My Birthday, A Very Late Post

This post is mega late, ayoko na nga sanang ipost but I really wanted to thank my friends and writing a blog post is the best way I know how...


Ang isa pa atang hindi mapipigilan ay ang pagtanda! Yours truly celebrated her birthday with friends a few weeks ago.  We went to Gunwharf Quays to check out the bargains and had lunch at Water Margin, a Chinese buffet restaurant. 

Here we are at the restaurant lobby while we wait for the rest of the gang to arrive. 

I just love the smiles of the 3 chikitings =)

Buying everyone lunch is definitely less hectic than cooking everything at home =) 

And here's Tita Celine na late nang dumating for lunch, busy sa shopping? =)

And since may dala kaming toy cars for the boys, they were quite happy to just play together after they have finished and left the adults to carry on with our lunch and kwentuhan, good boys =)

Thanks to everyone for the greetings, so blog, twitter, text, email, cards and for the gifts. It's lovely to be remembered on my special day =)

These are so sweet. My friends must know that I love flowers! The top one was from my best friend from the Philippines. The box of flowers arrived as a surprise. I remember reading the enclosed card and smelling the freesias and felt special =) Thanks bff Oliver for the gorgeous flowers.

The other bouquet was from my partner at work. She is the sweetest! I was about to go home when she stopped me and handed these to me. She has put them in a pot of water at work and I didn't even notice it, duh! Sign of getting old? Thanks Danielle.

The house was filled by these gorgeous flowers for weeks, I loved it! 

I also love the Carbtree hand lotion collection, I love all things Crabtree, Thanks El & Merc! 

And the Coach wristlet is beautiful, Che & Tantan. I am looking forward to using it =) I was unable to take a photo of the handwash/lotion set you gave me Celine, ginamit ko na kasi, hehe =)

Papa E & Poj gave me a new pair of sunglasses after I lost my old one. Thank you so much =)










And in case anyone's wondering where I am, I'm either too busy taking photos or too busy eating my Chinese, lol =)

Brighton

I'm sorry if I've not been able to visit your blogs or post an update here for a while. Inatake ng katam ang lola (katamaran) and I can't seem to shake it off. But I did manage push myself to post this & I promise I'll be stalking your blogs soon =)

We went to Brighton a few weeks ago. It was only a day trip with the intention of visiting a very popular cake shop. We didn't do any research on what to see so we realised that we missed a lot of touristy places on this visit. But hey ho, we still had a fab time and made us excited to plan another trip, when the weather is warmer.

Poj was impressed with these musicians playing modern music that made him dance in the street. He stayed there for a while and was chuffed when I asked him to put money on the hat =)

These are just photos that I took when we were walking towards the beach. I love the quirky features and amazing architecture.

And Brighton is also buzzing with all things art. Here you can see the busy beachfront where small businesses thrive. Artists sell their paintings, there are also handmade jewelries and crafty stuff. I know this sis Mayen of Clicks and Cuts would definitely enjoy a visit to this place =)

The water was calm but very cold when we went. There were still quite a few people enjoying the afternoon with hot chocolates to keep them warm. Little Poj didn't seem to mind the temperature, he was too busy having fun. 

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Brighton is on the south coast of Great Britain and is 62 miles away from us or 1 hr and 30 minutes drive =)

St Pancras International, London

As with all holidays, it all comes to its end. In the morning of our trip back to the UK, Poj made sure he went to his favourite rides at the hotel lobby. We also went back to the Disney Village for Papa E's birthday lunch and for a little Disney shopping. It is a good thing that the hotel allows their guests to leave their luggage in a secure room even after checkout and that allowed us to enjoy our last morning in Paris. 

Here is Poj at the hotel lobby while we wait for the shuttle bus back to the train station. He's excited to go home at this point and to play with his own toys =) But it was already late when our train arrived in London. We decided to stay in a budget hotel a few yards from St Pancras Station for the night. I took a photo in the morning and thought that it was an interesting building.

  

Here are photos of the St Pancras International Station. 

The St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel

And next to the St Pancras International is the Kings Cross Station made popular for being the station where the Harry Potter series, Hogwarts students depart from.

This station was newly renovated. It looked really beautiful inside. I specially love the details on the ceiling. The whole place looks modern and spacious. 

And soon it was time to catch our train back to Southampton. Here are my boys tired after all that travelling. And sweet little Poj still wanted to sit on Papa E's lap even when there were a lot of empty seats on the train =)

Thanks Paris for another lovely short holiday...

Disneyland Paris

This is a long post & packed with photos, please bear with me. The rain on all the days that we were in Paris was on and off, including our Disneyland day. Hence why we were not able to do as much as we did the first time we were here. But hey ho, we're already here and we tried to make the best of the day.

One of the things that I love about the whole place is the attention to detail. Even from the park's entrance you can already feel that they are celebrating their 20th anniversary (the golden cake that the hippo was holding has a number 20) as well as all the colourful banners everywhere made the place feel a lot more celebratory and inviting.  

The Disneyland Hotel 

We started off by catching the train that goes around the park. Passengers can get off at any of the stops or you can choose to stay and get off on the Main Street. We chose to stay to have a quick tour of the whole park. 

We were a bit early, as you can see here everyone was gathered outside the castle waiting for the park to officially open.

You can choose to walk from here or ride one of the free cars that collect visitors from different pick up points. Poj was in the mood to walk so that's what we did. You could see the different Disney characters scattered around the park, ready to greet and meet. Poj is only starting to know the characters and was not that interested.

There are a lot of different rides for both the young and the young at heart. There are also a long queue! 
There's also a ferry ride that we tried before. A lot of restaurants can be found across the park as well as gift shops. 

The park was open until 11pm. The Disney Magic parade was at 5pm and the anniversary light show was at 9pm.

Happy 20th Anniversary Disneyand Paris!

Poj may be young to remember all of these but he had fun on the day. And even when it rained heavily in the middle of the day, we still had a good time. Pero syempre, buti na lang libre lang ang tickets namin, hehe.

Hope you guys could check out these YouTube videos. The first one is the Disney Magic on Parade and the second video is the 20th Anniversary Light Show and Fireworks.  Poj loved the light show and kept saying "amazing" after every set and every time the fireworks go off. =)