Tag: travel

Travel doodles

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I had almost forgotten that on some of my travels I enjoyed trying to draw the place while I was on the homeward flight.

With my iPad on its final days, I’m relieved to download these travel doodles before I lost them.

They’re certainly not the greatest works of art, but they’re fantastic records to me of those trips after all these years, reigniting many memories and connections.

Madrid, Spain

I traveled to watch Real Madrid play Liverpool in a Champions League clash in 2014.

I still have fond memories of football, paella, sangria, and churros. I guess sangria was simplest to draw.

India

I traveled to Chennai a few times for work in 2014-15. Until I visited, I knew very little of the geography.

I saw cows roaming everywhere, here’s one in particular I liked and enjoyed drawing.

Singapore

I loved walking the clean, safe streets of Singapore after a day of meetings.

Here’s my take on the spectacular night scenery of the Marina Bay Sands.

The next day had quite a different scene and feeling.

No quick trip to ‘Singers’ is complete without their signature Singapore Chilli Crab. I took the taxi driver’s recommendation for the best in town, and was seriously impressed – while sitting with 100 others at tables setup in the car park.

“No Sign Board Seafood” Geyland Road

Traveling home to Australia

It was always a long flight from the middle east to Australia. I remember seeing the welcoming colours of a sunrise here as we flew over what our pilot friends call the GAFA (Great Australian F*ck All).

And I’m not sure if it was this trip, or another one, when we stayed on the Sunshine Coast and this was my view of the beach.

Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast

It’s been nice to see these drawings again after maybe half a dozen years. I find they bring back stronger memories than the photos I took, perhaps as I spent a lot more time drawing them while reflecting on the places and the wonderful times I spent there.

It makes me wish I took the time more often to reflect and draw.

Australian holidays – August 2017

Reading Time: 3 minutesTwo weeks back at work, and I’m in danger of forgetting my two weeks holiday in Australia.

I arrived in Launceston for a change, as Elle and boys were visiting an ill family member. The next day was already arranged for the boys and I to go zipline-ing at Treetops in Hollybank forest.  It was a wonderful experience.  I really don’t know what age group had the most fun.

We had only another two days with family in Tasmania, before we flew up to Brisbane.

The next day we were “Show And Tell” at my nephew’s class when we surprised him at school.

We became quite odd objects for his classmates to ask some interesting questions. They were most interested in how far away is Dubai. How do you get to Dubai. How many minutes is that? How long does it take to get there. Then again, how many minutes is that??

It wasn’t until we mentioned the flight took enough time to watch eight movies back-to-back that the questioning moved on.

Then perhaps the last question was the most interesting to them, when they learned that I work at a theme park with LEGOLAND!  Lesson learned. I really should have led with that one.

Back in Brisbane, thanks to my parents we saw the Brisbane Broncos play at home against the Parramatta Eels.  The boys were super excited. It was the first live NRL match for Lewis & Owen. Well, for Lewis. Owen fell into a deep sleep soon after we arrived in the stadium.  Even with all the extremely loud cheering, he didn’t stir.

Sadly, most of the cheering from 12 seconds on, was for Parra.  Bronco Adam Blair thought it was a good idea on the first kick return, to pass it aimlessly to an opposition player to score the fastest try recorded in NRL history. I think Blair’s been in need of a Head Impact Assessment for all of his life.

Broncos eventually scored some points in response.  They even began dominating, until silly mistakes undid all the good work. The final score was 54-34.

The boys and I still came out victorious, thanks to a McDonald’s promotion.  The Broncos scored more than 19 points, so each spectator could take their match ticket into a McDonald’s restaurant and pick up a free Broncos Burger. Myles had already devoured one of those in our travels and was a huge fan. When we visited the city the next day, we got three … and then another, and another. Free food really sparked Myles’s imagination. We wondered how we could print and redeem the other 29,000 tickets from the game.

That day we visited the Gallery of Modern Art.  It happened to be hosting an Avengers exhibit.  They had lots of costumes and props from the movies. And we got to design and share our own super heroes (I wonder if my Library Woman character will ever hit the big screen). The most fun was certainly the BRILLIANT interactive character exhibit that mimicked whatever moves the boys would make. The boys (and I) could have stayed there for hours, dabbing and kung fu kicking as Iron Man, HULK, and Guardian of the Galaxy characters tried to keep up on the big screen in front.

On the Sunshine Coast we stayed with my brother and family. It coincided with the Caloundra Power Boat Club’s “Take a kid fishing” Day.  We had a trial run on the day before and caught a few fish each, which was promising for the competition.  On the day that mattered though, we caught almost nothing.  The boys were more than pleased to just catch a few toad fish. Three out of our four boys still won a rod & reel combo regardless.

Our nephew’s Poppy opened up his arms wide and asked Owen how big was the fish he caught.  Owen felt compelled to correct him, “It wasn’t nearly that big!”  Quite an honest boy, but not a real fisherman. Yet.

We tested out the rods a few days later. Again with very little success, except for a couple of toad fish.  Myles was so proud that he was able to catch one with his bare hands.  It might be the only thing worse than catching a toad fish with a fishing rod.

Then our time in cool Australia was over.

It was an enjoyable, relaxing time.

For our flight home I saved almost two thousand dollars and flew China Southern Airlines, via Ghanzhou.  Apart from a few minor peculiarities (like people’s carry-on luggage being a 12kg box of peeled garlic), I thought it was pretty cool. Their premium economy seats were better than any other I can recall. I thought we found a wonderful alternative, until at the baggage belt in Dubai one of our bags was missing. We learned that it was safe and sound, but still in China.  Perhaps it’s an indication that you get what you pay for.

On the plus side, it was nice to have a good excuse for not shaving on my first day back at work.

Touch down Australia, “summer holidays” begin – Aug 2017

Reading Time: 2 minutesIt’s 4 in the morning, I’m wide awake, and my body feels like it should be eating dinner.
Dubai right now is 37 degrees at 10pm. Outside here in Launceston is 1.
My summer holiday has again become a freezing one.

It was quite a day of flying. In summary, my plane took off from DXB at 10:41am. With a short stop to change planes in MEL, I arrived and reunited with my family at Launceston airport 10:08am the next day.

I already got into the Aussie mood in Dubai. The family behind me at the boarding gate were speaking in Greek. I like the sound of the language. Then occasionally they would switch to a thick, regional Australian accent when they were cursing so impressively. I guess Greek has no equivalent to “flamin‘”

As I boarded, Bob Marley & The Wailers were singing “Don’t worry, ’bout a thing … Cause ev’ry little thing, is going to be all-right.” Not just a cool song, perhaps a great ploy to calm the nervous traveler?

I had the window seat, a vacant spot next to me, then one neighbour on the aisle. It was a lovely, old British lady. She looked like a small, female version of Tim Cook. We exchanged pleasantries. Soon after she took off her shoes, and asked if it’s ok to store them in the seat pocket between us. I said it’s fine. A little while later, she put her feet up on the seat next to me, after asking if it was fine. I figured it wouldn’t be long before I’d be asked to give her a foot massage. It didn’t come to that. She was actually lovely company, even helping me finish my large bag of cashews before Australian Customs.

I watched three movies, which is my standard for this leg. 

  • I watched Fate of the Furious – #8 in the franchise. It’s a lot of fun, and must be the best movie written by a 10 year old boy. 
  • Then I watched Ghost In The Shell. It’s hard to go past an action flick with a near-naked Scarlett Johansson. The movie is quite amazing. It’s the movie you’d expect if The Matrix and Total Recall had a baby. 
  • And the pick of the bunch was Off The Rails. It’s a documentary about Darius McCollum. Darius had issues growing up, and has Asperger’s syndrome, which resulted in his unhealthy love of the New York transit system. He continuously, quite innocently, takes control of trains and buses and impersonates employees. It has landed him in jail 32 times and for more than half of his adult life. His problem is exacerbated by a justice problem which continually proves unable to help. I watched it 1.5 times.

And now the two week whirlwind whistle-stop tour begins. It’s good to be home.

2016 goals smashed – just. Kind of.

Reading Time: 4 minutesIn 2016 I again tried to make continual progress over 12 months in a couple of personal areas I find important:

  • Running 1200kms, and
  • Reading 12 books.

Both of these numbers neatly ensure each and every month I keep running and reading. Or, so I hoped.

In reality, it’s never that simple for me.

My 2015 goals became a real challenge when the priority shifted from running to looking for new job opportunities.
And this past year, after beginning a new role opening an ambitious new attraction I struggled to find the time & head-space to read for pleasure.

Unable to find time is such a cop out. The obvious truth is, if you find something important enough, you make time. But we’ll get to that shortly ..

 

Run 1200 kilometres in a calendar year (supposedly 100km per month)

As it turned out, my running goal was quite straight-forward to complete this year.

In fact, I ran 1374km in all (exceeding even the cliched 110% effort).  This was mostly on account of running a second marathon in the year during my Australian holiday. It really wasn’t planned like this.
My parents coincidentally booked my boys and I into a wonderful resort on the Gold Coast on the same weekend in July as Australia’s premier road race, the Gold Coast Marathon. The marathon course passed two streets away from where we were staying on Surfer’s Paradise. And it happened to be where I ran my first marathon back in 2007. So I saw no alternative but crank up the training in the month before we left Dubai, and run the popular event.

It really boosted my kilometres. Usually my running tally flattens right out in July during Dubai’s summer.

 

Read 12 books in a calendar year (supposedly 1 book per month)

My reading goal on the other hand, it really came down to the wire.

I made almost no progress in the first half of the year. A couple of times I wasn’t sure I’d make it. November became such a stressful ascent, and December’s four books seemed almost insurmountable.

But I kept reading when I could, especially on my commute to and from work.

Right until the final afternoon of 31st of December, I was literally reading while running .. well, listening to an audio book on my final long runs.

Then after my exhausted return from 32.5kms I had to finish reading a final 40-50 pages.   But I managed.  I completed the final 12th book and my reading challenge.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S

It’s a good feeling to again complete these two resolutions, particularly after it seemed that one goal became near impossible.

Maybe it’s a strength to adapt to life and fit in such a variety of things, not focusing on a singular goal.

Perhaps my subconscious enjoys the drama of bringing things back from the seemingly impossible.

If so, perhaps I’d like to retire this part of my subconscious in 2017.

Making some regular progress each and every week would be wonderful to avoid getting into stressful situations with little time remaining.

Let’s see what 2017 brings.

But there was actually something I didn’t complete this year as planned ..

 

Publish 12 blogs in a calendar year (supposedly 1 blog per month)

When I renewed my 1200kms and 12 books challenges, I also thought to myself that I’d like to blog 12 times.  Again, at the start of the year this is a number which seems so easy.

In January an obvious blog for me is to write about the Dubai Marathon that I tend to run. And it seemed like a particularly good story this year as I had trained hard, and even employed a new training regime with an expert online coach. What an uplifting blog to write, in my 9th year of running to return to my best form. Though for a couple of reasons, I didn’t finish close to my goal time and I felt quite disappointed for many weeks.

I thought I’d get over it, and still share my thoughts from the day.  But this disappointing blot kept me from writing for a month. And it kept me from writing in the month after that when we had a nice trip to Ras Al Khaimer, a repeat of the trip we take each year – which I wrote about in 2015 (“Another RAK half weekend – 13-14 February 2015”).

Even in July when I holidayed in Australia I didn’t document my usual notes from our adventures. The fact that I had a resolution to write 12, demotivated me to recover the blog situation. I wasn’t getting back onto the horse.

Finally in December, I enjoyed the Striders half marathon too much and had to pen a few notes from the event, (“Yet another Striders half – 09 Dec 2016”).  And perhaps it was decidedly restarting the practice for the fresh running season and the coming year.

So the final score card has just one blog out of 12, for the 12 months.

Interestingly, when I was reflecting on my 2016 goals and I remembered the blog idea, it almost didn’t seem like a resolution. I gave up on it so early and so easily, I suppose wasn’t really serious about this one this past year.

2017?

I’ll take off the pressure for 2017, and blog as much as I feel – with no reference to any arbitrary numbers.

But I’ll definitely read 12 books & run 1200kms.
I’ve got two years experience that no matter how challenging it seems they are to achieve, I always have them COMPLETELY under control.

*Sigh*


2016 Australian Holidays – from the archives

Reading Time: 8 minutesQuite a surprise to find I had blogged while on holidays back in 2016, but hadn’t published at the time. Actually uploaded two years later on 24/08/2018. Better late than never.

30/06/2016 – Let the holiday begin

This was the day we were to fly to Brisbane to begin our “Summer Holiday” in Australia’s Winter. But first I had to go into work.

Work was ridiculously busy.  It started joyfully enough, knowing I was almost on my way. Though more and more approvals kept me stuck at my desk.

The boys were amazingly good at the airport and on the plane.  Owen thankfully wore himself out at the boarding gate while we were waiting. He was doing a lot of running, along with a fair share of pole dancing.  Within an hour and half he was fast asleep and looking very comfortable.

I found myself quite tired too.  Though when I just began to nod off, a cabin crew would wake me for a drink or dinner.

As I checked out the travel map for our flight, It wasn’t a good sign that my first thought was ‘Is that all!?”

The Singapore Airlines cabin crew were all very friendly. The ladies’ uniform looks almost uncomfortably flattering. Their tiny feminine body seemed to be mostly hips.

Myles was trying to nod off.  And Lewis definitely should have. He spilled orange juice, and dropped a huge pile of skittles all over the floor; and he keeps talking at full volume as if he’s outside the plane sitting on the wing trying to be heard.

Today was my brother’s birthday.  In what has become an annual tradition the boys and I left an Arabic rendition of “Happy Birthday to you” on his voice mail.

One surprising thing, I had to return my duty-free alcohol I bought. It seems only from Terminal 3 there is an arrangement to box the alcohol – needed to enter in Australia. The cashier didn’t know, it was only when he consulted his supervisor that he learned.

 

03/07/2016 – Gold Coast Marathon Day!

I managed a decent amount of sleep on account of Owen needing me to snuggle him in bed.  I still woke up plenty of times.  Once or twice after worrying dreams of missing the event as usual.

The tram to the start line was too packed. Instead I went back to the front of my hotel where charter buses were picking up runners. Lesson-learned.  Don’t pass up a perfectly good transport to try for something more convenient.  On the bus I noticed everyone except a couple of runners had Asics brand running shoes. The more I looked around the more obvious it was. Clearly Dubai has very different market to Australia. I seemed a complete foreigner, perhaps I could have been wearing a grass skirt.

We got to the start line shortly before 6am. Lots of half-marathoners had to rush.

It was quite freezing.  A hot coffee was necessary, and tasted amazing.

My pre-race toilet prep worked a treat.  I felt great from the start. Conditions were absolutely perfect. Crisp to begin, and not getting above warm. I had huge appreciation for all the volunteers and thanked them when I could.  And the spectators were brilliant.  Miyuki from Dubai was running with me, and was hugely popular with the hordes of passionate Japanese passionate Japanese cheers squads.  The Australians had a bit more trouble pronouncing her name from reading it on her bib. I didn’t add a nickname to my bib when registering. I figured it would show my first name instead. Nope, it showed nothing.  So imagine my surprise when a total stranger yelled out “Go Rhino!” It turned out the guy next to me was nicknamed Rhino also. Though people didn’t need to your names for encouragement.

Lots of signs said things like “Go complete stranger” or “I’m so proud of you, perfect stranger”.  There were so many good ones.  I liked the thought behind the image of the Mushroom from Super Mario games, with “Tap here for free power up”. I used as many of those as I could. “Unless you have puked, fainted, or died, keep going!”

One family had the song “We are the champions” playing loudly.  Though instead of those words, they sang “YOU are the champions ..”  The interesting thing with an out and back marathon course is that 20-30 minutes later when we ran back past the same spot they were singing the exact same song. That’s dedication.

I also loved other music along the way, which showcased a variety of bands.  There were two drummers going like crazy. To keep it up seemed to need as much stamina as running 42kms.

My favourite sign of all was in the first kilometre as we ran over the bridge for the first time.  A lady standing there was proudly waving a “You’re nearly there” poster.  As we did pass 1km I did the math and shared we have only 41.2km to go. I’m not sure how well that was appreciated by the runners around me.

In the final stages the going got tough, but I had no worries of finishing.  I just wanted to see the finish line – really wanted to see that line.  (Perhaps the feeling related to my former Gold Coast marathon where I had terrible cramps in the final 200 metres.)

The support heading to the finish was amazing. I particularly like seeing the Indigenous Marathon Foundation (IMF) mob – under the inspirational Rob De Castella.  Under their tent, they all gave such a hearty cheers.  I proudly gave high 5s all round. Even at the finish a lady with a camera obviously from IMF seeing me wearing an IMF shirt decided instead of taking my picture to give me high 5s.

 

04/07/2016 – Dreamworld

We all enjoyed seeing Australia’s premier theme park.  The entry was part of a deal with our accommodation, Paradise Resort. In hindsight, it would have been nice to have invested further and avoided the queues.  We waited 1 hour before doing the Thunder River Rapids ride (tragically, 2 months later that ride would be shut down forever).

We had to wait another hour for the boys who wanted to do Mick Doohan’s Motocross ride.

The Tower Of Terror seemed to have almost a 1 hour wait also, which Lewis and Corey persevered with – which seemed worth it.

05/07/2016 – The rain’s set in

We woke slightly before our breakfast meeting time to learn of a bad weather forecast. It was likely to rain all day so we agreed to drop our plan to visit Movie World. Instead, we decided to go ice skating in the resort we were staying.

All boys had a go. Owen picked it up extremely quickly. Bracken enjoyed it quite nervously – hanging on to the side walls rather than using the penguin-shaped guides. Corey joined us a little later to help Bracken, and he immediately enjoyed it more.

Lewis really put in a lot of effort. And Myles as expected was quite fine.

For lunch we went out for first & chips at the popular Pete’s Fish & Chips near Sea World.

From there we decided to not call it a day and take the Aqua Duck submersible vehicle. It was cool! The car had no suspension, so quite bouncy on the road. But it was amazing to drive into the water. All boys got to drive the boat out at sea which was fun.

For dinner Mum bought stuff to make hot dogs which went down a treat. Lewis may have had 5 or 6. The little boys and the older boys were very tired so we cut short our game of Sequence.

 

06/07/2018 – Helicopter ride and 2nd Dreamworld visit

The helicopter ride from Sea World was busier than I expected. We happened to see Tom Keneally also waiting.

The helicopter journey was more bumpy than I anticipated. The landing was the opposite and very smooth and straight-forward.

From there we went straight to Dreamworld for the rest of the day, where the boys enjoyed new rides and we all checked out the Peter Brock exhibit.

08/07/2016 – Farewell Paradise Resort, and final Dreamworld visit

We had our final morning at the hotel before visiting Dreamworld one last night.

Myles did the Tower Of Terror ride almost reluctantly. He wanted to do it, and not have Lewis just talking about it constantly. Right at the end before we got on, Myles was getting upset and said he didn’t want to do it. The attendants were very helpful and had obviously gone through the routine many times. They assured him after getting his name. Then when that didn’t work the lady said she would slow down the ride for Myles. Myles felt bad having it slowed down for everyone. He didn’t notice the wink she gave me. The story definitely helped. Although Myles looked really freaked out on the ride. Regardless, he enjoyed it. And not wanting to do it again.

Before that we took the train ride to the Corroboree section and saw the native animals. They were awesome, especially the koala which we got to pat,a 4 year old called “Cinnamon”.

The kangaroos weren’t too fussed about us. Boys enjoyed the indigenous exhibit, particularly The Mimis animated story.

We didn’t do many other rides.  The boys preferred to have fun in the Madagascar balls game. Our sons also had fun driving the Model T Fords, like their parents did at probably around the same age.

The Dreamworld Pass was definitely worth it. With three days we got to do a huge amount of the stuff we wanted, and see most of the attractions.

09/07/2016 – Caloundra fishing

Everyone slept like logs after the full week of theme parks and staying at the kids resort.

We had breakfast at mcDonalds as per Myles’s request. It was lovely to have an authentic bacon muffin. After breakfast the boys played in the playground. Well they did, until Myles noticed someone had urinated on the slide.

In the afternoon we went fishing with my brother in the Maroochy River. It took a short while to land our first fish. Naturally Myles caught it. He went on to catch 9 fish altogether. They were mostly bream, only a few legal size.

The stand-out for me was Owen. He was a complete natural. No one had to show him a thing. He just knew how to hold the rod, and wind in the line. And it didn’t take long before he was also trying to cast out the line himself.  It was well-deserved when he caught his first fish!

All in all it was a great day, and night. It’s lovely that we didn’t need to spend a lot of money on theme parks parks and hotel resorts. We can have fun doing such simple activities. I didn’t even need to fish. I enjoyed just watching the others.

13/07/2016 – Extremely white Tassie

We woke around 8am to an unfortunate day of weather, so we cancelled any plans to climb a mountain. Instead we had a great day playing in the snow.

 

16/07/2016 – Flying home to Dubai

Even without looking after three boys, it’s a very long flight from Australia.  Not as long as the couple next to me on the flight, they were coming from New Zealand.  And travelling onto London.  Altogether they’d be sitting on a plane for 36 hours.

We all boarded late due to the plane arriving after schedule.  Then it took maybe more than 30 minutes for the engineers to repair some casing under the wing! At first they couldn’t open it.  Then it took some time.  Then they needed to complete the necessary paperwork.  The captain was nice enough to update us every 10 minutes sharing a lot of details – I’m not sure if we needed all the details.

Our planned flight was to depart at 2210 hours.  Before we boarded they revised the time to 2250.  With the refueling and engineering problems once we were aboard meant we didn’t leave til after midnight!

Despite this, due to good weather conditions we were still scheduled to arrive on-time!  That’s catching up two hours.  You can become curious, Why can’t they travel at that pace all the time.

This was my first QANTAS long haul between Australia and Dubai.  Not bad, though a little pokier in Economy.

The in-flight entertainment was unsurprisingly not up to the mark of Emirates.  With Emirates you get more choices than you need.  QANTAS, for me, have the choices you don’t necessarily want. Obviously the choices weren’t too bad, they lady across the aisle was often laughing out loud in hysterics.

The food was OK. I even enjoyed having a famous Bundaberg ginger beer.

Ceylon – it’s more than a great cup of tea – December 2014

Reading Time: 10 minutesI started a new job three weeks ago, so it was probably time to take a few weeks’ holiday.

The airport was terribly busy with everyone wanting to escape for Christmas. We thought we had a stroke of luck when tired Owen’s crying got the attention of the immigration workers and we were brought to the front of the queue. The joy was short-lived when he spotted my family were on cancelled visas, and downed his tools. In Dubai when you change jobs your former employer cancels the visa, then the new employer will sponsor you with a new working visa. Due to timing I only had myself sponsored, and would get my family processed on our return.  Being Australian citizens we’re entitled to Visa on Arrival.  But there was a problem with this plan. Last time we came back from holiday, immigration incorrectly stamped our passports with a Visit Visa – despite us being residents.  This stamp combined with cancelled residence visas caused all the confusion.  It took a lot of Arabic debate between the officers back in the office to get to the bottom of it.  We arrived at the airport extremely early, which was extremely fortunate because when sanity eventually prevailed, we only just scraped though to the boarding games in time.

It was a relief to land in Sri Lanka.  We pre-arranged a local driver to take us around for all 10 days.  First we’d travel from the airport in Columbo to Kandy to visit the elephant ophanage.

Elephants are lovely, big creatures.  It was my closest encounter. Although they’re clearly quite beautiful, I couldn’t help but screw up my face as I smelt the terrible odour.  Then it was a slight relief to learn the stench wasn’t the elephants at all, it was the smell of the rolled cigarette which the elephant handler was smoking.

All the boys, all five children and the two Dads went into the water to wash the elephants with a well-used shard from a coconut shell. We imagined the elephants were enjoying it, tho I sensed the big beasts let out a sigh of relief when we left them.
While we were on the way there the boys were all keen to ride the elephants. Once it was time to line up though, they all got too scared. After seeing Owen the baby bravely joining Elle and I, eventually the other kids warmed up. The boys all began holding the accompanying parents incredibly tightly. Then before long, we usually had to check they were still there and ask them to hang onto us.

The rain had started by this time. The temperatures were fine though. It was a lovely change for people living in Dubai.

We stayed in the hills above Kandy, and we had our second encounter with animals, seeing large troops of monkeys in trees all around the hotel. The boys all got a kick out of seeing them jump around. Tho the sign on our window indicated they’re not just cute, and that we must keep the doors and windows locked.

We went into town for a cultural show and dinner. Our waiter became our friend when he learned we’re from Australia. He mentioned how the Australian cricket team won their test against India, adding “Good, we hate India”.

Once home we had a couple more drinks in the bar then retired to the rooms. I know at least I was extremely tired. As I was going to sleep there was a bit of noise from downstairs. I remember saying to myself, I hope they don’t ……then… Zzzz.

The next morning we went to the Sri Dalada Maligawa – or (Buddhist) Temple of the Tooth. We had to be respectful and wear long shorts. Though this was slightly contradicted when they asked me to remove my shoes.
The ancient relics there were very impressive. And we all enjoyed the journey through the temple, which coincided with their day of worship. It was disappointing to hear that as little as twenty years ago the place was under threat and getting attacked by the Tamil Tigers.
Everything inside there seems peaceful now. I saw a boy maybe in his teens in traditional orange monk sarong. He looked quite stoic in the same attire as his fellow monks from hundreds of generations gone by. Then the boy pulled out his smart phone and took a picture of the proceedings.

As we walked back to the van I asked Lewis what’s been the highlight of trip so far. It wasn’t the flight, elephants, monkeys, cultural show & fire walking, Buddhist temple, or sightseeing. It was the hotel.
The next day we ventured further North to visit a historic tea factory, established 1840. When you first arrive in Sri Lanka it’s quite special to first see a hill of tea trees.  By day three you realise it’s noteworthy to spot a hill with no tea growing.
The tea factory tour was quite interesting. I’ve been to many brewery and distillery tours in my time. I’d never have imagined there was a similar story and complexity and craft to the humble cup of tea.

Dogs are a lot more trusting of Sri Lankan drivers than I was. Everywhere we drove you’d see dogs laying 1/3rd on the edge of the road, without a worry from dog or driver. Tho perhaps that explains why after driving for long periods you’ll see so many of them limping around.

All the roads we drove on (which was mostly the same one road) had three lanes of traffic driving, tho they only had two painted. It sort of seems like every road we were on is One Way, they just happen to be one way in both directions.

For some variety we caught a local train meeting our driver a few stations away. On the train there was a sign “No Tobacco No Liqour“. I can only imagine it’s some very posh kind of alcohol.

Singalese script picstitchI loved seeing the Singalese script on signs everywhere. With all the near symmetric curly squiggles it’s perfection decoration. It may even communicate some kind of language.

Another item on the To Do list from Bentota where we were staying was to visit the Brief Garden.  This was a memorial to the architect and notable figure of the area Bevis Bawa, who happened to share uncommon first name with Elle’s father.  The gardens were lovely, and well kept. Inside was very artful and interesting.  But the more we saw, the more concerned we were. Mr Bawa was clearly an art buff, though it seemed his art and statue collections had one thing in common, most featured very naked men. The statues in particular were eyebrow raising to say the least.  Our sons were thankfully not teenagers yet, so they didn’t spend the time giggling (like us parents did).  Instead we got quite a few innocent questions about why all the pictures and statues had large things exposed.  The place was difficult to find, though it was certainly quite quick to escape from.

On another day we visited Galle to do some more sightseeing. Immediately as we parked we had people descend upon us to offer saris and other knickknacks. We kept moving to see the fort and other things, all the while trying to make as little eye contact as possible.
One particular guy I certainly didn’t want to make eye contact had a few bags next to him as he urinated on the wall. The others had passed by him to take in the ocean. I had Owen on my shoulders and now that he had finished his business we were sadly in his path. As he spotted us, he said in a husky voice “Cooooo-bra. Cooooo-bra.” As I slowly registered what this word meant he threw out two baskets in front of me, and the basket lids magically popped off and out jumped and hissed TWO “BEEPING” COBRAS! The others reported that I swore loudly and simultaneously jumped in the air and sideways away from these snakes. For people that don’t know, I HATE snakes. Particularly when they’re venomous and thrown at me, while I’m holding a 21 month old baby. It took me some time to walk back around this guy to continue our sightseeing. And maybe it took a few days to get the thought of this horrible scene from my thoughts.

With all our adventures it was easy to forget that it was Christmas Eve. That evening Santa visited. He stole the tinsel we bought in a Sri Lankan store and made a Christmas tree and left a few gifts – despite us being away from home. I thought it quite interesting how santa managed to place the problematic baubles in the dark – perhaps while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes cause he was putting all this up while wearing just his underpants. In fact at one point, resort security doing a sweep of the garden area with their torches, but fortunately for all concerned they didn’t spot him in this awkward position outside the suite.

Early on Christmas morning I saw the figure of someone walking outside towards the makeshift Christmas tree. My family was still asleep so I opened the curtain to check if it was one of the other kids. Instead it was the Sri Lankan guy who cleans the leaves from the resort grounds. He was paused in front of the tree, looking curiously up at all the tinsel and scratching his head. I then saw him pick up one of the gifts from the ground and read the name card. Seeming satisfied it’s nothing he needed to worry about he turned around and spotted me looking out at him, he gave a big smile and a thumbs up. It was a great start to Christmas.

It wasn’t until later in the morning when the kids took their presents that I noticed a big dried snake skin resting in the shrub next to our Christmas tree. It made the night’s tree-decorating activities in the dark a lot more extreme, especially with the freaking Cobras still fresh in my mind.

Something different you see on roads of Sri Lanka is the position of the cemeteries. We saw no elaborate areas for graves. To an outsider they seem placed almost randomly by the roadside. Sometimes they spread across on each side of the road. From the two grave stones I read, the deceased lived til they were both 93. Not a bad innings when the average life expectancy in Sri Lanka is 74. Although I suspect in the Southern reaches a lot of the headstones were marking the graves of much younger people due to the tragic tsunami that hit the area in 2004.  It was devastating to still see the after effects of this, with many houses never rebuilt.

On the way home we bought some traditional Sri Lankan masks, after clearing up some confusion with our driver that we didn’t want to go to (Church) Mass.
And it was around this time that we hit another Sri Lankan holiday milestone and finished the bottle of local rocket fuel called Arak. Perhaps a good indication of its quality, we couldn’t work out if it’s a whisky or a rum. Another indicator of its quality could be when we asked the guy at bottle shop if we drink it with coke, he was insistent you drink it with almost anything. Perhaps a sign of drinking too much of it, we were incorrectly calling it Akra almost all the time

Early one morning I thought I heard the standard sound of an ice cream truck, perhaps playing Green Sleeves. But don’t be fooled, the truck that’s doing its rounds isn’t filled with sweeties, ice creams or ice lollies. It’s the sound of the curry samosa and savoury snacks truck.  Mmmm.

The day before we left we had quite an unexpected encounter, like something from the X-Files. Well, not quite. Actress Gillian Anderson happened to be staying at the same small resort as us, with her sons. On my walk to breakfast she asked how old our boys were. Her sons were roughly the same age. All the boys played well together and had lots of fun. To us it seemed nothing different from just another lovely mum and kids spending time together, apart from the fact that the older boys secretly referred to her as “Pegasus” (from her film Johnny English).

Our last day of sightseeing we went to Hikkaduwa. It’s a popular beach area with backpackers. We went out in a glass-bottom boat and saw the variety of sea life, including a large turtle our boat captain nearly decapitated a snorkeller to show us. Again, if you asked my boys what was the highlight of that day it wouldn’t be the boat trip, or even patting a turtle further down the beach. They enjoyed making mines in the sand with anything they could find, like empty rum bottles, and boxes for rum bottles.

On our last day I woke up to the sound of heavy rain. There had been quite a few days with some rain, but this was now bucketing down. So naturally I just had to get out and run in it. The streets in heavy rain are quiet. When I eventually found people under the roofs of shops for cover they looked at me quite baffled. To be fair, only slightly more baffled than when it wasn’t raining.

Our return flight was departing from Columbo.  This allowed us the opportunity to meet up with our dear old Sri Lankan maid Dilika, who left Dubai to live in the outskirts with her large family. It was so lovely to see her again, though her family went to way too much trouble with lunch for us.  We always liked Dilika and kept in touch.  We had heard when she got back to Sri Lanka she had a little girl around the same time as we had Owen. What we didn’t know til we met was the daughter’s name happened to be Owenya!  What a lovely coincidence.
After our sad goodbyes, with time running out in Columbo before our flight we managed just a little bit of sight-seeing from the van.

It was fun to be driven around Columbo hearing where all the national team cricketers used to play. Our driver’s son is the captain of the Columbo University cricket team, so he had A LOT of cricket knowledge – or perhaps he had the amazing cricket knowledge of an average Sri Lankan.

While they are united in their love of cricket, I found there’s no consensus on who is the most famous Sri Lankan cricket player. To the average Australian it would most probably be Muralidaran – the controversial spinner/chucker extraordinairre. Some of our Sri Lankan friends suggested Sangakarra. He could certainly be the most famous based on the number of signs bearing his image. Other suggestions ranged from Malinga, who is certainly very recognisable; and surprisingly Arjuna Ranatunga.

The final memorable landmark we were shown was the new-ish Sri Lankan parliament building. It’s an interesting design, looking quite grand and important, but with still enough local Asian charm. Our tour guide informed us the building’s architect was none other than Mr Bevis Bawa. The same character whose house we visited at the Brief Garden. We were a little impressed to see the handy work of the guy whose house we visited. But we were also a little curious he didn’t incorporate any impressive phalluses into the construction.

We got to the airport with lots of time to spare.  Just as well cause we hit another hurdle. At checkin they shared the Immigration rules are we must have either a valid visa, or if you’re able to get a visa on arrival (like us) you must have flight tickets for an onward journey.  We already knew we couldn’t move our visa situation forward any faster, so we had to buy some tickets.  Fortunately the airport is equipped, and very experienced, with this. So, by a stroke of luck we finished our holiday with some new flight tickets back to Sri Lanka so we can do this whole holiday again. 😀

Or most probably, we’ll just seek a refund.

“Istuti” Sri Lanka, and thanks to our friends travelling with us, and our wonderful driver Naranjin.

We’ll not forget this holiday, well the boys won’t forget the hotel and the mine they built on the beach.

Madras – it’s more than an Indian curry flavour – March 2014

Reading Time: 5 minutesI had a work trip last week to Chennai, India.  Being on business, I travelled without the family for a change. Altho I considered packing 11 month old Owen when he immediately fell asleep in my arms when I took him for a final quick cuddle in the morning.
The journey from Dubai started nicely in the business lounge – after purchasing a small duty free bottle of whisky (for purely sterilization purposes you must understand).
Boarding became a little less glamorous when next to me sat an Indian gentlemen whom I think muttered something about his backside being unwell. He went on to break a few other passenger etiquette points, and I imagined someone bolder than me asking to be moved as the guy doesn’t cover his mouth when sneezing in my direction.

It’s always a little bit of a worry when before the plane takes off for its destination the cabin crew walk through releasing the contents of several cans of fumigating smoke. I held my breath and wished the poisons the best of luck.

Later on it was a relief when my neighbour motioned for me to fill in his declaration form. He clearly knew no English, so he wasn’t talking about his butt afterall.

The flight went quick – being 11 hours quicker than a trip home to Australia,  it’s no surprise it felt quick. I then had a completely pain-free journey through customs and getting my baggage and ride to the hotel.

Outside the airport, I knew I was in India. This was something different to anything I’ve seen before. Even as we were landing it was clear this is a city with lots more people than I’ve ever seen before. As far as the eye could see there were apartment blocks.
I’m probably used to areas with lots of people. This is a complete metropolis of many areas, all with lots and lots of people.  That’s a very different scale.
Outside of the airport you can just hear a rabble. That’s the constant sound of lots of people.
The ride to the hotel was interesting. The paint segregating lanes of traffic were clearly not ambitious enough. On each side we felt squeezed between a constant barrage of cars and scooters and motorbikes with a family of four all on-board. I saw three clearly painted lanes, and to the left and right of our car I counted seven vehicles. And each motorbike probably had an average of 2.9 people. I thought, gee those small kids can really hang on for dear life. Then I sighed as I realised that’s literally what they were doing.

I thought the use of car horns in Dubai was excessive.  It is NOTHING in comparison. From every direction there is constant noise. It’s not surprising, most trucks and buses have signs saying “Sound Horn”. I heard a couple of theories behind these stickers.  One is sound the horn to wake up the driver, in case they have actually fallen asleep.  And the other suggestion is that it’s to inform the driver that there’s someone behind them, so they should consider applying the brake. So it’s saying something like “Please sound horn if you don’t wish me to squash you”.

Work was like work anywhere, more or less.

At lunch time we even called for pizzas delivery. It was just like in any other office pizza lunch, except here the pizzas had just as much chili as any other topping ingredients. Though this was not enough, my colleagues were compelled to still sprinkle several sachets of chili flakes on top. Amazing.

Our hosts drove us out for lunch one day. He talked about the terrible traffic he endures each day, and that he’s considering swapping his fancy car for a bicycle. It was easy to sympathise. His impressive car can travel 0-100km/hr in just over 4 seconds, yet the car’s computer showed his average speed over the car’s lifetime was 29km/hr – even with long drives in the country away from traffic.

Without the family with me, I enjoyed a selfish morning ritual of hitting the gym. But I really wanted to go out for a run, and properly experience the streets of India.  The night before I made a simple Google Map.  I printed two copies – one to carry just in case I took a wrong turn. The other I gave to my colleague in the adjacent room. If I didn’t come back, at least they know where to begin the search. Likewise I gave quite a bit of thought to what identifying information I should carry in case something bad happens.  My colleague was also thinking of the worst, when he shared that at least I was running along a street called “Dr” Kalaignar Karunanidhi Salai.
I started away from the main roads, running through quite rural estates. When running, especially in a new place, some people worry about where to find a bathroom in case something more than a simple stop is required. I figured I may have no problems in this regard, when I casually looked to my right and saw a field full of guys all taking a dump. There was a lesson learned right there, don’t run first thing in the morning.

I finished my water bottle and decided to get another drink from a corner store. The bottled water trick in the movie Slum Dog Millionaire had me a little paranoid, so I got a coke.  The guy behind the counter, I think showing he had a sense of humour, told me in Tamil it’s called “Cocku” – either that or he got away with insulting me.

As per my plan, I made it to the coast and saw the ocean.

Along the way I saw many stray dogs. You could say they all looked like they had character. Another way to say it is they were malnourished, and treated poorly.
I only encountered a couple of humans begging.  I didn’t give them money, though it was a pleasure to buy a few breakfasts with even the small amount of emergency money I carried.
The streets were easy enough to navigate, and I made it safely home without incident. Well, almost without incident. I did see a guy walking towards me looking quite erratic and aggressive to people as they walked past, and here I was heading straight for him. I deviated slightly away, though it wasn’t enough. He jumped in front of me and shouted something, though it was a little comforting that I thought it sounded like “Good Morning”, so I just kept on moving.

While getting ready for the shower it seemed completely unfair that the room I was staying in, all on my own, was larger than some of the homes I saw complete families living in.

My Indian week flew by. Before I knew it we were checking out of the hotel and heading to the airport for the trip home.  I dropped into a souvenir shop, and paid probably way too much for a few items for the kids and wife.  I feel you’ve negotiated poorly when they say with a smile “You drove a hard bargain my friend”.  You’ve done much better when they’re crying, or too angry with you to speak.

The flight home had quite a lot of turbulence, something my colleague’s never experienced on his countless trips to Chennai over the years. I wondered if it was inappropriate earlier to share with him that we were on an identical aircraft to the Malaysian Airlines plane that went missing flying on MH370 a few days earlier.

It probably goes without saying, we did make it home safe and sound.

Thank you beautiful India.  My colleagues made it a very enjoyable trip. I know I’ll be back.

LEGOLAND Windsor, UK – 03 Oct 2013

Reading Time: 5 minutesAs part of the boys’ birthday this year we treated them with a trip to LEGOLAND, in Windsor. The boys and Elle hadn’t visited the UK before, and with the short time frames we had of just the weekend, this was not the trip for much of a visit. This trip was all about the boys having LEGO-themed fun.

We flew into Heathrow, on a sadly (or for a passenger, happily) half-full Emirates flight. With so many free seats, we could split up and spread out our stuff over a few taken-over rows. Our latest addition, six month old Owen was wonderful, sleeping for ages. And the other two were good like usual. Before takeoff they had already got the headphones on and switched on their favourite in-flight channel, sadly it’s The Family Guy at the moment.

We had a few walks of the awesome A380 plane, and had a nap here and there, and got a baby photo of Owen wearing the female cabin crew’s distinctive hat (she thought Owen was a girl). Then before we knew it, we were approaching London. As we were going thru customs, the official was a little suspicious of us flying in to the country for just two days. Tho his concerns seemed to vanish when he learned we were off to LEGOLAND.

We had a Windsor Car waiting for us, which we booked via email which made life easy, and was quite a lot chearper than a London taxi.

We knew it was a reasonably short drive. And we knew when we were getting close by spotting the magnificent sight of the Windsor Castle looking quite stoic, lit up on a hill in the distance.

From there we tracked the signs to LEGOLAND. And, OH! MY! GOD! As soon as we were a turn or two away I felt like the trip was all about my own childhood dreams. There were single LEGO blocks the size of cars, telling us where we were. The roundabouts were a natural habitat of life-sized LEGO animals. And the entrance had a LEGO dragon. The same dragon happened to scare a certain smoker when she unsuspectingly smoked beneath it, and the dragon hissed and spewed its own smoke.

We entered the Resort lobby, and Lewis immediately asked if he could buy some LEGO. The place wasn’t a hotel it was the kind of toy store I thought you only see in movies. It was awesome, literally.

Our room was on the Adventurers floor, we decided against the Pirates floor. The elevator had LEGO characters talking to us “Adventurers”.

In keeping with the theme, the room was even more amazing. The boys were welcomed by an adventure. They had to count the number of green lizards the fun carpet design had, and other challenges. Once they had the four answers, it turned out to be the secret code for the treasure chest where they got their welcome present of, you guessed it, LEGO!

The boys wanted to stay awake all night. They only agreed to go to bed after we mentioned the theme park was tomorrow.

We had buffet breakfast at the aptly named BRICKS restaurant. Not only was there an impressive assortment of food, there were life-sized LEGO waiters and the largest LEGO ice cream sundae you’ll ever see.

Once b’fast was done, the boys had some play time in the indoor castle of X-Boxes. Such great product placement.

The park itself seemed to be all ours, because it practically was. Resort guests can access the park 30 mins before official opening. In that time we figured out the lay of the land, and enjoyed the serenity; or was it the calm before the storm?

The rides were awesome. We had two days to make the most of it. And on Thursday, day one, we managed probably 97% of all the rides. The boy’s favourite was the park’s scariest roller coaster, the Dragon. I was surprised that Lewis braved with hardly any prompting. The Atlantis submarine was nice. The Laser Tag was especially good. For it, you seem to have a kilometre or two to walk, then you’re put into these cars which take you around different LEGO exhibits, not too dissimilar to the ‘It’s a small world afterall’ you get at Disney Land, except for one key difference. At this one, you have laser guns, which you use to shoot the various targets you spot on the way through. This ride was particularly fun for the photos they take of the participants in mid-action.

Owen was only allowed to go on a few rides. For the others, Elle and I took turns going with the bigger boys. And since we had a couple of days, the boys would go on the good ones again, where we’d switch the parent. It worked out well.

One thing I’d say which seemed unique to LEGOLAND compared to other parks I’ve visited, is the great majority of staff really seemed to love what they were doing. It didn’t just seem like a job to them. They were genuinely keen to ensure the boys were enjoying the place to the maximum. I got talking to a few of them while waiting, and on learning that we were from Dubai, one girl complimented me on speaking English so well for an Arab.

Our day two coincided with the public changing of the guards ceremony at Windsor Castle. It seemed to make sense that the sky would open up and rain while we were standing outside the castle without shelter. It was only a drizzle, and this was England afterall. After determining that the castle tour of 1.5 hours was too long for the kids’ patience, we had a short wait on the roadside opposite the castle, then we heard the marching band. They got closer, and once I caught a glimpse I couldn’t help but admire this old institution. The bands and guards marched like they had for nearly 1000 years. The huge semi-automatic rifles they now hold, showed the weaponry has certainly evolved a lot in that time.

We missed the LEGOLAND shuttle bus, so we took a London Taxi back, before having a few final hours in the park. The boys did what they missed on day one, such as the Digger Challenge. And they managed quite a few turns of the good stuff they already knew.

Like clockwork the Windsor Car was waiting to take us back to the airport. Then we checked in at a very busy Heathrow airport, and caught our flight home.

On the way back, Owen had a bit of a tanty before takeoff. We finally managed to settle him down, then he was fine for the rest of the flight. We were split up between a couple of rows, though we had the bassinet. So it was easily manageable.

We landed in Dubai and drove home in a cab. Once home, Lewis just had to ask if we could go to LEGOLAND again tomorrow.

I thoroughly recommend LEGOLAND for anyone with kids, even for just a short stay. It’s very achievable to get a lot done. It’s thoroughly worth it for the attention to detail, the passion of the staff, and the variety of rides and attractions. 😀

Flying home

Reading Time: 2 minutesOn a plane I always enjoy a window seat. I’ve never tired of that childhood excitement at seeing the takeoff, flying up into the clouds, and seeing the miniature scenery on the ground below. Flying out of Dubai at 10:25am is one of the most beautiful window seats possible. We flew around and (what looked) quite close to the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa. We were so close I felt like I could open one of the doors and throw a watermelon out and it’d get skewered onto the spire.

I also enjoy the ability to watch a movie, or three. This trip I watched the following:

    Moon Rider

What a peculiar documentary. It covers the rise and challenges of Danish cyclist Rasmussen Quad. It makes mention of the distance a professional cyclist covers thru training, which is roughly the distance to the moon – hence the movie’s title. The film began very dull. He appeared very uninteresting.
Typical of old footage, the colour was faded, with blemishes, and the effects were quite odd. Then I noted the documentary was covering events from 2010!
The soundtrack was mostly odd, drawn-out synthesizer music. It was so foreboding I felt at any moment in the story Rasmussen was going to arm up and kill everybody.
Another thing I couldn’t ignore was the race footage they showed. The riders were not microphoned, yet to add more drama, quite often there was loud, heavy breathing. I’m certain someone else added this during the film’s production. It successfully added to the creepiness. Then the story focused on the world championships in Rasmussen’s home country, Denmark. It showed the human element lovely, even introducing his girlfriend. I won’t give away the ending though it made the movie passable (spoiler alert: especially for an Australian cycling follower!)

    GI Joes: Retaliation

What a stupidly wonderful action movie. Non-stop adrenaline-soaked predictability. I rate it very highly – particularly with beer or rum.

    Hitchcock

What an amazing tale, and glimpse into the movie genius!

And then not too long later we’re less than an hour from Brisbane International Airport. What a scene. For some time there’s been a window of nothing but darkness with the odd spot of mining lights. Now the black silhouette of the landscape is capped by a rich, hearty orange of the burgeoning East coast sunrise, giving light to the still dark blue sky.
Hello Queensland, lovely to see you again.

Pet Holidays

Reading Time: 2 minutesRamadan has been and gone for another year.

It went relatively quickly for me.  My family returned home for four weeks – as the great majority of expats tend to do, to avoid Dubai’s summer assault. It was a smart move, the temperature was quite intense. I heard that Dubai had one day over the 50 degree mark.

Because of the standard need to have an extended holiday period, we’ve not bought any pets while here – apart from regularly replaceable gold fish.   We don’t like the idea of having to inconvenience and rely on others to feed them while away.

This doesn’t bother many people though. I was asked on a Thursday to feed a neighbor’s birds as he was leaving that evening. And the reason he suddenly became a pet owner without our knowledge is that his friend became a proud owner of a monkey (yes, monkey). The monkey-owner could no longer have other pets. So this Ramadan, we joined a bit of a domino effect of pet minding.

Once I agreed to feed the birds, I learned there were also two tanks of fish.

It sounded simple enough though. So I happily agreed.

And everything went well for a day or two. And then. The two angel fish died.

Oh no.

If that’s not bad enough, I think in that same tank one of the big gold fish looks a bit unwell.

I gave the two dead fish a proper burial, and sent them to the great toilet cistern in the sky.

The question now arises though. What do I do?

I was put in charge. I was entrusted to look after these fish. Killing them was not part of the deal!

My first thought was honesty is the best policy. I’ll wait for them to get back, then come clean that I killed their most beautiful of fish.

And then I had another idea, more around self-preservation and bad sit-com gag. Yes, angel fish look generic enough. Perhaps I could buy some new ones from the pet store around the corner. No one would notice the difference. Altho it sort of makes me wish I paid more attention to any identifying traits as they were laying in the bowl pre-flush.

The fish were dark brown. I have an inkling now they may have had light stripes also.

Either way, this kind of farce is not me.

Tonight’s the final night of animal feeding. The family return in the morning.

The body count so far is just two dead, once impressive, angel fish. Providing the two birds remain unscathed I think it’s an ok record. I fed them all as instructed. I’m hoping it’s not my fault. Although, the title of animal murderer is something that could be quite easily bandied about.

Providing there are no more casualties, I’ve decided I’ll write and leave a note from the angel fish. It’ll share that Ryan fed them perfectly well, they just decided to run away, and maybe join the circus. Or, as they’re called ‘angel fish’ perhaps they had a more heavenly calling – and Ryan wasn’t a killer, more of a facilitator.

Eid Mubarak.

And special celebrations to all the volunteer pet-sitters helping others while they’re off on holidays.

Hopefully tomorrow I won’t suffer a fate similar to the unfortunate angel fish.