Aquarium

Life has been hectic and chaotic lately that I couldn’t find the time to update on our recent holiday.

We came back from Boston nearly 2 weeks ago. My parents continued their stay in the US and went to New York, then flew back to Dublin to join us for another week. They happily volunteered to babysit Aidan whilst the both of us went to work.  They went back to Malaysia last Saturday and I felt lost not having mum in the kitchen. The night before she left, she thoughtfully made some kari salmon for hubby and ketam masak cili for me and stacked some leftovers in the fridge for us. Now we are back to the usual menu of ayam goreng, hehe.

I am planning to split the holiday into a few short entries. Let’s start with the aquarium eventhough we visited the place on day 3 of our visit.

I was all excited about the aquarium more than Aidan I think. Mum mentioned I had made 2 school trips before when I was 5 and 7,  and it baffles me that I have no recollection of it. So I was adamant this time round to take plenty of photos.

Aidan woke us up at 4am that morning so we arrived bright and early at Boston harbour. Lucky for us there was no long queue for the tickets. Apparently it can be really crowded during the summer holidays.

 

Penguins

 

The penguins were a nice surprise as you see them the minute you go in. There were different type of species but I haven’t a clue what’s what, they all look the same to me. I love their big fat bellies and I was hoping one would belly flop into the water

 

One happy mum and kid

 

Then came the fish.

 

Can you spot dory ?

 

There was a really big ocean tank in the center full of fish, turtles, stingrays, eels, corals etc. It was quite fascinating to see all of them interact and cohabit together. Aidan got excited and kept banging the windows every time a fish came up to him, I got embarrassed because there were these big signs saying ‘please do not knock on the windows’. Oh dear, must teach this boy some manners.

 

Colourful corals

 

Hubby took most of the photos so there was hardly any photos of him except for this one -

 

You can get your hands wet at the touch tank but I wasn't brave enough to do so.

 

 

How could he ?

 

More to see,

 

Jellyfish

 

 

No clue what this is - dragonfish ?

 

 

Seals

 

 

I love the view of the sea

 

Aidan got tired towards the end, so we were lucky the seals were the last exhibit. If you have been following my blog, we get plenty of seals in Dublin so Aidan didn’t miss too much by falling asleep in the stroller.

We had a good time  – it was very enjoyable and educational although I was expecting a little bit more for the price we paid. Oh well. You know what they say – win some, lose some. So if you’re in Boston, don’t give it a miss

I’ll continue with part 2 soon. In the mean time, it’s going to be another long week of work for me

Back in Dublin

I had a horrible time adjusting myself to the freezing cold weather when I arrived back in Dublin last week. Even the mountains were covered with snow, and this is April, what happened to spring ?! Apparently it snowed heavily 2 days before I arrived.

The journey back to Dublin was smooth and better than I expected. Aidan was such a doll, threw NO tantrums or cries on the 12 hour flight to London. He only cried when other passengers were congratulating him for behaving really well as we were about to leave the plane. Now that was a funny scene, if only I took a video of it. Did I tell you the boy hates getting too much attention ? I hope he grows out of this phase soon and that I must start bringing him to Gymboree again.

Photos of the boy happy to be reunited with his toys in Dublin,

both taken with my phone the 2nd day we arrived.

And this is what we had for breakfast today, hot chewy and crispy keropok lekor. Thanks to my thoughtful aunt in Taiping!

The Finale

My cousin who is currently studying in Sheffield will be arriving on Tuesday to spend her Christmas holidays with us.

Playing host,  I’m predicting a really busy week ahead bringing her around the streets of Dublin. Surprisingly a lot of shops have started their sales which got me a little excited but I’m still waiting for the big one next Saturday.

Anyway, this post is way overdue. I probably won’t have time to update next week  and since I don’t know how and where to begin, let me just do a quick pictorial narration with little clips of Aidan.

Piazza Navona, which was featured in Angels and Demons

This place is my favourite piazza in Rome- very lively with musicians, artists, people dressed as statues etc.

Restaurants here are really overpriced, we paid a fortune for a bowl of pasta, a basket of bread and hot chocolate! But I figured we were actually paying for the lively atmosphere and ambience so that justified the price.

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi/Fountain of the Four Rivers

Also, at the very end of Piazza Navona is a little quaint toy store selling original wooden Pinocchios. We bought one for Aidan with the Euros given by Aidan’s aunt before we left for Rome.

Having a quick bite of pasta alfredo and watching the world go by

A video of the Piazza.

Just 5 minutes away is the Pantheon, a very ancient and well preserved building which can be visited for free.

Both our cameras ran out of batteries, but we managed one last pic of the Pantheon!

Inside the Pantheon

The Pantheon is windowless and only has one entrance . Sunlight is provided by the window in the center of the dome, as below.

Eye of the Pantheon

We also made a pit stop at the Ferrari shop in Rome and took a photo of this bike for my big bro who’s a hard core cyclist.

would you pay 3k euros for this bicycle ?

I was  looking all over Rome for this limited edition coke and was thrilled to find one on our last day ,

When you can't afford the top, you just have to make do with this! hehe

And finally, let me spice up this very boring post with a video of Aidan getting flirty with an Italian waitress.

The Braveheart Drive

Let’s take a little break from sunny Rome and talk about Ireland instead.

When big bro was here 3 weeks ago, we rented an MPV to fit all 7 of us.

We figured it would be much more enjoyable to travel together in one vehicle instead of two.

Apart from the shopping escapades to Belfast, Kildare and Dublin, we managed to squeeze some time to drive right into heart of Wicklow.

The last time we went there was in the summer and although I’m a big fan of the sun, I found Wicklow to be even more beautiful in the winter.

Big bro said some scenes reminded him of Yellowstone Park, US

One of the most popular drives is to take the ‘Braveheart Drive’,  which was where the movie  Braveheart was filmed. We didn’t follow the trail exactly as we were running out of daylight. (Daylight ends at 4.30pm)

Winter backdrop

Can you imagine Braveheart in the background ?

We zoomed through the rolling hills, wooded glens and cascading waterfalls in 2 hours and despite the time constraint, everyone really enjoyed themselves. And of course, we made a few stops to take photos  :

Us

The all important family photo

You might have to turn your volume down for the video, I shouldn’t have left the window opened during the shot!

Silly, silly me.

A Must See

More on our trip.

Just to give you an idea of the walk with the Colosseum in the background

Just a 10 minute walk from the Colosseum is the Roman Forum.

Foro Romano

The Roman Forum was the only place that hubby really wanted to visit in Rome and he said that we must make every effort to go even if we’re stuck for time. I, on the other hand was only aiming for a stress free holiday, anything to escape from cooking and never ending laundry.

Ruins

I personally think that to appreciate the history and significance of the forum remains, one  should take the guided tour or an audio guide.

We had bought a guidebook which had a labeled map of all the ruins but I still couldn’t figure out what I was actually looking at. You really need a lot of imagination to decipher what you were viewing.

The cobblestones were huge too that it was really difficult to manoeuver the stroller, so  I gave up and basked in the sun  with Aidan instead I left Hubby and let him have a walkabout of the place.

Note the HUGE cobblestones

The place was awe inspiring and I’m glad we didn’t give this place a miss.

I shall end this post with some shots of Trevi Fountain.

We took these photos on the first night we arrived in Rome.

Legend says that if a visitor throws a coin into the Trevi fountain, he/she will certainly return to Rome!

This is probably the most beautiful fountain in the world and the illumination at night is very pretty.

We came back and it is just as beautiful during the day

I could come here again and again, and I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of it’s beauty.

There are plenty of nice cafes, restaurants and shops around the area too, a great place to escape from doing all the touristy stuff.

love the baby blue water

taken with my el-cheapo camera, what a big difference from an SLR!

Get a gelato and enjoy the view, which was what we did

The second video :

Feast your eyes on these gelato and pizzas.

I never thought I would love Egg plant pizza, hubby had the mushroom which was not as yummy.

Excuse the hungry husband in the video, we usually take turns eating so that one can attend to the little Master.

Next, Colosseum !

Impressive

Okay another short entry on Rome, I really don’t want to bore everyone with my rather vain photos

Lights of the Colosseum

Our hotel was just a 5 minute walk from the Colosseum so obviously we took the most photos at this place.

Oddly fragile but still standing strong

We paid 12 euros for the entrance to both the Colosseum and the Roman Forum which was reasonable but what I hated most was the queue. I wished they had a fast track for people with babies although they did have one for people taking the guided tour. We would have done so if Aidan wasn’t with us, obviously having a baby means you’ll be following his pace rather than yours.

Birds' eye view of the Colosseum

another view of the spectacular interior

The Colosseum turned out to be quite stroller friendly which surprised me a lot -  you still had to manouver the odd cobblestones and steps but in general it was alright,  and they even had a lift to go to the next level. So don’t be nervous about traveling with a baby, just give them plenty of milk and tickles!

Milk time

The crowd was rather overwhelming at times and it’s nearly impossible to take a photo without some stranger in it.

I think it’s best to avoid coming here in  July and August – the best time to come is probably October when the weather is mild and less crowded with tourists. November is supposed to be wet but we were extremely lucky with the rays of sunshine.

It's best to stand back and think back on all its history

Daddy adoring the view, Aidan I'm not too sure why he's giggling

And by the way, if we ever come here again with a babysitter, we’ll definitely tour Rome this way,

Do it with the Segway! There were plenty of them outside the Colosseum.

We also got a good view of the Roman Forum from the Colosseum, I’ll put some photos of it in my next entry.

The road leading to the Roman Forum

And finally, 2 clips of the Colosseum taken both day and night. I really love my el-cheapo camera

Roman Holiday

I think I will split our recent holiday photos into a few entries as there are far too many photos to choose from.

I got a headache scrolling through which one to pick so let’s just start with the Vatican as we didn’t take too many there.

We took the 48 hour hop-on-hop-off bus and the Vatican was one of the places that we could hop off. To be honest it wasn’t really one of our must go places but what the heck, we’re already in Rome and I don’t think we’ll be coming back again anytime soon!

I’ll make this entry short and sweet

First a photo of my 2 boys,

Daddy and his Mini Me

It was easy to dress the boys that morning and what they wore was perfect for the mild weather.

I was the one with a wardrobe crisis – all I brought was thick winter clothes!

a close-up of their matching outfits

Sit still boy, sit still...

The piazza was surrounded in a circle by very large columns with over 100 statues of saints above them.

Vatican City

Spent a good 2 hours at the square and had no ounce of regret visiting the place.

Very beautiful indeed.

Us at Piazza San Pietro / St Peter's Square

giggles

And to conclude, here’s a 360′ view of the Square which I took with my camera.

The End of a Wonderful Holiday

We are back in foggy Dublin and it’s zero degrees outside, what a big change from the heat in Rome.

I was going to put up photos of Rome but I think I’ll leave it for another day, my whole body is aching from all the traveling the last 2 weeks.

We had a jolly good time with big bro and family last week and I wish they were here longer, the house is awfully quiet without the 2 girls!

With lil niece who's very much into Ben 10!

Missing them

Will post soon, I’m getting distracted by Sleepless in Seatle playing on the telly – it’s my all time favourite movie!

Finally a short clip of Aidan playing peekaboo with his 4 year old cousin.

Roma

Colosseum

I am blogging from the historic city of Rome!

We were expecting cold rainy weather on arrival but for some strange reason the weather has been tremendously sunny. It was around 20′c at one point and here we are in dressed in winter clothes

Aidan is also enjoying his first experience in Italy and has been behaving very well, thank god.

I will write again soon with more photos, tadida!

Home Away From Home

Sound asleep in the bassinet.

We have arrived safely in cold and rainy Dublin.

Hubby was at the airport to pick us up and hugged Aidan the minute he saw us. I must get used to the idea that I am now second in his life

Aidan proved me wrong by being such an angel on the KL-London-Dublin flight and gave big smiles to everyone passing by on the aisles. Traveling alone with a 5 month old didn’t turn out to be a disaster after all.

He happily played with his toys and adored the constant attention from the elderly English couple sitting across us. They gave him plenty of tickles on his belly!

Anyway, this morning I was already surfing Air Asia looking-up for cheap flights but deep down I know that was the heart talking and not the brain..hehe.

It usually takes a few days before I start to feel ‘normal’ again in this place that I call home for the past 12 years.

Alrighty, will post when I get the chance – I have so much housework to do, it’s unbelievable!