Day 80: On set in Sandakan

With another day in Sandakan with no plan whatsoever, I figured it was a good idea to give Abby a seedling of an idea for a movie. Usually, that's all it takes before she goes into creative mode. She's really taking to this movie thing, and I've been trying to gently steer her in the direction of putting a little planning into it to make the end products a little more.... Engaging. It all started in Dalat with the Mudford girls, and I have to say, though the "films" are not Hollywood level productions, they do sometimes provide a good few hours of harmonious "working together" time for the kids.

Craft services, in the form of an awesome Indian buffet was on hand. I love these places and it reminds me of our last trip to Malaysia. You grab a bunch of food, the guy kind of scans the plate over your shoulder and comes up with a super reasonable bill at the end of the meal. Mmmmm....

So between meals and doing more homework today, we managed get the raw footage for the next Tyndall Productions movie, which hopefully I can post when Abby is done the editing. Oh sure, we did witness bouts of creative differences and emotional outbreaks from the headlining actress (Robin) who was bossed around a lot by the writer/producer/director/cameraperson (Abby), but that's normal in the movies (I think???).

Travelling with kids for six months is so different than short vacations... You really have to put in some unplanned time in the schedule, however, by not wanting them to get lost in Minecraft or Instagram, it means we have to get engaged... Which is good for us too :-). We are really (90% :-) ) enjoying this time with the kids. They are great kids - so relaxed and able to roll with pretty much anything we do. They continue to thank us for every experience, every meal, and even every taxi ride!

Beth half-laughingly says "so, when the Versly leave for good next week, we have no planned visits from anyone.....". When we look back on this trip in the years to come, I'll bet we will not regret ANY of the days - the good, the not so good, the boring, the busy, with company, without. They're all good.