Zoe’s House

We were watching Play School on ABC TV the other day with Andrew and Hannah when we saw a play place featuring a construction zone labelled Zoe’s House.  The children were playing with foam bricks, wearing hard hats, safety vests, operating cranes and having a ball. Tracy and I jumped onto the internet and discovered that Zoe’s House is part of the Powerhouse Museum. Off Tracy went to find vouchers and got hold of a 20% off general admission.  We were even contemplating on paying $105 for the membership so that we could get unlimited entry for the year.  We packed the kids into the car and went to play at Zoe’s House on Sunday. Upon purchasing the tickets, I casually asked if there were any special offers or discounts for NSW DET teachers. To our surprise teachers get in for FREE. We will now be making more trips to Powerhouse Museum

Both Andrew and Hannah had a great time. There were so many hands on activities from Zoe’s House to steam engines exhibits and trying to get on an old bicycle (penny-farthing). In the 3 hours that we were there, we only saw about a third of the exhibits. If you have not been to the Powerhouse Museum it is a must. If you are a teacher and you have not been then there are no excuses! Click here for the gallery.

A day out in the City

Start of the school holidays. Again, I hear people cry out! We had the chance to spend the day with friends out in the city. Andrew and Hannah + 3 other children made an interesting day. We spent most of the time in Darling Harbour and me taking photos of the kids. A quick stop at Myer saw us look at Christmas decorations in the store and it is just the start of October. We were invited to dinner at their house in the evening. The children all had a great time and at times it was like being at school running a class. I was amazed in the way that the kids interacted with one another, they interacted without much thought and they just wanted to be kids having fun. The freedom that they showed was awesome and to be enjoyed. Here is the photo gallery.

Floriade

Last Saturday we took a trip to the Floriade in Canberra. The 3 hour drive was not bad and the kids were sleeping most of the time there and the late return back. I got to take photos of the flowers and of the kids. Flower photos and the photos of the kids are here. Or take a look at my website http://chungerz.com and follow the links in the photography gallery menu.

While we were in Canberra, we had dinner at Kingsleys and yummy chocolate desserts at Koko Black. The links above show how my Hannah just loves chocolates and how quickly she gobbled everything in front of her. Both the dinner and desserts were amazing! I also found an interesting way to advertise, Jonathan David Photography left some of his business cards in the store.

Kossie, Kossie, Kossie – Oi, Oi, hwwwa!

At school we ran a multicultural day, a day to celebrate and acknowledge the vast different cultures in the school. I decided that Andrew and Hannah would come dressed in Korean national costume. I wanted to also recognise that they are, very much, living in an aussie way. What better way to dress than in a pair of thongs and sunnies! So I present to you my Kossie (Korean-Aussie) children.

Sydney Tower

We took the kids to dine at Sydney Tower Restaurant for a view of Sydney from up high.  We were surprised to see the bottom floors of Sydney Tower being renovated.  Apparently the renovations started early this year and will take 2 years to complete!  The shops have all been relocated temporarily.  This must be a major upgrade.  It will look similar to the Westfield in Bondi Junction.

The lift to go up to the restaurant is a one minute journey.  There are multiple sets of lifts, but each lift door consists of 2 lifts stacked on top of each other.  A video camera and a screen are mounted so that you can see inside the lift above/below.  On the way up, there was no one below us, just an empty lift.  On the way down, Andrew and Hannah had fun waving to strangers.

As it’s a revolving restaurant, the outer part where the seats are revolves around and you get a good view.  Luckily, by the time we were up there, the rain had stopped and the sky cleared!  We helped ourselves to the food.  The format of the restaurant has changed since the last time I went (many years ago) and now it’s just self service.  The food was mediocre, but it’s the magnificent view that is the attraction point, I suppose.   The kids were not the least bit afraid of the height, even though our table was by the floor to ceiling window! 

Our return journey

8th May Friday

We rested up for our return flight home so stayed indoors all day (for the first time in 4 weeks!).  We said our goodbyes in the late afternoon.  The drive to the airport was much better than anticipated, you can never predict LA commute traffic, so it was better to be early.  We returned the car to Inglewood and took a shuttle back to the airport.  LA airport was very basic and old.  We were surprised by this as it’s one of the busiest airports in the world, so we expected more.

We boarded QF12, the new A380, at 10pm.  We strapped Hannah’s car seat on and before long, we were ready to take off.  The seats on A380 felt tighter than the 747 that we came on.  Andrew and Hannah were quite tired and since it was a late evening flight, they were able to sleep a bit more this time around.  The return journey was reasonably smooth.  But with the swine flu, we had to fill in an extra form about our health and where we’d been.  Once we landed at 6.30am, we were told that the plane had to be quarantined as some passengers on board were showing signs of the swine flu.  We were a bit concerned about this.  Fortunately, the quarantine process was quick.

After we got off the plane on our way to the customs, we were stopped by an airport/airlines worker who was pushing an elderly Chinese woman in a wheelchair.  They could not communicate with each other, but the airport staff needed to find out if the Chinese passenger had completed the necessary customs forms.  Once I interpreted for them, the elderly woman told me to tell the airport staff that she had to go to buy duty free cigarettes!  Talk about priorities!

We were greeted outside.  Funnily enough, Andrew asked for Belinda first!  We went home and took a nap.  We had a wonderful trip, but there’s nothing like home.  We were happy to be sleeping in our own bed.  Johnny and I will never forget the great times we had from this trip and treasure it fondly.

Las Vegas

5th, 6th, 7th May Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

We drove from LA to Las Vegas on Tuesday morning arrving 5 hours later.  The temperature went from early to mid 20s to 35 degrees.   It felt like 40 degrees!  Even though it was a Tuesday, typically a quiet day of the week, there were people everywhere.  The grandeur of Las Vegas was impressive.

We checked into Excalibur, an English medieval themed castle.  Upon arrival, we were swamped by shows tickets people.  We hardly had enough time to see the sights! We only managed to see the bigger establishments on the Strip.  Each hotel/casino has an attraction point.  New York – New York replicates the famous Big Apple landmarks along with a roller coaster.  Luxor is shaped as a pyramid guarded by a giant sphinx!  MGM Grand has a lion habitat.  Bellagio has a magnificent dancing water fountain (we thought that the casino there was the grandest of all.  The shops were high end.  We’d love to stay there next time!).  Paris has a replica of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe.  Caesars Palace has a massive shopping centre with upmarket designer labels.  Mirage has its dolphin habitat.  Treasure Island has a pirate ship ride.  Circus Circus has its circus acts.  The Venetian is absolutely gorgeous with its canals and gondolas.  You choose to ride on the gondolas inside (yes, they built a canal inside their own shopping complex) or outside the hotel.  It’s stunning.  We were disappointed not to have enough time to go on a gondola.  I guess we now have an excuse to go back to Las Vegas.

At Excalibur, we were given vouchers for the kids to play games in the kids’ gaming area (much like our Time Zone type games arcade).  Andrew and Hannah had a go at a game where you throw a ball into some cups.  Hannah could barely throw it far enough, but by fluke, her ball landed in a coloured cup which meant she was a winner.  That got her a big prize of a teddy bear.  We have since named it Excalibur!

I don’t think we will bring Andrew and Hannah back to Vegas.  They were young enough on this trip to be oblivious to things that went on in that city, any order might blemish their innocence.  Nevertheless, this was a good age to take kids there, if there ever is a good age for kids!

Universal Studios

4th May Monday

Today we visited the final theme park that we’d planned for – Universal Studios.  As we were getting out of the car, Andrew started throwing up, in the car!  We cleaned up what we could and rushed to buy him new clothes, luckily they had shops outside Universal Studios.  We were greeted by The Simpsons soon after entering the gates.  While Johnny and Andrew went to see the Terminator show, Hannah and I waited outside and looked around.  It was a quiet day at the park, not many people around.  It was obvious that Andrew did not enjoy the show too much.  We had lunch at this outlet where they chargrilled chickens.  You could see the food being cooked outside and it smelled great.  While lining up to order, I noticed a sign warning people about the food from this place containing chemicals which have been known to cause cancer and birth defects in pregnant women.  Maybe they were just trying to protect themselves from any possible lawsuits.  We bought it anyway.

Next, we lined up for the Studios Backlot Tour.  It was a half hour wait.  We were driven through stage areas where films and TV shows were made.  They provided us with real movie experience like explosions of cars in “Fast and Furious”, floods, shark attack, the bugs in “Return of the Mummy”.  We even visited “Wisteria Lane” on the set of “Desparate Housewives”.

We saw Dora the Explorer, Shrek and other characters.  We went on The Simpsons ride which made me dizzy.

After Universal Studios, we were determined to see the mansions in Beverly Hills and found them this time.

Palm Springs

3rd May Sunday

We went to Desert Palms Outlets again.  We drove to Palms Springs to have a look that their city centre.  It’s just amazing how the whole city is built in the middle of the desert, yet if you can see the snow on top of the mountains nearby.  We went to see the Palm Springs Tramway.  It was in the middle of nowhere.  The tram (like our cable car) takes you from the bottom of a mountain to the top.  It looked very scarey.

Hollywood

2nd May Saturday

Today we visited Beverly Center.  We have noticed that LA is surrounded by movie stars.  This time we saw Danny Glover filming a movie at Beverly Center.  Since Johnny had his video camera with him, he decided to discreetly tape part of the action, until he received a warning from a security guard to stop filming otherwise he’d have the tape taken.  Anyway, the name of the film is “Son of Morning”.  So look out for that when it comes out and watch the scene when Danny Glover signs a book at a shopping centre because we were there.

After lunch, we headed to Hollywood Boulevard again.  This time we parked the car and did the Walk of Fame.  We visited the Grauman’s Theatre and Kodak Theatre.  There were a lot of people in fake costumes, like Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Spider Man, Marilyn Monroe, all looking for “tips” to pose with you in photos.

We then attempted to go to see the mansions in Beverly Hills, but there were none to be found.  As it turned out, we were at the right street, just turned the opposite direction.  We drove through Rodeo Drive again which was certainly very glamorous.