Around the world in 21 days.....

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Hello all... Ang here with an update .. :-)

I cant believe its nearly 5 years since we moved out here to Perth.. and i cant believe its 3 years since i updated the blog! So much has happened but I guess that most of you are on facebook as our friends and know what we have been doing (working, working and growing the farm) however, I did promise a few people that I would do a full update of our recent travels along with photos and its much easier here than on FB..! So, after 4 years of house renovations, well nearly rebuilds rather than reno's and finally completing the 120 sqM of decking (2 years of hard work!) we eventually planned our long awaited trip away, booked 3 weeks off work, the house & animal sitter all arranged, and for those of you not on FB, we now have 23 Goats, 6 Alpaca, sorry make that 7, a baby was born Dec 28th.. didnt know we were expecting! 2 Pigs, 2 Emus, a Cat and 3 dogs (was 2 dogs at the time we went away- but bought another one on the Saturday we got home!) all our work projects finished or handed over for cover and cases packed and on the 24th November we started our long but very worthwhile holiday....










Singapore - 4 days 24th -28th Nov. A good start to the trip and not too long a flight either!. We stayed down at the Quays, nice hotel and central to most things. Ive not been to Singapore before, its clean, easy to get around but its expensive.. and not just the shopping.. eating out and drinking is overpriced too, but the Quays area itself is lovely and some good bars. We went over to Sentosa for the day, did the chair lifts across which were all done out in 'Angry Birds' decor and did the infamous Megazip - Fantastic zip ride down from the trees and over the beach... the thought of it was a little scary but once you get going from 70 metres up above the trees, its amazing.. MegaZip Adventure Park - Imbiah Lookout - Attractions - Sentosa

You might notice in some of the pictures that there is a Squirrel... thats Garry, one of the Bankwest mascots, he came everywhere with us! But he ended his trip in Vegas as the lovely lady in DKNY took a shine to him.. I was too engrosed in shopping and agreed she could keep him!

We visited Raffles hotel but unfortunatley the bar was closed and the historic hotel that was is now more of a shopping arcade for the wealthy.. Universal studios and the underwater world. The rest of the time inbetween sightseeing we spent shopping and chilling before the long flight to the UK..








UK - 4 Days - 28th Nov - Dec 2nd. Our flight from Singapore to Heathrow was slightly delayed, but was long enough to make us miss our connecting flight to Manchester... Neverless, Carli & Gav were there waiting (with Coffee!) when we finally arrived. Nothing much has changed in the UK, its the first time Oggy has been back since we moved to Perth and in his words "Its still grey and bleak" but it was our chance to have an early Christmas with all 3 kids, see our Mums & my ever expanding' family! The 4 days went quite quickly as we were busy between visiting Mums, sorting the kids cars out, taking the kids shopping.. spent a full day in the Trafford Centre and could have shopped more! Called to see The Haighs up at the farm, it was great to see David again, he never changes, and of course the lovely Livvy & Steve x

Thanks to Louise & Alex for meeting up with us for a drink or two in Barkisland, was great to see you again, I still cant understand why the man selling the Liquorice allsorts was trying to also sell cabbages??!

A huge thank you to all friends & family who came up to Carli's house on the Saturday night to see us off, was really good to get all the family together (and some of them slightly drunk) and a fab end to a special 4 days in the UK xx Love and miss you all.. A late night and an early start to our next leg of travels....

Sam & Sharon, I keep saying it but... get out to Oz soon and bring Mum...
















Washington DC - 4 days - 2nd - 6th Dec. Early flight from Manchester to Heathrow followed by a very pleasant flight to WDC.. this was my favourite place out of all of the trip, so many things to see, places to go... Stayed at Embassy row, Dupoint Circle, central to travel and W DC is a very fascinating place, loads of history, beautiful buildings and monuments and all the museums are free. The only downside was that nothing opened until 10-11am and as usual, wide awake at 6 ish... thank god Starbucks was 24hrs :-) Found a 'Real' hamburger diner in the shopping mall - great burger and the jukebox was banging out all the 60's hits too! We walked into Georgetown one (early) morning, the houses are very 'american'.. terraced houses of all colours all decked with Christmas flowers, very quaint.. Georgetown was 'Closed' but luckily we found a cafe for breakfast and then jumped in a taxi to Alexandria, where there is a lovely marina and the famous 'Fish Market' restaurant, known to Oggy's RAF mates as 'The best (or only) Clam chowder place in WDC'.. and it was! Another old haunt of the RAF days... Sign of the Whale... was fairly quiet, but it was a Tuesday night.. a couple of drinks at the bar and watching the Washington Redskins game ! Luckily they won as I had just bought a Redskins shirt that day!

The Smithsonion is littered with things to do, The (Abraham) Lincoln Memorial, which is awesome to see, Pearl Harbour (& WW2) monument, Capitol Hill, Natural history museum, Space museum... interesting to see the dinasours and having flashbacks of Night in the Museum! Apollo 11, Space shuttle, Breitling and so many early aircraft - well worth a visit if you ever get the chance to go..

Arlington Cemetry... when you see this in films, it looks like a hill with row upon row of white headstones, but when you get there, that 'hill' goes on for miles & miles...so many armed forces men & women laid to rest in a beautiful place, it gave me goosebumps all the way through. JFK is also buried there and they have an eternal flame where he and his family are buried. Whilst we were walking the many miles of Arlington, we were fortunate to see a full military funeral, horse drawn carriage and full 21 gun salute, a very dignified send off for a soldier.

The tomb of the unknown soldier is known worldwide, a huge monument paying respect to those unnamed.. The changing of the guard took place at the tomb while we were there, again, a very dignified and respectful ceremony.









New York - 2 days - 6th - 8th Dec. New York City...what can I say? Dirty, wet, smelly, loud, brash, loud, bright, traffic, loud, expensive, cheap, loud, steamy, icy, welcoming, a rip off, a con, fascinating and again, loud.. NYC WAS amazing..

With all of the above and apart from feeling like we filmed Hangover 3 (keep reading..) we loved it! Starting from the beginning.....

Caught the train from Washington Central up to New York and what a fantastic train ride.. 2.5 hrs of nothing much other than country... Travelled through Dellaware and Phillidelphia and there was a 'Buffet' cart at the back serving Coffee & Hot dogs - Very american! About halfway there we had a problem with the train and we had to stop in some one horse town station for around 15 mins, other than that it was a very smooth ride up to NYC.. And then we arrived at NY station.. it was like something from a horror movie, wires hanging down, dirty, water running down the walls, nasty smells and small walkways... you wouldnt believe when you get to the surface (with 2 suitcases & backpacks..) that you come out to the very noisy and packed Madison Sq Gardens.. Yellow taxis everywhere and the noise was unbelievable... NY is one VERY busy city. In 2 days that we had there we started the day with a walk through Central Park, a serious amount of Doggy petting - it was like a coffee morning for dogs on every corner.. We walked down Maddison admiring all the big label shops and did do some shopping too!

We walked the whole of Broadway & 5th, including me buying my Christian Louboutin's @ Saks on 5th Ave, a great start to the day! We caught the ferry out and around the Hudson to see the Statue of Liberty, Underground to Ground Zero, but didnt go into the memorial garden as you have to buy a pass and go in with a tour guide and lots of 'clicking' cameras.. just didnt think it was right to have to pay to see the memorial gardens.. so we walked along a elevated walkway through to one of the buildings in the financial district and saw the site where the new world trade centre is being built.. The Empire state building doesnt look as big against the NY skyline as it does in films, but impressive all the same. Times Square, WOW, Bright, noisy, packed, noisy and more packed.. every corner there is someone asking for money, too busy for a country girl like me..! And it rained the whole day............

On our last night in NY, we walked into the Hells Kitchen quarter with the intent of dining at one of the best known restaurants in NY HK.. The restaurant is called 'Becco' it is recommended that one books for dinner at such a popular place... We entered around 6.30pm and were greeted by a rather 'nice' guy and asked for a table for 2, he asked if we had a booking and when we said No, he looked at us, looked into the packed to the rafters restaurant and apologised.. after saying we will wait as its our last night in NY and we were sooo looking forward to eating there after reading all the reviews, he said OK but you may have to wait 1.5 hours? OK, lets wait at the bar then.... It certainly was worth the wait - If you are in NY check it out becco-nyc.com you will not be disappointed, but maybe wise to book!

That was the start of a very long, funny last night in New York City... Just like the Hangover films, it was all vague the day after with some flashbacks, but ill do my best to recall it all...

Wine by the glass @ Becco is $18 or the bottle is $26, we started with a bottle as we waited by the bar, not sat at the bar as it was packed, but sat on tiny 'Elf' stools in the walkway between the bar and the tables with the waiters carrying the large trays of food right past us.. the smells were incredible and making me even hungrier! Out of nowhere 'Nanette' (think mid 50's) squeezed in on an Elf stool next to us, she was on her way to a show and had a table booked for 7pm, she was a Personal trainer and Pilates teacher and had obviously been 'out' for a while and was slightly worse for wear.. pleasant all the same and after telling me, several times, how lovely I was and as it was now 7.30 Nanette had not got her table for dinner, she decided to scurry off to her show on Broadway.

After nearly 2 hours and a 2nd bottle of wine, we were called to a table and started to look over the menu.. As we were deciding what to have (drooling at this point) 2 women and a man sat down at the table next to us and asked if we minded if they 'joined in' And so our night began... There was Suzy, an irish redhead (lion hair) with very pale skin and a broad NY/Philly accent that looked just like a typical NYPD woman from a film, her friend Michelle from Atlanta, told us that she was recentley divorced by her hubby who was 10 years younger than her and should never have married him.. Michelle had been waiting for Suzy to arrive in NY to meet her and had been at the drink since 12 noon, very drunk and very funny.. Then there was Michael or 'Father Christmas' as we called him.. white hair & beard, round rosy cheeks...native New Yorker, a lovely man..He didnt know Suzy or Michelle until he decided to go to his favourite restaurant for a 'quiet' birthday meal as his wife was at home ill. He was waiting at the bar for his table, having a quiet drink for his 66th birthday when the 2 local party animals joined him for a birthday drink... bless him, he wasnt going to have a quiet meal or a quiet night!

Dinner was amazing, 3 different types and flavours of pasta, tastes like I have never had before and it just kept coming, delicious. Oggys rather large steak meal was in Oggys words ' The best food I have ever tasted (and brought back up)

We must have been dining and chatting for a couple of hours (its a little vague after the 2 bottles of wine and then onto Jack & Cokes and not to mention the very expensive bottle of Dessert wine that Suzy bought) before Suzy & Michelle decided we were all going to Paddy's bar to celebrate Michael's birthday with a few more drinks and a rattle of the singing chords.. The birthday boy had mentioned going home at least 3 times as we walked to the Irish bar, but was the first one in the door. The bouncer at 'Paddy's bar' was a big black menacing french fella with an equally big black menacing furry hat but what a nice guy.. we had a good laugh with him when we nipped outside the door for a smoke! Inside Paddy's bar there was a guy with a guitar singing away and he did requests, I am sure he regretted saying that out loud after Michelle requested 'take me home country road' and acquired his microphone and started singing and dancing to 'her' song in a falling about sort of way.. by this time we had been joined by a couple of french guys, one of them looked just like the guy from the film 'The Pianist' and the other was a quiet character, slightly shady looking too.. and as we found out when we went outside for a smoke with the bouncer, the 'quiet' french guy was offering drugs around.. cocaine, ectasy.. he was a real creep. Back inside we got Michael up singing Irish rover' and i was pushed stage centre to help him out as he didnt really know the words.. Suzy was (after being prompted by Oggy) doing an impersionation of the lion from Wizard of Oz ..'Put em up' stance.. funny as.. Oggy was also 'requested' to sing by Michelle but I cant for the life in me remember what it was! After a few hours of singing and watching Michelle move in on 'The Pianist' guy and as Michael headed home to Mrs Christmas after his 'quiet meal out' We somehow got to pick up the bar tab for the lot... and started our long walk back to our Hotel in the rain, from Hells Kitchen Quarter right up to West Central Park. We got in about 2.30am drenched to the bone......and had to be up at 5.30 to catch our flight to Vegas... Rough as a badgers arse..........









Las Vegas - 5 days - 8th - 12th Dec. Stayed at Planet Hollywood this time in Vegas, great hotel and the tables were quite lucky too ;-) Well, Vegas is Vegas isnt it? Its the same night after night, great shopping in every hotel and lots of great mall's. This time we saw 2 Cirque Du Soleil shows 'Zarkana' which was about a deserted and enchanted theatre, great acrobatics and stage sets but just didnt get the story... not as good as the others we have seen but there is never a bad Cirque show... unless youve seen 'Zumanity' the raunchier side to Cirque Du Soleil, mild nudity and language.. I thought it was ok, entertaining, different and definatley a different side to the usual 'art' shows.. (Oggy didnt agree and wasn't impressed with all the tiny boobs) great acrobatics and skills and slighty ruined by overuse of the 'F' word by the couple who were getting people up from the audience (Thank god we didnt sit at the front) A good laugh all the same.

We visited the Cowboy Christmas convention again, more saddles than the lone ranger.. it was the same as last time.. we shopped even more and by the end of the 5 days we were there, our cases were both 7 kilo's over, not including the packed hand-luggage - I had bought a 'small' carry on case and new backback and we had enough luggage for a small family..

As I said earlier, the tables were good to us, we broke even most nights and the night before we were leaving Oggy won over $1000 on a hand!

We left Vegas Wednesday 12th Dec late afternoon for LA and the start of a long journey home... 14 hrs to Sydney and then 4hrs to Perth, finally arriving home on Friday 14th Dec.. shattered and cramped from the flights, but Home all the same. It was a great holiday, Singapore was OK, fab time and early Christmas with the kids & family, Loved DC, NYC? Loved it but not somewhere I would rush back to, and Vegas, well as i said, Vegas is Vegas and I think we have 'done' Vegas..

I hope you all had a great Christmas and wish you all a very Happy New Year from here down under xx

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Photos

Decking, well one 1/2 of it...
This is near complete, the spa arrived in late September and sits very nicely in the Gazebo.. Theres another part of the decking, just as big that goes around the front too..!

The 3 sisters
My lovely big sis & 'other' big sis xx Love ya girls...
I really needed to wash my hair!!!

Madison Sq Gardens
Our entrance to NYC..

The Luggage to lump home
And Ang was wearing jeans, t shirt, jumper, boots and a Faux fur coat to save room!

@ The Theatre !
Cirque show (Zakana)