Introducing your cast and crew !

As  we embark on our new adventure  it occurs to me it would be helpful for you to be familiar with the primary players in our troupe of Global Nomads.

Darling Hubby (hereafter DH) is an executive with a multinational company working in a regional hub (Hong Kong) for the Asia Pacific region. He works very hard and does much more travel for work than any of us like and he is incredibly noble and patient to then get back onto the dreaded steel flying birds for our holiday travel adventures. Truth be told his ideal holiday adventure is lying by a poolside , maybe in Thailand, at some swank resort soaking up the sun, relaxation and a nice ice cold drink  in hand.  So hats off to Daddy that he is prepared to trek  the globe with the family in his free time. 

Me, you know. My vital statistics are right there on the side bar.

Add to this our four delightful babes.

Dearest daughter  (DD hereafter) is 13 going on 14! She herds her brothers with style and flair. Honestly she would make any border collie proud with her herding instincts and ability. She is a total sweetie though and is always looking out for "the boys!" as she calls them- with varying degrees of exasperation in her voice.

So that leads us to the 3 youngest family members .

Son no 1 is 11 years old  and has a keen interest in history (particularly medieval england and ancient Roman) and all things computer related- quite an interesting combination I hear you say!

Son no 2 is 9 years old  and just loves to hang out wherever we go. He is the most cruisey, go with the flow guy you will meet. Just being in the same room as him can lower your blood pressure.

Son no 3 has recently turned 7 years old and he is our "caboose", the last wagon to our family train. He has, strictly speaking way more energy and and activity than could possibly be healthy and he also lacks a risk aversion setting.  Another interesting combination!

So we are about to embark on our Grand European Adventure, stay tuned.......

Tip 1...Tie a yellow ribbon!

OK, so yellow is not your colour, what about blue, green, red or as in our case, bright pink. Seriously though, whether you are a first time traveller or a seasoned professional, you will soon learn what those others know.....at the end of a long flight (and especially if it has been a busy flight juggling children and meal trays ) your bag looks terribly much like every other one of the 300 bags on the luggage carousel.  Not to mention that somehow when you are maybe a little tired after a long flight you really can't remember what the bag looked like that you had so lovingly deposited at the start of your journey. 

This little trick  is not at all high tech, but we have found it works for us. I bought a bulk buy roll of bright pink ribbon (with white polkadots) and have a generous bow tied around both handles on every one of our suitcases (top and side). Since our bags, like all those others are non-descript dark blue or black it makes them instantly recognisable. We are not  wasting energy and effort scrutinising  every one of those identical bags and our bags almost jump off the belt at us.  Keep in mind that when you arrive at the destination you are not only "rounding up your little people after a long flight, but also concentrating on immigration, customs and transfer details. So something as small as a roll of ribbon can seriously buy you a whole lot of sanity.

Why write?

Call this an experiment in progress.........

It occurs to me that whilst we, as a family,  embark on our adventures and return home with loads of happy travel photos there is a bigger story at work here. 

I  personally find the planning and organisation for our travels a pretty big task, but having been fortunate enough to be blessed with four great children then further blessed with opportunities for all kinds of travel I have , just maybe, through trial and error been able to pick up some knowledge which may be helpful for families about to undertake travel with young children. 

Keep in mind there are as many types of travel, destinations and types of family undertaking that travel to provide material for an entire library. 

So maybe this blog will last a week,  a month or years  but I plan , at this early stage, to try to share the lessons (good and bad) that this little family of wanderers pick up along the way. So take from it what you will, but most of  all "enjoy life's journey"!