cheesygarcia.com

so we finally arrived in LA at 10.20 this morning. the canberra-sydney flight was uneventful, matt just slept all throughout. the sydney-la flight however, was a bit more difficult. i have to give matt some credit though, i was expecting the worst but he was quite well behaved (aka sleeping) in the second half of the trip. the most annoying thing was actually getting a vegan meal i did not order

i am so lucky that kirsten and garrett (?) from texas gave me a hand during those times when i had to eat and go to the loo. i guess travelling alone with a little baby brings out everyone’s helpful side.

some things i have learned from this trip:

• try to bring only one hand carry luggage - the usual diaper bag probably isn’t big enough to carry all the stuff you need, so use the biggest bag allowed for hand carry luggage. a wheelie bag is probably good too, especially if you are on your own.
• have a small pouch with all the essentials - since you will have to put your hand carry luggage in the overhead locker, it is best to have a small pouch with everything you need for a diaper change.
• take out all the stuff you need and put it in the pocket in front of your seat - i put matt’s bottle, formula, bib, dummy and muslin wrap in the pocket
• use a muslin wrap as a curtain for the bassinet so that baby is not distracted by people passing by - i personally did not do this (i didn’t have to cos matt hardly used the bassinet) but the couple who sat next to me did this for their baby. hopefully next time we fly he’s going to sleep in the bassinet.
• order a vegetarian meal when booking the flight - i did not do this myself but somehow still ended up with a vegetarian meal. however this worked in my favour cos i got to eat first and kirsten held matt while i was eating.
• fill in the paperwork as soon as you get a chance - i did this when matt slept in the bassinet for 5 minutes. i knew i was going to have to hold him while he slept so filling in the paperwork before landing really helped me become (and feel) more organised

if i didn’t book a bassinet for matt, i would’ve rather sat in an aisle seat in “normal rows”, at least i can lift the armrest to make more room for breastfeeding. it was really awkward trying to breastfeed matt cos the armrest was fixed.

although matt’s first flying experience wasn’t as difficult as i imagined it would be, i’m not in a hurry to fly again

we spent the last four days in san francisco for kristel’s graduation. on thursday we drove to san francisco through the pacific coast highway so that we can pass by the scenic spots like malibu, morro bay and hearst castle. we also stopped by laetitia winery on the way to san francisco. here are some pictures from the trip and the graduation:

at the laetitia winery

at the laetitia winery

morro bay and berkeley

fisherman’s wharf

ghirardelli and golden gate bridge

the crookedest street and golden gate bridge

san francisco is a lot like melbourne in terms of weather and how the place looks like overall. it’s funny how most of the houses in berkeley look similar to the house in charmed.

is it just me or have people been getting the travelling bug lately? be it local or international, it just seems that people have travelling in their agendas. a few years back i have always wanted to travel to exotic places before i got married. but then it didn’t seem to make much sense to travel alone and not have anyone to take your pictures for you lol

kidding aside, when i was still working i found it hard to keep money aside for travelling. usually i’ve already spent the money even before i got my paycheck. now that i’m married, i still want to travel but sometimes i wonder if i’m really the travelling type of person. when we were in las vegas i was a bit of a killjoy. i suppose 24/7 gambling doesn’t really appeal to me and having to walk everywhere to get anywhere just doesn’t do it for me.

Read the rest of this entry »

i was watching “essence of emeril” on the food network today when they showed the commercial for cirque du soleil’s love. i was reminded of the cirque du soleil show that we watched in las vegas for our honeymoon.

we watched a few shows in las vegas: namely, cirque du soleil’s ka at mgm, la reve and monty python’s spamalot at wynn and mac king comedy magic show at harrah’s. of all the shows we watched i loved ka best. the stunts and sets were absolutely lovely.

Read the rest of this entry »