Perth ~ Day 1

 

Arrived and checked in early at the airport before we went off for supper. When approaching the gate for boarding, realized they have changed terminal plus gate and it was quite a hassle having to transfer via sky train to the new boarding gate. It's with no wonders the flight is so full because there is a combination of 4 flights in total! 

As mentioned, we took the red eye flight and it is distrasous, nothing turned out as expected. Well I would have expected the children to sleep through the flight BUT the gal only slept on her seat for less than half an hr before she fidget, whine & fuss. I had to cuddle her on my lap for the rest of the 4 hours and as a result, I hardly catch a wink. The boy did slightly better but was so distracted with the in-flight entertainment that he refused to sleep!! Both the children did not managed to get any breakfast onboard and they do not allow packing of food totally! Pissed as when enquirer via SQ call center, was told we could request for food to be packed!!!

Custom clearance was pretty okay since it is early in the morning thus not a very long queue. Make it a point to declare food in the luggages because of packet milk and formula milk for the children thus was directed to a different queue subjected to clearance from a sniffing dog! We got past with a breeze though, no major issues. At the arrival hall, pick up the car from the counter and was given a Mitsubishi ASX which the lady claimed is very new. Toyed with the idea of upgrading to a Outlander for more space but it was troublesome having to collect the car at a further away location plus the need to switch over the secured car restraint. Next up would be to subscribe for local data for GPS which is having a very long queue and most encounter problems which took even longer. Meanwhile the children are made to drink milk as we could not find food for them. The walk to the car bay was a good 5mins away and despite the shinning sun, the air is pretty cool, a little chilling for the children perhaps. The car is literally a new car, a 2015 car which have only done 20km, new car and leather smell still lingering.

Cleaned up the car restraint which is pretty old, set destination using google map (placed full faith in it) and off we go! The journey to Fremantle is rather smooth with no major traffic jam and indeed driving in Aussie is such a breeze, so leisure and drivers are so courteous. The landscape is so pretty, and we are only talking about the tress and bushes by the roadside! Google map can be trusted, brought us to the destination in about an hour. We were totally wowed by our 'home' for the next week, spacious, homely, warm and nice equipped with coffee machine, seasoning and fresh herbs in the garden! The children had a great time running around the house playing catching! Settled the children in and decide to grab grocery from the nearby supermarket. Can you imagine the children refused to leave the house, would rather stayed in. Supermarket is a 5 mins drive away and we bought fresh vegetables and dairy products which are very low cost. The freaking expensive stuff would be chicken and eggs, pork included. Cooked a simple porridge meal with eggs, broccoli and meat to fill up the tummies before all hit the sack and get some much needed rest!

After a restful sleep for the whole family, did some packing before we drove out to Fremantle fishing harbour for early dinner and a leisure evening walk in the area. The drive was a mere 5mins with the trusted Google map. The chilling evening temperature is setting in coupled with the sea breeze, it was getting a little too chilling for the children. Annoyingly the daddy left the backpack in the house and the children jackets are packed in there! Quickly decide on a restaurant for the famous fish and chips of course. We settled for Sweetlips instead of the famous or also read as commercialized Cicerellos or Kallies. The choice is a wise one as the fish and chips are crispy on the outside, fresh & tender inside, served with a generous heap of French fries. The only complain, sauces need to be purchased. Mental reminder to grab a bottle of chilli sauce and ketchup to bring around for the rest of the week! Post dinner upon get stepping out into the chilling but fresh air, we were totally captivated by the beautiful egg yolk at the horizon. How could we miss the chance to snap a few shots here and there, stealing as much time as possible before the cold gets to the children. Upon reaching 'home' we were met with total darkness as the area was very poorly lit. As we are parked at the roadside, I made them stayed in the car while I walked to open the door and switched on the lights. Watched some tv, played some games with free wifi in the house, had an early night rest to get all rested for the interesting day tomorrow!!

Perth 2015

Planning for this trip started way back to almost one year back though at that point of time, destination were undecided between Perth or Taiwan. It was a trip that had to make it happen by hook or by crook, whatever it takes. Simply because the firstborn is going to primary school soon and holidays would have to be confined to June or December which will be rocket high prices and overly crowded.

Initial planning kicked off with a rough guide on the costs involved for comparison between the two destination, air tickets, accommodations, car rental food etc. Next would be activities and places of interest. Main criteria would be farmstay for the children to have a total different kind of experience. Though Taiwan wins two hands up in terms of activities and places of interest, it is after all a Chinese country. So we though it would be good to experience an Ang mo country so Perth it is, a close to nature experience for the children. How very exciting as this will be our first self drive vocation and the young lady's first flight. Browse through forums and forums of reviews, recommendation, be it food & lodging, ease of driving around, interesting places to touch on. 

Bits by bits everything pieced together like that of a jigsaw puzzle. First and foremost would be the air ticket which will be more critical. Monitoring all the different airlines for promotions and indecisive between budget or full service airline. As this will be the lady's first flight out and traveling with both children, we decide to go for SQ. With the notion that kids can sleep onboard and we could take things easy on day of arrival, we chose the red eye flight. Booking of air tickets took place in July and next to come will be accommodation. Our itinerary planned include a drive down south to Margaret River and uncertain of how well they would take the ride, we decide on Sunflower farmstay which is the main highlight of the trip. The challenging part being MR in between the days thus we are doing Perth city, MR, Perth city. That is the hurdle faced in booking the Airbnb for Perth city as some host are not willing to accept the booking with a break which is lost of income for them. Changing a new house is equally tricky as it's only 1 night for the last 2 days. Lots of enquiries went around contacting the potential hosts and somehow houses are running out fast despite being non term break for both sides. Finally we got ourselves a lovely comfortable house in Fremantle and the booking and payment were met with hiccups but eventually got all sorted out. 

Accommodation and farmstay settled early sept and car hiring being the last item on the list to be checked and we are all set to go. Just so typical of me to buck up at the very last min when the clock is fast ticking away. Visa application then took place and found reasonably priced agent which is quick and effective, approval took only less than 2 hours! Car hiring proved to be a little more tricky for me fearing the hidden clauses. In the end it was decided to book with Hertz, the hubs chosen Nissan Qashqai with pick up and drop off at the airport. Travel insurance were purchased and the final planning of the itinerary, extensively included food, shopping activities, supermarketing etc.

Packing started 2-3 days before our flight as children merely love to meddle with packed luggages! Temperature were warming up before the summer arrive so means good news for our luggage space and weight. A few pieces of long sleeves for the children and leggings for the girl, more shorts for the boy. Brought each of them a cardigan in case the temp onboard is a little chilling. The great thing about red eye flight, get to do last min checks on the packing on day of departure, no madness rushing to airport!

What we did.....cont'd

Supposed to consolidate all into one post only to realize that there are so much to blog about even if it meant a few short sentences for every event or occasion! To make it more agonizing, the added post was not saved and deleted!! Somehow lost my train of thoughts.....

Sept 2015

A very interesting month bustling with lots of activities, some expected and others unexpected. To start off will be teacher's day and this not so creative and artistic mummy decide to make something special for the teachers instead of buying off the rack. All materials were purchased mainly from Daiso with the main cast purchased from the plant nursery. We are going to make terrarium as teacher's day gift! Presenting to you our not so terrarium teacher's day gifts!!

General election 2015 interestingly on Sept 11, my second so far and our first in this GRC. Did not attend any rally this time round but catch up a little here and there from online streaming videos and news broadcast. Our polling station was merely 2 blocks away at the void deck and we fulfilled our responsibility as citizen in less than 5 mins! Spent the night away in front of the television awaiting for results, tough fight for some constituency and mostly the expected. Endure till close to 4am for all results to be announced and our GRC happened to be one of the last few to be disclosed.

18 Sept, our 12th ROM anniversary was spent in a unique way this year. Brought the 2 kids out to a F1 event at the nearby CC, a 3 days drive in movie nights. The children get to decorate their cardboard car to participate in the event. Turned out to be more of the firstborn having a whale of time with his classmates who went for the event as well. Hardly any children are seated to watch the movies, instead lots of running and yelling around. To my surprise the chilli padi's super simple, non fanciful, unattractive decorated car won her a consolation prize. What was even more surprising, she walked up to the center of the stage for photo taking and prize presentation without battling an eyelid, no stage fright at all. This chilli padi never cease to amaze me! The brother was a little upset that his car did not fetched him any prize.

Mooncakes festival were spent with the July babies at our usual Lao di fang. The celebration which was planned way in advance had came close to cancellation due to the haze. We were all closely monitoring the situation and decide to go ahead despite the PSI close to 200 which is honestly nothing alarming those days. Ordered in Mac delivery, had some mooncakes, pomelo and the children showing off their lanterns with all different types of music, some pleasant and others not too pleasant on the ears. Towards the end of the night, we heard news of school closure the next day due to expected PSI crossing over to hazardous range from the current 300ish. All were uncertain thinking it could be a hoax but was quickly confirmed when PCF sent out SMS to notify parents of the school closure, kudos to PCF! Zelyn's teacher even called personally!

Haze condition worsening thanks to our neighboring country whose bird brained PM barking on international TV that we should be grateful of the 11 months of fresh air and not complaining of the haze for 1 month. With the PSI reading of 316, joint decision by the various agency for school closure the following day anticipating a further spike to hazardous range. Guess that would be the first time it ever happened, not that we would like it to occur once again. Then again it is a yearly affair. All masks ran out of stock and I had to join the kiasuism calling various outlets and reserving AIR+ masks which are more breathable and comfortable mainly for the children and mum who are more vulnerable.

Oct 2015

All children love parties, more so if the parties are held in school, Children's day being one of the official party for sure. What's more exciting for them would definitely be getting to put on party clothes to school, a break from the usual school uniforms!

The most exciting moment of this month *drum roll*.....our family holiday to Perth!! Absolutely certain that this will require a few posts exclusively for the trip!!

What we did.....

The major events have been blogged, the minor events will be consolidated in this post. Well, what to do, trying my mighty best to catch up on posts for the whole of last year in the quickest time possible. Have to say that I am doing pretty well so far, close to 10 posts in a matter of hours. Which explains why most posts are loaded with photos, quick recap with minimum words. Not that I could possible remember what had happened in the past year, given my pea brain's limited capacity. Facebook helped heaps in this case, love using it as my backup for photos and interesting status or updates. Many would frown upon but I do not care as it works very well for me.

July 2015

Main highlight would be the gal's birthday, no doubts. Other than that would be the July Babies birthday bash. We nearly had to give it a miss as the gal is running a slight temperature the day before, we could attend only cos the temperature went down the next day. The bash was held at Fidgets, had a party room with some games, food and a cake.

Check out SG50Istana one of the weekend but it had to rain while we just stepped into the grounds. Running across the vast field to the nearest shelter is definitely no fun at all. Rain took a while to subside so we are trapped in the tentage overcrowded with people. As soon as the rain stopped, we waited no more to explore the various bustling activities.

Aug 2015

Lots have been said and done for this special year and special month being SG50. Do not think I would live to see another 50 years of Singapore. They termed it Jubilee SG50 thus an extended weekend before the nation's birthday. We had a gathering with the godma and children, a small party and children get to play with each other.

We went to catch the Black Knights rehearsal despite the madness of the crowd and unpredictable weather. Took a train down to Singapore Flyers alone with the kids to avoid traffic jam, look around for a location to park ourselves and yeah! We caught glimpses of the black Knights, not very close but pretty good views, good enough.

National day we kinda last min decide to make our way down to Marina which is really jam packed with lots and lots of people. Grab Mac for dinner and had to queue for close to an hours and another 20mins trying to locate an available spot for our picnic. We caught majority of the aerial fly past and that's about all. Rained towards the end of the celebration just before fireworks and we did catch a glimpse of some of the performancers dispersed from Padang.