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What a blast we had. It was short and so quick, I blinked my eyes and the trip to Australia was over. The children had such a great time seeing their grandparents whom they had not seen in 4 years.  Skype has really made it so easy for folks to connect all over the world, I think without it the children would have been more shy around them.

The weather was a lot colder than I expected but I had packed too little for the boys and myself,

I found myself wearing the same clothes for a week! Yikes, I wonder if I was a bit of a pong! 

Matt’s parents took the time to take them to the toy library which is such a great idea, it kept them both occupied with several board games, Mecanno toys, puzzles and scooters. I had my “fix” with a local craft market along a main street. Matt’s parents live in Mornington, a beach town about 1.5 hours away from Melbourne. It is a beautiful area. The houses are all so beautiful and modern, and I wish that Maryland could have homes like that!

The best thing was observing the interaction amongst the kids and the grandparents. Matt’s brother, David visited and both my boys were kind of starry eyed with hero worship for him, especially James. It was really important and great that the boys bonded so well with Matt’s family and it is times like this that I start questionning if it is worth staying so far away.

For me, the highlight of the trip was seeing my very good friends. I had not seen one of them for over 10 years and we were recently reconnected via Facebook.  Linda organised high tea up in the Dandenong Mountains, in a German restaurant called The Cuckoo.  Our children were there but as we only had 2 hours to catch up, it was over all too quickly. I was unsatisfied, you know, a bit like having a piece of chocolate but really wanting to eat the whole thing. I could not really catch up in depth with anyone too specifically and that was my only regret. 

The lovely ladies, Adeline, Elaine, me, Maria and Linda.

Our gorgeous husbands, doing the Aussie footy pose!

Our precious kids.

We managed to squeeze in one trip by train to Melbourne City. We sat on a tram too.

Off the train and onto the tram next!

We also spent some time with my brother. He took us to the boys’ very first yum char in one of Melbourne’s finest Chinese restaurants.  While we were staying with my brother, the boys unexpectedly became hooked on a very old British comedy, “Mind Your Language.” They watched about two seasons of it and continued watching it in Malaysia, where my sister Jo-Ann, has it on DVD too!

I also did catch up with another family but forgot to take their pictures, can you believe that? It was great to see them - I miss Australia so much and wish we could have stayed another few more days. Hopefully, we will get to stay a bit longer next time. On to Malaysia - will be writing about my stay there next, there is not much to report, we have been home the whole week, down with food poisoning! No trip to Asia is complete without an episode of purging! (Sad but true!)

It has been wonderful being back in Melbourne again, even though the weather has been very cold.  I had misjudged the cold because I thought after going through such a harsh winter in the USA, I thought this would be a walk in the park.  How wrong I was!

However, it has been so great, seeing Matt’s parents, the boys had not seen them for about almost four years.  When Matt’s dad came to pick us up at the bus stop, Cameron kept whispering to me, if that was really “Pop, from the computer,” as we Skype sometimes.  They been down to the toy library already and borrowed toys to keep themselves amused.  It has been pretty low key in terms of activities because it is a short trip and been too cold to do anything outdoors.

One of the things that we caught on was watching “Masterchef.” What a great program that is! I wish we had something like that in the USA.  There is a very down to earth feeling about the contestants and judges, which makes it “real” and it has been the most watched program locally.  I heard that the elections had to be moved a week later because most people would be staying home to watch the finale of Masterchef!

Of course, no trip would be complete without train rides. The boys wanted to sit on the train and tram, so yesterday, all of us, without the grandparents, took a train from Frankston to the city.  From there, we caught a tram to Victorian Market. Over there, we ate at the food court, and we were reminded how wonderful food is in Australia.  Even though DC is a melting pot of cutures, the food cannot be compared to the freshness and diversity that we get in Australia.  Totally amazing. I was thinking all the time that I should take a picture of the food we were eating but I just couldn’t stop eating and the food was finished before I could even think of bringing out my camera

I did not take many good photos because it is so dark and dreary and wet! Still, more photos to come when I get a chance to upload them somewhere.

I love Australia and it is so good to be back, even for a short while.