It's farewell once again

It's always hard to say goodbye. It's something one can never get used to. I still remember the 3 years when Papa studied here in Melbourne and we had to see each other off at departure halls. It never gets any easier.

So, after a fabulous 5 weeks of holiday back home in S'pore, it was time for kids and I to say goodbye to one and all and head back downunder. The flight on Jetstar was to take off at 10.30pm on the 27th Jan was delayed and it only took off at 1.45am on the 28th Jan. How ridiculous! I can only say that it was pretty comfortable to lounge around at Changi Airport. We hang around at the family zone. Everything is there, food, playground, comfy chairs, shopping, even a TV for Cartoon Network. I'm so proud of our Changi Airport.

We landed back in Melbourne on one of the hottest day this summer. And the heatwave lasted for 3 days. We could hardly sleep at night. Firstly, we've only 1 portable aircon in the hall. And the hall heats up to close to 4o degrees as the sun sets. We escape the heat by hanging out at malls, Ikea in the city and wait till evening before we return to our house.

There's no cool change and so our bedrooms were still hot at night. We all pulled out mattresses and slept in the hall, with the aircon at full blast! Very noisy. We pretend to be camping! Those were the first few days when we got back.

Last Monday, school term began and the kids are happily back at school. Thank God the cool change came just in time for the start of school term so there's no disruption to that so far. Unless the temperature hits 35degrees, the kids can safely attend school as normal. I can't wait for the PTM to meet up with their teachers.

We had another wave of heat last Saturday, 7th Feb, the hottest day ever. It went up to 46.3 degrees here. This historic heatwave and gusty wind lasted the whole day. Bush fire destroyed many towns. Some of these towns I've been to last year. I will miss Marysville, the quaint little town I stopped by twice last winter before I went up to Lake Mountain. Many countryside holiday houses and community have gone down in ashes. So sad. Where Papa used to study, at the Gippsland area, the town of Churchill also went up in flames, by arsonist. Two suspect has been caught. How do you punish someone who has caused so much destruction and deaths? Not forgetting the millions of wildlifes in the bush fire.

Hopefully this will be the last of heatwave this summer.

The week started off pretty chilly. Especially the wind. Everything and everywhere is so dry. And all my plants have died. I'll have to find time to pull out all the burnt stalks.

By the way, we're all fine. The nearest fire is about 40 km away, at the Yarra Glen. We're only bothered by the bad news as well as the haze from the bush fire.