En route to Linconshire

Lincoln Castle

Lincoln Cathedral

FIRE!
This is our 1st trip with Bradford University. At first, Ayah hesitated to join but with constant persuasion he obliged to Mummy's plea. It was a beautiful sunnny Saturday morning, Nuryn and Zeidan especially has been giving full cooperation from the start until almost towards the end.

We were scheduled to meet infront of the Uni at the city, at 9.00 am..the coach departed at 9.30 and thus we embark to Lincoln that is 2 hours away from Bradford. For the first time, we witnessed the county scenery up close and personal. It was a spectacular view, with arrays of green field along the road.

At about 12.15 pm we reached our destination, and start exploring at pur own pace. passengers were dropped infront of the Cathedral, the 3rd largest in England and it is used to filmed Da Vinci's Code to replace Westminister Abbey...

Right at the back of the Cathedral is the 900 years old Lincoln Castle. Nuryn was psyched with the thought of meeting a real beautiful princess in the castle..haha..

So we've explained to her that it's a very old castle and that they "moved" to a new castle and can't be disturbed because they are busy..after exploring the castle for a whole hour we had a quick lunch at the cafe, and resumed our journey outside..Did get a bit lost, so we took the bus instead to go to the marina in the city..

Pictureques view of Lincoln city from the Observation tower

Swirling stairs to the tower

Front view of the Cathedral

Mummy went up to the observation tower


At the Marina, we spent the whole afternoon milling around, going in and out of shops..walking down the cobbled streets feel like we're acutally living life in the medieaval era..The city is really beautiful and you can tell that alot of history events have taken place. We left Lincoln at 5.30 pm, overwhelmed with pride. Looking forward for the next trip...

Nuryn's 1st day at school

Looking Excited in her Smart attire

On the 2nd week, we finally got her a place at Lister Primary School... Nuryn has been pestering Mummy to send her to school, guess her holiday mood just perished like the wind..We head to Lister Primary School on Saturday for registration, and after a quick interview we had a little tour ..and to Mummy surprise, the FREE school, has the same standard as Internatinal School back in Brunei...It has learning environment that will trigger little minds for thirst of knowledge, Mummy was stunned!and the food catered are all halal, after all majority of the pupil are muslim.


Following week, Morning Rush began...toasted Bagel for the road, bags ready! now waking the sleeping princess, hmm will it be hard like last year??So, Mummy showed her new skirt when she's half awake, the moment she saw it, she jumped gleefully out of bed and dash to the washroom.She didnt even want to be late for her first day..Phew, we're on time!!

Mummy was anxious herself, coz its her first time ever being departed from her little princess since we got here..it was hard to swallow at first, like a lump in the throat..but, seeing Nuryn's bright and happy face in the class swept all the worries and anxiety..Mummy let go her most precious darling hesitantly to the teacher, and walked back home..She is in the hand of righteous people for 5 1/2 hours..sigh, that's an awfully long period of time ..

Coloring cornerWater train activity





Nearest Shops like pharmacist, restaurant etc



Uphill street

A mile walk uphill used to be Mummy's training ground, but here the gustling cold winter wind makes it physically strenuous to succumb, especially when Mummy had to push 20+kg Nuryn on her stroller.. Good thing Mummy's is scheduled to walk her to school twice a week, after Ayah has to put some weight too, but he prefers to use taxi instead.

After school at the school playground

Meanwhile at home, Zeidan is having quite a time with his own "home-learning"..He knows when and how to "help"out Mummy, whilst making the day more fullfilling..

Dress up or down?

Face painting?

Technology class?

Getting to know thy "Neigbours"

Shiver me timber, ar ar...

Kaka bleam with happiness. SMILE

"Following the leads"

This is the only way Zeidan would come down.

Smitten*

It was a snail start of the new year for Mummy and us,..1) Ayah is in a revision mode,which was overdue..2) We stayed home while he's out from morning till evening..During this time the house has turned into a play Battle ground for Nuryn and zeidan,.As if there aren't any toys available, they turn sofa into trampoline, kitchen cutleries to musical instrument, bed room to play ground,..SIGH!!where do all the energy come from , and they can last for 12 hours,that's half a day, 7 times a week!!Alas, to the park we go!

"Where are you Kaka?"

On the 6th day, Mummy brought us to our own Lister park , just 5 minutes walk from our place..It is recently voted as Britain's Best Park, it has 3 acre Victorian boating lake that is also a sanctuary for our friendly neighbours the "waddling quackers", a beautiful fountain at the Mughal garden, and an Art Gallery (soon to be discovered)..

The moment we entered the park, eyes were automatically transfixed at the playground and the sound of children playing their own battle ground..actually it's Nuryn's 3rd visit, but Zeidan 1st ever..Having brother around gives more cheers and fun.yehee..

Aye..aye Captain what do u see down there?..

The playground is divided into 2 area, the bigger kids and the toddler and Cute young kids..It has a pirate ship in the middle of the park, and few swings, and slides and other rocking object...so great!We spent a good one hour at the park, eventhough our hands were numb ages ago.

A familiar sound made Nuryn looked away, and it came from the lake..Flocks of pigeons , geese were surrounding a lady whose feeding them.Nuryn abandoned the ship and dashed to join the "crew"..She was offered bread by a nice man, so she can feed them like she always wanted..Zeidan didn't let this opportunity pass and so he too was enjoying the feast giving..

Mummy was loving this moment so she took some pictures of us in one hand , whilst grabbing our hands on another at the same time.She then gave up as brother get too excited to meet his new friends...

A friendly hello "QuuaaK'

A new friend liking the treat. "Hello, waa waa wa..quack..roar.."

Time to go home,sit back n enjoy the ride!!

As easy as a walk in Hyde Park

Nuryn getting off the stroller to chase pigeons

London day 2

The pathway to Hyde Park

Happy above hundreds feet high

THE next day Mummy proposed to go the "winter wonderland" at Hyde Park..This was also partly to sweeten Nuryn who cried when she saw the Ferris wheel yesterday.

It was quite a long walk,but the calming views managed to distract our aching toes. Ayah had to carry brother when he wanted to run freely. Poor nuryn has been walking for the past 5 blocks,and everytime we crossed the road she would say"'I'm too tired".. breathlessly..But she jumped off the stroller when she saw flocks of pigeons at the Marble Arch.
Aerial View from the car
Once we reached the place, the atmosphere deviated.it was pact and noisy. We made our way directly to the line,and the ticket for an adult is 7 pound,while children 4.50..it's worth the every penny,coz we didn't waited that long as they can accomodate 5-6 "cars" at a time and it spun for more than 20 minutes.

We enjoyed the meeting with our quacking & waddling friends: geese,ducks and pigeons.Zeidan gave the traditonal human to birds greeting,with his foot . Zeidan bonds instanly with mother goose
He can't help himself

We did'nt expect to see pigeons at this area..but,Nuryn get too scared when they're too many of them.

There are other fun rides , but we didn't want to try..the lines are endlessly long and beside the ferris wheel topped it all off. Then there's that invigorating smell breaking the air,it punctured Mummy's sense of smell: it came from a booth nearby,hot, soft and tasty pretzel were freshly fried,n yes we took a big bite before heading home..it did'nt occur to Mummy that our hands turned purple-blue after spending two hours outdoor..And Brother, started to feel agitated and restless..So,walking back home was a little bit challenging was not as easy as a walk in the park..

yummy sugary pretzel

Getting inside the car was like a dream come true for Nuryn

Below 0 degrees in London

London Day 1 (12:oo noon)

OUR detour this time took us to London, before sending Mak Chu to Brunei, we took this oppportunity to catch a taste of London from higher ground; from rooftop of a bus. Mummy didn't expect London would be too cold so we were dressing little lighter than usual..Bbrrrrrr...

Looking for the bus was a Breeze, but we did get a bit lost

We ended hopping on 2 buses, the red and blue line..
It was a good start , we had light breakfast before we left the apartment though we missed the change of guard at the Buckingham Palace at 11am..Brother really got the attention as usual, and this always put a hold on things. After walking 4 blocks, we reached the Marble Arch and there were tour bus waiting along the road. Feeling confused on which bus to 'hop-on' we just got the bus right infront of us, the Blue line. The tour brought us to the high end street of London such as the Millionaires Street, Harrods at knightsbridge, Peter pan statue, Science Museum and other beautiful condos..
Mummy's secret hotel at Paddington road
Taking a break at Starbuck cafe
The piercing wind was just unbearable, that Mummy deciced to 'hop-off' at NOwhere, and decided to get inside Starbuck to get warm. We had good latte and chocolate to calm brother and he was the reason we had to get down,..He was frantically screaming his head off, probably couldn't handle the weather. About 40 minutes later, we 'hop on' another bus, the same route and completed the tour. As we arrived at Marble arch we looked for Red line the tour that we actually wanted to 'hop-on'.

More people get onboard this bus,coz it brought us to the famous landmarks in London,such as Tower of London, River Thames, Madame Tussauds, Trafalgar Square, London eye, Big Ben, Parliament house, Westminister Abbey and other statues that Mummy could not remember. But we remember witnessing the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street and Bond Street.Sales sign were on every window shops, heard it was the craziest ever in century. This tour took full 2 hours, where it landed us to sit at the lower deck on the next hour.
The queue on this was more than half mile, advance ticket is strongly advisable

Chaotic Bond Street
Big Ben


London Eye "I want to go ferry's wheel uwaaa.."

The tour finally ended at around 4 pm, and by this time the sun was setting and vanishing at the horizon. The next place to go was of course the Restaurant, Luckily, brother was sleeping towards the end coz it started to get freezing cold..Mummy resent for not wearing extra layers when we were out for 4 hours flat..Never under estimated the weather...

brain freeze at -2 degree

Panoramic view of London