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Queenscliff 2017 Day 6 – From Phillip Island to Queenscliff Big4 Beacon Resort

Posted on May 4, 2017February 4, 2018 by ziyi

7am and the alarm clock sounded. K wanted milk and I quickly got up to fix some for him. Later, I got down to being busy packing things into the luggage. Timing was important this day as we had a ferry to catch to make it across to Queenscliff, so that we could get on with our Great Ocean Road road trip the next day.

Mommy woke up soon after to cook K’s lunch and made a simple breakfast for us, a sandwich of leftover ham. When I was done, I spent some time on blogging and then it was more packing again. K didn’t wake up until it was almost time to leave. I had to change his diapers and him out of his pyjamas in bed. Only after was he slowly getting out of bed. Not sure if this was due to the cold or the travel fatigue.

We checked out of the resort at 930am with mommy returning the keys and then it was a 2 hrs drive to the Sorrento ferry terminal. There wasn’t much to mentioned for the route there, traffic was ok, road was normally 1 lane and small towns have uncountable numbers of roundabouts used to great effect. K was not noisy but exceptionally tired looking. He wasn’t eating anything except for asking for some crackers and cheese in which mommy didn’t allow him to have the cracker because he was coughing and only had the cheese. He laid on mommy’s lap till we reached the Sorrento ferry terminal, in a nice little town which we didn’t spend any time to explore.

Upon arrival at 1130am, 30 mins before the scheduled departure of 12noon, we drove to the counter just in front of the gate and gave the email on the prebooked Searoad Ferries tickets of about Aud69 for a car and 2 adults and was given a receipt and an instruction to park at the second lane. K drank a bottle of milk in the car and later got off to stretch a little, and enjoyed chasing the seagulls around.

We didn’t wait too long as the ferry reversed into the loading area at 12 and we drove our cars onto the ferry individual lanes, guided by the staff onboard. Later, we proceeded onto the 2nd floor where the huge passengers lounge area and seated next to the windows. Gave K his pasta lunch which he took only a little and we bought ours from the cafeteria, a ham and cheese sandwich for me and a chicken pie for mommy, and a much needed coffee for me and some juice for mommy. K continued onto the play area for kids and entertained himself for about 15mins before we arrived at Queenscliff, a very quick 45mins ferry crossing.

With the announcement of arrival, we went back to the car, got my Google map on (saved the map the night before and without need for data) and we were soon driving through the nice little town center of Queenscliff towards Big4 Beacon resort, our stopover for the night.

Checked in after the 10mins short journey and brought down our luggage into the small villa before heading out to Pt. Lonsdale some 5mins drive away. Our objective was to bring K to a playground there while mommy could also get some groceries at the IGA supermarket there.

We parked at a nicely built playground just next to the beautiful beach and K spent the next 1hr climbing high and low, and crossing bridges and ringing bells, and had a couple of rides on the swing, having lotsa fun. I walked around and to the beach for some shots of the surrounding and touch the water which wasn’t really cold. Mommy accomplished the groceries shopping after spending some time with K in the playground. We didn’t have any issues asking K to leave at 230pm and we all got back to the cabin.

K had some yoghurt and then warm milk and I got him to sleep in the small room for kids then relaxed on the sofa for some “me” time. Mommy took the opportunity to catch up on sleep too.

I took a walk outside and first visited the recept to ask if the water was drinking as it looked milky in which she assured was fine and due to piping works earlier, and if there was a portable tub for toddler that I could borrow in which she informed that there was a family room for bathing with a tub just opposite our cabin.

After that, I went exploring the resort grounds and saw the small supermarket that sold drinks and other essentials and did bike rentals. There was a indoor swimming pool and a gym. Around the corner of the road was a outdoor playground and a indoor playground just next to it. There was a room for activity but there wasn’t anyone around, probably low season.

I returned to the cabin and cleaned up the dishes with a suspicious green liquid that might be detergent (room list had a detergent which couldn’t be found). At about 430pm, I went on out to the same IGA to buy some water, driving there as mommy woke up to prepare dinner. Got a 10l water that could doubled up as a water dispenser and some carrots and garlic and eggs and sweet corn. I saw a Dora sticker book for aud4 and bought that too and of course a bottle of local handcrafted beer.

By the time I left, the sun was almost setting. Returned at 530ish and K was still sleeping. He only woke up a little later and was very grumpy. He wouldn’t want to go to the playground as we had planned and wanted to eat pasta already. He watched TV while I fed him pasta which mommy had already finished preparing but he wasn’t eating a lot. When he was done and it was almost 730pm, he said he wanted to visit the playground.

I tried our luck as the closing time of the indoor playground was 730pm. The whole place was already dark and so cold. Brought him there and found the door locked and he felt disappointed even though I explained several times that he didn’t wanted to go earlier. Ended up playing in the external playground instead, until mommy came and we all left.

As we hadn’t taken our dinner, we decided to visit Queenscliff town to see there was anything still opened. 5mins drive away and we found a dead town (what’s new?) and drove further on to the harbour which was dead too. Settled at a Queenscliff fish and chips store (Asian ran) and bought a big bag of Barrumandi fish and chips for aud12 plus the tartar for aud1 and the tomato for 80cts. Got back to the car and K was still quite grumpy.

Back to the cabin we shared the fish and chips while K watched one YouTube video (and obediently returned the phone when he was done). Then I prepared the blow-up bathtub and the water while mommy turned up the heat on the air conditioner for bath time. We took ours afterwards and K enjoyed the reading the sticker book with me before he down his bottle of milk. The electricity kept shutting down as there was a timer device that did that, for reducing residual electricity for standby devices. As a result, the milk warmer was never heating the milk until I turned it up all the way to full, causing a delay to warming the milk. Luckily K was still patient.

Lights off happened at past 11pm.

Phillip Island 2017 Day 5 – Inverloch, the Caves beach and Penguin Parade

Posted on May 3, 2017February 4, 2018 by ziyi

The usual morning routine took place as I made milk for K and he continued to snooze at 7am while mommy got up to make lunch for K. Today was a free and easy day as there weren’t any plans yet, as mommy claimed that there were many things to do on Phillip Island and was up to me to decide.

Mommy made breakfast too, frying 2 eggs to complement our ham sandwich while K had a little cereal, bread and half a banana. After we were done, we got dressed and prepared to get out, almost 1030am already. K wasn’t wanting to get onto the car and had to be manhandled, being cranky about car rides and wanted to go to a playground without the car.

The first stop, when we weren’t sure where to go, was to get to the visitors center just a couple of minutes from the apartment. I helped K changed his diapers in the toilet as he didn’t want to do it before leaving and I brought K into the info center while mommy went to Coles to get water. The staff at the visitors’ center introduced the main highlight, which was the penguin parade, and other stuff that costed money. Lightly spoke about the Amaze N’ things park and the Chocolate factory. We didn’t get anything initially and went to the bells outside for K to strike.

After discussion, I went to purchase 2 adult tickets for aud50 each with time to reach at 515pm, which was considerably more expensive as the one we did in New Zealand that was free. This however was the upgrade one compared to the normal one which was about half the price because I thought we were going to spend time to brave the cold night sea wind we had better be able to see something, where in New Zealand we couldn’t see anything as it was dark and the penguins were tiny. We could only hear and experience the electrifying atmosphere as the nest all sounded with chirps of baby birds waiting for their parents return.

Without any place else to visit, we decided to visit Inverloch instead, since we weren’t able to yesterday. It was a 50mins drive on the same route and we turned on the music for K to keep him distracted and was prepared with a plastic bag on hand.

We arrived at the small quiet town and again parked at the visitors center. Mommy went to ask what was available and again, there wasn’t much as well. She was introduced a beachside visit, the Caves dinosaur dig beach was indicated on the map, and so we drove along the coast for about 15mins to get there and parked at the public parking. There were just a few cars there and from the parking, we had to walked a small wooden platform to reach the beach front, along the sides where info boards talking about dinosaurs. Didn’t really read them as we walked to the beachfront. Low tide exposed a huge area of sand and rocky surface. As it was difficult to walk on the rocks and while mommy and K tried and fell on their bums, they stayed at the wooden platform while I walked around to “find” dinosaurs. Actually there wasn’t much to see here (and didn’t know where to look), whatever was found didn’t leave any specific traces. The rocky surface had some interesting pattern due to interactions with the tides but those were all. We left soon after as K wanted to have his pasta and play in the playground.

We drove the same route back and parked at the public parking near a playground near the Esplanade. As mommy fed K his pasta in the car, I went to buy lunch, fish and chips (Inverloch Fish & Chips) for aud9.9 for mommy and I got myself a burger 6.7 of beacon and cheese (Inlet fish N Chips) from 2 different stores. These weren’t fast food literally as they took some preparation time while I go snap some photos of this small town.

After getting the food, I returned to the car to find K almost finishing his meal and I quickly munched on my burger, which was pretty good and brought K to the playground while mommy had her giant size fish and chips at the free to sit BBQ tables next to the playground.

K had fun with the swing and the slide and bridge and we spent our time there till it was 230pm. Then we had to return to Phillip Island soon to meet the Penguin Parade timing. Before getting onto the highway, we visited the small jetty next to the Esplanade road for a short photo snaps (just calm waters and nothing much to see except some small fishes) and then we left.

On the way back, K expectedly fell asleep. We decided to take a detour to see a bit more of the island by driving to Rhyll. It was the eastern end of the island and near the coast, the waters were extremely calm with black swans floating atop. The cafes were closed and nothing much to do so we drove back to the apartment.

After parking, mommy went ahead to prepare the meals for K while I sat in the car. K woke up really grumpy at 430pm and after turning on the TV for him, he finally became better. We left at 450pm and headed for the Penguin Parade, with all the necessary cold wear.

It was about a 15mins drive and there was a huge carpark available but those nearer to the entrance have already been parked. We actually wanted to go to the Nobbies to have a look but didn’t have the time. With the ticket in hand, we were informed to proceed to the sitting area. Within the center, there was a cafeteria, a souvenir store and a theater, we just headed to the exit towards the sea.

The wooden walkpath brought us to 2 ticketing check points along the way, and the final one was either to the Penguin Plus that we bought, a sitting area near the beachfront or the underground viewing which gave people a chance to see the penguins at their level, by being underground.

We arrived at almost 520pm and the best seats were all taken. Best seats were those facing the sea so that you could see them do the beach landing and still close to the ground to see the penguins up close and personal. We were seated well away from the sea view but close to the ground. Almost immediately we saw a penguin, which was extremely early in daylight and quickly took a photosnap of it. Photography and videography was strictly banned during the parade itself so it was a rare shot that I had.

The penguins started to come later, though there were exceptional early comers. The main bulk that came in staggered groups of 5 to as huge as 30 penguins and K had fun watching these “bunches” of penguin walked past. We could also see penguins in groups climbing the hills as they made their way to the nests. There were some of the nests close by which we could see the penguins entering and exiting them. We thought we saw a pair of penguins mating as one got on top or another and some squabbering happening between 2 birds.

K lost interest nearer to the 630pm mark and started climbing up and down. As I climbed with him to the top platform, I saw penguins at the beachfront in different “waves”. Somehow reminded me of a beach attack by soldiers in “Saving private Ryan” as they landed and charged up to their nests. We could see pretty clearly because unlike the one in New Zealand, the place was lighted up with a warm orange light and that helped us to see them without confusing these birds, which would be disastrous as this location was their natural habitat.

We left at about 645pm and en-route along the wooden path we could still see penguins marching back, and some of the houses were just next to the walkway. We even saw some getting onto the roads as they walked as close as next to the building.

We headed to the exhibit hall inside the main building as mommy visited the toilet. K had fun jumping on the stairs and going through some parts of the exhibits, such as looking at the height of the blue penguin. Next we popped by the souvenir store where mommy bought a head warmer and a tee for K and K was having fun touching all the stuff around him. Before leaving, we took a photo with a giant size penguin stuff toy.

By the time we got out of the place it was almost 730pm, and I checked under the car, as advised, just to make sure that there weren’t any penguins there before we were on our 15mins trip back to the apartment.

Changed K diapers immediately since he pooped during the Penguin Parade and turned on the YouTube for him to watch as mommy cooked macaroni for all of us. Tonight was mushroom soup for us and chicken soup for K. K continued to watch TV where Simpsons were on and I fed him while he ate, which was surprisingly a lot.

After dinner was about bathing and again he pooped. Quickly clean up before taking a warm bath and getting ready for bed. As the dishwasher did the dishes, we had more time to relax in bed, K playing his new wooden rocket toy that mommy bought for him just that morning for aud35 in Philip Island town. Afterwards it was then bedtime stories and lights off.

Phillip Island 2017 Day 4 – Belgrave to Sneaky beach and overnight on Phillip Island

Posted on May 2, 2017February 4, 2018 by ziyi

The daily alarm sounded at 7 and I woke almost immediately to make milk for K whom was a little restless (heard something about not wanting to sleep anymore in the middle of the night) and milk could get him to continue to sleep. Soon after drinking, true enough K continued to sleep. I continued to blog, trying to keep up with backlog by writing on the day itself or on the day that just past, so that I could put it on as soon as I return back to Singapore. I woke mommy up at 830 and she started to prepare meal for K for the journey today. I packed the rest of the items into the luggage as much as I could.

When we were done, we tried to get K out of bed who was still sleeping soundly. Quickly replaced his diapers and changed him out of his pyjamas before we got out of the apartment at 930am. The breakfast was provided for free at the accommodation and was on the 2nd level where the landlord stayed. We met her at the door and when given a choice to sit outside or inside, mommy chose inside, afraid of the morning chill.

There was a huge rectangular wooden table and prepared for us on nice glass cups were bowls of cut fruits. K had the same but with only rock melon and kiwi. There was also a large jar of cereal and a cup of cold milk for K to eat, which he took a little as he rather spend time exploring the place, trying to play with the toys that belonged to the landlords’ children. Fortunately there was another pail of blocks that the landlord so kindly offered K to play. We had a long breakfast, chatting with the hosts as they spoke about different people and their different lives and what they did before while we shared ours and ate the yummy multigrain toast with butter. After finishing with my coffee and my wife with her tea, it was already 1030am and we bid farewell to them and their shy daughter whom was celebrating her 3rd year old birthday and offered K a chocolate cupcake to takeaway.

We continued to pack as I finished up the luggage and mommy finished up packing the meals into the containers (and K his cupcake) we only manage to leave the apartment at 11am. Our initial plan was to visit the coastal town of Inverloch which was 1.5hrs away. Punched in the location on Google maps which mommy had downloaded the whole map already and we were on our way.

All seemed well and I drove within speed limits to avoid any road sickness but 30mins into the drive, K puked. We were prepared as mommy tried to catch whatever that came out with a plastic bag but there was still splashes in the car. Fortunately it wasn’t stinky, probably because what came out weren’t milk but the fruits that he ate. I stopped by the roadside for a quick clean up and then we were on our way.

K then fell asleep which was good, as that meant that I could speed up a little and not worry about the vomiting again. We then changed our minds to visit squeaky beach instead, as that was at a much further distance, 2hrs additional to be exact. It was a very long drive, mostly on single lane roads and as at some places, there were multiple bends. Along the way, there weren’t much views to mention about, the usual rural ones like farms with horses, large green grassland dotted with houses. Mommy too fell asleep in between as I drove. The irritating thing was the weather, it seemed to be either raining most of the way or gloomily cloudy.

I tried to get to a station close to the park to get lunch for ourselves, so as to minimize stoppage and disturbance to K. But the whole journey I couldn’t see any, and the last big town was a fish creek which we left for 20mins already so I was a little worried. Thankfully at Yanakie there was supposedly a bakery (which was closed on arrival) and a Lance Moon park with a playground and most importantly, a tiny Shell station with a shop that sold warm pastries. K played in the playground even though it was cold and the wind was merciless but he couldn’t do the slide as it was still wet from the rain. After convincing him to leave, we stopped by the station stall to buy hotdog bun and pie for aud12. I didn’t think we needed to pump any gas now and wasn’t sure if it was too expensive to pump here and so continued our drive to the national park.

We reached the entrance of the Wilson Promontory National park in about 15mins and as there were counters there, we thought we had to pay. The counters were closed but there were instructions on the board to pick up an info paper and also information saying that there was no need to pay for day visit. Then another 20mins of 30km drive within the nicer roads of the national park, this time flanked by lots of greens. K was well behaved, listening to children songs all the way till we reached the car park of squeaky beach.

It was already 230pm and we were all famished, especially K as he had vomited out his breakfast. We lunched in the car with the parents having the pastries and K having his chicken soup pasta. Although we wanted K to finish his food and not be hungry, we were worried that overeating can cause him to puke again on the return journey. We made sure that he was really satisfied before keeping the rest.

After we suited up, we walked the 300m to the beach, braving the very cold and strong wind. K had fun crossing the 2 small wooden bridge saying that he was scared to fall through the space between the planks but it was too small for that to happen. As we reached the beach, we found a huge area of sand and I carried K so that we could get slightly closer to the waters ( and the sandy areas looked a little wet). Thunderous waves were crashing onto shores which told us not to approach but the chilly wind coming from the sea did the job even better. There were some huge boulders near the shore, which reminded me of some beaches in Mauritius and could make a pretty picture. But most importantly we couldn’t hear squeaky sounds from the beach and felt cheated! This was the main reason why we came ( as who in the right frame of mind would visit the beach during winter?) curious to hear the beach squeak! K loved making footsteps on the sand but we could only stay 10mins before it was about the rain again. On the way back, K again wanted to cross the wooden bridge on his own and the skies held till we got back to the car.

We played the children’s music ( the one mommy had in the phone and was playing it from the park to the national park) in the car before starting the long way back. Just minutes from the carpark were 2 viewpoints where I alighted to snap quick pictures before jumping back to the car. Then the next stop was back at the playground. We wanted to break the journey to minimize puking, and I thought I would just pump gas. Dropped off K and mommy at the playground and I went to pump gas myself. At aud1.28/ liter, the tank was full which ended up with Aud30 costs. I bought drinks for about aud6 and left for the playground. Spend some time with K on the swings and we left after 20mins spent there.

Panoramic view from Wilson Promontory NP

It was the same route back and it was a really long drive, my back already aching. We passed through the town of Inverloch but we weren’t stopping. It was a race against the Sun which set at 6pm as we didn’t like driving in darkness. Days were especially short during winter and nothing much could be achieved in this short period. K fell asleep 30mins from arriving into Philip island, after munching on some cracker and cheese. Relieved to see the bridge linking the main island to Phillip island and we arrived at Coles supermarket at about 630pm, already dark and the town already looked dead. Mommy got off to shop first while I waited in the car with K, whom woke up after a while. Since I knew mommy would take quite a while, I brought K to the supermarket too, and it was huge. There were 2 buttons on the wall near the frozen chill fridge that had sounds of chicken and cow when pressed and K had some fun pressing them there. I tried to look for beer but couldn’t find them.

We drove to the Seahorse motel some minutes drive away and mommy got off to check in at the recept. It was a single storey apartment with a carpark in front of it, like a chalet. I felt it was quite a nice accommodation, which even came with a kitchen and a backyard with tables to chill.

Mommy prepare dinner while I went to the recept to buy wifi (as indicated in the guest info book) for aud2 each device for the entire stay but was given free. I also got a picture of a seahorse for K to do some coloring. Returning back to the apartment K spent some time on YouTube which we promised to let him watched. But we were finding it hard for him to keep his promise on the length of time spent on the device.

Mommy cooked macaroni for all for dinner, difference was ours came with sauce and tomato soup while K was plain with chicken and carrot soup. After dinner, I bathed K and even though I managed to warm up the room closest to the toilet, it was still cold as he left the tub, shivering. K had some FaceTime with granny and more video time after his bath (and again having trouble returning the phone to us) and it was bedtime stories before lights off at 11pm.

Belgrave 2017 Day 3 – Melbourne to Belgrave, Puffing Billy train ride

Posted on May 1, 2017February 4, 2018 by ziyi

7am and the alarm rang. K woke up to and asked for milk, which I made in a jiffy for him. He fell asleep after that. The parents however were all up and preparing for the move today. Mommy prepared the meals and I packed. Deflated the tub and anything that wasn’t required for the day all went into the luggage. I left early to the car rental company to get the car first as we had to leave by 930am. Brought along one luggage to minimize moving later. Apex car rentals was sharing an office with Budget, and could be found at the storefronts facing Spencer street. When I arrived, the staff was servicing a couple already.

15 mins later, it was my turn. Since we have made the booking online, I just had to give my address and 2 phone numbers, signed 2 forms and I was ready to go. She gave me a carpark redemption ticket and informed that I could pickup my Hyundai Elantra at the Wilson carpark just up the ramp to the left and to meet with one of the staff there who would proceed with the handover. I left the office and met with the staff on the first floor and after looking at the form, he handed over the key to the car saying that he checked and since it was zero excess he wasn’t overly concerned. A quick intro and a help with the luggage, I was ready to leave the carpark.

I drove out with the redemption ticket and once on the main road, I made a right to drive to the small Little Londales street and left my car there. Supposed to pay for parking but since we were going to be quick and also I couldn’t remember what the signs met, I took the chance and went up to the apartment.

Entering the apartment, I found K still sleeping in bed. I tried changing the diapers for him and that woke him up. Changed his clothes gave him some Youtube “Wheels on the bus” videos to make him move. Even with that it took a while to get him out of the apartment. Mommy had already done the tablet check out earlier on.

After dropping the keys off at the letterbox, I loaded up remaining luggage and start our road trip, a drive towards Belgrave, at almost 945am. With the GPS on Google maps with the newly minted data plan, we drove about 40 mins to Woolworths in Belgrave. After a few busy streets in busy Melbourne, we got onto M1 and joined quite a crowd on the expressway with many heavy vehicles. There was etoll, like ERP, and charges would be done through the credit card. Exited M1 and onto the smaller roads, it was also not difficult to drive.

1030am and arrived into the small town center of Belgrave. We were lucky to find a parallel parking slot that I drove right into, especially when the road was extremely busy, for the visit to the supermarket. Mommy got off the car to buy something to eat and when she returned, she only managed to get cream rolls. We continued towards the final location which was another few hundred meters to free parking of Puffing Billy, which I was quite surprised to find it full on a weekday so we drove further down the street and found an official carpark of Mater Christi that was free too.

We had to backtracked down the street to the entrance of Puffing Billy and we used the toilet there before proceeding to the ticketing, further ramps below. Since we had made an online purchases, we only need to exchange for the return tickets and souvenir tickets at the counter. Through the souvenir stores, we moved to the boarding platform and it was crowded. We got up close to the locomotive at the front to take a photo of the “true to its name” Puffing Billy and went to search for a place to sit in the free sitting train. We ended up in an enclosed carriage at the end as the open carriages in front was all filled. The enclosed carriage was initially empty when we boarded but eventually was filled up too.

A while later as scheduled, the train started to leave at 1110am. It was an interesting experience on this comparatively slow moving train and amusing to see everyone have their legs hanging out in those open carriages as the train travelled.

The train would stopped at multiple stops, first at Menzies creek and then at Emerald, both for about 5 mins where people could get off, take photos, stretch and/or use the toilet. K got off to kick some rocks and stomped on some leaves.

Our choice of stop was the next one at Lakeside which we arrived at 1230pm. There was a small lake by the station and the plan was to find a table and bench where we could sit there for picnic lunch. Mommy and K settled on one of them and I proceeded to the one and only Emerald Lake Park cafe there to buy a chicken focaccia and a chicken wrap for aud18 and aud4.5 for drinks.

We took our lunch till 1pm, disturbed by a bee and accompanied by birds, a few moments of chilly wind and an overall nice backdrop. Explored the area a bit and went to the bridge, where K had fun running across the bridge several times. After the photos and the running, we returned to the train at 120pm, this time earlier to try to get some seats. This time, we chose the open carriage one and the journey back seemed to have less people. Train left at 135pm.

The return journey felt colder because the carriage was uncovered. K soon fell asleep. The 2 station stops were very quick, about 1min stoppage and the train would leave. We arrived back at Belgrave at around 220pm. With K still sleeping, we walked back to the car with K in my arms until he awoke upon reaching the car. Before heading back to the accommodation, we made a stop at Woolworths again and parked at a 3P carpark across the road. Spent some time at the supermarket while K was engrossed with the Marvel stuff on sale, mommy went to shop for groceries.

By the time we left for the airbnb, it was about 330pm. There were driving instructions given to us over email and I immediately recognized the parking area when we arrived. We parked at a small carpark area.

The landlord met us and showed us the apartment with a fireplace. We were surprised not able to find kitchen as it was stated in the webby and we were intending to cook. K seemed to like the place as he started running around from room to room. The landlord then showed us what was available outside like the playhouse that was built by her husband and boy which K played in. K liked the steering wheel but there were cobwebs as it might not have been used that often. We were introduced to their gardens and sandpit with filter, all didn’t seemed playable for K at this time of the year. There was a nice breakfast eating place too. The family had a thing for engineering and ecofriendly things like solar panel. We were also told about not turning the aircon on throughout the night with big temperature difference as that would chocked up huge bills, and not being energy efficient.

The husband came back and I had to move the car to the side as that space was meant for their car. After that, he helped us set up the fireplace to warm up the area. Then we stayed in in the apartment to rest and bathed. Couldn’t cook so after bath, K watched some online videos (no TV too) before we decided to drive out for dinner. It was drizzling as predicted by weatherman so I went to landlord to borrow umbrellas. They only had one which was taken by the husband and he was out. So K wore raincoat and we scurried to the car and drove out to town, negotiating the dark small streets in the drizzle of the neighborhood.

In the almost dead town, we saw a restaurant still opened called Bell tavern. Parked at the roadside closest to the ramp to the entrance and braved the drizzle to get in. There weren’t many people in this bar that was designed like a bar of the old West. Ordered red snapper and a spinach and broccoli fetuccine for aud46. Water was free flow. Since K didn’t have any home cooked dinner, he shared our dinner which he liked and ate a lot. After our meals K spent some time playing at the steps going up and down. We only managed to leave at about 830pm but good thing was, the drizzle had stopped.

Once back, we found the fireplace burning with ferocity since the owner had helped to put in more firewood. It felt warmer already but it was enough to warm up the room where the fireplace was. We changed to pyjamas and got ready for bed. A few story books and a bottle of milk later, it was lights off at 930am, earliest time in the cold night.

Melbourne 2017 Day 2 – Victoria Market, Federation Square and Newwharf promenade

Posted on April 30, 2017February 4, 2018 by ziyi

I woke up at nearly 7 when the daylight started peeking through the shades. The skies were kinda gloomy. Got back into bed and continued writing my ejournal so that I could upload this into my blog later. I had not been able to catch up on updating the blog lately and was still in the midst of updating on the Taiwan trip we had in November last year, due to being busy in work commitments and simply laziness. This trip slow pace allowed for time to pen down the moments of the trip (this and the previous ones). I turned on the heating again as it felt a little too cold even under the sheets while my loved ones seemed unperturbed in their sleep.

K asked for milk which I got out of bed to fix one up. It was snooze time after that. Guess we were all still on Singapore time, at least for both mommy and K as I continued to work on my blog till I fell asleep myself. The next thing I knew we were all awoken at 930am.
The usual routine was mommy to cook the lunch meal while I get K prepared. After packing his meals into containers, we were all ready to leave at 1045am, incredibly late while on holiday but we were expecting a slow pace one.

To the left on La Trobe street was a tram station and since it was within the free tram locations, we hopped on tram 35, one that was particularly routed for tourist to get into town. We hopped off the station on Queen’s street for the a visit to Queen Victoria Market.

It was a short 5mins walk from the tram station which brought us to a huge area, hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of stuff, under one big roof. It was a mega size pasar malam, Aussie style. Much of the things sold though, we weren’t really interested and just keep moving and looking. There weren’t many Aussie products though there were some woollen products, oboriginal wooden stuff and paintings, koalas soft toy. As we took about an hour to walk around and after looking at a street presentation of Indonesian culture with their instruments and dance, we went for lunch at the food court next to the market.

I bought myself a big breakfast with latte from a stall (Q75) inside at aud14.5 and it was not bad. Mommy had a bowl of pumpkin soup in a bread bowl from one of the stalls (The Soup Factory) in the market. K had his pasta and some of my fried egg which he liked but not the mushrooms.

After lunch, we used the toilets and changed K diapers, we walked to the tram station on Elizabeth street to take a tram to the final stop at Flinders’ street. Flinder street station was huge and had a clock tower than K mistaken as Big Ben. We walked along Flinder street towards Federation Square. There was a Sikh exhibition going around but K preferred to spend his time climbing up and down the flight of stairs. We chilled in this beautiful place for a while, where we could also see the big St Paul’s cathedral before visiting the Melbourne tourist center nearby to ask for the nearest Telstra shop.

St Paul cathedral from the visitor center

When I turned on the wifi whilst in the shop, I was surprised to find free public wifi! Logged on and found by google maps that the nearest Telstra were just 2 streets down at a mall called the Block arcade. We walked towards the location and within 10mins we were there. As I kept K busy and myself took a seat after carrying my heavy toddler around, mommy purchased data SIM for aud40 that would give us 3GB of data, should be enough to tide us through the next 15days. The mall itself looked great in the vintage design but we didn’t visit and walked back to the tram station to take tram 35 return to the apartment. There was supposed to be a Parliament House but since everyone was tired, we decided to skip that.

The tram brought us behind the Etihad stadium where we got off as it left for the waterfront. At this time, K had already fallen asleep in my arms. I had to carry him all the way back to the apartment, a good 10 mins walk and it was really tiring. Had to stop and rest for a bit while mommy couldn’t even carry him a while. By the time we were back, it was already 4pm. Mommy made milk for him and I cleaned up some dishes. Then we all took an afternoon nap after K woke up, downed some milk and returned to nap.

520pm and we woke from our nap. Mommy prepared dinner and K prepared for a bath, and as usual with kids, it took awhile to get them moving to the bathroom. It was also quite challenging keep them from getting a cold when getting out of the bath especially in this cold winter day, we had to switched on the air heater to warm up the rooms first (aircon on the heating mode).

Once we were done with our preparations, and trying to get K to stop his YouTube video, we headed towards Newquay for dinner at about 7pm. It was about a 15mins walk, could have been faster if not for K insistence to press every traffic light button along the way there. We stopped by the waterfront to take some photos of the bridge and continued to along Newquay promenade to see if what were available for dinner. There were a couple of restaurants from Asian cuisines to western to choose from. Along the way were a few art structures that K spent time climbing and jumping on the lights on the ground.

Melbourne star ferris wheel in the background

We reached the end of the promenade and decided that we wanted Chinese and thus returned back to Docklands Lotus restaurant for our dinner. The restaurant had some opening hours indicated but not for Sunday and there was only one family eating there. When asked if there were still opened, they checked and since it was just 730pm, they said of course! I assumed they were opened till the same timing of at least 10pm.

The restaurant had toddler seat (the usual IKEA one) which was good as it kept K still and some fish tanks to keep him entertained. We ordered Fried rice and Ee Foo noodles and they came in huge portions. While K ate the rice prepared by mommy, he too shared my fried rice and I shared mommy’s as she couldn’t finish eating hers. All this we paid for aud38.1.

Left the restaurant and K spent some time looking at the fishes before leaving to the nearby art structures to climb around. The difference now was that the cold wind became unbearably colder than before and as we tried to persuade K to leave, he was still playing around the strictures. He also found time to crap (as he didn’t for the last 3days) and I had to carry him the 15mins ( with the traffic lights) back to the apartment. Upon arrival, I quickly changed his diapers out and gave him some TV time with Ironman 2 on 7mate channel.

After packing a bit in preparation for our move the next day, we got into bed at 10ish pm, a return back to normalcy.

Melbourne 2017 Day 0-1 – Arrival in Melbourne and R&R

Posted on April 29, 2017February 4, 2018 by ziyi

Friday night traffic was expectedly a little heavy as we approached Changi terminal 2. Other than 2 traffic accidents, we made it in 40mins from bukit panjang to changi. But the sight at the scoot counter 11 was horrifying. Everyone was escaping on this long weekend. Although they tried to diffuse the crowd by opening another counter on the opposite, the queue was not moving quickly, even with the DYI print out of the boarding passes and the luggage stickers. We cleared the check in by 1145 after a few more counters opened. Luggage was checked in ( although luggage tags were reprinted and repasted) and we moved to the immigrations, the one further away from Scoot since we need to go through the manned counters and they were crowded too.

We thought of getting some reading magazines for K for his entertainment but the Relay bookshop didn’t have any. Walked around and checked the 7-11 but there weren’t any too. K spent some time plane watching before we got onto a few travellators to gate E26 for our boarding ( K went 2 more travellators ahead before I had to carry him back towards the gate).

The gate was crowded as expected and we took a slow walk to board the plane. Having booked the 3 center seats, the overhead compartment were empty which was good for us to store our bags. Whatever jam we had encountered through the night translate to the final jam on the take off as well – we took off at 2am, 40 mins later than schedule.

K had his milk on the plane and slowly dozed off on my lap as the plane took flight. Mommy also had no problem falling asleep. I felt pretty uncomfortable throughout and tried various sleeping positions. What was worse was the fact that I couldn’t put my seat backwards since the passenger behind was a tall guy and his legs were blocking the recline. K moved from lying on my lap to lying onto a sitting position, lying over the armrest on mommy’a overcoat as a pillow.

6am and the plane was lighted up for a while for meals. We bought an Evian water bottle for SGD4 in cash, to quench thirst from the exceptionally dry airplane environment. K didn’t wake from this but 30mins later, the lights dimmed again. I filled in the immigrations card details before going back to sleep.

8am Singapore time which translate to 10am Aussie time, the plane began its descent. K was awoken by then and we made milk for him to drink just before touch down. Taxi took 15mins and we only got off by 11am.

Our first stop was the diaper changing room. Although not the most cosy, it was adequately big and had a changing board to change out K’s diapers. Going through immigration was a long queue, apparently for the automated lanes. For families with children under 16, we were asked to take the yellow lane which was much shorter and the queue moved pretty quickly. After that, it was a short wait at the belt and together with the luggage, we went to the customs.

Having seen so much on TV on the strict border security, we made declarations on the food that we brought from Singapore as we had fresh vegetables, peanuts, dried scallops and rice. We were asked to take lane to that led us to the custom officer whom proceeded with asking for a check. In the end, the fresh vegetables were confiscated as these were deemed disallowed. However I sensed he was also glad that we did the declaration and was friendly yet professional about it.

We exited the arrival hall and proceeded to a nearby Villa & Hut Kafe for something to eat. Ordered ham & cheese croissant and tomato and cheese toastie with Latte and juice, expensive meal of Aud26. Took a rest while K munched on some bread and on the croissant and used the free airport wifi to check in on Facebook.

Next we headed towards the bus ticketing counter, we saw a vending machine with prepaid SIM from Telstra that costed aud30 but offered only 1.5GB in the day and 1.5gb during off peak. Couldn’t check with the nearby counters as they were crowded too. Gave up and took the chance on the stores in Melbourne city.

The Skybus ticketing counter was just nearby and mommy bought the family tickets express bus to the city for aud36 in total. The bus came within 5mins and we boarded the bus at 1220pm. It was quite full bus and thankfully the bus staff helped us with the 2x heavy luggage by shifting the luggage at the rack to accommodate ourselves. We sat on the upper deck in separate single seats as mostly were taken and it was then a 20min ride to the city. Wifi was available on the bus and that kept me entertained for awhile as K rested and fell asleep in mommy’s arms.

We arrived into a spacious bus station and as mommy carried K down the bus, I managed all the bags. Then we swapped roles taking over K at the station while mommy pushed the luggage towards our Airbnb apartment for 2 nights, at 288 Spencer street.

K woke up soon after from the walk and we arrived at the basement and gave a call to the contact in the email. Some 5mins later, the rep came and meet us and brought us up to 36 floor, the highest level of the building. Opening the main door revealed a apartment with a killer view, a panoramic of the river could be seen! The space was quite compact but not small and was comfortable for a living room and a kitchenette. K immediately liked it, tumbling around on the carpet.

The rep completed the check in process, on a tablet and also explained the check out and left us to watch TV for a bit. After that, we walked back to the Coles supermarket right across the street to so some marketing, especially after the vegetables had been confiscated.

Coles was huge and while K had fun jumping on the square tiles on the floor, mommy consolidated the purchases that came up to be about Aud88. These included a pack of diapers that we had to buy as we didn’t bring everything from Singapore due to a lack of packing space, a can of milk powder, which was cheaper in Australia and also lack of packing space and other stuff like water, organic fresh milk (cheaper than Singapore too) and vegetables.

Walked back to the apartment with a toddler in one arm and tons of bags in another. Mommy started preparing macaroni and egg for K as he seemed to be hungry, asking for pasta while he had some yogurt first. We later oven cooked our meals that was also bought from the supermarket which was quite expensive (aud6 minimum) for something that was microwave food. It tasted ok though.

4pm and we all were tired. Did the afternoon nap routine and after a bottle of milk, we all knocked out. I had a diarrhea going on but was quick to return to the bed for a catch up on sleep.

730pm and the sky was already dark. The city electrifying lights painted a beautiful scene just outside the windows. Mommy woke up to prepare the dinner while I turned on the heating to warm the room and pumped up the bubble tub for K to bath. There was good warm water but this was expected in a modern city. Not sure if this would be the same as we ventured outwards later in the tour.

We took our turns to bath too and at about 9pm did we managed to get out of the apartment in search of dinner. Dressed in double layers to protect against the cold, we walked down Little Lonsdale street in search for a restaurant by the name of The Bass Coq, which was supposedly opened till late, based on Google search. We found it closed. Most of those still opened were a couple of Korean cuisine restaurants. After a walk around, we decided to go to one of them.

Dosirock Korean restaurant and it was all warm and cosy inside. This was not very crowded like some others found along the way and so we went in. There were’t baby seats though and K had managed to just on the stool for the whole duration of eating his cooked rice and soup dinner mommy had prepared for him. We ordered the pork stew with extra ramen and it came with a portable stove.

The dinner was nice but we had to manage this extraordinarily curious boy who couldn’t sit still and had to touch everything in sight. The stove was placed away from him and thankfully the utensils were not breakable as he dropped the cups so many times. We finished the meal and paid Aud34 with tips (aud34 with 10% off on cash payment) and I ended with a wetting my jeans as K toppled a cup of water.

We walked back to the apartment and from 1030pm till 1145pm, spend it on TV which didn’t have any toddlers program already at that time and some bedtime stories before lights off, ending an easy day at Melbourne.

Escape to Victoria & South Australia April 2017

Posted on April 28, 2017June 23, 2020 by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Victoria & South Australia 2017:

Total duration 16D15N
Melbourne is 2hrs ahead of Singapore. Flight time is 7hrs 25mins on Scoot from Singapore to Melbourne.
Adelaide is 1.5hrs ahead of Singapore. Return is 7hrs on Singapore Airlines from Adelaide to Singapore.

Flight from Singapore to Melbourne at 115am, arriving at 1040am in Melbourne. Return flight from Adelaide to Singapore is at 910am and touching down in Singapore at 310pm.

Day 0-1 – Arrival in Melbourne and R&R
Day 2 – Victoria Market, Federation Square and Newquay promenade
Day 3 – Melbourne to Belgrave, Puffing Billy train ride
Day 4 – Belgrave to Squeaky beach and overnight at Phillip Island
Day 5 – Inverloch, the Caves beach and Penguin Parade
Day 6 – From Phillip Island to Queenscliff Big4 Beacon Resort
Day 7 – Coogoorah Park, Split Point lighthouse and Koala spotting
Day 8 – Otway lightstation, 12 Apostles and the other rocks
Day 9 – Port Fairy to Robe – Tower Hill Reserve and the Blue Lake
Day 10 – Robe to Victor Harbour – Kingston Lobster, Meningie and Victor Central
Day 11 – From Victor Habour to Kangaroo Island Emu bay – R&R
Day 12 – Flinders Chase National Park and Vivonne bay
Day 13 – Raptor Domain and Seal bay
Day 14 – Arrival in Glenelg, harbour town outlet shopping and Beachouse
Day 15 – Botanic Gardens and Rundle Mall
Day 16 – Home Sweet Home

This trip was planned to as one of our annual trip for 2017. There were 2 days of public holiday in May and therefore to maximize the usage of our leave, we chose to do it at this time of the year. Torn between the choices of going to Central Europe and South Australia, we ended up with SA because of the ease of logistics arrangements.

Budget – Not cheap.

Costs of food were expensive since food court was not usual in towns outside the main cities. Costs of accommodation were not cheap either especially when we need a kitchen to cook. Fuel was thankfully way cheaper than Singapore and with the not too bad exchange rate, costs were balanced out.

Complexity – Easy with GPS downloaded into the phone in a car

The initial traveling plan was to drive around with a data enabled phone but since we could actually download the google map onto the phone, we didn’t need data at all! Paved roads most of the time was easy to drive though some of them were a little bumpy for an Elantra. Signboards were everywhere. Since attractions were far from one place to another, driving would be the best option for a family traveling from one spot to another.

Perth 2015 Day 5 – Home Sweet Home

Posted on August 10, 2015September 22, 2019 by ziyi

Alarm sounded at 7am to trigger a rush to pack and get ready. There was still breakfast to eat, food to clear, bottles to wash, baby to clean up, car to repark and pay and things to pack.

The weather wasn’t good, with some sun early in the morning which was quickly replaced with dark clouds and frequent on off showers. By the time we left the room at 10mins past nine, it was trickling.

Parked at the front of the hotel while I settled the remaining bills due to the in room dinner before moving the fatter luggage into the car. The road to the airport was easy most of the time except that there could be some new roads that weren’t updated on the GPS and that caused the GPS to go crazy for a bit.

I dropped off my wife and son together with the luggage at the new drop off point because there was some construction going on. As I wanted to push all the luggage to the airport first, I was informed by one of the ground staff that I couldn’t leave the car unattended or else risk towing off. I couldn’t leave my wife to push the heavy luggage while carrying my son either. So I pushed the luggage to the front of the departure hall and asked one of the security to help look after it before going back to get my wife who was waiting at the car.

This was kind of frustrating since we were on our own with no empathetic help. There was also an instruction on how to return the car and I was trying to key into the GPS the location but was again chased off by the same staff. No choice, I drove on with only the uploaded map on my phone, which thankfully worked.

The nearest carpark was carpark H and luckily enough, there was already one spot empty beside the opening to the walkway back to T1. Left the key, carpark ticket and the GPS in the hand glove compartment, manually locked the door and took a picture of the car before taking the 5mins quick walk to the terminal, which was really really far. Thankfully the rain wasn’t there to make matters worse.

Perth International airport. Renovation ongoing.

Checked in was done rather quickly even at 1hr 45 mins before fly time as the queue was short. Went to the departure gate quickly and before entering, spent some time on filling up departure cards. Then as we proceeded to the immigrations, there was just a short queue too, which was done rather smoothly.

Immediately after that was the TRS where there wasn’t a queue at all. I got my refund on the credit card itself by showing the MacBook and the receipt, which should end up at least 5% cheaper than in Singapore, if not more.

The final hurdle was the scan and as usual, I was required to go through the X-ray scan. 2 tries and there was unusual stuff detected on my right foot. I gave up my right show for the Xray scanner. There were some issues with the ice packs for chilling the milk that we brought as well, which we only had one pack returned to us.

Then it was the gates, shopped some souvenirs and bought some food back, got ourselves a Morish macadamia nuts as it seemed like a popular brand in Perth.

The plane came in late and the boarding was pushed back by at least 30mins. As they called for passengers with children to board first, we went ahead but in the end had to wait in the tunnel to the plane.

This Qantas flight was a much smaller plane 737 compared to the Scoot that brought us there. As we were also given the window seats, it felt a lot more crammed up with the 3rd

passenger locking us in.

When the plane took off, baby K who was watching out of the window then fell asleep and it was a deep sleep amazingly. We thought all was good for at least an hour but after he awoke, it wasn’t that good anymore. There was at least another 3hrs of flight to take and he was cranky when he got bored. That became quite challenging especially we weren’t readily available to move onto the aisle which was perpetually full of people queuing to use the toilet and we were seated near the tail end of the plane with the toilets there.

The baby food that was given consisted of 2 packs of puree, a pair of teething biscuits and a packet of juice. Baby K didn’t like it so we had to feed him with milk and even a little portion of banana that we brought on the plane.

Nearing the end of the flight, baby K was cranky and my wife carried him to sleep in the Ergobaby, which he did very quickly. But as she sat back at the seat, the air stewardess informed that baby K had to buckle up and could not be in the Ergobaby. That was again quite frustrating as it seemed like the infant seat belt was more reliable than the infant carrier which was clearly not the case. Anyhow, that movement out woke him up and made him cry a little. The. It was all about entertaining him before we landed safely in Changi.

Nothing more interesting as we got out luggage and exit.

This was a getaway that was meant to be easy for us as we had learnt from our Europe experience 2 months back. We had more time in the room but due to a change in appetite for baby K, there was also a need for more time for food preparation. Still it felt easier and less tiring and therefore more enjoyable. The next trip could be even more challenging but still we looked forward to that.

Perth 2015 Day 4 – Caversham Wildlife Park and King’s Park

Posted on August 9, 2015September 22, 2019 by ziyi

The sun rays peeked into the gap between the curtains and the wall and I woke up quickly to close it up further in order not to wake up the baby. I proceeded to the living room and welcomed the sight that we had wished since the day of arrival – clear skies. That meant a beautiful sunrise as well. Shot some photos before going back to bed.

Didn’t really sleep long before I got up and started preparing baby K’s pasta for the day. Learning from the previous day, I prepared all the ingredients quickly and started to cook them too. Also, make used of the dishwasher to make cleaning easier.

Wife woke up next while baby K continued to snooze. We got ready whenever possible and ate our cold sandwiches bought from the day before. When baby K woke, it was only just the bathing required and then we were good to go. Today was the earliest that we left the hotel, at about 11am.

Our destination for today was Caversham wildlife park, at swan valley. It was a 30mins drive but was pretty straight forward. The park was actually located within a village that had a couple of other attractions such as museum. It was also quite a distance from the main road, almost 3km after turning in.

There were quite a number of carparks but those nearer to the entrance were full. Parked the next nearest one available and bought the 2 tickets for $26 each.

The impression of the exhibits here was that there were many birds. Maybe we have seen too many of these sanctuaries so it didn’t impressed. What was different were probably the animal farm show that was pretty good. It showcased sheep herding by sheep dogs, wool shearing, cracking the whip and milking the cow. There was another koala photo taking exhibit that showed a number of them sleeping and of easy location for photos. Then there was meeting the other animals in a huge barn where there was a quoll, possum, some birds, a python and main star, a wombat, for photos.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Snoozing Koala.

Feeding a 2 weeks young lamb. — Bottle feeding a 2 weeks young lamb.

Meeting the friends of wombat. Birds on stand in the distance.

I was wearing just a polo Tee thinking that the sun would hold up and the temperature would become warmer and nicer. It didn’t. In fact, it went the opposite and it got really cold. Luckily we did dressed the baby up with multiple layers. After taking some wefies with the free roaming kangaroos at the field, especially with a white colour one, we quickly left.

There weren’t anything to eat at the center itself so we went back to the car first, fed baby K while my wife got busy with expression before leaving for the only cafe in the area, Village cafe. Ordered All day brekkie and wife had a fish burger and we left with some cakes for possible picnic later.

Next stop was Kings park and I pumped gas enroute. Pumped once and the nozzle sprung back, so I thought it was full. After paying $16 for it, I only found the tank less than 3/4 and I had to return at least 3/4. Pumped again with the nozzle slightly withdrawn and it was another $17, this time it was full, more than I needed to return. Too bad.

Entering Perth City, the drizzle started to come again and we thought it was really bad luck that we couldn’t visit the park and have a picnic there. After reaching the carpark, the rain was still coming down. As the sun started to set, a rainbow came out over Perth city. It was not too bad to have that drizzle now it seemed.

We moved on to another carpark that had a better viewpoint of the riverside. While baby K was being fed in the car, I explored the area and taking photos of the war memorial that was there. After baby K was done, we went around again, without the rain and with the sunset giving a nice hue to the clouds, it was indeed a nice view to bring home for us.

King's Park and Botanical gardens. — King’s Park and Botanical gardens.

Left after a short walk as it was really cold and then an easy 10mins drive back to the hotel. Unload the family first before going around to park the car. I was unable to buy parking tickets. Maybe it was Sunday.

We ordered in room dining to avoid thinking where to get dinner or how to cook one, it costed $71 for a chicken schnitzel and a duck confit. We cooked our own salmon leftover from baby K’s food preparation. Then it was the same routine plus the packing of everything including the purchases that we had for the trip.

Tried to sleep early but we couldn’t get baby K to do so. He fell from the bed after climbing over the pillow wall we made around him on the bed and bumped his head but was lucky that the carpet cushioned the impact. He wasn’t crying a lot so it seemed ok. Still concerned, we might get a brain scan once back.

Another sleeping at 12midnight routine, but it was going to be a early wake up call tomorrow as we would be heading home.

Perth 2015 Day 3 – Perth City shopping

Posted on August 8, 2015September 22, 2019 by ziyi

Day started like yesterday, with the only difference of myself preparing baby K pasta. The most difficult of the task was to slice and dice the salmon, carrots and vegetables into small enough size for baby K. Wasn’t too difficult chopping the frozen salmon, and easier still for the other 2.

We didn’t had breakfast today so we settled for the cookies we bought the day before. Usual work of bathing baby K and changing into a long sleeve polo and a long pants, against the cold if we were having a picnic out in the park. After everything was done, we ended up leaving at about 1230pm.

Discovered that most of the eateries were closed, despite it being only Saturday. Drove some 10mins into town as the bleak weather didn’t provide for a nice weather for picnic. I was worried about parking and driving in town but it was quite alright, with quite a few parking options available. We ended up parking at Raine square, within walking distance to the main shopping areas.

First stop was to get lunch for ourselves and we found a small store called Ark Star Sushi. Ordered some ready made sushi and Teriyaki chicken rice with 2 drinks, came up to about $15. The food wasn’t really Jap standard in my opinion.

Left my wife to express milk while I brought baby K to roam around. The winter wind was furiously strong and I snuggled baby K a little more fearing that he might catch a cold. There were many shops around but I only went to Forrest place and snapped a couple of photos before heading back.

Wife was almost done and we went back to the info counter to enquire about the Apple Store. Went through the Piccadilly arcade and walked down along Hay street. Went into JR duty free but didn’t see the MacBook that I wanted and continued to Apple Store.

It was my first time at Apple store since there weren’t any in Singapore (only authorized resellers). And like my colleague described, they had the nicest of services, having one person to talk to you right from the entrance. Of course being hi tech, all the transactions was done through their on-hand iPod that had a credit card reader. The MacBook was delivered to where I was standing and there was even a staff that helped set it up. The intangible benefits of owning a Apple product was unfortunately not available to Singapore.

As we walked back to our car in order to help baby K sleep, we went first to the modern building Enex100 to use the toilet and it had clean toilets and even a nice huge parents room with a TV playing cartoons. Used the parents room to change diapers and bottle feed baby K. Unfortunately there was hot water dispenser like those in Singapore. There was a microwave that attracted some guys to enter and use, which could be a lost of privacy though.

As we went back to Raine square, it started to rain also even with some sunshine. Baby K had fallen asleep and as we bought some donuts from Krispy Kreme, we went down to the basement food court to sit while baby K snoozed.

As shops were closing around 5pm and worried that we might not be able to get dinner and breakfast for tomorrow, we brought baby K to Coles central for buy microwaveable food. Baby K woke up after about an hour of napping which was great.

Paid for the carpark at the payment machine and it came out to be about $17. The parking fees in Perth were ridiculously high compared to Singapore.

We drove back to the hotel to put foodstuff into the fridge. Then I drove towards Kings’ park. As we arrived, it was already getting dark and the rain started to come down again. There was an area with a nice view of Perth and so we decided to return the next day.

Driving back was pretty straight forward and I managed to park at the carpark on the side of the hotel, which was in fact further than the one I parked the night before.

It was one of the rare moments where we were back at the hotel so early (7ish) but because it was cold and dark out there, and no more shopping at that time, we had no where else to go. Spent the evening microwaving the macaroni and cheese and my wife’s green curry chicken and other stuff, fed baby K and entertaining him and cleaning bottles of course.

Pasta and cheese with pumpkin and veg mash.

Saturday night was sports night and mostly rugby was on TV. Wanted to watch the BPL but there weren’t such options on Fox.

Baby was cranky for no particular reason after waking up from a nap and that drove us mad. Had to take a while before both parents and baby cooled it off.

Ate the strawberries and cherry tomatoes we purchased from the markets in Fremantle and IGA correspondingly and it was really sweet! That made us think if we should buy more strawberries home. Baby K could only watch since we hadn’t try giving berries to him, fearing allergies.

Then nap time at 11pm while I blogged this till 12. Time flew past really quickly this National Day long weekend. The winter must had been the accelerant.