September 2011

We just got back to Singapore yesterday after what was the best holiday the kids ever had. Ok it was basically the only holiday they’ve ever had but they’ve been raving about it non stop. Their eyes light up when they talk about the trip and Kirsten keeps reminding us about all the fun stuff she’s done.

“Yesterday we go see the penguins, remember? So cute right? Remember yesterday we sit the boat, and the boat go SO FAST! I like the boat. And the horse. And the tram. And the birds…”

I’ve still got lots of places to share and pictures to edit so those will be coming up over the next couple of days.

Today though, I bring to you the beauty of Churchill Island. Located right next to Phillip Island, it’s got a Heritage Farm that’s got the cutest cattle I’ve ever seen – Shetland Cattle, otherwise known as furry cattle. By me, at least. The long hair makes them all look like super cuddly soft toys, soft toys with horns that can pepper me with large holes.

During this trip, I’ve grown rather fond of farms. The smell isn’t half as bad as I thought it would be and all the animals are so relaxed all the time, just walking around eating their grass. I think if we lived in a farm, Truett would make a really good cowboy. He walked around exploring the place, petting the animals and blending right in.

And this was the chicken that Tru was chasing but then it decided to turn around and peck him on the hand. So obviously, he backed away from the crazy chicken. When Kirsten saw it, she ran up to the chicken and tried to tell him off, like “no no, you cannot peck kor kor.” The chicken couldn’t care less and tried to attack her as well, so they both turned and ran away from it.

We would have intervened but it was too hilarious to watch.

There were also wagon rides pulled by this beautiful shetland horse. She was so gentle that she ate right out of Tru’s hand. I assume it’s a she because I didn’t see the um, thing that boy horses usually have.

Totally loved the wide open spaces, the wild flowers, the pretty cattle, the wagon rides and the fresh air. But most of all, I loved watching them look like this.

PS. The second episode of Olay 360 is out here. It’s all about combating pigmentation with skincare and makeup so you get flawless, radiant skin. I know many of you enjoyed watching me cringe, so here’s more for your viewing pleasure.

Picnicking seems to be really big in Melbourne. Over the last week, we saw so many people having picnics in Melbourne that we decided to try it ourselves.

Only I’m not really the picnic sort because there was this one time that I tried picnicking in Singapore and I ended up getting bitten by red ants. We wanted to do something different and romantic so I made sandwiches, bought a real picnic mat and packed everything into my little basket all prepared for a leisurely day out in the sun.

And then of course I had to set my mat down on an ant’s nest, which resulted in me getting attacked by a colony of very angry ants.

But after doing the touristy thing for several days, we wanted to soak in the Melburnian culture and experience the city like a local. So my sister, who’s like an expert because she spent the last year and a half studying here, took us to Queen’s Lake Park for a breakfast picnic.

It’s got a nice lake with water fountains, birds of various species, several playgrounds and lots of open space for picnics.

We packed all sorts of nutritious fruits and breakfast options but the kids were only interested in eating Red Rock chips. I knew we shouldn’t have spent all that time making sandwiches and just gone with the bag of chips. They were all “I need to share my bread with the birds because they are very hungry,” but it was all a ploy just to get rid of their sandwiches to get more chips.

The playgrounds were a nice touch. We had at least 3 to choose from and this was the one we went with. The kids spent over an hour climbing, swinging, see-sawing and sliding to their heart’s content. As far as playgrounds went, this was pretty similar to the ones we have back home, except that they used wood chips as floor padding instead of the spongy material we’re so used to. It was so very um, natural.

It was the perfect way to slow things down a little after all the long drives and crazy sightseeing. Also, just glad there weren’t any red ants to be seen.

Seeing how much the kids love animals, the Melbourne Zoo was on the list of places we had to visit. Plus it’s located right in the city, which was like 5 minutes from where we were staying.

The animals were basically the same ones as those we have in the Singapore Zoo but the cool weather was divine. Even though the sun was out, it was nice not be be all sticky and sweaty and gross. We set the kids loose and we didn’t even break a sweat sprinting after them around the park.

It was ingenious how the animal enclosures were done. We could see all the animals up close, even the lions. I mean, there was a fence but I could pretty much stick my hand in to touch it if I wanted. I thought about reaching in to stroke the lion but then there was a chance I’d have my entire arm eaten right off. Which was why i didn’t, obviously.

All the animals were so close I could shoot them on my 50mm lens without any zoom.

Then we went on the outback trail to get up close with the classic australian outback animals. All the kangaroos and emus were just running free on the trail so we had to brief the kids to be quiet just in case they aggravated the animals and got themselves attacked by a kangaroo.

Truett was all “Shhhh, we need to be quiet, we cannot disturb the animals.”

We even got to see the elephants up close in the Asian-looking elephant village. The kids asked me what the words on the sign meant and evidently Bong Su means elephants. Or something.

And so I leave you with a video of Truett chasing birds. He didn’t catch any but he tried really hard so that’s 500 points for effort.

First up, let me just say that Mt Buller is unbelievably awesome. It’s a ski resort just over 3 hours away from Melbourne and it’s so awesome that I traveled 14 hours to go there and back twice in a week.

The first time I went was on Friday together with Lawrence, one of the other bloggers from the Singapore Blog Awards. We were the only 2 fanatics who went up to Mt Buller while the others went check out Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island. It was really tough to choose which tour I wanted to take but I really wanted to check out the mountain to see if it was worth the drive up with the kids.

Turns out, totally worth it.

The wonderful folks from Tourism Victoria arranged for the rental of all the equipment and a 1-hour personal snowboarding lesson. I had my first and only other snowboard experience up on Lake Tahoe 13 years ago with my brother. I fell so badly that I told myself I’d never try it again.

It’s just one of those things I was resigned to not ever be able to do, like base jumping and eating live frogs.

But since everything was arranged, I figured I’d just try it out for 15 minutes and if I sucked, I’d just go tubing or tobogganing like a kid.

The great thing about a private lesson is that you learn so much faster than going for a class. The first thing the instructor did was take me up the ski lift to snowboard down the hill. There were all these really small kids whizzing past me like pros and they made it look so easy. After 2 rounds, I could make it all the way down all on my own.

For real. I made it down this slope all by my lonesome. I fell more times than I could count but I made it down long stretches on the board. Huge achievement.

On Monday, we brought the kids up to Mt Buller for 2 days for a bit of snow play. They’ve never seen snow and they absolutely LOVED it. They had snowsuits and boots to keep them all snug and warm the whole time. Kirsten just stomped around in the snow and made snow angels, snow balls and a snowman.

Tru was more of an adrenaline junkie so he did the toboggan and skiing. After the 8th time dragging the toboggan back up the slope, he slumped over in the snow all dramatic and said “I cannot make it, I got no strength.” So the husband had to drag the toboggan up the hill with him sitting on it.

If you’re heading to Melbourne (especially with kids), you should definitely do the drive up to Mt Buller. It’s an experience they will never forget.

With my newfound snowboarding abilities, I think we’ll be doing this again next winter.

It’s day 5 for me in Melbourne and the kids finally arrived yesterday. It’s obvious that they love it here – they’ve been beaming in delight ever since they reached, even with the jet lag and all. They both happily declared that they’re staying in Melbourne with my sister and not coming back.

Traveling with kids is intense because there are so many things to look into and we’re not the most organized people in the world to begin with so there’s a fair bit of scrambling to be done. But the look on their faces makes it all worth it.

First order of business was to visit the Collingwood Children’s Farm. Right next to the farm was The Abbotsford Convent, which I presume is a real convent. I can’t be sure because we didn’t see any sisters (except mine – ok that was bad, I know) or nuns but the place did look rather convent-ish.

Within the premises was a cafe with a really nice band so we sat down for a cup of joe and some creme brulee. I’m going to have to stop eating cakes with my coffee but they always look so tempting. At the rate I’m eating cakes here, no amount of shredding is going to help me when I get back.

The Children’s Farm was very cool. It’s a real farm but they opened it up for kids (and adults) to visit and experience a bit of animal farming. And it was a total hands on experience, not the sort where you have to observe the animals from behind the fence. They got up close with goats, ducks, geese, chickens, peacocks, sheep and cows.

And this has to be my favorite picture of the day because at the precise moment the photo was taken, Kirsten turned to me and said “mommy I want to touch the lion.” I used to teach them that lions had a lot of bushy facial hair and when she saw the sheep, she was all “BUSHY FACIAL HAIR! LION!”

Today we all learnt that lions and sheep had something in common – facial hair.

We rounded off the visit with a cow-milking session. They brought out Heather to the barn and all the kids took turns helping Heather to prevent engorgement. Having gone through some engorgement myself, I know how much of a pain it can be so we all milked Heather with tremendous gusto.

Ok I didn’t actually get to touch it but my sister said it was warm and squishy and extremely therapeutic. Sort of like a stress ball, except warmer and squishier. The next time I get stressed, I’m going to milk a cow.

Have a good Monday, you guys! We’re heading up to Mt Buller this morning to make snow angels, back with more tomorrow.