Last Stop Singapore

I sit here now in the airport lounge waiting for our flight home to Sydney.

Other than business class rage by Elliot, who now deems Singapore Airlines the only worthy business class product, our flight from London to Singapore was uneventful. The immigration officer at arrival was so cranky. The fact that she looked like Edna Mode from The Incredibles gave us the giggles which didn't amuse her one bit...

The children were overjoyed to see Oma and Opa who were waiting for us at our hotel. A quick note about the awesome Hotel Jen. Location wise, it was fabulous being right on Orchard Rd, on top of Somerset MRT Stations, shopping centres, and food courts. We were fortunate to get a corner family room which was massive with floor and ceiling windows giving us amazing city views. The bathroom was so big, all five of us could be in it without getting in each others way. It has an amazing roof top pool and an even more amazing breakfast spread. I had not seend such a big variety of offerings which change daily.

I won't bore you with details of our 3 day stay in Singapore as it was almost all eating and shopping. Getting reacquainted with childhood foods was really nice. We sadly had to say goodbye to Malcolm yesterday who returned home to Sydney earlier for work. I will sign out here. Until the next big trip!

Hotel Jen pool with view towards Marina Sand

Half of the massive bathroom

One of the best buffet breakfast ever

Daddy said yes to durian ice-cream for breakfast...

Gotta love parents! Cut up mango on arrival!

Yumm....

All time favourite Ba kut teh

Chicken rice!

Ice kachang

Chilli mud crab

Everyone together!

Durian 

Mangosteen

Goodbye England & Scotland!

After 20 days, it was time to say goodbye to the UK. We had a 4 hour drive to Heathrow from York and took the time to stop at the famed Sherwood Forest to break up the journey. It was a re-education of the story of Robin Hood. Was he real? Or folklore...Our last walk in England was pleasant with the weather holding up. We stopped briefly at a local pub for our last English fish & chips, as well as sticky toffee pudding. It was then straight on to Heathrow. We were happy to report that the Hertz rental return process was quick and easy. They didn't punish us for having a 95% full tank. The shuttle to Terminal 5 also came quickly with a very friendly driver. Before we knew it, we had checked in and were enjoying food and beverage in the BA lounge.

Some reflections in no particular order:
The first one that came to mind was that although we enjoyed our trip, as a destination, it didn't quite come anywhere near the top. Perhaps this was partially influenced by the difficulty of driving a minivan through narrow country roads and finding parking in tiny villages! We also moved at a cracking rate like crazy Australians who were used to driving large distances. Perhaps if we had slowed down, the trip would have had a different feel to it.

Scotland was gorgeous, especially the Hebrides. If we had our time over again, we would have spent a little bit more time so we could have done more hikes.

Edinburgh is a cool city. Pretty and with a great vibe. Glasgow was great as an overnight stop but not worth spending more than a day.

After a while, all the tiny villages blurred together. So I would suggest picking a couple of seaside ones, a couple of inland ones and leave it at that!

The edges of Sherwood Forest that once used to cover most of the county

Hints of the story of Robin & his merry men everywhere

Time for our last walk!

The Major Oak, believed to be a place of gathering

Last pub meal!

Massive fish and chips

Great way to say goodbye to England!

Neither Here Nor There

We waved goodbye to Scotland to make our way back down south. The departure from the Hilton was rather painful, but that's life. We have noticed a disturbing phenomenon whereby the dodgy UK Chinese restaurants start looking increasingly appetising! When Alnwick Chop Suey House starts conjuring flashbacks of Wile E Coyote daydreaming of  roast bird whilst staring at the roadrunner you know that you have serious withdrawals. We are all drooling over thoughts of Singapore. That was only heightened by the visit to the "fryery" at Alnwick Castle. Don't get me wrong (not sure if Lara would've written dgmw there), the castle was amazing, but the fried offerings didn't leave any of us feeling great.

Alnwick Castle was the only sightseeing recommendation from Johnny, our awesome Novocastrian (the original) au pair. We normally get excited about the physical componenets of castles... the walls, the cannon, the dungeons etc. Alnwick Castle did not disappoint in this regard. In fact it was the site of filming of the broomstick flying tutorials in Harry Potter. There was also a fun little dragon "scared ya!" walk through that provided some giggles. What really captured our attention, however, were the State Rooms on the inside! Two story bookshelves, dining tables that required a telegram from one end to the other and walls completely covered with priceless oil paintings by artists that we regularly mix up at Pub Trivia at the Bayview were simply amazing. It was also interesting to see the odd colour family photo of the current Duke and his family who still reside there! Nanna and Grandpa skipped the castle to explore the pretty town of Alnwick and do a bit of shopping and, by all accounts, had an equally wonderful time.

Alnwick Castle as seen from the distance across the Aln River

Impressive exteriors. No photos of the intererior allowed though. :(

The arrival at the York Central Novotel was relatively smooth with easy, complimentary parking out the front. We would have to survive with Tesco granola yoghurts and free hotel apples for breakfast tomorrow, after the hot chip butty that's probably a good thing. We walked along the river to diagon alley (The Shambles) and then on to the Minster. The Minster was so much more impressive! Diagon alley is cute and photogenic, but the stores are only OK. The "Store that shall not be named" was similar to other Harry Potter merchandised stores in the UK in that the offerings are not particularly imaginative and grossly overpriced compared to similar items at Harry Potter World in Florida. We did, however, find a neat board game store and lolly shop and dropped a few shekels at each.

It's a pity that we din't have time to explore inside the Minster which was closed for the day. It was much larger and more impressive than we had anticipated. Just thinking that something like this was built 700 or so years ago over 125 years is simply mind blowing.

A quick, compulsory stop by the Disney store to grab another red, black and white mug preceded a dinner of roast pork with rolls, Yorkshire puddings or vegies at the York Roast Co. It was a different style of course but not as memorable as Oink in Edinburgh. This would be our last dinner in the UK. The next big decision... rice, noodles or both!

The Shambles, the inspiration for Diagon Alley

Just another Wizard shop unfortunately

Only a brief stop...

York Minster

Our last dinner in the UK!

Exploring Edinburgh

Today's blog post is proudly brought to you by Elliot...

Today, we further explored the city of Edinburgh. Although this required a lot of walking, we were rewarded with piquant food, phenomenal experiences and fantastic views. Our first stop was the city’s own prodigious pile of stone and mortar, Edinburgh Castle. It was a stronghold that was once the residence of Scottish monarchs, overlooking the city of Edinburgh upon a volcanic crag called Castle Rock. It is one of the most attacked castles in the world, and it became obvious why it still stands sturdily today as we admired the steep walls and numerous cannons. Mons meg was a particularly large cannon -four metres in length- that would bombard its enemies with shells weighing up to 175kg. As well as the military might and scenic view that the castle offered, we also enjoyed gazing at the crown jewels (the crown, the sword and the sceptre) and exploring the depths of the dungeons.

The chaos that was the line for Edinburgh Castle...We were fortunate to meet a chef who told us to gun for St Margarets Chapel then the crown jewel before relaxing to enjoy the rest. He was spot on, everyone did their audiotour in order, so we got to see the good bits with no crowds!

Even with the olds, we were faster than most people...

The war memorial from the back

St Margaret's Chapel, built in 1130, the oldest surviving building in the castle. The arches are original

The stained glass windows a later edition

The displays with information about the Scottish monarchy leading to the crown jewels where we were not allowed to take photos

The Great Hall

In front of the MASSIVE fireplace in the Great Hall

After conquering the castle, we embarked on the Scotch Whiskey Experience. It started off with an educational ride, sitting in a barrel of whiskey, giving our legs a nice break. In the ‘small world-ish’ ride, we were enlightened in the process of making scotch whiskey, creating seven experts in the profession, all ready and able to make some of their own if needed to. Unfortunately, the ride had to end, and we were guided through the process and art of mixing whiskey, in which the adults even got to try some scotch whiskey for themselves. Although the general consensus was a dislike towards the spirit, the whiskey tasting glasses were for us to keep, making for a splendid souvenir. While the adults coughed and spluttered and the kids happily sipped their creaming sodas, everyone was able to lay their eyes upon the largest collection of unopened whiskey, the oldest bottle being 121 years old.

Needing something to replace the aftertaste of the scotch whiskey, we all headed over to Oink, where we ate lunch. We treated ourselves to either a small, medium or ridiculously large pulled pork sandwich, named Piglet, Oink, and Grunter respectively. Each sandwich consisted of a soft roll of white or brown bread, a generous serving of delicious pulled pork with the odd strip of crunchy crackling, a sauce of your choice and either haggis or onion and sage, all toasted and smelling great. After having our fill of tender pork, we traversed into a nearby joke shop that caught our eye. It was quite peculiar, boasting items such as an extendable poop stick, a self-inflating key chain whoopee cushion, assortments of fake candies that had anomalous effects and ‘baby hands’ small hand shaped finger puppets. We almost bought some of the lollies that would turn one’s mouth and teeth a striking blue, but refrained, only letting Jonah purchase a set of rattling magnets with his precious pounds he had saved.

A nearby cheesemonger’s store was next, but not after Malcolm mistakenly walked into a soap shop, wondering why he could smell such a pleasant fragrance. The cheese shop had a significantly less pleasant odour, ensuring we ran away to our next destination with minimum delay: Mary’s Milk Bar. This ice cream parlour hosted an array of interesting flavours, including blue cheese and hazelnut, milk, and peanut chilli cinnamon. Most people stuck to what they knew, but the kids, feeling a bit adventurous got the milk and peanut chilli cinnamon flavours, to which they gave mixed reviews.

Part of the largest collection of unopened whiskey bottles in the world

Room kept going around the corner...

Look what we spotted!

Lunch. Simple model of 1 pig per day from the farm. Once they're out, they're out!

The poor pig on offering today

Three different sizes to choose from

Very happy children

More strolling on the streets of Edinburgh

Apparently one of the best cheesemonger

This was why it was so smelly inside...

Bonus view of Edinburgh Castle on the way to Mary's Milk Bar

Small shop selling great ice-creams and milkshakes

Nutmeg and raspberry on top, chilli peanut cinnamon on the bottom

Our final destination for to day was the National Museum of Scotland. We planned to take down the 7 floors from top to bottom, but we gave up after completing the 7th floor, theinteractive activities of the first floor too alluring. The 7th floor was a terrace from which Belinda took many great photos of the sprawling skyline and the regal castle, unfortunately partly blocked by scaffolding. Only glances of trains, communication technology, Scottish history and more were taken as everyone made their way down to level one. Elated, the kids ran around, challenging each other to who could do each activity the best. The most notable activity was a reaction speed test, in which the competitor had 30 seconds to press the button which was lit up as many times as they can. The twist was, every time the correct button was pressed, the light would switch to illuminate a different button on the wall. The grand champion of this activity was Elliot, managing to achieve a score of 49, absolutely demolishing the competition: 42 by Lara and 27 by Jonah. That’s 1 button every 0.625 seconds!

Arriving back at the Hotel, we settled ourselves into the comfortable chairs within the executive lounge, enjoying some cool complimentary drinks before heading off to dinner at Field. Field is a ‘cow themed’ restaurant and turned out to be quite a good choice. Although we didn’t end up eating any cows, we relished the mackerel, scallops, chicken wings and pan fired chicken that we ordered. Even better than the mains were the desserts, especially the lemon curd mini donuts. Alongside this and still divine was a panna cotta and sweet sticky fudge cake with banana ice cream. More than satisfied, we ended the day, ready for a great big beautiful tomorrow, only a day away.

The view of the castle from the roof top terrace

Science & Technology section

Brief dress up moment...

or two

Lots of interactive stations

The Victorian "side" of the museum

Dinner venue. Simple food from chefs who used to work at Michelin star restaurants

Scallops and Thai style wings

Mackerel

Panna cotta with Pimm's soup and cucumber sorbet

Lemon curd mini doughnuts