Author: Angela

Goodbye Singapore

It was an interesting time to be in Singapore with the coronavirus just emerging. We were very impressed with their public health messages such as videos showing on big screens outside shopping malls and posters. We were reassured with the authority’s contact tracing and monitoring of new cases in the media. We were impressed to see that the Apple Store had hand sanitisers at the entrance and that everyone was using them. We took universal precautions and stayed away from public transport.

I liked when we went to the Merlion. I also liked the hostel and the food courts.

Martha

It was hot and humid but I liked the food, especially the meat and rice!

Sam

Sam and Martha enjoyed eating at the various food courts and hawker stalls. Sam particularly enjoyed our 2 visits to the Michelin star stall Hawker Chan.

We felt that there were less tourists around than there would have normally been, especially around Chinatown. In our short time in Singapore we were able to visit all the places that we wanted to but would like to return and see more!

Sumner Beach

Exciting day today – for months now I have been looking forward to seeing my friend Rhiannon. We trained together in the UK and then she came out to visit my friend Jo and I when we worked in New Zealand 20 years ago and she’s stayed ever since!

She came and found us at the holiday park and navigated us to Sumner Beach. That area had been cut off during the 2011 earthquake. There are still some houses perched up on the cliff that look very precarious.

We had a lovely lunch at the cafe on the beach and shared a few hours catching up together. Last time we met up was when we were in Christchurch 6 years ago – Rhiannon says Sam hasn’t changed, just got taller, but Martha of course is so very different from her 11 month self!!

We’ll look forward to seeing Rhiannon again when we return to Christchurch at the end of the month.

Goodbye Isaac, Alfie, Clare and George!

On our last day in Perth we did ‘jobs’ – we packed up all our rucksacks and cases, we sent a box of bits and bobs back home and we returned library books.

Today we also attended the birthday party of Isaac’s friend, and the kids reported it was the best party ever – bowling and arcade games, sushi (Sam now likes this!) and pizza – thank you to Clare’s friend for inviting us, we had a blast!

We’ve had a lovely three weeks in Western Australia. Thank you so much to Clare and her family for their hospitality. It was so good to see Clare again, and meet Alfie, it’s been lovely having a family base between trips, and the kids have loved playing with Isaac! We will miss you all!

Next stop is the east coast – Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

Perth (part 2)

By huge coincidence our dates for visiting Perth and Western Australia coincided with the annual Motor Neuron Disease conference being held in Perth.

I was very excited when I first realised this months ago and booked my ticket to attend. So for 4 days this week I have commuted into the city centre and attended the Allied Health Professions (AHP) day and the main medical and research conference.

I’ve learnt such a lot about current research in current practice, cause and treatment of MND: when I return to the UK I’ll hopefully be able to share lots of interesting information with my fellow AHPs at Airedale NHS Trust.

I was thrilled to see Emily Plowman presenting as I have been following her research and trying to promote it in clinical practice within my West Yorkshire networks.

And it was lovely one lunch time to be able to go out and meet Mike and the kids for a brief play before heading back in!

I met some great people during the conference, one doctor lives in Sydney and we’re hoping to meet up for a walk when we visit there in February! I also bumped into a Consultant Neurologist who I used to work with at Airedale before he emigrated to Australia. He was also at the conference and it was lovely to catch up with him and reminisce! I spent a lot of time at the poster session and through good luck managed to get a personal explanation from Nora who went on to win the Biomedical Poster Prize.

On 4/12/19 it was the innaugral Global Walk to D’Feet MND, raising awareness with a sea of MND t-shirts walking 5 Kms along the Swan River! Martha joined me for the walk and was my special reporter on the spot!

Hello Australia!

So excited to reach Perth! I’ve been planning this part for months as we are staying with our friends who moved here a couple of years ago. So lovely to see Clare again, and for Martha to play with Isaac her old nursery friend again!

We arrived very early in the morning after very little sleep overnight on the flight so first course of action was to go to bed for a couple of hours! We were back in the land of the living by the time Isaac got home from school so we went to the park for a play – very relaxing!

  • Perth Airport

Cambodia Landmine Museum

This museum was a revelation! I would thoroughly recommend it if you are in Cambodia in the future. It was really interesting and helped us to understand the ongoing effects of conflict long after the ‘actual’ war has ended.

The audio guide really held the children’s attention and they came away with a much deeper understanding than if they had trailed around after us.

Of course it helped that Sam being Sam is fascinated by the mines and loved the video of how the teams locate long buried mines and blow them up.

To Siem Reap

Today we left our apartment in Phnom Penh and travelled to Siem Reap. We went by car with a driver as an alternative to taking a boat or a bus this time. The road used to wash away in the wet season but in recent years has been improved.

We stopped just over halfway (140km) at a nice restaurant next to the Prey Pros River to have lunch.