#The Twins are back in Sydney!
Last day of school on 14th Nov 2024 where we head back for the penultimate time (prize-giving day, in anticipation to the final day on 20th Nov which would be release of the dreaded PSLE results! Yikes!)
With only 5 days to juggle with Daddy had planned for us to Scoot to Sydney to visit (after living in SYD for 2 years, we have actually not had the opportunity to go back until now) – so this would be our 1st trip back in 10 years! Whoa!
Believe it or not we’d actually not packed until getting home on Thursday afternoon, frantically chucking all our barang-barang into the suitcase (we only bought 1 check-in bag allowance of 20KG and managed to snag additional 5KG free) so that wasn’t very much after half of it was filled with stuff/gifts for friends.
Our flight was TR2 scheduled for departure at 230am which unfortunately got delayed by an hour plus; it wasn’t until almost 4 in the morning that we had wheels up. We tried to get some shut eye given there was no IFE. We did prebook 2 meals (Nasi Lemak and Ginger Chicken with Rice) to share amongst the four of us but unfortunately we were already stuffed (after visiting the Plaza Premium Lounge at T1 – using Daddy and Mummy’s Priority Pass/Dragon Pass respectively), plus we were just too dead tired. The food didn’t look so good either, so we just took the drinks and candy through the flight to keep us perked! And by the way Daddy was a little unwell in the tummy the whole trip…
Despite the announcement over PA reminding pax to take note of boarding their respective boarding sequence, overall it was a hugely messy exercise with priority-boarding free for all – almost like a frag-fest rampage! So much for priority boarding (more like hoarding!)!
Still awake and wide-eyed!
Kind-deed Mummy decided to bless an uncle seated in front of him with one of the meals we didn’t eat. We also gave away another meal. And no, for avoidance of doubt it wasn’t to Doc Brown lurking at the back!
No drama getting into Kingsford Smith Airport Sydney (FYI did you know there are still curfews enforced in some AU airport, with no flights allowed to arrive/leave AU between 11pm-6am). Thankfully for the free forward seats we were allocated we were able to get to the immigration counters fairly quickly and ahead of the rest (on the flights, and other flights). Can you imagine with flight-bunching, many other airlines arrive around the same time! We even requested to have our passports stamped with the Aussie arrival chop – not so easy these days with electronic clearance rolled out to most airports! There was also quite a wait for the bags at the carousel but we made up for good time after being waved through without any bag checks (oh we did miss seeing the cutesy beagles sniff our bags as we saw in Perth last trip!). Collected our car from Avis where daddy got a free upgrade to a swanky BMW X3 despite having booked the smallest category Suzuki swift given his Avis President membership (thank you #Amex), which was apparently the same car he got when he was there few months back in July!
Nice weather when we arrived. It was about a 45 min drive to Burwood, where we pretty much stayed at. Headed straight for Westfield and strolled K-Mart and Target before heading to Strathfield for Korean dinner with Gong Gong and Popo.
Day#1 – Koala Park Sanctuary – West Pennant Hills
Surprisingly the highlight wasn’t so much the Koala viewing and Kangaroo feeding, but our Cockatoo friend (checkout his funny antics!). He must have been craving much needed attention that he was trying to follow us when we were about to leave! He was always following us around and saying “Hello!”
#Throwback to 10years back at Featherdale Wildlife Park Sydney – easily an hour North-West from Burwood which we didnt have time to do this trip, hence the closer option of Koala Park at Pennant Hills (30mins away) where we still get to see Koalas and Kangaroo. Lookit those cutie pies, both with headgear and without!
Lunch at Pyrmont Fish Market! Daddy and Mummy’s go-to location for one-stop seafood each time!
Glorious seafood galore!
There was so much food there, and our favourite was the fish and chips!
We also ate takoyaki with bonito flakes. Mmmmmm!
Sydney Opera House!
In the middle of the road outside Aunty Luan’s house in Killara!
Dinner with Gong Gong Popo and Aunty Luan at Ipoh Hawker (what was previously Sambal). After dinner, while mummy and daddy went to shop at Coles, we baked Black Forest cupcakes with Popo. (Chocolate cupcakes with cherry filling, whipped cream and a cherry on top)🍫🧁🍒
Day#2 – Cornerstone Church Eastwood
Woolies at Marsfield after checking out our old house, look who we spotted!
Lunch at BBQ Wang at North Ryde – we had initially rendezvoused there in hopes to find an old Viet haunt we used to visit for rice paper rolls but found the new Korean joint instead which Daddy and Mummy said served even better food than Korea (yes they were in Seoul again just a week before SYD while we stayed home – thanks Gugu who stayed over with us during that time!). We all agreed that the food was excellent and wanted to go there again on Monday. However, little did we know that they would be closed on Monday. Boo-hoo, another hurrah another day!
We went to visit Rhodes Shopping Centre (lookit the playground we used to play at, Gugu says where only us Asian kids were the usual suspects frolicking around past 10 in the night when all other kids were already in bed by that time!) and then our house in SYD. Come to think about it, we really don’t remember anything much about our early life here though the waters seem to be a wee bit familiar now that Daddy mentioned he used to cycle around with us strapped in the back of the trailer!).
We were able to go in a take some photos – thanks to our gracious tenants!
Look at this blast from the past pic!
Peek-a-boo! OMG who are those little kiddos straddled at the back of the baby trailer?
Updated to recent year(s) [May 2019] – almost outgrowing the max weight supportable and working our old man really hard…
We managed to catch a game of mini-golf at Holey-Moley at North Strathfield.
Day#3 – More shopping (I was looking out for squishmallows)
Since it was daddy’s birthday and he was at work, we decided to surprise him by making a chocolate birthday cake with “magic” candles— they wouldn’t go out no matter how many times Daddy HUFFED and PUFFED. In the end, we had to use a wet towel to douse the flames.🔥
Day#4 – finally time for us to head back to take our results!
Again another delay wherein we arrived back at 4am (originally scheduled for 3am!) after almost another hour’s delay (seems to be a trend here on TR flights hmmm….).
We head back in for some shuteye and then it was back to school (again!) for the final time to collect our results!
OMG so amazing Praise the Lord!
Both didi and I achieved AL4 and Distinctions on Higher Chinese which means we will be headed to our dream schools!
YAY! AWESOME!!! WOOHOOO!!!
