The Melbourne Story: Part 1

* This entry was written on Tuesday but I couldn't get it published until today.

I am in Melbourne for the conference thingy, and the weather is absolutely spectacular. Unlike Christchurch, the temperature here is perfect and I find it  so refreshing to be able to go out in flip flops. I  rarely do that in CC cos it is always COLD COLD COLD and even if it's summer, the weather changes unexpectedly on any given day. 

Anyway, we are staying at the Katz Apartment in central city and today is our second day here. The place is situated in 160 Little Lonsdale Street and it is just a short walk away from Melbourne central.

Now let me show you the studio apartment unit we initially chose for our stay.

The bed and basically the whole room



A small lounge



with an attached kitchen

A clean toilet

With a washing machine/ dryer too!

I was pleased with the unit because everything was up to my expectations. All I really wanted was a clean room with a microwave to heat Alden's milk, and what I saw was beyond that, so I was happy. It didn't take long for me to settle in and within minutes I was already feeling at-home. 

Half an hour after that, Alva pooed and this changed everything.

Before I get into the WHY, I'd like to tell you all about the WHAT by beating around the bush okay?

Now what happened was while hubby and I were busy admiring the kitchen facilities, Alva managed to  wriggle out of her diapers and decided to poo right there in the lounge. When Alden saw this, he thought "Hey, I wonder what happens if I step on this gooey stuff lying on the floor". He did exactly that and  after discovering the texture of the brown substance, he came running to me and said "Mummy, see! see! What's that?" pointing to his foot. Since I didn't know the origin of the poo, I assumed it was his and  I scolded him silly for doing something so gross. And then I made him promise not to do it again.

After that, I got him to the bathroom and started taking his clothes off. Just when I was about to turn on the tap, I heard hubby's cry of disgust "Alalala!!! Bukan si Alden punya O-O tu!!!". I ran over to the small lounge to find out what he meant. There on the floor lay Alva's poos, all greenish and brown, resembling the shape of a tiny banana. Vava chuckled, held her bottom and said "Oh-O". Just then, Alden got out from the shower saying "Eeewww...Yuck!" before dashing for the kitchen. I thought my head was going to explode cos now both babies were running around in poos.

After counting 1 to 10, I managed to not strangle my kids and got them ready for a shower. I turned on the tap and waited for the hot water. Ten minutes went by but still there was no hot water and they were getting restless, Alden especially. I got sick of waiting so I asked hubby to talk to the reception. He went down to complain and minutes later came up looking mischeveously happy.

It turned out that we had been upgraded to a two-bedroom apartment cos they couldn't fix the water heater. Because of that and the fact that there was no other available rooms, the upgrade was given FOC.

So. We moved up leaving the small studio and got to the new unit. It was way cooler than the one we had earlier cos everything was bigger and nicer. Alden and Alva immediately went to the master bedroom and started jumping on the bed. I went along and started scanning the room. There was a glass door that seemed to lead to a balcony outside so I walked over to check whether it was locked. To my utter shock it wasn't. What was more shocking was the fact that there was no balcony or ledge outside. The door actually led to a 20 metre drop! It was literally a death trap cos the moment you step out, you'll be flying from the 7th floor. This really freaked me out cos the kids were there and if I hadn't checked, a tragedy could have happened.

I got the kids out and went to the reception immediately. Needless to say, I made a huge fuss about it and told the reception guy how dangerous it was for my kids to be in that room. I wouldn't stop until he apologized and when he finally did, I calmed down. To make up for everything, he offered the biggest room they had and told me we could move in asap.

That cheered me up.

We packed our stuff and went to the new suite. It was Room number 409 and this is how it looks like.

The lounge suite...

An extra bedroom for the kids. The one we booked doesn't even have a room...



The master bedroom

The bathroom

The kitchen was equipped with more advanced facilities and a dishwasher too!



Alden playing with the switch



Mommy and Vava posing for the camera

Everybody's happy :)

And that's how we ended up getting the superior two-bedroom apartment. Will talk more about the trip in my next post!