First you must know that we have not been resting on our laurels and fooling around at home watching TV, reading, sipping tea and dipping in the pool these past couple of weeks (what, that's what life is about, you say? Who told you??).
No, no, no we have been out exploring and ignoring the kids' pleas to simply stay at home to watch TV and play on the iPad. Tsk tsk tsk...
When YL was dragged kicking and screaming onto the airplane in mid-June by some people he referred to as his "colleagues" to fraternize with important medical people halfway across the world for 2 weeks, I dragged *my* kids onto a plane to land ourselves into the palatial home (compared to Singapore) of Yiyi & Yi Cheong (younger aunty & younger uncle in Cantonese) in Perth, where Popo (grandmother) is also staying temporarily. The mission: to vegetate for a week. You see, we cannot vegetate in our own home; to do that will simply mean an unproductive use of time. But vegetating in the homes of family members means we are strengthening family bonds at the same time - not unproductive at all, see? Plus, we get served and we can mess up the place and not be responsible to clean up after that...hehehehehehehahahahahahahahohohohohoho (see what too much work does to you?)
However, Yiyi & Yi Cheong, familiar with our usual style of productive travel, planned an action-packed week for us. Or perhaps it was just revenge time, since I planned ruthless "holidays" for them each time they visited us. I simply waved them off and sunk deeper and further into their sofa while they stared at me wide-eyed and heavy-jawed.
Regardless, we ended up spending a long weekend in a working farm in the town of Harvey, an hour and a half's drive from Perth. I did not want to risk tipping the equilibrium of a heavily pregnant mother-of-one-who-is-actually-two-and-a-half-toddlers-rolled-into-one.
It was the start of winter so the air was fresh, cool and crisp. It was in huge contrast to what would greet us upon our return to Singapore: the worst haze in 20 years where you can see and definitely feel the smoke in the air you breathe
View from our apartment set in one corner of the farm
Horses abound
In a pensive moment connecting with the horse
They spent most of their time at the small playground just in front of the apartment
Peacocks and peahens roam freely in the grounds around the apartment
The farm has a small collection of animals which the visitors can feed each morning.
In the rabbit pen, feeding breakfast to the rabbits
Yup, very big rabbits
"Just leave everything here, step immediately away out of the pen, and we won't hurt you"
Feeding the chickens and ducks
Ju warmed up to them on the second day, and allowed them to peck the grains out of his hands. On the other end of the spectrum, T3 heavily traumatized the chickens and ducks by mercilessly bombing the surrounding 1 km radius with grains.
Feeding the horses require strength, believe it or not. Hold on tight, or they will snatch the whole stick and swallow it whole.
The kids were also allowed to collect any eggs laid by the hens.
Fresh eggs for breakfast!
He was very protective of them afterwards, and would not let them out of his sight.
The cousins waiting for sheep to appear for feeding time
Just having fun
Impossible to take a good picture of the three, but I really like this one for its variety of expressions
Ju was determined to see the cows which were somewhat elusive in this farm.
Self service! Mandarin oranges were left outside at the front gate of the orchards, and visitors would simply leave the money and grab a bag
More animal-feeding - at Caversham Park this time. By the way, this is the wrong way to feed a kangaroo. You should just leave the food pellets in the palm of your hands (see below). If you offer them using your fingers, you might end up offering your fingers as food, too.
You can see the baby joey sticking out of this one
Lots of lazy kangaroos - Ju was overly excited and made sure they were all fed
The one and only group picture from the trip (still missing Yi Cheong, actually).
A bientot, et bon courage to Yiyi with the delivery!
1 comment:
Finally! The Perth trip made it to your blog! Was looking forward to read it. Unfortunately what you said about T3 traumatizing the chickens and ducks is true.. and the rabbits too.
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