"Clearly you've never been to Singapore" ;)

Yesterday was our first proper day in Singapore! We all got up early and went exploring.. We caught the MRT (coolest, fastest, and least smelly subway EVER) to these huge biodome gardens by the water and renewable energy mushroom looking things.

There were two garden domes: the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome. They were pretty incredible, such beautiful nature in the middle of a city! Nan and Dad, gardener extraordinaires, were in their element - very fun day!

We went back to the apartment to rest for a bit before going out to the Night Safari at Singapore Zoo!! As a pre-show, two guys came out and did this intense fire breathing/eating (ahh!) show - very cool! 

Then we went into a little amphitheatre for a "creatures of the night" show. At one point they needed an audience volunteer and they chose Eddie!!

Then we met our personal tour guide, Nur, and hopped in a little buggie to traipse around the zoo! We saw heaps of animals!! A few experiences were particularly memorable though:

1) Bats - gahh!! Walking through an almost-pitch-black enclosure of free-flying bats was slightly terrifying! We could feel the wind rushing past our heads as they flew by!

2) Will can speak otter. Like, he was really talking to them!! He goes "ooh, they sound like me!" And starts making the most adorable, high-pitched squeaks and the otters squeaked back and started frantically looking around for him. Very Dory from Finding Nemo.

3) Daisy the Leopard. Our tour guide told us the most heartbreaking story - Daisy had a mate for 10 years and he just passed away. We asked what affect it had had and Nur said that she refused to eat for weeks and became wary of the keepers because she thought they'd killed her mate, so sad :( but she was absolutely beautiful, sleeping right up against the glass.

4) A hippo!! We saw this massive hippo, really close up, and he stared us right in the eye! 

5) Sick kid. Not memorable in the best way, Ed got really sick towards the end of the tour and we had to wind things up. It didn't spoil the night at all though, such a unique experience!!

Today we had a later start, recovering from the late night zoo adventure and sick child drama, and the two of us navigated our way to Orchard Road for a shopping extravaganza!! This street was unlike anything we've ever seen! A series of probably 20 huge, full-sized shopping centres! Gaahh!! So overwhelming and amazing, WOW! Everything from H&M and Cotton On to Cartier and Prada. Thanks to Nan, G'ma & G'pa, Uncle Matt, and Uncle Steve, we had Xmas money to spend guilt free, and we were outta cash before we knew it! We were stoked with our purchases though, nothin' like retail therapy..!

We came back and had a swim in the pool with Will. We were about to race and Will have us a stellar pep talk: "Do ya have your courage?" "Yes!" "Do ya have your kicking legs?" "Yes!" "Do ya have your umm.. paddling arms?" "Yes!" "Then leeeet's do this!!" Haha he's such a crack up!

Tonight we went out Octapas for paella, sangria, and churros, delish! 

The atmosphere in Clarke Quay at night is so buzzy, we felt great strutting down the main street in heels and new dresses! A wonderful and tiring day!

A Perfect End to a Perfect Trip!

Wow! We've had a busy few days with a lot to catch up on! On Thursday we went to the Canberra zoo and aquarium which was so much fun and very exciting!

We were there early and almost all of the animals were being interesting - which is a first in our zoo-going experience. We saw two gay lions getting it on (also a first...), a sun bear playing and trying to scratch an itch that it couldn't quite reach, King Julien from Madagascar, a big brown bear like chewy awwwww, and a lot of Aussie wildlife: dingos, kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, wombats, and emus.

Will recently decided that chameleons, or "camouflage lizards," are his favourite animals. He spent the whole time in the aquarium pointing out the animals blending in, and told us: "I'm a pretty good camouflage spotter." 

We went to the zoo sausage sizzle and had the classic Aussie sausage sangers we've missed so much! Yum!

We had a quiet evening at home and delish salmon risotto for dinner.

Next day we had one very last surprise in store for grandpa... We'd secretly organised with grandma to come over for lunch and the surprise went perfectly! We saw uncle Matt too while we were over and it was lovely to catch up with all of them.

We had driven to their place and on the way back we got a little turned around, yikes! We went the wrong way and were trying to turn around when we found ourselves in the left lane (good) of two left lanes of oncoming traffic (eek! Not good!). Han did a quick reverse manoeuvre and got us back on track but it was slightly terrifying... 

When we got home Phe came over for one last visit. Eddie suggested that we show Phe the finished dance as a dress rehearsal before we perform for the whole fam on Saturday. Mid way through "I Would" by 1D, though, Eddie had a bit of a mishap!

It really was hilarious! Once we knew Ed wasn't hurt we all had a bit of a laugh and had another (more successful) crack at the dance. So here it is, the long awaited, umm, masterpiece...

--- eeeek! Just kidding! It won't upload right now so we'll try again later ---

The next day was Saturday, our last full day in Aus! We got up early to watch the kiddies at their swimming lessons - they did SO well and were absolutely adorable!

After that we went out for a coffee with our childhood friend Nick. It was so great to see him after about 8 years! We've all grown up but none of us have really changed all that much.

We had a lot to catch up on though, and it was awesome to hear all about Nick! He'd just come back from field training with ADFA, so he was considerably more badass than he was the last time we saw him!

Nick dropped us home in time to help get ready for a big Sunday roast with the whole fam. Lucy helped Eddie and Will ice/decorate cupcakes - this is the pose Han got when she asked for "nonchalant."

The lunch was perfect and it was great to catch up with the fam! Sue also brought a tin of our favourite shortbread over for us to take back to LA, so sweet of her! We've already started on it since getting back and it's seriously helping with the homesickness for Aus.

We got absolutely destroyed in the cricket that night, which was entirely depressing, and watched some of the Tour de France before packing our bags and going to sleep.

Yesterday - if it even counts as yesterday, so confusing - we had a yummy breakfast, watched Han's ballet recital dvd, and did early birthday prezzies before heading to the airport. We had a bittersweet goodbye, sad to leave after such a lovely visit but excited to head back to LA. Part of our b'day present was a countdown timer to our Chrissy holiday in Thailand, only 150 days until we see each other again!

The flight was entirely unpleasant :( neither of us slept and a baby a few seats away cried for all but, I don't know, about two hours, ugh. We made it, though, and knew Ollie and Wyatt would be at LAX to pick us up... They weren't. Haha we gave them a wake up call and they left soon after to come get us.

We made it back to the apartment and on the top of our to do list was catching up on The Bachelorette! Tonight is the second last episode and we're glad to be caught up! We're pretty into it...

We have a big day of unpacking, errands, grocery shopping, and laundry planned for today, so we'd best be off! It feels great to be back in sunny LA, the city of angels.