Christmas 2011

The lead up to Christmas was it's usual madness. Here is a quick run down of all the fun and festivities. Mark was away in Singapore for work (and a little fun) for the 3 days before his birthday, touching down for present opening at the airport on the 23rd. Loved that Luca thought daddy defiantly looked older when we picked him up! Family and the usual Fried Chicken Feast was at our place as the weather was a bit iffy for our traditional birthday picnic.

Christmas Eve was fabulous with a big group including friends and family, turkey and blue cheese burgers. The weather was beautiful, everyone had a swim and amazingly the kids were in bed before 8:30. Mark and I performed our official Santa's Helpers duties (Mark drank Santa's beer (yes, our kids left Santa a beer, Coopers green, only the best for Santa) I put ribbons on all of the already wrapped gifts) and then it was off to bed for us as well.

Christmas morning kids were up at 6, I heard Luca say "It's Christmas" then "Scout, Scout, Scout, Santa's been here, quick it's Christmas" the excitement was adorable. They were both very good kids this year and Santa brought them what they asked for, after lots of present unwrapping and a whole lot of playing with new toys we were off for a seafood feast at Mark's parents. An amazing heap of prawns were consumed, followed by a leisurely naps in the lounge room and swims in the pool.

It was a very hectic few days and I for one was thrilled to get a nap on Christmas afternoon after barely sitting down for a week prior. That being said, there is something magical about Christmas, the kids just love it, give me another 300 days and I'll be ready again. -kel

Twinkle Twinkle Ballet Recital

Once again, Scout dominated the ballet recital, at the end of the entire event refusing to leave the stage because “she wasn’t done yet”. She and her class mates wore the most adorable and quintessentially ballerina white dresses. They performed a short “dance” to twinkle twinkle little star. She's improved heaps and as per usual demonstrated extreme enthusiasm. She was totally adorable and she loves her ballet, next year she will be moving up to a new class at a new school…she can hardly wait. -kel

5 Totally Awesome Years

Luca turned five with a bang. My mom and step dad flew in from the states for the occasion (oh and for Christmas but we didn’t tell him that). We celebrated with ice cream and dinner out at his favourite Thai restaurant. He is a wiz with chop sticks! Luca was stoked with his new bike and I am in utter disbelief that he is 5! My little man...seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. – kel

Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City - pt II

We returned to the big city for a day before we headed home. A few food appointments awaited us and a couple more museums to visit. We swapped hotels and stayed at the Duxton. Although it was only two blocks away from where we stayed initially in Saigon it was a world away as far as charm, certainly nice enough but really just a standard business type hotel.

No hotel breakfasts this time around, our first stop was Pho 24, a local chain restaurant that had come highly recommended. It didn't disappoint, it was really, really good.

We spent a large chunk of the day at the Vietnam History Museum which was memorable for things other than what we should remember it for. As soon as we entered the museum we noticed a English language guided tour had just started so we discreetly followed thinking we would get some deeper insight into the exhibits. How wrong were we! The tour guide was so bad, he spent about two minutes in each room and actually contradicted what was written on the exhibits. The classic instance was in relation to a six hundred year old mummy that was on display in a special room. By this time Kelly and I had ditched the guide realising he was useless and we had already been in the mummy room when we saw the tour approaching. The guide didn't even lead the group in the room and simply said "there is some old mummy in that room" and kept the tour moving.

The other funny thing at the museum were the diorama's that were used to illustrate how an ancient war strategy was executed on the battle field. These things looked as though they were a first grade art project - they were so bad. And they were used extensively throughout the entire museum.

The Museum was in a very cool old building and did have some good exhibits but it was two stars out of five at best. I had worked up enough courage by this time to try the street food, in particular there was a local variation of Chinese steamed pork buns that I kept seeing that I had to try. I can't believe I left it until the last day these things (char siu bao they are called) were beautiful.

A few hours chilling in the pool to end the vacation and we were off home and by this time incredibly excited to see Luca and Scout. Awesome holiday and there is so much more to do in Vietnam than what we managed to fit in, having said that I was happy to leave that for another holiday as I wouldn't have changed a thing about this trip.

Vietnam - Hoi An

The next part of the vacation started with a flight from Saigon to DaNang on the way to Hoi An. After a grilling from us to ensure he knew where he was going we jumped in a cab from the airport. DaNang and the entire tip south to Hoi An really showed how much the country was growing. In DaNang there were a lot of new very unusually designed buildings, pretty funky, and then the on entire trip down the coast there were either completed or semicompleted resorts on a massive scale. Hard to accept that this is a good move–it becomes just like any other Asian beach resort and price will be the differentiator.It is definitely selling out some of it’s character. I’m glad we were not staying in that area.

Anyway, after 40 minutes the cab driver pulls over to ask directions. Kelly was not happy given the guy swore he knew where he was going. Following this the driver sheepishly got back in the car and drove on. Luckily we weren't really off track and after crossing from the coast through rice fields and across a couple of rivers we made it to Hoi An.

The hotel was awesome, the Life Heritage Resort, a colonial feel, although it was only recently built, very funky rooms with day beds out front , we definitely made a good decision. It had a very strange pool though, nice when you were in but a major pain in the rear to get in, walking across rocks and then an awkward step up and over the side into the water.So as ordinary as the buffet in Saigon was the breakfast buffet at the hotel in Hoi An was great. The chocolate crepes won Kelly over. She doubled down a few of the mornings we were there much to the suprise of the chefs.Hoi An is a Unesco World Heritage listed town that is a good five hundred years old. Lots of little wooden French and Chinese influenced homes. The area has become very tourist focussed(without being overrun with tourists)and nearly every home has become either a shop or restaurant. Even with the tourists it is extremely laid back, very interesting and beautiful – also very romantic according to Kelly.

The first afternoon we were in Hoi An we ate basically out of somebody’s kitchen. The food was nice but something didn’t agree with Kel and she got a bit of an upset stomach. Really the only slightly negative food experience of our time in Hoi An and Vietnam.

The next day we did a walking tour of the historical sites. We started with a house tour from a guy whose family had been in the same house for seven generations. The houses are so simple, just a few open rooms with wooden slat beds for sleeping. The house tour was great, it was just Kelly and I, the guy brought out his old photos and spoke to us about the funeral of his father, how the area had changed with tourists coming and out of towners buying the old buildings to start businesses – we were there for ages and enjoyed every minute of it.

The rest of the day involved checking out a few Pagodas (m

uch better than the one in Saigon), some local singing and dancing, walking across a three hundred year old Japanese covered bridge and visiting a place called ‘The Department of Managing and Gathering Swallows Nests'. A lot of the day really involved cruising around checking out the old buildings and alley ways, going to the market and of course a little shopping (always involving haggling over price which Kelly loved).

One of the things that the area is known for is producing fabric and tailoring. Kelly brought a few dresses over to have copied. I couldn’t believe the quality based on the time it took to make and cost. The place Kelly went to was a well oiled machine with seamstresses sewing away all day and most of the night. The assistant who looked after Kelly called herself ‘Fairy’, she was really nice an even brought Kel flowers on her birthday.

We found a lunch place we liked on the first day and ate at the same table everyday - first floor balcony overlooking the river. From the table you could see the boats coming and going and not surprisingly we saw some very sketchy practices. These relatively small two level boats were packed with motorcycles on the top deck and then absolutely crammed with people below. If any of those things went down or capsized there was no escaping.

It was Kelly’s birthday while we were there so we did a few special things that day. We borrowed bikes from the hotel and hit the streets which was an adventure in itself. Although the traffic in Hoi An is nothing like Saigon it is still crazy and has the same anything goes mentality. Early on our ride I realised this was no birthday treat for Kelly as she was passed by a semi trailer and nearly collected by a motorcycle coming up from the rear as she moved over to give the truck some space. We decided to cut the ride short and head back through the old part of town where there are restrictions on motorised vehicles. This new route involved a major left turn (driving is sort of on the right hand side of the road in Vietnam). This was a pretty major intersection so we gradually made our way to the centre of the road and stopped, waiting for a break in the oncoming traffic to make the turn. It was intimidating sitting in the middle of the road while trucks and thousands of motorcycles are going around you. So we finally get a break in the traffic and I start to turn only for some guy on a motorcycle behind to try and over take me on the side that I am turning to. Kelly got the view from behind and said she couldn’t believe I didn’t get taken out. I guess I was pretty oblivious but Kelly had had enough and it took a while for her to calm down after the ride.

At least the next part of Kel’s birthday went well with a massage back at the spa at our hotel a few early evening cocktails a beautiful dinner and some ice cream. It was a magical night with my magical wife. We missed the kids a lot by this time and wished they were there.

Our last days in Hoi An were spent much like the others, wandering the streets, going to the markets, grabbing something to eat, a few beers at fourty cents a pop and stopping by the hotel for a swim when we got hot. I did get Kelly on the bike again for a ride along the waterfront where there was virtually no traffic. This ride was a lot more fun, watching the fishing boats in the river as we rode.

The last story from Hoi An is much funnier when you hear Kelly tell it but I will give it a go. While we were walking around town Kelly noticed the local women wearing these shoes that she liked and had asked where she could get a pair. We were directed to a market that was not meant for tourists, it was where the local Vietnamese brought household cleaning items, bits and pieces for their businesses and also where they brought clothes. The place is packed and you are lucky to see more than five inches in front of you. Finally we find a stall selling these shoes. Kelly explains what she wants and in broken English the stall owner starts to ask Kelly what size she needs, by this time we are close enough to the stall that the women can see all of Kelly so she looks down at Kelly’s feet and begins to laugh out loudly and speaking in Vietnamese, while Kel had doesn't speak Vietnamese, it was pretty clear she was saying ‘’Ohhhh, you have HUGE feet” – it was very funny.

We both highly recommend Hoi An, we had a great time, ate so well and found it really interesting and beautiful. Having great weather the entire time also helped.

Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City - pt I

A Vietnam trip has been on our radar for some time so we were both really excited to finally make it over there– relatively soon after Thailand and travelling without Luca and Scout it seemed likea real treat. In late November we headed on our first Vietnam adventure. We arrived around 10:30pm and on the drive from the airport to the hotel the chaos that are the roads in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) held our attention the whole way – four and five people on a scooter, really young children standing on their parents laps with no helmet, lots of crazy helmets but really it was the sheer volume of motorcycles and scooters and the almost anything goes attitude that was the real eye opener.

Our hotel, the Rex, was a large colonial looking building on a really beautiful square and to make Kelly feel at ease the street level of the hotel had stores for all of the big luxury brand labels. We arrived late and were looking for a bite but the concierge put us off going out of the restaurant telling us how dangerous it was. We went up to the rooftop bar instead, good view although mostly of a massive intersection (roundabout) that took the crazinesson the road to a new level – I could have watched for hours (I eventally did as we had breakfast up there every day we were in Saigon and I made sure I could see the road).Breakfasts at the hotel were ordinary, not bad, just not great. They were the only meals I can say that about on the entire trip. Overall the food was magnificent.After breakfast we hit the streets and the first task was to cross the crazy intersection we got so much amusement out of watching while at breakfast. No stop lights you just have to get thecourage up and go for it, all the while motorcycles honking at you and missing your legs by half inches.Things on the street are very different, lots of people sitting around making food and eating, a few beggars, lots of little stores but even in this tourist friendly part of town no US/Euro chain stores. I can only imagine what it was like just ten years ago, seems like a lot of development has taken place in Saigon and a lot more is underway. Lots of interesting street food but at this stage I wasn’t up for the challenge.

On our walk we came across a street market (Ton That Dam) aimed more at the locals than tourists. The market primarily sold produce and meat, the meat not being in refrigerated storage had a strong smell – not for the last time I thought Kelly would keel over.

We got out of the local market and headed for the Ben Thanh Market. For the first time we saw a lot of tourists but still the markets were pretty crazy. The aisle’s between thestores are tiny, there were stalls that had t-shirts, others that had bags, some that had women’s hair accessories, wine made with cobras or scorpions still inside the bottle, belts , seafood - almost anything but each stall had it’s speciality, there were probably 1000 stalls and none were general. Kelly started to get her bargaining grooveon from this moment and she saved us a lot of the entire trip. She is brutal. At one stage Kelly made an offer on a dress for Scout that was about 10% of what the vendor started at, the vendor started to laugh so Kelly started to walk, all of sudden the other womenatthe stall jumps up and blocks the way and the first lady blocks Kelly on the other side (literally made it impossible for Kelly to move without shoving them into their stall). Even with this pressure selling Kelly wouldn’t budge and the ladies eventually gave up and agreed to Kelly’s price. The first of many victories.

We spent the rest of the day cruising the streets and seeing the sights. The river that runs through the city is another eye opener. It was running fast and was carrying a lot of debris, definitely a bitofpollution but mainly full trees and foliage a real hazard for small boats I would think but still there were plenty of small boats out there. It was cool to see the large propaganda posters still have their place even though the country appears to have embraced a capitalist economy with as much passion as Australia or the U.S. One thing that we did not see was anything to be worried about – seems like the concierge from the hotel was more concerned about drumming up business for their restaurant than telling us the truth when we asked about going out on ourfirst night.

As I said earlier the food was amazing and the first day set a trend for our time in Saigon, we stopped for lunch twice on top of dinner and breakfast. Kelly made the arrangements for dinner and we ate at this beautiful old place (The Temple Club) that had really cool tiles on the floor and again great food. I was thinking nice to have at least one expensive dinner while we are in Saigon – three courses and cocktails cost us less than $20 between us. We also found a great ice cream place on our travels so after dinner we did it up nice and enjoyed some ice cream at Fanny.We had done a lot of walking and were in bed early.

Having covered off a lot of the Lonely Planet ‘must see’s’ on the first day we had to go a little further into the bustling burbs to see the things on our list for day two. We legged it again (have to work all of this food off somehow).

First stop was the War Remnants Museum. Our first reaction was Luca would love this place. There were at least 50 actual U.S. tanks, planes, helicopters, mounted grenade launchers and flame throwers from the “American War’ as it is called over here. I’ve got to say the museum was generally a let down, lots about the brutality of the US and how agent orange is impacting people in Vietnam even today, a really great area dedicated to war photographers from all sides with some amazing photo’s – but nothing that would given an insight into the day to day life in the jungle for the VC or NVA or how much ingenuity went into building the underground tunnels. The war ended nearly 40 years ago and the Vietnamese people don’t seem to think anything of it, it is ancient history, they are more concerned with making a buck, so the blatant anti-US sentiment at the museum definitely seemed out of place.
Now for the clanger of the day. I had read somewhere that there was a really cool Chinese Pagoda (The Jade Pagoda) that we should see. It was a long, long, long walk in 95 degree weather. For the first time we doubted ourselves while crossing the road on the way there and nearly got mowed down. When we finally made it to the Pagoda, what a disappointment! It was really sketchy, there were old people selling these nasty looking turtles for people to throw into this pond (more like a well) that had four fold more turtles in it than it should hold, there didn’t appear to be any moving water in/out of the pond so it was really smelly.

The only saving grace was that on the long walk back we ran into the lunch place that only had two things on the menu and was full of locals. We sat down ordered the two things on the menu and immediately wanted more. When we made it back to the hotel, we did a little relaxing by the pool with a Singapore Sling (I know, another country but they are nice). Kelly ended the day with a foot massage.

Halloween

Halloween was a blast, the kids loved every second. Luca was Captain America, I am using my influence while I still have some, and Scout was a pink Bat Girl. As the kids are a bit older we decided we would do Jack-O-Lanterns this year. The two pumpkins were a bit hard to find, but ended up being a huge hit. We were the only house with pumpkins and the kids enjoyed showing them off and handing out candy to the trick-o-treaters as much as their own trick-o-treating. Pics of the kids in their costumes, Scout's funny face is on account of her "punching the bad guys". -kel

16 Years Later

Last Sunday Mark had his first row in 16 years. Back in the olden days...I mean before Mark moved to the US, he was a member of the Collaroy Surf Club where he rowed and competed in Surf Boats. This was a huge part of Mark's life, the teams, the winning, the loosing, the friends. I've seen the boats, met the friends and heard soooo many stories.

Last week Collaroy Surf Club celebrated their 100th year as a club. As part of the celebrations the kids and I got to see Mark in action for the first time in 16 years. The kids LOVED seeing daddy rowing the boat (Scout is still telling everyone) and I enjoyed seeing Mark with the "old timers" win a few races. Luca is already talking about when he will be rowing. Mark had a blast and was beaming all day, even if he was so sore he had a hard time walking! -kel

Sunday - by Luca

We went to the zoo. We saw a peacock bigger than a Cockatoo, it had a blue head and really big feathers at the back. We saw two elephants, a big elephant & a little elephant and they were holding hands by the tail and trunk. I wanted to see an echidna, we saw four of them, outside and in the dark, the one in the dark had a long yucky nose and was sticking it in a hole to eat. We floated in the sky in the sky train.

After, we went to Clifton Gardens to play on the toys and mommy made a nice lunch. We saw a beach and another beach across the water. We watched a big ferry drive past and another boat that looked like a ferry but was a tug boat. There were cool climbing toys and we were like Spiderman.

After lunch we took dad home and went to the shops and had ice cream.

It was a very good day.

The next Croc Hunter!

Luca had a couple of days away with Grandma and Grandpa at their van on the beach about 90 minutes north of Sydney. Building on his Python exploits in Thailand he was keen to show his flexibility in animal handling.

Luca sporting an old school Pittsburgh Pirates lid (a la Chuck D) and a lizard

Father's Day

No raincheck required this year, I got the full treatment for Father's Day.

It all started with our traditional present giving in bed before I'd even gotten up (actually I was pretty close to still being asleep). Luca was super excited about the day this year and started very early. He got to buy me a present of his choice at his school (a red lunch cooler with "Super Dad" written in yellow on the side), and he made chocolate rocky road which he said was a present that I could share with him. Kelly always gives the best fathers day presents because they usually involve something I can share with Luca and Scout, this year we all got "pantone" expresso coffee cups in different colours ("blue" for me, "red" for Luca and "pink" for Scout).

After we tried out the new cups with coffee and baby cino's I headed off to swimming with my dad. After the races we had a beer and then met my mum, Kelly and the kids at the local hamburger place "Curly's on the corner" - the only decent burgers around these parts.

Luca was also looking forward to leading my dad and I on a walk through the "jungle" around the headland from North Curl Curl beach to Dee Why beach. Luca and I did the same walk about six months earlier and it was cool to see how much he had grown, the last time I had to lift him up the improvised rock stairs at least twenty times, this time he did it all by himself.

Luca in the "jungle"

An awesome day that should happen at least half a dozen times a year! (Although there are probably some in our house who would argue that it already does).

Yum Cha

On the platform waiting for the train.

Almost six years in Australia and this weekend reminded me once again how amazing the weather is down under! Spring has only just begun and Saturday morning it was 80 degrees, not a cloud in the sky with a slight breeze. Some good friends invited us to Yum Cha in the city, so taking advantage of the beautiful Sydney weather and wanting a bit more adventure for the kids we took the train. The ride from the station to the city is only about 15 min, crosses the Harbor Bridge and stops at a few stations. Luca and Scout were glued to the windows and very excited on the way there and back.

Checking out one of the stations.

Yum Cha was delicious, the kids were very well behaved at the restaurant (maybe this is a benefit of our time in Thailand) our friends were doing well and we enjoyed catching up. Lovely weekend, with warm weather and tons of time outside. It's not quite beach weather yet, but my bet is we'll be in the ocean in the next few weeks. -kel

Thailand - Khao Lak pt.III

It might not sound like it from the earlier blogs but we did get out of the resort, and not just to ride elephants.

The main town Bang La On (which most people refer to as Khao Lak) was about 20 minutes drive from where we were staying. The roads are pretty crazy even though this area is not massively developed, there seems to be a skinny outside lane closest to the curb where all the motorcycles/scooters ride (and there are a lot of those, often with two or three people on them, sometimes with a baby up front on the drivers lap) and then all of the cars, trucks and buses use the other lane and are prone to high risk over taking. 95% of the cars on the road are pickups and that seems to be so they can double as cabs. The local cabs have a welded steel riding section with canopy screwed to the back of the pickup, so we were hanging on to the kids each time we rode in them for fear of losing them overboard - definitely a different experience.

If Scout moves to Thailand she wants a scooter in pink!

The town had some really great restaurants, a couple of 7Eleven's (where we picked up beer and snacks), a lot of shops that sold knock-off surfwear and a number of tailors and optometrists. It was really hot cruising around in the shops and after the first trip into town we decided that it was no fun for the kids so we got a sitter the next time we went in.

The second time we went in we had two objectives 1) find a tailor to copy a favourite pair of trousers of mine and a jacket of Kelly's, and 2) visit the local markets.

When the cab driver found out we were after a tailor he went on about the best tailor in the area and insisted we go there. The place was a mile and a half out of town and the driver promised that once finished someone at the tailors would give us a ride into town. Undoubtedly the driver got some form of kick back from the tailor for bringing in business and although we were aware of this we chanced it and it was a mistake. The tailor did not have great fabric so we decided to check the multiple tailor options in the town proper, but with no business there was no ride into town. With limited time and 32 degrees C temp the mile and a half walk into town was something we didn't want to face so we started walking in the opposite direction toward the local markets where we had seen some cabs (this was a bit less than a mile away). We had only just started walking along the side of the road, watching out for the scooters buzzing by us (no sidewalks here), when we saw a cobra and a cat in a stand off about 10 feet from the side of the road. We didn't care too much about the scooters at that point and found the next taxi in record time.

When we finally made it to the local markets we had a good time, again a lot of knock-off stuff but also all sorts of fruit and veg and some interesting stall food. It was a lot of fun and I guess our luck turned while we were there because no sooner had we finished with the market and were sitting down in a restaurant across the street enjoying a beverage then the heavens opened up.

Local markets

One of the highlights of our last couple of days was letting off paper lanterns on the beach at night and watching them fly off into the sky until you couldn't see them any more. All up there were probably one hundred lanterns let off in the space of 20 minutes so they made a continuous line of fire in the sky as far up as the eye could see. The kids stayed up late to do this and they loved it.

Kel & Luca waiting for the hot air to fill their lantern before release

The journey home was overnight so it was much easier on the kids who slept most of the way. It was a magic family holiday making it hard to snap out of holiday mode and get back to work. We are already planning our next Thailand visit, probably in 2013, and we are hoping that some of the family and friends in the US can join us!

Thailand - Khao Lak pt.II

The Le Meridien was awesome for more than just pools and food, there was a great activity schedule for kids and adults. There was a special kids indoor play centre called the Penguin Club that had everything from Playstation competitions through to crafts like t-shirt printing. Both Luca and Scout did a number of the craft classes but the stand out activity was the Thai boxing (Muay Thai) classes that Luca took. The kids dressed in the special Muay Thai boxing pants and boxing gloves and had lessons in a real boxing ring. There was no holding back as you can see from the photo's of Luca below.

Mosquito weight champion Luca Ferguson

For Kelly the favourite "activity" was the spa, which from her description sounded pretty decadent and awesome, and for me I enjoyed the garden tour. The guy who led the garden tour, Karn, became a bit of friend for me while we were there and whenever he saw us he would invite the kids to feed the Koi with him. There were some awesome ponds with pagodas built over them and all had masses of well fed, huge Koi in them.

There may have been a lot of Thai/Buddhist ornaments to choose from on the grounds of the resort but Scouty's favourite was a small statue of a Thai women that was outside of our room who was nicknamed the "booby lady" by Scout.

Scout and the "booby lady"