Blessings from Above

we usually have our reunion dinner with our respective families earlier and take off for a short getaway during CNY as dh hardly has any opportunity to take leave during the year (he goes to work even when he is unwell and on mc). after much deliberation, we decided to travel to hong kong/macau to see how other 'chinese' cities celebrate CNY, which on the hindsight was a great decision (we booked our holiday in sept) since i'm still in the 1st trimester and really shouldn't be doing long distance/3rd world country travellling. we really packed light this trip as compared to previous ones - one luggage for ALL our barangs (it was less than 23kg) and we didn't even bring along the stroller which is a mighty amazing accomplishment considering that we had to bring along li'l one's cooker, food, diapers and multiple change of clothes + winter wear for everyone! i believe it was the cold weather that 'helped' increase li'l one's appetite as she...

no, we didn't put our names on a new property and no, we did not strike lottery! all we did was to spend the weekend away, in batam, to enjoy quality time together as a family. the exchange rate is approximately S$1 to 7,500 indonesian rupiah... so that explains how much we spent eh? we had a complimentary night stay, thanks to mil's hotel card again, paid for an extra night and upgraded to a king sized bed since l'il one still sleeps with us. we had no plans at all, except to relax at the hotel. this is the breakdown of how much we spent: 2 nights accommodation : 569,500 indonesian rupiah return ferry tickets for 2 adults + 1 child : S$138 (1,035,000 indonesian rupiah) including departing terminal fees of S$7 per pax BBQ buffet dinner w/drinks for 2 adults : 323,351 indonesian rupiah lunch @ Jap restaurant : about S$30 (225,000 indonesian rupiah) buffet breakfast for 2 adults : 157,300 indonesian rupiah spa for 2 adults : 375,000 indonesian rupiah Ayam Pen...

our flight today leaves brisbane at 2pm so we weren't left with that much time - fortunately, we managed to get the packing done last night so we could spend the morning leisurely. one of the reasons why we never spend unnecessary money on accommodations when we travel is that its really just a place for us to rest our heads after an exciting day out (so really, the bed is the only highlight for us)- dh hates hotel breakfasts and more importantly, we rarely even use the facilities within the hotel/apartments premises. haha... we only explored the facilities at tiki village just before we checked out (mostly just to capture some photos for keepsake!)... :P lovely view of the river from the roof top daddy & bb tan at the rooftop jacuzzi (i'm not sure if anyone uses that coz all the apartments come fitted with one!) me & dd at the pool side after checking out, its an hour's drive back to brisbane city - dh just had to have his katsu don once more before we headed...

after spending slightly more than one morning at the koala sanctuary, we made a pit stop to the nearest mall for lunch and also some clean shoes and sock for my little princess. we then headed over to cleveland , where my friend resides. she has a lovely house facing the beach - at the back of the house was a nice,small pool and a river where her family yacht used to be berth. the yacht has since been sold though. i'm sure hers is a holiday home that many of us can only dream of. :) i didn't get a chance to snap a photo of her nice house but i did snap some photos of her cute little kitten - soda. claire loves animals - she's always excited and happy to see them - she was giving soda a kiss in the above photo. after resting at her home for a while, we headed out to hog's breath for dinner - miao insisted that we have to try the steak - we've never tried it back in singapore so we really cannot compare the standard. we invited two other friends to join us ...

we managed to cover all the exhibits, shows & rides in sea world that we wanted to cover in good time and decided then to make a detour to the beach - absolutely doesn't make sense for us to be staying on surfers paradise and yet not explore the surrounding beaches right? more importantly, i will never bring claire to the dirty beaches back home ('cept maybe for those artificial ones at sentosa) so she won't have many chances to 'play with sand' - i even brought along a 'sand castle kit' from singapore but we never found a chance for her to use it! :P 2nd time she actually 'touched' sand - she played on the beach on our last trip to krabi. after feeling and touching for a while, she decided to taste the sand! yikes! i quickly took her to the nearest water cooler to wash out the sand from her mouth. talk about over-protective parents! haha... after that 'sand eating' moment, we 'moved on' to the playground just by the beach an...

once again, we managed to start the day early as we'd hoped to cover all the shows, exhibits and rides in sea world at a comfortable pace. note that i've never been there prior to this (i covered the other 'worlds' on gold coast previously) so i imagined it to be like disneyland - big & with plenty to do (i never managed to complete disneyland in a day, ever!) - i guess you can say i was pretty disappointed. before the trip, i spent some time on the website and it 'appeared' to have plenty to do but was not really the case. fortunately, we got a 1-for-1 coupon (A$69 for 2 pax, instead of 1; FOC for claire) from our car rental company for the admission ticket so that made me feel slightly better. :) me & my lil' princess at the entrance... daddy & bb tan queuing for tickets daddy & bb tan onboard the sea world monorail 1st exhibit - the dugong the battery for the camera died after this point and luckily, we brought along the video c...

i'll continue blogging about our holiday soon... in the meantime, enjoy this photo... its my favourite - taken by yours truly!

instead of 2 friends, 1 turned up (the other one couldn't get out of bed)... with 3 fresh yummy cooked spanner crabs and 0.5kg of fresh cooked prawns (bought from the local fisherman)... and that was our breakfast! its clear once again why i cannot be a food blogger - that's the only photo we managed to take coz we devoured the rest too quickly! the only photo we took during the day coz we spent the whole afternoon shopping after our yummy breakfast - our lil' princess looking bored coz mummy & daddy were too busy shopping to entertain her! our loot after 1 afternoon @ Harbour Town! and it was subway sandwich for supper!

definitely took it easy due to the lack of sleep... after collecting our rental car, we detoured to brisbane city... for this.... the reason why we are in queensland, australia - chicken katsu don from Himawari in brisbane city... dh just cannot stop fantasizing about it - i swear he thinks about the katsu don more than abt me! see his happy face? Claire checking out the menu in Himawari   we also stopped by chinatown to pick up some groceries as we planned to eat in for dinners (its very costly to eat out in australia plus we both love home-cooked food). the shop above is my fav. roasted duck shop in the WHOLE WORLD - i'm not kidding! this shop had me fantasizing about the duck rice in the middle of the night when i was up doing my thesis in college - it is THAT good! they expanded from half a shop to a full shop with more seats since I last visited (like 7 years ago!). the shop is owned by a vietnamese family and they supply to the other chinese restaurants in australia. ...

we're back... i'm sure everyone feels the same way as i do, coming back from a nice holiday - that it could have been longer! i'll just come right out and say this - i love australia - i've always had! it is a great place where one can have the best of both worlds - bustling cities and quiet towns. relaxing when you wish and plenty to do at other times. we had a great time the past one week... think i'll just let the photos do the talking (with a little commentary)... enjoy! pre-departure travelling with a baby - we had 2 luggages, 1 backpack, 1 infant car seat and 1 stroller (we came back with 4 luggages, 1 backpack, 1 infant car seat and 1 stroller though. i might add that we used 3 space-saver compression bags for our dirty clothes - otherwise, we might have ended up with more than 4 luggages) running amok in the airport - we wanted to let her expend all her energy before our midnight flight so that she will sleep on the 7.5 hrs journey there. o...