Gold Coast - Day 4

We had a very interesting breakfast on opur 4th day. We had maggie mee and ham. Heck unhealthy, we needed to load the kids with calories and maggie mee is something that they are familiar with and would stomach as compared to sandwiches.

We were done with breakfast early and could spare about 20 mins for a short walk at the beach. The kids were thrilled.

The beach was beautiful in the bright morning sun and the kids were happy just sinking their feet in the cold sand and picking seashells. It was such a nice way to start a morning. Then we headed back to the hotel for the transfer to Sea World.
Sea World isn't too far from our hotel and we arrived shortly to a huge crowd. There were many people at the park bcos it was the weekend. We should have planned it on a weekday but made do since we were already there.

We caught the sea lion show immediately after we entered the park. The sun was working very hard and it actually felt hot. It was the hottest day out of our 8 in Gold Coast. We all perspiring by the time the show was over and I was lamenting about not bringing the sunblock. Bringing hats were a fantastic choice.

After the sea lion show ended, we headed for the Dora show. Sea World seems to have some kind of partnership with Nickelodeon and it was a really nice and proper Dora show. It was Best Friends' Day and Dora was looking for Boots, her best friend. I think that was probably the best show amongst all that we had watched, in the kids' opinion though. Just look at how excited the kids were. They were singing and dancing along. My kids watched too much TV. Lol.

At this point, Daddy Lim complained of a massive headache and had to take a rest. I was worried about him and also the fact that I couldn't handle 2 kids on my own. Then it dawned on me that when it is an one-to-one tour, the adults cannot afford to fall sick. Luckily the headache didn't stay for long. Phew.
We took some kiddy rides after the shows but the rides are meant for smaller kids and Lil Shauna love thrilling rides. The rides were deemed to be boring and she refused to go on the merry-go-round. There were long queues too bcos there were many other parents with their toddlers. Unfortunately, the other thrilling rides either required some minimal height or had too long queue and we were unwilling to wait.

So instead, we went shark watching.

Their shark viewing gallery is quite impressive. Daddy Lim and I both thought that the sharks look toothless, but we aren't sure.
Then, we headed to some touch pool for stingrays and some of them were really huge! I didn't know that stingrays are friendly. Anyway, I didn't attempt, they look too intimidating to me and fishes are not my best friends. They are good to me on dinner plates. Oops. Only Daddy Lim tried and said that they feel slimy.

There are starfishes too. At least Lil Shauna attempted that and said that the starfishes feel rough and hard. Daddy Lim also touched the sea cucumber and said that they are rubbery.

The kids had temporary tattoos done too. Unfortunately, our kids spent too much time soaking in the bath tub everyday that their tattoos didn't last very long.

We left the park earlier this time and went back to hotel while the sun was still up, which was so rare. Not that we go back to the hotel late everyday but that the sun sets so early everyday. We spotted SpongeBob and Sandy before we left the park. The girls only flavor Sandy though. Poor SpongeBob. Li Isaac was only willing to view them from afar.

Since we were early, we went to the beach again for a little fun. The sand was really cold and there were plenty of seagulls attracted by some other tourists who were feeding them something that looked like fried chicken fillet. Lil Shauna was happy "chasing" after seagulls, who weren't at all afraid of her. They were more interested in waiting for those tourists to feed them and simply waddled away when Lil Shauna ran towards them. They didn't even bother to fly away but our little girl had fun. Lil Isaac was barely awake from his nap but joined in the fun soon. We also ran around at the beach, ran from waves and raced against each other. It was fun. The Ong family didn't join us as the kids were having a late nap after the fun at Sea World.

We joined them for a simple dinner at KFC thereafter. Mummy was so happy to be eating chicken, we had plenty of carbos and fries for the past few days. Meat!

Mummy Lim

Gold Coast - Day 3

The 3rd day was considerably boring. The bright sunshine greeted us to a good day ahead.

The kids (including the big one) were lazing in the bed. Mummy had to drag them off the beds.

We headed to Paradise Country, which is an Aussie farm.

They have shows, almost back to back, each about 30mins to entertain us the whole morning. I do felt very much like a tourist and realized that I like feeling like a tourist with events all lined up and no need to plan what's next, which is thye kids' favorite question they entire trip.

Lil Shauna likes the sheep shearing best. We get to touch the wool thereafter and could even take some home but Lil Shauna wasn't keen. The unprocessed wool didn't feel as soft as I thought it would be and looked pretty dirty too. Well, how clean can it be when the sheep run around all day in the fields. Haha.

We also get plenty of chances to take pix with the animals.

Our trip happened to coincide with that of a huge group of PRCs. The farm even arranged for Chinese commentator to translate sentence by sentence. You could tell that the Aussies do not really like the PRCs, some of the PRCs were very rough towards the animals. However, the Aussie staff were all smiles and very encouraging towards the kids, who really were very loving towards the kids.
The half day trip ended with feeding the calves, lambs and piglets. The piglets were really hungry and fighting over food. I was actually worried that the piglets would chomp the kids' fingers off.

We also took our first family picture at Paradise Country, with the sheep, which isn't the best idea. The sheep were distractions to the kids, they don't smell too good, attract houseflies and seem very interested to chew our hair anytime. Lol.

Then, we headed to Habor Town, which is a shopping center of various brand outlets. Unfortunately, things aren't that cheap and it really wasn't an easy feat trying to shop with the kids. I am allergic to shopping with kids and didn't buy anything at all. Daddy Lim managed to get himself an Addidas T-shirt. In my opinion, the best thing is to be able to find Chinese noodles for lunch. We are so deprived of Chinese food. We had burgers and pastas for the last 2 days.

Towards the last 2 hours, we were willing the time to pass faster and were so happy when the bus finally came to bring us back to the hotel.

Back at Surfers' Paradise, we strolled a little along the beach and visited the little tentages set up to sell mainly handicraft before heading back to the hotel. There were quite a number of baskers on Friday night too. We saw Spiderman and we had no idea what he was supposed to be performing. He simply went around chatting people up and giving people Hi-5 in his Spiderman costume.

We didn't buy any of the tourist staff from the tentages. Our pockets aren't deep enough. We headed back to the hotel and headed to bed after the usual dip in the bath tub. We are heading to the Sea World the next day and hopefully it would be more exciting. It definitely will, nothing can be worse than shopping (not for them) for the kids. Haha.
Mummy Lim

Cockroaches! Die!

We left our last cockroach trap in the boot for months. We couldn't find similar replacements and definitely bcos it is out of sight, out of mind.

We finally found new ones and set up the new ones. This is what we found in our boot. Eeeekkkkk. Cockroaches! Die! The traps were working, I think we do see lesser cockroaches running amok in Tiggy now. Die!

Mummy Lim

Gold Coast Day 2

The kids slept early on the first night and we all woke up early on the 2nd day morning. We were up by 7.30am and we went to the supermarket to grab some ham and bread for breakfast. It is really expensive to eat in Gold Coast. It can easily cost us more than A$10 each for a proper meal. The bus fetched us at 9.15am for Movie World. Thinking that it would actually be quite warm in the afternoon, mummy actually clothed the kids in short sleeves. The day turned out to be really cloudy and cold. So, I didn't over packed after all. Lol.

Movie World probably isn't that far. However, the bus had to pick up other tourists along the way and it took us an hour to get there.

It was cold... really cold when we arrived but we were all still very excited. Lil Shauna and I took the first scooby-doo spooky ride. It is a roller coaster ride in the dark. Each cart could seat 4 and Lil Shauna and me had a cart to ourselves bcos C was a littlt too scare to join us. Lil Isaac was really freaky out by how the ride looked. He was still pestering to sit on a roller coaster too, like jiejie, but backed out immediately when he saw the ride. Good for us, save us the trouble to coax Lil Isaac out of the idea - he isn't tall enough for all roller coaster rides yet.

It was quite exciting. At certain point, the cart fell backwards and that was scary. The best part? Towards the end of the ride, the fire alarm went off and the ride was terminated midway. Lil Shauna and I were stuck in the cart and had to wait for the staff to rescue us. When it first stopped and the alarm went on, I couldn't make put if that was part of the effect of the ride. Then the alarm continued and the lights went on and I knew that we were really stuck. We were probably stuck for about 15mins. Mummy was just as scare as her little girl but had to pretend to look brave and as if she had experience and been stuck in roller coaster rides for like 100 times. I was so hoping that Mummy P and C had taken the same ride with us. Mummy was also secretly worried that nobody would come to save us or the staff might overlook and didn't know that we were stuck. I was so glad when somebody actually came. Phew, my 1st time ever stuck on a roller coaster ride and I was so glad that we were on a roller coaster ride in Australia and not some ulu country with little regard for safety. We actually went back to complete the ride in the later part of the day when the ride was operational again. This time, with Mummy P and C and there was no fire alarm. Lol.

The kids went on other kiddy rides after that. There aren't that many kiddy rides and the kids went for the same few many times. We were glad that they weren't sick of the same rides. The kids went for many of the rides without the adults. They are all growing up.

The kids probably drove the bumper car 3x and the taxi 4x. By the end of those, Lil Shauna can finally handled the bumper car well and understand how the steering works. Lil Isaac started to drive his taxi well. He was so stuck when he first tried a similar ride in LEGOLAND some months back. On his first attempt, he actually ended up in a pile up. Too funny.

We also took this choo choo train ride with really tiny seat. I had to accompany as Lil Isaac and T are below the minimum height and it was so squuezy. Mummy's poor butt.

There were a few performances to catch as well and Lil Shauna enjoyed them all. The kids also took some pictures with Scooby and a few more characters. Lil Isaac is still scare of them but he managed to go close up with Sebastian and even hi-5 him.

It was getting colder as the day goes by. The park closes at 5pm and the transport was picking us up at 5.15pm. At about 4.30pm, we hid in one of the cafes for coffee and the girls had a rainbow cake. Lil Shauna was excited to try one but it probably didn't taste as good as how it looks and Daddy Ong polished off whatever that the girls can't finish.

Then, we left and headed back to the hotel. Bye, bye Movie World. The adults took none of the thrilling rides. We chose to think that we focused too much on the kids than being too afraid. Lol.

The bus ride back took about an hour as well. We finally found pasta for dinner and the kids ate a decent portion. For the past 2 days, it was burgers and burgers and the kids didn't stomach much. It was day 2 and we were already craving for the usual bah cho mee. Lol.

Sleep was easy to come after a whole day of fun. The next day, we are heading to the Paradise Farm and Habour Town. I wonder how the weather would be.

Lil Isaac went without diaper in the morning until mummy realised that it was a little too dangerous. Mummy also kept repeating herself like a broken recorder. Lil Isaac would easily wet himself with all the fun and we had a better peace of mind when he had his diapers on. Well, we'll see how things go.

Mummy Lim

Gold Coast - Day 0 and 1

We were very excited to fly to Gold Coast. Mummy's neck had grown longer already, as per every wait for every holiday. Hehe.

We worked on Tuesday, knocked off on time to go home to fetch the kids and then to catch the flight at 10.25pm. Scoot required us to check in 3hrs before the departure time. Bcos of some reason, mummy had the easiest time before holiday. No pressure regarding work cannot be completed before holiday. There is also no need to work for the holiday and need not pay back after that. Hehehe, muahahahahaha.

Things went well. Lil Isaac was having his nap when we reached home and he needed that nap to survive the late flight. Lil Shauna finally recovered from that horrible fever. We were ready when the booked cab came for us at 6pm. We had buffered more time in case of traffic jam.

The traffic was as bad as we had expected. The ride was made worse by the taxi uncle who jammed on his brake and accelerator equally hard. Daddy Lim and I suffered from bad motion sickness when we finally alighted and it took awhile for us to recover.

The 3 hrs passed really quickly and the kids also spent some time at the playground. Lil Shauna also took pix with m&ms while we waited for the plane.

Unfortunately, the kids didn't fall asleep as quickly as we hoped they would, especially Lil Isaac who slept only close to midnight. All of us didn't sleep well but were still happy and excited when we finally arrived. There were many other ang mos on the same flight as us and the parents were really liberal. On our right, there is this couple with a girl probably about the same age as Lil Shauna. In the middle of the night, when I happened to look right, I found her seat empty. Upon closer look, she was actually sleeping on the floor, at her parents' feet, regardless of the seat belt sign, turbulent or not.

Anyway, this is us before our flight and touching down in GC.

However, we perked very quickly. We were on holiday!

We spent our first day walking around surfers' paradise. Mummy had thought that she would see plenty of bikini babes and half naked hunks walking on the streets with their surf boards (*drool*). But this probably happens only on TV. Or maybe bcos it was approaching winter and it is too cold to surf. We did see quite a number surfing but not many would be in the right mind to walk around half naked. It was pretty cold.

The kids were excited to see the sea and the beach. We didn't stay long though, eager to explore the other stuff.

We walked and saw the Aquaduck tour and decided to ride it. It is such a tourist thing and we did it. Lol. We have the same duck tour in Singapore and I have never ever thought about taking it yet this is the first tourist thing that we did in GC. Hoho. It was a sunny day and it was actually hot with the midday sun. Mummy started wondering if she had overpacked for the trip.

In my opinion, the duck tour wasn't fantastic. It was really like a city tour. The australian commentator spoke really quickly at times and I couldn't understand him. Lol. Torres fell asleep during the tour, so you can tell how interesting the trip is to the kids. The boys had a chance to "drive" the car while it was in the waters. The girls were to shy to try. What Lil Isaac did was basically holding ion to the steering wheel. However, he was really proud of himself and kept telling us that he drove the duck duck car.

We went back to the hotel after the tour and the Ong family snoozed. Our kids weren't tired and we took a walk along the beach. The sand was really fine and it was actually felt cold. The water was even colder! We wonder how the surfers survived in the water.

We were all exhausted by Aussie time, 6.30pm, which is actually only 4.30pm Singapore time. However, the sky was already dark by then. There were tentages set up along the beach selling handicraft stuff. However, we had a long day, a bad night sleep on the plane and the kids were fussing badly. They couldn't keep their eyes opened and we ended the day early. The kids had a nice shower in the bath tub and headed to bed really early, like 8pm. Well, we have to wake up early the next day morning for Movie World anyway. Woohoo!

This is the day and night view from our hotel's balcony. Our hotel is probably one of the older ones but totally comfortable.

By the way, Lil Isaac went diaperless for a large part of the day. He only peed in his pants in the evening when he was still half awake from the nap. Hehe, big boy already. I had wanted to let him go diaperless the entire trip but we will see how things go.

Mummy Lim