What a ride it’s been. Two years since we learnt that we would be going to London, two years since we knew we would be bringing up a baby here.
And now, 1000 nappies and lots of Four Seasons roast duck dinners later, our two years are up.
Now it’s a new beginning again. We’re going back to KL as a family of three, all set to introduce Keira to the wonders of char koay teow, nasi lemak and air conditioned shopping malls.
Goodbye London… In a way, I’m glad to have been able to bring Keira up here her first two years.
I had the chance to take care of her full time, and not have to work. Everything is so conveniently located where we stay, so I could easily take Keira out shopping and walking every day. I loved making use of the library to borrow books; and now that the weather is getting warm again, it is absolutely wonderful to go out to parks, or just sit on our balcony and enjoy the day.
But the thing that made our stay here complete was getting to know Sydney and Ivy; William and Tina.
It is a happy coincidence how we met. My sister introduced me to Ivy, and CY’s sister introduced Tina. Amazingly we’re all from Malaysia, have a baby around the same age and out of the whole big London, we all stayed within 15 minutes of each other!
A perfect recipe for playdates, get togethers and parties If it wasn’t for them, our stay in London would be hollow indeed. Their friendship made life here so much more happier and meaningful.
But it also makes leaving that much harder.
I have been keeping a whole heap of photos of the kids playing together for a blog post, but now decided to put them into a video compilation to say goodbye to our friends here.
Next time I blog, we will be in sunny Malaysia, moving back into our old house, catching up with old friends and going back to our old life.
There was a time not so long ago when I couldn’t wait to hear Keira say “Mummy”. Now that’s all she says. ALL. DAY. LONG. I don’t want to hear it anymore!
First thing she says when she wakes up is to call me. Then while I’m still woolly headed in dreamland, it will be, “Mami, book, mami book”, “Mami (ba)nana, mami nana”, “Mami bao bao, bao bao”, and then the tears will spill, and her cries will start my stress levels rising, and I have to shake myself awake to play with her.
Not the best way to wake up.
Then again, there are some days when she wakes up and happily plays with her soft toys in her cot, while I get to laze in bed for an extra 15 minutes of precious snoozing, and then CY takes her out to give her her nana and milk, and I hang around in bed and read a book like I used to in the pre-piglet days. Ahh! What rare moments of peace.
When all is said and done tho, she is the most adorable kid I have ever known (says her mother). I can’t imagine life without her anymore. She warms our hearts with silly antics and cute smiles everyday - it doesn’t make up for ear piercing tantrums - it really doesn’t, especially not when your hormones are hardwired to her happiness. But it’s all part of the package, and the package is priceless.
Keira’s chicken pox is almost gone already. Her spots have dried up and scabs are falling off, so i am officially declaring our quarantine over!
Not that we really were on a quarantine the past week I still took her out in her buggy to go shopping, just didn’t let her go near people.
And spring is finally here! The weather has been beautiful, especially over the weekend, so we snuck out to the park! (carefully maintaining our distance from the crowds of people all out enjoying the sunshine too of course).
After months and months of winter, this kind of weather cannot be ignored.
We went to the Science and Natural History Museums on Saturday.
Admission is free (for both museums), so they were really crowded with lots of families and children everywhere.
The Science Museum would have been interesting if I had had the time to read every label on each exhibit. But of course we didn’t, as it was nothing really registered in my mind.
The Museum of Natural History was really cool though. It had life-sized exhibits of all kinds of animals, with one long hall housing a BIG BLUE WHALE. It was the size of two houses put together. It was so huge.
You can see abit of it in the background of the photo below.
And what’s Keira looking at? She calls it “Neck, nek”.
And in the dinosaur gallery, which was the most popular exhibit (there was a half an hour queue to get in!), we saw reconstructed skeletons of big dinosaurs and this cute dinosaur nest!
I think Keira has to be alot older to appreciate all the things in the museum. Hope we can bring her back here again one day to really properly explore the wonders on display.
On the Sunday just before the big snow came, we went to Nobu for lunch.
I was looking forward to it so much I fell asleep thinking about it and woke up salivating. Luckily the snow waited until that Sunday night to blanket London (I would have been really disappointed if we had been snowed in!). The day we were out, it was cold, but bright and sunny.
We ordered two different tasting menus, one which was a selection of Nobu’s signature dishes and the other the chef’s choice of some more adventurous creations. Then we sat back and waited for the food to come.
It was fantastic! Well, some of it was too salty, others had rather strange fusions, but the presentation and the overall experience was a delight to the senses.
Below are my favourite dishes. To see all the other food pics click here.
Yellowtail Tartar with caviar. This was chopped up yellowtail sashimi in a special sauce. Each little mouthful was heavenly.
Salmon and Yellowtail roll on Monkfish pate with sweet miso sauce. I think this was my favourite dish of all. The pate was rich and velvety, the sashimi roll made from the best quality fish, and the miso sauce a sweet complement. Yum, yum, yum…
Scallops with miso paste. This simple combination was excellent because all the ingredients were bursting with their own flavour. Especially the super sweet tomatoes. Best tomatoes I’ve ever had. Even the vegies were good.
Sashimi platter. Again excellent because of the quality of the seafood.
And finally, the chocolate bento box. Bitter-sweet green tea ice cream, and a melting warm chocolate fondant.
Check out oozing chocolate inside the fondant, the cake was light on the tongue, at the same time so chocolaty rich and very satisfying. Ahhh.
I really feel like going there again. When we were there I saw some tables with children, so maybe we can bring Keira next time!
The snow began in the night, we saw the tiny flakes float down and begin to cover everything in a layer of shiny white softness.
When we woke up the next morning, 6 inches baby!
It was very pretty. But not so pretty for those who had to go out, because none of the buses were working, and many of the trains were suspended. Luckily CY could work from home.
This is our first real UK snow experience, and actually also their heaviest snowfall in 18 years! So of course we took the opportunity to make a snowman
It snowed the whole day, at some points I could see the flakes swirling and whirling down outside. Very cool.
Took Keira downstairs to play abit. Well more like for me to play abit , she was quite nervous of the snow so she got carried most of the time. (Someone else made these two big snowmen below, we’re just “borrowing” them for the pcture)
The snow was so fine it felt like we were walking in a huge bowl of freshly shaved ais kachang! Not the grainy hard ice kachang, but the good quality kind, where the ice is soft like candy floss.
Today the snow has turned to ice and it is all slowly melting away. But I’m glad we had this snow experience before going back to warm and tropical Malaysia
Went to Bayswater and had Four Seasons’ famous Roast Duck/Roast Pork rice for lunch. Keira sat quietly on our laps, finished her lunch and didn’t make a fuss at all.
After lunch, we walked over to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, and let Keira chase pigeons and squirrels around the ground.
Then we went to look at the ducks and swans by the lake.
Then it got really, really cold.
While Australia is heating up to 40 degrees celcius, we are experiencing one of the UK’s coldest winters ever.
Especially when the wind blows… it makes 5 degrees celcius (which was today’s temperature) feel like 0 degrees. I made Keira wear her mittens, hat and hood, but she kept on pulling her mittens off! Her hands felt so cold I was worried that she would get frostbite. Luckily managed to cover her up properly when she fell asleep on the way home.
By 3pm, our breath was condensing in the air, and we happily rushed back to the warmth of our flat.
Now I’m relaxing in front of the TV after dinner, Keira having finished all her rice and milk and gone to sleep. Happy sigh.
It’s going to be even colder tomorrow. An almost freezing 2 degrees but according to the weather forecast the wind will make it feel like -6 degrees celcius. Argh! And we have booked to go to Nobu for lunch!
But we’ll brave the cold, because I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to go to Nobu! Luckily we won’t have to worry about Keira getting frostbite as she will be nice and warm at home with her favourite babysitter to play with her all day.
Really looking forward to Nobu - this is the one that is partly owned by Robert De Niro, and where apparently Boris Becker and his GF did it in one of their closets!
I hope it’ll be worth freezing in the sub-zero temperatures for.
We took Keira to Hamleys last weekend, probably the UK’s oldest and most famous toyshop. It was established in 1760!
Hamleys has a huge 5 storey outlet (full of toys, toys and more toys) here on Regent Street in London.
It also has an entire half a floor reserved just for BEARS, lots and lots, all types of and ONLY BEARS!!
They call it the “Regent’s Bear Park”.
Keira was so excited. She ran up and down the aisles shouting “Bear! Bear!” And left a trail of bears behind her as she ran from one cuddle to another.
Keira was in bear heaven.
She finally stuck to one bear and took him shopping around the store.
And yes, we bought her that overpriced little teddy (it was 10 pounds). I wasn’t sure if we should get it at first because she has so many soft toys at home, but we’ve actually never bought her a soft toy before! All the others were presents, so we got her the Hamley bear.. It will be her one souvenir of her time here in London
We took Keira out to visit Leeds Castle yesterday.
Leeds Castle is supposed to be the prettiest castle in England because of how it sits on two islands in the middle of a lake.
It is a one hour plus drive from us, which is one main reason why we went because we can’t handle Keira in the car for more than that!
I packed snacks, toys, her teddy bear, her panda bear and her books for the drive, all of which were put to good use. The moment she started to get restless, I would pop some food into her hands, or read her a book, or sing a song so she hardly had a chance to start with the crying.
But I am so pooped now. And she still screamed for 15 minutes on our way home anyway.
Aside from that, we had a pretty enjoyable day.
Yesterday was actually also me and cy’s 9 year wedding anniversary. We didn’t plan to go to the castle to celebrate the day, but I think it was a nice way to commemorate the anniversary too.
So anyway, when we arrived, we walked around the lovely grounds while Keira had her nap.
CY and I took turns going into the maze, and I got lost in it!
I just kept on walking round and round and couldn’t get to the middle. Finally had to ask for help. Man…
Then we had lunch while sleeping beauty continued to sleep.
We had to wake Keira up when we started the tour of the castle tho because they don’t let buggies in, so she had her first time walking in a castle all on her own
Leeds castle is 900 years old, but it has been “renovated” by all its previous owners, so now it is very comfortable and luxurious inside.
I love the library.
And Lady Olive Baillie’s boudoir (she was the last private owner of the castle circa 1920).
Everything is all pink and frilly and feminine!
After the castle and after Keira had her lunch, we took her to see the aviary where she was quite fascinated by all the birds. She even started saying “Caaw, caaw!” back to the birds!
Then we took her to the playground.
She had fun.
Then guess what? We had to go home! Because the sun was setting, even though it was only 3.30pm. Sigh, don’t like winter…
Here’s the path with lights on already as we walked back to the carpark.
The castle management had put pretty sparkly lights on the trees, with loudspeakers playing christmas songs all along the garden path. Keira looked like she was in a christmas wonderland, and I wallowed in the strains of “Silent Night” floating through the delightfully chill air and magically flickering branches.
The bad economy is really hitting businesses in the UK hard this year.
I can see it just by walking down the main street where we stay. Shops are closing down, prices of basic goods going up (eg. milk used to be 67 pence a bottle, and in a few short months it is now 89p!), while at the same time there are more sales and discounts in the retail stores.
All the shops are desperate for people to spend money, while everyone’s pursestrings are tightening.
The biggest collapse I’ve seen this year is the closing down of Woolworths.
Woolworths is a huge retail chain with stores selling all kinds of general merchandise. I actually feel sorry that Woolworths is going because I sort of grew up with it when I was in Australia. (I don’t know if Woolies is closing down in Australia as well?)
So it is like losing a piece of my childhood.
All the stores are closing down by January next year. And of course now it has a huge sale to get rid of all the stock.
I went on the first day of their sale, and the queues were from one end of the store to the other! Obviously everyone was dying for a sale for all the chrismas presents they have to buy.
I didn’t bother to buy anything - no way can I q up with Keira for I don’t know how long!
But anyway, I went another day, and the sale fever was over, but there was still alot of stuff on their shelves.
So I managed to pick up this pretty woollen top for Keira.
It used to be 10 pounds, then was marked down to 5 pounds. So I thought that was OK. Then when I went to pay for it, found out there was another discount on top of that, and I only paid 3.50 for it. Yay!
I dressed Keira up in the top with her polka dot hair band and pink jeans, and I thought the whole ensemble looked very pretty and chrismassy
I can’t wait for the Boxing day sales after christmas. LOVE 70% discounts on EVERYTHING!
This is why I haven’t been blogging much the past few days.
Misery and gloom means nothing to do and no mood to do it.
It’s the weekend now, and we’re stuck at home, too cold and too wet to go out. Keira is also coughing, so even more reason we shouldn’t go out.
Sigh.
But I am trying to get into the christmas holiday spirit. I have prepared Keira for a photo with Santa, showing her pictures of Santa Claus and children sitting on his lap and how fun it is, so hopefully when we bring her to see him she won’t cry!
We have also made our own little christmas tree.
Haha! Keira likes to eat the decorations, so now the tree is naked.
And we had such grand plans! We were supposed to go away to do some sightseeing around England this weekend. But didn’t book a car, hotel or plan anything. So didn’t go.
Then we talked about doing something locally, like going to a petting zoo, or visiting an arts and crafts fair, but somehow or other, by the time we were ready to go out, it would be after lunch, and Keira would be napping, and considering that the sun sets at the ridiculously early time of 4pm these days, we didn’t do any of those things.
In the end, we just hung around town and sat in local coffee shops drinking hot chocolate and tea. It was way too cold to be out and about anyway. Cold enough for it to snow overnight.
Keira on the other hand, hasn’t had a lazy weekend. She has been ultra busy learning how to walk. She can go quite far now, it is so exciting!!
I keep on trying to take a video of her walking, but everytime she sees me take the camera out, she will come rushing over to see it - she loves seeing the pictures in the screen - so I haven’t been able to take a proper one of her walking yet.
Here’s quite a funny one tho, it’s part of our morning routine, when I let Keira watch the Disney channel and have her breakfast. She’s walking abit here.
Another thing that Keira has been busy with is saying her first proper word!!
I am disappointed to announce this, but Keira’s first word is “Daddy”. She says it distinctly “Da-Di”, and she points at CY, and she laughs. She says it when she sees photos and videos of CY as well. So I am 99% sure she knows what she’s saying. 1% not sure because sometimes her teddy bear is also “Da-Di”. But “Daddy” and “Teddy” sound the same, so maybe she’s saying two words?!
She also does some animal sounds! The cow goes “Booo”, the lion goes “Rrrrr”, the mouse goes “ek ek” and the snake goes “Sssss”.
The baby toddler is walking and talking!!!
ps. i amused myself for quite a few minutes when i hit upon the title for this entry. it was so appropriate! Sorry, i have to laugh! ahahahahaha!
Gordon Ramsay has opened lots of restaurants around the world and in UK. In London alone, I think he has about 6 different types of restaurants. He isn’t the actual chef of any of them tho, he is called the “Patron Chef”. (Meaning his name is just there to help market the restaurant!)
On Sunday, we went to Maze, which is his French/Asian tasting restaurant. They call it a tasting restaurant because all the dishes are small in size so that you can try different things.
Maze is located in the posh Grosvenor Square on a row of buildings that were built in the 18th century. The architecture outside looks traditionally elegant.
But inside, it is ultra modern.
I was wishing Keira could come with us, but one look at the place and we knew a noisy messy toddler would not have fit in.
We decided to order from their set menu because it is cheaper and we can still try lots of different dishes.
So here’s what we had. They all have fancy long names, which I can’t remember, but I’ll try to describe what’s what…
This is a veloute of celeriac and pear, which is a very sweet and creamy soup, and underneath there were pieces of braised rabbit, and on the side is foie gras on bread.
It was delicious! But I gave CY most of my rabbit cos I feel guilty eating rabbit meat.
This is sashimi mackeral fish with pickled cucumber and fennel on the left, crab salad with avocado cream and caviar on the right, all sitting on a bed of sliced white turnip.
This is a piece of turbot fish that was fresh and tender, served with a sweet/sour sauce, some kind of sweet vegetable cream on the side, with black pudding (like a liver sausage) and mushrooms on top.
This is a piece of belly pork, with lentil and bacon cream on the side, and in the bowl is a canelloni bean and sausage stew.
A chocolate pear dessert. Light icy cold sorbet on the left, a flaky chocolate sandwich in the middle and some kind of caramel sauce on the right.
This was a yummy fig rice pudding! Fig roll on the side, a scoop of fig ice cream, with vanilla rice pudding and underneath there was fig jam!
We were very full afterwards. Even tho they say the serving is small, I think some other restaurants would also serve that size and call it their standard size.
Everything was very good, and very well done. Nicer than Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, and about the same price. This is one of the best posh meals I have had so far, but seriously if you ask me which one is nicer - Char Koay Teow or Gordon Ramsay’s fancy dishes - the answer is CKT! Seriously. CKT (extra chilli) is full of zing and pow, like fireworks in your mouth.
This is me satisfied after the meal, but we were actually rushing to get home because we were running late for the babysitter!
We went to Fifteen, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant/training school last Sunday lunch - during our much looked forward to babysitting break.
The restaurant is located in this quiet alley a few tube stops away from the hustle and bustle of central London.
It looked pretty lonely when we approached it from the outside - just this non-descript red brick building - but like all London restaurants, once you go in you are ambushed by the warmth, the noise and people all enjoying their food.
Fifteen in London has a very welcoming and open atmosphere. You feel at ease the moment you walk in.
We enjoyed our meal very much. The dishes were Italian/Mediterranean in style, but prepared with combinations that are the hallmark of experimental fusion cooking.
I wouldn’t say the food was faultless though. Some parts of our main course could have been done better, but I’m not complaning. One more place I can cross off my list of things to do in London
Here’s what we had.
Crab salad on polenta
Gnocchi with wild mushrooms (this was the yummiest dish - soft gnocchi, sweet mushrooms and buttery sauce)
Duck tortelinni with orange and pomegranate sauce
Roast Pork Loin
Meringue with elderberry foam and blueberry ice cream
We’re planning to go to Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant next!
After two weeks of cold and grey weather, London has become sunny again.
When I say sunny I mean a top of 18 degrees celcius and going down to 9 degrees at night! But I must be adjusting to the climate because it feels nice and warm to me!
In an effort to enjoy what I think might be the last of the summer sun, Keira and I have been utilising our under-utilised balcony recently.
The bubster has been grumpy and under the weather the past couple of days - having low grade fever, diarrhoea and only want to eat fruits everyday. I just realised this might be her reaction to the MMR injection, which she had 10 days ago.
Anyway, going out to the balcony really cheers her up.
So I bring a few toys and books out and we sit and soak in the nice weather for awhile. Sometimes, we also eat lunch out there.
This is something we’ll miss doing when we go back… It’s usually too hot and sweaty to enjoy the outside in MY. Everywhere must have air cond!
Here’s a short video of Keira playing on the balcony in the natural air conditioning
If it wasn’t for them, our stay in London would be hollow indeed. Their friendship made life here so much more happier and meaningful.
I still took her out in her buggy to go shopping, just didn’t let her go near people.
