Things of miniature importance

With only six more weeks of this adventure remaining, the MOTH and I have begun to think there are alterative ways of approaching our days... perhaps that should read, after spending close to three months travelling with three small people, the MOTH and I have come to the conclusion there could be better ways of doing things...

It's no huge revelation that small people have ways of telling you things are not working for them. When you are travelling, or visiting amazing tourist attractions, some of their ways of telling you aren't always ideal. Miss K has had a few major meltdowns when crowds and tiredness get the better of her. Master A's meltdowns can be loud and furious when staying in small-spaces with other people. Master T generally seems to spit the dummy when we're driving long distances.


Spain seems to have been a bit of a turning point so far. This may be for a number of reasons (mainly to do with the MOTH and myself).

1. Having lived in Spain for about a year and a half in total, there's a sense of familiarity for me. The supermarket shelves are crammed with good stuff to eat, the language is beautiful and I can understand the signs.
2. The MOTH and I both speak the language with relative ease.
3. I've mentioned food, but loving Spanish food and knowing what stuff to cook and how to cook it makes for happy tummies and happy family.
4. The house we're in is enormous and we feel like we are on holiday (even though I'm still working).
5. It's just us (and not just us in a small hotel room) - while we loved being with other people, we love having some space to just be ourselves too.
6. We have reverted to our NZ time routines (in general) - no 9 pm dinners for us (yet).
7. It's sunny and warm.

This bodes well for reflecting on why some things might not be going so well and what we could do better. We realised a few things:

What do you mean another attraction?

• Miss K pointed out that we do too much 'stuff' in a day. The MOTH and I thought we were doing one thing a day (with down days scheduled in where possible)... but the last six days involved eating out (often at three different locations), different beds, sight seeing of some monument or attraction and a long drive, not to mention different language, different scenery and different food. Lots of stuff. We need to slow down.

• Quite often the small people were taken to see sights that they didn't really know or understand because we (the MOTH and I) had some peculiar sense of urgency that since we were somewhere (London, Paris), we had to see something (Big Ben, the Eifel Tower). We've spent some time talking about this - who says we have to do X just because we are in Y? We can do something completely different and it's ok, because then it's our adventure in Y.

• We needed to help give our small people context for what they were doing and create some familiarity about it. This is why we think Zunda Mochi is significant to our children - they went twice to the Sendai Castle where they experienced this. It was familiar and had meaning. This is not to say we have to do everything twice, but to prepare/think about/ engage and involve our wee people more for activities (like the Dali Museum).

•   This is our family's trip and all members should be involved in discussing and choosing what we do with our time while somewhere.

SO....

Yesterday I provided the children with ideas for different things that we could do in Barcelona (if they were older they could look up things themselves). Some of them were famous sites (Gaudi's Sagrada Familia for example) and some were less known. We read the information online and saw some short clips. We had four days left in Barcelona; I booked the Saturday for a nearby market, the rest were open.

One of the attractions I had stumbled across was Catalunya in Miniature - dozens of attractions of the region in one space in miniature, complete with model trains - the children elected this as their first choice because they could see lots of the stuff in one place and think about maybe going to see some of them for real. I put Tarragona on the table - that got pushed off in favour of Guell Park - maybe on Thursday or Friday, depending on how we feel. Or maybe La Rambla...

And the MOTH and I - we're all ok with that.

So here's our adventure of Catalunya in Miniature in photos - a little pricey (cheaper to buy online), and having a car to get to it is an advantage, but our three enjoyed three hours here... and I have to say, I liked it too!

WOW it's in miniature and there's a train!

We didn't even have to queue to see this!
 

The boys love the train

And it's Zunda Mochi from us in Barcelona!

 Akira's question of the week:  Why didn't Dali make or paint any trains? :-)

From museums to madness and the mundane in between

Tired. But still wanting to share. Resorting to lists today.

Things we've done this week that we've loved

• Disneyland
• Ueno Koen (park)
• For it's fun outdoor play ground

• For the somewhat tired and dated slot machine rides

• Natural History Museum (Ueno)
• Incredible interactive displays over 5 floors, and an informative Japanese section
• Friendly and engaging volunteers who were wonderful with the children
• 360 degree theatre show of dinosaurs and the deep sea
• Required two days to visit (with the children's enthusiastic consent!)

• Shopping at Uniqlo
• Updating our tired travelling clothes and replacing lost items
• So shopping there again, clothes that actually fit me!
• Japanese in public so stylish. Kiwi travelling family of 5 somewhat shabby, but not now!
• 8th story restaurant in Shinjuku next to Uniqlo
• Fantastic food

• Awesome view of trains (kept Master T and Master A 100% amused)

• Y2500 discount from free vouchers from Uniqlo for our big spend up!

• Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi (near Harajuku)
• Well, the MOTH and I loved this. So serene. Children not so serene.

• Commemoration of 100 years since the Empress' passing - amazing displays of Japanese History (Miss K enjoyed this).
• Dancing with Earthday group (Miss K and I)

• Kiddyland in Harajuku
• Five stories of everything kawaii (cute) you can imagine.
• Despite being absolutely crowded, the children were intrigued with all the characters and want to go back!

Things we've learnt:

• Catch trains between 9:30am and 4pm (before 5pm) in Tokyo
• Eat dinner in (so little people aren't exhausted on crowded trains post 6pm)
• Get early nights
• Say yes more and go slow
• Crowds make everyone tired
• Changeable weather (we've gone from short sleeves to merinos over one week) can make people temperamental
• Paper and pens are fantastic entertainment
• Work as a team
• Even when being together as a family, each child needs their own time and attention with Mum and Dad.
• Children are incredibly resourceful when it comes to play. Kids have been using giant bags of nappies as 'trains' and rearranging our meagre furniture for other games.
• Takeshita street in Harajuku is very crowded on Sunday!(Not my photo, but this is pretty much what it looked like. I was too overwhelmed to dare let go of a child's hand and photograph anything down this road!)

Japan reminds me to be grateful for:

• Space
• Our own rooms, gardens and a ground level washing line back home

Our washing line outside Miss K and Master A's room. That's an air-conditioning unit to the left.

• We think so many people go out in the weekends because it's too cramped to stay home
• My own kitchen
• There are certain challenges to cooking with minimal utensils, not to mention bench space (behind the boys, you can see how much bench space I have to work with - that includes a two element gas stove (of which only one works), and an oversized sink.

Our kitchen. The boys made a train!

• Having visited Japan on my own
• Travelling on your own in Japan, there is so much more freedom and ease to access stores, tourist sights and transport.
• Travelling with children is much harder. But it's wonderful to share my memories and joys with them and to see them respond to the newness, strangeness and excitement that is Japan.

More stuff we've lost

• Miss K's polar fleece
• Master A's polar fleece
• My sunglasses
• Am also sure some elements of sanity starting to erode...

But we're still smiling!

Terrific Trains, Dashing Dingoes and Lingering Lurgies

Melbourne. We made it on Monday afternoon. Kudos to the MOTH for driving that hulk of a campervan all the way into Melbourne. More Kudos to him for managing to get one day's free rental out of Britz (after some pressure on his part; they were not forthcoming in offering it).

Campervan space

The space we're staying in
Our first day in Melbourne was one of enforced rest (for me and the kids - I had a migraine and my intention of going to the Victoria Market for produce was foiled) while MOTH went off to file a police report for the missing money belt, get a NavMan and groceries. The kids spread out and enjoyed our two bedroom villa in Essendon; a contrast to their space in the campervan (note the photos showing them playing in the area that converted to the MOTH & my bed, and our new - proper- sleeping space).

Essendon space

 We've opted mainly for self-catering options on this journey, this makes meal times much cheaper, although if you are considering doing self-catering on a long international journey, start collecting salt and pepper sachets from cafes (sugar too if you need that) and soya sauce from the sushi cartons. I'm finding cooking without flavourings and fridge fixing (and my thermo-mix) somewhat challenging and it's quite difficult to purchase small amounts that will suffice for between one to three weeks. Jars of herbs and spices are not exactly ideal for transporting around the world in your luggage.

Self-contained accommodation also means no shared bathrooms, privacy, in some cases space to run around, and a chance to try out the suburbs. The downside is that hiring a car is necessary (and dragging car seats about), but with five of us, it generally works out cheaper than all taking public transport.

In Melbourne, we have wonderful friends that have kindly lent us their Toyota Yaris (another contrast to the campervan), which is fantastic. The MOTH has managed to get a botty-vomitty lurgy, which is not. The MOTH has convalesced all day in bed (dispelling any plans of a market visit again today), but before the bug really set in we managed two days of magic.

Terrific Trains

Master A drives a train at Trainworks

Trains are somewhat of a theme for us, spurred on by Master A's passion for all things rail. Trainworks (1.5 hours south of Sydney- mentioned in a previous post) was a world class museum of trains and well worth the visit on that campervan rumble down to Melbourne.




This Wednesday, we drove out of Melbourne to ride Puffing Billy - a steam engine with open air carriages and permission to dangle one's legs over the side. It takes about an hour to drive to Belgrave (Puffing Billy's departure station), and almost double that coming back in peak traffic - but the ride all the way to and from Gembrook was worth it, not to mention the dinner, another pair of friends whipped for us that night too :-)

Akira pretends we're going faster than 24km/ph

Dashing Dingoes
Wildlife and conservation also figure strongly in our family's travel activities. Featherdale in Sydney was great, but Healesville, about an hour out of Melbourne, is absolutely breath taking. Paying tribute to the Aborigine caretakers of the land, the santcuary is a blend of Aborigine creation stories, conservation messages and stunning Australian wildlife in a relaxed setting. The crowning highlight was the 'wildlife encounter' they offer.

At AU$12pp for a 10 minute encounter (children under 8 have to be supervised by a paying adult), the MOTH initially was a bit sceptical , when he booked for an echidna encounter. Ms Echidna was not co-operative in coming out to see us (mainly because the 31C heat we encountered on our arrival to Melbourne has dropped to about 20Cand she was cold ). We chose the dingo over a refund - all proceeds go to helping save the wildlife.

Originally named Tingo by the Aborigine (and misheard by the settlers...), these are beautiful cousins of the wolf. Our encounter allowed us to enter their enclosure with the ranger, touch and be photographed with the animals. At the same time we learnt a great deal about the plight of the dingo - it is anticipated that they will be extinct in ten to fifteen years due to in-breeding, and we heard many positive stories about them.

 Healesville will probably, most definitely, make our Top Ten.

Mother Musings -a list of random thoughts...
Things I'm glad I packed

The Mum who muses...

• Lavender oil - great for sore tums, disinfecting, relaxing baths
• imodeum (for obvious reasons)
• spare microfiber face cloths
• spare towels
• antibacterial wet wipes
• hand sanitizer
• cool-store lunch bag, extra zip lock bags and small plastic containers

Things I wish I had packed - but thankfully we can purchase

• Tea towels
• a few more pairs of socks
• scissors (I did pack some, but they've disappeared)
• salt, pepper and soya sauce sachets

Things we've lost so far

• Money belt
• MOTH's shower gel (at a camping ground)
• Master A and Miss K's pjs (one set)
• One of Master T's shoes (at Healesville - there's probably a wombat wearing it)
• scissors
• a piece of a magnetic puzzle which now renders it useless
• several coloured pencils

To date, children and sanity have not yet been lost (almost but not quite - sanity, not children).

Quiet day today. Visited local park, walked to shops, found Australian animal stickers and sensational patisserie. Nice just to wander around. Hoping the MOTH is mended tomorrow and that I can get to at least one market before we leave Australia on Monday!