Behind The Scenes

It's been a truly amazing I Love Mum We Love Sydney trip, with each of us bringing home different stories, and certainly heart-tugging moments that we can never quite express it fully here. (you have to be there to really feel the full extent)

I've been priviledged to travel with these wonderful people who had made my trip not quite a business trip! Often, many of us struggle with even travelling with a bunch of friends/ family -quirky behaviors, contrasting ideas of what a holiday should be, different interests. Hence to travel with 4 complete strangers was certainly an interesting task, and i am truly blessed that within the second of our nine days Sydney NSW whirlwind discovery, these 4 strangers instantly became my friends :)

Some of the poignant/ hilarious moments that etched within my memory are these:

1) The biker moms all wrapped up in leather jackets and whizzing down the streets of Sydney with their burly rider. Very cool indeed.

2) Mothers' Day dinner at Jordons Seafood Restaurant: To complement our dessert platter, each of us ordered a tea/ coffee. Stan ordered a pot of earl grey tea while i requested for peppermint tea. As i was pouring my tea into the cup, Stan commented that the peppermint was so fragrant that he could smell the peppermint from his end of the table. So as we sipped our tea and chatted, Stan commented that his tea tasted weird, and asked me if i was drinking earl grey instead. It took me a few minutes to realise that i was drinking his order, and he mine (with a good dose of milk). If you ask me, the earl grey was soothing. I'm not too sure about milk-infused peppermint tea though. You have to ask Stan. Haha..

3) Everyone loved Yarramalong Macadamia Nut Farm, which had a pretty backyard/ garden with a beautiful maple tree and rose shrubs. I believe we went a little trigger crazy here and snapped a record number of photos at this farm...and we even took photo in the toilet, would you believe it? these are wooden carvings and the reason why they were displayed the toilet was because the cafe underwent a minor renovation and they stored in the carvings/paintings in the toilet temporarily.

4) Dinner at The Cowrie- While I've tasted a few degustation menus on other trips that I've led, nothing comes close to this one. The food and wine were superb (even Aunty Gim Kuan and Tze Min who are not fans of western meals agreed in unison), service was excellent and the company was just too wonderful!

5) The million-dollar spectacular view of Nelson Bay from the parasail. Our cheeky skipper decided to dunk us into the sparkling waters of the bay, so Tzemin and i had wet bums throughout the day, while Stan came all prepared with a change of clothes! How clever!

6) Seeing Stan overcoming his fear of rays and sharks at the Australian Shark and Ray Centre. I coerced him into doing the snorkle while i do the hand-feeding tour in water-proof waders. I mean, you've got to get close to the lovely creatures to really appreciate them! But he was truly truly afraid (i am not kidding) after he gingerly stepped into the ray-infested waters. After a few minutes of courageous moments in the water with his snorkle, he decided to join me at the hand-feeding tour instead. At the end of the tour, Stan became friends with Fred the Manta Ray!

7) At Kings Tableland, both Tze min and Stan had loads of fun pretending to climb out from the valley. It was hilarious... and we almost wanted Stan to do the bare-body pose that qi yuwu did in the Sydney 8 Days Supplement photoshoot, but alas, there was no wind (though we all offered to blow really hard) :P

8) While the rest were shopping away at Katoomba town, Tze min and i headed to the Katoomba library! We needed the internet connection to upload photos and update blog entries. So each of us were given 20-minute access to the internet. Tzemin had 3 days' worth of blog entries to upload hence she used the computer first, and quickly the 20-minute was used up, and i gave her my 20 minute access too, with the hope that i'd get at least a good remaining balance of 5-10 min to upload photos. So when Tze min exclaimed that she's finally done with the blog, and i was all geared up to upload photos to this blog, the computer screen went blue as it prepared to shut down. I looked at Tze min with utter disbelief, and she said when she meant she was done, she meant the time's up! In my state of shock, I 'beat her up' for consuming all my allotted time.. As a form of 'punishment', she had to report for 'work' at 8am to upload her blog entry. Hehe.

9) Stocking up on chips, chocolates, candies and Australian-made biscuits at Coles at Katoomba. Our boot was completely filled with these yummies, and we even trailed Coles staff as they unpack goodies from big carton boxes so that we could have them to pack ours in!

10) Die-hard bloggers: It was aptly named The Workers' Cottage as Stan and myself (and sometimes Tze min. hehe) stayed up most nights till past midnight (the latest being 1.30am at the Blue Mountains) to upload photos and compose blog entries. At the end of the trip, all of us had darker eye bags cleverly hidden by our new sunnies (all of us bought new sunnies in Sydney!)

So.. here's my little entry of the behind the scenes of our unforgettable trip, and i'm quite sure other business trips will pale in comparison to this!

Hope you have enjoyed this journey as much as we had, and have started planning your own too! (apparently, Stan wants to take over my job and be a part-time Sydney guide. haha. He doesn't know what he's in for!)

Here's to share some of the unforgettable behind-the-scenes moments...