Summer in Melbourne

I'm sure most of you have heard me say this over and over again. Each time I walk off the plane into Tullamarine airport, I know I'm home. It could be the cool fresh air or the familiar sight of the passageways, but whatever it is, it is a feeling I truly look forward to.

We spent two, much too short, weeks back in Melbourne over Christmas. We were all really looking forward to this trip as the last time we were home was a year and a half ago. Ryan was very excited to see everyone again and playing with his cousins. This was also going to be Mia's first trip home and we couldn't wait to introduce her to family and close friends.

We had the worst possible start to our holiday. Shad was very sick on the flight to Melbourne with a bad sore throat and chesty cough so he slept most of the way. Luckily Mia took two long naps and Ryan was occupied with the in-flight movies and games. Once we arrived, all of us came down with chest infections in turn and spent the first week on antibiotics and confined to the house for a week. So for the remainder of our time there, it felt like we were forever playing catch up with family outings, friends get-togethers, shopping trips and of course "makan" sessions!

Clear skies - something we don't see much of in Hong Kong

Amazingly clear blue sky - Ryan and Ah Kong on their duck feeding excursion

A lesson in geography

Ryan's favourite thing to do when we're back in Melbourne!

Shad's first car

Time for some outdoor exercise after being cooped up indoors for a week

Obviously drinking from the water fountain is not an inborn talent!

With Tania moving to London for goodness knows how long, we all went on one last family holiday together. It was a very different type of holiday from what we're used to, especially our parents, but one that the kids were really looking forward to. We went camping, or rather glamping as Alan calls it, at the Big 4 Camping Park in the Bellarine Peninsula. The ladies (plus Dad) stayed in a very comfortable fully equipped cabin while the men and boys slept in a tent under the stars.

Hans on our search for a restaurant for lunch (nope, that random dude next to Dad is not part of the family!)

Can't let the kids monopolise all the fun! (That's our comfy cabin in the background)

Young hoons

Under aged driver

A slightly older under aged driver

Mini Dame Edna???

Kids and the Daddies cooling off with a swim

Tania getting her feet wet in the freezing water at Ocean Grove Beach

Happily rushing off to play

Not so happy now - after a tumble in the water (Yee Chai caught on camera snickering in the background!)

Playing "in" the sand -courtesy of Daddy of course!

Fugu for dinner?

Monkey No 1, 2 and 3 loved jumping on the jumping pillow (Monkey No 4 still too young for this)

but loved falling over on each other even more...

Monkey No 1 busy at work

Mussels in wine and Mum's chicken and mushroom risotto for dinner

Roasting marshmallows over our "camp fire" - there was a total fire ban in Victoria so Karen came up with "plan B"!

Real camping - took a great deal of persuasion after the initial excitement wore off to get Ryan to sleep on that cold hard ground. The complaints were never ending, "I need to wee wee (several times!), I'm cold, I'm hot, I'm itchy... drove Shad nuts, didn't bother me though cos Mia and I were snuggled up in our warm soft beds in the HEATED cabin :)

Campers coming out for breakfast

Tent buddies

Lighthouse at Point Lonsdale

Amazing rock formations...

...and rock pools

Almost went "swimming" after misjudging how deep the rock pool was

Digging for buried treasure which they had to leave behind since it was a protected beach (which resulted in a couple of very unhappy boys)

Still searching...

Ah finally some peace and quiet - knocked out for the trip back to Melbourne

Christmas lights in Vermont

Little Miss Santarina

Little Miss One Year Old

Mia turned one on 27th November. It's hard to believe that a year ago this day we were rushing around trying to find a babysitter for Ryan (and we thought we were so organised having planned everything for the following Monday when we were scheduled for the C-Section!) because this little girl decided that she was going to make an early entrance.

All my earlier reservations about being a Mum second time around turned out to be unnecessary. It was so easy to fall in love with this tiny being, to love holding her and taking in her baby smell. But it was really the moment when Ryan held Mia in his arms for the first time that I realised just how incredibly lucky we were that these two little people "belonged" to us.

From birth Mia has been a fairly easy baby, eating and sleeping well. But the poor little kid has had a rough time healthwise. At six months she had to have a CAT scan and a spinal tap to rule out any brain tumours or meningitis after we noticed that her fontanel was swollen. We had endless doctor appointments and went from seeing our pediatrician to a neurologist as well as an endocrinologist. She was finally diagnosed with benign intercranial hypertension. Simply explained, the brain thinks that there is a tumour which then causes pressure to built up around it. Until today we still do not know what caused it or why it happened but we're just thankful that she's now well and healthy.

Mia was born tiny at 2.39kg and one year later she's still petite at 7kg. She may be small but she more than makes up for it with her lightning fast hands and feet as well as her super loud voice. Shad and I seem to be constantly chasing her around the house stopping her from getting her hands where they're not supposed to be, and she's more than once threatened to pop our eardrums with her high pitched screams! As she grows older, she's also developing a sense of cheekiness very much like Ryan when he was around her age.

Party goers ready for a big day out

A Minnie Mouse cake for the Missy (Koh-koh had a Mickey Mouse one for his 1st birthday)

The birthday girl and her three favourite people :)

Oops, Mama forgot the pink candle!

It was nice that Poh-poh was here for this special day

Little Missy with all her guests, from Bottom-Up L-R: Daddy, Koh-koh, Mama, Jaden Koh-koh, Poh-poh, Uncle Kwai Ming, Wah Yee, Aunty Christine, Aunty Pam, Nic Koh-koh, Uncle Alex, Uncle Boo Teck

Why do you think Daddy is so intent on making sure that the knife touches the bottom? A free kiss for him of course!

View of Happy Valley Racecourse from the rooftop of the Wooloomooloo restaurant

On Mia's actual birthday, I baked a little scone so she could have a candle to blow out, or at least have Koh-koh help her blow out. Unfortunately, Mama's baking skills are a little rusty so those scones came out hard as rocks. Oh well...

Now...

Three and a half years ago....

Makan-makan with Mum

Mum came by for a quick visit in November. As always when Mum is here, we tend to while away the days chatting in the comfort of our home or at "makan" places. This time around we had another "kaki" join us, my Aunt Janice.

Sai Kung is one of our favourite stops for some of the freshest seafood around. Ryan always enjoys watching the fishermen hawk their catch of the day from their boats.

Eating crabs is even yummier when you have your own personal "peeler"!

Who says crabs are messy?

His favourite pose for the day - pretending to be Terk, the little gorilla in Tarzan

Fresh grouper for dinner (here's Ryan paying for the fish)

Poh-Poh, Yeep, Ryan and Mia enjoying a walk through Sai Kung town centre

It was hairy crab season so we decided to see for ourselves why the locals are so crazy about these tiny crustaceans. I tried it many years ago on my first trip to Shenzhen and just remember that they were extremely fiddly with very little flesh but lots of roe. My verdict second time around - extremely creamy roe and very sweet flesh but probably not something I would rush out to eat again. This was Mum's first time eating these little crabbies and she thought they were pretty good.

Hairy crab special set (one set was enough to feed the two of us)

Clockwise from L-R, hairy crab roe shark fin soup (deelicious!), braised whole abalone (tasty!), steamed fish fillets and stewed birds nest in coconut milk (very nice too)

The star of the meal

This little crab was filled with roe - delicious with black vinegar

We also had a lovely lunch at Aqua. The Japanese set lunches were very good. Once again, I was so busy eating that I forgot to take any more pictures after the starter.

Mia with a slightly foggy Hong Kong skyline in the background

A refreshing start to the meal

Two happy ladies with very full tummies

Taekwondo-Kid

Ryan attended his first taekwondo grading with his good buddy Emeric a few weeks ago. I seriously doubt these two boys were even aware of the significance of the "exam", they were only interested in changing the colour of their belts! Despite a tense moment in the middle of the grading where both of them suffered from performance anxiety, they literally froze when asked to perform their ap chagi (front kick), they passed and were awarded their yellow belts. In the words of Grand Master Wu, "today I will pass all the white belts because I am nice BUT wait, after yellow belt, no more easy. We want strong brave people not weak people so practice hard."

Masters and the apprentices

Listening intently to the instructions

Let the fun begin...

Loosening those muscles

Statue warriors! (Stage fright moment)

Finally, some action...

Watching the experts at work

Master Sam (Ryan's instructor) showing off his moves

Amazing!

Ryan's big moment

One very happy little boy

Crouching tiger, hidden dragon

Halloween Duo

Halloween this year was twice as much fun because we got to dress up two little munchkins. We wanted to have some sort of theme for their outfits, a flower and a bee perhaps but I'm sure it would have been near impossible to convince Ryan that he'd look cute as a flower! So after some brainstorming, Shad came up with the idea of dressing Mia up as a lobster and Ryan as a chef since he already has the outfit. Both of them looked super gorgeous :).

Master Chef and his signature dish

The evil look on the chef's face is making the lobster feel a little worried

Enticing the little lobster to stay in the pot with a treat

It's not working. She's making a getaway!

Fortunately this lobster is still rather unsteady, so she didn't get very far

Home "made" Halloween pumpkins, a Saturday afternoon project by Daddy and Ryan

The Belcher's gang of four plus a little Missy

Showing off his signature dish

Checking out his collection for the night (while Mama and Daddy faint at the sight of all the lollies!)

Another Halloween face (this time for his school's Halloween party). Btw, does this costume look familiar? Ryan wore this minus the mask last year for his school party as well, he absolutely loves it.

Standing Tall

Mia's standing! Actually, she started pulling herself up about a couple of months ago. I'm just a little late in my post. She's now an old pro at it.

Little Miss Jailbird

And this is how she gets herself up...

The look of pure concentration

Then sheer determination

And finally, exhaustion and pride