Brisbane Day 1: Tangalooma Moreton Island

Work had been so freaking busy that I could only pry away from the computer at the very last min. We headed home, grabbed the luggage and kids and were on our way to the airport.

I know, I looked so tired right. That is why I needed a holiday.

There was some jam on the expressway but we arrived with ample time for a light dinner. Yay! The holiday is starting the right way.

It was an 8-hour flight. We ate again when dinner was served and caught 1 movie before I rushed the kids to bed. We needed to sleep to function when we arrived. Sleep was tough. My only blessing was Zaky growing too big and cannot lie down in the tiny seat for long and therefore not needing a "pillow" and saving my lap and butt from cramping like the previous trips. Haha.

We survived the flight! Hello Brisbane!

The Brisbane airport was small and it didnt take long for us to clear the immigration and get our luggage.

It was 14 degrees! Woohoo! We can feel the chill the moment we alighted.

The luggage clearance was smooth too. The checks were much less stringent than when we went to Perth. Then, it was a lot of waiting. We had bfast at the airport and were reminded about how everything is so expensive in Australia. The airport was too small to provide much entertainment. Our next destination was only 10mins away by car and we had over an hour to burn.

We finally moved when we can no longer tolerate the kids' wriggling. We got an uber to the Tangalooma Ferry Terminal for our 10am ferry to the Moreton Island. Then there was more waiting before we finally boarded at 9.30am.

It was also time to nap to replenish the previous night's lost sleep.

The ferry was about 1 hour long and we sleep most of our way. The moment we alighted, we were greeted by pelicians and sea gulls.

Hello Tangalooma!

There were many other birds too. This one appeared to be admiring its reflection.

The room wasnt ready and our prebooked activity was at 1.30pm. We ended up munching on hot coffee and pies.

Before exploring the beach. It was a tad cloudy and very cold....

Some body had gone on the same stretch before us.

Along the way, we spotted so many starfishes. I supposed they were washed up onshore.

So many of them...

We finally ended our beachwalk with some pelician pictures.

More starfishes..

Daddy Lim's infamous selfie.

 The pelician has weird eyes that look fake.

Finally, it was time for the prebooked sand duning tour. Moreton island is made up of 98% sand and remaining 2% volcanic rock. It is the 3rd largest sand island in the world. The sand is from the highland of NSW and were carried by rivers to sea and deposited on the island.

We took a 10 mins bus ride. Dont play, play, all wheels ride bus ok. When we finally arrived, it was a vast land of sand.

We were supposed to climb up the little sand hill with the sliding board.

And were supposed to go on a single file, so that we wouldnt mess up the sand, which will in turn disturb the sliding.

After a quick briefing, we started our ascend.

While the rest were still chit chatting, we grabbed our board and were the 1st few in the line.

It was hard work.

Finally at the top.

To slide down, we needed to lift up the front of the board, our elbows and legs - like the superman pose - so that we would minimize contact with the sand and reduce fiction.

Zaky went 1st and zoomed down but rolled off at the bottom. Lil Shauna went next and rolled off too towards the bottom. I think they were a tad too light. I went next and the sand was really bumpy! As I went down, I had sand flying into my face and my jacket was covered in sand by the end of the slide. It was fun!

Daddy Lim was due to go next but he eventually didnt slide bcos of his back problem. Poor thing. To make up for him, we ended up going like 3x. Hohoho. Lil Shauna only went 2x bcos she rolled off both times and gave up. She happily went picture taking with Daddy Lim.

By the end of the slides, we had sand in our hair, face, ear, nose, clothes and even inside our pants and underwear. Hohoho.

Our room was finally ready when we were back. We took a short rest before heading for more exploration. The kids found new friends at the mini playground and spent almost an hour playing.

We headed for dinner before the last event of the day - wild dolphin feeding.

Daddy Lim threatened me to buy him a hot warm dinner after the pathetic pies for lunch. Hohoho. We had just that and were just in time for the dolphin feeding at 6pm.

These wild dolphins come in every day in the evening for feeding.

They were happily swimming at the shoreline.

Daddy Lim brought the kids to go into the waters to feed them. I didnt want to get wet and opted to be the videographer instead.

It was all done in a while. We were not allowed to touch the dolphins but Daddy Lim said that the dolphin - Tinkerbell, nudged his knee. Sounded so cute!

With that, the day's activities had finally come to an end. It was still early when we settled down but we were all freaking tired and had to call it an early night. Yawn...

Mummy Lim

School's Out

SA1 came and left. SA1 results came and I vomited blood.

Zaky did well except for his Chinese. Apparently the money that we had been pouring into 天下 has been channeled directly into the drain. He literally go to class reluctantly every Friday and then turned on the "switched off" mode in class. Zzzzz. We have stopped his 天下 classes and are looking to switch to one to one tuition when Lil Shauna's chinese tuition teacher is available.

Lil Shauna's results were atrocious. I cant bear to look at her Science paper and she scraped through her Higher Chinese. All the subjects were below expectations. Ok, my expectations are high but achievable. I was appalled to realise that she knew that she could revise the Science topics that she is weak at but didnt. 吐血... we have devised the June holiday Science 恶补 plan and I hope it would help.

Nevertheless, we cannot deny that the school is out and the kids should unwind. The 1st thing that Lil Shauna asked for was a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. We had done a 500-one some time back and she had her eyes on something more challenging.

Hmmm.. I am not quite sure if the puzzle is indeed the right avenue to "unwind".

We almost go blind from trying to sort the pieces by color. We barely got 1% done before our breaking back chased us off to bed. It looks like the puzzle will take us some time. Haha.

The school holidays start with a big bang for the kids - my company Family Day fell on the 1st day of the school holiday and was held at Kidzania. The kids were excited but Lil Shauna wasnt too sure if she would enjoy herself given that she is probably going to be "over-age".

Our 1st stop in Sentosa was the Lunge - I had leftover tickets from the company's meeting last week. I tried the Lunge with the kids many years back. Zaky was too young to ride alone then. None of them had any recollections of the Lunge.

The skylift inside is already an adventure.

The q for the Lunge was super long but the actual ride was less than a minute but we had fun. We had 2 free passes but had to leave with 1 ride to be in time for the company event.

We were in time for the magic show and was surprise at how much the kids still love magic shows.

Entry to Kidzania was granted at 6pm.

Zaky asked me to take a picture of him while waiting for the opening speech.

Dinner was served after the speech but the kids were too excited to eat. Lil Shauna was choosy about the "jobs", she refused to be a SCDF bcos she didnt want to "work" together with little kids. Lol. So they opted for big kids' stuff. Some TV broadcasting and video editing stuff.

Travel itinerary planner.

Some QC specialist.

Journalist - they had so much fun going around taking pictures. Lil Shauna totally forgotten that she was too "old".

It was a private event and there wasnt much of a waiting. Adults/ parents could take part too. Daddy Lim and I each joined the kids for 1 job. Daddy Lim was lured by the promise of testing the Simmons bed.

After "working" at Simmons, Daddy Lim was so sold and said that our next mattress should be a Simmons. Really?

The event was from 6pm to about 9.30pm. I was doubtful that the crowd would stay on until the end but the kids proved us wrong. They were so busy "working" such that there was no chance in asking them to stop. By 9.30pm, the kids didnt get the chance to do all the jobs. I wish they have the same enthusiasm with school. Haha.

We left at 9.30pm. With all the fun gone, the little tummies started rumbling. Luckily, food was everywhere in Sentosa. It was another "best day ever".

Mummy Lim