HI!!!
How is everyone? I hope all is well and everybody had a good school holiday break :)
It was a great holiday for me and my family .... not because of the places that we visited and discovered but we bonded closer than ever as a family. The distance we travelled by road is about 4193km and confined in the car together for long durations has taught us to be more tolerant of one another.
As parents, we naturally would want to give only the best to our children, but sometimes there are some limitations to what we can give.Travelling on a budget also opened up our eyes. To have a great holiday need not be visiting all the regular places that usually requires "entrance fee" but the unexpected places we come across during our road trip that made it very special.
I have to pull my hat off to my kids, aisyah 16, irfan 14 and jasmin 10 for understanding greatly about travelling on a budget. That means making choices about park visits. We can not be visiting every theme park, every zoo, every wildlife parks and every attractions there are in australia. Eating choices are limited too. Some days we have light snacks and later a big home cook dinner back at the apartment to compensate for lunch! The children never complained a bit.
Well not that they never complain about anything....plenty of the normal stuff and most of it is while on the road and after a long drive like...."hey...dont squoosh me!" or "you are taking too much space...move over!" ....or..."you are in the loo too long!"
Sometimes we felt that perhaps we are overdoing it a tad bit by going on such long trip but yesterday, we knew we made the right choice.
Our son irfan wanted to eat some fishballs at a regular eatery and he suggested that we go on saturday. His dad said, not possible because on saturday irfan has to attend taekwondo. So because irfan is schooling in the afternoon session, his dad suggested breakfast the next day after sending the girls to school and this was irfan's reply,
"nah...i dont want to go without aisyah and jasmin. Its not fun without them."
well, that is what a holiday of 24/7 together for 24 days did. What normally would be to just agree and go has made him to pause a moment and thought of his siblings and to include them too.....felt so touched
I am glad to be home. I missed everything. I am slowly building back the routine that was left 3 weeks ago and to get everything going back again. During the trip, i did not do much of wire craft. Not because of the lack of time but i just realise how bad my eyesight is without my daylight lamp. After visiting the craft and quilt show, my love for needlecraft was rekindled and i did lots of knitting! completed two scarves during the trip :)
The only wirework i did during the trip was in jindabyne and that is because i just can't stay away from some stones i collected during the trip. I collected stones found all over australia and they are unusual ones.
I noticed almost everywhere there will be one rack with different "healing" stones. These are common stones like rose quartz for love and passion, turquoise for protection etc etc. Either they are made into necklaces, bracelets, bag charms or just a single rock to just put in the pocket.
I know about the healing properties of different stones and how each stone give out different vibrations and how that vibe connect to our own needs but this is one area i prefer not to touch although i think its pretty cool if we know what each stone's healling properties are.
I was once told that, we do not choose the stone but the stone chooses us. Has anyone felt a strong attraction to one particular stone not knowing its healing properties and later found out that the healing properties actually matches with your body and soul's needs?
I never believed it till i discovered why at one time only moonstones caught my eye. Anyway to go into that detail wud be another long story and i think this rambling is long enough already!
I wrote earlier that the break would help me to think about future plans and directions and it truly did help to clear up the mind and i can see better the best path that i should take for the moment :)
This is just the beginning and the road is long and i am not afraid of the challenge. Work hard, work smart and as the australians like to say "No Worries mate!"
:)
M
