our life in Singapore: Christmas Day for the Fabre's in Indonesia

Very, very quiet this morning ….. it is a public holiday here and only the basic staff are working, all security staff are on, a few in the office, some of the house boys but no ground workers or gardeners are on duty.

John and I wake up to Christmas Day on a bright, clear morning in Batam.

As we walk around the village we realize that everyone that is here is here for the peace and quiet, no one out and about at all. Most are inside enjoying a quiet Christmas breakfast ….. even the children are quiet!

We went up to the clubhouse to check emails and make our Christmas calls on Skype …. there is free WiFi access at the club house and we make full use of it …. our first call was to Janine, but no answer, we tried 4 times and each time it rung out ….. it was very disappointing to say the least. We made a couple of other calls and answered many Christmas messages that came through via email and then went back to our villa.

We were very sad to not be able to speak with our daughter on Christmas Day. These are the downsides to Expat living …… but it is also the life we have chosen for the time being and so we need to overcome these emotional obstacles that raise their ugly head every now and then.

My Singapore friends will know exactly how that feels.

… and we sat on the balcony and had our coffee.

Not long after we received an SMS from Janine to say she had her MacBook up and running and for us to call her ….. so back in our buggy to the club house and set up to make the call. Lovely to chat with her and see other family members too. Felt much better after that and as we packed up ready to head back to our villa, many staff members came in to wish us a Merry Christmas. So nice of them…..even more so as most are Muslim.

Back at the Villa we had pre lunch snacks of crackers, prosciutto, salami and cheese with a bottle of Lambrusco. But the cheese we had was my very favorite …. CAMBOZOLA ….. absolutely scrumptious. We brought it back from Germany where it cost us $6.00 and I see it in Singapore for $14.00. It is sinfully rich and creamy. We also brought the salami back from Germany!

as seen here in this image of John:

After our snacks we sat down to our Christmas lunch of baked salmon, potatoes, bok choy, cabbage and Chye Sim and Lesley had left Fruit Mince Pies and we had those with custard for dessert. The wine we had with lunch was a Jacobs Creek Merlot.

Dare I say at this point I needed a nap?

… and of course this is why I have a day bed in the study, 3/4 hour later I woke to find John had cleared the table, washed all the dishes and put everything away …… now one could say I am very, very clever!!

We decided it was then time to open our gifts and have coffee. Afterwards we went visiting others in the village and had a quick walk out on the jetty to stretch our legs. We had booked to have Christmas Dinner at Turi Beach Resort and we needed to be there by 6.30pm….

back at the villa we had a shower, dressed, into the buggy and off to Turi for dinner …… the staff there had worked very hard to make the evening special …… the way everything was set up was amazing. It just looked like a fairy land.

The above image and below are of the candles floating on the pool ...... the candles were not so easy to capture as an image. But beautiful regardless.

The 'green' part is of the infinity pool that overflows into the main pool ..... they had also set up a floating stage for the entertainment.

most of the staff know us and it is quite an experience as we walk into the dining area ….. all of them wishing us a Merry Christmas, which was rather 'strange' as we replied with Selamat Hari Natale, sort of the 'wrong way round'!

Everyone is just so happy and friendly, certainly it makes our visit to Batam that extra bit special.

The image below was taken from the top level of the resort looking down onto the pool. The lights dotted along the top of the image is of the coastline of Malaysia. The blue piece is of the lights in the floor of the infinity pool which changes color every few minutes, the aqua green color above that is the main pool, the rest of the lights are around the pool, the tables and the pool bar.

Like I mentioned earlier - a fairyland.

The food we had for dinner was delicious, there was roast beef, turkey, fish, lasagna, seafood, pasta, vegetables galore and many varieties of salads.

Plus soups and desserts….

But here are some of the images of the food that was on display at the Christmas Dinner.

The weather was just perfect, a balmy summers evening on a tropical island with the palm tree's swaying, the music playing and the food laid out for everyone to enjoy with their champagne.

and these last two images are here just for the 'spelling'!