Down Under

I do love Australia. There is something about that place that is just incredible. Every time I go, I try and work out just what makes it so amazing, but I have yet to put my finger on it. It is just the whole package.
Have to say I wasn’t looking forward to this trip because of Finn having to have his annual check up, but by the end I didn’t want to come home.
We stayed with Justin’s brother, Gareth, and his wife Penny. They have a munchkin called Phoebe who is 8 weeks younger than Finn. They last met when Finn was 9 months old and we were wondering how they would get on. Rarely a day went past when Pen and I weren’t in tears at the way they were together. Just beautiful. It was as if they had been bestest mates for ever and in the week we were there, can honestly say they didn’t even have a second of animosity towards each other. If someone had a toy they wanted….so what? I’ll have this one. You want this? Yeah, have it. Finn and Phebes kept kissing each other and holding hands. They would just sit and giggle at each other. Don’t think I have heard anything more lovely. Pen is pregnant as well (she’s having a little sister for Phoebe called Poppy) so it’s great that the next two kiddies will be close in age as well.

In Singapore there isn’t much of a chance for Finn to go on a train. They have the MRT which is similar to the Underground, but hardly any over ground ones, so whilst we were away Finn got his first taste of train travel. How much did he love it???! He was fascinated with the idea of doors opening and people getting on and off and if we saw another train on the track whilst we were on ours, well…………..!! The excitement knew no bounds! We would just go on a train for the sake of seeing Finn enjoy it so much! Justin and I also took him on a ferry to a beautiful place called Watson’s Bay where he got to feed all the seagulls chips. Hmmm, not sure the locals approved!

The weather was wonderful, really warm and just blue, blue cloudless skies. We often walked to the park and let Finnbles have a run around. We went on Easter Sunday and there was a family who were having an Easter egg hunt (This made me cry. Soppy cow that I am! The kiddies were just so excited and the parents watching them screech in excitement as they found them) One of the little boys came up and gave Finn an egg which was just so sweet (thank goodness for sunglasses to hide pathetic mothers behind!!)







Can’t say travelling on the plane was fun however but the least said about the better! The flight over (a night flight) was pretty empty so we had three seats between us, but some people had four to themselves. Hmmm, logic applies here. Shall we put the family of three in the three seats and the single person in four?? Yep! Then the kiddie can struggle to sleep and scream and wake the lot of you up, makes perfect sense. On the way back it was a day flight and jam packed. So Finn was on our laps for the whole 8 hours…….oh joy! But we survived and it could have been much worse. Can’t say I am rushing to get back on a plane though and dread the journey next year with another one to boot! Oh for the day we can plug him into the headphones so he can watch the films! (Believe me we did try this time! We so tried!)

I was thinking that when you have children, your idea of a brilliant day out or a holiday changes. Seeing Finn so excited and having a thoroughly great time is what makes me have a superb day. I don’t mind how we spend it, just that Finn enjoys himself. Just seeing his face light up as he gets on a train or a boat or feeds the birds is pure heaven.

Although I do dream of a holiday by the pool, with a magazine. a cocktail, girlie gossip..............