K and I checked out from Seagulls Guest house 2 days ago, and headed to our host family's house in Glen Murray, close to Hamilton. The house is supposed to be on a 15 acres flower farm, and I was quite excited about staying there.
We cleared our room at around 10am, and then stayed on to use the kitchen to make brunch.. We had the leftover penne pasta that Ah Ming prepared the day before, leftover clear chicken soup, and K made lotsa Bombay toast for the 2 of us. Delicious!!
We left after having our brunch at around 11plus and headed to Hamilton to take a look see. Hamilton is a town of a pretty decent size. We shopped a bit at the New Save Asian supermarket. I bought my Wang Zhai egg bun cookies, and rice crackers, and K bought his white coffee which had run out. We also bought some oyster sauce and dark soya sauce. That was about all we did in Hamilton cause we didn't have much time there, and we wanted to reach the farm before the sun set.
We got a little lost on all the gravel roads leading to the farm, and I got all giddy from all the turns and the bends in the small roads. But eventually, we arrived at the house around 430pm and met Linda, our host. Linda's house is like a little cottage. Very quaint with old furniture. She had 2 cats, 1 really adorable kitten called Dexter (which I totally adore!), and 2 dogs, a grey hound named Sheriff, and a really fat Jack Russell called Tia.
Linda have 2 adopted daughters Abi and Samara, both about 16-17 years old. At first, when Linda introduced them as her daughters, I was a bit puzzled cause she was white, and her daughters were black. We realized later that she adopts a lot of children, and does a lot of volunteer work. It seems that the people here does a lot of adoption. So far, almost all the host families we stayed with have adopted children from poor countries. But only Linda's adopted children stays with her. The rest just sends money to their so called “adopted” children.
Anyway, Abi and Samara are both home schooled by Linda. And you will be surprised just how well rounded they are. They not only learn the academic subjects like Math and English, they also can play the piano, knit very well, and horse ride. I am sure among others too, just that I didn’t stay long enough to observe more.
As usual, all of our stays are eye opening experiences for us. Linda uses a really ancient wood fired stove cum oven to cook. First I have ever seen. There is even a chimney attached to it, and they have to constantly put in wood in order for the fire inside to burn. That was kinda like the heater for the kitchen. And they even make their own bread and jams.
Linda made dinner that night. Lamb stew with baked potato and mixed pea and corn. I didn't really enjoy it though cause I have never been a big fan of lamb. But I think K liked it. After dinner, we played a board game called “Settlers” where the aim of the game was to build settlements and build roads etc to win. The game took so long that I got sleepy. It finally ended around 10pm when Linda won the game. After that, I had my bath. It was the COLDEST bath I have ever had in my life. Cause the hot water didn't really work. And it was freezing cold at night. I was literally shivering all over when I got out from the bath. And I wanted to cry. Then I went to my bedroom. There was no heater the first night we were there. But we had plenty of thick blankets to cover us up, and Linda had given us both hot water bottles to keep ourselves warm under the blankets. But still, we were cold. Especially my head and ears. It was quite bad. Seems like all the farms we have stayed at have no heaters in their rooms. But this one was the worse. Our bedroom was like a refrigerator.
On the second night, Linda moved the kitchen heater to our room. It helped a bit but still cold. K and I made dinner on the second night. Cooked butter chicken and potatoes, and made hot and spicy Korean instant noodles. It was delicious. Linda and Abi enjoyed it as well, but not Samara. The noodles were too spicy for her. After dinner, we played board games again. This time it was Cluedo. And again, Linda won. = )
Our second day on the farm was also pretty eventful. In the morning, I had toast with cheese and butter with my Milo. Then went to the farm to help Linda pick some pussy willows from the trees. Never knew pussy willows looked like that! The only time I see pussy willows is during Chinese New Year at people's houses and they also look so “nice” with all the ornaments hung on them. And so we picked the pussy willows, then brought them to the shed where we helped pluck out the leaves and Linda trimmed them to the length she wanted. K and I also helped her bunch up some flags (a type of long leaves for flower arrangements) for her to sell in the flower market. It was quite fun.
After all the work, we tried horse riding on their 2 horses in the paddock. Abi and Samara rode on the horses first, and it seemed so easy with the horses just running freely in the field. Then it was K and my turn. The last time I rode on a horse was when I was 6 years old, and it was in a zoo. I went first ,while K video taped the whole thing. I had difficulty getting onto the horse, and K was laughing at me the whole time. Abi guided my horse around the field. The horse was just trotting along, but I felt as if I would fall off anytime! Haha.. it was fun. And as usual, K tried to be hero. He didn't want to wear a helmet despite my urging him to, and he wanted the horse to run. But of course, the minute he got on the horse and the animal started walking, he took back his words about letting the horse run instead of trot.. = )
After the horse riding, K and I headed out for lunch at a cafe owned by Linda's friend.. We had hot chocolate, yummy nachos, smoked chicken with “cus cus” (no idea what that is) and potato and leek soup. The sun was really warm so we sat on the deck facing the creek and the limestone hills. It was beautiful. = )
We left on the 4th June afternoon, after K had a game of basketball with the girls. Overall, it was another interesting stay at the farm. I definitely won't miss the cold bedroom, but I will especially miss Dexter the kitten. He is just so cute, and so playful. And it was obvious he was the family's baby Here are some pictures and videos of him playing..
We cleared our room at around 10am, and then stayed on to use the kitchen to make brunch.. We had the leftover penne pasta that Ah Ming prepared the day before, leftover clear chicken soup, and K made lotsa Bombay toast for the 2 of us. Delicious!!
We left after having our brunch at around 11plus and headed to Hamilton to take a look see. Hamilton is a town of a pretty decent size. We shopped a bit at the New Save Asian supermarket. I bought my Wang Zhai egg bun cookies, and rice crackers, and K bought his white coffee which had run out. We also bought some oyster sauce and dark soya sauce. That was about all we did in Hamilton cause we didn't have much time there, and we wanted to reach the farm before the sun set.
We got a little lost on all the gravel roads leading to the farm, and I got all giddy from all the turns and the bends in the small roads. But eventually, we arrived at the house around 430pm and met Linda, our host. Linda's house is like a little cottage. Very quaint with old furniture. She had 2 cats, 1 really adorable kitten called Dexter (which I totally adore!), and 2 dogs, a grey hound named Sheriff, and a really fat Jack Russell called Tia.
Linda have 2 adopted daughters Abi and Samara, both about 16-17 years old. At first, when Linda introduced them as her daughters, I was a bit puzzled cause she was white, and her daughters were black. We realized later that she adopts a lot of children, and does a lot of volunteer work. It seems that the people here does a lot of adoption. So far, almost all the host families we stayed with have adopted children from poor countries. But only Linda's adopted children stays with her. The rest just sends money to their so called “adopted” children.
Anyway, Abi and Samara are both home schooled by Linda. And you will be surprised just how well rounded they are. They not only learn the academic subjects like Math and English, they also can play the piano, knit very well, and horse ride. I am sure among others too, just that I didn’t stay long enough to observe more.
As usual, all of our stays are eye opening experiences for us. Linda uses a really ancient wood fired stove cum oven to cook. First I have ever seen. There is even a chimney attached to it, and they have to constantly put in wood in order for the fire inside to burn. That was kinda like the heater for the kitchen. And they even make their own bread and jams.
Linda made dinner that night. Lamb stew with baked potato and mixed pea and corn. I didn't really enjoy it though cause I have never been a big fan of lamb. But I think K liked it. After dinner, we played a board game called “Settlers” where the aim of the game was to build settlements and build roads etc to win. The game took so long that I got sleepy. It finally ended around 10pm when Linda won the game. After that, I had my bath. It was the COLDEST bath I have ever had in my life. Cause the hot water didn't really work. And it was freezing cold at night. I was literally shivering all over when I got out from the bath. And I wanted to cry. Then I went to my bedroom. There was no heater the first night we were there. But we had plenty of thick blankets to cover us up, and Linda had given us both hot water bottles to keep ourselves warm under the blankets. But still, we were cold. Especially my head and ears. It was quite bad. Seems like all the farms we have stayed at have no heaters in their rooms. But this one was the worse. Our bedroom was like a refrigerator.
On the second night, Linda moved the kitchen heater to our room. It helped a bit but still cold. K and I made dinner on the second night. Cooked butter chicken and potatoes, and made hot and spicy Korean instant noodles. It was delicious. Linda and Abi enjoyed it as well, but not Samara. The noodles were too spicy for her. After dinner, we played board games again. This time it was Cluedo. And again, Linda won. = )
Our second day on the farm was also pretty eventful. In the morning, I had toast with cheese and butter with my Milo. Then went to the farm to help Linda pick some pussy willows from the trees. Never knew pussy willows looked like that! The only time I see pussy willows is during Chinese New Year at people's houses and they also look so “nice” with all the ornaments hung on them. And so we picked the pussy willows, then brought them to the shed where we helped pluck out the leaves and Linda trimmed them to the length she wanted. K and I also helped her bunch up some flags (a type of long leaves for flower arrangements) for her to sell in the flower market. It was quite fun.
After all the work, we tried horse riding on their 2 horses in the paddock. Abi and Samara rode on the horses first, and it seemed so easy with the horses just running freely in the field. Then it was K and my turn. The last time I rode on a horse was when I was 6 years old, and it was in a zoo. I went first ,while K video taped the whole thing. I had difficulty getting onto the horse, and K was laughing at me the whole time. Abi guided my horse around the field. The horse was just trotting along, but I felt as if I would fall off anytime! Haha.. it was fun. And as usual, K tried to be hero. He didn't want to wear a helmet despite my urging him to, and he wanted the horse to run. But of course, the minute he got on the horse and the animal started walking, he took back his words about letting the horse run instead of trot.. = )
After the horse riding, K and I headed out for lunch at a cafe owned by Linda's friend.. We had hot chocolate, yummy nachos, smoked chicken with “cus cus” (no idea what that is) and potato and leek soup. The sun was really warm so we sat on the deck facing the creek and the limestone hills. It was beautiful. = )
We left on the 4th June afternoon, after K had a game of basketball with the girls. Overall, it was another interesting stay at the farm. I definitely won't miss the cold bedroom, but I will especially miss Dexter the kitten. He is just so cute, and so playful. And it was obvious he was the family's baby Here are some pictures and videos of him playing..
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