Back from a 21-day holiday

I guess we've all been quite busy when we got back that I forgot to post this blog!

Our flight from Frankfurt touched down June 17, a Friday. The following week passed by so fast. 

Brought Ira to KKH for his regular eye check up. No changes in eye grade, therefore, he doesn't need to change lenses (yippeee!). Had a visit to the barber for the boys' haircut, a few days ahead of school resumption to avoid the crowd. I met up with a friend, Jonalyn, (actually, my roommate when I was a freshman) who I haven't seen for the past 10 years! Yes, the last time we saw each other was during my church wedding way back Dec 2001. It became a mini reunion with another college friend, Myra, who has also been living here in Singapore for a few years now. She brought her baby along and he is soooo adorable! A well-behaved kid, indeed! 

Then, over the weekend, another long time friend visited Singapore. Ate Ting was a very good friend in college, as like the rest of my college (and HS friends), I haven't seen her since.... my church wedding! Now I've realized if we didn't have our church wedding in the Philippines I wouldn't have seen my friends after leaving the uni. Anyway, she stayed with us for a few days, but I was only able to accompany her to Chinatown on her second day in Sg. Why? Well, it was already the start of school the next Monday. That means back to being a household director :)

But before I totally leave "dreamland" and go back to reality, I have a few insights during our long holiday:

• travelling with the rest of the family is really better than travelling without them. Kids may grumble and have tantrums now and then. But without these the experience seems incomplete
• some cities / attractions are way over-rated. But it's part of being a tourist, I guess. You see things you really love, then you see things you can't even bother about.
• itineraries are there only as a guideline. You're not really meant to strictly follow it. There will definitely be some visits to "unlisted" places. And sometimes, it's well-worth the trouble.
• don't believe in everything other people say about a destination. They may have experienced the city differently from you. Just take note and use it as a precaution.
• when travelling on a holiday, we not only learn things about our destination, but also things about ourselves and our family. We learn new things about each other. We learn to put up with each other. We learn how to become a better parent/person from other people (either from those who we are travelling with, or the locals and tourists we meet along the way).
• Travelling IS a learning experience. We shouldn't deprive ourselves of having one :) BUT we shouldn't over indulge and get ourselves into so much debt just to be able to do so. Do everything in moderation :)