C'est La Vie

I should really be in T2 LHR right now checking in for our Sicilian beach holiday. Instead here I am, still in the comforts of home, typing away on the laptop of my circumstances.

We cancelled our trip last night. All very last-minute.

Despite dying for a beach retreat for the longest time, we gave this a miss mainly due to the two reasons below.

The weather in Sicily is supposed to be 38 degrees, that’s even warmer than what I am used to in Malaysia and I was worried about what I read in the pregnancy lit – swelling of feet/hands/face when too hot and constipation (leading to piles) if dehydrated; the (common?) discomforts that may occur during pregnancy. (Am I being irrational, or too cautious here, by letting pregnancy rule my life/take the fun out of everything – remember We Will Rock You?)

Secondly, IK checked the reviews on the hotel and despite it being rated 4*, all the comments about the hotel were negative, apart from nice Mediterranean Sea views (oooh how lush is that but…). We tried looking for alternatives and perhaps pay a bit more for an upgrade but it appears that all hotels by the beach around the Palermo area had bad reviews, yes even the 5* ones. What is it with Italiano hotels?

At the time of booking this holiday, we took the option to be able to cancel it at a minimal fee. With that, Exp3dia was able to reimburse our hotel cost but we will only receive a credit note for the flight tickets. I very much doubt that we will have the opportunity to claim the credit note because the airlines’ policy for pregnant women to fly is 27 weeks (trimester 3) and that’s 1.5 weeks away for me.

Don’t know if we did the right thing. Am I disappointed? To say no completely would be a lie, so yes I am a little, but surprisingly not as much as I expected to be. But there goes my last holiday for the next erm, 5 years maybe?

I have booked my leave until the 21st, that’s Wed - Monday. Wondering what I am to do with all that time in my hands. Perhaps hit the shops and return all my maternity beachwear?

Land of Tulips [Minus the Tulips]

We celebrated (well in my books any occasion is a good excuse to celebrate) my 23 weeks' milestone with a trip to the Land of Tulips, Clogs, Cheese and Windmills.

It was a fab trip, I love Amsterdamster.

For its easy access to drugs. For the Red Light District.

Kidding. Kidding.

Top 10 reasons why I love this European city, in no particular order:

1. Great restos and eateries abound - authentic yummy Indonesian and Siamese food (I have yet to find anything similar in London)
   
2. Beautiful flowers in abundance - the Dutch seem to be very passionate about their flowers


3. Bicycles everywhere! Doggies in baskets, toddlers in seats, men in suits, despite ladies all dressed to the nines, their bicycles were totally unattractive, very generic and berkarat, it was odd (I would insist that my bicycle stand out amongs the crowd and reflect my personality in terms of colour at least)


4. Colourful clogs - I wish I could buy many many more to start MY CLOG COLLECTION, they are so cute


5. Its beautiful architecture - homes, Rijksmuseum, general buildings


6. We found a gem of a shop that sells lovely decorations for the home, if only we had the capacity to buy loads more sigh


7. Our hotel, near Leidseplein, was a perfect choice, very very central to everything touristy


8. Lovely canals - I'd love to have my birthday party on the boat while cruising the gorgeous canals in the warm summer breeze basking in the evening sun with good food, good company *bliss*


9. Great selection of food (I'm Malaysian, nothing else matters)


10. Great selection of food

OK. So maybe Top 8, but who's counting eh?

Out Of Office

So I don't have to work tomorrow. Yahoo.

We are going away for a short weekend break. To Amsterdamster. Never been there at all so hopefully this will be fun.

OK then toodles everyone, have a good weekend and don't forget to buy the euromillion - jackpot is £46 million whoaah!

Weekend Away

We were at St Ives, Cornwall over the May bank holiday. Lovely weather, plenty of sunshine, beautiful seaside retreat and lots of fresh outdoor air for a chnage. All in all, it was good being away from the wharf.

Below are some pix around the quaint little town of St Ives. We stayed at the Porthminster hotel which was had a perfect location high on the hills overlooking the gorgeous St Ives Bay. It is a picturesque walk down into town from our hotel. The little town is littered with shops, eateries and cafes all the way to the pier where you can rent boats, enjoy short trips to nearby islands/lighthouses etc.

Thankfully we had good weather during our entire trip and we went sailing on the first day we arrived; we had the opportunity to see a pair of seals bobbing in and out of the water - he/she was oh so cute.

The other places we visited were Land's End and St Michael's Mount captured in following two posts.

The bay the hotel overlooked

Beautiful flowers abound

Gorgeous view of blue skies and azure sea

The Pier with the white Lighthouse at the end

The picturesque St Ives

Spot the little doggy-diver on the dinghy!

Good sport - ever obliging little seal allowing us to get a good look at him

Land's End

Holiday vs Stay Home. Adventure vs Relax. Luxurious vs Sensible. More Savings vs Less Spending.

Easter hols is at the end of March and we are in the midst of deciding to go away for a short trip.

This sounds odd but I don't really want to go for a holiday as all the events leading to a holiday is exactly what it is not supposed to be. Stressful, tiring and not fun. I end up exhausted with all the packing, cleaning up house, emptying fridge, laundry, waking up early, travelling to the airport, hotel transfers etc. Urgh

Then there's the intensive sight seeing to be done having merely four days; planning our itinerary for each day, what and where to visit, finding best methods of travelling around the city, where to have meals, etc - all too complicated really.

I think holidays are never restful (unless you head to a beach and just laze about with a good book sipping pinacolada all day long).

But.

There is a nagging worry that should I decide to stay home and just chill for four consecutive days (O bliss - it sounds so tempting already), I may regret not taking advantage of the bank holidays to venture to the continent. I only have a limited amount of annual leave entitlement per annum. This will be a good opportunity to save them and yet get some travelling done.

But.

If we decide in the end to go somewhere indeed, that simply means more money going out.

And.

The anniversary ticker indicates our wedding anniversary is less than three months away. It being the seventh makes me think I should put extra thought and effort on a more memorable and meaningful gift vs. previous gifts. Special gift = more money? Without sounding very materialistic, yes, I am afraid so. I know what he really wants (needs?) and it does not come cheap.

My bank account has been steadily depleting since September last year at an alarming rate. There was a big birthday gift, trips home, Boxing Day and January sales, the trip to the states, and more recently, Valentine's Day.

I need to restore the sad state it is in pronto.

Can someone ever so kindly tell me where I can find this goose that lays the golden eggs?

DC Shots

Congress - View from Washington Monument

White House - View from Washington Monument

WWII Memorial - View from Washington Monument

Library of Congress

The grand decor inside the Library of Congress

Abraham Lincoln Memorial

The White House - Ellipse view

The White House - Lafayette view

World War II Memorial

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument

Congress, Capitol Hill

Pentagon

Cleanest and biggest Metro I've ever come across

Washington DC

After New York, we had the option of taking the train or renting a car to proceed to DC (taking a flight was very expensive). We chose to drive simply because it meant no restrictions on luggage and no rushing about for inflexible train schedules.

Our road trip which should have taken 3 hours ended up being 5.5 hour journey. Adapting to unfamiliar driving conditions i.e. driving on the other (wrong!) side of the road (IK), trying to understand the less *ahem* sophisticated Hertz satellite navigation system (me), missing a few junctions along the way (me) and heavy traffic in DC were the main reasons for the extra 'joy ride' hours.

Big Boo Boo: Driving out of NYC to get to the motorway - the time my heart skipped a beat when IK turned into the opposite carriageway. Funny it was not.

We made it anyways and kudos to IK for getting us there in one piece.

Highlights of DC:

• Lots of spacious, open areas


• Big boulevards + ample car park


• Large, comfortable + unbelievably clean subway trains


• Our fantastic hotel room


• Magnificent monuments + memorials


• Outstanding Smithsonian museums


• Remarkable and beautiful Library of Congress

One piece of advice. Although the cost of the train tix was no different to the car rental, we discovered that it was more expensive to drive resulting from unforeseen incidental costs such as fuel, additional parking charges at the hotel and lots of tolls along the way. In conclusion, travelling by train would be the cheaper option, although you won't have the luxury of time and will be bound to rigid train time tables.

***

Gong Xi Fa Chai to all celebrating the Lunar New Year!

NYC Summary

Highlights of New York City holiday:

• Amazing skyscrapers.
  
• Systematic grids for easy navigation around the city.
  
• Starbucks (considerably better choices for sandwiches and cakes), Citibank and Duane Reade (Boots equivalent) at every corner I kid you not.
  
• Cheap Broadway musicals; we watched Grease.
  
• Beautifully landscaped Central Park.
  
• Great shopping - Designer outlets + Macy’s; generally everything is cheaper here vs. London.
  
• The sale at Bath and Body Works; everything was going for $5 – Warm Vanilla Sugar is heavenly!
  
• Friendly New Yorkers, although Americans from other parts think otherwise.
  
• Discovering that flying British Airways far exceed my expectations.

Some unexpected setbacks too:

• Very cold weather for a tropical girl like me; it was -5 degrees on average everyday brrrr...
• We were both ill during trip.
  
• Bickering with IK; regrettably our differences tend to get amplified during holidays.
  
• Limited time to shop as much as I would have loved to boo hoo hoo.
  

New York Shots

The Beautiful Chrysler Building

View of Manhattan from Ferry

Bare trees on Liberty Island


Lady Liberty


Rockerfeller Center

Ground Zero

Grand Central Station

Times Square & Broadway


Natural History Museum


Empire State Building

Amazing view from 86th Floor, Empire State

Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan Skyline

Wall Street Bull

NYSE

Frozen Lake in Central Park

Ice Skating at Central Park

Colourful Newspaper Bins