outside my bedroom window, as a result of my parking being brought up at multiple strata meetings. They disliked my parking skills. To be fair, it was completely valid. My parking got lazy. But still, annoying. So I fought them on it… but lost.

Sometimes I do wake up to a bird squawking. But it’s not as pretty as this one I can currently hear. It just screams violently and I get angry at it for disturbing my sleep in.

Anyway, I am rambling off topic.

This also happens to be my first solo trip.

I’ve been wanting to do a solo trip for a while now. I wanted to do one when I graduated from university.

But I then entered a long-term relationship… so that plan went down the drain. Along with most of my other plans. (Turns out this is not how relationships are supposed to go - but my childhood did not set me up well for this, so I learnt this the harder way.)

I soon discovered that he was not keen on me travelling (along with many other things), but rather he wanted me to stay put and save money for the house he wanted “us” to buy - only to tell me I would never earn as much as him… and then he did not want to buy a house with me at all… and then he did want to buy a house, but not with me. Then he never did buy a house… and to be honest, it was very confusing to keep up with. There were other, more serious reasons why it ended, but nonetheless, I do hope he did buy his house.

Anyway, after that relationship ended, I had a glow-up. I found myself again. My spark. My sister would say, “I finally feel like we have you back!” And I could feel it too.

It’s funny, as a woman, when you break up with someone, how people can tell from your social media these days. One of my old work colleagues organised a brunch and subtly hinted at it.

When I told her, she was like, “I knew because you were posting A LOT more on Instagram.” Girls always know from Instagram. We have a sixth sense.

Then, I lived with my sister and her husband for six months - some really happy memories there after the turbulent relationship I had been in.

I then found a rental and wanted to take myself to Ireland (my motherland), but then I started a business, which took up time… and money.

And then it was another excuse, and another excuse. Until I decided to say, fuck it, let’s travel.

I’m turning 30 in June. Time to celebrate my existence.

So, in short, that is the story of why I am currently in Sidemen, writing from my villa.

I had another point to this blog…I was going to write to you about everything I am discovering about myself lately but this has now just turned into a short life story of how I ended up listening to the birds, hearing the rain, waking up to a jungle at my door, learning about culture, and somehow also giving you the backstory of my fight with the strata committee.

Finally taking the trip… its funny how life pans out.

If people are set on misunderstanding you, let them.