Good news, bad news

Title is same as a good children's book I recognized on the shelves at work last week. I've put it aside for the teacher topic week coming up where we need to create our own lessons. I remember using this with Yr3 students over the VHF radio some yrs ago in Katherine. Funny, the things you remember, and how much we appreciate all the opportunities working in education continues to bring us.
The GOOD NEWS is our first rent is due so we have coped with living in an apartment without a garden, even a pot plant, for a month and we're very comfortable. BAD NEWS is we have suddenly discovered we don't have enough details to pay it and the agent is not returning calls or emails. It was due Tuesday and eventually gets sorted on Friday much to our horror but the owner was unperturbed it seems.
The GOOD NEWS is we have at last had an air-con serviceman in to check the faulty unit in our bedroom. The BAD NEWS is he has quoted over $400 and the owner now wants a second opinion before taking action. We will continue to wait patiently and be thankful the nights have mostly been cool enough, so far, to sleep with just a fan.
The GOOD NEWS is BritishIndia is having a storewide sale. This is a chain that sells western sized clothing, ie the legs of trousers actually cover my ankles and for Eric the sleeves of his shirts actually meet his wrists. Maybe we can look for something suitable for the big event in April without feeling like Amazons in the changerooms. There is a store in Raffles Place so on Saturday after work we took the MRT City Hall. The BAD NEWS is I really don't feel like shopping after a full day of work and can't find a thing. But Eric got a lovely new shirt.
The GOOD NEWS is the 'weekend' on Bintan is here at last. The BAD NEWS is we had to sacrifice our Monday morning sleep-in to meet up with the rest of the MAE socialites. The GOOD NEWS is we make it to the departure point in plenty of time. The BAD NEWS is the venue is a ferry terminal and you all know how lousy I am on a boat. The crossing leaves me feeling very seedy. Can you believe the name of the cafe on board is BRF Cafe?

Ok, Ok, enough of the news theme. I'm over it too.

We stayed the 2 nights at the Nirwana Beach Club Cabanas. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived so I wasted no time and booked straight in for a neck and shoulder massage. The afternoon was spent mostly at the glorious resort pool. In the evening the whole group got together for sunset drinks and dinner at the Kelong Seafood Restaurant (wooden platform built on stilts above the water and bound together with rattan rather than using nails).

This is a resort kelong.

The next day we took a half day north island tour to see a local town, vegetable gardens, kelong fishing village etc to get away from the resort. The resort area is very secluded and security gates separate you from the real Indonesia. The ferry from Singapore drops you within the Bintan resorts boundary and if you wanted to, you could believe the whole island was beautifully manicured and everyone smiles all the time. In fact it looks a lot more like Malaysia did about 30 yrs ago.  Once our driver discovered we were teachers we apparently needed to have a look in at the local school.

This is a real kelong.

Other than that trip, the rest of the day was much the same as the first - lots of reading, swimming and sleeping interspersed with food. We did manage just a few bird sightings. That evening we all went to the Indian Restaurant then some moved on to karaoke, but not us.

Some of you will recognize the chap in the background here. 

Today we caught the ferry back and still got to work on time for the 2pm meeting. Fortunately the crossing was also quite calm so I coped much better. tomorrow we get to meet up with Bianca from TEGS who is on her way home from volunteering in Cambodia so we are looking forward to that.