Okay, I’ve been a bit quiet on here of late. Have a Cornwall coast photo now we’re moving (allegedly) into colder weather….
The irony with this picture, it was so steep I couldn’t get to the beach – I didn’t try though, I relied on The Husband and how well he did (he stopped about 8 times going back up the hill I think) – and it wasn’t very stick-friendly. Even the more stick-friendly beach bits I struggled with, so I think we know where that’ll go don’t we?
This is before we knew anything about the rest of the year and my head.
Taken from our seats on our first Qatar flight to Doha in July 2022.
I look at the hairline and head shape and the ‘me’ that existed before all of this.
You didn’t really think I was going to stop, did you?
This is The Pinnacles. No photo I could take would do it justice. Just imagine driving on a road alongside bushland, then you turn off the main highway and head up a smaller road, where you can get parked and suddenly find yourself in the above area. Cars can drive around The Pinnacles (it’s a huge area), and it’s quite easily walkable too if you stick to the main paths. Here’s a Google Maps link.
I never remember the name of this lake, though I remember visiting. Husband and teen both had a swim here the last time we went to Australia, though it was too cold this time. Husband did have a paddle though. Brave.
A typical Western Australian milk aisle in the supermarket.
Now, I’d say that’s a pretty impressive section – and we’ve visited Melbourne and Sydney and been in their supermarkets (which aren’t as impressive and don’t have as many varieties as pictured).
In fact, I felt a bit silly taking a photo of a large fridge and all the milk in it at the time, and now I’m glad I did.
I also feel like this photo doesn’t really reflect the sheer volume of flavoured milks that are on offer in Western Australia. I mean, this looks quite small compared to what I’ve seen. Imagine this four or five times over and you get a good idea.
I feel quite full just looking at it.
I’m enjoying posting photos with a bit of blurb. I realise this is quite different to everything Mum Friendly has been, maybe this is where it’s moving forwards to? We’ll see. Anyway, here’s some more pictures from Australia last July and August, 2022.
Hungry Jack’s. Ahhh our favourite drive thru/takeaway in Australia (Although Shaun would probably add Chicken Shack to that as well) – we arrived in Perth and stopped here to grab food and milkshakes because we needed some sugary bad food to make us feel normal again after a day travelling from the UK eating airline food. The picture is blurry, annoyingly. But it’s clear enough to see, and here’s why Hungry Jack’s isn’t called Burger King. They serve the same food.
“Uuuuurrghgg” say most people when greeted with this sight. But oh, how wrong they are. I get it though, I mean, the idea of a minty green milk (“It probably tastes like mouthwash”) which you drink and exists for FUN (rather than anything else significant) must be confusing. I’ll dig out a photo of the Western Australia milk aisle that I took from a few years ago – they have a very impressive selection and all the flavours. For now, let’s focus on Spearmint Milk. Surely one of the greatest inventions of all time? It’s tasty, minty, green and most significantly, different. I like to be different.
Finally – no food or drink on this one. Just H, her shadow and a shelter we passed by at Mundaring Weir. I was tired so H and I stuck together and did the shortest trail. I spotted this shelter and insisted she struck a striking pose which would create an interesting photo and this was the result. So it’s kind of staged but sort of real too, if that makes sense?
Mundaring Weir is interesting – a huge reservoir which transports water around the area (there are loads of gold pipes leading from the reservoir). You can walk across the dam walkway (H and her nana did, it was too much for me) and there are numerous trails around the area. When the water levels are low you can see a train track as well which I need to do some research on. I’m already having Ladybower Reservoir style “entire village appears when the water levels got really low” sort of feelings.
But that’s just my odd little head. The area around Mundaring Weir always has kangaroos (always!) and other interesting animals – and is always good for a wander. The Mundaring Weir Hotel is just up the road and has a decent selection of beers and food to try – we’ve often enjoyed eating then sitting in the arena-type area afterwards. We also got trapped there one year when there was a rally going on and we couldn’t cross the road to leave – which was fine, we just had more sunshine, beer and food instead.
I’m building up to a few reviews which will hopefully come very soon…. my head feels like it’s ready to have a good rant!
When I posted before it was way easier doing it with photos, so I thought I’d add three more that I really liked that summed up our Australia holiday back in July and August 2022.
This first photo is a beach on Rottnest Island. We finally went there after several Australia trips – we hired bikes (mine was terrible) and cycled around though I struggled. But the views, the scenery – the beaches! I mean, they say it takes a day to cycle around the island but I felt like it might take two – we got about half way before having to return (which could mean we would have made it back in time but we weren’t risking it). Obviously the number one reason to go to Rottnest Island was their Quokka population – and when you find that area you find all the daily tourists with their selfie sticks trying to get a picture of themselves with a smiling marsupial.
Let’s have a kangaroo picture though. Every time I’ve gone to Australia we’ve seen a kangaroo. They fascinate me – you don’t get too close to them, they’re the boss. If you’re really unlucky one will jump out in front of you while you’re driving (Shaun was driving, not me) – you need to slam your brakes as it’s a battle nobody will win. It was scary too. I think this was my first kangaroo sighting of 2022, with gazillions more to follow – but you always take that first photo just in case….
Then finally, let’s have the Perth skyline. It’s a favourite photo to take, I need to find older ones to see how much has changed – that’s why I like taking them – often the changes can be really subtle. It’s taken from Kings Park and Botanic Garden – and you have to admit, it’s pretty good isn’t it? Even though I say so myself. Even though it’s a photo I can imagine the busy-ness of everyday life – we stood taking in the skyline for quite a while.
So here’s three photos. Three different parts of Australia. Did you know Perth is the most isolated city in the world? You do now.
That time we bought a tent, we headed to Go Outdoors in Poole. One of our Brownie leaders had done similarly recently, and confirmed that you can join the Go Outdoors membership scheme AND get the most from your Girlguiding discount. So I spent a lot of time browsing.
Go Outdoors has a few branches dotted around the country, so Poole was our destination. Smelly, tired and in need of a good shower and toilet, that was us. I think we looked the part, like we had already been camping. We definitely smelt it! Go Outdoors had exactly what we needed.
Tents on display. Big ones, small ones, wide ones, ones that looked too big. Ones that were definitely way too small. This was the city of tents, the place you can go inside and see whether the tent is for you. Fortunately in my super-tired state of mind they also included the price if you’re a member there (£5 a year, 10% discount on everything). So all I had to do was include my Girlguiding 15%.
We had a lot of extras already like sleeping bags and blow up mattresses, our additional costs were camping essentials like a gas stove and cutlery.
My favourite feature was the bedrooms having a blackout element. I get woken up by light coming into my sleeping area, so anything that blocks it is a good thing. Shaun’s was having lots of pockets inside the tent to put things like our toothbrushes (which we then forgot where they were as there are a LOT of pockets!). H just loved having a tent and her own room.
There’s also the logic in putting a tent up. You put the poles in and pin it appropriately and that’s that, right? Which seemed to work for this tent. It probably took us around half an hour to get the tent up, with additional time to set up each bedroom. Someone pointed out to us they never bother removing those bits as they’re all packed together anyway.
A six man tent seemed a lot though. As we had blow up mattresses already, we soon found out that two of those alongside each other took up most of the space. Actually our tent was really a four man tent (for us). Roll mats will definitely make it suitable for six people.
The final part of our tent was the separate porch. We couldn’t work out if it was important or not, but at £99 with the GG discount to be applied it felt like it wasn’t breaking the bank. As our first proper camping trip would show, it was definitely a good purchase. Cooking in the rain while being sheltered is a good thing – and we weren’t the only ones. Everyone does it. A porch is definitely the right thing to get.
As we were on our way home from holiday, the car was full. There was no way it would fit in our little Skoda Fabia, so we decided to go to the nearest Go Outdoors the following day in Tonbridge. It takes up almost all the boot space with the porch and additional carpet – but it’s worth it. So much so, that night H and I camped outside (it’s noisy in London, I didn’t enjoy it); then we all went off camping in Sussex/Kent the following day!
So that’s our ‘That time we bought a tent’ story. It just happened, but I think we had reached the end of our tether spending around £100 for so-called ‘glamping’ options. Now we can take our own tent, less stuff, spend £20 a night instead and we only have ourselves to blame if anything goes wrong!
I think it ticks something off the bucket list too.
Jetlag. It’s unavoidable, if someone has a miracle cure which works for me then please tell me it. So we’re seven hours ahead of the UK. I’m also a bad sleeper. I picked up some Boots Herbal Sleeping tablets in the hope it might help and I think it has a bit – it gets me to sleep, but doesn’t keep me asleep.
So the times of your flights come into it as well. Usually when we fly to Australia I’ll book tickets for the evening, which means we arrive very early morning in Australia (like 2am) or late in the evening (10pm). Neither really works as I can’t sleep at that point – it’s still only early evening in my body.
Add a seven year old into that mix and it’s fun… no, not really.
This time we flew at 9am in the morning, doing the longest leg from around 1pm to 10pm. So by the time we had landed in Singapore H hadn’t slept, none of us had. She was shattered but had watched several movies in the process.
Fortunately in Singapore there are plenty of seats you can crash out in near your connecting departure gate, so we did just that. Even an hour’s sleep can help.
By the time we boarded our flight to Australia it was 9am in Singapore, but midnight our time. So now the trick is to sleep but not for long as by the time you end up in Perth (same timezone as Singapore) it’s going to be 2pm. You don’t really want to be sleeping in the afternoon, it’ll mess up your sleeping pattern. Quick naps should be okay though…
Apart from if your child is sick, then you’re a walking zombiefield traveller. Jetlag was rubbing its hands with glee by then.
Getting out of Perth Airport at 2pm in the afternoon took us 20 minutes. It was so fast! Probably helped by the fact Shaun and H have Australian passports.
When we got to Toodyay H crashed – no food, just sleep. It had been a hard, long journey. But she slept, and hasn’t woken in the night since (three nights in, so far so good). I think she might have adjusted. Doing the daytime flight seems to be a better option than the others.
When they introduce non-stop flights to Perth later this year I’m definitely considering it. A daytime flight with no stops… could be one of the best flights we have!
As for Shaun and I, we keep waking up, but now on Sunday we slept through from 10pm to 7am which is a better sleep than I’d get a home. The Boots herbal sleeping tablets are working, getting me properly off to sleep. I’m getting more Vitamin D out here which might be helping my dodgy sleep patterns too.
While I don’t think the jetlag has completely gone, it is definitely the best it has ever been travelling here. We’re only seven hours ahead (rather than Sydney or Melbourne who are 11 hours), but it’s still enough it takes some adjustment.
Seven year olds and long haul flights involve careful planning. We have a bag – the Yuutuu bag we reviewed back in 2014. We used it last year when we went to the Netherlands too.
It has a lot of room and it’s very sturdy. It is also cabin bag sized.
So what’s inside?
These days H is more likely to stay awake for as long as possible. I think she might make it to Singapore without any sleep as most of our flight is through the day. This means she’ll be watching films.
However, the first leg of the journey is to Germany. I doubt we’ll have any televisions on the back of our seats, so we need to keep her occupied (if there’s time). So we have one of the Parragon Art Therapy Disney colouring books handy which fits perfectly into the Yuutuu bag. Add some pencils and bingo.
As well as this she may want to play a game. While I love in-flight entertainment and the wide variety on offer, it’s nice to have other things to do. Thanks to being so small Dobble is coming with us. It has proved to be a hit and one of the games we play a lot. Because it comes in just a tin it packs down small enough to take up very little space.
Finally, H will need something to read. I suggested she starts ‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’ by Judith Kerr which she got for Christmas. It has plenty of text so isn’t the easiest of reads (nor is the subject matter really). I thought it might give her something to read which she hasn’t really covered yet.
Add to this her neck pillow which squeezes into her backpack, and I think we’re ready…. seven year olds and long haul flights seem quite easy to deal with actually!