Mommy & Daddy's 3rd wedding anniversary trip

Its been 3 years since mommy & daddy got married on 10 May 2008. A really special and unforgettable date.. a date that mommy & daddy puts in effort to celebrate each year.. mommy hopes 47 years later, we will still be alive (and kicking!) & together to celebrate this date, marking 50 years together. =)

So this 10 May 2011, mommy & daddy went to Nikoi Island without our little boy for 3 days.

Nikoi was really pretty & very very private. A perfect place for us to unwind after months of busy city life. There's only 15 villas on that island, very much uncommercialised still - no groups of 'beach boys' pestering you to take on some sea sports, no squeezing around on the crowded beach & no rushing for that unoccupied deckchair on the beach. Just mommy & daddy on the whole island - almost.

The villa was superb.. a double storey villa, with the bedroom upstairs and a sandy chill area at the bottom, complete with a swing bed, sofa, sun deck chairs for sun-tanning & a beach front gazebo for massages. It was right in front of the beach and the villa was not enclosed, meaning no air conditioning and that insects could come straight in the villa. But it also meant, that you could feel the sea breeze and hear the waves hitting the shore as you slept. And you wake up to the sight of the lovely sea and beach first thing in the morning. It was really lovely. The closest to nature we have gotten.

Mommy & daddy spent the days just chilling out, at times at the beach, at times in our villa and at times at the bar... reading our magazines, books, chatting about life, sipping cool drinks in the hot sun, taking in the pretty scenery, taking our time to enjoy our meals & taking lotsa photos. Nights usually ended early for us, dinner was followed by a movie screened on a big screen at the bar. And back at our room, mommy would do some pampering - hair and face masks. Bliss.

The 3 days were spent simply connecting as a couple. Something we so often neglect in our daily lives, being so busy with work and Wayne. It felt really good to just feel close to each other & make each other feel important and appreciated. Happy 3rd wedding anniversary to us!

Sydney Holiday - Day 9

It was a pretty short Day 9. Woke up, had breakfast at Max Brenner, did a bit of last minute shopping for souvenirs, checked out & it was time to head to the airport for our flight back!

The flight back was really good, Wayne had a seat for himself and he was such a good boy during the entire flight home! Wayne watched his cartoons, played some games, ate his fruits and slept when he was tired. Mommy couldn't have asked for more. Wayne was a real sweetheart.

So after 9 days in Sydney, mommy & daddy came home to Singapore happy, recharged and with a new zest for life. We tell ourselves not to get so hung up over the small matters in life. That there is more to life than work & all that chasing after material wealth . That what really matters to us is US. Mommy, Daddy & Wayne and all our loved ones. Being able to spend time together, being healthy and happy together. Cheers to our wonderful trip!

THE END.

Sydney Holiday - Day 8

Its Day 8 & Happy Easter Day!!!

We woke up early all excited to explore Sydney city again, stepped out of our hotel, and oh my, the streets were quiet and shops all closed! No where for breakfast! Luckily we walked down towards the harbour and it was bustling with people there!

We bought some pies and coffee and headed to the harbour to have our breakfast overlooking the famous Opera House and Sydney Bridge. Super pretty!!! The skies were exceptionally blue today!! Perfect weather! Sunny too! As we ate our breakfast, we enjoyed the splendid view, watched the many joggers go by.. and birds were chirping all around us, which made Wayne happy chasing after them. Something he enjoyed alot during this trip.

Then we had a pleasant surprise, Jo called and said they will be joining us to Manly Beach later at noon! Yippee! Wayne would be really happy seeing Jie Jie Gwen again!

Before meeting Jo and family, we explored the Rocks which unfortunately most shops there were closed being a public holiday. So we went to the Opera House instead and bought Wayne a cute swimsuit and beach towel at one of the shops there. Just nice for Manly Beach later.

At noon we finally met Jo and family, got ferry tickets & embarked on our hour long ferry ride to Manly Beach.

Wow, Manly was a really nice chill out place. Surf shops & nice cafes lined the entire stretch leading to the beach. It was very crowded and the weather beautiful for a day out at the beach. Marcus had wanted to bring us to this restaurant called Rump & Ribs but was unfortunately closed for the day. So we settled for another restaurant where mommy had grilled prawns, daddy had steak & Wayne had pizza. =)

As we were waiting for our lunch, Wayne and jie jie Gwen had a nice time playing with small little water features just beside our table. Rolled Wayne's pants up, took off his shoes and there he went, playing with the water getting his feet all wet. It is exactly this relaxed feeling that we so love about Australia. No stress, no worrying about cleanliness as we do in Singapore.

After lunch, we got ourselves ice cream and headed to the ultra packed Manly Beach where the 2 little kids had so much fun playing with sand. Wayne Wayne was so happy having a big jie jie teaching him all sorts of stuff. He just followed everything jie jie Gwen did and everything she told him to do. It was adorable.

It was a fantastic last day we had in Sydney. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the city and say goodbye to Jo and family.

Thanks Jo and Marcus for the wonderful hospitality.... thanks for bringing us around and spending the days with us. We enjoyed your company a lot, and were very happy to be able to catch up. Gwen and Sven are such cuties, can't wait to see you and family again!

Sydney Holiday - Day 7

Rise & shine to the lovely weather on Day 7, the last day of our self drive holiday before we head back to Sydney. We had breakfast in our hotel room, a room so pretty mommy will surely miss. Did our checking out and decided to spend some time at the outdoor area of our hotel. But before that, daddy snapped some photos of the hotel...

The billiard room, which daddy came by last night, wanting to have a few rounds but which unfortunately was occupied

The cafe

The tennis courts

The path leading to the gymnasium.. absolutely loving the orange autumn trees & the blue blue skies..

Super pretty..

The gymnasium.. a pity we didn't have time to use any of the facilities.. thats why we really must come back & spend a week here to recharge

Preeeettyy......

Wayne 'cheesing' with daddy!

Love Wayne's outfit for the day...cute! Wayne loved playing with the stone covered floor, kicking the stones, picking & throwing them around.

Mommy & my little precious boy at the hotel garden..

The swimming pool with the awesome view..

Enjoying the lawn

Us =)

Wayne posing by the car.. following after mommy...

& again with daddy...

So after spending an hour by the garden, we were finally ready to say bye to this beautiful hotel and proceeded to explore the other parts of Blue Mountains. We drove to Leura Village, enjoying the pretty autumn trees lining the roads. Then visited the Leura Cascades to view the waterfall and took a short hike.

We also stopped at look out points, which gave us some pretty fantastic views of the mountain.. like this... breathtaking. Look at how pretty the clouds were as well.

The kind of view we got while driving...

And the cool weather made driving even more enjoyable.. and so we continued our journey down the mountains, back to Sydney city.

Enroute to Sydney, we stopped by Featherdale Wildlife Park.. which was quite an experience as here, the kangaroos were free to roam around....

Mommy & Wayne at the entrance... all ready to say hello the Roos!

Initially excited to explore the park, once inside mommy got real STRESSED! Cos the kangaroos were really free to wander around, able to come real close to you! While the kids there seem to be really happy being up close to the animals, mommy was scared!!! Haha... The kangaroos were hopping right past us, and some of them were really big. And there were those big ostrich like birds which flew really fast around us. Stressed stressed. Almost gave mommy a heart attack.

Mommy kept looking right and looking left, in case any of the animals took a liking to mommy & cute Wayne & came too close to us. Wayne on the other hand, was quite oblivious to the stress mommy was facing, going Roo Roo Roo each time he saw a kangaroo hop by.

The koalas were much cuter and not as scary, perhaps because they couldn't move around that much... they actually looked pretty cute & cuddly! Mommy of course wasn't brave enough to cuddle the koala, but managed some photos pretty up close with them.

Wayne got a kick out of being in the same color as the koala.. each time we said Wayne Wayne is in grey, same as the koala, he'd go laughing away... funny boy.

After seeing the roos and koalas & taking many photos, mommy decided that was enough stress for the day & so we had our lunch and quickly headed back to the car to continue our journey. Stress as mommy was, it was still quite a nice experience, especially for animal lovers out there.

Half and hour later, we were back to the blue skies of Sydney city!

Nice view of the Sydney bridge.

City view

And as we approached the city centre, daddy got a little sentimental at the thought of returning this car which has served us so well the past 4 days....

And that ended our self drive bit of our holiday, which we enjoyed very much. Thanks to the car, we travelled from place to place comfortably, without too much hassle of carrying our luggages around.

We checked in at our hotel for the next two nights, Radisson Hotel, which again was really nice and conveniently located, just 5 minutes from Sydney Harbour. This hotel was located at the other end of the city from where Sheraton was, purposely chosen, so that we could explore this side of the city. We then returned our car, went for dinner and then back to our hotel, looking forward to the next day of fun!!!