Travel with toddlers

As I was planning and then experiencing a holiday with a little one in tow, I was struck by how little child-friendly touches make all the difference whereas being child un-friendly exponentially makes ones life hell. Planning the holiday was tough in this respect. Family rooms often mean a larger room with an extra bed, meaning when Eve goes to sleep we all do. Some places charged me for the cot. Some places only serve food so late that it would be impossible with a child who likes to be in bed by 8 etc etc.

There aren't that many good, well researched, guides about places to stay with small children so I thought I would start one. I am relying on my better connected blogging Mummy friends to point people here or, if this already exists, point me in the right direction to another one. Who knows, it may take on a life of its own at some point.

So, to kick off, here is my find from my last trip.

Dunk Island, Queensland, Australia

Perfect for kids. Kids eat free with a paying adult and there is a choice of 2 restaurants for most meals. Two pools, one large safe and protected sandy beach, a few other beaches ideal for hunting for cool stuff such as crabs and shells and interesting stones (Muggy Muggy beach is especially good and comes after a fun short trail walk around the coast). It has a farm onsite so there is lots of fun to be had playing with the animals and feeding the pigs. Has horse riding (for older kids or yummy mummies) as well as lots and lots of water sports. There is a kids club, although we didn't use it. Has all sorts of other things you can do as a family too, we did a guided bird and butterfly walk and there are so many cane toads we would go hunting for them on the way home from supper every night. The garden rooms, where we stayed, have a separate bedroom at the back with two single beds so you can put the little ones to bed and still sit in the main room or on the balcony. Baby cots are free.

The best bit is that the staff and the whole environment is very child-friendly. For example, staff tend to bring the children their food first when you are eating and nobody minds at all if children run around in the restaurants. Nobody minded at all when Eve decided to play tennis with us and was happily brandishing a full size racquet and bashing it on the floor. All quite stress free for parents.

The only down side is the selection of food for children - mainly friend and processed with few vegetables. That said, we found the same everywhere we went in Australia on the kids menus.

Update in 200 words or less

Apologies for all being quiet on the Yummy Mummy front. A combination of new job requiring full time in the office and a much needed two week holiday has meant lack of time and blogging has gone to the bottom of the list. So, in 200 words or less (yes, I will count) here is a quick update.

Job all good, loving it. Brain is working again and the people are great. Don't get to work from home (bummer) but also no longer have to travel at all (yey!). Rowing brilliant. Won the big race of the year, beating 3 crews of fully funded full time international level athletes in the process. Celebrated with me crew lots, danced most of the night, discovered the benefits of Cbeebies when you have a hangover - bad mummy. Eve good, speaking lots. Much like me and very opinionated. Potty training going like a cream with not much effort required, she seems to like going to the loo. Not quite at the stage where she asks in advance unless she is naked. Holiday great. Much fun in Sydney with the amazing aquarium and beaches (and the Hunter Valley wine festival for Mummy and Daddy). Then island with beaches, sun, a farm with escapologist pig, horses, goats etc. Met a 2m long carpet python on a run but after childbirth nothing scares me now. My parents have just arrived, Eve being spoilt rotten and loving ordering two more people around at her whim.

Plant update #2

Bad news and good news.

Bad news is that of the 3 basil plants only one is grimly hanging in there and it only has 2 leaves. I think it may shortly be going gently into that good night.

Good news is that the rosemary is thriving and I even used it to cook last night.

The even better news is that the small pot of dead leaves that Eve picked is going from strength to strength. It has new leaves, is growing and positively thriving.

Playground darling

I have been a bit miffed lately because my previous playground boyfriend (he of the being very impressed by my basketball skills) has been neglecting me a bit lately. In fact, he has barely said hello for quite a few weeks. So, imagine my surprise and delight today when he came over to Eve and I while we were playing hopscotch (well, jumping on the hopscotch outlines) and threw his boomerang at me. Now I am no expert in nine year old boys, but I think that is as close to a declaration of love as you can get.

Plant update

All are still alive one week on. The basil is looking a bit weedy and the small tub of dead leaves is suffering a bit from too much love (i.e. water from Eve) but also seems to be alive.

I wouldn't make any bets on any of them lasting another week though. I know my green fingers of death far too well to make that assumption.

Dear so & so, HK version

Inspired by Fraught Mummy, and after my own rather strange week, here are my postcards from the edge.

Dear husband

I know that you have a busy and important job, but did you really have to spend the whole of the month away leaving me to deal with starting a new job, 4 weeks of bloody hard rowing training and a toddler to get up, get out and put to bed on my own each day? You may have noticed that our phone calls about what a brilliant time you are having in various overseas locations are getting shorter and shorter.

Yours, tired and feeling a bit stressed.

PS. And it had to be this week that the bloody car decided to break down didn't it.
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Dear security guard at the library

Toddlers make noise. Especially when they are a bit tired and it is near lunchtime. Looking sternly at me and following us around is actually worse than your colleague who asked me to leave last time. If you didn't want children to make noise while their parents check out the books then you shouldn't have such a brilliant children's section (for which I am very grateful).

Yours, the mother of a normal child

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Dear HK bus authorities

I know the reason you have so many buses is because the more you run the more money you are allowed to make, but wouldn't it make sense to put the stops for all the buses that go to the same place in roughly similar locations? I don't understand why I have to walk 200m to two different bus stops to get two buses that run to the same place and are operated by the same company.

Please explain.

Yours, a bit tired and hot

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Dear darling daughter

When Mummy tells you things, it helps if you do them. Like not trying to eat your shoes after taking them off in the taxi, or pulling at the door handle in the taxi while we are moving, or having a screaming fit in the middle of the library because I wanted to check out the books so we could read them at home. There was a reason why you didn't get your beloved pizza for lunch and we came home instead, but I am not sure you have quite made the link.

Yours, loving but fraught mummy


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Dear NOW broadband

Thank you so very, very much for giving us the full package of BBC channels without charging us for them. I don't know how or why you chose to do that a few weeks ago but Cbeebies has changed my life.

Yours, joining the ranks of mothers who realise that TV is an excellent babysitter and that you can get over the guilt quite easily when you need time to take a shower

Green fingers

As part of the Mummy-Daughter bonding on the National Day public holiday, in the afternoon I decided to take Eve to Mongkok to go to the flower market. I love Mongkok, it is everything about big cities that I love and it is distinctly Hong Kong. It is a connurbation of roads, markets, shops, street food stalls but all rather down at heel. A couple of years ago the powers that be built a plush shopping centre to try to lift the area up a notch or two, but it failed, and it is still the dirty, busy, messy place I love. At weekends, and public holidays, it is heaving with people. What a perfect idea with a toddler in tow!

We had a lot of fun. We went to the street with all the fish stalls and saw a few too many endangered species for sale for me to feel comfortable. We went to the bird park and market, saw the old men taking their birds out for a walk, ate our supper of ham-filled Chinese buns and looked at a few more endangered species.

Our final stop was the flower market. The flower market is lovely, just over a street full of shops and stalls selling stunning flowers at ridiculous prices, as well as all manner of plants and even the odd ornamental cabbage - something I have wanted since I first saw them in Japan 6 years ago but have never got over the sheer impracticality of them enough to buy one. I needed basil and rosemary, having killed off the last ones we had, and I told Eve she could pick her own plant to buy and look after. I tried to steer her towards by favourites, the plants with the sensitive leaves that fold when you touch them. Or a bonsai (so pretty), or something with flowers. Eve eventually stopped next to a rather non-descript box of small plants on the floor and pointed at what looked like a collection of half-dead leaves. "Dat" the shouted. "Darling, are you sure you want that one? What about the one over there with flowers?". She looked more sternly at me. "Dat" she insisted a little more firmly and grabbed the leaves.

Eve insisted on carrying it all the way home, on the train, while I carried her, a bag and a few other plants on a very busy MTR. That particular trauma is a whole other post on its own.

So, we are now the proud owner of one of the most bland little plants I have ever seen. Of course the pot was far too small so I have now spent more than the plant cost on new pot and soil. It had better live for a while.