In The Beginning - Brisbane

What a relief, we had a great flight with Qantas from Singapore! They couldn't do enough for us, and managed to find us a row of 4 seats, so Crack could lie down and sleep next to us! He slept virtually the whole way and hubby and I enjoyed a few drinks and a movie.......and I thought those days were gone!

Sadly it was a short flight though, so when we arrived at 5am local time, we were all tired. We were the first plane to land....it was our pilot's last flight before retiring and I think he was keen to finish up and open the champagne!

Our driver was waiting for us and bought our coffees with his staff discount card before heading into the city to our temporary home on Kangaroo Point. What a place! We've really lucked out! We must thank both Tony and Lesley for sharing their lovely apartment with us whilst they travel South America (currently on Easter Island) and my clever mum and generous dad, for allowing us to "swap" a couple of months in the Coach House for Tony and Lesley's visit to the UK next year! We wouldn't be here, or in such a beautiful spot, without them!

View of the Brisbane River from the balcony

Open plan living area

Crack's room

Our room

Our enormous bathroom complete with walk in shower and jacuzzi bath (note toilet seat up - thanks hubby.....how many times!?!?!)

Whilst on the subject of our wonderful house swap - I'd like to recommend Homelink International - the website we joined to find a swap. There are so many opportunities to swap with people from all over the world - and it is a wonderful way to save money on accommodation (and transport too sometimes!) - which can mean the difference between going somewhere exotic or sticking to a short haul option! We'd highly recommend joining - if you are serious about swapping then the £115 a year joining fee is well worth it! Although I do recognise that part of the reason we are so enthusiastic is because we aren't swapping our house! It's not for everybody....

Yesterday we unpacked a bit, napped, swam and walked and generally tried to get on top of the jet lag. It seems to have worked for most of us, but sadly I was wide awake between 1 and 3 am, despite being tired! Fingers crossed for a better night tonight! Crack is settling in well, helped by finding a pink trike on the balcony when we arrived, along with a box of his favourite books that we shipped from home.

This morning we took the free city ferry from the dock right outside our front door, up the river to the centre and met our bank manager to pick up our Aussie bank cards. NAB have been brilliant, so easy to set up a migrant bank account and a 4% savings rate....hard to get that in the UK at the moment, might be worth keeping the account! We had some burritos for lunch and took the ferry home, where Crack is supposed to be napping but is mainly crying intermittently....

Our next exciting adventure will be trying to find the car in the underground car park, fit Crack's seat, figure out how to drive an automatic and navigate our way over Storey Bridge and back to do a big shop at the nearest Coles....ooh I can hardly wait!.....don't miss your next thrilling instalment.......back soon!

ps sorry that this post reads like an advertisement, but when you are exhausted and travelling with a toddler, I find you appreciate good service more than usual!

 

Singapore Sling

Well, we made it! The first leg of the journey and the worst of the jet lag is behind us!

Friday was very very busy and there were points at which I thought we might not get everything sorted in good time....like when we discovered we needed a bigger suitcase, or when I slipped on a wet floor whilst rushing to buy a new suitcase, landing heavily on my shoulder and hip.....but we got there in the end! Dogs safely in kennels until Marc gets back from NYC to collect them, bags packed and house (nearly) clean! Simon was very patient and such a star - he packed, weighed and repacked all the suitcases to make sure that we came in under the limit ( by about 100g in one case!).

It's a lot of luggage for a small family! Luckily it all fit into Marc's car which we left in long stay parking at Heathrow (the second time I've been asked if I am Mrs T and the first time I've said yes lol!)

We checked in and after the obligatory appetiser of baby formula at security, we headed to Giraffe for some dinner.

We were first on the plane and had someone not abandoned a baggage trolley behind the plane, I am sure all would have been good....unfortunately after an hour's delay before anyone moved it, by the time the seatbelt signs were off and the lie flat toddler seat was up, Crack was in full on meltdown! Eventually, after a lot of singing and several false starts, he went to sleep in time for me to order vodka tonic and a bottle of wine! After that, ear plugs, eye mask and neck pillow, we all got some sleep!

We left most of the bags at the airport and took a taxi to the hotel. A quick swim in the rooftop pool and a cheeky cocktail later, we hit the hotel buffet and went to bed early, sleeping about 12 hours (well everyone, except me, I read my book for 2 hours at 3am!).

Despite a late start we headed to Singapore Zoo - a great day out, but a wet one, as it thunder stormed from 12-3:30! Nice zoo, lots to see, lovely enclosures and Crack's favourite...a road train!

Some things in Singapore are predictable.....

 

and some are not......

Crack was overtired so dinner at the local food court was traumatic and he fell asleep on the way back to the hotel, only to wake up as we arrived. After snacks to compensate for missing dinner, he took several hours to fall asleep, finally zoning out at 23:30.

I took several hours more to nod off and we were at up at 8, all of us tired and grumpy. Plans to hike the Southern Ridges were abandoned in favour of a long nap and we woke in time to walk to Robertson Quay for lunch.

It was very hot and humid, and we felt like we'd seen so little of the city, we hopped on a bus tour, taking in most of the centre in about an hour. There is lots of construction going on but it is hard to know how much is for real and how much is for next weekend's Singapore Grand Prix!

Chinatown

Marina Bay Hotel, ArtScience Museum and, in the foreground, the famous Mer-lion.

We waved at Raffles on the way past, but were anxious not to have a repeat of last night's meltdown, so took Crack back to the hotel for a quick swim and another nap....dinner tonight had to be chilli crab!

Well for Simon, anyway! I'm allergic and it's a bit too spicy for Crack! So we had some steamed fish instead!

C was pretty well behaved compared with the night before, which was just as well, as it was a much nicer place, right on the river, opposite Clarke's Quay. He did keep stealing my chopsticks though....which was a bit pointless given that he can barely use a fork!

 

Simon said his crab was the best he'd had, which is a result and we strolled back along the river to the hotel and got C down without any of last night's fuss, phew.....

 

and now that I've finished updating you all, I think I'd better check us in for tomorrow night's flight to Brisbane....hope they've still got some seats left together!

 

Running out of time

So it's been a bit crazy the last few days....

Sunday I went to the health spa with Mum and Becky for a couple of days. We had a wonderful time - I hadn't been there since my hen do more than 3 years ago.

So nice to be pampered and great timing for squeezing in some relaxation with two people whose company I'll miss in the coming months! We had a few drinks at dinner which could explain some of these photos....

Sadly it was over far too soon and I returned to last few days at work and more packing/cleaning.

Mum and Dad came over to hang out with Crack today. I got my hair cut, had a v quick cuddle with our friends' gorgeous brand new tiny twin boys and grabbed a birthday cuppa with Becky. Sad to say goodbye to so many today and dreading leaving our doggies tomorrow :-(

Some lovely messages and cards from friends today...I'm actually starting to believe we are going!

Now doing the last bit of laundry, and organising, doling out mothballs to various cupboards and awaiting my husband's triumphant return from Parliament!

Still a lot of packing and cleaning to be done....lets hope we are ready to go to the airport tomorrow afternoon.....

 

Full on frantic!

The last couple of days have been busy!!

I've been running lots of errands...travel money, pressie delivery for our friends' brand new twins, dry cleaning, key cutting, prescriptions, to name a few!

But it's also been lovely to see people (albeit to say goodbye!) - Crack had such a good time yesterday with his NCT buddies.....wreaking havoc (thanks for hosting Sarah, hope the cleaning up didn't keep you from the curry house!?).

 

Lovely lunch today with my mum and dad who are squeezing in what visits they can....and enjoying Crack's company.

 

A little break for me and a chance to enjoy sometime with mum and a good friend tomorrow....we're off to a spa for a couple days! Can't wait - the timing couldn't be better and I'm sure by the time I get back I'll be ready to face the last two days at work and the packing with a sense of calm and purpose.......

 

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And so it begins.....................

Well, this is it....the official start of the adventure!

Next Friday, the family heads off to Australia for 3 months, by way of Singapore, and mainly to answer the most frequent question:

"What are you going to do for 3 months?"

I've started this blog......and one for our 20 month old, who'll we refer to as Crack....for no particular reason other than I've been advised not to use his real name!! But of course, you all know who he is!

I must confess to a rising sense of panic.....I'm not feeling very organised, but the other half remains annoyingly calm, whilst I procrastinate......avoiding the panic by not really thinking about all there is to do between now and next Friday afternoon.....

I have attempted to be organised, I even have lists....occasionally I add something to them, and even more rarely, I read them....surely there is plenty of time to get organised next week?

For now it seems far more important to catch up with friends before we go.........

 

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