Finally was able to log onto the computer to update on my in laws' visit to Brisbane. Had been so busy bringing them around throughout their stay that I was so tired at the end of each day that I just could not find the strength to switch on the computer much less update the blog. Think this is going to be a long entry with pictures and all.
22 July, Wednesday
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In laws arrived from Carins after staying at my sister-in-law's place for 3 weeks. They arrived in the evening at around 5pm. Made some simple dishes for dinner as most of the are already closed by then. Have Korea BBQ meat which we marinated over the weekends, some veges, soup and steamed fish. Since they are not very young, I decided to prepare easily digested food for them, moreover I was worried that they might not like my cooking. Luckily they liked it. Watched some telly and off to bed fas tomorrow is going to be a long day.
23 July, Thursday
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Target Toy sale starts today. Adrian wanted to buy the game Jenga which will be retailing at A$13 as compared to the oringinal price of A$26. So after some light breakfast, we set off to Westfields which is just a stone's throw away from our place. This year's Target's Toy sale is not as good as last year's. I remembered by around 10plus, almost all the toys had been off the shelves, leaving those not so popular still sitting on the shelves. This year, when we arrived at Target at around 10am, most of the shelves are still packed with toys. Although the human traffic is there, there seemed to be less buying. Anyway, Adrian took the Jenga and was hesitating whether to get the Monopoly Special Edition set which was going at around A$56. He was comparing it with the normal Monopoly and it was just a difference of $4. I was hesitant to buy it too as we already had the normal Monopoly that we bought from Kmart when it had a 20% off all board games last December prior to Christmas. Finally we decided to get it and off to the cashier. More looking around would mean that more things might catch our eye and we will spend more. Better stop.
Off to lunch at Fishs. Accident happened. As Sebastian was still asleep when we reached Fishs, we decided to bring Sabrina and my in laws into Fishs first while Adrian parked the car and bring Sebastian over. Just when Adrian reached Fishs, he tripped over the wheels of a heater and it just so happened that Sabrina upon seeing his Daddy, rushed forward and she sort of fell down. She had a nasty cut on her middle finger. Initially she did not cry but when she saw the blood, she just went crazy and sobbed loudly. I had to quickly clean the cut and luckily I had some plasters in my bag. Soon she was appeased and proceed to wait for her lunch. The skin on her middle finger was cut off when we reached home later in the night just before putting her to bed.
After lunch, we set off to DFO at the airport as it was very near to Fishs. It just so happened that Puma was having a 40% storewide sale. I think we were in that store for at least half a hour. With old folks and 2 kids, shopping together is no joke. I managed to get 2 tops and a bermudas for my daily wear while Adrian managed to get his black soccer shorts at only $18. My father-in-law managed to get some really nice sleeveless tops while my mother-in-law could not find anything that catches her eyes.
As it was Thursday, it's late night shopping as usual. We decided not to go down to Garden City which is at the South side as we might be caught in the traffic jam but instead went back to Chermside Westfield. Had dinner at Hannachi, a Japanese food stall. Shopped around till nearly 9pm and off to we went back home. Very tiring day. I think the kids are tired too, dozed off quite fast after they were cleaned and had their last feed.
24 July, Friday
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According to our plan, it's a day at Sunshine Coast today. Brought my in laws to the strawberry farms where they can pick their own strawberries and pay for what they picked. Sabrina was very keen to start picking strawberries when we reached the farm. She spotted one instantly when we stepped into the farm. It was a really nice red strawberry just that it was not huge enough. But I thought it was just for the fun so I told her to pluck it. She came up with so many sound effects as she tried to pull it up . As we moved along, she tried to pull all those strawberries that were hanging outside. Like I said earlier, they were bright red but just too small so I told her to look for "BIG BIG" strawberries. She then went round and say "BIG BIG". So funny. After a while, she got bored as she was not able to find too many big strawberries. She decided to run around and play at the kids area where there is a swing and slide. We continued picking and finally we had 2 punnet of strawberries. Went off to pay for them and sat down to enjoy our fruit of labour. Sabrina had a great time eating those freshly plucked strawberries and playing on the slide. In laws had fun too as it was their first time picking strawberries. We also had lunch - luncheon meat with bread.
Off to Opal Down Under. Bought a container at $5 and had Sabrina picking up opals and stones from the patch just outside the shop. Initially she just took every stone that she saw and put them into the container. Then I told her to look for those shiny stones. She then say "Shiny" and went off in search of those stones that are shiny. She just went on and on and there were times where she just practically lie on her tummy to search for them. Her blue jeans became brown jeans and I had to change her before she gets into the car. In laws went about looking at the opals that were on display in the shop. Finally they got some gifts and a pair of earrings for my mother-in-law.
We also made a quick stop at Big Pineapple. In laws got some candy and we bought some freshly roasted macadamia nuts, cinnamon and chilli flavour. Sabrina loves the cinnamon flavoured ones and we had to hide it so that she will stop eating and go for her nap.
Dinner was at SunnyBank as most of the eatery at our side are closed by then. Went to Vietnam and they like the noodles and the roast pork. Went home.
25 July, Saturday
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Went off to New Farm Park for their fortnightly market. Fil was not able to walk for long but he managed to made frequent stops and saw about half of the market. We bought a box of 8 packets of raw macadamia nuts and was given a good price for it. In laws were intending to bring 4 packets back to Sg for relatives. There were no gourmet strawberries and the strawberries that were on sale were not sweet so we decided not to get them. Instead we bought some apples.
We went off to the nearby playground and let Sabrina run around and play with the slides and swings and everything while we sat down and eat the crepe, turkish bread and waffle. Brought the kids across the road to run around in the park. We remembered to bring their ball and both kids run round the park chasing the ball, this includes Sebastian who happily walked around the grass. We sat on the mat and had popcorn that we just bought from the market.
Went off to Chinatown. But alas, major renovation was going on and many of the stone statues were gone. Not a very fruitful trip though. So we went off to lunch at Oriental, SunnyBanks. While having lunch, Sabrina said she wanted to go to the toilet, so as usual, Adrian will bring her as I would be tending to Sebastian. But of all days, Sabrina went to put her right forefinger when the door was about to close and she had a major bruise on it. Blood was just oozing out of her tiny forefinger. She just went hysterical. She was crying so hard and shivering so much. I was pretty pissed off. I looked after my kids for so long I had never allow my children to be hurt in this manner. But no choice, she was just so upset when she saw the blood apart from the pain. She calmed down after a while and started crying on and off on our trip back home. She fell asleep on our way home. She must had been tired from all the crying.
26 July, Sunday
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Was supposed to bring them to Chandler Market but after seeing what happened the day before at Farmers market, we concluded that it would be a waste to have them go to Chandler market as Fil could not walk much. So we decided to spend the whole day at Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise. They wanted to get T-shirts as souvenirs for their friends so we brought them to a shop at Surfers Paradise where they sell T-shirts at 5 for $45. While they shopped at the shop, I entertained myself with talking to a lady over the counter. She pretty much enjoyed talking to us and playing with Sebastian but I think she was more interested in Sabrina as she was running in and out of the shop. I was giving her apples thus she kept running in and out of the shop, running back to me when she had finished the slice I gave her earlier.
Went off to the Malaysian shop to find out that the boss is away in Malaysia and would only be back today. Nevertheless, as my in laws were not intending to get a lot of stuff, we proceeded to choose the items that they wanted. The helper was very entertained by Sabrina who went up to her and said "Hello" and then sat on the chair with a book and said "I study" and played around the shop saying "kangaroo" when she saw the kangaroo slippers. With all the purchase, we walked down to Hard Rock. Had a heavy lunch cum dinner at Hard Rock. It was good.
As we were still very full from our lunch at Hard Rock, we did not proceed to Sunnybank area for dinner. Instead, we went back home early. Back home, Sabrina decided that she wanted to read the book that we bought for her from Toys R Us some time back. She came upon the page with the number 10. On this page, it had a picture of a party with some animal friends, a birthday cake with 10 candles. She then said " happy birthday", "party". "Party" is a word that I had never mentioned to her. She must had heard it from Playschool. Good. She is starting to talk.
27 July, Monday
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Brought them to Habourtown, Gold Coast to shop. When we reached, we went off for lunch at Nando's. It was then that we realised that Sebastian had all of a sudden running a temperature. So we quietly bought some Panadol and got him to drink some. He just kept sleeping and looking so tired. Luckily my in laws did not suspect anything. We just told them he must have been very tired.
Anyway before going to Nando's, we stopped by the pharmacy as Adrian had forgotten to pack in Sebastian's bottle. So while waiting, I went off to buy PowerBall which is going to have a 80millon draw on the coming Thursday. My fil was very interested after hearing it. So he also bought 2 sets. To us it's just for the fun of it. We, meaning Adrian and myself do not gamble on these kind of stuff. We only buy as and when the prize money is very high. So far this is the 2nd time we had bought it.
They had a great time shopping at Habourtown. They even manage to get some good deals at Canterbury. It's just that my fil refused to let Adrian pay for it. Went off to Fila and saw this pretty top and I asked my mil to go try it. The design on the top looks very nice and it's going at 50% off the retail price. So we got that for my mil.
Went off to Nike as Adrian wanted to get some black shorts for his weekly soccer game with his friends. And it just so happened that, Nike was having a 1 hour 40% off special discount on all products while we were in the shop. So he got his shorts and I even got myself a pair of walking shoes.
Had some Moven Pick Ice-cream. Sabrina was sleeping thus she did not get to eat any. Hahaha....
28 July, Tuesday
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Not sure where to go today so we went off to Aspley Pick n Pay as Adrian wanted to show his father the promangrate plant that we bought last year. Instead, they spotted the species that Singapore has so Adrian bought it. It cost a whopping $35. As it was very near to our place, he drove it home while we continued on to let the kids had some fun at Toys R Us.
As it's Tuesday, it's pizza day for us. So we ordered pizza for dinner. They also had plans to go to the Treasury Casino which is in the City. However, after collecting the pizza, my fil (who went together with Adrian and my mil) refused to alight from the car. He said that if alight from the car, he will not want to go to the Casino. In the end, I just told Adrian to take a few slices of pizza and asked them to eat in the car on the way to the Casino. Quite pissed off in a sense. I mean they are no longer young, so it's not so good to eat things that had turned cold. Anyway, when they came back, they were pretty happy with the Casino and kept commenting that it was a good trip. Nice, new machine and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
29 July, Wednesday
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Last day of their visit. Not sure when to bring them. Finally decided to have lunch at Jia Xiang and then drive over to Market Square, Yuen's Market. They pretty like the food and find that it's not really pricey.
Had Nando's for dinner. Nando's is just outside our place beside Aldi. It was pretty chilly that night. We were just commenting that throughout my in laws' stay, the weather was pretty good. It was not too cold or too hot. It only turned slightly colder tonight when they are leaving.
Back from dinner, the 2 kids were very tired as they did not sleep well and long in the afternoon. They both slept at around 8plus, just before my in laws went to the airport to take the flight back to SG. Adrian drove them there and that marks the end of their 1 week stay.
Updated Aust Time 11.32pm
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