Day 8: The flight back from Perth to Singapore

The alarm went off at 0245. I was bleary-eyed and felt that I had barely slept... sometime between snoozing, I knew that the husband came back and he finished the bottle of red that we had left. I like how we both shared a same bottle of wine... individually on our own. Haha.

So the husband and I got up first, and spent the next half hour ensuring that we have packed everything properly and made our way to the vehicle. Our car had served us well the whole week, and managed to house everything quite comfortably, truly a good investment.

The kids knew that it would be late/early start for them as we already prepped them so the night before, so they were both ready to rock and roll. We left the hotel and checked out as per our planned timing of 330am, and got to the airport by 430am. The roads were quiet, and the air was crisp - sad how once we had begun to get used to and enjoy the cold, we had to leave.

We went earlier because we wanted to clear returning the vehicle properly, and just well, not miss our flight. After checking in and settling the car return, we parked ourselves at a café for some food and coffee (for me).

My half-awake princess

After eating, and before going through the dates, I suggested that we head outside - to enjoy the weather one last time.

0530am, Perth International Airport

After that last burst of cool winds, we went in. The kids had some time to play in a tiny children's corner, while the husband and I continued to stone. It was pretty tiring... the flight took off on time, as scheduled at 6am and here's a last pic of us on-board the flight.

 



Seahs coming home

The children were suitably perky by this time and asked to play with the video games, as well as watch TV. K stayed awake pretty much the whole journey and was independently playing with the controls 80% by herself. I managed to find one movie I liked enough to finish watching. K also stayed up for breakfast... and J did too until he fell asleep with a half-eaten sausage on a fork in his hand. The husband drank himself to a suitable state and K did doze off for an hour or so after breakfast. I think I snoozed collectively for 60minutes throughout the entire flight.

When we arrived, it was noon in Singapore and we were greeted by the hot, humid weather instantly. It always feels special going to the airport, and returning to it - different feelings each time. After doing some duty free shopping, we were ready to head home.

Touchdown on homeground

We took a taxi home in the hot, hot afternoon and we spent the rest of the afternoon vegetating away. The husband, K and I headed out for lunch while the boy crashed to catch up on his sleep. There was no time difference, so I didn't feel jet lagged, but the late nights had taken a toll and it felt comfortable and refreshing to be home.


It's been an amazing week with the family, refreshing ties with our friends in a foreign land and just living in a home away from our own home.


My reflections of the holiday:

• The children are old enough to enjoy themselves and expressing what they want to do. After travelling on this many occasions, they are pretty good travellers, I must say.
• The children are very fortunate to be this exposed to travel, cultures and experiences. I'm glad that the husband is always so open and willing to bring them along.
• I ate non-stop. Besides that first night when I was starving, I more than made up for it by eating at every opportunity the rest of the trip!
• We drank heartily. Not necessarily in terms of the amount that we drank (ok, that too) but also more of the timings that we drank. We had drinks in the daytime, afternoon time, night time and pre-bed time. Ah, the makings of a holiday.
• Am so thankful for friends who housed us and made plans for us on the trip. That really made it so much easier for us to follow and just let things happen.
• Picnics are the best thing ever! Everyone enjoyed just being in the outdoors and revelling in the amazing weather.
• Did I enjoy myself? Yes I did. I wasn't sure initially, as the days passed and I had some work baggage... but over the days, the company and lack of brain activity made it possible to relax and detach myself from everything and just be with the family. Totally loved that.
• Favourite part of the holiday - all the outdoor moments we had - Heathcote Park, King's Park, Elizabeth Quay... being outdoors just felt amazing and refreshing!

And so this ends another lovely holiday with the family. Feeling blessed to have the opportunity to travel and build memories like these... and will park them to the memory bank for love, laugh and happiness.


Our whole holiday captures of day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6 and day 7.

The weekend

So July rolls along quite sneakily, and the highlight must be that there are 2 birthdays in our family (the brother and the father) plus the husband comes home after being away for work for 2.5 weeks. Hooray!

Just some pics to remember our weekend past, all impromptu activities that make our lives somewhat spontaneous. It's alright not to plan too much sometimes, and just let time roll along.

An impromptu evening at the playground and having dinner picnic style

Followed by a session at the library

The night ended pretty early with the kids going to sleep... and me being greedy and indulging in some wine, and plenty of snacks - burrrp. Set the alarm for pre-sunrise the next morning, to pick the husband up from the airport.

This little boy wanted to wake up to go pick Papa up.
Look at that just-awoken face

The morning rolled along with simple things like breakfast at the market, and the boy and I spent some quality time together just playing his new toy and being together.

Mama, look at me!

Pulling his golf cart 'Mommy, it's like real right?'

The rest of the day was spent just pigging out and being with the family. It doesn't have to be all fanfare always, it doesn't have to be fancy. Being at our 'Sunday best', just being around one another means so much more. It's not always that everyone has the time to get together, but the effort that we put in to try to do so means a lot. I'm so thankful that the siblings are around to help with the children, and to have the parents both healthy to hang with us all...


Little things in life mean the most usually and I have the best family everrrrr.

Perth: Day 7, A full day of being on our own shopping, at King's Park and an indulgent dinner

Boy team

Girl team

That's us, at our first stop of the morning - Gordon Street Garage - for brunch. The plan for today was to shop at Water Town (factory outlet) and I suggested this place because I'd been on a coffee stop at this same café with the sister some years back. It's so near to the shops that I thought it'd be convenient. Previously, I'd only had a takeaway coffee and my first experience at this café didn' disappoint.

Our breakfast spread

Devouring every morsel with zest

After filling our tummies, we did the short drive across the road. We then spent the next 3 hours at the mall spending some money. No pictures to show of the place, except for these two that the husband snapped while the boy team were together.

With his new cap

With more attitude

It was about 3pm by this time, and after a pastry stopover to buy some tarts, off we went to King's Park. It was a beautiful, beautiful day and I think the next few hours that we spent at the park in the amazing weather was one of the highlights for me/us. The park was not crowded, with little groups of people scattered over the pastures. The sun made it just right for us to sit on the grass, while the cool winds kept us comfortable - perfect. We had no entertainment, except for pure nature (plus our tarts and water and beers).

Horsing around

Smiley tart face

Amazing weather, amazing spirits

Lying on the grass because, why not?

Jump!

Family at King's Park

More horsing around

Cute little ones

Pic credit: K

Pic credit: J - this totally cracks me up.

All tired out

By sunset, at about 6pm, the children were absolutely knocked out - as you can tell from that hilarious pic. I guess rolling around on grass and being active has that effect on you. We let them snooze for a bit while we decided upon dinner - it was our last in Perth and the husband had picked a burger place serving American food. On a last minute whim, however, we decided on a restaurant next door that serves Japanese Fusion food which was pretty tasty, but rather expensive. We have no pics from dinner at all but we did have a nice time. It was called The Bonsai. We were totally stuffed (again) at the end of our dinner course.. and the children requested to facetime with their little friends M and Z - they'd been apart only a day and were still missing the good company.

As we were on a very early flight the next morning, we headed straight back to the hotel after our meal. We spent the night packing and putting the children to bed as quickly as I could while the husband took this opportunity to visit the casino in the last few hours.

By midnight, the kids were asleep, the luggages were packed, and without waiting for the husband to return, I'd hit the sack. It was a lovely, lovely day and my heart (& tummy) were full.

The rest of our holidays here on day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5 and day 6.

Life's little pleasures

I am meant to be on a diet after the unhealthy binges lately (the measurements don't lie dammit!) - but sometimes, it's so essential to have such moments to balance things out.

Berries with yoghurt and granola, in an orbs cup, no less. And a glass of red - it's 6.22pm and aptly happy hour, no? With a book in hand too to complete the mood for now. 

Bliss. Not too many days till the love of my life, the father of my children come home. Can't wait. 

While the kids went to the playground...

Random

The impromptu date with Hi5. The kids are still enjoying it, to some degree.
The novelty of dancing along with the songs is less enthusiastic though. They
are growing up and more conscious now.

The school snail mails a letter addressed to J. It is a card he made at school
for Papa, for Father's Day. He proudly poses with it, as Papa is not
around to receive it from him - yet.

Fresh oysters on a nice night out with friends, both big and little.

This boy takes a selfie to send to Papa.

Dropping K off at school. She is totally unshy about flashing her toothless grin.
Too cute.

Ball play on a random Saturday

The night they both decided to sleep on the bed and oust me off

A random night I pigged out all by myself - red
wine, chocolate, chips, cheese, crackers... burpp

A yummy, wholesome lunch with the people who
mean the world to me

Red shoes

Bad writing and careless mistakes in work that made me flare up

Peace

It has been a trying time for me. Anything that doesn't go well irks me, perhaps disproportionately so. While I try - and I can definitely try harder - to be the good Mother who takes everything in her stride, I have been extremely impatient and curt with the children. I get tired of their incessant whining. I am annoyed with their lousy attitudes and demands. I am sick of nagging them of things that they already know. K, especially, has been on the receiving end of the short stick. She's had punishments dished out to her for her bad habit of biting her fingers - I had a go at her daily for the past 3 days. She was yelled at for not being attentive or responsible for her school work/packing/matters. She has no sense of care or desire to do better in her writing, or work, or anything academically-related and I let her know it is unacceptable. I am being extra hard on them for the littlest of things - sitting to complete dinner and no leaving the table for no reason at all; listening to simple instructions and not gallivanting about.


Being this hard and fierce saps up a lot of energy from me, and I am tired. However, I also think that since I started being this strict mom, I need to continue so that the children know that I mean business. It is time for them to learn that I do mean business too.


On the flip side, I worry that they are hurt by me. I worry that what I am doing is not right. I worry that I get too mad. Last night was not great, as they still defied the rules by chatting after lights off (it was already 1030pm!) - and it was not pretty. I went to bed guilt-ridden at yelling at them... when really, all I want is to send them to dreamland feeling secure and loved.


Today, I will try again. I can be firm and strict without losing it. They can learn the lesson because it is a continuous journey to learn and improve, yes?


I can do this.

Perth: Day 6, moving to the City

After a fun-filled day with our hosts the day before, today was a very quiet one. The regular routine kicked in the household with the adults going off to work, and the children to school. We had the house all to ourselves as we packed up and left the home as clean and uncluttered as it was, before we arrived. The husband decided that we ought to have some time on our own and stay at a hotel to complete the holiday, so today was the day we headed to the city.

We left our (temporary) home all packed, and as we drove on the highway, I felt relaxed while gazing out the window and tried hard to recall the routes I used to drive when going to uni. It still felt foreign to me... and I must admit that 15 years is a pretty long time ago! Plus, I never drove that much myself as I didn't have a car, so the roads are always familiar from a passenger's perspective.

Anyhow, our first stop was Northbridge for lunch. I needed wanted to have Viet food, so had arranged a lunch with my girlfriends. Killing two birds with a stone by eating what I wanted while catching up with them. It took us a while to find parking and find a restaurant but we figured it out.

Strolling along the streets in Northbridge

Lunch with my girlfriends and her boy

While the lunch affair was not too great a catch-up (it's not very conducive and I don't think we talked too much, I felt kinda out of it), it still felt nice to see the girls for that while. The food, however, was enjoyable. I really love authentic Viet food, a must-have everything I go to Australia (or any country where the natives run the restaurants, because it's so real it's as good as it gets!).

After a very brisk lunch hour, we bade farewell to each other and we were on our own again. We relished in the nice weather and strolled back to our car... and along the way stopped for a dessert stop. Corica's sweet treats! There was no proper seating area, so we bought our individual tarts and sat right outside the store to devour our treats.

Gobble gobble

We were so stuffed then, and headed to check in at our hotel.

Kiddy corner at the hotel lobby

The room was decent, and the location was very central. We had a nice view of Swan River and after rolling around in the room for a bit, we decided to spend the evening in the city. It was about 3+/4pm then and there was still sunlight and we made our way down... then for no reason at all, we snapped some pics at this church.

Two little munchkins strolling along the streets of Perth City

The husband and I split ways to shop with a kid in tow each. I didn't do much shopping as I was on the prowl for super cheap buys, and it was also interrupted as I had to search for a public loo for the little girl to poop. Still, no biggie not to shop because I was also mindful of what I needed. I don't think the sales were as cheap as I remember them to be (from my last trip with the sister) though I think the company does make a difference.

The boy team spent time... looking at the water feature?!

We met up as agreed and decided to have dinner before heading back to the hotel. The husband picked the restaurant and we headed, for our first time as a family, to Jamie Oliver's Kitchen. I had been before with the sister (once ever) and it was nice to share the experience with the husband and kids.

Family shot

Dessert

After dinner, we strolled back to our hotel leisurely and wrapped up our night. Not before I headed out to get some supplies for ourselves - water and alcohol. The shop across our hotel sold water (at an exorbitant price - it cost more than the same brand of shop several meters further from the hotel!), but no alcohol. The cashier probably saw my desperate despondent face & offered the information that a bottle shop was around the corner, on the next street. I listened to his instructions and took a short stroll to the nearby bottle shop to get the alcohol. I bought 2 bottles of beer and 1 bottle of red wine - woo hoo. When I got back to the room, the kids were showered and bundled up in bed. The husband was close to knock out and that night, the kids experienced watching TV in their beds.

It's not something we do often - usually only at hotels because our TV at home is only located in the living room. I bid them goodnight and headed to the showers... and as expected, they were fast asleep with the TV blasting to no one in the room. I turned the TV off, and ended off the evening by myself in the room with my 3 lovelies. I put on a face mask, pulled out a book, logged onto wifi with my phone and poured myself a glass of wine.

Good night.

Reminder to self

Sometimes, surprises come in the best forms of love, care and at the right time.



An SMS that left me perplexed

While the first person that came to mind when I received the SMS was the husband (no, no delivery from him), it does not make this surprise any less. In fact, it left me pretty much dumbstruck and speechless. You know exactly how I felt when I received the love. It is thoughtful, beautiful and I thank you for the love.


To the sister - I love you.