Flying the nest

I have just welcomed back Miss 12 and Miss 14 from a trip to Queensland.

The main reason for their visit to Queensland was to attend a Girl Guide Jamboree. However since they were in the state, they stayed on for an extra few days after the Jamboree to spend time with my extended family.

The girls flew to Queensland with the rest of the WA Girl Guide contingent, but coming home they traveled by themselves. I wouldn't say they were experienced travelers, but Miss 14 has been on a previous Girl Guide jamboree and also to Singapore on a soccer tour (I never did get her to write that blog post!). And they have both flown a couple of times with me.

So I was a little nervous but not too worried. Turns out the mistakes were mostly mine.

The things I should have done .......

Make sure they take their ID. Double check. Then check again. Miss 12 did not take her student ID despite my many reminders. Luckily I had sent the medicare card with Miss 14.

Make sure you order any special meals. My mistake. Fortunately the airline attendants took pity on my vegetarian child and fed her lots of crackers and an apple. She didn't like the vegetarian meal on the trip there so she was happy.

Check the details for pick up carefully. Very carefully. I had the times and everything correct for the girls' midnight pickup, but then their flight came in early. I was running late but should have been there on time, except I had the wrong terminal. Luckily the two are right next door within walking distance. Definitely a(nother) rookie mistake.

I was also very impressed that somehow Qantas gave me an update on the flight times. I haven't exactly worked out how they did it as it wasn't an email or a text, but rather some sort of internet update. It was pretty awesome.

The girls had a great time and are busily planning their next trip and how they are going to pay for it. The travel bug has bitten!

Save travels and happy adventuring.

Cath xx

Checklist

We leave for Bali in 3.5 sleeps. 

Miss 12 and I are firmly of the opinion that as we will be too excited to sleep much on Saturday night, and because we will be getting up at 4am, that Saturday night only counts as half a sleep. Therefore, it is 3.5 sleeps and not 4 sleeps.

I was about to make a final check of things to do before I leave, so I thought I may as well write a blog post. This will save me from writing it on post-it note and promptly losing it, plus I thought some of you might have useful tips?

This week

• Locate passports. (Do NOT leave this until the last minute. Seriously. Trust me on this one).

• Copy passport (2 copies to be left with responsible people, 1 copy to be in bag away from actual passport).

• Pack bags.

• Argue with children about what is actually necessary and what is not.

• Weigh bags.

• Make sure you have appropriate weight for your checked in baggage.

• Take out travel insurance (I have actually already done this, but it is so important).

• Double check immunisations (Even thought that should really be done a few months beforehand. I did this soon after we booked the trip).

• Confirm hotel bookings.

• Print tickets/insurance/bookings.

• Email copies of tickets/insurance/books to responsible and contactable people.

• Make arrangements for pets/house/mail.

• Leave instructions and key for pet-sitters.

• Buy appropriate food etc for pets.

• Assure anxious children that the pets will not get totally overweight with pet-sitters. 

• Let bank know that account will be accessed overseas.

• Get $US for entry visa.

• Exchange enough money for the first few days.

• Pack a Bali First Aid Kit (the girls' Dad made me promise to do this one).

• Advise people that I won't be contactable on phone (or get global roaming, but I am planning on the first option).

• Mentally deal with the fact that work goals will not be as finished as will like, and move on.

• Effect good handover to colleagues.

• Put on "out of office" and put work out of my mind, guilt free.

The day before

• Do the dishes and make sure there is no wet laundry.

• Book taxi.

• Check in.

• Write list of things to do last minute as we leave the house.

• Set alarm.

Ok so the list looks pretty massive, but it's not really. It has been a good brainstorming exercise, and I am feeling a lot more organised than I usually do when I am throwing things in a suitcase the day I leave to go somewhere. 

The girls have been well brought up in Girl Guides. They don't go anywhere without a kit list; if one is not provided, or if the quality is not good enough, they write their own. I haven't seen their lists for this trip, but I will see if they will let me share. 

In the meantime, can you think of anything I have forgotten to do? What is your last minute routine before you go away?

Happy adventuring,

Cath xx

Winter Wanderings

4 July 2015 saw us celebrating. No, not the independence of the American colonies from the British Empire, but the beginning of the Bridgetown in the Winter Festival. The night saw "snow" (complete with snowfights, snowangels, and snowmen), a hawkers' lane filled with lots of yummy food, the Bridgetown Town Hall turned into a Winter Wonderland, and the official turning on of Bridgetown's Blue Lights.

That was simply a teaser. The Bridgetown in the Winter Festival is Lela's project so I will let her tell you all about it. All I am going to say is that there are some great activities on offer, lasting all the way through the winter months, and that the myth that Western Australia's South West is purely for summer has been well and truly debunked.

The girls and I are trying to make it one of our missions to see something a bit different each time we go down South. This trip we took a drive down the scenic Blackwood River Tourist Drive.

It was a truly beautiful drive. Miss 16 put herself in charge of taking photos (which was useful as I was driving), and these were the only four she deemed blogworthy.

Are you spotting a flaw with the pictures? Did you notice there was no river?

I can confirm that there were several sightings of the Blackwood River along the drive, however the route we were on did not follow the river. It was fun playing spot the river though!

Enough about recent trips. There are still exciting things to come! Currently I am looking forward to a planning meeting with Lela for our big NZ trip on Friday ... and my trip to Bali with the girls next week.

Stay tuned for more posts, and happy adventuring.

Cath xx

Alphabet Adventures

I took the girls to Boddington over the weekend to have dinner with their dad for the Little One's birthday. If anyone else is in the position of doing the same longish drive (it takes us just over an hour) on a regular basis, you will know that sometimes it can be fun to do something a bit different on the way.

We decided to do our own scavenger hunt, taking a picture which represented each letter of the alphabet. Total success! The girls all joined in and their dad got into the spirit too when we go to him (see if you can guess which ones his contributions were!). Not only did they have fun, the girls want to do the same thing when we are in Bali. That was something I hadn't been expecting.

Pictures below are in alphabetical order, but if you check out #alphabetadventures you will see the pictures in chronological order on Instagram or Twitter, or use #krisangels if you want to see our other travel or adventuring type pictures.



A is for art

B is for Boddington

C is for centrepiece

D is for Daddy and daughters

E is for engine

F is for food

G is for grub (as in "pub grub")

H is for horse

I is for icecream

J is for Jack Daniel's

K is for kangaroo

L is for lollies

M is for minesite

N is for nachos

O is for orange

P is for playground

Q is for Quindanning

R is for rum

S is for Sprite

T is for truck of trees

U is for unicorn (our car mascot, so totally counts)

V is for vague

W is for windmill

X is for best ex ever


Y is for Yaris



Z is for zig-zag

The road to happiness

Road trip 1 of 4 has happened. (In case you were worried after my last post, I have called the other people I am planning on visiting over the next few weekends. Our planned trips have the last official green light!)

This trip was just me. I drove out to Dalwallinu: a tiny town in the wheat belt of Western Australia.

I have a confession to make. I actually don't like driving particularly, although I do like going places, I don't love the actual part where I have to be behind the wheel. If I have the choice I am happy to be the passenger.

This weekend just gone was just what I needed though. It was a 6 hour 'round trip. The scenery was beautiful. The traffic conditions were perfect (by perfect I mean virtually no traffic, just enough random cars to reassure you that if something does go wrong that you will be found).

I watched the growing rain clouds.

Rain on the horizon: very important in farming land.

I took photos of random things (check out @philosophy_minors on Instagram or @PhilosophyMinor on Twitter or #krisangels).

Dragon? Dinosaur? Lizard?

I stopped for so-bad-its-good roadhouse food.

Chicken cheese sausage, and a crab still. 

I enjoyed my accidental detours to Northam on the way there and Toodyay on the way back.

Northam Town Hall

I listed to an audiobook.

The picture just doesn't do the colour justice.

I recharged my soul.


I also thought of some tips to share with you (ok they pretty obvious ones, but worth thinking about):

• Fill up on fuel before you leave. 
• Keep an eye on the fuel gauge; nothing spoils the serenity of driving a country road like anxiously watching the fuel gauge and hoping you'll make it to the next stop.
• You may not get mobile reception.
• Stop. Stretch. 
• Make sure you have water with you.
• Let people know your ETA. 

I learned new lessons this weekend:

• Multi-tasking is great, but buying a mirror at the beginning of a road trip may not be the best idea. 
• If you listen to an audio book with Scottish accents for over six hours, you may begin to hear Scottish accents in your dreams.

The next two trips will be with the girls. I am not expecting the same level of serenity, but I am expecting them to be fun! I actually have a photo challenge for the girls to try next weekend on the way to Boddington, I will let you know how that goes.

Happy adventuring!

Cath xx

Ticking the boxes

Just a note to touch base with you all!

Life has been plodding along the last few weeks, but some significant steps have been taken. And in case you are wondering what "plodding along" means in our universe it is really code for everyday chaos and being insanely busy. You know, the normal lives of busy women.

But as there have been achievements in terms of travel plans, I thought I would share them with you:

• The second last payment for my girls' trip to the Girl Guide Jamboree in Queensland has been paid.
• Accommodation for my family trip to Bali has been booked.
• Paris the Yaris has new tyres all set for four country adventures I have planned over the next month.

I am so excited about it all. There are a few things left that I need to do quite quickly though. One of these being actually letting some of my country friends know that I am planning on visiting them. Three out of the five people know, the others I will call this week.

I also need to book return trips home for the girls from Queensland. I have been trying to work out if I can afford for DD1 (aka Buglet if you read my personal blog) to join the little two in Queensland to visit my extended family after the Jamboree. I really don't think I can, but it really feels like too good an opportunity to miss. I will let you know how this all goes. 

My car mascot; meet Hilton.

Perhaps the most exciting thing is that Lela and I have decided where we will be heading on our next adventure after New Zealand. I am not telling you then though. I will add "talk to Lela about a big reveal" to the list of things to do this week ... so stay tuned. 

Happy adventuring!

Cath xxx

Rookie mistake

On the ANZAC long weekend we went on Girl Guide camp to York.

In case you are not from Western Australia, I should say that York is a town in WA as well as being a place in the UK (and possibly other places? Anyone know of any other places called York?)

Kris all ready to go to her first Guide camp.

I totally meant to take pictures of tourist stuff.

I totally meant to get some brochures and do some research for this blog.

I was having so much fun I totally forgot.

Notwithstanding my total lack of organisation and the fact I don't have anything to tell you, I love going to York. It is very pretty.

The view from the porch at 'Our Barn'
'Our Barn' is a Girl Guide property right in the middle of York.

You can click here if you would like to find your own information, otherwise you will just have to wait until we go back.

Happy adventuring!

Cath xx