​We folded the last of the laundry pile, put the luggage bags away, washed the car, trimmed the hedges, harvested the potatoes, fulfilled the shop orders and started to properly breathe after the a-European adventure we just had. Each breath seemed to lead to a yearning for another adventure. After all, we’ve been really fortunate to have extended dry weather and sunshine since Spring. It seemed like a good time for a wild adventure.
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​​I thought to myself, should we do Europe again? A quick search on the internet reminded me of the great summer robbery that has begun. The trains, ferries, planes, hotels, campsites, attractions are out in full force to fleece eager families who want to make the best of their summers. I wasn’t willing to be fleeced like that. What can I do then that’s exciting for the whole family and possibly fulfil a bucket list of mine? What can I do for more adventure but less money?

The first step was to eliminate the need to pay for expensive transportation.
Planes were £500 just for a hop over to Paris on the most budget airlines
Ferry tickets went from £124 to £250 for the same Dover to Calais crossing
Trains were £700 from home to Paris excluding booking fees and most trains were already full.

At this point I decided a trip on our Island home would be more sensible than crossing the channel into the continent.

The second step was to eliminate the need to pay for expensive accommodation
Hotels cost between £100-200 a night for the whole family
Holiday rentals that usually cost £250 for 4 nights now cost £600

I was ready to give up at this point. How else am I going to do an adventure without transport or accommodation? Where am I going to sleep? In the wild? In a tent? Wait…I could go CAMPING!
We can take the car and maybe…we could do the NC500 that is on my bucket list! Oh wait…Debra and the kids have never camped and Debra mentioned she didn’t like the idea of paying money to sleep on the ground outside….

I convened an emergency family meeting after consulting the Met Office (that was wildly  optimistically in hindsight for its forecast of fine weather in the Scottish Highlands). Shall we do a budget friendly but massive NC500 adventure by camping all along the route IN 2 DAYS TIME? To my surprise, the vote was unanimously YES.

We got busy packing and got the necessary equipment to make our first camping adventure a pleasant one. It is crazy that if you add the cost of the tent, camping table, stove, gas bottles, sleeping bags, mattresses, boxes to organise our utensils, ground sheet, pillows, food and drink supplies up, they cost less than booking a hotel/holiday rental (4 nights), plane tickets or train tickets. Moreover, everything other than the food and drinks can be reused for another trip in future. 

24 hours before we set off, the insanity of the adventure only dawned upon me when I started planning the route. I knew it was going to hard. 

Day 1

Once I’ve managed to stuff the boot full of our home, bedding and clothes for an intended 11 days, we set off early in the morning towards the Scottish border at 6am. Those who know us know that we are rubbish at functioning in the morning. So yes I made a wrong turn and missed our charging stop and as with all our major trips this summer, the heavens opened and it POURED. Had a slight slide on a tight bend in the rain but some gentle correction and the traction control straightened us up in an instance. Passing numerous horse boxes, combine harvesters, cows and sheep later, we finally arrived at the Scottish border for our first ever camping night as a family.

It was bone dry and there was actually sunshine and warmth! Just 5 miles from the campsite, it was just chucking it down and I was drenched unplugging the car at a charging point. This changeable weather situation will continue to be the theme throughout out adventures. A short shop for small pillows and bargain winter jackets for the exponentially growing kids later, we trudged on. This campsite was pretty nice and had a car charging point, clean showers, considerate campers. The gulls, cows and sheep however, were up at first light (which is about 430am).

​​Day 2

We had a solid 6-7 hours of sleep. I wish we stayed longer at this campsite but we had to continue north towards Inverness to begin the NC500.

Well here is where the wild Scotland really begins. As we headed North, rest stops become a lot more scarce and less fancy. Some charging stops are just by the side of a lay-by with a public toilet. Others were simply by the side of the road. Driving through the wild mountain roads, we were suddenly surrounded by thick fog. We couldn’t see beyond 5 meters. Both front and rear fogs were turned on but visibility was horrendous. A short while later, the pungent smell of soot filled the car’s cabin and visibility improved, we felt like we’ve entered into an evil wasteland. Burnt trees stripped of their leaves were surrounded by other charred and broken tree trunks. It was barren and lifeless. This wildfire devastated 11,827 hectares of moorland at Carrbridge and Dava in the Highlands.

We pushed through and arrived at a very soggy and foggy campsite in Nairn. Uneven ground, noisy neighbours, soggy all around and foggy from the time we arrived to the time we left.

​Day 3
We decided not to stay the full two nights. And as if that wasn’t enough, as we were packing the tent, it poured. I dried it out with a small cloth as much as I could. We headed over to Inverness ran the car’s battery down to almost 5% because charging points were either not accessible, not working or simply didn’t exist. 4 charging points later, we finally found one. The placement of the charger meant the cable was too short if two cars wanted to charge. Worst part was the car next to mine wasn’t charging at all, the tourists literally parked up, plugged in an went for a hike (Pretending to charge so they don’t have to pay for parking). I was fuming mad by then. Debra took the kids for an Ice Cream while I tried to calm myself down in the car after adjusting it a million times to get the charger to fit. It was 540 miles before we even began the 500 miles around the North Coast. I had to tell myself that this is an adventure and there will be complications.

A little pep talk later we pressed on another 105 miles to our next campsite in Wick. We were rewarded with beautiful views of the east coast of the Scottish highlands, tasted Haggis and got soaked in the rain. We drove through the clouds up the mountains before arriving at a very nice campsite with “toilets are so posh that there’s music” according to Matt. But disaster struck as we opened the tent after erecting it, all the rain on the tent we didn’t wipe off had pooled inside the tent. Debra spent the next half hour wiping the interior of the tent dry while I stood outside wringing the cloth every few minutes. A late dinner and a very powerful hot shower later, we all tucked into our comfy beds.
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​But the wildness of the Scottish highlands is also absolutely testing. Just as we reached the point where we needed to turn back, it suddenly turned dark and we helplessly watched the line of clouds and rain move towards us. We hid in a little military guard post for awhile but the rain did not relent. A very soggy 45 minute walk back to the campsite ensued. We stopped by a Lidl and tasted Iru-Bru for the first time. The cough mixture tasting Scottish soft drink did nothing to raise our spirits. We returned to puddles on the camping chair, soaked shoes, and dripping towels. The biggest shock was when we entered the tent and found that the rain had gone through the fly net, slid off the waterproof windows and soaked all the bags of clean clothing in our tent. The living area was flooded once again. 

We’ve grown to hate this symbol by now.  It must be the go to symbol when meteorologist have no clue. It is a symbol of madness. You’ll truly be able to experience a few seasons in a day in Scotland. No wonder the Romans gave up and left. They must have felt the same frustrations we did.

Thankfully unlike the Romans, we had access to a launderette with washing machines and dryers at the campsite. All the clothing went for a wash. We needed a wash too. A simple dinner made under a sheltered picnic area later, the kids hit the sack while I tried to fill in the gaps of my charging plan on the even wilder west coast of the highlands.

Day 5

Easily the most idyllic day of the whole trip. We had sunshine most of the day so the kids ran around the campsite and found some friends from Glasgow, Leicester and Essex to play football, rugby and tag with. It was so nice to see that the kids all genuinely enjoyed playing together. A lot of laughter and no fuss. That meant I had time to sit down, sip a cup of tea and read a book. Debra managed to have some shuteye and it was a joyful day of camping.

​We made a quick dash to Tesco before Debra whipped up the best camping meal we had all week. Mash, gravy, veggies, and BBQ maple pork loin. Just as we packed most of the things ready to hit the roads again, it turned cold that evening and rained on and off through the night. We are hardened campers by now and slightly more experienced to realise we shouldn’t leave our stuff outside to “dry”.

Day 6
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We planned to leave early so we could arrive early at our next campsite in Tongue. Yes, Tongue is a place on the northern coast in Scotland. As usual, the weather had other ideas and we had to sit out a morning shower. After drying the tent as much as we could, we left for John O’ groats. I must say that I was quite proud at that point that we’ve managed to drive all the way from home to John O’ Groats. Not forgetting that we drove from home to France, Belgium, Holland and Germany just the week before.

If you are driving an electric car to Scotland, you’ll find chargers at some of the most beautiful places. But the overall charging experience can be quite shocking if you try using an app or just your bank card. Phone networks are sketchy and many of the attached card machines don’t work very well. My best advice is, order an RFID card from Electroverse. It works with Chargeplace Scotland’s chargers that make up the vast majority of fast DC chargers in the Highlands. Always plan extra stops. We once couldn’t find a charger that was supposed to be there and ran into a fast charger that wasn’t on the map.

​Shortly after we were done eating, a couple entered the cafe with their massive pet dog and the kids went forward and asked to pet it. I was shocked beyond words. For children who used to run away at the sight of an animal, they have grown beyond my imagination. And yes, I’ve been battling requests for a dog at home. I’d love one too but I still have not gotten over the fact that I’ll lose them in 10-15 years time. The guinea pigs we had left a huge hole in our hearts when they passed on.
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We were back on the road again after lunch and arrived at the campsite in Tongue. It looked nothing like what we saw in the pictures. The moment the doors open, the dreadful midges began their assault for fresh blood. More than that, we felt really uncomfortable at the place. We decided to drive a little further down the NC500  and look for another campsite further down the South Western Coast. It turned out to be a choice I now regret.

Gwyn got car sick on one of the roughest and windiest mountain roads. Had to slow down and we arrived at the next camp close to dusk. Unfortunately, dusk is the time when massive swarms of the infamous Scottish midges are most active, hungry and brutal. From the moment we exited the car, they swarmed our face and dug into our eye lids, ears, neck and anywhere that’s exposed. They will even fly into any gaps in your clothing and feed inside your clothing. I cannot express the alarming distress one feels when they begin to swarm around your face. We kept the kids in the car and set up the tent in record time before putting a kettle on inside the tent for some fast instant food. Some midges managed to enter the living area of our tent but we managed to keep the sleeping areas midge-free. It was also a very difficult night because the neighbours were busy smoking, smoking weed, getting drunk and being rowdy until past midnight.

I’m writing this post almost two weeks after our trip and the bites still look ghastly and feel insanely itchy.

Day 7

We had two options:

1. Continue the journey camping completely unprepared and endure the savage blood thirsty skin slashing creatures (midges have scissors like shears for a mouth to lacerate your skin to form a pool of blood to drink from).
2.  Do a long driving day and finish up the final bits of the NC500 before finding refuge at a hotel nearer to civilisation. Skip the other campsites we’ve planned for the journey south.

According to Matt in his journal, “Ytd was midges galore so today, we are going to a hotel. (We’re weak)”. Just like the Romans many years ago, we made our exit from the highlands with our tails between our legs. It was a harsh introduction to the wilder side of the British isles. We packed up our entire camp including the tent into the car in a record 35 minutes while helplessly having our blood robbed of us.
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While nature was quite unfriendly towards us, we met some nice people with amazing talents at the Bridge Cottage Art Cafe in Poolewe. The welcome was warm and the food was delicious. The incredibly talented family displayed their art and photography on the floor above the cafe. They even helped direct us as we had to reverse out of the charging lot onto a busy road. It was a much needed visit after what we’d experienced.

​​If you thought things were smooth sailing from there, it wasn’t. We drove to our planned charging stop and the chargers were broken. We went further to the reserve charging spot and it was also broken and blocked by a French car that parked across both chargers. We were now stranded. We were stuck with a fellow electric car owner who drove all the way up from Land’s end to John O’ Groats and now completing the NC500. Luckily, the French family returned and moved their ridiculously parked car. The fellow electric car owner and I both called Chargeplace Scotland and asked them to help. They were absolutely unhelpful and told us to drive 50 miles away to the next charging point when both of us were close to empty on charge. ZERO help rendered. Not even an offer to reboot the charger remotely. We tried our RFID cards, phone apps, debit cards of different banks but nothing worked.

Just as I released the brakes and started my risky journey to return to our last slow charging point (a couple of miles more than I have range for), the fellow electric car owner ran after our car and told me to stop! He said the charger suddenly worked and his car was charging. Phew! It was a close call. We stood around and had a conversation while his car charged and when it was done, my car charged up fine too.

As if Scotland really pitied our harrowing experiences for the past week, we were gifted some of the most epic views along the way and at Glen Docherty Viewpoint. We’ll try to put up videos of some of stunning drives we had on socials, so follow us for more!
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​We closed the loop of the NC500 journey and drove down to Glenrothes. Sadly, our tent bedding was more comfortable than the hotel beds and the fighting couple next door disturbed our sleep.

Day 8
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We decided that we had had enough. We are proud that we’ve conquered the NC500 but we were ready for some home comforts after a pretty rough week. The 350 mile journey back home was an arduous one. After breakfast at the hotel where tourists were piling their plates and jostling over food as if they haven’t eaten for ages, I battled my exhaustion and kept driving south. We were once again plagued by non-functioning chargers as we headed home. The only difference was that we weren’t in a wild place with no alternatives. It was nice to be back in England. As night fell, it became increasingly hard to stay awake but some energy drinks and snacks always do the trick. We had to drive past midnight before crossing the county lines back where home is.
It was a great feeling of accomplishment when we finally parked up on our driveway.

I knew it was going to be challenging just not THAT challenging. It is crazy to look at what it turned out to be:

1 tent
2 countries
4 people
4 campsites
6 nights in a tent
7 days in the highlands
38 charging stops
1546 miles (2488km)
Zero tailpipe emissions

Driving via the west from the Midlands
Through the Scottish Borders,
Onto Inverness
500 miles around the highlands via John O’ Groats back to Inverness
Back down to England via Glenrothes & Edinburgh
Finally home down the east to the Midlands

We managed to overcome long distances with a small battery, sketchy charging infrastructure, camping in the scottish highlands as a family with children, the trying weather and prepared food at camp that still catered to our food allergies and intolerances. This trip was far from an easy luxury trip. We faced a lot of challenges but through the chaos, we’ve made fond memories together. It wasn’t easy but it feels like an accomplishment. It feels like we can overcome big challenges together. It feels like we can one day do The overland together.

We all knew we needed a break after a really tiring 6 months trying to get Hiro & Jack Co. going. At first, we looked around the UK for a budget friendly option and then it became looking a flights. But at this point, the great summer holiday rip-off has descended. We tried looking at ferries to Northern Ireland to see the Giant’s Causeway but it cost £800-900 just to get across. As with any of our trips, a crazy idea ends up being the idea that gets the most votes. It was continental Europe! We even managed to score a really cheap ferry ticket from Dover to Calais. The only catch was it sailed from Dover at 7 in the morning and we live almost 200 miles away (4-5 hours) from that.

​It was a “living on a wing and a prayer” situation as we set off to Dover in the late afternoon. We had nothing planned. We didn’t know where we’d be visiting or where we were going to lay our heads the next day. It was quite a crazy trip down south and wasn’t without problems. Instead of arriving at a hotel near the port by 11pm for a sleep, we only managed to arrive at 230am. The darkness and tiredness meant I made a couple wrong turns that added at least 1.5 hours to the journey. The fast chargers were also shockingly slow and hindered our progress. As we put the kids down for a few hours of sleep, Debra and I decided the 2 hour sleep wasn’t worth feeling all groggy and stayed up instead to properly plan for the day.

The next morning at 5 in the morning, we loaded our car in the pouring rain and splashed our way to Dover ferry port. After passing the French Passport control, we queued for our ferry tickets and waited 20 minutes before loading began. It is an absolutely mind blowing sight to behold. The ferry swallowed HGVs with 40 foot trailers, camper vans and countless cars. Once we were safely parked, we headed to the upper deck but couldn’t head to the open air decks due to rain and wind. We just relaxed on the sofas and shut our eyes for the slightly rocky 90 min crossing. As the announcements came for us to return to our cars, we headed back down the belly of the ship. While waiting in the car, I configured the speedometer to show KM/H instead of Miles. It felt really strange seeing KM/H despite growing up using the metric system
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​As we drove down the ramp in Calais, all I could think of was “DRIVE ON THE RIGHT SIDE”. It was a little nerve wrecking when we arrived at the first roundabout and had to head right and go counter clockwise. A 5 minute crash course later, we arrived at a massive Carrefour in Calais and plugged the car while we had our breakfast at McDonald’s. I don’t know if this is the case for the entire France, but it was such an amazing experience when your food is served in proper reusable containers instead of paper boxes. Food was served to every customer eating in. The food tasted WAY better than what’s in the UK. It more than made up for the terrible journey down and the lack of sleep. It did give us some tummy aches after because it wasn’t gluten free but I think nobody complained. After stocking up on gluten free snacks and 6x 1L Evian water that cost €0.60 each, we headed 200km east towards the city of Brussels in Belgium. We made very good progress with the smooth and flat roads across France and into Belgium. The fast chargers were really fast too!
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​As we parked up at the hotel parking lot, we congratulated ourselves. It felt like we broke our own boundaries of what we thought was possible travelling with children in an old EV. We plugged the car in for the evening and headed off to recharge ourselves. We settled on the idea of leaving our car at the hotel and taking the public transport to spend the whole day in Brussels the next day. We had a rough idea of visiting the Windmills near Rotterdam (Netherlands) the day after.

​“Bonjour! Time for Hotel Breakfast!” That did the trick of getting the kids out of bed really quickly.
It feels amazing having a full breakfast and couple cups of coffee without having to make them and wash up after. Fuelled by the amazing eggs, hash browns and bacon, we caught a tram to the city centre. Matt said it reminded him of the Piccadilly line and I can see why. It was a lot less crowded and cramped compared to London though.

​As we walked through the streets of cobbled stones and stunning architecture, we couldn’t help but marvel at the attention to detail and handiwork of those made them. Really helps us see how far we’ve come with the glass buildings and new builds we have today 🤣 As we walked through The Grand Place, we spotted medallions of Roman emperors and it presented a great opportunity to talk about how Julius Caesar fought against the peoples of Gaul and conquered what we call Belgium today. It brought back fond memories of the time when we were Road-schooling for 7 months. With all the walking involved, it was also inevitable that we had to name all the famous Belgian footballers 😅 After we saw the Manneken Pis, it was unavoidable that his name was mentioned far too many times throughout the trip. It is hard to avoid unsanitary jokes when you are going to see a weeing boy everywhere 🤪
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You can’t go to Brussels and not have Belgian waffles and chocolates but sometimes food intolerances can get in the way of enjoying local delicacies. This time however, we are so grateful to find a shop that only serves gluten-free Belgian Waffles. As for the chocolates, we had an educational time at The Chocolate Museum learning about its origins, the painstaking process of making chocolate and tasting the different types of chocolate. If you want to be intrigued at the extremes of human endeavour just to get certain foods, read up on the story of tea and chocolates. Oh! Do look out for the containers they make just to serve these foods too.
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​The rest of the day was spent wandering around the famous sights of Brussels. We saw the Mont Des Arts, Parc de Bruxelles, Royal Gallery of Saint Hubert and chocolate shops. Highly recommend Elisabeth for chocolates and Pierre Marcolini for macarons. We were served by a lovely lady in Elisabeth who explained patiently about the difference between the 3 popular chocolatiers in Brussels. The other shops probably sold good chocolates but they are either very expensive or too crowded. 
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​That evening, our plans took a drastic change. The initial plan to visit Windmills was suddenly thrown out. Having clocked more than 11k steps in an afternoon, we decided not to put in another 11k steps the next day. We would have to pack up, look for another hotel in the Netherlands and risk missing the ferry with a super long drive back to Calais. Google reviews highlighted a challenging parking situation at the Windmills too.

The alternative plan was to stay another night in the same hotel but drive through Belgium, Netherlands and visit Aachen in Germany. It sounded like a very long drive but turned out to be the same distance driving to the windmills. As I poured over the details of charging along the way, I hit a road block with getting an emissions sticker to enter the low emissions zone in Aachen, Germany. We couldn't get it online in time and had to travel to the office to get it instead. There was a risk we couldn't get it. 

We took off anyway in the morning after another awesome breakfast and much coffee. The journey was surprisingly pleasant. Despite having to navigate dozens of apps to charge at different chargers, we seemed to have found our rhythm of driving an hour and charging for 10-15 minutes. Toilet, snack and playground breaks until we reach our destination is great for the mind and backs!
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​Our lunch stop break did however pull up a little drama in Netherlands when the charger didn’t charge the car and refused to release our cable. A phone call did help solve the issue. But we quickly forgot that drama when we found lots of amazing cheese and gluten free Stroopwafels 😍 at a local supermarket.

​It wasn’t long before we crossed into Germany and it was time to get the emissions sticker. I was served immediately at the office and the lady took my V5C and checked its details before issuing the sticker. It was absolutely seamless. In and out in less than 5 minutes. It was supposed to cost €15 in cash but I only had my card with me. She smiled, waved it off and wished me a good trip. What a pleasant surprise!

​We parked up at the local multi-storey carpark with a slower AC charger so it could charge while we enjoyed the city. Aachen Cathedral was completed more than 1225 years ago, is a UNESCO world heritage site and rightly so. It is one of the most stunning cathedrals I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to quite a few. Despite the status it holds, entry was free of charge. The chandelier, mosaic, stain glass and amount of gold is rather mind-blowing. The pictures speak for themselves.
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We found a moment to sit down quietly in the church and researched on the history of the church and answered the question “what do monks do?” when we saw a few of them visiting the cathedral. It is lovely to have these learning moments. After we’d wandered around the church, we explored the the old town centre and a 4 story book store. If the books weren’t all in German, we would have bought quite a few.

​One of the biggest highlights of this trip was the German food. Debra and I are big fans! We had the best wursts and our favourite radler. 

​The kids had some ice-cream to cool off in the heat before we headed to the Lindt factory outlet for more chocolates. When you see people hauling large boxes to their cars outside the outlet, you know the price is good. I found the experience a highly conflicting one because on one hand, you are glad you are getting cheaper chocolate. On the other hand, you realise how much you’ve been ripped off in Singapore and in the UK.
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​More playgrounds, charging and toilet breaks later, we got back to Brussels to sleep for the night. At this point we were quite reluctant to leave. We wanted more of the amazing sights, breakfasts, foosball competitions at the hotel lobby and chocolate treats.

The following morning, we said goodbye to Brussels and headed back towards the ferry terminal in Calais. Having carefully planned the return journey back to the Midlands in the UK, we had time for a lunch stop at Dunkirk’s Carrefour to stock up on yummy gluten free food and some beer. A lot of cheese and saucisson later, we got through the French and UK border control and parked up on the berth.
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Our minds wandered and thought about the countless possibilities we have now unlocked. It was as if there was some kind of divine appointment going on, the ferry was late and we happen to meet a lovely couple from Wales. We had a long chat with them about their adventures in classic cars and rallies throughout Europe. They are aged 50 ish and 80. Despite their physical ailments, they keep going! One key takeaway is that we don’t need the best equipment or the biggest budgets to have an adventure.

​The ferry did eventually arrive and this time the ride was a lot faster and smoother. Sunny and clear skies meant we stood on the open deck and watched the White Cliffs of Dover as we entered port. Nothing more British than seeing these iconic cliffs and getting some gusts of cold wind to welcome you home. The last 200 miles home was surprisingly smooth and uneventful. As we pulled up to our driveway safely, hearts full from the trip,  it was a “we did it!” moment and then it was where next?

We started of 2024 with Storm Henk dumping more than 150% of the usual rainfall and lashing the British isles with gale force winds. Winter was bleak and cold. Not the best start to the year having many unwritten essays AND the dissertation waiting to be written. Worse still, the landlord also dropped the bomb on us by informing us that we had to look for a new home by summer. Though he did promise he wouldn't evict us before my graduation, it was still a hard pill to swallow. Life had to go on and birthdays have to be celebrated because the kids will be sad if you don't. Those who are parents and/or with my birthdate will know. We devoured Colin the Caterpillar and drank bubbly pretend champagne! ​

Note: Because this post is really just highlighting the year's events, I won't go into the details because there are dedicated blog and social media posts about all our travels this year. They are free to access!

Januarys always feel a little sad for me because, December. You have all the wonderful gatherings, decorations, holiday seasons and celebrations in December and then it's back to the grind very abruptly. And this explains why I didn't sound excited describing my own birthday. I've never associated my birthday as something celebratory because it always falls on the first couple of days of the new school year. Though we follow a very different routine now, it is still hard to shake those feelings accumulated over 16 years as a student and 5 years as a school teacher.  

But part of us moving to the UK was about healing and exercising our freedom to choose how we should live. Therefore we chose to make homeschooling flexible, rigorous and interest driven at the same time. Despite all the challenges, it was a good year for homeschooling. 

We've got two very motivated students who have chosen a skill on their own accord and practice so that they could excel. We've also got two students who breezed their UK SATs that we just decided to administer on a random day. I feel that we are definitely on the right track in terms of ensuring our kids do not go through the same educational traumas we encountered. These traumas shape you as a person and it is very hard to undo them. 

So while Debra very valiantly held the fort for homeschooling and cooking, I was imprisoned to my chair and laptop for most of January till May. Most of the 19,000 words required that semester was penned in the bleak mid-winter. Gwyn became so accustomed to seeing me type on Microsoft word that she would sternly question me about the word count that barely moved. 

My chair imprisonment was only punctuated by a terrible flu and a surprise visit from the kid's favourite aunt. 

It was a really nice time together and we thought she'll probably visit again in a couple of years for another holiday. There were lots of tears while we travelled home from Heathrow that evening. 

All the travelling around gave us the momentum of seeing more places in February. In between trying to work on the major research paper, I fell into an absolute rabbit hole of wanting to see Scotland. We did try and visit Shakespeare's hometown to make up for it. That just made us want to see what the land of unicorns, whiskey, bagpipes and deep history had to offer. 

Still can't believe we drove a total of 12-13 hours for the return trip. It was a good couple of days in Edinburgh we are so glad we said yes to the adventure. 

Spring was a little disappointing because yeah the chair imprisonment! It was getting all consuming and anxiety inducing because the dateline was drawing close. Despite cracking my head over the ethics approvals and data analysis, we found time to walk off our anxieties along the seaside town of Skegness. We also managed to pop by an amazing brand new cafe in our community, watch the squirrels, enjoy the blooms, bring the kids for their first live concert.

I think it is worth highlighting that when went for the unveiling of the late Queen Elizabeth II's new statue, the kids told the reporters there were okay to be interviewed (and made it on the actual BBC News) with their friends. I don't know how they turned out so audacious and confident. I don't think Debra and I are good examples haha! 

At this point, the birth pangs of the dissertation baby was getting unbelievably unbearable. But I'm happy to announce that the dissertation baby was born successfully and I was released from my chair. Just in time, t-shirt weather and sunshine was upon us! So we made use of all the long sunshine hours and saw Cambridge as well as Hafren forest. It felt so freeing to be behind the steering wheel and not the laptop, on the camera trigger and not the word counter. 

We also got to yell the whole building down because Man United beat Man City to win the FA cup in the finals. To be honest, I completely lost faith by half time. The kids made the trophy that morning in faith and I was absolutely ashamed for feeling a fair bit of doubt. 

With summer in full swing and a window of good dry weather in sight, we were once again beset with the question "to go or not to go". I sprung the question on the family at an emergency meeting around our bed and the council voted 3-1 to do CORNWALL! We packed our luggage that afternoon and headed down for the ridiculously picturesque south west coast. 

This year we have been very fortunate to be visited by my entire family. They flew into the UK for more than 2 weeks to be with us and visit the place. We are also really fortunate to be given the right to vote in UK's General Election this year. These are things we don't take for granted at all. And to top it off our children have decided they would like to make their commitments to following Jesus. 

It was great showing the family the land we call home now. We traversed beautiful parks, museums and enjoyed meals and rode steam trains. It almost felt like the two weeks happened in a flash!

At no point of pursing this I dared expect to be conferred a Master's degree with distinction. Not even in my wildest dreams I would conceive the idea of topping my course. The majority of my Singaporean education has taught me that I'm never good enough. So I did doubt myself. Moreover, it was hard going back to school more than 10 years after undergraduate/post-grad teacher training. These are positive memories will help me say no to negativity for the years ahead.

With this chapter closed, we focused on enjoying the rest of summer and then addressing the elephant in the room. But first we decided to take the kids to the cinema for the first time in their lives. Yes tell me these kids grew up during Covid without telling me so. We throughly enjoyed The Minions but it made them talk gibberish for the next few days about bottoms. haha!

The rest of our summer was dominated by going for property viewings and hosting viewings for our landlord. We were anxious to move while there's sunshine and long daylight hours. This was punctuated by our little trips to Sheffield for the Monopoly Trail, the Black Country Museum as well as the seaside town of Skegness. 

When you know that the Earth is going to do its tilt in a couple months time and you won't get this much sunshine, we were naturally very motivated to make the best of summer. Our second Balloon Festival (even better than last year!), numerous meet ups with friends to enjoy the countryside, more Welsh mountains and the Royal Mint where we realised what could make our boy smile the widest....GOLD! 

As summer drew to a close, that also meant that it was Birthday season! Yummy cakes, family time and presents. Love their big smiles whenever there's cake ❤️

What made the kids smile even more was that their favourite aunt was going to be in the UK from Autumn semester for her studies!

But it was also around the beginning of Autumn that we received the 2 month notice to vacate our home. A lot of end September and October was a complete blur. We searched every major town in the county for a home because we didn't want to give up the community we've grown with for the past two years. I still call it our miracle because it is! One day, Debra suddenly received a call from a friend who just landed in Spain for her holiday, we were a little confused as to why she would call us while on a nice holiday! By the end of the call, our search for a home was ended. We were offered a property in the very village most of our community and friends live. 

So while the leaves were falling and storm season began again, we were now suddenly thrusted into a new direction. We had two months to pack all our belongings, plan and purchase all the furniture/appliances we needed for a partly furnished house and move in November. Before that we had to sell our beloved car and get a bigger car to do the moving ourselves and also accommodate anyone who visited us. 

​It was a month of madness.

I don't know how but we even managed to squeeze in an entire day at Legoland Windsor to surprise the kids. They really enjoyed the spooky theme for Halloween! As if we didn't have enough excitement in our lives, we took Gwyn on her first legit roller coaster ride and I was genuinely scared as an adult. ​

We were rewarded with one of the most beautiful displays of the Aurora Borealis right from our study's window. It's like the skies threw us a farewell lights show before the endless packing went on. Eventually, we did get there after 4 full car loads and many trips up and down the stairs of our old apartment. My watch recorded me climbing 61 floors on one of the days. 

We made it!!! After an entire week of unpacking, building numerous Ikea furniture, slogging it out in the garden, extracting carpets, my laptop no longer recognised my fingerprint. And we were absolutely shattered. Just in time, the kids got to enjoy this winter's first snow! (Yes, Gwyn scored a headshot 😂)

We visited Christmas markets, put up the Christmas tree and did our best to settle into the new home, surroundings and our new routines. We've been truly blessed considering how precarious it was just 2.5 months ago.

We were so excited to enjoy all the Christmas festivities in the village church and actually did manage to attend a few. We managed the yearly Christingle service, Carols by Candlelight, Kids Christmas party and trail with all the good people and friends! In the midst of all these, we were also acutely aware that my dad would be so happy to be part of this. 

We squeezed in a trip to Cambridge and before we knew it, it was Christmas Day! 
Opening presents was the first order of business before the best lunch of pigs in blanket and mouth-watering goose fat roast potatoes. As per our family tradition, we watched the King's Christmas speech (it was the Queen for many years). 

Sadly by late Christmas afternoon, Debra and I were completely down with high fever. Things ground to a halt. Over the next few days, the kids too developed high fever. A trip to the supermarket medicine aisle confirms that there's a massive spread of this horrible flu. 

We are all on the mend now and hope we can enjoy the last day of 2024 before we welcome 2025. This is how our year went. Huge challenges, more than sufficient grace. Time and time again, we have been reminded that miracles do happen! From all of us at Hiro & Jack, we pray that you'll experience that too and have a very joyful 2025! 

We've travelled as a family from the time Matt was 3 months old and then when Gwyn came into the scene it was a 3 year old and an infant. Those were hard days I must confess. If you are not going to read the rest of this post, just remember that understanding and meeting each child's needs is the key. 

We've been asked a lot about how we are able to go on adventures and travel extensively even though we have two children in tow. I don't claim that we know everything but we do have a system that we follow. It works very well for us and can work for others too. But we most definitely don't claim that it works for every child. Neither are we going to leave tonnes of Amazon links of products you can buy. This post is really a plain and simple guide to how we did it and perhaps it could be of help to you. 

It boils down to FOOD, ENTERTAINMENT, PLANNING and EQUIPMENT. 

Whenever we travel, we almost always do two things: 

On road trips, we calculate the amount of driving needed and estimate where we'd be. Stops are intentional and the food places are decided before we even step out of the house. Search for restaurants on google maps and read the reviews. This is especially essential if you have dietary restrictions like we do. We search for restaurants that serve gluten-free food or naturally gluten-free dishes. We avoid places that aren't child friendly. Also, when meal times happen when it is supposed to, you eradicate the low-blood sugar, "hangry" tantrums that even adults are susceptible to. 

When flying airlines that don't serve food, skip the timings that cross into meal times (e.g. 3 hr flights from 1130am to 230pm or 530 to 830pm). It'll be too early for your next meal but you'll be at the check in, going through security and sitting in the plane with an empty tummy. Throw in a delay on the tarmac, you'll have disaster. 

We ALWAYS carry a snack bag when we are travelling. Protein bars, gummy bears, crisps and fruits. This is an emergency stash that we sometimes don't tell the kids we have (if not it'll be empty before we even get on the motorway). It is especially important because sometimes we are up a mountain and the day's activities are strenuous. We get hungry faster and we need a snack boost. They come in handy to stall time when we are stuck in traffic and facing a delay. 

There will always be parts of a journey that's boring. So we can't blame kids when they fuss. Just imagine being strapped into a carseat with a 5 point seatbelt for hours and not being able to properly look outside the window. I'd scream too. 

Our strategy is to download music on our music app that everyone enjoys. We also download songs that the kids love i.e (The Wiggles, Disney songs, Frozen soundtracks, Ed Sheeran). So we are all singing, the kids sometimes fall asleep after awhile and it works very well for us.

We also let the kids decide what goes into the "entertainment" bag. They carry this backpack of toys, games and books that they enjoy. When the kids were babies, we always brought 3 of their favourite toys in our bag. When we travelled across South East Asia for 7 months, the kids each had a small case of Lego that they can conveniently open, play, put back and carry wherever we went. When their minds are focused on a toy or distracted by a conversation, they are less likely to get upset or uncomfortably bored. 

Tablets and screens are always the LAST resort. They are used sparingly and really a treat in the most trying circumstances when we've exhausted all options. 

A trip to London for example takes 2 hours.

10 MINS: we'd be chatting about the plans for the day, how long it'll take, when are we stopping and the regular reminders about feeling carsick and needing the toilet.
20 MINS: we'd play their favourite music and sing along. Sometimes they fall asleep after that, sometimes they start playing with their toys.
30 MINS: Swapping between playing a card game, reading a book, playing with their little fiddle toy/other toys and annoying each other.
15 MINS: Then it is song request time again and sing along again.
20 MINS: Good chance they will take a short 15 minute to 30 minute nap at this point.

By this point we'd stop for a quick toilet break and maybe share some crisps or gummy bears before finishing up the last 15-25 minutes with a lot of reassurance (WE ARE REACHING SOON!), random conversations and spotting things out of the window. 

On plane rides, invest in kids headphones (with an airline adapter) please! Airlines these days don't always provide proper listening equipment that fit a kids head/ears. When we are on plane rides or waiting at a restaurant, we would always carry our own colouring sheets, pencils and play simple games like tic tac toe. Doodling is definitely way more fun than staring at the wall while waiting for food. 

Going on travels empty handed and unprepared is recipe for disaster. 

It is easy to squeeze as much into a day as possible to make your money's worth when planning a holiday. Dragging everyone along activity after activity is not going to be enjoyable. 

By the time the kids are 2 or 3, we got them involved in choosing what to do for the day. E.g. We are going to the Zoo! Show them the maps before hand and decide which animals they want to see. Giving them the agency and involving them in planning helps them look forward to it. It gives them an idea of what they can expect. It meets their needs. 

When you travel with babies and children, LESS IS MORE. 
We say that because babies and children have significantly higher needs. They need more sleep, they need to be fed and entertained more frequently than adults. These things take time and realistically, you can only cover so much without neglecting those needs. 

Our strategy is always doing ONE major thing a day. We travel slow.
The rest of the time can be spent relaxing at the hotel pool, running around the square or having a snack. ​

Last but not least, having the right equipment can make your life way easier on a trip. We cannot emphasise the importance of wearing appropriate shoes. Nobody is in a good mood when their feet are soaked and sore. If your holiday involves walking, wear comfy supportive shoes!

Apart from that, here are some things that we never go on a trip without. 

Travelling with babies equipment list:
1. A light foldable cabin approved pram
We hate checking it in, waiting for it and hoping it isn't lost)

2. Steriliser bags (Microwavable ones).
Put the dummies and bottles in the bags with a little water and pop it into the microwave. You have clean sterilised stuff in no time! 

3. Baby Carrier
Yes we bring BOTH the carrier and the pram. Sometimes the baby just wants skin contact so a carrier keeps your hands free! 

3. Baby bath soap, shampoo and toys
Bath time with some floating toys is always a really nice way to relax and reset the mood! 

4. Muslin squares
Get the larger ones. They can be used for so many purposes. You can use them to cover surfaces to lay your baby on (even as temporary cot bedsheet), shade the baby from the sun, keep the baby covered and warm, used as a swaddle and they are perfect for peekaboo too! 

5. Toys and snacks
 Something with buttons, something to chew on, something sensory, pick the child's favourites! 


Travelling with kids aged 4 to 10 equipment list:
1. The entertainment bag
A selection of their favourite books, games, toys, colouring sheets, soft toys and pencils

2. The snack bag
Crisps, protein bars, chocolate, gummies, fruits, biscuits and drinks.  

3. A torch light 
Seemingly useless but surprisingly useful to in keeping the kids occupied on walks in the evening. Very useful when things get lost in the car. 

4. A small camera
Another very useful tool to keep the kids entertained and on a mission when travelling. You'll be surprised at the perspective and things that turn up when going through their pictures at the end of the trip. 

Special mention: Pick up a stick/small tree branch on walks or hikes. Infinitely entertaining for the kids. I have no idea why 🤣. 

Have we missed anything out? What is your list of things that you'd never leave home without? Put them in the comments below and let's all share our experiences!