Spent the morning in Glasgow paying speeding fines from the sooped up hire car but stumbled across a wonderful fishmongers near the salt market and decided on impulse to buy a rabbit. Watched the butcher prepare the rabbit and even took some footage of him doing so, I was most impressed! Headed over to Edinburgh for the afternoon then got to work on preparing a most delicious rabbit stew. Even though we were flying out down to Gatwick the next morning for an overseas trip, a quick round trip to Glasgow was needed as Dougal had left his passport at home.

We made the most of the wonderfully soft, rich rabbit on the train over from Edinburgh washed down with some equally rich red wine. There’s something decadent about the juxtaposition of the finer things in life. Like drinking fine wine out of mugs or mixing up finer items of clothing like a glorious piece of silk or cashmere with jersey underwear. Gets me going all the time.

So an early start to catch the flight down to Gatwick for the flight to Doha. Only on arrival at Gatwick Dougal’s bag went missing. Containing the grooms kilt and wedding gear – we were heading over to indonesia for Dougal’s school friends wedding. Paddy was getting married to Amelia, his Indo-Chinese fiancee in Jakarta a week later.

After some waiting around we got the bag and made our way to the next flight. We weren’t seated together which worked out just fine as I was able to catch up on some reading about the destination having only been out to Thailand once before.

Much hanging around in Qatar airport before the connecting flight to Jakarta. What hadn’t been made clear was that the plane stopped off in Singapore to refuel and pick up passengers. Had I realised I might’ve made alternate plans to make the most of another country en-route. Plus I hear the airport in Singapore is almost worth spending time out in.

Anyhow, we arrived in Jakarta and didn’t leave the airport in the rush to get the next connecting flight out to Bali to meet with Paddy and his family who were over from Scotland. Arrived in Bali and was instantly hit with the heat which was wonderful!

Stayed a couple of nights in one of Seminyak’s higher end hotels which was a good reintroduction to Asia.

Struggled with jet lag a little so ended up watching trashy US TV and making the most of Indonesian priced food and booze. Tried to fit in a little sunbathing, little did I know at this stage that there wouldn’t be much opportunity to top up my tan, but hey ho, it was a holiday but really the main reason we were out there was for Paddy and Amelia!

Spent the day mooching about Seminyak and exploring the surrounding area on foot including the myriad of exotic shops. I can see how people make a living out of sourcing weird and wonderfulo jewellery, clothing and stuff to bring back to the UK. A few more days in Bali before heading over to Jakarata. As Paddy has been working for world bank for a few years he was quite set up in Jakarta. his apartment with the only entrance from the lift on the 26th floor over Jakartas XYZ district was ace.

This trip was really amazing. No small part due to Paddy and Amelia who totally looked after us.

There were so many unique and everlasting experiences. Like sharing in their wedding day, even to the extent that I was part of the bridal group to have hair and make-up