London - Part 2

Day 3 in London and we are off to my aunt's place today. They are picking us up at noon so before that, some time for a late breakfast.  Graham was given a huge chocolate egg for (early) Easter so he decided to wear his bunny ears into town:

Graham has been eating so well this entire trip!  But as for Charlie... well, this photo probably says it all.  He was always such a grumpy bear when it came to food!

Charlie was also crying because I told him he couldn't play at the playground if he didn't eat. Graham of course was having a blast:

Even Daddy was playing:

So I guess that meant Charlie was forgiven???!

I love how these parks are set up - especially with these zip lines. Awesome! For everyone :-)

Ok, on the road to my aunt's place.  It took about 2 hours to get to Walsall, which is near Birmingham - northwest of London.  Love this "pod" that is in their garden (British English for "yard" which I learned on this trip :-)

Here's me and my aunt Francesca.  After looking at this photo for a bit, I realize how much I look like her!  She is my mom's older sister:

The boys are at it again with badminton:

Soon it was dinner time and I told Graham to wash his hands. It was so funny the look that Graham had on his face when he encountered this sink. It was like "Hmm... hot or cold? Hot or cold?" as he couldn't decide which faucet to put his hands under. I had to laugh under my breathe! 

My uncle Tony and his wife came to the house for dinner:

Some real fish and chips for dinner! "Chips" by the way are actually "french fries" and what we call "chips" in the US are "crisps" in the UK.  Funny!

After dinner, it was bath time for the boys.  They couldn't get enough of all the soap suds which accumulated even more when the jets in the bath tub was turned on!

The next morning, the boys discover the 3D TV.

And then we are off to the park before lunch:

It was about a 5-10 min walk from the house. Loved the flowers in bloom:

Really makes me miss the real Spring time and thankfully my allergies were in check:

The apparatus in these public parks are so well maintained and kid-friendly for all ages.  I suppose it makes quite a difference when you don't have the 45-50C (110-120F) temperature beating down on the equipment all summer long!

Graham and Charlie loves to climb.  Charlie lost his footing a bit on this but managed to hang on. His dismount wasn't as pretty as he bumped his forehead. Poor Charlie!

A happier Charlie here now that his forehead feels better:

During the walk back home, Charlie started to throw a fit and basically just laid on the sidewalk and said that he was tired.  I guess he really was tired as he was completely passed out during lunch!

My other aunt (my mom's youngest sister) joined us for Dim Sum:

And my other cousin Adrian joined us as well. Haven't seen him in over 15 years.  He is as big and tall as my brother!

It was a short but sweet visit. Time to get back on the road to Great Missenden:

Graham somehow managed to find some sort of comfortable position to sleep in the 3rd row/back of the car.  But prior to that he was playing with a neck pillow, where the seam had torn and all these little white polystyrene beads were ALL over the place. Stinker!

To be continued...

Spring break: London - Part 1

And we are off!  Charlie really wanted to visit our good friends there as they have already visited us 3 times now in Abu Dhabi.  I can't believe this orange carry-on bag has lasted this long:

Graham and Charlie always want to sit on this camel before departure:

Now this is a new thing - a henna station. For only Dhs20 or about USD5, I can get henna on both hands or feet. I figured just one hand, otherwise Bobby would have to carry everything while I wait for the henna to dry.  By the way, all proceeds went to charity, so even better!

On the plane - Graham and Charlie get comfortable so quickly once they are seated.  Although, there was an issue with their headset being too big so Mommy went into "MacGyver" mode and managed to use the plastic wrap from the headset to tie a knot on the headband.  Even one of the flight attendants was impressed!

Here's a new camera view that you don't see very often - it's the view from the tail of the A380. Pretty neat as we are taking off here!

I find it so cute that the boys are able to write their names now. Yes, even Charlie!  This is how they signed their names on the arrival card for the UK. I love how Graham even wrote it in cursive:

Look who is traveling with us as well. It's Charlie's Leo!

8 hours later... London!

It was a tough night starting out as both boys were coughing. Unfortunately they were both taking turns going through coughing fits at night throughout the entire vacation! Thankfully our friend Ara did introduce us to an oil called olbas oil. I ended up buying a couple more bottles home!

The next day, we are off to London!  It's a 45-min train ride from Great Missenden to London Marylebone station:

Ahhh... always sleeping on trains!!!

Leo is along for the ride too:

We are in London for the Lion King Musical. YAY!!!

Here's the set. Lovely!

Graham just had to get the binoculars. He had to insert £1 into this little machine that was attached to the seat in front of us. Anything to keep him quiet I suppose during the play :-)

What a show! And look who scored a little Lion King of his own:

Charlie got a little fridge magnet. He seems to really like fridge magnets now! And of course, lots of candy. Thankfully he wasn't too upset when we told him no:

Off to Chinatown for dinner.  We didn't have any dumplings this time. Mine probably taste better anyway :-P

Graham had a good dinner so he was allowed to play on the phone:

Charlie, on the other hand, took advantage of Izzy!  He is going to be such a lady's man when he grows up!

Photo op - me and Ara and Simba:

Bobby and his good friend Ben:

Speaking of Ben, this is Ben's man cave which Graham loves LOVES!!! Projected screen with surround sound - perfect for video games and movies.  This was definitely Graham's 2nd favorite thing of the trip after the Lion King. Ha ha!

And here is Charlie having his alone time (with his bunny ears on) with Izzy. He really adores her!

The following day, we are back in London.  I had unfortunately misplaced Charlie's waist-pack in Chinatown yesterday but crazy enough, we went back to the restaurant and there it was! Phew!!!

Off to Hyde Park now.  Boys are enjoying running around in all the large green space again!

Photo op for Bobby and me with Albert Memorial in the backdrop, which was opened in 1872 by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband Prince Albert who died of typhoid in 1861. That is a long time ago!

Did I mention how HUGE this park is?  Just massive!!! And of course, we were on the wrong end of Lake Serpentine. What is it with boys and sticks??!

Mini reunion after 10 years!  Bobby and I visited my cousin Simon in London 10 years ago when his twins Amy and Toby were just babies.

And here is that photo from November 2006, so actually more than 10 years ago! With my aunt.  Awww...

 To be continued...

Boys love to dance!

This seems to be quite the thing now where Graham and Charlie will burst into dance during the credits at the end of a cartoon/movie.  Here they go! Too cute :-)

First Turkish bath experience

WOW!!!  I think that probably sums it up! It was my first experience to receive a Turkish bath today or also called Hammam.  I had won a gift voucher last year during the PTA Pink Day at school.  I had almost forgotten about it.  Thankfully it had not expired yet!

Here's what the spa looks like:

Pretty fancy, eh?!  It's basically a communal area but I was the only one there, so it was like my private spa for the morning :-)

But first, before the bath - I am put into the steam room for 5 minutes. I am not so fond of the steam but thankfully there was a shower head/sprayer with cold water so it didn't feel like I was suffocating in there.  Then, my spa therapist tells me "Time to bake!" so she directs me into the sauna room for another 5 minutes.  It's HOT!  I took a peek at the thermostat in there and I think it was like 85C or 185F.  Phew!!!

Ok, finally I am laying on the marble slab!  She scrubs me with some sort of exfoliation glove from head to toe.  After that, more scrubbing but this time with Moroccan volcanic mud followed by Turkish coffee grind.  Talk about getting my caffeine in for the day!  She is constantly "watering" me with pitchers of water, kinda like in this photo I found online.  Almost felt like she used 5 bath tubs full with water!  Okay, I may be exaggerating but it seemed like a lot!

Alright... what was next?  She then washed my hair with mint shampoo followed by Jasmine conditioner.  It smelled so good!  And then, finally some olive oil soap on my body.  She made lots of suds and put them in a pure cotton towel that was sewed up at the end/bottom. She sort of skimmed it along my body and then squeezed out all the suds over me. Kind of a weird feeling but made me think of how much fun Graham and Charlie would have had with all these suds in a bath tub!!!

In the end, the therapist told me to sit by the edge of the table and she said something like "Okay, I am going to wash you now".  And before I knew it, she dumped out two pitchers of water, one in each hand right over my head!  I did NOT see that coming! HAHAHA!!!  But ahh.... everything smelled so good - my body, my hair... and skin was so nice and soft!  She probably scrubbed of layers and layers of sunscreen!

I was then whisked into the relaxation lounge for about 10 minutes. Oh, the refreshment was a Turkish yogurt drink with some salt and mint. I sort of made a face so she insisted I have the ginger honey tea instead.  Good call!  After some Turkish sweets, I was off to my 45-minutes massage.  I am sort of spoiled with 90 minute massages now so 45 minutes was over in a blink!

Nonetheless, I felt so relaxed after 2 hours of pampering.  Hmmm... Mother's Day can't come soon enough to ask for one of these vouchers! It was just under Dhs1000 which converts to around USD250.  That's not asking for too much, is it Bobby... a.k.a. honey bunny? The love of my life? The apple of my eye??? Hint! Hint! :-D

Is it blue or is it grey???

Somehow or rather, Bobby and I got into the discussion with the color of this mug.  I was asking him to make me a mug of milo (hot chocolate) and I told him that he could use the "blue" mug. And then, he said, no - it's "grey". Well... blue, grey, blue, grey...!!!  What do you think???

Eventually we had to pull up the mug at Ikea's website and guess what it said:  Grey-blue!!!  So we were both correct!  It was quite a good laugh :-)
Of course, Bob insisted that he is more correct though because the word "Grey" came before the "Blue".  MEH!!!

More Recent Happenings

We haven't had too much going on these past few weeks.  Crazy enough, it has been drizzling a lot!  The temperature did hit 32C today - almost 90F.  Nooo...!!!!

In the meantime, I have been busy with some Henna.  This dye comes from a tree and is used for temporary body art.  Sometimes henna is available at school during events but I thought I'd take things into my own hands. A friend of mine gave me a couple tubes of henna and a book of patterns :-)

After a few days, a little more "painting". Okay, I may have gotten a little carried away. The henna dries up and peels off and the color darkens during the first few days.  The lighter colored henna further up my arm would eventually darken and after a week or two, everything will just disappear.  And the fun begins again to start over!!!

Speaking of fun, ALL the boys got a little joyride in a friend's Porsche.  Vrrroommm vrrooooom...!!!

Guess who has "crabby" toes???  Yes, that would be Charlie and that's definitely from the Lee side of the family.  He was so proud walking around with that ink stamper in between his toes. HAHA!

And guess what Graham is trying to spell here?  Did you get it yet? You really need to sound out the letters:

And...?  The answer is "huge" as in "he-you-j".  Too funny!!!  And here is more of Graham's handy work.  After seeing an idea at school, I thought that maybe it would be a great idea for Graham to start writing a diary.  Well,...

We helped Graham with his first entry being "Today, this is my first entry" and Graham obviously took that and ran with it! Little stinker!!!

This next photo isn't so funny though.  Charlie fell at school and gave himself a swollen eye.  It almost looks like he has red eye liner on:

Thankfully he didn't hurt his eyeball.  Everything has cleared up now and he is back to being his mischievous self!

Last but not least, some dancing!!!  Graham and Charlie loves to dance to the credits at the end of movies/cartoons. Check out their moves!

 Happy Pridgen boys!!! :-D