The Family Holiday Part 1

I know that this is a long time coming, and as you know, I have been (insert excuse here).

But I have decided that I would like to remember these past few months as well as I can, and so here, via the benefits of my birthday Canon Ixus 80 iS and the wonders of Photoscape, I would like to present to you, The Cheoks on vacation:



Mum and Grace had arrived a few days earlier, but I couldn't see them at the airport because I was away working in M. This was going to be a relaxing trip for my sister and my Mum before my sister started her housemanship year proper (a.k.a. the ninth circle of working-life Hell) in Malaysia.

And so K picked me up from the airport - it was really good seeing her after being away for awhile - and we drove off to Tai Pan for their yum cha there. I can't tell you how happy we were as a family to meet again - this was only my sister's second trip to Melbourne and my Mum's fourth (I think, Mum?). My brother, D, HC and J were there as well, so it really felt like a reunion of sorts.

The timing couldn't have been any better as well - it was my sister's (insert desired number here, Grace)th birthday - so we went over to HC and J for a time of birthday celebrations (with J's beautiful homemade cheesecake) and to play the Wii and to let Angus, their King Charles' Cavalier pee all over us in its excitement again!



There was also a chance for our favourite get-together meal - steamboat - which is basically boiling raw meat and vegetables in a common soup pot and dipping them in yummy sauces before devouring it. As usual, there was enough food leftover to feed a tiny nation.

Unfortunately, I had a week-long course to attend, and my brother and his girlfriend and K had to play host without me. I will say very little about these next few photos, but put them up for my family to remember as well.



Yummy breakfast at the Boathouse in Maribyrnong, loved dearly by K, and tolerated by me. (I'm going to be in so much trouble for writing this!)



Travelling to the Dandenongs and Sassafras - Geppeto's Workshop, where Pinnochio works behind the counter and has to chop his nose every night because he'd lie so often to the customers in the daytime.



And of course, no trip to Sassafras is complete without a trip to Miss Marple's - wonderful scones, decadent sundaes and more teapots than in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

I love this top left hand corner photo of my brother and D, taken expertly by K.