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

Birmingham

This will probably be my last entry on our trip to the UK. Blame it on the hormones, we took much less photos this trip as I didn’t feel like carrying the camera around the neck. The heavy winter wear was enough to put a strain to my neck already!

I feel like a kid again!

From Chester we drove 2 hours south to the city of Birmingham and our first stop was Cadbury World. Back in 2007, we made a trip to New York and went ooh aah drooling over chocolates in M&M World and Hershey’s that we decided to make a trip to Cadbury World too. And I am glad we did, heheh.

By the way here’s a snapshot of M&M World NY,

M&M World in Times Square, NY

Back to my story, the entrance fee to Cadbury World was rather dear at £13 for an adult. It would have been been a better deal if it was below £10, however we did get a handful of free chocolates throughout the visit. The tour of the factory too was very much orientated towards children and we kept saying to ourselves that our nephews and nieces back home would have really enjoyed this. So for £26 we did learn a little about the history of chocolate and how Cadbury evolved from a small family business to the mega empire it is today.

The world's biggest cadbury shop

We had a great time checking out the chocolates at the store and the one chocolate that really caught our eyes was this huge 5kg dairy bar priced at £29 pounds.

If only we could bring this home for the family!

So that’s a little info if you ever plan to go Cadbury World. Our next stop was the city and so we headed straight to the Bullring for dinner and a little shopping.

Night shot of the Bullring

Colourful windows

The Bullring reminded me so much of Pavilion and KLCC so nothing too impressive there. But to have such a massive mall is pretty rare in the UK as people talk so much about Oxford Street.

Selfridges

Birmingham is a nice city and I absolutely loved it. We are now safely back in Ireland and making the best of the weekend by staying home and recuperating. Hubby helped sort out the piles and piles of holiday laundry and after a week of eating out, I made ‘Nasi Ayam’ for dinner tonight. Tomorrow night’s menu? Nasi briyani! I think my apetite’s back

The City That Never Sleeps

~ view of Chrysler Building and Brooklyn Bridge ~

New York, New York

I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps,

To find I’m king of the hill, top of the heap,

These little town blues,

Are melting away,

I’ll make a brand new start of it,

In old New York,

If I can make it there,

I can make it anywhere,

It’s up to you, New York, New York

(My all time favourite by Frank Sinatra)

~ you can see a glimpse of Central Park at the top of the pic ~

I believe it when they say the Empire State Building is a legend.

I was blown away with the spectacular view of New York City.

And it’s no wonder people do the craziest things up there,

we certainly felt like Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks for a while

~ top right of photo : Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ~

ps : the photos were taken with my digital ixus hence the sub-par quality