Crossing Another Milestone

These days, it is very rare to be able to celebrate my birthday together with family members. This year, coinciding the visit to WA in October, my daughter arranged a pre-birthday lunch in a restaurant called Coogee Common in WA which was joined by her entire family members. 

This restaurant where we had lunch is advertised as an upscale farm-to-table restaurant which serves a variety of unique dishes. Many of the dishes are made from fresh produce that come straight from the garden next to the restaurant premise.

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Garden next to the restaurant.

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The birthday celebration did not end after lunch. At dinner time, a birthday cake was brought out for the "birthday boy"! 

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Further surprises comes 16 October 2023 when video clips of my grandchildren singing birthday greetings were received!

This birthday will definitely be remembered for a very very long time............ 

Family Cycling

Ever since our grandchildren picked up cycling skill, we have not stopped cycling with them whenever we visit WA.

Six years has lapsed since we first cycled with them in April 2018 (Read here). Over these years, we have seen them improving in their cycling skill and growing steadily in maturity.

Cycling has been part of family holiday activities. We cycled with Sam's family in Yarra Valley in Melbourne during our family holiday in March 2019 (Read here). At that time, Livvie was just two years old and had to be taken along in a bike trailer dragged behind her dad's bike! A rather adventurous endeavour!

Family cycling is indeed rewarding - both for fun, family bond and togetherness. Elena in Belarus wrote this simple poem to sum up the joy of Family Cycling:

Family cycling is so exciting.

It is so funny and so uniting!

We are so happy to ride bikes together,

When it is sunny, we have a good weather!

We rode across park and meet some squirrels,

Then ride along the Mukhavets river.

We enjoy life and these happy moments.

I am so inspired and can write my new poems!

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Unlike Elena who saw squirrels along the Mukhavets River, we saw plenty of wood ducks along the way.

Kite Flying with Grandchildren

Flying a kite is probably one of the most exhilarating experiences a child can have. I recall flying kite with my grandson, Nathan way back in September 2013. Nathan was barely three years old then and his sister was just a couple of months old. At that age, he had yet to fully grasp the skill of kite flying. (Read here).

In our recent trip to Perth, the grandparents together with Nathan and Grace had twice gone out to the huge open field not far from their house to fly kites. Initially, Nathan and Grace did struggle a bit to get the kites up flying at the sky. But once the kites caught the wind and soared into the sky, their sense of pride, joy and accomplishment was all over their faces. They ran and yelled happily as they watched the kites flying through the wind.

Kite flying did bring back fond memories of my days spent in the village way back in the 1960's (Read here). There is major difference in kite flying then and now. Back then, there was no ready-made kites for sale in the shops and we had to make our own kites from scratch using bamboo cut from nearby forest and thin coloured translucent paper bought from book shop.

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In the second session, my granddaughter managed to have advanced her flying skill - she attached the string connected to the air-borne kite to her belt and simply lied on the ground. She was mesmerized and contented looking at the soaring kite lifted high by the strong wind! This is indeed the ultimate achievement of her kite flying skill!

Exquisite Moments in Story Studio

Story telling is part and parcel of growing up routine of all children. But in the case of our grandchildren, it has evolved over the years into something unlike any other bedtime story telling sessions.

Back in July 2016, Nathan who was just five and half years old loved normal children stories just like any other kids (Read here). Even in the next couples of years up to 2022, he continued to enjoy story telling and he was also creative when it was his turn to tell story (Read here), (Read here) and (Read here). 

Now after seven years plus, his preference has shifted from fairytale to real life incidents. He loved talking about his classmates and friends. Indeed, he has moved into his teenager phase! We began to detect the change since early this year in the last story telling session (Read here).

Even Gracie, she is more animated talking about incidents related to friends and classmates than telling tales from story books or her own make-up stories.

Whatever is said about their changes consequential to growing up, their approach to story studio is still serious and not wishy-washy.

This time, Nathan and Grace were assisted by their cousin, Livvie who was equally serious and committed. As a matter of procedure, before story telling began, grandparents were granted access to the Story Studio only upon production of  Entry Cards specially prepared by Livvie. Hands were to be sanitized before being allowed to be seated. No phone was allowed. 

As the story session progressed, drinks were served and foot massage was provided! Grandparents were pampered to another new level :)

Maddie, the latest in the group was equally creative when come to chain story. She could spontaneously pick up from where the previous teller has left off and continued the chain! The fun part is always to be sillier and sillier!

I wonder what the next Story Studio will be like after another year or two!

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Trekking in WA

The last trekking I did with Serene's family was during our holidays in WA in April 2018. We trekked downhill to see the Lesmurdie Falls (Read here). 

For our recent trip, we were taken to two locations. The first was the Manning Stairs & Lookouts at the Manning Park Reserve and then three days later at the Reabold Hill.

Hiking to the ridge of Manning Ridge starts with climbing 192 steps from the car park area. At the Lookout Platform, we had a spectacular view of Jervoise Bay and the surrounding metropolis.

From the Ridge, we could see part of Manning Lake.

Earth track beyond the Ridge Platform.

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Reabold Hill is the highest point on the Swan Coastal Plain. There are multi-type of trials to choose from. We started with the boardwalk. The highest platform of the boardwalk at the Summit Lookout offers a sweeping view of the Indian Ocean and even Perth City at the far distance.

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At the summit platform of the boardwalk.

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Besides the boardwalk, we also walked the earth trail as well as trial applied with bituminous premix.