Khao Lak bound......

After a very late night packing, cleaning, scrubbing fish tanks, sorting out alpaca food and all the other million jobs that need attending to before a few weeks away, Anto and I managed almost 4 hours sleep before the alarm went off at 5 something AM.  Kids were awakened, dressed and bundled into the car for the early and dark trip to Canberra airport, with chauffeur Uncle Mikl.

We met my Mum (aka Granny) at the airport, checked in, dumped bags, and headed for Qantas club where we tried to fuel the kids up for a long day (and night) of travel.  Astrid and Soren are extremely familiar with the kids zone at the Canberra Qantas club and knew exactly what they wanted for breaky and what toys and computers they wanted to play with.  Breakfasted up we watched the pretty sunrise and barely kept Soren from destroying the joint before we headed for the first of many flights that day.

The hop from Canberra to Sydney was fairly efficient and painless as usual. Despite the early start Astrid was not too tired to ask her nine million questions throughout the flight. Soren refused to sit still and was not happy at being confined. Normally he is a good flyer but he is at a bad age for it and it was looking like a long day of wiggle worm boy on my lap.

By 9am we were off the plane, straight through to the international transfer bus and zooming across the tarmac to the fun side of the airport. We just about always miss the bus connections but this time it was very efficient. Soren already tired, tried ergo napping during the transfer, but promptly woke up when it was time to get off.

We decided we didn't need any duty free until we hit Singapore and headed straight to Qantas Club. We managed to get Granny in for the second time that day and found the temporary kids zone area that conveniently kept all the small people away from the important and tired looking grown ups.  Astrid and Soren happily busied themselves playing with all the toys. Astrid doing a fine impression of a Ninja Turtle. Soren ate all forms of egg put in front of him, and I scammed some really nice goats cheese tart in case the rest of the days food offerings were not up to standard.

We couldn't pass up the gelato, which is normally pretty good. A whole heap of sugar pumped into the kids just before a long flight probably isn't the best idea but it's always nice gelato and they were being good!  Neither complained about the quality of the gelato, that is for sure.....

All to soon our flight was called and with one last leg stretch we headed to the plane. Travelling with small kids we were boarded first.  We had split across the aisle deliberately in the hope that we might have a better chance of getting a spare seat next to one of us. As everyone slowly filed onto the plane it looked like our plan had worked. Astrid and Granny had a spare seat between them and a gentleman who looked less than enthusiastic about spending many hours with 2 small kids near him. I had Soren with me on a window seat, but he seemed determined to play with Granny prior to take off.

This is where things went downhill for the day. The plane all loaded up, instead of pushing back they announced a 'short' delay due to an issue with a wheel.  It turns out the short delay was 1.5 hours. Yes, we had to sit on the plane for 1.5 hours before we even got to take off on an 8 hour flight.......  They did leave the air conditioning on and the entertainment system running, so thank goodness for small mercies but it wasn't a good start to the flight. Soren was getting very over it but there wasn't much point enforcing a sleep before we had even taken off.

Finally we took off and not long after Soren gave in and was asleep on me. Astrid happily watched endless TV.  Anto and I almost got some movies watched, which was flying luxury.  Sadly, Soren only slept about 40 minutes. Luckily it was then time for lunch, so that filled in some time.  Then there was several hours of keeping him entertained on one lap or another. Granny was pretty popular, as was walking back and forwards between us, doing laps of the plane and scamming lindor lindt balls off the hosties (both kids got several during the flight). This is where even the toys you bought on board become boring and glasses cases, water bottles and anything else you find gets played with.

Astrid thoroughly enjoyed endless Peppa Pig episodes and a large serving of chicken pasta and creme caramel.  About 7 hours into the flight we finally convinced her to nap for about an hour and a half. It was pretty much her bed time back home so she should have been exhausted.  Soren was strapped into the ergo and made to sleep on me for a couple of hours (not comfy for me) but it got us through, with only another few hours to fill in. He was pretty much ready for another nap by the time we were about to land. The last couple of hours really dragged and this is where the delay at the start of the flight really started to bite!

Eventually, 10 hours after boarding, we landed, almost an hour an a half late and finally escaped the plane and into Changi airport.  We have been to this airport many a time. We were originally meant to have around 4 hours in Singapore but it was only a little over 2.5 with the delay. With both kids in the ergos we walked down towards duty free and stocked up on duty free drinks for our couple of weeks away. We then headed to Qantas Club to let the kids run free and have some dinner. We managed a 'Granny pass' for the third time that day. Maybe the staff were taking pity on us. Astrid was batting her eyelids pretty hard too.....

It was now around 9.30pm at home, and well past their bed times, but some playing and some food and both kids were doing pretty well. We love the Singapore Qantas Club. The food is always really good and the staff are very helpful.  We got some awesome pasta made by the chefs, which the kids and Anto enjoyed. I found more than enough vegie things and then we managed several platefuls of dessert to power us through the next flight.

After all that eating and playing there was time for a shower  and change of clothes before we had to face up to the next flight.  It was 11.30pm according to our body clocks when we boarded our Jetstar Asia flight to Phuket. Both kids were exhausted. Soren was asleep in my arms before we even took off. Astrid, despite being urged to sleep, chatted non-stop for quite awhile. She is always obsessed with the emergency procedures and loves to read the emergency cards on every single flight. We tend to gloss over the whole 'if the plane crashes' part and focus on the 'if there is an emergency, this is what you do' part.  She cracked us up with a discussion about how if the plane landed on water 'we would have to take the opportunity to deploy the slides and which would alloy us to spend some time having fun in the water.' Oh to be 3!!!

She eventually gave in to the sleep gods and both kids were out to it for the whole hour and a half flight. Not so much the adults though.  On landing, we managed to get both of them back in their ergos without waking them too much and made our way down through immigration and to collect our bags.  Astrid was awake but rather sleepy, enjoying her ride in the ergo. Soren remained entirely comatosed and did not want to be awake.

Without too much delay we found our driver who went to pick up the van.  With 2 sleepy kids and it being the middle of the night and 29 degrees, this seemed to take forever!  The van eventually turned up, and even had the car seats we had booked, which was a relief.  All strapped in, Soren didn't even really stir and slept the whole trip. Astrid chatted for about 10 minutes and then was off to sleep. The adults managed the odd doze, but the 1.5 hour trip to Khao Lak didn't go quite quick enough for our liking.

We eventually made it to the resort and while we checked in, Astrid cuddled up with the big blue reception bear. Obviously exhausted it took some prying to get her away from her bear friend.

We did eventually make it to our rooms at 11.30pm local time or 3.30am body clock time.  Only 22 hours after first setting off for the day.  The kids had perked up at the sight of the enormous pool. Our room opened onto the pool and Soren ran around excitedly yelling 'pool, pool' while pointing at it. We did convince them they had to go back to sleep and in the morning this is what we all had to look forward to..........

17 & 18 March - Singapore, the last bits and the journey home.......

With the last day in Singapore staring us down great plans were made to a) fill in the day with activities of goodness and b) have us arrive on our flight with everyone rested and happy......

Our normal breakfast awaited us, where Astrid favorite restaurant staff  seated us before our names being checked off the list by the head woman, which almost caused a riot!  Astrid then ate her body weight in food before sniffing around detecting an odor.. (you always get slightly worried when she starts a sentence with 'I smell something'). It turns out this time the smell was coming from Anto's plate. She asked what it was, determined it to be his chicken, asked to try some, then declared 'I love your smelly chicken, I'm going to eat all of your smelly chicken'.  At this point Nic took Soren upstairs for one last nap and left Anto and Astrid to eat odorous poultry and farewell the attentive staff.

While Soren napped briefly there was some last minute packing and a very quick goodbye to the hotel room, before the worlds fastest 15 second checkout and storing our bags away for the day. As we were flying out they got us to pre-book our bus transfer - including issuing 'official' stickers which we were to wear in order to gain access to the bus - all a bit weird and officious, but we were in Singapore.

Before we knew it we were on the shuttle to the MRT station and a train into the city, we figured that by 10:30am  the trains would have calmed down, and we were wrong with a fairly busy train - but still clean and efficient. Luckily people with babies and toddlers are ushered into priority seating, so no need to stand.

Once at City Hall, we started with a walk over to Fort Canning a small hill slightly more than 60 metres high in the southeast portion of the Island- which due to the fact that Singapore is very flat appears to be a fairly large hill. Sadly the weather was not going to play along and we had increasingly strong drizzly rain. Astrid was tucked up in the stroller and Soren in the ergo - but pretty much everyone was getting wet (if not cold as it was still 28C). The park was fairly impressive, it had sculptures, a spice garden and lots of terraced gardens. It was a nice green space right in the middle of the city, but the increasingly heavier water falling from the sky got annoying & we decided to retreat back into the city. No photos since we couldn't risk our camera getting soaked before the long trip home. We did snap a couple of pics of Soren tucked up in the ergo with his rain hood on and Astrid unconscious in the stroller, despite getting soaked!

Back in the city Nic and the kids camped out at a respectable looking cafe while Anto wandered off in search of the Funan DigitaLife Mall - apparently one of the safer technology malls in Singapore. The mall is about the size of a shopping centre at home, however has nothing but technology - each floor was dedicated to a technology type - except for camera gear - that needed two floors. Sadly Anto was on a schedule and aside from trying to find some kiddie sized headphones for Astrid didn't so much in the way of shopping before running back to find the others.

When Anto left everyone in the Cafe, Astrid was napping in the stroller, Soren was getting ready for a feed, and Nic was ordering a coffee - by the time he returned Astrid had woken up (Activated) and apparently required a hot drink to warm up. Nic hoped for a baby-chino, which apparently the cafe didn't do, however they did do a quite reasonably priced hot chocolate (which is almost the same thing right?). Such a beverage was hastily ordered...... When it arrived somehow a hot chocolate had turned into a bowl pretty much the size of Astrid's head - made with real Swiss chocolate none the less.

Luckily Anto re-appeared before Astrid could drink the whole thing and bravely volunteered to drink enough that Astrid didn't burst. Everyone was then bundled up and headed out into the rain to make our way back to the hotel - via a now much quieter MRT. This worked out pretty well except that for some reason at non-peak times the train we picked (the next one that came along) stopped one station short of our destination - something that was fairly easily resolved by jumping on the next one along (from memory a whole 5 minute wait). As time was tight we opted for a taxi from the train station back to the hotel - deciding the $8 was probably a worthwhile investment. As per normal Astrid initiated the 'non-stop question' protocol, which luckily most of the Taxi drivers think is cute.

Back at the hotel, transfers to the shuttle bus and onward to the airport was pretty simple - with both commentary and questions from Astrid the whole way, and Soren napping in the ergo. As per our plan (it has to happen sooner or later) we arrived at the airport just after 2pm. Singapore has an early check-in service for most of the airlines. By the time we found the counter there was only one person in front of us finishing up their check-in.We went through the formalities of check-in, with the only issue being that we were not seated together. Anto and Nic were together, with a bassinet for Soren and Astrid was placed across the aisle on her own. We didn't think this was a good idea and requested a seat change, but weren't given any assurances.  We shouldn't have worried. The pre-immigration check was painless (where somehow we once again were waved past the xray machine, unlike the young backpackers behind us), Immigration was cleared and we decided to wander up to the Qantas club for lunch before heading back out to look at Duty free and playgrounds. 

Last time we stopped in Singapore, on the way back from Paris, the club was a fairly old and small lounge (without even a baby change facility) - how things had changed. The new lounge (which apparently will be turning a year old the day we happened to be there) is a fairly huge, comfortable lounge, with a number of nice separate areas and a dedicated eating area with real tables & some cooked to order meals available, as well as a huge range of other food, a dessert buffet and a huge bar. There was also a ton of showers and a baby change! 

As we arrived just after opening there seemed to be about 5 or 6 staff wanting to look after us - including a few who seemed rather keen on borrowing Soren and Astrid (which allowed us to eat in peace). While the kiddies received cuddles Astrid was presented with one of the new crayola in-flight kiddie packs - which seems to be a fair step up from the old domestic ones we were used to, although not quite up to the standard of the Emirates pack.

We gradually settled into the lounge with frequent small raids to the food, bar and coffee. Staff were happy to procure us food, drinks and coffee or hold the children. Astrid happily played, while being fed juice and chocolate torte by the staff and Soren grinned it up happily for everyone.

Anto decided that he should get the duty free shopping out of the way (as there were way too many stores). Astrid had previously expressed a desire to shop, however now she was in the kiddie area with staff hovering around she decided to 'stay and play' instead. Fairly soon Anto returned with a receipt and a spoon, in Singapore they 'secure' duty free by carrying it though security for you (since 4L of strong spirits are perfectly safe on a plane if someone else carried them at some point), which has the advantage that until just before boarding you don't have to worry about lugging it around. It has the disadvantage that you are trying to re-pack seconds before getting onto a flight.

Astrid, who is normally a good traveller, was showing signs of tiredness and was refusing to nap and her behaviour was less than stellar.  She reverted to whingey toddler mode and her poor parents were not very impressed with the level of whining and the fact that she was falling over every 10 seconds and hurting herself due to being so tired. Soren managed to have a feed and a brief nap in the sling, and Nic and Anto were consoling ourselves with alcohol and dessert buffet raids, but it was turning into a long day.  We gave up on making Astrid sleep and informed her that she would be going straight to sleep on the plane after take-off so there would be no tv or dinner.  She had eaten quite a bit through the afternoon, so wasn't going to starve, but was not impressed with this arrangement since watching late night TV on the plane is the bees knees.
Astrid and Anto did check out the Qantas club showers and Astrid declared them to be 'awesome', mostly because they had a door - easily impressed!

We headed off at 7pm, with kids in PJs and ready to sleep.  Singapore do at the gate security screening so we had to get everything out of the bags yet again, but luckily two cute kids seemed to have us waved through  again despite several laptops and bags of baby and toddler liquids and bottles.We could have sold both kids, who were being is super cute mode, Soren in the sling and Astrid in the ergo. Unlike in Australia Astrid was permitted to stay in the Ergo with Anto receiving the lightest touch pat down instead and Nic a general waving at with Soren attached to her.

Once at the gate we realised the flight was looking pretty empty. We were on a Qantas A330 and it wasn't looking that full.  We were told we'd been reseated together (hooray) and made our way onto the plane in a boarding procedure that was much more efficient than the Emirates one.  The business class cabin looked pretty full but the front economy cabin was 50% full at best. We were in the front row of the back economy cabin and that row was full but there were maybe 20 people total in the 120ish seat cabin. We'd ended up in 3 seats of the middle 4 seats, with a bassinet, but there was a woman beside us with a toddler on her lap (who looked far too large for the Qantas bassinets) so it was a bit squishy. The air hosties assured us that we could spread out after take-off, which seemed appealing as the toddler was wailing at high volume and his mother looked like she hadn't flown much and was decidedly nervous (or clueless, she had both the toddler and her handbag on her lap during take-off but the baby wasn't seatbelted) so it could have been a long 8 hours.

After take-off Anto and Astrid moved a couple of rows back and Astrid was sentenced to sleep.  The other lady and toddler were moved a few rows back and Nic ended up with 4 seats and 2 bassinets to herself. Unfortunately the armrests on that row don't lift up but it was still nice to have the space.  Astrid protested about sleeping for about 10 minutes and was then unconscious, about 2 minutes before they threw dinner at us.  The flight was so empty that one team was doing the whole economy cabin and everyone was offerred about 3 dinners. Nic actually got her vego meal and was able scam additional pieces of dessert and chocolate off the regular dinners.  Soren happily had a feed, between grinning at air hosties and then was asleep after not too much coo-ing and chatting.  We weren't expecting he would actually use the bassinet and would end up sleeping on his mother, but some judicious moving got him into the bassinet where he happily stayed for the duration of the flight. Not stirring for the turbulence or noise. The Qantas bassinets were a little squishy for 15-17 month old Astrid when we went to Europe, but fitted a 5 month old Soren well and they have the advantage that you don't need to take them out when the seatbelt sign goes on!

Unlike our flight over (which left at the same time), when it took them 3 hours to serve dinner, clean it up and then another hour to turn off the lights. This time dinner was done, cleared away and lights off by about 9.30pm Singapore time.  This meant that we tried to get some rest.  Neither of us felt like we slept much but we must have had the odd doze as the time passed fairly quickly and uneventfully.  Overnight flights are great for kids (they mostly sleep, well ours do at any rate) but the adults can get a little tired.

With around 90 minutes to go on the flight, Astrid had begun to stir and the crew unceremoniously turned on the lights at 2am Singapore time to throw us some breakfast.  Astrid was very excited to be having 'breakfast in the middle of the night, on a plane' as she loudly declared to the whole plane!  She was also given chocolate milk and cereal so that kept her amused for quite some time.

We again all got offered about 3 breakfasts (unexciting yoghurt and a croissant or cinnamon scroll).
Soren did very well sleeping in his bassinet and ended up needing to be woken an hour before landing for a feed so we could (hopefully) make a quick getaway home upon landing.  He also seemed quite happy to be up in the middle of the night!

We landed at 6.30am Sydney time, and it was still rather dark.  Due to the plane being mostly empty we made a quick getaway, well as quick as you can with 2 kids strapped to you and a mountain of carry on (paranoia about vomit incidents results in 3 changes of clothes being carried for everyone).  Immigration was painless but we did have to laugh as we exited immigration and headed to baggage claim, where Astrid loudly exclaimed 'don't worry Dad, this time I won't puke all down your back!'........... see our adventures on arrival in Singapore if you want more info on that!

With a vomit-free baggage retrieval we hightailed it to customs and had to declare the infant formula but were hastily waved through without much fuss once we reached the head of the line. It's always fun watching poor unsuspecting tourists have their bags x-rayed and items confiscated because they have no clue about our quarantine laws.

Since we had left our car in Sydney we didn't get the pleasure of the International - Domestic transfer, and instead Nic had to sit with the kids and a pile of bags while Anto went to find our car. A process that somehow took almost an hour due to traffic delays.  In this time Astrid was lucky to still be living. After less than 6 hours broken sleep and her body clock thinking it was the middle of the night, she was being a little special. Coffee prevented her mother from murdering her (but only just) and her father returned in time to load 2 tired and cranky kids into a very full (and not too vomity smelling) car for the long drive home.

After about 5 minutes of whinging, wailing and general unhappiness from both of them, both were asleep by the time we hit the M5.  We then drove like the wind (or at least like the speed limit and very slow traffic allowed) to get home. We played the 'how far can we get before they wake up and screech for food/toilet/entertainment' game vs the 'the adults really need more coffee and to stretch our poor economy seat battered bodies' game.  With them both still sleeping at Sutton Forrest we decided to keep going and  made it a bit further until Astrid woke up. Luckily she was in quite a good mood and was at least happy to chat rather than whinge. Soren made it until 10 minutes before Goulburn, at which time he woke up and realised it was many, many hours since he was fed and he really wanted milk and to be let out of his capsule. It was a long 10 minutes but we made it to Goulburn McDonalds where we coffee and food were obtained and Soren was fed.  Astrid has never actually eaten McDonalds and was happy with a hot cross bun from the McCafe but was disappointed that this McDonalds didn't seem to have a playground.  Being a long time since the middle of the night breakfast snack Nic and Anto also found something to eat and we were all feeling more refreshed before the last trek home.

Being exactly 100km and 1 hour to our door from that McDonalds has it's advantages.  Astrid quickly reverted to over-tired whingey mode and it was lucky we didn't have to endure it for too long.  Soren managed to sleep again and Nic and Anto were powered by coffee and managed to get everyone home alive.

We arrived home bang on midday on the 18th.  Very tired and a little smelly but having survived another overseas adventure.  This one the first with 2 kids (well two kids on the outside at least!).  The afternoon was spent unpacking, decontaminating and napping.  It's taken a few days to contemplate doing it all again but jobs permitting we will be off on another adventure before too long..........  2, kids and a campervan around Europe perhaps?

9 March - 4 cities and 2 hemispheres in 1 day............

*Blog by Anto (since Nic occasionally makes him contribute)*

Sunday morning started with a quite acceptable breakfast at the hotel. After everyone (finally) was determined to be ready to depart Nic took the kids to the very cool kiddy playground in the hotel grounds (after requests for a swim in the un-heated outdoor pool was vetoed) while Anto re-loaded the car with all the goods and chattels that he was sure were being carried in just hours before.

Before too long everyone was bundled into the car for the run to Wollongong, to attend the Christening, which had been our original reason for the weekend away.  Both kids blissfully napped in the car and everything was going pretty much perfectly to plan... until the GPS was about 3 seconds too slow with a turn update and we missed our turnoff - at home this would have added an annoying couple of minutes to the trip - today it was 16km and an extra 20 odd minutes. Minor diversions aside we arrived without incident in Bulli and attempted a rapid catch-up with our friends while throwing a load of smelly clothes through their washing machine. Astrid confined herself to the baby jail, where someone else's toys occupied her for a good hour, before she discovered the outside area complete with swings, slides and trampolines.

Before we knew it it was time to head off to the Christening, in theory about a 5 minute drive away. Not trusting our navigation we decide to follow along behind the locals. We made it to the church in fairly record time - and proceeded to wait around for everyone else to arrive. Once the service began Astrid was fairly rapidly impressed with the video projector but seemingly not as much as with the toilet, which she requested to visit on more than one occasion. In the end Astrid was being too distracted and silly and ended up sitting out in the foyer with Anto while Nic and Soren the rest of the fairly short ceremony with Soren destroying the service pamphlet for entertainment. Then it was back to Michelle's for most people to have a lunch - however we had an appointment with the airline and instead headed back towards Sydney, via Michelle's to pick up our washing and say goodbye. Astrid thought that rather than more sitting in the car (apparently a quite dull activity) we could go to the beach and build sandcastles, sadly her very polite requests were denied.

In order to keep both kids quiet on the hour long trip back to Sydney airport, Nic decided to sit in the back seat in the middle.  This photo shows how much room is in that seat....... enough for Nic's slender behind but apparently not enough for her shoulders or upper body.

Perfect, before many hours in cattle class on an aeroplane.  It did keep the kids quiet though.

The run back to Sydney was fairly smooth, although providing an additional re-enforcement as to why we don't live there. Nic was deposited at the terminal with a huge pile of bags (we were going to pack light for this trip right?), while Anto dropped the car to the cheapish long-stay parking. Astrid requested photos of herself with her own suitcase and took photos of Soren for us.........

Eventually Anto returned with the last few bags so we sauntered across to the Qantas club check-in, which was as efficient as ever - a quick drop of the pram at the oversized baggage and we wandered through security - skipping the explosives detection, possibly due to us dragging around two small tired children and a mountain of carry-on. We checked into Qantas club to await updates of how late our Melbourne flight was going to be - now it may not make sense to drive to Sydney, to fly to Melbourne to fly to Singapore - but that was the way we managed to get flights that met our schedule (and were cheap).

As we sat at Qantas club surrounded by tired feral children (not our own for once...) our flight got pushed back further and further. At one stage it appeared we had about 40 minutes to make an international connection (between landing and the next flight departing, the flight arriving after boarding commenced). So much for relaxing at the nice international Qantas lounge... Getting worried Anto checked if it was worth preemptively swapping flights but was reassured that transitioning to international at Melbourne was really quick and easy - neither Anto, nor Nic were convinced. At any rate we managed to eat and rehydrate in Qantas club and Astrid had a good eat and play.

Eventually boarding started and after some more waiting around we pushed back in order to drive at 10km/h to the furthest point of the airport from the terminal. We resigned ourselves to a night in Melbourne and a flight out in the morning. The pilot obviously desperate to prove us wrong didn't bother throttling back and took about 25 minutes off the flight time - which by the time we made it to the gate left us just over 50 minutes to get out of domestic, go through immigration, clear international security find the gate and get on the plane. Astrid had happily ate snacks and watched Bananas in PJs on the inflight entertainment iPad and Soren spend the entire flight feeding.

We were putting money on it just not being possible to make the connection, especially as we were 41 rows back on the plane, but went through the motions. Next thing we knew we had the quickest run through we have ever had, only slowing down when we had to go through a formality like producing of documents, with no lines at security or immigration. Even the copious quantities of liquids we were carrying for the kiddies didn't seem to slow us down. We made the connection with about 20 minutes to spare, just in time to witness what seemed like a very organised boarding procedure that somehow took much longer than any we had experienced before. This was our first Emirates flight though, so maybe that is how they do things......

Once we made it onto the plane finding our seats in the first row past business was a fairly trivial affair. We scored the 4 seats in the middle, so had a spare seat next to us. After what seemed to be fairly endless messing around, during which Astrid decided she just 'had to' go to the toilet, immediately prior to takeoff, we finally pushed back, sat trough the endlessly dull safety briefing in two languages and finally made it into the air. Next came the distribution of a fairly huge lot of kiddie loot - including a really good blanket, soft toy and baby pack for Soren (with bib, spoon, toy, wipes, changemat etc) and a big bunch of stuff for Astrid - including kiddie sized headphones and her latest 'favourite' toy a mini etch-a-sketch. It certainly beats the flying fun pack from Qantas we have a million of laying around the house.....

Astrid fairly quickly sorted out access to the in-flight entertainment system just in time for them to try and install the bassinet - which seemingly occupied the same physical space as the in-armrest TV unit, an issue that was eventually (partially) solved with the application of fairly large amounts of ​force, for at least Astrid's TV. Nic gave up any hope of watching TV.   It turns out that while our seats were great for leg room (we had oodles) the lack of a foot rest or being able to watch TV if your seat was next to the bassinet was a slight negative.

Inflight service seemed pretty standard for a late night​ departure, feed you a drink after an hour, dinner another hour later and then pick it all up another hour down the line - luckily we had a spare seat and the bassinet to shuffle trays around so we could sort out getting kiddies into some kind of sleep. It was after 9.30pm Sydney time by the time Astrid got dinner, and despite being exhausted she wasn't going to sleep until she had been fed, and happily watched Thomas the tank engine. Soren went to sleep in the bassinet about 5 minutes after the installed it, and put all the other screaming babies on the plane to shame.

Due to the noise Soren decided the bassinet was not the place to be. Although Soren would only sleep in the bassinet for a short period of time he was fairly happy to lie on Nic and rest, lucky he only weighs a bit over 5kg so wasn't too much of a problem, aside from when trying to eat. Nic eventually got a vegetarian meal after the pre-ordered one went missing yet again...... I think a crew member must not have got theirs as Nic ended up with it but was quite hungry by that stage.  Astrid on the other hand slept as well as you can in a noisy airline seat, after some debate as to how much TV she should get to watch before hand. Anto busied himself with paperwork, watching a fairly ordinary movie from the selection of 450+ and ensuring that someone sampled the late night snacks that were distributed while the whole place was trying to sleep.

After very little sleep for the adults, landing in Singapore was fairly non-eventful, after some last minute pre-packing before the seat belt sign was firmly on, we loaded the kiddies up into carriers and scooted off the plane in fairly record time. Every time we have been through Singapore airport the locals have though Astrid too cute, especially in the ergo. This time she was being back-carried in the ergo and Soren was being wide-eyed and extremely grinny for 3am Aussie time, being a koala in the bubba Moe.  Everywhere we went there were cries of 'look at the cute baby, oh there is two of them!'

Wandering down to immigration was as easy as following the signs & with very little delay were standing in front of an immigration officer - at which point the kids turned up the charm & we were granted admission to Singapore. A quick stop at Duty Free for some 'special tonic' for Dad and we scooted into the baggage hall - where as usual there was 1/2 a plane load of people standing 30cm away from the belt. The bags appeared in fairly rapid measure & Anto courageously resisted swinging them into the shins of the vast hoards of idiots standing directly in the path the bags took as they were swung off the belt.

With the last bag collected Anto headed back to the trolley(s) to load up, find the stroller and get on our way - when disaster struck... Astrid, strapped to Anto's back in the Ergo finally had enough & the vomitron re-visited. This time all over Anto, the ergo the luggage trolleys and the pristine clean floor. Other passengers looked on in horror but we just dealt with it. What else can you do in the middle of the night? Emergency de-contamination procedures were enacted with about 50 wipes being used on Anto & Astrid before running to a toilet for a quick wash and a complete change of clothes. By the time Anto got back the floor had been returned to it's spotless condition, and Nic had the stroller retrieved & all that was left was a wander through the 'nothing to declare' customs line. Interestingly either we were seen as little risk to Singapore, or possibly no-one wanted to go near the vomit smeared party, as the customs guys politely looked anywhere else as we wandered through - which was a slight change from our last visit where the customs gave a pretty good impression of being asleep.

With fairly little effort we acquired local currency and a taxi, the driver of which commented that we had a mountain of luggage, and we were on the road to the hotel. Shortly after leaving the terminal the taxi driver made a comment about us being 'very smelly' (and he was correct) after explaining why he seemed to drop the issue. Astrid commenced asking a question about every 2 seconds (not bad for 3am Aussie time after little sleep) - which impressed the driver no-end. By the end of the trip he was 'offering' to take her home & to the zoo - which Astrid seemed to think was not the best idea. Given the late hour traffic was very light and we made it to the hotel, checked in a got into our room - where Astrid's bed was missing... Which was rectified in fairly quick order with a call to housekeeping. Everyone was showered, the baby fed and we were all bundled into bed with the hope of at least the adults catching up on some sleep.....