Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Magic of Jenolan Caves
I would recommend Adventure caves for those who have no children. It will be so interesting to crawl and climb in the caves. What we did was walk steps and stroll. Anyway it will be so interesting if we could climb like what we did at The cave in Taman Negara. Of course the climb must minus the bat's poo. Here in Jenelon caves, there seems to have only a few bats so definitely a pleasant climb. check out website on it. Happy adventure.
Beautiful Wentworht Fall
The boys and I wandered off ahead and it was quite scary to be walking at the edge of the cliff and if the cliff gave way we could plunge hundreds of metres down to the valley. Somehow no venture no gain. If we let our fear took over our life, we would never experience the freedom and joy of what life has to offer.
Joe's birthday Celebration
Today we will be celebrating Joe's birthday and we have decided to have an indoor BBQ. I will go to buy all the necessary food later and marinate them according. The kids were excited to be able to celebrate their dad's birthday. Joe is out at office and will come back later. We must remember to buy him a cake later too. Now that we are the same age, I feel better as four days ago, he was still a year younger than me. :> Anyway, I hope that Joe and I will have a happy life together. With so many news of people we know parting ways, it kinda scary to think that it could happen to us too. Happy birthday Joe and may all your wishes come true.....
Trip to Blue Mountain
Today is Joe's birthday. Happy to be the same age as him now. Did not managed to buy a cake four days ago for my birthday as we were at Blue Mountain. We just came back yesterday and the laundry was done but the house still quite messy with the kids around. They will be going to school tomorrow. That's a hurray for me as I find them most annoying and loud.
The trip to blue mountain was really quite pleasant. We set off on Friday with many bags of clothings and stuff. We stopped at the Glenbrook Information centre to collect information of the many things that we could do in blue mountain. After that, we drove to Wentworth falls lookout. The walk was about one and a half hour to and fro and the rest of the family was ahead of me as I made my way uphill when getting back to our car. The scenery was magnificent especially the stretch whereby we were at the cliff egde overlooking at the waterfall.. The walking trail could go on and on but we could not do so with Channery with us. In the end, Joe had to carry her and walked the distance back. After the track, we headed to Kotoomba to have ourlunch. After walking around for a while, Charlynn said she would love Thai food so we wandered into a Thai REstaurant. The food was quite nice and cost us about $50. Kids actually was more interested in the play things in the restuarant rather than what they were eating.
We continued our ride and reached our hotel shortly after. The kids were really excited to know that there was a pool table in the hotel for their use. They immediately went out to play after helping to carry in the bags. they had so much fun that they refused to get out of hotel for dinner. In the end, we managed to ask them to come back to the room for their jacuuzi's bath. The bath tub was huge and could accomodate them all. They had their bath and it was "Simpsons cartoon" Time. In the end, Joe, Channery and I drove out to buy our dinner and left the kids in the hotel. They were perfectly happy to be left alone. We took about 35 minutes back and forth and we even bought 2 DVDs and rented a cartton video " Megagasca 2 - Return to Africa". The kids had their dinner and we watched the DVD. The kids were so excited that they continued with the show" Mr Bean's Holiday". We all finally went to bed at about 12plus. The hotel was built in 1876 so it was a really old house so the heating system was not very powerful. Or maybe it was so huge that it required more heating. The room cost us $250 per night and it was bigger than our 2 bedroom house in Campsie. Wondered why they did not convert into 2 rooms instead. We even can walked out to the veranda to have a view of the surrouding environment. When we booked it on the internet, we have no idea what it was like but seeing it was like a Wow! The suite was really beautiful and we even have a kitchen to do our cooking in. So my birthday was spent walking down the beautiful Wentworth falls and having a relaxing time at the Manor house hotel.
The next day we did not wake up early as we were all rather tired after the Movie Marathon. Kids quickly finished their breakfast and headed to the pools room again. They simply so excited able to pit their skills with one another. however, we wanted to be at the Jenolan Cave for the 10.30am Walk so we packed them in car and off we went. The drive to the Cave was very interesting. We drove along the cliff and the sharp turnings made the road trip pretty interesting. I Love driving adventures whereby I get a high when I drove safely through. Joe always says that I love driving so he always let me drive around. Actually I have no complaints as I realized I really love driving as I seem to be in control. Finishing a bend beautifully can be so fulfilling.
The cave adventure was really memorable. We did a self guided tour at first and join the others for the tour of Lucas Cave. Many things to see in the cave and we really enjoyed ourselves. Will show you all some pictures we took. The cave was used as a musical hall for performances. By the time we completed the tour, we were so hungry that we could eat a cow. We went to the nearby cafe and had a quick lunch. After that we drove towards Oberon. When we reached the information Counter we were told that this time of the year was a good time to pick free wild mushroom in the STate forest along the highway. We were excited to be seeing wild mushrooms. When we reached there, we realized that it was not as easy as we thought. There were toadstool and such and the children were complaining of cold. We also had to watch our steps as there were plants with spikes along the forest floor. We decided not to pick any mushrooms as we were having a hard time decided wwhether they were poisonous or not. Children were most elated to be back in the car and we drove back to hotel. Along the way, we stopped at the Farmhouse cafe and bought some lollies and coffee. Afterwards,we stopped at the IGA supermarket and bought some pizza and garlic bread. Children wanted to go back to hotel and had their dinner there so we will heat up the pizza. Saturday was a night whereby the various stations will have interesting movies so we watched programmes on the Tv happily.
On Sunday, we decided to visit " IronFest" which was a big event in blue mountain whereby the people dressed up in medieval time and even staged the war time scenes. It was freezing cold so I ended up buying a set of beanie and gloves for Charlynn. Chantz refused to wear the beanie I bought for him. We bought food there and happily ate the stuff. The boys had the opportunity to do archery. They shot arrows and had fun trying to be Robin hood. The trip to Ironfest was only an okay as we ended up spending quite a lot at the venue. Moreover, the cold winds also made us think twice about visiting it again. The weather was turning very cold and so we wanted to head back to hotel after getting our food. In the end, we had soup and garlic bread for dinner instead of getting food from blackheath as the road was jammed - packed with people heading back to Sydney. We made a u-turn and went back hotel. Everyone was happy to be kept indoors away from the wind and eating the hot soup and bread.
In the night, Channery vomitted again. She vomitted twice the night before and we were kept busy cleaning up the beds. We thought she had stomach flu but seems like she just cough and emptied her stomach. We gave her honey water and that seemed to do the trick. We had a peaceful night and we booked out the next day after clearing up the mess in the hotel room. We did not come back home immediately as we visited a few places along the way. First we went to the Blackheath Lookout and saw the bride's veil waterfall. After that we drove all the way down to megalong valley. The road was turing and winding and I had a good time driving through the forest. The ferns reminded of my old house in Lorong Gambas whereby there were lots of trees and ferns along the road too. After the drive, we stopped at the video shop to collect back our $25 deposit as Joe hd forgotten to do so the day before after returning the rented video. After that, we went to the cuscading falls. We left the kids at the playground while Joe and I made our way down. The trip took us about 30 mins and it was definitely worth it. The scenery was so beautiful and even though I was tired and sweating, I still find it worth the effort. After that we decided to drop by the Toy and train museum but the admission fee was rather high so we decided to skip it. We drove to the next destination - the Gordan waterfall lookout. I nearly stepped on a medium sized snake along the track. Charlynn spotted the slimy creature after I hopped down the steps. Imagine what a fright I had that I nearly got bitten by a snake. The snake head is triangular shaped so it probably was poisonous. Lucky escape for us. The waterfall was pathetic and especially not so nice after seeing the snake.
AFter that, we drove to the Science and Puzzle shop. We had great fun there and bought $74 worth of items after trying out most of the things in the shop. After that, we decided to have lunch at the nearby shops. The children refused to ahve sandwiches so we decided to go to a Chinese restaurant. We ended up having a $64 meal. If I prepared the food myself, it would not cost more than $20. So much for eating out so I decided to cook a simple fried rice for dinner that night.
We fetched JJ and boy he was so happy to see us. We reached home, do our housework and watched the " The biggest loser Finale". Good life and we really looking forward to more trips out as a family.
The trip to blue mountain was really quite pleasant. We set off on Friday with many bags of clothings and stuff. We stopped at the Glenbrook Information centre to collect information of the many things that we could do in blue mountain. After that, we drove to Wentworth falls lookout. The walk was about one and a half hour to and fro and the rest of the family was ahead of me as I made my way uphill when getting back to our car. The scenery was magnificent especially the stretch whereby we were at the cliff egde overlooking at the waterfall.. The walking trail could go on and on but we could not do so with Channery with us. In the end, Joe had to carry her and walked the distance back. After the track, we headed to Kotoomba to have ourlunch. After walking around for a while, Charlynn said she would love Thai food so we wandered into a Thai REstaurant. The food was quite nice and cost us about $50. Kids actually was more interested in the play things in the restuarant rather than what they were eating.
We continued our ride and reached our hotel shortly after. The kids were really excited to know that there was a pool table in the hotel for their use. They immediately went out to play after helping to carry in the bags. they had so much fun that they refused to get out of hotel for dinner. In the end, we managed to ask them to come back to the room for their jacuuzi's bath. The bath tub was huge and could accomodate them all. They had their bath and it was "Simpsons cartoon" Time. In the end, Joe, Channery and I drove out to buy our dinner and left the kids in the hotel. They were perfectly happy to be left alone. We took about 35 minutes back and forth and we even bought 2 DVDs and rented a cartton video " Megagasca 2 - Return to Africa". The kids had their dinner and we watched the DVD. The kids were so excited that they continued with the show" Mr Bean's Holiday". We all finally went to bed at about 12plus. The hotel was built in 1876 so it was a really old house so the heating system was not very powerful. Or maybe it was so huge that it required more heating. The room cost us $250 per night and it was bigger than our 2 bedroom house in Campsie. Wondered why they did not convert into 2 rooms instead. We even can walked out to the veranda to have a view of the surrouding environment. When we booked it on the internet, we have no idea what it was like but seeing it was like a Wow! The suite was really beautiful and we even have a kitchen to do our cooking in. So my birthday was spent walking down the beautiful Wentworth falls and having a relaxing time at the Manor house hotel.
The next day we did not wake up early as we were all rather tired after the Movie Marathon. Kids quickly finished their breakfast and headed to the pools room again. They simply so excited able to pit their skills with one another. however, we wanted to be at the Jenolan Cave for the 10.30am Walk so we packed them in car and off we went. The drive to the Cave was very interesting. We drove along the cliff and the sharp turnings made the road trip pretty interesting. I Love driving adventures whereby I get a high when I drove safely through. Joe always says that I love driving so he always let me drive around. Actually I have no complaints as I realized I really love driving as I seem to be in control. Finishing a bend beautifully can be so fulfilling.
The cave adventure was really memorable. We did a self guided tour at first and join the others for the tour of Lucas Cave. Many things to see in the cave and we really enjoyed ourselves. Will show you all some pictures we took. The cave was used as a musical hall for performances. By the time we completed the tour, we were so hungry that we could eat a cow. We went to the nearby cafe and had a quick lunch. After that we drove towards Oberon. When we reached the information Counter we were told that this time of the year was a good time to pick free wild mushroom in the STate forest along the highway. We were excited to be seeing wild mushrooms. When we reached there, we realized that it was not as easy as we thought. There were toadstool and such and the children were complaining of cold. We also had to watch our steps as there were plants with spikes along the forest floor. We decided not to pick any mushrooms as we were having a hard time decided wwhether they were poisonous or not. Children were most elated to be back in the car and we drove back to hotel. Along the way, we stopped at the Farmhouse cafe and bought some lollies and coffee. Afterwards,we stopped at the IGA supermarket and bought some pizza and garlic bread. Children wanted to go back to hotel and had their dinner there so we will heat up the pizza. Saturday was a night whereby the various stations will have interesting movies so we watched programmes on the Tv happily.
On Sunday, we decided to visit " IronFest" which was a big event in blue mountain whereby the people dressed up in medieval time and even staged the war time scenes. It was freezing cold so I ended up buying a set of beanie and gloves for Charlynn. Chantz refused to wear the beanie I bought for him. We bought food there and happily ate the stuff. The boys had the opportunity to do archery. They shot arrows and had fun trying to be Robin hood. The trip to Ironfest was only an okay as we ended up spending quite a lot at the venue. Moreover, the cold winds also made us think twice about visiting it again. The weather was turning very cold and so we wanted to head back to hotel after getting our food. In the end, we had soup and garlic bread for dinner instead of getting food from blackheath as the road was jammed - packed with people heading back to Sydney. We made a u-turn and went back hotel. Everyone was happy to be kept indoors away from the wind and eating the hot soup and bread.
In the night, Channery vomitted again. She vomitted twice the night before and we were kept busy cleaning up the beds. We thought she had stomach flu but seems like she just cough and emptied her stomach. We gave her honey water and that seemed to do the trick. We had a peaceful night and we booked out the next day after clearing up the mess in the hotel room. We did not come back home immediately as we visited a few places along the way. First we went to the Blackheath Lookout and saw the bride's veil waterfall. After that we drove all the way down to megalong valley. The road was turing and winding and I had a good time driving through the forest. The ferns reminded of my old house in Lorong Gambas whereby there were lots of trees and ferns along the road too. After the drive, we stopped at the video shop to collect back our $25 deposit as Joe hd forgotten to do so the day before after returning the rented video. After that, we went to the cuscading falls. We left the kids at the playground while Joe and I made our way down. The trip took us about 30 mins and it was definitely worth it. The scenery was so beautiful and even though I was tired and sweating, I still find it worth the effort. After that we decided to drop by the Toy and train museum but the admission fee was rather high so we decided to skip it. We drove to the next destination - the Gordan waterfall lookout. I nearly stepped on a medium sized snake along the track. Charlynn spotted the slimy creature after I hopped down the steps. Imagine what a fright I had that I nearly got bitten by a snake. The snake head is triangular shaped so it probably was poisonous. Lucky escape for us. The waterfall was pathetic and especially not so nice after seeing the snake.
AFter that, we drove to the Science and Puzzle shop. We had great fun there and bought $74 worth of items after trying out most of the things in the shop. After that, we decided to have lunch at the nearby shops. The children refused to ahve sandwiches so we decided to go to a Chinese restaurant. We ended up having a $64 meal. If I prepared the food myself, it would not cost more than $20. So much for eating out so I decided to cook a simple fried rice for dinner that night.
We fetched JJ and boy he was so happy to see us. We reached home, do our housework and watched the " The biggest loser Finale". Good life and we really looking forward to more trips out as a family.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Questacon
Questacon at Canberra is a nice place to visit. This was our second visit as we have free entry with our sydney Power house pass. channery was taking a picture with the Dinosaur puppet. She had so much fun too as she also get to go to the Mini Q which is designed just for those 1-6 yrs old.
The Hedge maze
Children had so much fun finding all the gnomes and fairies at the hedge maze. The picture shows the lavander maze.
Amaze thing
Fun place to visit at Melbourne. We had so much fun and feel so giddy as the place was wacky!
Army museum
We had so much fun there. The Army vehicles and items on display were really beautiful. They even have a changi Chapel there and glad to know that the little chapel had been the support those Prisoners of World to survive during difficult time.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Back from Trip
We were back on Monday evening safe and sound. We started driving at 8.50am on the first day and reached Wodonga at 3.50pm. Seven hours on the road and kids were actually okay with it. We took 4 breaks in between and take turns to drive. We settled into the caravan park nicely. The children were falling sick before we set off so they were rather tired after the trip. We ended up ordering Pizza for dinner as we wanted to watch "The Biggest Loser" show. We watched TV progammes till about 8pm and then we were off to Woolworth to buy some groceries. We wen to bed early and Channery as usual decided to sleep with us.
The next day we decided to drive up to Beechworth which is a historic town. We visited an army museum first and kids had a lot fo fun seeing all the old army gadgets and vehicles. We even bought Anzac biscuits there as the tin design was too good to be missed. After that we visited a Lavander farm but did not see much plants and then we drove to the town. We wanted to have a scenic drive to natural reserve to see the Gorge but could not go in as they were doing burning of the forest. After that we visited a ice creamy and the ice cream actually did not taste as good as it looks. After that we walked to visit the Beechworth Honey HQ. We were led into rooms with huge TV screens and the show begins telling us who the owners were and how they started being one of the successful bee keepers in the market. We ended up buying quite a lot of stuff from the retail shop but we felt really good after the visit.
WE had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Charles were throwing tantrum as I refused to buy him the expensive souvenier he wanted. He skipped lunch as a result but we decided that that was fine with us. After lunch, we drove to one of the winery and bought 2 bottles of organic red wine. Cost Joe $60 and the kids had fun as they played with the owner's dog. The dog's name is Monty and he is 16 yrs old. He was rather slow but kind and so teh kids were happy to play with him.
We decided to drive to the mountain and once again we were denied access as they were burning down part of the forest. This is to prevent huge forest fire as some parts were already burnt and the fire will not spread.
We had noodles at the motel that night and children were okay with that. We started packing up as we were leaving for Melbourne the next day. We had breakfast and set off around 9am. The drive from Wodonga to Melburne took us about 6 hours and we managed to reached there at 3 plus. After checking in, children decided to play at the sandpit while we unpack the stuff. We decided to go out for dinner at Dandenong Plaza which was a 15 minute drive. We bought our groceries first and then walked to the food court. When we wanted to sit down, we realized Chantz was nowhere to be found. He had wandered off himself. Chantz always has the tendeency to be distracted and walked off and he did it again at the big shopping complex. Joe and I searched for him and left the other kids at the food court. In the end, we went to the information counter and asked for assistance. The staff there get the security officers on the lookout for Chantz and still no sign of him. They could not use the PA system because of his age. In the end, Joe found Chantz near the food court and brought him back to Charlynn. The head of security went with us to verify that everything was okay. We had such a fright that the food did not taste as good and we went back hotel.
The next day we went to Phillip island. We stopped at San Remo to watch the Pelicans' feeding. They had been feeding the birds for 20 years and quite a sight. Will try to upload the video we took. We had fish and chips and then off we drove over to the island. We visited the Chocolate factory and kids just love the fun things they could do inside. We ended up buying only 1 large and 1 small bar of chocolates as we had our fill inside the factory.
After the chocolate tour, we visited the amaze and things. The place is a must go as kids and adults have fun. We took pictures whereby the kids became giants and both Joe and I became dwarfs. We had to buy the picture at the exit but we forgot to do that so we had no pictures to show. After that, we went to the maze and found our way out. After that, we had a game of mini golf. We all had fun and left there at around 5pm as we were going to see the penguin parade.
What is a penguin parade? WEll! The fairy penguins were cute little penguins that live in burrows near the sea. Every morning they went out to hunt and return at night. The little penguins waited for the sky to be dark as that was the time the sea eagles go home. One by one the little penguins made their way back to the beach. It was a fun sight and guess what, you can even see then waddle past your side as they made their way inland- some stayed 2 kms away from the beach. We had fun seeing the little fellows and decided to take a snap with them. We had the professional photo shoot as the penguins were not to be disturb. Fun to pose and point to nothing nd yet the end result is us pointing to penguins. Will upload picture if we could locate it.
We had Chinese food at San Remo afterwards. Kids were happy to be eating real food after the fish and chips. We came out of the restaurant at 9pm and only reached motel an hour later. That's a long drive with no street lights and yet we were really glad to have done the trip.
The next day we visited a strawberry farm and we had fun picking the juicest and nicest strawberries. The cost is $40 for the whole family and we had fresh strawberries for 2 days. We forgot to try the starberry icecream but we had lot of fun nonetheless.
After that we drove to the another hedgemaze and we had a lot fo fun in there as we were asked to go into the place to locate 8 fairies and 9 gnomes. We ended up combing the whole place to locate the fairies and gnomes. Children had so much fun and the shop assistant was really amzed that we managed to find all the faires and gnomes. The kids were given lollies as reward and we set off back to hotel. We stored our strawberries and then drove to the train station as we were going to visit the Melbourne City. The train ride was nearly an hour and then we were at the city. Melbourne city is very well maintained and there was "artistic" things everywhere. The buildings were interesting, the sculptures big and nice. Every corner is fascinating. We took free tram around and then we took a tram ourtside of city to catch a train back to motel. by the time we reached Dandenong city we were tired and just glad to be back. We drove around for food and went into a Thai restaurant. In the end,w e walked out before eating as we were hungry and still were not served for a long time. We had KFC drive through and we were jsut glad to be backa t hotel to rest for the night. Joe and I packed our bags again as we leave for Canberra the next day.
The drive took us about 8 hours and we were rather exhausted by the time we reached there. On the way, my petrol light came on once as I was really worried that we won't make it to Yass to pump up the petrol. Luckily we managed to reach there and did the necessary. By the way, did I mentioned that Victoria has many speed cameras along the route and I was worried that I might have gotten a speeding ticket? I was going a little bit around 120-130km on a 110km/h stretch. Will see if I received a fine for speeding then. Fun to drive with my Yizzy/ my toyota Tarago as we did not experience so much bumps as with our Kia. We made a wrong turn at Canberra as we were not sure what was our motel's name and drove out of Canberra. Luckily we managed to u- turn back and found our accomodation. We were asked to go to Room 212and the minute we stepped in, the room reeked of cigaratte. We unpacked some stuff thinking it was okay but after a while, we found the smoke alarm dismantled on the floor and decided to report to receptionist. We ended up changing room to 214. After settling in, we finally made it to the town to grab a bite. We had Thai takeaways as we wanted to catch " The biggest loser' show. We enjoyed the relax way of holidaying.
The next day, we visited the Questacon. We had so much fun there and caught a few interesting shows. The kids were especially elated with the rockets show and we had so much fun there. Guess what? I finally did my free fall and even did it twice in a row. Channery and I went for the Dinosaur Story telling while kids went to the show on pulleys and levers. We left Questacon and decided to head back since it was already 2 plus. The drive from Canberra was actually quite tiring after all the excitement. We reached Campsie at 6 plus and decided to pick up JJ the next day. We had Malaysian food and then home.
We had a fright at home as we realized there was a small rat at the patio, We chased it from patio to kitchen and it disappeared. So fast that we were unable to decide if it ran out or not. Anyway 2 days and still no sigh so probably it had gone out. After investigation, I realized the boys had left their food in their bags and that had attracted the rat. I cleaned up the whole place the next day and i was totally drained from all the physical exertion. I managed to clean up the whole house and done 3 loadfuls of laundry.
Yesterday we fetched JJ and he was so excited to see us. We missed him and he misseed us too. Ww will be going to Blue Mountain this coming Friday till Monday and he had to go boarding again. We had so much fun so we decided to make a last minute booking and go cave exploring.
Okay gotta go as still need to do housework.
The next day we decided to drive up to Beechworth which is a historic town. We visited an army museum first and kids had a lot fo fun seeing all the old army gadgets and vehicles. We even bought Anzac biscuits there as the tin design was too good to be missed. After that we visited a Lavander farm but did not see much plants and then we drove to the town. We wanted to have a scenic drive to natural reserve to see the Gorge but could not go in as they were doing burning of the forest. After that we visited a ice creamy and the ice cream actually did not taste as good as it looks. After that we walked to visit the Beechworth Honey HQ. We were led into rooms with huge TV screens and the show begins telling us who the owners were and how they started being one of the successful bee keepers in the market. We ended up buying quite a lot of stuff from the retail shop but we felt really good after the visit.
WE had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Charles were throwing tantrum as I refused to buy him the expensive souvenier he wanted. He skipped lunch as a result but we decided that that was fine with us. After lunch, we drove to one of the winery and bought 2 bottles of organic red wine. Cost Joe $60 and the kids had fun as they played with the owner's dog. The dog's name is Monty and he is 16 yrs old. He was rather slow but kind and so teh kids were happy to play with him.
We decided to drive to the mountain and once again we were denied access as they were burning down part of the forest. This is to prevent huge forest fire as some parts were already burnt and the fire will not spread.
We had noodles at the motel that night and children were okay with that. We started packing up as we were leaving for Melbourne the next day. We had breakfast and set off around 9am. The drive from Wodonga to Melburne took us about 6 hours and we managed to reached there at 3 plus. After checking in, children decided to play at the sandpit while we unpack the stuff. We decided to go out for dinner at Dandenong Plaza which was a 15 minute drive. We bought our groceries first and then walked to the food court. When we wanted to sit down, we realized Chantz was nowhere to be found. He had wandered off himself. Chantz always has the tendeency to be distracted and walked off and he did it again at the big shopping complex. Joe and I searched for him and left the other kids at the food court. In the end, we went to the information counter and asked for assistance. The staff there get the security officers on the lookout for Chantz and still no sign of him. They could not use the PA system because of his age. In the end, Joe found Chantz near the food court and brought him back to Charlynn. The head of security went with us to verify that everything was okay. We had such a fright that the food did not taste as good and we went back hotel.
The next day we went to Phillip island. We stopped at San Remo to watch the Pelicans' feeding. They had been feeding the birds for 20 years and quite a sight. Will try to upload the video we took. We had fish and chips and then off we drove over to the island. We visited the Chocolate factory and kids just love the fun things they could do inside. We ended up buying only 1 large and 1 small bar of chocolates as we had our fill inside the factory.
After the chocolate tour, we visited the amaze and things. The place is a must go as kids and adults have fun. We took pictures whereby the kids became giants and both Joe and I became dwarfs. We had to buy the picture at the exit but we forgot to do that so we had no pictures to show. After that, we went to the maze and found our way out. After that, we had a game of mini golf. We all had fun and left there at around 5pm as we were going to see the penguin parade.
What is a penguin parade? WEll! The fairy penguins were cute little penguins that live in burrows near the sea. Every morning they went out to hunt and return at night. The little penguins waited for the sky to be dark as that was the time the sea eagles go home. One by one the little penguins made their way back to the beach. It was a fun sight and guess what, you can even see then waddle past your side as they made their way inland- some stayed 2 kms away from the beach. We had fun seeing the little fellows and decided to take a snap with them. We had the professional photo shoot as the penguins were not to be disturb. Fun to pose and point to nothing nd yet the end result is us pointing to penguins. Will upload picture if we could locate it.
We had Chinese food at San Remo afterwards. Kids were happy to be eating real food after the fish and chips. We came out of the restaurant at 9pm and only reached motel an hour later. That's a long drive with no street lights and yet we were really glad to have done the trip.
The next day we visited a strawberry farm and we had fun picking the juicest and nicest strawberries. The cost is $40 for the whole family and we had fresh strawberries for 2 days. We forgot to try the starberry icecream but we had lot of fun nonetheless.
After that we drove to the another hedgemaze and we had a lot fo fun in there as we were asked to go into the place to locate 8 fairies and 9 gnomes. We ended up combing the whole place to locate the fairies and gnomes. Children had so much fun and the shop assistant was really amzed that we managed to find all the faires and gnomes. The kids were given lollies as reward and we set off back to hotel. We stored our strawberries and then drove to the train station as we were going to visit the Melbourne City. The train ride was nearly an hour and then we were at the city. Melbourne city is very well maintained and there was "artistic" things everywhere. The buildings were interesting, the sculptures big and nice. Every corner is fascinating. We took free tram around and then we took a tram ourtside of city to catch a train back to motel. by the time we reached Dandenong city we were tired and just glad to be back. We drove around for food and went into a Thai restaurant. In the end,w e walked out before eating as we were hungry and still were not served for a long time. We had KFC drive through and we were jsut glad to be backa t hotel to rest for the night. Joe and I packed our bags again as we leave for Canberra the next day.
The drive took us about 8 hours and we were rather exhausted by the time we reached there. On the way, my petrol light came on once as I was really worried that we won't make it to Yass to pump up the petrol. Luckily we managed to reach there and did the necessary. By the way, did I mentioned that Victoria has many speed cameras along the route and I was worried that I might have gotten a speeding ticket? I was going a little bit around 120-130km on a 110km/h stretch. Will see if I received a fine for speeding then. Fun to drive with my Yizzy/ my toyota Tarago as we did not experience so much bumps as with our Kia. We made a wrong turn at Canberra as we were not sure what was our motel's name and drove out of Canberra. Luckily we managed to u- turn back and found our accomodation. We were asked to go to Room 212and the minute we stepped in, the room reeked of cigaratte. We unpacked some stuff thinking it was okay but after a while, we found the smoke alarm dismantled on the floor and decided to report to receptionist. We ended up changing room to 214. After settling in, we finally made it to the town to grab a bite. We had Thai takeaways as we wanted to catch " The biggest loser' show. We enjoyed the relax way of holidaying.
The next day, we visited the Questacon. We had so much fun there and caught a few interesting shows. The kids were especially elated with the rockets show and we had so much fun there. Guess what? I finally did my free fall and even did it twice in a row. Channery and I went for the Dinosaur Story telling while kids went to the show on pulleys and levers. We left Questacon and decided to head back since it was already 2 plus. The drive from Canberra was actually quite tiring after all the excitement. We reached Campsie at 6 plus and decided to pick up JJ the next day. We had Malaysian food and then home.
We had a fright at home as we realized there was a small rat at the patio, We chased it from patio to kitchen and it disappeared. So fast that we were unable to decide if it ran out or not. Anyway 2 days and still no sigh so probably it had gone out. After investigation, I realized the boys had left their food in their bags and that had attracted the rat. I cleaned up the whole place the next day and i was totally drained from all the physical exertion. I managed to clean up the whole house and done 3 loadfuls of laundry.
Yesterday we fetched JJ and he was so excited to see us. We missed him and he misseed us too. Ww will be going to Blue Mountain this coming Friday till Monday and he had to go boarding again. We had so much fun so we decided to make a last minute booking and go cave exploring.
Okay gotta go as still need to do housework.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Updates
Lately I have been rather busy and have no mood to write my blog. Nothing unusual happening and life kinda quite peaceful. Children are having their 2 weeks holiday break so these few days we are at home doing nothing special.
charlynn won the school Easter raffle draw and she bought back a big bag of chocolates. The other siblings were all over the moon and they probably sick now having consuming too much of the heaty stuff. Charles is now lying on bed and Chantz and Channery coughing. Sometimes having won the draw might not be a good thing after all.
On Tuesday we will be driving to Melbourne. We will be taking a break at Albury which is along the route to Melbourne. We are not going to drive non stop 9 hours to Melbourne so we broke the journey and will visit the small town. We had booked the accomodations and will leave on Tuesday morning at about 10am. Joe had to go to the bank to deposit the money he received yesterday for selling our Kia Carens. We only sold it for $5000 and we had to give $400 to our neighbour for his help in the sale. I know we are selling it rather cheap but I am just happy to get rid of it. We bought the new Car to ferry my mum in law and WeiYi 2 months ago and Kia Carens was left idle for so long. We paid 7500 for it last year and I am glad to at least selling it for $4600. Now people are rather careful about their spending so I see the car's value will drop further if we hold on to it.
JJ will be going to the pet boarding house again. He definitely will miss us a lot. He is such a dear and is totally attached to us. Even now he chose to sleep near my leg. Whereever I go, he wanna follow.
Okay will keep all of you update of life here . Sometimes I am just so lazy...
We
charlynn won the school Easter raffle draw and she bought back a big bag of chocolates. The other siblings were all over the moon and they probably sick now having consuming too much of the heaty stuff. Charles is now lying on bed and Chantz and Channery coughing. Sometimes having won the draw might not be a good thing after all.
On Tuesday we will be driving to Melbourne. We will be taking a break at Albury which is along the route to Melbourne. We are not going to drive non stop 9 hours to Melbourne so we broke the journey and will visit the small town. We had booked the accomodations and will leave on Tuesday morning at about 10am. Joe had to go to the bank to deposit the money he received yesterday for selling our Kia Carens. We only sold it for $5000 and we had to give $400 to our neighbour for his help in the sale. I know we are selling it rather cheap but I am just happy to get rid of it. We bought the new Car to ferry my mum in law and WeiYi 2 months ago and Kia Carens was left idle for so long. We paid 7500 for it last year and I am glad to at least selling it for $4600. Now people are rather careful about their spending so I see the car's value will drop further if we hold on to it.
JJ will be going to the pet boarding house again. He definitely will miss us a lot. He is such a dear and is totally attached to us. Even now he chose to sleep near my leg. Whereever I go, he wanna follow.
Okay will keep all of you update of life here . Sometimes I am just so lazy...
We
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Picture of the Zigzag railway
children and Joe had fun I think as they could associate the railway with Thomas the train. Whenever children are out of the house, we won't feel so stress as they will be preoccuppied with things and will not misbehave.
My sons are sagatarians so their character are thus - always craving freedom and seeking pleasures. Joe and I are Taureans and we just cannot apprecite their " not down to earth" type of behaviour. Charlynn is able to complete tasks given by school but the boys have to be reminded again and again.
There was a report that says that if parents are too capable and controlling, kids will develop "learner helplessness" and won;t do things for themselves. Well! Will try to let them taste their own medicine and we will just keep our mouth shut and don;t remind them.
People always praise my kids when they are outside but why is it they are not so good at home????
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