Babymoon Day 5 & 6 - London

Day 5:
It was the last lap of our babymoon trip.
We took the near noon train to london
and arrived on time for our hotel check in at 1300.
Since the hotel stays were much more expensive in oxford and bath,
i chose a cheap 1/2 star hotel for the night.
It was a clean room with basic facilities
at least the shower works perfectly and i get have a real bath
after the nightmare in the previous appartment.

Since we visited london a year ago,
i didnt plan much for the last 2 days.
We walked around the the neighbourhood (paddington) 
and found late lunch in a cafe.
Husband wanted to visit the westminister abbey during our last trip
so i suggested that we visit it.
Since i read that on normal days, it cost 22pounds per pax
and on wednesday 1630-1900, the ticket will only be 10pounds per pax.
And we were on wednesday!
After we made our way to westminister abbey,
the guards told us that this and next wednesdays the abbey was unavailable for visit.
So, we basically made an empty trip.

Husband suggested that we walked to teh national gallery since it was free to visit.
We spent about 1 hour visiting the art galleries 
thereafter, we went to search for wine places to purchase the requested whiskey for my friend.
Surprisingly, we found the whiskey in the first store.
We continued to walked around and decided to serach for a place for dinner.
Crazily, the oxford full restos and pubs curse return
that we cant find a proper place to eat.
We end up in an expensive organic cafe to get some food into our hungry stomach.

I decided that we should buy 2 cheap burgers from Burger king to bring back to our room
since it was just beside the hotel
and the dinner was not really satisfying.
And im glad we had the burgers for supper after my good hot shower!

Day 6:
Despite being a cheap hotel,
breakfast was included in the price
and reviews about breakfast was great.
We had a nice english breakfast to start the day
and decided to check out early to start our last day in london.

Since we had a big luggage and half a day to spare.
We went to St pancras station and store our luggage.
so that we can visit the British museum.
Following google map, it was suppose to take us 25mins of walk
but we ended up walking for close to 1 hour before we finally found it.
The museum was huge but we had limited time and a tired pregnant woman.

After a short visit, we went for lunch nearby
and return to the museum for a short visit.
We then took the direct bus back to st pancras,
took our luggage and went for our train back to paris.

Throughout our trip,
husband was updated by family and friends of the heavy snow in Paris
and how we missed it.
Fortunately, we were greeted by the remaining of the snowing weather on our way home.
That marks the end of our final trip before baby arrives...

Babymoon Day 3 & 4 - Bath

Day 3:
We wanted to had english breakfast at the same pub
but they are only opened for breakfast at 1030
and we had a train to catch at 1100.
So, it was the easy way out to munch breakfast in our room.
As usual, im so impressed with the UK transport system.
It is clean, smooth transits, clear directions, clean toilets at the stations,
and they apologise for all kinds of delays.
On our train to oxford,
the driver even gave a full description of what happened
(Apparently there was a transpasser on the railway)
that delayed our train for 15mins.

After 1h+ train, we arrived at Bath.
Near the train station, it wasn't outstanding looking as oxford.
We grabbed lunch at a small cafe and went to meet the owner of the appartment.
We got a nice appartment in the center of the city,
right next to the city's famous roman bath attractions.
Husband was a big fan of the appartment's deco and old facilites.
Usually, i will prefer staying in a hotel,
but the appartment costs the same as a lousy 2/3 stars hotel,
in similar location and much bigger in size,
so it made sense to get an appartment instead.
Anyway, it was nice to have a little kitchen to cook a little
instead of eating out for every meal.

I was starting to get a little tired from all the trip.
Instead of following our plan,
i decided that we will just visit the roman bath for the day.
It seems small from the outside,
and ticket was expensive at 16.50pounds per pax.
In reality, it was a huge underground museum
that we ended up spending almost 3 hours there!

Unlike oxford, the shops close really ealy at about 1830.

By the time we are done with the Roman bath,

we went to the supermarket to buy dinner to reheat in our appartment.

Thereafter, we took a nice quiet walk around the city to burn my sugar.

I wanted to take a nice hot shower and head to bed.

And the nightmare happened, when i realised that the shower was not really working well.

The water flow was very slow 

and the water went from icy cold to extreme hot.

It was a torture to take a shower!

I decided that i shall not wash my hair or take a full shower till the next hotel!

As expected, there was not as much choice of TV channels in the appartment,

so we just rested early for the night.

Day 4:

The initial plan was to do a half day trip to a small city nearby

but i decided i want to take the day easy

so we stayed in bath and explored.

We went to the royal crescent, which is basically a row of houses in a curve

but the museum was closed for winter.

I cannot missed the chance of hightea while being in UK.

Despite that i am definitely not supposed to eat hightea,

i got a groupon voucher and we went high tea for lunch!

Well, it will be totally impossible for me to have it after lunch and before dinner.

I told husband that it was like my happiest meal in a long long time..

After lunch,

we explored the city and the church beside the roman bath.

But i wasnt really full of energy,

so we had an early dinner at the Sally Lunn's.

It was supposed to be the oldest resto in bath

and famous for their buns.

We were not very impressed by the buns

because i think we are so used to the sweet buns found in asia

and it tasted similar.

Well, it definitely was different from the usual english or french bread.

Since there was nothing much to watch on TV

but there was a dvd machine

and beside the appartment was a 2nd hand dvd, games etcs shop.

We bought 2 old dvds to watch at the appartment

while i packed up our luggages...

PS: I was checking my bank account balance 
to ensure that my credit limit is still enough for the rest of our trip
since we only have my card to be used.
I realised there was a transaction for ebook purchase the night before our trip.
Then we realised that the card associated in the lost ebook was actually my card!
It must be husband lost his card then
and entered my card details to his ebook,
which means we cancelled the wrong card!
I immedately transferred most of the money out of my account
but i guess we will cancel my card once husband received his, arggghhhh

Babymoon Day 1 & 2 - Oxford

I told husband that i need a babymoon, 
a last trip before baby arrives
and i want it to be a non-french city (Preferably english speaking).
Thankfully, there was a sale on eurostar
and we are having a babymoon in uk!
Our last trip to london was in Aug 2016,
so i didnt planned much time in London for this trip!

Husband was worried that i will be too tired or big to visit the cities.
While im worried whether it will be too cold and what can i eat while traveling with diabetes.
Strangely, while we were in UK, the weather was not too cold
and France was freezing with heavy snow.
I guess we had good luck.

Day 1
Meals proved to be difficult from the start
with a pregnant woman, who has gestional diabetes.
The train ride affected my meal time, sugar level and choice of food
which was a good learning lesson for the rest of the trip.
Our train arrived St pancras at 1330 and we had to catch our train to oxford at 1500,
so we had plenty of time to catch a proper meal.
However, husband has to left his ebook in the train
so we spent time at the lost and found,
deciding what to do for money since his ebook is linked to his credit card.
Ended up no ebook was found and we cancelled his credit card.
Not a good start for the trip and i didnt appreciate the adreline rush.

We managed to buy some healthy food for the next train
and arrived oxford around 1630.
We checked in our hotel and spent some time exploring the city
before trying to find a place for dinner.

It was a big challenge to find a proper place for dinner
since there was a big football match that evening
and all of UK's good food - mac&cheese, fish&chicks etcs
are normally only found in pubs and bars.
In the end, we managed to find a resto in a small street,
despite the higer price, we chose to have dinner here
and not explore the streets for another 45mins.
Probably we need to eat dinner earlier as all the places seems to be full before 1900.
We explored the city a little after dinner
and finally headed back to our room for a well needed rest.

Day 2:

We had a simple breakfast in our room 

and start the day early to explore the city.

I think the only benefit of my condition is that i need to eat early

and so, we start our everyday very early for the trip.

Despite being a sunday, 

we were suprised that most of the shops and attractions were open.

Oxford was really beautiful and truly a wonderful university city.
We tried our best to explore as much of the university as possible
but didnt signed up for any tour
as the pregnant me needs the trip to be slow paced and often pee pee breaks.

We then had lunch at a pie place in the market

and continued exploring the city.

I told husband that if our baby makes it to study in oxford,

we should sell everything we have to make sure she can afford to study here

and we can become homeless people in oxford...

hmmm, even if is cambridge, im fine too!

We took a tea break at a library nearby

and decided to do some window shopping at the main streets.
We rested in the hotel room for awhile
and left early for dinner,
just in case it will be as crowded as the day before.
Maybe because its sunday, there is no big match,
or because we are early,
it was not as crowded and we had dinner in a nice pub near the hotel
and finally had our mac&cheese and fish&chips...

Because it was so hard to find healthy food,
the plan was to always walk after a meal.
It is always diffficult to do so at home
becasue we are already in our pyjamas by the time of dinner.
However, i think i walked so much during this trip,
that i managed to burn sugar of most of the crazy unhealthy meals in uk.
And i think is the first trip that we moved so much after meals
when we normally prefer to just take a nap or sit and do nothing, haha.

Anyway, we ended the night early to pack the bags 
and watch crappy shows on the food network channel...

JB trip with the mummies

I cant remember the last trip that i went with the girls.
Probably it was many years ago to bintan for massage.
Crazily, we managed to squeeze in a trip this year to go JB!
We didnt really planned much except that it will be a time of shopping,
nuaing, doing relaxing without the husbands and kids!
Thankfully, the girls helped to plan and book the trip,
that i get to be the pregnant free loader.

Day 1: 
I cant remember the last time that i went to JB.
Luckily, yat has been a regular in JB
that we had no problem to travel from sg to jb.
Her colleague even drew her a map of our hotel and city sq mall, so cute.
We went for lunch at Old town after the customs
and then went to check into our hotel.

Travelling is really different 
with a breastfeeding mum, a pregnant woman and another mum, 
everything is slow and we get to do aunty's things like buy special bread, haha.
We went to shop a little since it was close to mid autumn festival,
there was so many mooncakes and lantern standup stores.
We had a nice teabreak at some korean cafe.
The 2 mummies then went for a massage and i had to burn some time walking alone
since i cant do any massage yet.

Then, it was time for dinner,
strangely i love spicy food since i got pregnant,
so we went for korean spicy dinner!
We managed to buy some water and snacks from the shop opp hotel
and rested in the room with some random TV shows...

Day 2:

Apparently, the latest trend is to go cafe hoping in JB.

We googled for cafes to go for breakfast but it seems that most of them only starts at noon.

We managed to find this place with good hua-ying food

but its more kopitiam than cafe.

We took an uber over and realise uber is so cheap in JB.

The kopitiam was crowded with no proper queuing system

but we managed to get a table quickly.

We then uber back to the shopping mall,

took an appointment at the hair salon and went shopping.

The mummies were nice to give in my request for kenny rogers for lunch

but its really not good, 

i need the old kenny rogers back in singapore!

Initially, i planned to dye my hair

but the shop asked me whether im superstitious about dyeing my hair during early pregnancy,

so i gave up the idea and went to do a normal hair treatment.

Since i was done fast,

i even had time to go tabaoed gong cha for us.

We shopped a little more before ended up in a chinese resto for dinner.

The mummies still have place to tabaoed korean chicken wings for supper!

Day 3:

We munched on snacks and bread for breakfast before checking out late from the hotel.

Nothing was planned for the day except for last minute shopping.

We had lunch at the hongkong cafe and it was time to head home.

Im unsure whether because im still tired from my all the travelling.

I felt so tired after arriving at woodlands customs that i took a taxi home

and spent the rest of the day and next day resting at home.

Not sure when all of us can go to a trip together again

but hopefully our friendship stays strong for the many years to come...

Hong Kong Day 9 and 10: Disneyland

Day 9: 
After munching bread for breakfast,
we check out early to head for disneyland!
It will be husband's first trip to disneyland hk
and definitely not fun for the pregnant woman,
who cant take most of the rides.
The ride to disneyland was long 
but everyone was having fun taking selfies on train.
Husband was so impressed with the special disneyland train
because in paris, its just a boring usual train.

We arrived at disneyland and took the shuttle bus to our hotel.

Sister made a mistake at the hotel name

but thankfully the hotel arrange for a van to send us to the hotel.

If not, we will need to take the shuttle bus back to the park 

and take another shuttle bus to our hotel, so its no fun.

We checked in to the hotel and prepared ourselves for disneyland.

Oh, and we saw goofy in the hotel and took a nice photo with him.

And again, it was a hot hot hot day...

I lost count of the time that i hid in the aircon shops

and partly because i cant take the rides.

Its crazy that pregnant woman can only take kiddy rides

that are mostly rides that makes you dizzy?

Although the kids were nice enough to take "baby rides" with me,

it didnt helped that i had morning sickness.

So most of the times, i asked husband to joined them,

and i waited for them outside.

The day was so hot and humid

that we found it hard to even enjoy the parade.

The best was all the indoor shows with cooling aircon.

In the late afternoon, i was literally burning

that i dragged husband into a resto for expensive dessert

just to have aircon to cool down

while sis went on to take rides with the kids.

We didn't stayed for fireworks since everyone was tired

and we didnt want to squeeze the crowds to go back to hotel.

We ended up having dinner at the expensive resto in the hotel

and rested in the room.

Then my sister had to remind me,

why we didnt thought of buying cup noodles?

Eh, i guess we forgot we are travelling in asian countries 

and cup noodles can save us so much money??

hmmm...

Day 10:

We didnt plan much for the day.

So, it was just a nice breakfast at the hotel

and we managed to catch mickey for some photos.

The kids then went to the pool for a dip

while husband rested in the room to nurse his dripping nose.

It was time to leave for the airport.

Initially the plan was to take the mtr to the airport,

but considering the time and no of us,

we ended up taking a taxi because it costs about the same,

yet only 15mins to be at the airport.

We accompanied sis and kids for their check in

and left for another terminal for our check in.

It was sad to end the trip

yet i was happy to be back in Singapore for a good rest.

It has been a very tiring trip for me.

Since sis and kids were in an earlier flight,

and our flight got delayed 45mins,

we were surprised that the kids wanted to wait for us at the airport

and we all shared a taxi back home...