On Top Of The World!

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday : New Camera!

I have had a brief absence from the world of blogging lately, although I've been checking in every now and then to read what you had all been up to! Things have been so busy lately, and I've just had a complete lack of motivation to sit down and actually write! But I'm hoping that I'll have a blogging resurgence and will be able to re-enter the World of Blogging with a vengeance.

However before I do that, I'm probably going to disappear for a couple of weeks.  Tomorrow Liam and I are off to the airport and we're heading to Malaysia.  We'll be starting in the East, heading to Kota Kinabalu.  We'll be climbing a mountain, adventuring a rainforest, getting on board a steam train, and heading to an island resort where we will do nothing but eat, sleep, drink tasty cocktails and bask in the sunshine! Then we're off to Kuala Lumpur for more food and drink, but also hopefully an immense amount of shopping to be done!

Rocket's missed the blog, and has told me to say hello to you all! And although I know this is a far from wordless post, he's dying to feature in yet another Wordless Wednesday!

 Ahh, time for bed!



WAIT. What's that? A new camera?!?!

Can I see? Pleeeeeeeease, can I seeeeeeeeeee?!

We got a new camera to take with us on our trip, so hopefully I'll have lots of killer holiday snaps to share once we get back! Hope all has been good with everyone, and I'm off to catch up on some of my favourite blogs! :)


Wordless Wednesday happens here, here, here and here!

Travel Diaries : Siem Reap Blast Off!

So where else to begin with my travel diaries than at the start? 

We arrived at Tullamarine airport, excited and full of anticipation for the trip ahead!

Of course, there were the usual routine and mundane things which needed to be taken care of before the fun could start!  We lined up for the check-in counter, and got our luggage checked on board without any issues.  We packed light for the trip there, so that we would have plenty of space leftover to shop our little hearts out while we were away!  Once that was over and done with, what else was left but to head to the airport pub for a celebratory pint?  That is Liam's tradition at every trip to the airport - a brewski at the Irish!  Mine is to grab a cheeseburger from good ol' Mac Ds.  Lucky the two are situated right next to each other.  How very convenient!

From there, we headed off for a browse in duty free.

Swarovski encrusted Bombay Sapphire gin, anyone? This bottle will only set you back a cool 4k.

Bargain!

From there, we headed through the departure gates.  Cue more routine and mundane necessities to get us through to the boarding gates.  The worst part about travel is all the checks you have to go through.  And the waiting time!

Waiting... waiting...

While waiting to board, we munched on this pricey yet surprisingly tasty curried chicken baguette.

It's an 8 hour flight from Melbourne to Malaysia, and we had approximately 4 hours stopover at KL airport before our connecting flight to Siem Reap.  My wonderful parents generously sacrificed their frequent flyer points to get us into the Malaysian Airlines Gold Lounge for the duration.

First things first, we're keen for a freshen up after the 8 hour flight.  We approach the showers, and a man behind the counter hands up a fresh white towel, with a little travel toothbrush/toothpaste and a little foldable hairbrush.  The showers are spacious, with a monsoon shower head in addition to the normal handheld.  Unfortunately, half way through my luxurious hot shower the water turns lukewarm so I scurry out feeling a little miffed, but a lot fresher!

We settle down on one of the many comfortable looking couches, before we explore what the lounge has to offer.  Soon enough, Liam discovers the best thing!

A self-service bar! 

There is a little section which has a full ice-bucket, slices of lemon, packets of peanuts, and also a fridge filled with any of the mixers you could hope for.  

Liam's first move is to mix himself up a gin & tonic.  Unfortunately, it is only 8am (or 6am local time!) and I can't quite stomach the thought of any alcohol just yet so I grab myself a grape soda from the fridge instead and focus my attention on the important part...

Self-service food!

There are baine maries filled with an array of hot food to choose from, different types of bread slices and rolls sitting next to a conveyor toaster, danishes and muffins, and stacks of clean white plates inviting you to help yourself.  

I start with nasi lemak.  Fluffy coconut rice, with an assortment of condiments to accompany it.  I choose a large spoonful of sambal, a few slices of crunchy fresh cucumber, half a boiled egg, peanuts, crispy fried ikan bilis, and although a little less traditional Malaysian, a couple of hash browns on the side.  

All washed down with a yummy chrysanthemum tea from the self-serve fridge! 

After food, this is how Cat passes time in the Gold Lounge while waiting for a flight.

Speaking of food...

We also gave the hot breakfast a crack, but unfortunately despite its appearance was mostly inedible.

Soon enough though, it was time to leave the lounge and head on another flight - Cambodia bound! 

Flying high, up in the clouds!

I remember on my brother's first ever flight, he was five years old and as the window shade slid open his eyes widened in absolute awe.  He sat in silence for a couple of moments, and then he slowly turned to face my mother as the following escaped his lips...

"Mum... are we in Heaven?  Am I dead?"

Instead of trying to explain the concept of flying, clouds and Heaven to a 5 year old child, mum opted to tell him that we were just visiting for a while.  She didn't have any answer to where God was hiding! 

I wonder if that has anything to do with why my little brother is such a strange individual.

Aaaaaaanyway! What would a flight be without the obligatory airplane food?

Selamat menjamu selera! Enjoy your meal! :)

We ate our meals, and watched our plane descend down through the clouds, exiting Heaven...

...and landed at Siem Reap airport!

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...

So long for now, Melbourne...

Cambodia and Malaysia - I hope you're ready for us! :)

We're leaving tomorrow on our long-awaited adventure! The above photos are all from  my previous trips, and I can't wait to be back in amongst the hustle and bustle of it again! 

Don't know whether I'll have time to post on here while I'm gone... but I'll have plenty of travel posts and photos to blog about when we get back in three weeks! 

Behave yourselves, and I'll see you on the flip side! xx

Camping : Part 2

We woke up to another beautifully warm and sunny day.  First things first, it was time for breakfast! 

And what says Sunday more than a lazy Sunday brunch? 

The boys set to work cooking snags, bacon, fried eggs and toasting the bread for our meal.  The beauty of camping is, much like a BBQ, it's the one of the rare times when it's macho for a man to be taking care of all the cooking.  G and I sat back and relaxed (yes, of course I was in the hammock!) while we waited for our food to be served.

We made a couple of new friends, who happily joined us for breakfast.

They stayed behind and held fort at camp while we headed off for another trip down the rapids!

Liam packed up the ute - strapping in the tubes, lilos and floaty devices and then laid down a tarp for us to sit on comfortably.  We all piled in the back of the ute, and set off down the road! 

This is the first time ever that he's allowed me to ride in the back of the ute. I attempted to do this once, on the way home from the shops.  He wouldn't unlock the door, so I yelled out "FINE, I'LL RIDE IN THE BACK!" and he replied with "FINE!" so I climbed into the tray.  He thought I was pretending, so he got into the driver's seat and began backing out of the parking spot.  As he reversed out, he looked back at me expecting me to be freaking out, but instead I smiled and waved. He promptly stopped the car, got out and demanded that I get into the passenger seat!

Yay for finally getting to ride in the tray! It was good fun, taking in the beautiful view, smelling the fresh country air and chattering away to my best friend.

This trip down the rapids I was a little more co-ordinated and only fell off my lilo once! And that was only because I was too busy blabbing away (typical!) to notice the big rock coming up right in front of me.  

We got back to camp, and decided we were enjoying floating too much.  Liam got a big rope, tied G's lilo and mine together, and anchored us onto a rock so we wouldn't float away downstream.  Then before heading off with Mark for another attempt at fishing, he placed a yummy blackcurrant cider into my hands.  Have I EVER mentioned how much I love that boy?!

By this time, most of the other families had left so we were uninterrupted out there.  It was so peaceful, just floating out in the middle of the river, drink in hand.  At one point, we even fell asleep! It was lovely, but I did have a few angry patches of red sunburnt skin to show for it.

The beautiful view from both directions... it didn't matter which way I floated off - it was win-win!

Liam came back from his fishing expedition, and LOOK! He'd caught a giant friendly killer whale!

I got back to camp to find that G had taken over my hammock! MY hammock, remember?! I think Mark and G spent a lot of the weekend waiting for me to get up from my seat so that the could pounce! Definitely  a very comfortable hammock.  (You can't tell I loved that hammock, or anything!)

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and soon enough it was time to pack up and go home.  It's hard to believe the how compact our home for the weekend can become... the boys took the tent down and shoved it into its tiny bag, and all that was left was the lonely little door mat :(

We're heading back up there with a few more friends for Liam's birthday, and I am already hanging out in anticipation! Not to mention our overseas trip which is coming up before then!

So tell me... where's your favourite camping spot?

Australia Day BBQ

For Liam, Australia Day is like his religious holiday.  It's the one day a year he looks forward to, and celebrates everything that he loves.  We decided to celebrate the day by inviting our friends to join us by the pool with beers, BBQ and Triple J's Hottest 100 - what could be more Australian than that?!

The last few events we've tried to organise have been cursed with dismal weather (read: thunderstorms) however it was our turn for a win, and we were blessed with sunshine and a lovely warm summer's day! Whilst I busied myself sorting out my nails (the important stuff, obviously!) Liam cleaned, swept, dusted, decorated and transformed our backyard.

Of course there were Australian flags! We put up large ones in the bar, in the bungalow, on the fence, and hanging off the hills hoist for good measure! I decided that my Essendon flag also needed to take pride of place in the bar too.  Liam, although being a massive Hawks supporter himself, humoured me and put it up as I asked.

More flags outside the bar area, and we brought the ratties outside to play!  As you can see, Rocket is keeping guard, and making sure his little pals are safe! We also had new covers for the two couches in the bar, but people seemed to use them more for storage space than anything! Since it was such nice weather, everyone opted to sit out in the yard to enjoy the sunshine! It was lovely... kind of like having a little picnic at home with our friends! :)

Liam was determined to have zinc! He was so excited to find green and yellow coloured zinc at the shops too! He had a ball, painting everyone's faces with Aussie-coloured stripes! Unfortunately for me, his godson got a hold of the zinc and I decided it would be a good idea to let him paint little wiggly lines down my leg.  Just a note for all of you - zinc does NOT come off easily, and may result in awkward little tan lines!

The pool got PLENTY of use! Boys being boys, were running around attacking each other and throwing everyone into the water.  Unfortunately, this resulted in a couple of phone deaths. RIP little phones.

Rocket loved joining in the festivities! But the excitement all got a bit too much for him! 

The next day, I totally understood how he felt.  I think most of our guests were feeling a little worse for wear but it was totally worth it!

I was not a huge fan of the top song of the Hottest 100 though! But then again, I've always been a little less into commercial music than the next person. I just don't understand the big hype over that song.  I mean, it's a good tune, but is it really THAT deserving? And it's been overplayed to death.

What are your thoughts?