I can't believe it's been more than a year since our last long holiday to London! Despite all my good intentions, I never did get round to writing about my holiday. I did however, put together a post on our recommendations for a London holiday on petite travellers, so if you're planning a holiday to London, or even just thinking about it, you might want to hop over and check it out.
London: A City of History, Culture, Shopping and Everything Else In Between
So the big news is that Jamie Italian's Singapore branch opens tomorrow!
Ok, so it's only big news if you're a fan girl, which I must confess that I am. I've been a fan since the first time I watched The Naked Chef in a friend's room in the hall in UK. It was how he made cooking seem so… easy. Jamie Oliver taught me to cook, and I've never looked back.
Needless to say, I was quite excited to try a couple of his restaurants when in London in May/June this year. We celebrated my birthday at Barbecoa, and then for our last meal, we tucked in at Jamie's Italian's in Reading.
I thought it might be fun to show you some pics of Jamie's Italian in Reading on this day, to whet your appetite for the new local branch.
(DD just rolled his eyes when I pointed it out!)
It was a good meal, albeit a rather pricey one. Such was eating out in UK. How would the local Jamie's Italian measure up? You can bet I'll be going down to find out.
Just like that, I turned 35.
For only the second time in my life, I celebrated my birthday in the correct time zone while in London. (It was on May 31, if you're wondering.) It was kind of cool, knowing as the clock ticked past 7.20am in the morning that, YES, I had officially come to the end of my 35th year. Can I also say that it was really nice having people wishing me happy birthday over an extended window from Singapore, even before it was actually time in London? Thanks so much, everyone!
To be honest, I thought I'd feel something about reaching this milestone. 35 sounds like it should be an important year. But in the end, it really didn't. I know I'm one year older, the eye bags are more defined than ever and the age spots are starting to show, each one telling on my lazy, sunblock-shunning youth. But otherwise, I guess I'm starting to realise as the years add up that the number doesn't really matter. It's what you make of your life that does. And mine is, on the most part, sweet.
Which is not to say that I'm content to leave it as it is. I do feel a sense of restlessness and there are some thoughts a-brewing in my mind about stuff I want to achieve this year as I approach middle-age (Eeeps!). But for now, I am happy.
My birthday didn't quite turn out as I planned as I woke up still unable to shake off the fever that I had been having the previous few days. I had been blowing out disgustingly thick mucus and coughing out equally disgusting phlegm for a few days. It was full-on flu. The 34-year old me would probably have insisted on following my programme, but the 35-year old me took a step back to re-assess the situation. And this (I like to think) more mature me agreed with my husband that it was better for me to just take the morning to try to rest and sleep before our dinner date. DD didn't believe me, by the way, when I agreed to rest. He kept giving me funny looks, expecting me to trot out my "sickness and sleep is for the weak" mantra. But I didn't. And the sleep actually did me some good as I woke up ready for a short trip to the National Gallery before dinner at Barbecoa. (I had to cut browsing at Covent Garden out of my programme.)
The National Gallery was wonderful, and dinner was amazing. They are both well worth posts of their own - posts that I hope I get round to writing! But the best part was being able to spend it with one of my closest friends, as well as one of DD's sisters and brother-in-law, who are based in London. I love nothing more than a party so it was really good to be able to have everyone around. So despite the flu, I had a great evening.
What will the year bring? More of the same, I hope. I can't wait to find out.
We just got back from a long 2-week holiday in London with the whole family.
If you have kids, you know that being with them for two whole weeks 24/7 away from home without the usual amenities is no break at all, but it was a lot of fun. It was a holiday that's been on the cards for a while. Until our recent trip, DD and I had not had the chance to visit the UK since we were both there for a year at the turn of the millennium. Incidentally, that was the time when we both discovered that there was a possibility for us to be more than just friends. So to be back again where it started, this time with two kids in tow, was a nice reminder of how far we have come.
We had great fun exploring together, though a bout of sickness in the first week kind of derailed some of our plans. We were forced to take it slow, especially on some days when the weather was not as kind. But we got to catch up with friends and family that we came to meet and still spend a lot of time together as a family, and for that, I am grateful. The kids got to spend a lot of time with their "Daddie" (as Meips started calling him), they've gotten much closer. So much that I got a bit sidelined at times when both wanted Daddie, but I didn't mind a bit!
We are all now struggling to recover from jet lag. On our first night, we all overslept despite going to bed early, and woke up at 2.45pm, which has to be some kind of record. I've got a huge backlog of posts to catch up on, but for now, it's hello again.
More from me in a bit.
