It's unbelievable, my little Matthew is now 3 yrs old and little Miss Mia is going to be 1. I want to have time slow down a little just so I can cherish the fun and joyful things that have happened this year!

In October, Wei-Han had to make a trip to Hanoi for work and we decided that it would be great if I could go along with him. Our
first thoughts were to bring Mia with us, but as she grew to be more independent, we decided to leave her at home. My mum flew up from Sydney for almost a week just to oversee things. Tina, our fantastic helper, and my mum did a fabulous job looking after the kids and keeping them happy. Mia who pretty much refused to drink from the bottle or sleep through consistently since she was 6 months old, did so when we were away. Typical....

Wei-Han and I had a really nice time in Hanoi. Of course being a work trip, there were some perks like, staying at the Hilton, which was flash. It was certainly a nice haven for resting after walking around shopping and breathing in the city pollution. I liked Hanoi, it was charming, full of character, the food was great whether Western or Vietnamese, and the people were lovely. Always polite, pleasant and gentle. I never felt worried about pick pockets or unsavoury characters either, it seemed no one did, at least it the areas we were at.

Wei-Han spent a day and a half working while I toured around in their version of a trishaw and shopping. The time with Wei-Han was really nice, much like a second honeymoon as we haven't really had a trip on our own for a number of years. After that, our friends Krisi, Amy and Carmen from church arrived and I spent a whole day shopping with them while Wei-Han wisely decided to go on a day tour to Tam Coc. I did most of our Christmas shopping then. I have never until then, shopped like that before. Now I know what they mean by a 'shopping trip'! The things in Hanoi were not dirt cheap like in Bangkok, however, the quality was much better in general and they were cheaper than in Singapore. I was exhausted by 5pm and decided to leave the other girls to continue. I was amazed that even Carmen who had sprained her ankle the day before was still going strong.

Wei-Han had a good time on the boats and going through caves and seeing rice fields. His boat was rowed by a strong 80 year old woman, which even Wei-Han struggled to row. Some of these people would also use their feet to row, which was just amazing.