Smile - it might not happen

A fresh season. A change of scenery. A chance to take stock.
I've said no to so many things over the last couple of years - it seemed timely to say YES! So, like my recently passed Grandmother - Nina Vivienne - I said yes to the opportunity to import my little family across the world, across cultures and time zones, crashing through comfort zones, throwing caution to the wind and landing in Milano. 

All things considered, like so many things in life - the journey went well and all the things I had worried about didn't happen and the things I had never considered were dealt as one does.

The day before leaving - I checked the itinery and discovered that the 5 hours we had planned for in Singapore was in-fact, 30 hours so a budget hotel was quickly booked and the first curve ball caught.
After so much packing and worrying about all of Silas' health issues, I managed to pack just one, empty ventolin inhaler for carry-on: carefully packing all the spare full inhalers and the blood- oxygen measuring device (generously loaned by a friend) into the checked luggage. Needless to say - the first hurdle was asthma in Silas that had started the night before and became apparent just after tearfully waving our family goodbye. Only a few hours of counting his respiratory rate and discussing with cabin crew - we managed to get them to crack open the airlines emergency kit and my vet degree passed the medical requirements for their paper work - and finally we got some ventolin on board and the asthma came under control. A big, sigh of relief.

The boys got henna tattoos in the Indian 'quarter' in Singapore

Singapore botanical gardens: orchid garden

In Singapore, we survived all potential food allergy issues but didn't foresee a flight cancellation after dutifully filling in 24 of our 30 hrs in transit. So nek minute - we were on our way to Athens rather than Frankfurt. The kids finally crashed out on the floor of Singapore airport about 4 hours before the flight left - and so did their mother.






From Athens, we were assisted in a mad dash across the airport to jump on our connecting flight to Athens.
What astounded me about the whole journey was how the kids just coped and kept on coping. No melt downs, no screaming, just taking it all in and managing it in their little strides. Turns out all those worries I had were an unnecessary waste of time. Guess I will just have to learn that lesson for the one millionith, four hundred and fifty fourth thousand time.

Oh and by the way - any of you that saw our 'Trunki' cases for the kids - they were so worth it!! They can go really fast, especially on marble floors and certainly helped making our connection in Athens!