chictopia vs mummytopia

I stumbled upon this website called chictopia. It became one of my favourite websites to browse through and check out what everyone was wearing and what I felt was chic. I registered myself and went through my photos to put in and detected practical solutions to the outfits I thought was chic enough. I'm almost always without a handbag/purse and always wearing comfy shoes especially when we do a lot more walking here than back home and we always carry Nabila's diaper bag plus added essentials.

Items for the home makeover

I've been collecting items to bring back home for our home makeover. Some were new and some were from the car boot sale. Some could be used straight away and some needed some TLC and a makeover.

Tour de Scotland

Day 7

We sent the 7 seater and rented a smaller car for my sister as we could use our own car in Glasgow. Hubby had to babysit Nabila, Aisha and Sarah while I brought my sister and brother in law to shop. My sister literally went rambang mata. While she loaded clothes in her shopping bag I asked her, best kan shopping kat Glasgow? hehehe...it's the same shops but with less crowd as compared to Oxford Street. Yes, I know, but as a shopoholic, how can you not go to London and not go to Oxford Street right? We came back at 4 and found that all three girls were fast a sleep. Wow, hubby has really mastered being the daddytopia. We went to the Glasgow Fort and shopped until the stores closed.

Day 8

Finally some sun in Glasgow after raining the whole day. We quickly brought our food and had a picnic at the Tollcross Park where it had a farm animal petting zoo, winter garden, small stream, animal paddock, nice green grass and an Internationally recognized rose garden with an old mansion as the setback. There was sun and wind and everyone had a pleasant time. Nabila taught Aisha and Sarah how rolling on grass was done. She simply lied down and looked like she enjoyed the smell of Scottish grass. Haha. The roses were in abundance and exquisite. It was huge like cabbages. We were in love with the roses coupled with the sun and nice breeze. We then headed to town to shop and to the Science Centre for more pictures.

Day 9

Edinburgh. We took pictures of the Edinburgh Castle, walked along Princess park and did some souvenir shopping at Hard rock Edinburgh. We then headed to Cairnie fruit Farm in Fife for some strawberry picking. Everyone had a blast. The strawberries were abundance and so sweet. Ooops, yup, they were too exquisite not to pop in the mouth. Nabila really enjoyed the fact that she was allowed to pick the fruit and pop it in her mouth. We had lunch there, it was a nice place with a nice setting. there was also a kids play area but we were short of time. the next destination was Aberdeen but we had a chance to past Dundee which looked so nice as you approach it from the bridge. we arrived at Kak Suni and Abang Taufiq's house in Aberdeen and were greeted by familiar friendly faces, the yummy smell of ayam percik, (Kelantanese barbecue), sambal kemiri, beef skewers and Triple Chocolate brownies. We literally stuffed ourselves.

Day 10

We had too much fun with kak Suni and her kids we did not want to leave, we did not walk about the Aberdeen town but we still had fun. The house was huge and had a back yard with a small pond and a secret garden. We had nasi lemak for breakfast and nasi putih, ayam masak lemak, daging goreng and sambal kemiri for lunch before heading out to the caravan park in Nairn. The caravan park was just by the seaside, the sea side was still cold albeit being in the summer but it was beautiful. The kids did not care and played with the sand and water and had fun. The caravan was nice though from outside it looked more cabin like. We realised that the caravan we always imagined were personal caravans. We had burger for dinner and slept early.

Day 11

We headed back home as Kak Na still needed to do some shopping. We still made one more stop along the way to the Loch Ness in Inverness though we did not see any Nessie monster. It rained all the way from Inverness to Glasgow. We had late lunch at a petrol station and a big dinner at our place.

Day 12

Bye bye... there Glasgow-London flight was at 6.30. It was a full-fun-filled trip for them, I hope.

L-O-N-D-O-N strike 3

I planned that we meet up in London first, everyone would still be excited and energetic. the only problem was that I was not a 'local' tour guide so I did not know the bus route well, we still relied on the tube. We were also short of time with so many places to go to. This time around it was one of the hottest London ever had so it was hot, dry and stuffy. We tried to take the bus and it was not at all that hard. I now recommend to take the bus if you have time for trial and error, we saw so much more of London, half of the time we followed most recommendations and walked. When we were tired or when Nabila needed a break, there was always a park nearby that we could just sit and relax. The only problem was that the weather was too hot and dry it burnt out all the grass. The grasses were discoloured and dry robbing a bit of the beauty of the parks. We assured my sister that we will bring her to green grassed parks in Glasgow as they were expecting to roll around on the park. This started to be a point to make fun of London as we were living in Glasgow so we were a bit of, erm say... 'Scots'at heart? Haha... my husband got overboard with the jokes (maybe because he's not only living but studying in Glasgow) so much as to annoy my little baby Londoner sister.. Azy!! Janganlah merajuk. Hehehe.... We were also a bit put off by the lack of courtesy I guess.. I was carrying Nabila the whole time and most of the time no one offered me a seat. There was even one time that I lost a bit of balance and almost fell on a lady, at first she was quite annoyed only to realise I was carrying Nabila, but she still did not offer her seat. The lady besides her offered her seat. I guess London is much more Metropolitan, and like KL, the courtesy is lost somewhere in the hustle and bustle and overcrowded Internationals. Glasgow is definitely so much friendlier, so more a reason to tease my sister? hahaha

Day 1

We took the 4 hours Virgin train and stayed at a friends house. The train trip was quite okay, whenever Nabila got bored we took turns taking her for a walk. The only setback was that her sleep was disturbed so it made the remaining 2 hours a bit trying for us as she was a bit cranky.

Day 2

We headed to the Malaysia Immigration as I had to renew my passport. We thought we had time to walk around but it was quite a wait considering there was not really much people. We had lunch at the cafe there and headed to our b and b in South Ealing. The b and b was quite nice, it was not in central London but it was clean, pleasant and affordable. It's called Benny's B and B. Click here for the link. There was a shared kitchenette that had an espresso machine, microwave, hot plate, oven and grill and crockery. In the room there was a sink and complete with own plates, cutleries and electric kettle. They even gave cereals in the small box and cookies in the cookie jar which were on the house. They even gave breakfast vouchers at the cafe just around the corner in the lovely South Ealing town. It was pleasant. We freshened up and went back to the immigration to collect my passport and headed straight to Heathrow to wait for my sister. Nabila straight away clicked with her cousins.

Day 3

This was a full touristy day for my sister, we wnet to Hrrods and Madam Tussauds where we split. We headed to the Malaysia Hall for some errands where we walked from Baker Street all the way to Bayswater Road without a proper map. Nabila slept the whole way so it was fine, she finally woke up when we stopped for a rest at Hyde Park near the Victoria gate entrance. We took a one tube station ride to the Bayswater Station afraid we were walking in circles but actually we were quite near. We had nasi campur for lunch and headed to Westminster by bus to meet up with my sister there as they came off from their cruise at the Westminster Pier. They were supposed to go to London Eye that evening but it was too much for the girls so we rested at Westminster Abbey, we wanted to take the girls for a double decker bus ride but there was a strike and the people were lying on the road so that was it for the day. We took the tube back to the b and b.

Day 4

We went to Buckingham Palace for the overrated but hard to resist change of guards and had lunch at St. James Park. I made rice with ready made Masala sauce, fried eggs. We ate it with sambal tempe and sambal bilis my mum made. I also packed chicken slice english muffin sandwich so everyone had a good eat and not fall sick. My sister said I transformed into 'achik' as I was the one preparing all the packed food but to be a bit more glam, we now call it mummytopia. I took it from chictopia, a blog/group on fashion that I like. We took the double decker bus ride to London Eye, we split again as my sister joined the long queue to ride the London Eye and we took the bus to Westfield to meet up with hubby's cousin. The bus trip was nice as we got to see other parts of London. We passed Holland Park which was lovely. Westfield felt more like a clash of KL's Mid Valley and Pavillion. It was a modern Shopping Mall. Hubby's cousin treated us at Jom Makan! a Malaysian cuisine restaurant. we had chicken satay that was scrumptious. We headed back to the b and b by bus and was entertained by two guys singing ala Jamaican throughout the whole bus ride.

Day 5

We went to Trafalgar Square and Regent's streets Hamleys. We had fish and chips at Hamley's and met with Azy's boboy there. We left my sister at Hamley's and left the whole day for Oxford street to her. We took a bus from Oxford Street to the Marble Arch and rested at Hyde park because Nabila fell asleep. We walked along Hyde Park hearing the buzz of Jay-Z's concert. If we weren't mummy and daddytopia, we might be amongst the buzz. We headed to Hard rock cafe London for souvenirs and to Harrods again.

Day 6

Back to Glasgow with a Bicester Village pit stop. We rented a 7 seater. Bicester was okay but Mendrisios Fox Town and Roermonds McArthurGlen's were even beter in terms of discounts and exchange rate.

To sum up, to see London you must take the bus and walk.