A trip to Australia - Canberra (I)

We had a family wedding to attend on the 1st of November - Uncle James and Aunty Clare were tying the knot in Canberra, Australia so we organised to spend some additional time in Australia, except for Brett who was only able to spend a week in Australia before heading back to China to work.

Brett picked up Alex from school at lunchtime - a novelty for her - and they collected Sebastien, me and the luggage from our apartment on the way to the airport. We're still working out the best way to take to get to the airport from our apartment - except we knew that our taxi driver was taking us "the long way around" this time, aka "the scenic route" - on the round island road. At double the price, this won't happen again as we've worked out the things to say to get us on the right roads there.

We were flying via Hong Kong and had several hours to kill in the Hong Kong airport which was easier said than done as it was right at dinner/bed time when we were there and we were totally out of routine. In any case, we had been totally thrown when, upon arrival at Hong Kong airport we went to collect Sebastien's paper ticket (lap infants are the only ones, and only on certain airlines, that require a paper rather than electronic ticket), only to be asked where his visa was to get into Australia. Hmmm, he's an Australian citizen and granted, he is traveling on an american passport because we had run out of time to apply for an australian one, but really - he needed a visa? News to us and we were flummoxed. We're partway through our trip to Australia and we find this out - and where do we obtain such a thing when we're in transit? They rang someone in the airport and around 15 minutes later he had an "electronic" visa in his american passport - at no charge. Whew.

Our flight from Hong Kong was an overnight one - though you try telling that to two excited kids! They were given special kids bags with all sorts of goodies in them and Alex wanted her headset on pronto. Thank goodness for children's tv and the Wiggles! Alex loves planes and told us on taking off that the vibrations of the plane were tickling her. And she definitely has a taste for speed, calling out on takeoff "faster and faster and faster and faster and - wheeeee! We're going Mummy!" But in the end they must sleep - if only for a little while. Sebastien is already too big to be really comfortable in the plane bassinet. If I had him he wanted to nurse and was annoying other passengers with his whinging so Daddy to the rescue:
Thank goodness for four seats!

After a mere 9 hour flight we landed in Sydney and were met by Aunty Chelle, Grandie and Poppie - what excitement there was! Grandie and Poppie were lending us a car for our stay in Australia which helped out a lot on our travels. We crammed the luggage (including a double stroller) into the two cars and drove the 3 hours to Canberra. Then it was time to settle in to Aunty Chelle and Uncle B's house - a house full of fun and adventure:

A toy box with dressups - and family members to dress you appropriately (thanks Grandie and Aunty Chelle).
An arcade machine with many games on it - and family members to teach us the tactics (thanks Uncle Pip and Uncle B).
Did I mention dogs? Bruce and Anika kindly let the kids have the run of the house whilst they stayed outside - though the kids wanted to join them at every opportunity. Aunty Chelle even had a box that was promptly turned into Alex's own private kennel.


Grandparents-in-laws with no experience of granddaughters pouring them tea from a "silver" service.
Sebastien fell asleep on just about everyone - Uncle B's reward for babysitting :)And Grandie got some sleeping baby action too.But the main event was the wedding - and paking in as many Aussie BBQs as possible in a week for Daddy who would be returning to Xiamen at the end of the week