Monday was a bank holiday and it was also the last holiday of the year till Christmas. We took advantage of the long weekend by spending our holidays at Cornwall. At first, it sounded like a bad idea as it was a quite a drive and possibly massive queues but it all turned out so well. No doubt there was a short queue due to a vehicle breakdown but it didn’t spoil the journey.
As soon as we arrived at the first fishing village called Polperro, we knew that we made the right choice of destination. With the perfect sunny weather, fresh air, tasty cream tea and fabulous food as well as comfortable accommodation at a golf resort, we had a real smashing time at this magnificent peninsular. A place where you can get the best of both worlds; picturesque landscape as well as breathtaking seaside view.

Lands End which is UK’s most southerly point with its astonishing cliff is definitely a recommended stop. The other unique location is Minack Theater, an open-air theater by the seaside which was the brainchild of Ms Rowena Cade in the 1930s. There was a rehearsal in progress while we were there, could be the play The Tempest in conjunction with the theater’s 75^th anniversary celebration.

I’ve decided to post the photos on facebook, the latest social utility craze as I’m starting to get the hang of it.

It was the hottest day this summer, temperature increased to a record high 32 last Sunday. Perfect day for a picnic and off we went to Hyde Park at London. Girls were clad in bikinis sunbathing on the park. Should have taken some photos but sorry guys :p

We had a lovely home prepared meal – turkey breast wraps, grapefruit juice, potato salad, nectarines and scrumptious sticky toffee pudding. Cameron was distracted with the surrounding (must be the girls), so he refused to drink any milk. But I’m sure he had a wonderful time relaxing with us on the grass.

We went to Europe’s largest shopping mall, Bluewater, in Kent 2 weeks ago.  I think it has 300 over individual retailers, super huge and much more varieties than 1 Utama. Their nursing facilities are superb. However, I believe they could do better with more selections of restaurants. There were only 2 oriental outlets and the menus didn’t look good. We opted for Spanish instead. Cameron’s face was filled with amazement when he saw the toys at Disney’s.

http://www.bluewater.co.uk/

Bath was the last destination in UK that Ma & Pa went to. It was a good choice and the Georgian architecture is pretty much unique compared to the last few places that we went to. However, we did not enter the Roman Bath…too tired after all the sight seeing and for some reason…probably next time…

Windsor is one of the main tourist attractions that is in the close proximity to where we live. We will definitely bring our visitors to this place, so we have been there a couple of times It is a working Royal palace and used frequently by the Queen for state ceremonies and official entertaining. The Queen also uses Buckingham Palace for receptions but officially lives in there.

We were at Covent Garden and spotted these 5 beautiful and adorable gigantic dogs in front of a pub. Besides the St. Bernard and the Old English Sheep Dog, Eng and I have never come across such large breed. They were so good with humans that even Eng’s parents adore them. They used to be the German hunting breed and often ’branded’ as the "Lion Dogs".

Derbyshire Peak District has fantastic picturesque landscape and it’s the location of England’s first National Park. We visited Bakewell Town and Chatsworth Village and particularly admired the scenic nature and the animals like sheeps and deers roaming freely in the vicinity!

London is definitely the place-to-visit as it is always so lively, vivacious and lots of exciting things to witness and experience. We went through this route on foot à Waterloo-London Eye-Westminster-Buckingham-Kensington Park-Hyde Park-Bayswater-Harrods-Oxford Street-Leicester Square-The Strand-Waterloo. Phew! Huge effort for Ma & Pa and I think we send shivers down their spine whenever we mention our next travel destination haha. Nevertheless, the 4 of us enjoyed ourselves and had a great Dim Sum at Royal China.

Oxford to me is another university township, but of course a rather reknowed and ancient one. Searching through its historical account, it became a centre of learning for training clerics sometime in the late 11th or early 12th century. However, no one knows more precisely when a school or university was established. In some ways Oxford University was never really founded, it simply evolved. By the 13^th century, it was firmly established as an academic centre. This city suffered a series of dramatic events; damaged by calamitous fire, struggled through Black Plague, riots and violence. What makes this place interesting is most of the landmarks have been conserved (like most places in the UK) and damaged sites had been meticulously restored to mimic its origin. Besides all this “boring sejarah (history) lessons”, it has beautiful botanic gardens and one can enjoy outdoor activity such as punting on its rivers. To get a good bird’s eye view of Oxford, we, including Ma and Pa climbed to the top of the 74 foot high tower of Carfax. Btw, the name Carfax is derived from the French “Carrefour” which means crossroads.

I usually travel alone but this time I had companions during my return to the UK. I picked up my parents-in-law at about 0900 on the 12^th April. At the check-in counter, I persuaded the ground staff to allow me to invite 2 guests into the lounge but in vain. I decided to try my luck at the Golden Club Lounge reception and fortunately all 3 of us were kindly invited ;) ‘Pa’ (father-in-law) enjoyed the nasi lemak with beef rendang and the variety of desserts.

 MAS Golden Club Lounge

MH004 took off at 1200 for a long 13 hour journey. I managed to catch a mere 2 hours sleep (as usual) and 4 movies – Rumour Says (Jennifer Aniston), Shall We Dance (J Lo, Richard Gere), The Chronicles of Narnia and 1 Korean movie which was boring and I dozed off halfway. Pa managed to sleep and it’s to his advantage that he could sleep despite of any situation. ‘Ma’ (mother-in-law) couldn’t sleep that well. Anyway, they were invited to the business class cabin during the last 30 minutes of the flight so that we could proceed to the immigration hall together. Thanks to the kind stewardess and she even presented a bottle of complimentary champagne to me. Such great customer service at MAS

  Business Class