It was a super hectic week at work for the past two weeks with no break at all. Super shorthanded. Thanks To make things worse, Lexuan was feeling unwell the whole week. And Jianhui was also having fever. I was kinda looking forward to weekend to have a good rest.
I started to feel unwell on Friday morning with swollen eye and heavy head. I was also shivering in office. No appetite for lunch and ny brain can’t really function. I know I wasn’t feeling good and so I I left office early at 5pm.
True enough, I measured my temperature when we got home and I was having high fever at 39 degree Celsius! I was so sick that I was hiding under 2 blanket. Since I can’t take medicine, I tried to drown myself with lots of water and barley water to cool myself down. Jianhui also prepared cold towel for me to put on forehead. Luckily, my temperature started to come down gradually.
Thankfully, I am almost well on Sunday. However, Jianhui is still very sick with bad headache and fever. Any remedy for fever and headache?
First Time Travelling to US
4 October 2018
Yes, we are flying to US again after our Berlin trip. In fact, we aren’t sure if we are really going US until one week ago. Once again, we booked our air tickets and accommodation just one week+ before we fly. We told ourselves we must plan ahead for our next trip going forward as this is too stressful. Haha.
As for work wise, both of us were very busy as we just came back from leave and had only few days in office to complete our work. Plus we took some urgent leave because Lexuan was sick. It was a busy and stressful week at work.
As it was my birthday as well, we took leave before we fly so that we can rest and do packing. Nowadays, traveling with a kid means we could no longer do last minute packing. For this trip, we went to buy a new hand carry bag (that can pull and carry if we want to). We hope this bag can make our lives easier for the Long flight ahead.
So, we did our last minute packing at night. As we got to wake up early at 3am to go airport, we planned to sleep early. However, we were so busy packing (and doing back up for photos in my phone) that we ended up sleeping at 11pm+.
We were so tired when we woke up in the morning. Jianhui cooked porridge while I pumped milk. By the time we were ready to leave house, it was almost 5am. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait too Long for the cab. And the traffic was good so we reached airport about 5.30am.
There wasn’t a queue at the check in counter but the counter staff took quite Long to settle our check in. Luckily Jianhui applied ESTA yesterday as I always thought that Singapore is Visa exempted
And there is no need for us to do anything.
Then we went to Killiney for breakfast. I had coffee to keep myself awake. As for Lexuan, she had porridge and a bit of bread too. We also fed her about 80ml of milk. She fell asleep for awhile.
Then we walked to gate C24 for the security check. By the time we reached there, it’s about time to board. Having a kid means we got priority to board the plane. Haha. This is a good perk as we can go toilet the moment we are on board. The air stewardess passed me the diapers and baby food. The baby food is in a cute bag and it comes with a cute bib which will come come into handy! =p And they gave Lexuan JAL sticker book too! Lexuan is going to have a collection of toys from the airlines she took.
The plane departed punctually at 8.10am and Lexuan was very active as usual. Finally she fell asleep at 9.40am. Then the cabin crew served us food. We ordered grilled pork and teriyaki chicken. This time round the chicken tasted better. It comes with soba. The food tasted not as good as Qatar. Now we know Qatar serves one of the best flight meal. The best part of the meal is JAL served Hagaan Daz vanilla ice cream.
Lexuan slept for 3 hours straight which means we had peace during this period too. We watched Honolulu Marathon (to get motivation and inspiration for my marathon). Haha.
When Lexuan woke up, we fed her porridge and milk. She didn’t drink much but she peed a lot. Her diapers are always full. And changing diapers for her is such a challenge inside the small toilet. Plus I need to carry her and go toilet myself. Haha.
It’s a 7 hours+ flight so time seems to pass by so quickly with Lexuan around. I pumped milk one time on flight too. Somehow, it feels different pumping milk on air. Maybe the pressure makes it different.
Before we touched down, Lexuan peed on me... my jeans is wet. Lucky we were going to touch down Liao. We touched down about Singapore time 3pm+ (Japan is an hour ahead of Singapore). Due to some issue with the baby carrier, we ended up being the last one to alight. And when we went to collect our luggage, there’s only a few luggage left. I Guess most people in flight transit immediately to another international flight.
The queue was quite ok at the customs. So this is my first time to Japan. I seriously didn’t expect my first time to land in japan to be a transit flight. And to be frank, I didn’t expect Narita airport to look like this. I expected it to be newer and more advanced looking. Reality vs expectation. Haha.
Then we went to check where to take the bus 25 airport shuttle to Narita Tobu Hotel Airport. It’s just outside the arrival hall. As the next bus is at 5.10pm, we decided to take away Yoshinoya to eat in the hotel. And yes, we were very hungry as they only served us one meal at 10am+ plus some bread the whole flight.
It’s quite a short bus ride to our hotel. We had so much luggage that we were too happy to check in hotel. Compared to Athens airport hotel, this airport is so much cheaper. It’s only about JPY9000 (about SGD110) and it comes with 2 queen size beds and one sofa bed. But of course, the room is not that new. At first we didn’t know how to adjust the air con and it’s so stuffy in the room. In fact, the airport is also very stuffy. The outside natural air is so much better then the air con. Oh ya, we don’t know if the electrical point got problem or what, it’s not really working well that it took longer time to boil water and charge handphone.
After pumping milk, we went out to Narita Airport. Actually, our plan is to go Tokyo City but it was already quite late at 7pm. We went to B1 to reccee the train system so that Next time we will know what to do. It looks pretty much straight forward. Then we went to level 4 for shopping. It’s totally a heaven for me! There’s Royce chocolate, Tokyo banana, Hokkaido milk biscuits and many more snacks that I wish I could buy them all. Haha. Hope I can buy them back on our return flight. There’s a lot of cute soft toys and melody stuff too! Oh yes, there’s a Pokémon store and they sell really cute Pokémon!
After shopping, we wanted to eat sashimi sushi. What’s coming to Japan without trying their Sashimi right? Most of the restaurants are closing so we could only try one that’s still open. This must be the first time I ate so much sashimi as I am never a fan of sashimi. Overall, I just say it’s not too bad. The bill is JPY4000.
We missed the shuttle bus at 8.30pm so we waited for the next one at 2050. Finally, we are going back to rest.
Three of us squeezed on a queen size bed. This girl is so excited that she couldn’t sleep at all. She kept on wanting to stand and play. Haha. Ultimately, I fell asleep.
5 October 2018
Jianhui woke up early to cook porridge and get ice while I was still happily sleeping. I woke up every 2 hours but I would say sleep was not bad compared to back in Singapore. Even when we woke up so early, there’s just not enough time. Luckily, we still make it for the 8.00am shuttle bus. At this time, many hotel guests were also going to the airport.
We went to row M to check in which is a special counter for parents travelling with kids. And we got priority boarding pass! Yeah. We ate mcd for breakfast and the sausage muffin with egg is so nice. The mcd is really small though.
Security was quite tight as the custom officers asked us to take out baby stuff and she even smell the milk, hot water and porridge. Haha. We were joking that she might make comments like my breast milk smell weird or not fresh.
Then we went to gate 61 to board our plane. We were the first to board, even before the first class passengers. Lexuan fell asleep before taking off and so do I. When I woke up about 20minutes later, I was shocked that the plane is still taxi-ing. Haha.
We had beef for lunch and it wasn’t nice. The best thing was the Haagen Daz ice cream. Portion was small also. Think we are going to be real hungry when we touch down Chicago.
Lexuan didn’t want to sleep and so we got to entertain her. When she finally fell asleep at 2pm+ and so we took a nap too till 4pm+. We went to kop snacks and the mild salt potato snack is quite nice, nicer than the usual one the served us.
I brought Lexuan to change diapers and while changing, she peed. The whole toilet is her urine. And she was crying non stop.
I think she’s too hungry. Somemore she’s very hungry so we kept on feeding her with milk and cereal. Drinking too much cereal seems to give her sore throat as she started having flu and cough when we touched down.
2 hours before touching down, they served us Yoshinoya beef bowl! It’s funny that in japan, we ate Yoshinoya for 2 meals. Anyway, it’s not bad, best flight meal for JAL so far.
Soon, we touched down Chicago. I never imagine myself to be in US. And of all places, Chicago is the first state that I am going. Haha. US immigration is like Japan in which we will scan our passports, take photos first with fingerprints then proceed to human counter. With our experience at Japan, we’re better now. Haha. The custom officer didn’t give us too much problem.
It’s about 8am+ so we are kinda early. Weather was kinda gloomy. I was expecting a sunny Chicago with blue sky actually. However, it seems like Chicago is going to be so gloomy throughout our stay in Chicago. And it is expected for me to have a wet and cold marathon.
Jianhui checked that there was a bad jam along the route to our hotel which will delay our travelling time to 54mins instead of 30mins. So we decided to wait a whole first. While waiting, we took turns to freshen up in toilet. We take away hot cakes and took cab to our hotel.
We reached our hotel, Hyatt Centric Tbe Loop really early at around 10am+. Luckily they allowed us to check in early so we could shower and rest.
Jianhui and Lexuan basically concussed while mama moo moo got to pump milk.
We slept until we didn’t feel like waking up but we got to go to the expo to collect race pack. We took the metro from Jackson station. We bought the 3 days pass but ended up we didn’t really fully utilise the pass for the next 2 days.
We walked to the expo which was quite a distance from the mrt station. Collection of race pack was a Breeze. Jianhui would be running 5km in which he had a bib only. For me, I had goodie bag and a really nice event shirt. We wanted to buy merchandise but there was nothing for us to buy.
Then we took mrt back to our hotel. Thankfully our hotel was just next to McDonald’s so we could easily settle our meal there.
It had been a Long Long day for us. Super jet lag.
6 October 2018
Jianhui went to buy happy breakfast from McDonald early in the morning. We had a really full breakfast. It was raining and so Jianhui went to the starting point while Lexuan and I stayed in the room.
Jianhui was enjoying himself by taking many photos while Lexuan was sleeping in the room. His race started at 8am instead of 7.30am due to the rain. It was a short 5km so he came back relatively fast as well.
We rested in the room before we went to the marathon starting point - Grant Park to recee. We saw the different gates for different waves. I belong to Coral K which is gate 5 (orange).
We also bought Chicago hotdog bun from one of the mobile van to try. It’s not too bad though I think Luxembourg hotdog buns are still nicer. We also bought Dunkin donuts to eat. We bought old fashion and strawberry which tasted normal only. What a waste of calories.
Thereafter, we went to a retro western restaurant for lunch. We ordered ribeye and spaghetti. It came with complimentary soup and surprisingly they carrot soup was quite nice. Most importantly, Lexuan got to eat the carrot and baked potato from the steak. The portion for the spaghetti was really big so I didn’t manage to finish it.
We went back to our hotel thereafter. We were feeling really sleepy so we took nap again. We woke up about 4pm+ to get ready to go Wills tower. It was a short 450m walk from our hotel. With the skies finally clearing from the fog, there was a queue. Basically, we had to queue to buy tickets, queue to take photos at their famous ledge where you get to see the Chicago City until your feet. We finally got our chance to take photos after queuing for about an hour. The whole photo session took only about 60s. I was telling Jianhui that it was so fast that I didn’t get to see Chicago City under me.
We quickly fed Lexuan with milk before we made our way back as the girl was so grouchy. As for us, we had McD’s for dinner again. Haha.
We wanted to sleep early tonight as it was race day tomorrow. However, I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep at all. Ended up that I didn’t sleep until 1am+ and kept on waking up. Basically, I was semi conscious. Only about 3am then I fell asleep and dreamt about being late for flight.
7 October 2018
It’s race day. I was so excited that (or rather I couldn’t sleep at all) I woke up at 4am+. Thanks to Lexuan for being so noisy the whole night. I Guess she’s feeling confused when she should sleep.
Jianhui went out to buy McDonald’s breakfast for us. I ate sausage muffin and a bit of hotcakes.
We left about 7am+ and it was a short walk to the starting line. Weather was really cold so I wore a jacket and pants as well. It was a windy morning and so we also covered Lexuan from head to toes. We took some photos then I proceeded to enter the gate myself.
I was feeling kinda nervous as this would be my first overseas race alone. And this is my first overseas marathon as well. Was kinda disappointed that Jianhui didn’t get the slot so that at least we could start the race together. I wear poncho to block the wind and it turned out to be the best decision ever as it started to rain while waiting to flag off. While waiting, a lot of thoughts came to my mind.
I still remember I was excited and shocked when i received an email that I was selected to participate Bank of America Chicago Marathon last year in December. Back then I couldn’t even run 1.8km, let alone a full marathon. My last marathon was like In 2015 and this is going to be my first overseas marathon. Seriously, I would never sign up for full marathon for overseas race except world marathon. Major. And for once I finally got lucky and got a slot. We have been trying our luck and this time he got his Berlin slot while I got Chicago. It is all fated. This is a chance hard to come by so I was thankful to Jianhui for supporting this dream of mine. He has been very encouraging when I started to have self doubt like if I could finish the race, etc. Ultimately, I told myself to do my best and to enjoy the race. After all, it’s my first World Marathon Major and this 42.195km race would be a good race to explore this Chicago City.
My wave started the race about 8.40am. It’s amazing that there were supporters and performances lining up the whole streets from the starting point till the end. The supporters were all very loud in cheering us. The atmosphere and mood was very lively and fun. I was really enjoying myself. I also took the time to look at the buildings and restaurants as we were running through the different neighbourhood.
As I started to warm up, I took off the poncho. I didn’t throw it away as I was worried that it might rain again. True enough, it started to rain again after running for a few km. I also went toilet 2 times. My strategy for the day was to keep on running until my legs cannot take it anymore and to only walk at the water points. And every water point I will drink Gatorade + water.
I was really surprised to see Jianhui with Lexuan at 13.1mile as I thought they would have stayed at the hotel given that the weather was quite bad. I was still feeling quite ok at 13.1mile. In fact, When I reached 32km earlier than my target of 4 hrs, I feel that I should be able to complete the race with a PB. I was motivated and kept on encouraging myself not to stop. Thanks to the constant cheering from the supporters, it pushed be to continue running.
I ate my power gel at around 25km. Though I dont really feel there’s any effect but I Guess at least it kept my stomach full. After 32km, I started to feel that my legs are going to cramp and so I started to slow down and do some stretching. I told myself it’s only 10km more so I should just enjoy the run and treat it like it’s my normal training run. I started to experience slight pain and discomfort on my top part of my left foot as well. I tried to loose up my shoes but it doesn’t seem to help as well. When I reached the last 2 miles, it seems to be so near yet so far. From 1 mile to 800m to 400m and finally to 200m. It feels like my longest 2 miles. I was tempted to walk but I told myself to keep on running since my legs can still take it.
Finally, I completed it in 4hr 53min 15sec. My new personal best! I was so happy when I crossed the finishing line! Today I conquered the World Marathon Major, The Windy City Chicago!
The Chicago City was filled with enthusiastic supporters and volunteers for the whole route!! Thanks to them, it was definitely my most enjoyable full marathon and it helped me to forget about my pain to race. So thankful for a good race! What a memorable race and I can’t believe it that I ran most of the race and only stopping at water points.
After race, I went to the runners reunite area to find Jianhui and Lexuan. He was waiting for me at A/B. We took some photos then we walked back to our hotel. By now, I was really hungry. So we dabao some food from the Chinese restaurant called panda something. This is really expensive (and not so nice) chinese food.
It was really cold after the race so I was so happy to be back at hotel room where it was much warmer. My shoes are really wet. And my socks are spoilt with 2 holes. And taking the warm shower was just so shiok. We slept for a while before we went to nearby Starbucks. We ordered 2 cups of mocha which was too much for us to finish.
Most of the restaurants seem closed and we were too tired to travel far, so we decided to buy cup noodles from 7/11 for dinner.
As we got to fly to San Francisco tomorrow, we were busy packing again.
I was so tired that I slept better but kept on waking up. Lexuan also woke up at 2am and couldn’t sleep at all. She is driving us crazy by waking up at weird timing.
8 October 2018
Staying near a McDonald’s means you got to eat McD’s breakfast every morning. We had McD’s for breakfast. Jianhui ordered a steak burger which was nice but heaty. Could feel my throat starts to feel itchy.
We did our last minute packing and checked out from the hotel about 8am. Just nice that was a cab outside the hotel so we took it. It costs us about USD50 with tips.
Being early means we can slowly check in without feeling the stress. Nowadays we try to make it to the airport 3 hours before flight time.
The security check was strict as expected. The security officer was testing baby’s porridge and water with some test stripes.
Though we had a heavy breakfast, we bought burrito to eat. Thanks goodness we bought this as American Airlines didn’t serve any food. The rule of thumb is always eat a lot when you can whenever you are travelling as sometimes you don’t know when is your next meal.
Our flight is a full flight and there is no space to put our luggage. It is so crampy until I feel so uncomfortable. American Airlines only serves light snacks and drinks.
Lexuan was feeling very tired and grouchy. She finally fell asleep for a while when taking off. I also had a short nap. It was a 4hours flight but it seems so Long with her crying non stop. She was so naughty the whole flight that I really feel like leaving her at home for the next trip. Haha. This girl is so tired that she fell asleep in her pram when she fell asleep shortly.
After collecting our luggage, we took sky train to the rental car company. Jianhui rented car from Thrifty. Before we went to collect our car, we had blueberry muffin with tea.
Then it’s time to set off. As what I had expected, Lexuan concussed in the car seat. She didn’t sleep much the whole day so she must be feeling very tired.
Our first destination is the Golden Gate Bridge. Since Lexuan was sleeping and we didn’t want to disturb her, we took quick photos before making our way to Folsom.
Folsom seems much further than we expected. We didn’t expect it to be about 200km from the airport. Jianhui was feeling so tired driving especially after the flight. We didn’t stop much and we finally made it to Hilton Garden Inn at 8pm+.
Both of us were so hungry and tired. We quickly checked in then went Chilis for dinner. We ordered steak and chicken which was normal. We had a lot of the chips and salsa. After dinner, we went back to our room. The good thing about our hotel is, there is everything near us - supermarket, McDonald’s, BK, Taco Bells, petrol station, supermarket and premium outlets!
It had been a long day for us as for the first day we slept at 11pm+ which means that it was already midnight at Chicago (San Francisco was 2 hours ahead of Chicago).
For once we finally had better sleep but we still woke up every 2 hours.
9 October
Lexuan woke up at 3am+ which is Chicago 5am+, her usual waking up time in Chicago. Think our biological clock all going crazy. She kept on playing and crying until I couldn’t sleep at all. I played with her until she finally fell asleep at 6am.
I slept for a while too before pumping milk.
For a change, we had breakfast at Burger King. Seriously, other than fast food, I don’t see any other place we can eat breakfast.
Then we left for Lake Tahoe at around 10am. Lake Tahoe is about 90miles away. Lexuan fell asleep in the car seat and slept all the way there. Unlike Australia, there aren’t any vtoilets along the highway which means we don’t dare to drink too much water either.
Finally, we reach Lake Tahoe about 12pm+. It’s such a beautiful place, definitely worth the effort to come here. We took photos then we went to Riva Grill for lunch. We shared fish & Chips. We also ordered the root beer float which was not nice. We relaxed at this place for a while before we made our way back to our hotel.
For our return route, we drove the scenic route, Carson pass. This route has better scenery but much further. So if you have the time, do go Lake Tahoe via this route. We reached the hotel about 4.45pm. So it took us about 2hrs45mins. By now, my dear driver is so tired. Think Jianhui really very steady to drive so much in a day. And he’s always so confident driving. He got to be the most international and safest driver I know. I am so thankful to have him as driver to drove me to Lake Tahoe if not I Guess we will end up staying at San Francisco or shop at premium outlets Everyday which I think he doesn’t want me to do it haha.
We rested a while before making our way out for dinner and shopping! We decided to have simple dinner at Burger Kings.
There aren’t many people at the premium outlets. It’s kinda late and I am so tired that I am not in the mood to shop. But ultimately, I managed to buy 2 Michael Kor bags at a good buy plus lanyard. 😊
Then we went to Chilis for our last night party. We ordered some ice cream cake, strawberry lemonade for me and beer for Jianhui.
By the time we were back in hotel, it was already 9pm+.
Another tiring day and we are flying back tomorrow.
10 October 2018 / 11 October 2018
For the whole trip, Lexuan has been waking up at weird hours. She woke up 4am as usual and this means we cannot sleep again. Sigh. But at least she slept all the way from 10pm to 4am so we managed to catch some sleep. Anyway, happy 11 months old to Lexuan! Thanks for bringing so much happiness to us though you can be such a terror sometimes when you throw tantrum.
After this trip, I realised travelling with a baby is okay as Long as you are not travelling to US. So far, we had not problem with Cairns and Europe. She only gave us so much problems this trip. I Guess she’s confused as to when to eat and when to sleep. Oh well even I am confused so I Guess we cannot really blame her as well.
As usual, we had breakfast at McDonald’s. Lexuan enjoyed her pancake while we ate our sausage mc muffin with egg off dunno for how many times Liao. I am so not going to eat McDonald’s breakfast for at least a month when we are back. I wanna eat my Yakun, Prata, chee Cheong fun, etc... anything but Mac Donald’s.
Just before we checked out, Lexuan poo. This is a good thing as we were so worried she might poo on plane which would be so chaotic as she simply hated to change diapers on plane. She would cry as if I am murdering or torturing her. For the whole trip, I really going crazy helping her to change diapers as she will cry like nobody business and crawling all over the bed. Sometimes I can really so mad at her for all her tantrum and I simply can’t figure out what she wants. Just like today she kept on crying and it turned out that she wanted to play on the floor.
And so we got to start our 110miles journey again. We estimated that we would take about 2 hours+ to reach the airport.
We stopped over at a resting area where we used our coins to buy snacks and coke before continuing our journey.
We reached airport about 1pm. We drove straight to the rental car car park and returned car. Returning car was a breeze. Then we took our luggage and boarded the sky train to International Terminal A. We checked in and was told that we could get them send luggage directly back to Singapore. From our experience at Narita airport, we would prefer not to collect luggage as it’s simply too troublesome to carry all luggage to check in hotel, especially we still need to take shuttle bus to airport hotel in Haneda.
There was a long queue at the security check so it was a good thing that we were early. We fed Lexuan porridge and milk before we had lunch at a restaurant called Gott’s (I hope I get the spelling correct). Jianhui ordered California burger and Cheeseburger. The California burger was nice! Highly recommended if you would like to eat something at the airport. Thereafter, we went to our peaceful corner while I pumped milk. Kinda rushed for time as by the time I was done, it’s close to boarding time. And it doesn’t help that I have an uncooperative baby who gave me a lot of problems to help her change diapers. Queue for cubicle was also Long. In the toilet I could hear the announcement calling my name to get ready for boarding. Thanks to Lexuan, we are like VIP passengers who have priority in boarding. We quickly boarded the plane and settled down.
Lexuan and I fell asleep when taking off. But she slept for an hour only. Thankfully, she was so tired that she slept from 7pm+ all the way till 1am+ (San Francisco timing). So Jianhui and I had a relatively good sleep too.
Anyway, JAL service was really good but we gave up on their flight meals. Super not nice. Cold and portion is pathetic. The only saviour is the hagaan daz ice cream.
I also pumped milk in plane. We were sitting by the side with 3 seats so it’s very comfortable to pump milk. If there is somebody sitting beside me, I got to be more discreet in pumping milk, especially if my neighbour is a male passenger. But after this trip, I am getting better to pump milk on plane. Haha.
Just before touching time, they served us hotdog buns. Nothing fantastic but at least we got something to fill our empty stomach.
Since Lexuan was sleeping throughout, her diapers are very wet and spoiled as she was wearing the diapers from 3.30pm till 1am.
We touched down 7pm+ (Japan time) at Haneda airport. This airport looks newer and more happy that Narita airport. But there’s no air con. Don’t know why Japan airport all no air con.
We were hungry so we walked around and went to Departure Hall to look for food. There’s queue at most of the restaurants so we ate the tempura lunch box which was not bad. At least better than flight meal haha. We also bought some snacks and water from 7-11 before we went to buy ticket to take their monarail to hotel. It’s only 2 stops away and a short walking distance to Hotel MyStay.
The room is like a small apartment. So we are thankful that we decided to send our check in luggage all the way back to Singapore. If not I don’t think we got space to put our luggage and walking space. The bathtub is so small as well. At least it has all the things we need, like induction kettle, rice cooker and fridge. And Lexuan seems to love the bed as she was in super good mood.
We wanted to go down to the restaurant below to have a drink but by the time we went down, it was already 10.30pm and they were closing.
So we had to party in the room with water and snacks we bought from the airport. Haha.
12 October 2018
Our baby girl simply loves to wake up at 3am to 4am+. As usual, she woke up and started playing while we just want to sleep. She finally fell around 5am+ and we fell asleep too. I started to have weird dreams before my alarm rang at 5.45am.
Then we went to have breakfast downstairs. They have bread, scrambled eggs, hotdog, bacon, porridge, rice, curry, etc. Most importantly, I am happy to drink milk and coffee. Lexuan ate scrambled egg and boiled broccoli.
After breakfast, we went back room to shower to get ready to go airport. It was drizzling and so we went down at 8.20am for the hotel shuttle bus. It’s a small bus so we are thankful we managed to board the bus as the bus is first come first serve.
It was a short 7 minute bus ride to the international terminal. We went to Counter G13 to tag our stroller before we went to buy my souvenir! I wanted to buy Tokyo banana, Hokkaido biscuits and Strawberry Kit Kat.
It’s a short queue at the security check and customs so we are kinda early. Inside, we bought my Tokyo banana and Hokkaido biscuits. Then we fed Lexuan milk before we go to the boarding gate 147.
As usual, we have priority in boarding. A good perk of travelling with baby. This is a flight with a lot of babies and kids. I guess it is going to be a noisy flight.
They served the same food as what we ate when we took the flight to Narita. Jianhui was so upset as he didn’t like food. Jianhui is one who eats a lot of flight meal so I was really surprised he didn’t like JAL’s flight meal and kept on complaining. Haha. Whatever it is, we are happy this is our last flight meal as we are heading home. And thankful Lexuan has been a good girl as well. After all, it’s only 7hours+ flight.
We touched down later than expected due to bad weather (and probably due to heavy traffic at Changi Airport). And due to the weather, there is delay for baggage as well, estimated half an hour delay.
Jianhui asked me to go out first with Lexuan to rest or buy some snacks. When I was walking out, I was so surprised to see my family outside waiting for me! My dad even bought me a bouquet of flowers. So sweet right? Haha. They came to celebrate my achievement. Yeah! So thankful for their love. Thereafter, we took cab back and it was a Long journey back due to bad traffic jam. It was already 8pm+.
All in all, it was amazing that we made it to US and back home. US is so far and I was doubtful that we would be going there even 2 weeks ago. I’m glad that Jianhui made it happen and I completed my first world marathon major with a personal best. The feeling was just amazing and Unbelievable. It’s almost a week after my marathon and I was still feeling very high about it. Haha. It’s like a big achievement for me. A memorable experience which I will remember for life.
We are just too happy to be going back home (though I am definitely not looking forward to go back to work). Compared to our previous trips to Cairns and Europe, this got to be our most tiring trip as we didn’t get to rest much at all. Due to the time difference and jet lag, we are not sleeping well and it doesn’t help when Lexuan is waking up at odd hours and refused to sleep.
Travelling with Lexuan means we have to bring a big and heavy hand carry bag for her food - porridge, hot water (2 thermal flasks), ice pack, breast milk, extra clothes and lots and lots of diapers. Not to forget her comfort items, pillow, bolster and toys. And we also got to bring my pumping equipment to pump on plane. Pumping so many times on plane makes me a natural now. Haha. Just that it can be upsetting when my milk supply dropped due to dehydration or lack of food on plane. Anyway, my milk supply kind dropped by 80ml (from average 850ml to 780ml+) these few days. Just hope that this is temporary and my milk will be back to normal once we are home. The bag is really heavy so daddy Chong has a tough job of carrying the 2 hand carry bags while i carry Lexuan. Super daddy Chong. 😊
Thank you Jianhui once again for being such a hands on daddy who helps me to attend to Lexuan in all aspects. You are the best daddy to Lexuan and definitely my best husband! We love you to the moon and back! You are our Ironman Dad!
As for now, I guess it is unlikely we will fly again anytime soon this year after this 2 back to back trips. We are just happy to stay in Singapore and enjoy our local delights. I miss Singapore food so much.
Home sweet home!
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Angeline winks
at |7:07 PM|
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Tuesday, October 02, 2018
Fever 🤒
Lexuan was down with high fever for 4 days after attending school for one day right after our Berlin Trip. It was a tiring week as we would wake up every 2 hours to check her temperature. And after her fever subsided, she developed rashes all over her face, body and some on arms and legs. We googled online. Her symptoms seem to be roseola virus. Thankfully, her rashes all gone by Monday and she’s all well to go infant care. She got her first children’s day present which is a windmill and lunchbox! Thereafter, she be away from school again as we are going to US! Basically for the month of October, she’s like having schools holidays as she will only be attending school for only a few days. There goes our infant care money.
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Angeline winks
at |7:04 PM|
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Our Adventure (Part 2)
17 September 2018
It’s time to end our trip at Berlin to go Greece! We woke up early and started packing our luggage. After that, we had breakfast at McDonald’s! Since we got a bit of time, we read more about the history of Berlin Wall which is just outside our hotel. So convenient. Haha.
We checked out from the hotel and asked the hotel staff to help us to call for a cab with baby seat. I had a hard time getting lexuan to sit on the baby seat as she didn’t like to be trapped. Finally she stopped struggling as she fell asleep. Haha. I fell asleep too as it’s quite a Long journey to the other airport. Actually, given my character, I would assume that we would be going back to the same airport we touched down. Lucky I have a great husband who observed such details. Haha. The cab ride cost EUR38.
We were kinda early so the counter is not open for us to check in yet. But there was a long queue forming. From our past experience at Munich in which we nearly missed our flight due to long queue checking in, we told ourselves we must come 3hrs earlier and check in immediately the counter is open. Haha.
We ordered one double cheese burger to share and surprisingly it was quite nice! After eating, we could check in and so we went to queue. Seeing that we have a baby, the staff gave us priority queue for Business class. This helped us to cut a lot of queue. Haha.
Oh ya, we took Ryanair. We need to print our boarding pass ourselves if not we will be charged EUR55. Lucky we could get Select The Berlin to help us print the boarding pass. The security check is very tight and we got to take out all the baby stuff to show them. They basically touched me and Lexuan from head to toe. And this is also the place I left my cardigan behind at the security basket. Sad sad.
There was nothing much inside to shop. But, I bought some pens as souvenir. Soon, we can board the plane. Don’t know if it is trying to save cost or what, there is no aircon on plane. I was feeling so hot the whole flight. We were bored so we bought Pepsi and a small can of pringles as well. It’s about 3 hours+ flight time from Berlin to Athens. So it’s about 5pm+ Athens time when we touched down.
While waiting for our luggage, we fed her milk to save time. At Greece, we took cab and there’s no need for car seat. It cost EUR38 to reach Athens City Center Apartment. Louglas was there waiting for us. The exterior of the building looks bad but inside, the room is newly renovated and spacious. I love it. Oh ya, the small lift is so scary and it looks like it is going to spoil anytime.
Then we went to Central Hotel for dinner. We ordered pizza and Jianhui had his favourite mythos! It was crowded and so we were thankful to have a seat. Nice view.
Lexuan was feeling so tired that she was sleeping inside baby carrier while we were eating. Haha.
After dinner, we went back to our apartment.
18 September 2018
For the past few days, we had been sleeping at 9pm+ while I will wake up at 6-7am. Quite nice to be able to sleep this much and without stress some more.
It’s not cold at Athens and so I am back in shorts and shirt. We went out for breakfast and settled at a cafe. We expected them to heat up our sandwiches but they didn’t so the sandwiches are cold.
Then we decided to head straight uphill to The Acropolis with Lexuan in baby carrier. I got to be the fittest mummy ever. Haha. Lucky, it seems nearer that I thought it to be. It’s definitely a nice place with beautiful view. We never perspired much as it’s a sunny but windy day. We relaxed there for a while before we walked downslope.
We decided to head straight to Panathenac Stadium which was about 1.5km away? It cost EUR5 to enter the stadium. Lucky we brought baby carrier as it would be challenging to push pram on the uneven and tiny pavement of Athens. We took many photos and even went to their museum before we walked back to Athens City.
We went back to our apartment before we had lunch at Filema which was recommended by Louglas. Lunch was not bad and they gave us complimentary dessert which was good though I had no idea what was it. It tasted like melted vanilla ice cream.
We took the MRT (blue line) to change to green line to go Piraeus where we could take ferry. It was a hot weather and the mrt has no air con just like our green line in Singapore. Haha. When we reached Piraeus, we asked if we could buy ferry ticket at 3.50pm to go Aegina. But we were told that we could only buy ferry tickets at 4.50pm which was too late for us.
So we decided we will just reccee just in case we wanted to take ferry the next time we came here. Anyway, the initial plan was to stay over here one night to take ferry. This whole place was so messy that I was glad that we didn’t stay over here. We bought ice cream and sat there for a while before we took train back.
We saw people eating Gyro at a cafe at Synyagma Square and so we decided to order the same thing. Sadly, when the food came, we were disappointed as this gyro was not wrapped up kind.
Then we decided to go Central Hotel before the crowd comes. It’s kinda early so it’s hot. We sat outside and took our family photo. 3 times to Athens and we took photos at the same spot 3 times. This time round with our baby girl. I am sure we will be back here again. And let’s pray that Central hotel will always be around. Haha. Anyway, drinking mythos here is so shiok. As I am still breastfeeding, I ordered homemade lemonade for myself and it’s just normal.
On our way back, we went to find the restaurants that sells Gyro and we finally got the gyro we wanted! We had pork and chicken! It was so good! Definitely my favourite food in Greece.
We went back to our apartment happily with our gyro which we could enjoy.
19 September 2018
It’s a relaxing morning as we don’t intend to travel far today. We had breakfast at The Greco’s Project. We also ordered Greek coffee to try which turns out to be expresso. We miss our traditional coffee/teh so much. Haha.
We had pancakes and all day breakfast which was not bad and we were really full. As usual, Lexuan was enjoying her pancakes. Haha. She simply loves pancakes or rather we only give her eat pancakes. Haha.
We went back to our apartment and did a final packing to check out at 11am. We wanted to pack gyro to eat at airport but sadly, the shop does not sell gyro until 12pm. So sad lo. I am going to miss it so much! (Even at airport, I was trying hard to find places that sell gyro.)
We pushed our luggage to centre to take cab to airport hotel. We can check in airport hotel at 12pm. Our third time at airport hotel and it seems like the hotel is getting older. And you know what? The minibar is locked!! Aiyo. We got to put security deposit to get the key to store my breastmilk.
We had lunch at McD’s as there isn’t anything else to eat. Thanks to our resourceful papa, we decided we will rent a car to go Lake Vouligmeni! At least we got to go to a new place instead of rotting in the hotel.
Lake Vouligmeni is about 26km away from Athens airport. At first we wanted to take cab here but we were worried that there isn’t any cab back to airport so we decided it it safer to drive there. There were quite a lot of people swimming in the lake. As for us, we only wanted to take photos. Haha. The cave looks a bit like our Guilin.
We walked around and we found this nice restaurant by the sea. We decided to have our dinner here and that’s the best choice ever. The grilled salmon was good! Jianhui had their beer which was refreshing and nice too!
Then we drove back before it gets too dark. We made it back before 7.30pm. I guess this got to be the fastest car rental ever. Haha.
20 September 2018
For the whole trip, we feels that we got to sleep a lot and naturally we feel more energetic compared to back at home.
We had breakfast at the airport before we went back to our room to check in luggage. They allowed us to queue at priority queue and this helps to speed things up. Then we went back room to take our hand carry bag and change diapers for Lexuan.
And yes, we are ready for our long flight back home! For the first leg of the flight, Lexuan slept very well. I Guess she must be tired from the travelling too. As for me, I finally got time to watch movie. I watched Rampage which was not too bad. This flight is compared a short flight as it’s only 4hrs+ to Doha. We are only transiting but we got to go through the security check and once again, we need to finish our water.
We only had 2hours+ to transit so we quickly bought pizza to eat and fed Lexuan porridge and milk. Then it’s time to board. For Doha airport, we can fill up our water bottles. Basically, we had no time to relax and it’s time to board again.
When taking off, I will fasten Lexuan’s seatbelt to my seatbeat and usually I will hug her (as bolster) and we will fall asleep together. Haha. It’s quite nice to hug her to sleep though I don’t know if she feels comfortable a not.
Once she’s asleep we will put her at Bassinet so that we can still move around. They served us dinner and seriously Qatar flight food is not bad.
Thereafter, it’s madness. The seatbelt sign is on for 4 hours+ and this means I got to carry her for 4 hours+. Carry until my arms so suan and I cannot go toilet.
After 8hours+ flight, we are finally home. It’s always good to be home. And it’s only Friday at 9am+ so we got plenty of time to rest over the weekend.
On our way out, we met this excited Columbia guy. He told us this was his 2nd time back to Singapore and he was so excited. We can see sparkle in his eyes as he talked to us and telling us how much he loves Singapore. I Guess sometimes we stay in Singapore for too Long that we take a lot of things for granted.
We should start to look around us and appreciate everything that we have. The security, peace, harmony and beautiful environment. This is home. Our home. ❤️
Home sweet home!
This had been our furthest trip so far with Lexuan. Thanks Jianhui for planning all this from booking the air tickets to hotels. I am so grateful. I am so thankful that Lexuan has been a good girl and this would not be possible without my supportive and hands on Husband. This papa has been cooking porridge Everyday for her. Thanks dear! I really enjoyed myself for this trip!
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Angeline winks
at |8:02 PM|
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