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/

Completed our ‘mission’ trip to KL and now back in the UK. The last month was pretty challenging, hectic but pleasant at the same time. Mixture of feelings. So much happened but just do not know how to put them all in words. When friends ask about how it all went, these are what I would normally say…

- Cameron was down with a temperature for the very first time on the 3^rd day of our KL trip. Subsequently, it developed into chesty cough with phlegm and running nose. Could be due to the change in weather and haze. It lasted for almost 2 weeks, hence did not get to go anywhere.

- Eng and I were also down with cough and flu, thus we did not get to feast on our cravings that much arrghhhh Missed eating curry laksa, asam laksa, fish head curry, banana leaf rice, hokkein mee, roti canai, teh tarik, putu mayam, rojak…..ggrrrrr

- Breastfeeding was a torture. Imagine I had to stand breastfeeding Cameron at the ladies in Concorde. There wasn’t a single chair, no proper nursing area, not even a baby change! Wonder where other parents change their babies’ diapers. Either that, it’s not a norm for babies to be outdoor hmmmm. It was worse at 1U. The nursing area wasn’t air conditioned…goodness…Cameron was screaming away as it was too humid and uncomfortable.

- Best nursing area is Jaya Jusco. I was impressed by the facilities offered.

- Managed to meet up with close relatives and some friends and those were the best moments of our trip.

- It was the mega sale in KL but we did not have the time to shop. What a bummer. Well, once you have a kid, your life will never be the same….

- Had to change our return flight to a week early, as I was apprehensive that Cameron would develop further problems with the weather. Besides I was struggling alone with him and it was pretty stressful. The best resolution was to return to the UK.

- I’m glad we returned a week earlier as he is going through a tough weaning process. I’m resuming work on the 31^st July and hence I’m cutting down breastfeeding to just twice a day and he has to feed on solids and formula. It’s really difficult for the both us but he is getting better by the day. He is even sleeping much better.

So much so for my 4 weeks trip to KL. I would be visiting KL sometime soon or probably next year but do not think it would be a good idea to bring Cameron along after the bad experience. As usual, will see how…

It was Saturday, we went to KLCC in the afternoon to kill some time before meeting our estate agent for dinner. Being a newbie to KLCC car park, I spent some time looking for a space. Finally I came to a small section where there were about 2 square spaces which were empty.

I reverse parked in one of the space. Got out and it was warm and stuffy fumed with car exhaust. Can’t complain, as it is generally happening to any enclosed car park. While Mel is getting out of the car with Cameron, I went to the back to setup the stroller. I noticed there was a Kelissa coming along and signaled to park in the space behind me. So obviously it stopped as I was behind my car. I quickly got the stroller out from the boot, put it on the ground and set the whole thing up. Before I could finish, the Kelissa HONKED at me to move away from the space!!!!! What was that about??? While I was working on the stroller??? There wasn’t any other car waiting for them!

I swear I didn’t spend more than 7secs to finish what I needed to do and moved away from their space! If I had a choice I wouldn’t want to stay in the car park any second more than it takes to get everyone into the Mall.

I was furious! The driver was a mid-aged lady with another mid-aged man sitting next to her. It was such a rude thing to do, completely ignoring the fact that there was a young child in the car. It was so oblivious, so insensitive.

Well, I hope they got further that day with the few seconds that they were so stingy to give out to others.

Many people at work asked me about my holiday, and my standard answer has been:

It was good, met my family and had lots of food. But weather was hot and we were all ill…etc etc.

To be honest, did I really enjoy this holiday? I don’t know…

Many things happened during that 2 weeks and it was completely out of my expectation, more than I’ve bargained for.

The one week prior to the holiday, people from the church and people at work noticed my excitement. I had smiles on my face, nothing at work could possibly affect my mood; even the control freak lady of my team who trying to run the whole show by doing the least. We were so looking forward towards the trip. At home, we packed and re-packed, thought about the food we were going to eat, planned our itinerary and list of things to do. There wasn’t any word to best describe the feeling.

However reality is cruel.

The weather appeared to be a lot hotter than we anticipated. The landscape of Mel’s house in Cheras has changed. The little jungle has been wiped off 80% for new housing and as a result the house is hot. Cameron didn’t like the heat at all and gets annoyed easily. He developed fever on the third night. Traffic is mad. Looking for parking is a routine. Mel had cold and me follow suit. Both sides of the family members also fell ill from the flu.

Despite all these mourning, we managed to meet up with the family and had dinner. Cameron is well loved by everyone. We managed to taste some of the food that we have been longing for, although not all of them. We also managed to finish most of the things on our list.

As I am typing this, I was told that Cameron has developed cough (probably due to the Haze making a comeback on the day I left KL) and Mel is still battling her cold.

So it was a good trip in general, and the best part must be the beautiful one week before the holiday.

** Maybe weather, traffic and parking have been problems all these while. Maybe it was ourselves that played down the effect because of the excitement.

I am back. Back to the UK.

Landed at Heathrow amid the heightened security atmosphere on Sunday evening. The airport was chaotic probably because many flights landed around the same time and no cars were allowed to drop off / pick up passengers from the Airport front. Anyway I managed to find my way home.

Walked out of the airport, first thing that greeted me was the cooling temperature. It was below 20 C that day and to be honest I do not miss Malaysia weather at all.

Got home, changed and made oat porridge (as that’s the quickest and healthiest at home) to fill me up for the night.

Home is cold and quiet. Never mind, another 3 weeks, the home will be filled with laughter and cries.

finally it’s all coming true…. all done and ready … money, IC, driving license, bags, food, baby stuff, food for tomorrow, settled the car, visa, workpermit, passports etc etc etc ….

we are excited… except Cameron, for some reason he is little cranky tonight

i reckon i will not be gaining too much of a quality sleep as i am so used to playing the ‘check the time game’ night before flying hehe, but hope it will not happen tonight, i am putting my bet on this cup of camomile that i am sipping at the moment.

We are going home!!! YES I have finally sorted my leave with my company after weeks long of negotiation. And yesterday I received all the air tickets!!

It’s soooo exciting thinking about meeting with family members and FOOD FOOD FOOD and not forgetting friends if the schedule is not too busy and if we survive the temperature

Maybe it’s because I haven’t been home for nearly 2 years and furthermore we are waiting so eagerly to see our parents’ face expression when they first meet Cameron. It is going to be so heart warming!

We will leave next week but i will not disclose too much of our travel itenerary here (just to be a little wary with Internet).

satay, curry fish head, steam fish, crab, tiger and mantis prawns, roti canai, ayam goreng kampung, putu mayam, nasi lemak, jagung, coconut, durian, char siu pau, chee cheong fun, hokkein mee, yong tau foo,  banana leaf rice, kangkung belacan, cendol, rojak, wild boar… I AM COMING….

p/s I have to post this blog before I flood my keyboard

We had our first spring/summer BBQ for the year yesterday. Weather was sunny but cooling with light gust of wind. All of us ended up with bloated tummies due to the amount of food - kebabs, pork chop, sausages, salad, tiramisu..

Our friend’s cat, Oscar was inquisitive as he gently put a paw on Cameron’s foot. Cameron was in deep sleep, so he didn’t give a damn.

Eng had his eyes intently on Oscar to make sure he doesn’t set his paws on his precious son again..As you know, dog lovers don’t normally like cats.

Another new year, another year older…booohhohoho Somehow once I’ve reached the big 3, age has become a sensitive issue and I just wish time will halt for a while. Well, I did enjoy my moments during my twenties but it just passed by too swiftly that there was insufficient time for reflection. Anyway, enough of the blabbering. We had a small celebration with some friends on New Year’s eve. Lots of food as usual and I prepared Grilled Honey Chicken Wings. Nothing special as I’ve run out of idea on what to serve as finger food. This is simple to prepare (only soy sauces and honey) and finger licking good as well. Had rounds of cocktails (oooppss, non alcoholic specially for me - Pina Colada without rum, slurp slurp) and a game called Jenga. Was in my 35^th week of pregnancy, Eng was surprised that I still had the energy to cook for a party. Well, I’ve been advised by many friends to stay active so that it would ease the labour. Hopefully, it would.

This is our second Christmas in the UK. It was a relaxing day as we headed to the church in the morning and then to our friend’s home for a traditional Christmas dinner, roast turkey that is and brussel sprouts, yorkshire puddings, sage and onion stuffings (my fav!) and the sinful M&S sticky toffee pudding (heaven!). It was a day with endless munching and chats and rounds of ginrami (to substitute mahjong for the benefit of our British friend who would find it difficult to recognise the chinese characters). Unfortunately, time flies and Christmas is over now Anyway, here are some most recent photos..how does my bump look eh?

We spent a night at Aunt Violet’s place in Wolverhampton, Birmingham. We’ve visited her several times since last year including Christmas. However, this time we managed to meet more relatives whom we’ve last seen since years ago. My grandaunt and granduncle are already over 80 and it was half a decade since they last visited Malaysia and met up with the Malaysian relations. These photos were taken with the grands and cousins. As you can see, my bump doesn’t show very much although I’m in my fifth month.

It was a long weekend as yesterday was a bank holiday. Unfortunately, Eng made a last minute arrangement to work in Preston throughout the weekend. So I decided to tag along. I brought my laptop and books with me with the hope that I can get online and do some surfing and blogging but the broadband connection in the room didn’t function. Darn! So, did some offline work and read a good book on raising babies while Eng was at work. Preston is a relatively small town, nothing much to capture. Instead, took a few shots in the hotel as my humble contribution for this trip - mel.

This is a working weekend for Eng and he’s at his customer’s site at Preston since Friday evening. He would be back tonight. So, this is Mel blogging and Mel met up with Mel for lunch, shopping and dinner on Sat. The twin Mel whom I’m referring to is a colleague from KL who has just arrived in London. While waiting for the train, she kept stealing looks at my tummy and after a few minutes, I just caught her stare and said “Not showing right?” haha! No one can tell I’m pregnant and hence, I am never being offered a seat in the train….boohoohoo. Anyway, we had lunch at London’s most famous duck restaurant, the Four Seasons. Hmmm the duck dish was below my expectation but they claim themselves as the “duck specialists”. However, the pork belly with preserved vegetables (“mui choy kau yuk”) was superb! Best one I’ve ever even eaten in my life. Highly recommended! Sorry no pix as I was trying to travel as light as possible. This pregnant lady is quite clumsy at times, so didn’t want to bring too many gadgets to the hectic city. Then, jumped on the bandwagon for the last minute summer sales but I can’t believe that I didn’t buy anything. Well, I tried on a few outfits but looked awful….could be due to my expanding figure… sigh – mel.