A train journey to forget and a christmas to remember

This year we decided to have Christmas as a proper holiday for everyone, without any of the family needing to cook and more importantly clean up a big Christmas meal. Grandpa picked Coffs Harbour as it was vaguely between the various family members (on mum's side anyway).

We somewhat foolishly decided to catch the train up to Coffs, "it will be an adventure" we told ourselves, "more interesting than a plane" we assured ourselves.

This was true for the first 7.5 hours of the 9 hour trip. Then Alex had what could only be described as a meltdown. He was overtired, scared of the noisy dark train and wanted out of there - fast. Well, he's a toddler, the other passengers will be understanding You might think but - you'd be wrong.

OK, so it was about 1am when the aforementioned meltdown occurred and the other passengers were more keen to try and sleep than listen to our darling Alex scream the train down. Surprising I know. Even the guard was less than sympathetic offering sound advice such as "can't you give him something to suck to keep him quiet". "He's almost 3 years, not 3 months old - but thanks"

In the end we had to escape the evil glares of our fellow passengers by traveling in the noisy area , between the carriages which only served to terrify Alex even further.

But we survived and arrived at a lovely resort with pools, tennis courts, playgrounds and our fantastic serviced apartment filled with family and lots of presents for Alex. The horrors of the train journey were forgotten as Alex embraced the buffet breakfast - and lunch - and dinner...