Our Recent Trip to Australia (Part 4)

This is the final part, part 4.

As mentioned in part 3, we spent quite a lot time with my siblings and their family members. My brother (Anthony), his wife (CE), and their son (Noah) are settling down in Melbourne. My sister (Melia), her husband (Daniel) and their son (Titus) are in Melbourne for one year.

It was really good to spend time and catch up with them again. In Melbourne, we stayed with Daniel and Melia. Anthony and CE just stayed nearby. As such it was easy for them to spend time with one another.

We arrived on Friday. On Friday night we had a family dinner in a family restaurant called Sofia. The serving for their food is incredibly huge. Six of us couldn't finish the food serving for 2. After dinner, we went to Anthony & CE's house for further time of fellowship.

It was also really good to see how Titus and Noah had grown. Titus (1 1/2 years old) are now able to talk. He kept saying words like "car" and "bye bye". Noah (1 year old) was beginning to learn to walk. Some of their photos are below. (Titus on the left and Noah on the right)

The next day, Saturday, was a big day. It was Noah's 1st Birthday Celebration. Wow, we went to Melbourne at the right time. It was a very good party. The food was great. The games were fun. The fellowship was good. There were around 40-50 people in the party. Anthony & CE and some others really put in a lot of efforts to make the party into a success.

On Sunday night, we went to eat in a Vietnamese restaurant before we headed to the South Bank, a nice spot along the Yarra River. We watched the fire work that happened once per hour. It was pretty impressive though it could be scarry for kids as well. Titus was visibly scared by the fire.

On Monday, we went to have a good yum cha. Both Lean Choo and I agreed that the yum cha in Australia was generally better than what we had in Singapore. For one, I found the food to be less oily. But Daniel and Melia told us that there were good yum cha places in Singapore as well. (we just did not know it. :)) We did some other things after the yum cha before heading to the airport.

We had a very good family time in Melbourne. We enjoyed spending time with them. We appreciate them taking care of us really well. Daniel and Anthony actually took leave just to spend time with us. We also enjoyed playing with Titus and Noah. We believe that Titus and Noah enjoyed playing with us too. :)

I saw how each one of us had grown as a person. No, none of us is perfect. But it is clear to me that increased maturity help family members to get along with one another better. Differences in personality, opinion and etc will always be there. But maturity helps us to appreciate those differences instead of using it to attack one another. :)

Titus and Noah are the newest addition to our family. Their presence brings much joy and laughter. They add a new dimension to our family life. Often, they are the stars of the family. Without them realising they are actually unifying the older family members around them.

Very quickly, our recent trip to Australia came to an end. We thank God that it was a very fruitful trip. The three objectives that we had for the trip was more than met except on the annual retreat part which was a little bit short. But it was well compensated with the great time we had with our both spiritual and natural families.

We came back to Singapore feeling thankful and grateful for all that God had allowed us to experience in our recent trip to Australia. Australia will always have a special place in our hearts for many reasons. We hope to be back there again in a not too distant future.