Trip to London ~ Part II

We had a couple more days to spend with family.  It's been great so far as I've had a chance to meet my cousins and Charlie has had a chance to meet his cousins too!

Today, we headed out to Litchfield.  Started the day with some street performers:

And then, heading over to the cathedral:

And wow, what a cathedral is it!

Beautiful!!

And by chance, the bells were ringing when we were there:

Photo op with my aunt.  It was a windy day with our hair flying all over the place!

The inside of the Cathedral was just as impressive.  Check out how HUGE this door is!

And look at the amazing patterns on this floor.  Woah!

And of course, every cathedral has amazing stained glass:

On the way out, I noticed that one of the houses - the white one to the right - has slanted walls on the 2nd floor. How odd is that!

In the town square or marketplace, I learned that there has been locals that were burnt on the stake or had their guts cut out. These were dated like back in the 16th century. Yikes!

My cousin Simon takes Charlie to McDonalds.  Charlie seems to like their chicken nuggets better??!

Nearby, we visit the book store of Samuel Johnson:

He was the first person to create the dictionary in 1755!!

And I'm not sure if you can see it, but to the left is the tiniest dictionary:

I guess I should have held something else up as a reference point.  But if my memory serves me right, it was probably only about an inch tall!

The use of timber in this house is amazing. It's used here to create the slant on the wall/ceiling:

Off to dinner and of course, there's a boba place right next door to the restaurant.  There's so many choices!

The next day, my late uncle Tony's son and his family comes by the house for a quick visit. He brings us some typical English treats to try out. Not too bad! 

Although, I always thought that mince pies had meat in it, but it's really just fruits and stuff.

We take off that afternoon with my other aunt and we pick up my cousin's little kid.  Indigo is the cutest thing!

We decided to take him to a fair not too far away on train:

Isn't he the cutest?!

It's starting to drizzle.  The weather overall hasn't actually been too bad considering we've already been here a few days with mostly sunny days:

Indi playing a fishing game:

And then we have Charlie take him on a little train ride:

Charlie will never let me forget this as Indi continues to pull the bell in the train car the entire time while the train is moving. Ha ha!

Finally on the bus back to drop Indi off:

Once we're at my (youngest) aunt's home...

Woah... we've never seen a bathroom in a bedroom like this before!

And meet "Aga" - the stove that's always on, and heats up the entire house all day:

And so obviously, the kitchen is where everyone hangs out in:

A puzzle to keep Charlie off his phone - at least for a little while:

After spending the night, we take a walk with my cousin to a pub to look for lunch.  It's mostly farmland here and hence, the quiet streets:

Okay, this was a little weird.  Not because there's a telephone booth here but the booth has been transformed inside to hold a defibrillator!

I totally forgot to take a photo during lunch!  Charlie actually ended up having a burger and I went with a pizza. I guess we missed "American" food. LOL!!  Although, we should have tried those mushy peas the other day at the Celebration of Life.  It definitely looked "interesting".  LOL!!

Time to get on the bus to head back towards Heathrow airport:

More phone time while we wait:

And actually, we were suppose to get on our bus which only would have taken 2 hours - but the driver wouldn't let us on because there was no luggage space under the bus.  Sheesh!!  And so we had to wait almost another hour before the next bus arrived. And thankfully he took care of us (and another lady and another older couple), but this bus ride was going to take almost 4 hours instead of just 2. YIKES!!

I'm not sure why I'm smiling but I guess at this rate, I'm just happy to be on any bus heading towards Heathrow!  Thankfully, our flight is not until the next day.

We drive by the Carlsberg distillery, which immediately made me think of my late dad. He drank that all the time:

So, okay... I was obviously very tired.  Cheeky Charlie!!!

We get to the train station and now we have to find our way to the airport, as we need to get a shuttle from there to our overnight hotel.  This was a cute installation - the screen is tracking how fast you are walking. Clever!

Charlie has discovered his favorite hot chocolate!

And of course, we've discovered M & S (Marks & Spenser) supermarket and we buy some goodies for dinner AND lots of other goodies to bring home :-)

We get a good night's rest and the next morning... yup, another cup of hot chocolate. Ha ha!

It was weird but Charlie has some sort of rash on his cheeks.  Still not sure what caused it?!

Thankfully it didn't flare up too much more.  

Okay, on the airplane, ready to head home!

Charlie was a great travel companion XOX

8 hours later (or less actually)... we walk through the doors after picking up our luggage and within minutes of seeing Bobby, it was a quick purchase at McDonald's before the ride home. Talk about spoiling Charlie!

Okay, I was hungry too :-)  I've been doing mostly the filet-o-fish though.  I just can't eat those burgers!

Again, I'm so glad we made this trip to pay tribute to my late uncle Tony.  We didn't get to see London at all but it was actually really nice to spend all that time with family.  Hopefully we'll get a chance to see everyone again with Graham and Bobby.  In time!

Trip to London (Oct 1-8) ~ Part 1

I decided to take Charlie to London recently.  Well, recently being earlier last month.  Unfortunately, my uncle (mom's side of the family) passed away.  He had colon cancer - which was the same cancer that took my mom away. I couldn't make it for the funeral but decided it would be nice to see the rest of the family during his Celebration of Life.  I've never actually met my uncle's son and daughter before! Although my cousin did say we met many many years ago, which I don't recall one bit!

Uncle Tony loved his music!  He actually came by to visit us when we lived in California.  Come to think of it, it was right during Thanksgiving - as we went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. Here's the post from 2019.  Wow, 5 years ago now!

https://cindyontour.blogspot.com/2019/12/happy-thanksgiving-nov-28.html

I'm so glad Charlie was able to come with.  It was actually quite nice to have a travel buddy :-)

Although, all Charlie was interested in doing was play Pokemon Go the minute we got through security.  And I can't believe I let him drag me along, looking for Pokemons!  Good thing we had plenty of time to spare:

Training Charlie to figure out which gate we need to get to for our flight:

Mommy + Charlie selfie :-)

Quick bite at McDonald's before going on the airplane.  I guess this does count as a roadtrip:

Hmmm, our plane is not event at our gate yet!

Okay, here it is... and looks like we are having food catered by Gate Gourmet - which is the company that Bobby used to work for.  Oh boy, this is going to be interesting:

On board!

It's going to be a short flight. Just about 8 hours compared to 1.5 days to Malaysia!

Didn't take long for my flying buddy to fall asleep:

Pretty neat view above the clouds:

Just as we arrived in Heathrow, we head over to the supermarket to get some food.  Looks like someone found a very large chocolate coin!

Hmmm, what to eat? Decisions, decisions!??

We actually had quite a bit of time to spare because we were catching the coach (big bus) from Heathrow airport to Birmingham airport.  So, I opted for some coffee and pretty soon, we discovered Charlie's favorite hot chocolate!

No time for the London Eye this time, so this is as close as Charlie is going to get to it:

Our bus!

Thankfully the ride wasn't too bad. I have to say, it was actually more comfortable than the airplane. And it was only a 2-hr journey:

Looks like not too much chatting in this bus ride:

My uncle (my late mom's brother-in-law to be exact), picked us up from the airport.  And it was another 1hr drive to their home.  Phew!  We finally made it!  It didn't take Charlie too long to get comfortable at their home. Already on the couch watching TV.  Ha ha! 

The next morning after a good night's sleep... with my mom's oldest sister and her husband:

She reminds me so much of my late mom.  And she totally adored Charlie!

Gathered some pebbled for uncle Tony's Celebration of Life, which was the next day:

Charlie drew a fish and I attempted to draw a guitar in one single line.  Not quite right but I'm sure my  uncle will get the gist of it 💗

We decided to get some fresh air and take a little walk near the neighborhood:

Oh my gosh, I totally remember this park!

And so did Charlie!

We came by to visit quite a while ago. 

Oh my gosh, here we are! I just found the blog post - April 2017 - look how small the boys were!!

And here's the rest of the story for that trip:  

https://cindyontour.blogspot.com/2017/04/london-part-2.html

It's funny to think that Charlie actually still remembers this park since he was only 5 years old when we came by to visit:

We didn't venture out to this part of the park though:

Interesting looking flowers:

Corgis!

More pretty flowers: 

Time to head out for dinner at a nearby pub:

Like I said, my aunt adores Charlie!

Charlie almost took his eye out when he put some of that popping candy into his fizzy drink.  Ha!

We're in England, so of course we have to try the Fish & Chips! :-)

And as per usual, must always have dessert. And you wonder why we are all getting a little bit more "round" these day. LOL!

And once we are home, a bit of TV time.  But it didn't take long for Charlie to fall asleep.  I guess he is still a bit jetlagged:

The next morning, another typical English breakfast - beans on toast!  We used to have this occasionally too when we were growing up in Malaysia.  Those baked beans are pretty pricey though because they are imported:

Auntie Francesca is really into beading!  She makes necklaces and bracelets and donates them to a cancer research center:

Charlie write a couple of cards to his cousins that he unfortunately won't get to meet on this trip.  They just left for college!

This is probably what he'd rather be doing - yup, Charlie brought his laptop all the way so he can keep playing his video games!

It is finally time to get to the Celebration of Life.  We were told to wear something bright and colorful. Weirdly enough, I had picked up this dress recently (yes, with chickens!) during our trip to Galena last month. I thought it would be a cute outfit to wear at my friend's farm/Saturday market one day. But instead, it was meant for this occasion!

Meeting my cousin Jen for the first time:

These are also my cousins from another aunt (mom's youngest sister).  I've known them for a while now as they used to travel to Malaysia to visit us:

More family! I'm so glad Charlie was able to meet his cousins too:

My cousin came in from London as well. It was great to see him again:

Looks like it's all boys as well.  No girl cousins in this trip!

I didn't get a chance to take a photo of Jen's 2 boys.  They are a bit younger.

To finish up Part 1 of the trip, here's my cousin Simon on piano. Just playing for fun. I wish I could do that!

He makes it look so easy!

I'm so glad Charlie and I were able to join in on my uncle's Celebration of Life. I was such a mess crying during most of that afternoon.  I think me and uncle Tony bonded quite a bit when he came over to visit us in California.  Or perhaps also because he's born Year of the Dragon as I am? He was diagnosed with cancer only just earlier this year in January. He seemed to be doing well and then in the last month of Sept, we didn't really hear much until his passing. Definitely a shock to my system as I didn't realized he had caught an infection. RIP Uncle Tony. You will be missed!