Birthday splurge

We had iftar (cum birthday celebration) at the Star City, near Aston on my birthday. Our friend suggested this American style restaurant, Tinsletown and we decided to give it a try. Halal status restaurants attract customers to Star City, since it is located at muslim majority area. Kan senang macam tu.. ada KFC, Nandos, Subway etc..

Yes the Genting as you know. Genting is sponsoring Aston Villa, a football club based in Birmingham ( I think I saw another Genting club in Edinburgh )

Good service, nice ambiance, yummy food and they even gave dates to muslim customers. Thumbs up!

I turn 30

I turn 30 today, 12 August 2012.
I'm happy now living my dreams and I couldn't ask for more. Alhamdulillah.

Ehem.. I'm fine with that number haha

p/s I got a prezzie! Hint : it's a place =)

London day trip : London landmarks

I like open public space where I could see other people, local and tourists sitting side by side doing their thing, melepak la dalam kata lain. In every city I've been to,  be it in Roma or Barcelona, I liked piazza.. ehe that's square in Italian =) 

From Buckingham Palace we moved on to Trafalgar Square, and there should be a long road straight from the palace to the home of famous stone lions, but closed for public. So we crossed the Green park, jauh sikit la, and made our way to here instead. 

Approaching Trafalgar Square and we noticed this Malaysian restaurant, too bad it was closed. I managed to sneak into its menu (and price), not bad for a restaurant located at the central London area.

National Galleries

erm, I didn't remember that they have a clear fountain at this square, now seeing is believing.

the long straight road that leads to Buckingham Palace

We didn't spent so much time at Trafalgar Square, I was imagining Aariz chasing birds (his best buddies!) at the Square... kan, bukan macam tu ke selalu kat tv?? Hmm..where have all the birds gone.. 

It was a day trip and we didn't have much time, nasib baik dah bawa bekal so jimat masa di situ. We quickly made our way to the bank of River Thames, for I knew the top London landmarks are all there..

..and suddenly I began to realize that I'm living in England! haha

London eye

Big Ben

 So can you guess what's the next  London landmark? 

London day trip : crowds at Buckingham Palace and lunch at Green Park

The first thing that came to mind about this London trip was to witness Changing the Guard at the royal palace. 

So done with Malaysian Embassy, we walked like 2 miles towards the Buckingham Palace. The ceremony takes place daily at 11 am, but we should come earlier next time =(

hmm..we should have known

We chose not to join the crowd, except my husband managed to record a few minutes of the ceremony, and we went to the nearby park - the Green park to have our packed lunch. 

What a nice park! I liked it there. We let Aariz had his time and even I didn't mind lying on the grass. And after lunch we went to the palace area again. And clearly the crowds were slowly gone.

 
And we moved to the Trafalgar Square.

Order Closed.

The ever wanted and most sought after Botanic Garden of Portmeirion is irresistible. More over that you can get it at almost 80% off ! Seriously. I'm now taking orders for this beautiful collection at unbeatable price, trust me. To all flower lovers, these are your sanctuary =)  

Portmeirion Murah Malaysia

http://portmeirionmurah.blogspot.co.uk/

this collections are NOT bone china. 

London day trip : getting to Malaysian Embassy with a mission

Mission accomplised! heh.. London is 2 hours and a half away drive from Birmingham. Having that on mind and..erk kind of taking it for granted, we kept postponed London visit. Only in July we finally had our first trip to London (and had second visit the next 2 weeks) , to collect our milo stock at Malaysian Embassy. Our dear friend came to London, unfortunately we didn't get the chance to see her, and she brought our 9 kgs milo stock all the way from KL! Mahalnya milo oi haha.

We took National Express bus from Digbeth coach station, Birmingham city at 6ish am ( days start as early as 4 am in summer term) and arrived at Victoria coach station, London at 9: 30 am. Memang penat lah naik bus but it was kind of last minute decision so we missed out the train low fare. But the journey was fine, Aariz slept along the way and we experienced London morning traffic jam a bit.

 sampai London, erk..haha

Victoria Coach Station area

Morning in London

Heading to Belgrave Square to find Malaysian Embassy..kind of tricky, maklumlah tak biasa London huhu. It was quite a walk from the coach station. Tapi oklah, we enjoyed the walk boleh la tengok2 apa yang patut..

We  bumped into Malaysian, and we asked them the Embassy whereabouts. Malaysian kan baik dan peramah ^_^ they ushered us to the building..

This is inside the Malaysian Embassy. Oh rasa terharunya dah sampai! Malaysian building berdiri megah di kota London.. ( and of coz we can enjoy our Milo yey!)

We waited a bit until we met the person in charge, while I had a chat with the man with white shirt. He's Filipino, I assumed right from his accent. Ingatkan semua Malaysian kat sini. Malaysian memang baik dan generous.

 outside the buiding

 homeless..gelandangan di London

..and we walked again to Buckingham Palace!

Aariz at Ward End library

There's a library that we simply like to pay a visit, just a short drive away from home.  Aariz has interests in books and he likes wandering around the library. Daripada ngantuk2 memang terus segar.

my favorite section of coz

I guess it's a pleasure moment for every parent seeing their children flipping book, aren't we?

passionate traveller

Just recently I have this huge dream ; to follow the footsteps of Ibn Battuta. Maybe not exactly his route, but at least to the places that he went to. DREAM, who knows where the future takes me. Ibn Battuta is the great traveller of all time. Life taste richer when you see the world. I've stumbled upon this quote; this world is like a book, and whoever doesn't travel only read a page. Let's make saving now dear, go travel.. start from our beloved country .. Malaysia has lots of things to discover! ( of coz note to myself)

I'm current watching this BBC documentary ..the story of this English man who came to Yemen to learn Arabic. After 25 years he returned again following the footsteps of Ibn Battuta, starting from Morocco to Southern Spain, Egypt, Makkah to India, China etc.. good documentary for your viewing pleasure =) This is only part 1, search and continue with part 2 if you like