Melbourne holiday - 23 Sep

It's breakfast time. Farmer Susan was busy in the kitchen. So she couldn't join us Western style breakfast. Needless to say, I go for the juice and cereal Last picture at Bringalbit - the adjoining room which we didn't use Farmer Susan sent us to Kyneton train station. We took train back to Melbourne I happened to pass by Aldi Stores supermarket which is few shops away from Avis car rental. While hubby settle the car rental, I shopped at the supermarket. The price of the items in this supermarket are fairly cheap. And, the quality is very good. This Belgium truffles cost only A$2.99. It has very fine texture that melts in the mouth. I intended to bring 1 box to my office, 1 box to hubby's office and 1 box for grandma. When I opened the box of truffles for my colleagues, the truffles were melted and hardened into a block from air-con environment in the office. I was so embrassed and brought it home to cut then passed around in office the following day. Because of this, I didn't give the other 2 boxes away. Everyone at home simply love this truffles. It is the best we ever tasted. After we checked in to Cowes Holiday Unit in Philip Island we hurried to the renowned penguine parade at Summerland beachTook the 1st picture before entering the park. No picture is allowed beyond this point Many visitors were there when we arrived All the good seats at the side were occupied. It was freezing seating by the beach to wait for dusk. The breeze was chilly. Brrr......

The following photos are obtained from website. Thanks to those who contributed these photos

At dusk, fairy penguins return to shore. Fairy penguin is the smallest penguin in the worldThe penguins moved in group. If one penguin in the group got frightened and moved back to the sea, all the others follow suit. They can go back and forth a few times before moving to their burrows. It's a very cute scene. Slowly, they moved back to their burrow. The baby penguin looks bigger than the adult penguin as their fur are very fluffy. A ranger told us that the baby penguin can't recognise their parents. They "attack" any adult penguin they came across for food. The adult penguin recognise their baby and bring food to their babies.
It was freezing cold. I wore my down jacket My baby penguin Baby penguin hiding away

Melbourne holiday - 22 Sep

We checked out of Easy Stay today to go for farm stay with Bringalbit http://www.bringalbit.com.au/index.html The charge was A$300 for my family (A$150 per adult) with 3 meals provided. Though farmer Susan was very kind to waive the charge for the boys (A$75 per child), it was still expensive to me! So, I decided not to drive to save on transport. We took a tram to Melbourn Southern Cross station then a train to Kyneton Station. Farmer Susan fetched us from Kyneton Station to her farm.
I searched information on Southern Cross station and discovered that they have locker for hire to allow travellers to leave their luggage at the station. I was very happy with this discovery. We don't have to lug all luggages and 2 boys to and fro the farm.

The train journey was smooth except Png Png pooed in the train. Good thing Australia is a very baby friendly place where changing station can be found easily everywhere. There was baby chaning station in the toilet in the train

Farmer Susan gave us 2 adjoining rooms but the weather was freezing cold. So all of us squeezed into 1 bed

On the bed

The pictures on the wall were drawn by farmer Susan Sofa in the room There is a heater next to the sofa. The heater didn't help The weather was too cold The other side of the room that adjoin to another room. We saw the farm animals through the window next to the chairTobby - according to farmer Susan is the naughtier dog among the 2 dogs she keeps Chen Chen prefers to play with Tobby. Tobby likes hubby to tickle it It scrached hubby's leg then lied down facing up to let hubby tickle it. Clever dog. The white color dog is Silver The sheeps in the field were too small to be seen Png Png played with toy egg while waiting for lunch to be served Lunch was ready. We were extremely hungry as it was closed to 2pm Before we start to chomp the food, we presented gifts to farmer Susan. We gave her a condiment set and a paper weight in the shape of a red high heel shoes with Merlion inside. We threaded Susan Fox and sticked it on the red high heel paper weight with candle. I thought farmer Susan will like the personalised paper weight more but she was more fasinated with the condiment set instead. She said the condiment set matches her kitchen very well Lunch at last! I was worried of Png Png's food initially My worry was unnecessary.Testing..... Yummy..... Tongue licking good Chomp Chen Chen likes farmer Susan very much. He kept talking to her and shared his chocolate with her, not even his parents sob sob sob..... Farmer Susan likes Chen Chen too. She gave her drawing of a possum to Chen Chen as souvenir
After lunch, farmer Susan showed us around the farmHerbs and veg plantationBeautiful flowersThe chooksCollect chook eggs. This is what Chen Chen enjoyed the most. It was in fact his main criteria when choosing farm stay



See how happy he was after he brought the chook egg outFeed the chooks Png Png put grains on the chook's body. Nobody taught him that. He thought of it himself. What a naughty ideaFeed the cats. There were 4 cats, 3 with tiger stripes and 1 plain black color. They were very shy. Farmer Susan advised us to leave the food then hide so that the cats will come out to eat the food Suprisingly the shiest black cat among the 4 cats came out to eat though we were still pouring the cat food in their bowls. It must be starvingNaughty Png Png put the cat's food on the cat's body I didn't know Chen Chen love animals so much until I saw what he did in the farm He didn't enjoy the animals so much when we went to far stay in Perth last year


It was freezing at night. We let Chen Chen did some assessment in the study room. The fireplace in the study room First time we sit next to the real fire place
It was really nice and warm

Png Png's right lower eyelid swell mid way through dinner. It was so bad that he couldn't open his eyes. Farmer Susan was very kind to offer her eye drop but I dare not use it on Png Png as it was stated not suitable for children under 3 year old. I wet towel with tap water which was icy cold and dap on Png Png's eye That helped to reduce the swelling. Farmer Susan guessed the swell was caused by Png Png rubbing his eyes with his hand with lemon juice. He held a cut lemon on his hand.