Monday, June 30, 2014

Hello London! - The Tussauds Experience

Our last couple of days in London were spent to explore the London city itself. We spent our time visiting the famous tourist spots, starting with a stroll down Regents Street.

There, we stopped by the Hamleys to get some toys for the kids. Aydein was the happiest!



Then, we decided to checkout Madame Tussauds London.

In there, we had the chance to rub shoulders with the world's famous celebrities, well, with their wax statues at least. Hehe. From Bollywood to Hollywood, you name it, they got it! Here are some!



It's amazing how they manage to make the wax statues look so real, it's freaky! I also realize how tall some of the celebrities are after this visit. Gotta remember to bring my heels next time!
At first, we thought the museum were all about wax statues and nothing more. Turned out, they also had Sports Zone where you can try interactive games there!



That's my BIL trying to hit the bull's eye by kicking the ball. If you lose, you'll need to sing your country's anthem! :P So, yeah he ended up singing Negaraku. :P

Then, after about an hour of just walking and taking pictures while carrying the babies in our hands (strollers are not allowed in the museum!), we were led to experience the Spirit of London, where we hopped into London's infamous black cabs and learnt the historical and cultural events that shaped London into one of the greatest cities in the world.



We enjoyed the ride in the moving cab! Once we hopped down, we had the option to experience the Chambers of Horrors if we wanted to, but since there were 2 babies on tow, we decided to skip that, and went straight to the Marvel Superheroes zone instead. I know, sayang kan! :(

In Marvel Superheroes zone, we saw life sized figurines of Spiderman, Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine , Iron Man.. well, you got the drill. Aydein was of course the happiest then!







And once we were done taking pictures with the figurines, we were then brought into a big hall to enjoy Marvel's 4D cinematic experience. (Picture below Googled)



We enjoyed the  9-minute experience. It way pretty cool to watch the movie with the chairs vibrating and water spraying in our face! Hehe. Tak sia-sia lah bayar £30/adult for all the experience combined. At least we didn't just look at wax statues smiling all the way je kan. :P

So, that marked the end of our trip to Madame Tussauds. We looked at the time and we still had some time to do a little more sight seeing, so we decided to head on to Tower Bridge, the iconic symbol of London. 



It was beautiful, a perfect spot to end our trip for the day. :)

Friday, June 27, 2014

Hello London! - The Shopping Heaven


That morning, I remember getting up earlier than usual, excited about our trip that day. If Disneyland is THE place the kids were looking forward to, Bicester Village is THE place all of us ladies were dreaming about going since Day 1! :D



Just in case you didn't know, Bicester Village (pronounced BIS-TER) is a designer outlet where you can find everything-designer, from designer bags, shoes, clothes at bargained price. The moment we reached the place, I could already smell the expensiveness of the place! Hahaha.



The very first outlet that I laid my eyes on to was Burberry, looking grand and expensive, alongside his designer friends like, Dior, Prada, Fendi, Chloe, Ferragamo, Calvin Klein, Tod's, Dolce & Gabbana, Mulberry, Juicy Couture, Anna Hindmarch, Coach, Celine, Furla.. the list goes on!

I was disappointed that LV isn't a participating brand though.

Anyway, here are the bags from Prada and Gucci.



And, these are the beautiful, handmade bags from Fendi! Cantik kannn!



And this, is Anya Hindmarch store. I was prepared to splurge on something here actually, but too bad there wasn't anything that I really like. :(




Basically, in Bicester Village, what you see is what you get. Meaning if you've been eye-ing for this particular bag, and it's in the outlet display, then you're lucky. But if you can't find them here, then you'll need to go to the respective boutiques to get them. (At standard boutique price lah ye hehe).

And then, my heart skipped a beat at the sight of Kate Spade!

I don't know about you, but there's something about Kate Spade that makes me want to borong all of their bags! They're young looking, they're colorful, they're chic and they're affordable!





The best thing is, one of the sales assistants there also told me she's been to Malaysia before! Apparently she followed her daddy to Malaysia for work purpose, and stayed in Puchong for 3 months. I was like, why Puchong of all places la? Hahaha.

Yeah, it was nice to meet a local who's been to Malaysia before, but it was even nicer to step out of the store, with something in my hands! :D



Of course, when you're there, you can't escape the "pesanans" from the people back home too. In this case, my sister, the bagaholic. That's me getting Tod's signature "D-bag" for her. The bag is so beautiful, this picture just doesn't do justice!




Apparently, the late lady Diana really loved this bag, that it was named after her.



It's funny that I didn't even notice the time when I was there. I didn't even feel the hunger, until it was time to go home. (Seriously weh. I forgot lunch and the next thing I know it was getting dark!) So, I stopped by this stall, Crêperie Angélie to try out their crepe.



To be honest, I'm not a fan of crepes, but after trying out their something-something-mushroom, I was hooked! It was soooo good. No wonder the queue was longgg! (Picture above was googled, I had no time to take pictures then, what's with the strollers, shopping bags and all) But anyway, definitely a must try.



Before we left Bicester, we had our last stop at D&G. Not for me, but for..



Yeah, who said men don't shop? :P

Something funny happened while we were here. We were checking out on sunnies, and there were sunnies that can be worn for both men & women. I picked up one of them, and asked the sales girl, "So these are for bisexual?" The lady looked at me for a moment and said, "Uhh yeah, they're for unisex," HAHAHAHAHA. I could feel my cheeks burning, but I casually said, "Yes, unisex. Nice, very nice," I looked at my husband and he was giving me that whats-wrong-with-you look hahahaha. Oh well, doesn't "bi" represent "two" in English? That's why it's bicycle right, not unicycle! Ok fine. Pffft whatever.

And that's about our day out in Bicester. :) I don't know when I'm going to be back here again, but I hope I will again soon! <3>

Monday, June 23, 2014

Hello London! - The Handsome Kent

Not this Ken.



But this Kent!



So so so handsome, and so beautiful, isn't it? 

Just in case you didn't know, Kent is another city in England. It's a bit far from central London, about 2 hours drive, but I enjoyed the journey to Kent anyway. Actually, I enjoyed any scenery over there lah, due to the green grass, and small cottage houses. So.. English! :P



Can't say the same about the weather though. It's always raining over there! :(

In fact, it was raining when we reached Canterbury. I was so bummed because we didn't get to explore much there due to the rain. Most of the time we sought for shelter in the shop houses, pretending to be interested in their products! Lol. 


Look at the wet street! :( And I'm not if it's due to the rain or because we were there early (it was barely 11am then), but many of the shops were closed still.

Anyway, when the weather did get a little better, we took the chance to quickly snap some pictures there.



 





Ok see that majestic ancient looking building behind me? That's actually a cathedral, one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It is said to have 21 bells in the towers! In fact, I could hear distant ring as I took this pic then.

Kent was really beautiful. Think ancient buildings with scenic view, that's Kent. I'm just really disappointed the weather wasn't nice to us there and we couldn't take many pics of us there :(

The next day was an even better day. Well, to me (and the ladies) at least! Designer handbags, shoes, handbags, clothes, and did I say handbags? :D

It's the place all women want to be - the Bicester Village! :D (to be continued)

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Hello London! - The Wild, Wild, Westfield

Although it was a tiring day out the day before, I was keen to continue the sight seeing the next morning! So the normal routine begin - I would wake up early, at about 5am to either prepare or help my SIL prepare the porridge for our babies.

*Tip : It may be the weather, but the porridge cooked in UK do not go bad (basi) easily. So don't worry about the food going bad; bring em homecooked meal and feed your baby on the go!

At about 6am the family will all be up for breakfast. I would then feed Adeena, (Aien would feed Aydein) and then bath/dress her. Once she's ready, I would pass her to someone else and quickly take my shower (while listening to Adeena's loud criessss!).

By about 9am, we would already be leaving the house. Macam lama gilaaaa nak keluar rumah kan? That's how it is, leaving in a house with 15 people in it! Satu family dah siap, 2 family belom lagi. 2 family dah siap, satu family belom lagi. Semua dah siap, tetiba satu family reverse balik, tertinggal benda pulak. Gitu laaaaah. But anyway, the agenda for that day, was to spend the whole day exploring one of London's biggest shopping mall - the Westfield!





Both of the pictures above Googled to give you an idea how huge the mall is! :D They're huge alright, but I didn't get to shop much because it's winter, and all of their clothing are made for winter weather. Long sleeve, wool etc. Bawak balik Malaysia nak pakai dekat mana? Snowalk @ iCity? Hahaha.

In there, they had ALL the brands you can possibly thank of, both mid-range designer brands like - Topshop, Zara, H&M, to the high-end ones - GUCCI, Prada, Miu Miu, LV -- everythingggg, that you actually need one whole dayyyy to tawaf the hugeeee mall. But the one store that got me excited the most when I saw it was this brand -



Nak menangis okkk! It's the one brand that I cannot find in Malaysia -- yet! Murahhh tapi bila convert, gigit jari jugak laaa hahaha.





And then, it was mealtime! Guess where we had our lunch?





PENANG! Penang in London, can't get any better than this! :D :D Not only we found Malaysian food, we found the very food that is very dear to my heart -- Penang food! Of course coming from Penang myself, I was the one paling jakun excited lah kan. Siap bergambar dengan waitress semua hahaha.









In terms of taste, I'm not sure if it's because we've tasted better authentic recipes in Malaysia or because we were charged RM41 for a plate of sayur campur, (I think it's the latter bahahaha) but we found it so-so je lah. Sorry lah, it's hard not to mentally convert the currency when you're there!

Ooh and being a mommy myself, I can't help but to feel amazed at how spacious their baby room there! They have proper changing table, 4 spacious nursing rooms, and a space for moms and kids to golek-golek. They even have diaper dispenser machine! How cool is that!







Anyway, if it wasn't because of the cranky baby, I think I would have enjoyed shopping here! Ini tak. Tolak stroller laju2 macam nak bertanding dalam sukan, and kejap2 carik biskut nak umpan Adeena makan supaya senyap, sampai nak muntah dah anak aku tu hahaha. Sooo yeah. After a bit more of walking, we decided it was time to go home.

We had a good time in Westfield, but had a better time in Canterburry, Kent! Stay tuned! (To be continued)