My Life in Mono...

Bush walk no. 1

Last week I stumbled across a wonderful blog called Let the Children Play. It's a blog about letting children learn in an unstructured way through lots of play outdoors and in a natural setting. The main thing I love about the blog is when they go on their bush walks. I remember as a child, we often play outside from sunrise to sunset. Well, sometimes. I remember going on a lot of walks during the summer holidays, when I was a student. I use to just walk and walk and walk. I use to live in the city and the closest "bush" in the city was Kings Park. 

I wanted to share my love of walking with the Lil' Tiger so I decided I would take her on one. Last Saturday, I gathered a few supplies (water, extra sets of clothes) , Pixel and slather on Sunscreen and off we went to Kings Park. I chose one of the "bush trails" that was easy enough for me to control the dog and a toddler at the same time. 

Once we started walking, I told the Lil' Tiger all about nature and she asked questions. We saw ants crawling around, listened to Kookaburras and Magpies singing and crows crowing. I told her why the grass were all dried up and get her to touch and smell as many things possible. I showed her tree barks that fell off the tree and why it happens and we collected gum nuts for our curiosity box. 

It was a fun 2 hours of just walking and enjoying nature and being shut out from technology. It was just me, the Lil' Tiger, Pixel and nature. I loved every minute of it. I loved it so much that I want to make it a regular thing if weather permits. Now that it's Autumn and it's getting cooler, I hope to fit more bush walks with the Lil' Tiger. Just us and nature. 

{looking for skinks}

{"This way mummy" she said with confidence}

{Pixel didn't even move after that 5km walk}

The Ultimate Adventure...

Ok. So I have been back a week now and things are just getting back to normal. I actually wanted to blog about my trip as soon as possible but then thought, who would read my blog during the festive season? HEHEHE...

The recent trip that I had can be written down as the "BEST TRIP EVER" in my books because it was like a BIG road trip with The Family. We all made our own way there but we all manage to arrive in Nepal safely. Tiffy went off first, followed by M and then Papa Nic and I and lastly Nana. I took well over 3000 photos and sorting through them seems to be a painful task.

Papa Nic was with me the whole trip and he was my traveling buddy. Seriously, I think I would have been lost and scared without him. This trip has thrown me outside of my comfort zone. I don't travel to a new country that often so having him with me along the way was a good thing.

Let me start at the very beginning. Singapore. What should I say about this fantastic city? The last time I went to Singapore was when I was 15-16 years old. I remember it was during Christmas time because we took photos in front of this Christmas Tree made out of Glass and another one out of Tins. I was pretty nervous when we landed at Changi Airport. I seriously didn't know what to expect. Papa Nic's family was very very accommodating. 

We did nothing but went shopping, ate and caught up with some friends. We hiked a little at the highest peak in Singapore, Bukit Timah. It was fun. Hey, at least I exercised right?

What I liked about Singapore has got to be the Shopping and the MRT system. Everything seems to be so convenient and fast. I don't know if I am able to live in Singapore but I know I will definitely go back again.

Next.... Kathmandu, Nepal. I will blog about it on another post. Here is a teaser. :*)

3025392

30 days

2 weddings

5 adults

3 bags and

92 kilos of stuff later....

MY holiday has come to an end. It was the longest and best holiday that I had in my entire life. More soon!

Nepal the Land of the Himalayas...

By the time you are reading this, I would be on my way to Nepal. It's my first time there and I am a little bit nervous and a whole lot of excited. I know I will remember this trip for the rest of my life because The Family will be there with me! It's like a big road trip but to an exotic place.

Don't miss me too much. I will try to be online as much as I can. You can follow me on my Twitter. I will try to update it from time to time. My first stop would be Singapore the "Fine" city and on my way back I will be visiting friends and family and my sister's wedding in Kuching. :*) BYEE!!! and NAMASTE!

{photo by Doovy}

Farmhand....

{Tubo the Wonder Dog making sure that the Chooks are behaving themselves.}

Let's do a recap of the Long Easter Weekend.

FRIDAY
I woke up early and prepared the car for the long 5 hours drive down to Mt Barker (about 35 Km before Albany). I left Perth at around 6am and drove South for 2.5 hours. I made a pit stop at Arthur River for a wee and a stretch and started driving again. The traffic was not bad as it was early in the morning.

I had my Audio book with me so that kept me company. I arrived at the farm at about 1030am, unpacked the car, had lunch and helped out with steering the sheep. I saw a calf and a few lambs being born. We had to steer the Mama Sheep with her lambs to the dam so that they could get water. It was amazing.

SATURDAY
We headed up to Denmark to see what was going on at the Denmark markets. We also got a few supplies on the way back.

I started preparing dinner as I told the Carter's that I would cooked them Dinner. After dinner we had Watermelon laced with Vodka for sweets. It was fantastic. The watermelon was from my garden. I will post a photo of it in another post.

SUNDAY

We had an early Easter breakfast with the whole family. Watched a movie and then worked on the farm a little bit. We were steering sheep from one paddock to another one at the back. I saw 2 new lambs so they must have been born overnight.

After that we went to visit the Grandparents at the home. They were doing fine. Pomps (the granddad) was purring when he was hugging me. He is such a cheeky boy. I love them even though I am not their grandkid but I felt all the love when I was there.

We came home a little bit early so we went to pick figs of the fig tree and went to look at the stock at the paddock. It was brilliant. I was driving the ute and felt like I helped somehow. I love seeing the 4 dogs running a carraling all the stock just from a few commands from their master. It was an interesting sight. They are really good working dogs.

MONDAY

Woke up early to pack up the car. Had breakfast and started my long journey home. I was this close to not leaving the farm but I have to go home to the husband and my kids. :*)

I have always enjoyed my trip down to the Farm. This time I was even more daring and worked outside more. Maybe it was because I was tellking myself to get over it and just do. The next time I am down there, I want to try to do a full day working on with the stock. That would be interesting. 

I have heaps of photos on my camera. I have to sit down and edit them first but if you are on my facebook list, you are able to see the unedited ones there. I will start putting the finished photos on to my flickr album.

Going Fishing...

I will be going to Albany again this Easter break. Armed with my new Camera I am going to take more photos of the farm and farm life. I love the farm. I plan to go down to Albany every Easter. It's a magical place.

My dreams is to have a small holdings there when I retire. That would be nice isn't it.

Anyway, the drive down to Albany takes about 5 hours and I need to keep myself entertained. I am thinking Audio books and podcasts.

I have a few already on my tiny iPod but I have heard all of them already so I need new ones to keep me sane. Any suggestions?

Central Market...

This is a continuation post from my Adelaide Trip.

On Friday, we woke up bright and early to go to Central Market. The last time I was there, I enjoyed it so much but was bummed that I did not take any photos. So this time armed with my camera, I was trigger happy. I love the market. I don't know why. Maybe because I like the hustle and bustle and also how colourful the place is. I wish Perth has one right in the middle of Perth City.

Everything there was fresh and cheap. From the meats to the fruits to the cheeses everything was so...beautiful. We bought a few things from the market to take with us down to Barrosa Valley the next day.

We spent a good solid 2 hours at the markets and then we headed back to our hotel room so that we could get ready for the Graduation.

After getting ready, we headed off to the Adelaide Convention Centre for the graduation. It felt long in the hall but it was all good. I cheered when I heard Chris's name. When it was over we took some family photos and then headed to the Airport to pick up Nana.

For dinner we went to this brilliant Argentinian restaurant called Sosta. I had the lamb and it was the most beautiful lamb I have ever tasted. We ate, talked and drank the whole night.

AB in Adelaide.

You must be wondering where have I been for the past few days. Well if you are not a follower of my Twitter you will not know that M and I have taken a short trip to see The Graduate, Chris, in Adelaide. Its the first trip that M and I are taking together so it was pretty exciting.

We flew in to Adelaide Thursday evening. Got picked up by Sky and we went to have my favourite South Australian Dish, the AB or Abortion. Yep this disgustingly named meal is delicious. It consists of Chips/Fries, Shaved Kebab meat and an array of sauces. It was yummy. Don't know why they called it that but people says it resembles it. OKAY... if you ever head down to Adelaide, don't forget to give this dish a try.

After eating AB, Sky dropped us to our hotel where we were greeted by mom. She was so excited to see us.

Second part of the trip will be posted later on today. For those of you on my facebook, you can see all the photos there but otherwise you can see it on my flickr album by tonight.

Le Tour De Avon Valley II

Ok I don't know where to start. Our little road trip was fantastic. The views were spectacular. We woke up early to get our things together. M said that we can have a barbie in one of the towns so Nana and I got sausages and also chicken and a couple of rolls.

After we got our things we headed out. We wanted to do Toodyay (pronounce as 2J) - Northam - York but we missed the turning to Toodyay so we did York - Northam - Toodyay and I am glad we did. The drive thorugh all those farms was breathtaking. Wow. I can not believe how green it was. I was so excited when I spotted the sheeps and the cows and the horses. YEAH I get excited and screetchy when I see farm animals.

After an hour of driving we reached York. We made a stop by the famous Town Hall to get directions to the nearest tourist attraction. We were standing outside the Hall when a friendly town's person came up and told us that the Train Station was a good place to start. We walked there and guess what? It was locked. So we couldn't get in. We then walked to the Jah Roc Gallery and saw art and furniture. There is this Huge dining table made from Jarrah that costs $45,000.00!!!! WOW.

After all the art and the expensive furniture we then made our way to Mt Brown Lookout. The view was FANTASTIC. See last post. We spent 15 minutes looking a the view and made our way down to Avon River and had our little picnic. It was a fantastic place. After lunch we laid on the mat and just chilled. I wanted to stay there and just sleep. Then we made a move the the suspension bridge. According to the book, the bridge was built in 1906.

After York, we made our way to Northam. There was nothing to do at Northam so we skipped it and went straight to Toodyay. More on Toodayay later. But now... picture time.......

More pictures on my flickr album. See the pictures with the three of us? Yeah. I bought something called the Gorillapod Tripod and propped it up on the car. :*)

Le Tour De Avon Valley

Phew..... What a day!! M, Nana and I went to the Avon Valley today. Will tell you all about it tomorrow. But here is a sneak peak. We went up to the lookout point, Mt Brown. Apperently you can see the whole Avon Valley from there.