MY TRIP TO EDINBURGH|SEPTEMBER

Hi there.

I wrote this earlier in September but I forgot to post it so here it is.

Nadhrah has gone back to Malaysia (I will miss you and the other cousins) but Cuna, Uncle Aie, Mama and Safiyyah were still in UK but they are at Edinburgh so we decided to visit them before they fly back. Dadda rented a Suzuki this time. It's just a small car that can fit us all. Hehe... We actually didn't want to sleep there but we think we will be late so we just took some clothes and put in a bag and went. We arrived there about 1 or 2 p.m.

Ayahde, Cik De, Nadhrah & Mawar came to our apartment before they left. Said our farewells in front of our apartment.

On the way to Edinburgh. The weather was nice.

First, we went to The Royal Botanic Garden. That place was huge. There, we took a lot of pretty pictures and we also bumped into some Malaysian Chevening Scholars that Dadda had contacted. After we're done, we went to a hotel that Mommy had booked last minute. Although the hotel was small, it was so beautiful. Mommy was so happy because the hotel was right in front of the student house where Mommy, Tok Mama and Pak Su stayed for a while when Tok Mama was studying in Edinburgh years ago. After that, we went to dinner at Nandos in a mall near Cuna's air BnB. We ate, talked and had a lot of free botttomless yogurt that comes with the kids' meal.  After that, we went to Cuna's BnB.

Entrance of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh.

With 3 of Chevening scholars in Edinburgh.

Our room in our pretty little hotel on Craigmillar Park, Edinburgh.

In front of The Northumberland Hotel entrance.

The view from our hotel room widow - David Horn House, the student house where Mommy used to stay with Tok Mama and Pak Su.

Nando's at Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre where we had dinner.

The next day was the day that Cuna and the others went back to Malaysia so we went to meet them again before they went to the airport. Before we went to meet them, we went around Edinburgh. We went to the house Mommy and Tok Mama stayed a long time ago. After that, we went to Mommy and Pak Su's school. Then we went to meet Cuna and the others at Edinburgh Waverley Train Station Mall. We ate lunch at Chopstix Noodle Bar. It was so good! After we're done eating, we went shopping!!!

In front of David Horn House.

In front of Pak Su's primary school, Sciennes Primary School.

In front of Mommy's high school, James Gillespie's High School.

The flat on West Newington Place where Mommy, Tok Mama & Pak Su stayed at after they moved out of the student house.

Tok Mama's university, not her department though, hehe...

It was an Open Day weekend in Edinburgh so we got to go into McEwan's Hall, where students from Edinburgh University have their graduation ceremony.

Walking in Princes Street Garden on the way to Waverly Shopping Centre. Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Our last meal together before they went back to Malaysia - Lunch at Chopstix at Waverly Mall.

With Mama, Dadda's mom, on the way to the carpark.

We stopped by at Aunty Jill's apartment to say hi and for CuNa to return the car seat she borrowed for Safiyyah during their Scotland trip. We also said our goodbyes to each other here as we all went our separate ways.

After that, it's time to go home. My family and I went back to Glasgow. Cuna, Uncle Aie, Saifyyah and Mama went back to Malaysia (Bye guys! We will miss you!)

So that's all for now. Till my next post.
Bye.

My First Trip Overseas, Part II

Sorry it took quite a while for me to write this sequel. I've been pretty busy...

Anyway, so we flew to Edinburgh on Saturday morning (24th April) from Bristol airport. Our flight was at 7am so we had to wake up early and be on the road by 4am! Uncle Keith drove to Bristol airport and left his car there. We arrived around 8-ish and Granny Glenda was already waiting for us!

We then went straight to Granny's house in Dalgety Bay where Pops Pete was waiting for us and there were a lot of toys, especially Thomas, for me to play with!
Of course I was so delighted to see them.



Later in the afternoon, after we had our lunch, Granny took us out for some grocery shopping at a nearby Tesco and then went straight to a park in Aberdour. We played for a while and then went back home to rest. When we arrived home, Aunty Jill was already there waiting for us with her sons, Torin and Arlo. We played, ate and watched Thomas and Friends together before getting ready to go to bed.




The next morning, we had breakfast and immediately got ready to go to Bathgate for Aunty Rachel and Uncle Steve's wedding. Aunty Rachel is Mommy's friend. They knew each other when Mommy went to school in James Gillespie's, Edinburgh, ages ago. So, this is the whole purpose of our trip to UK.
Needless to say, we really had fun at the wedding which lasted forever!

Uncle Keith drove us there at noon and came to pick us up later in the evening. The event lasted till the wee hours of the next morning but of course, we didn't stay that long.



Monday morning, Granny drove us (Dadda, Mommy, Uncle Keith and I) to a shopping mall in Edinburgh to have lunch with Aunty Jill and Nana Belle (my other Scottish granny). Everybody had a lot of catching up to do so I had to keep myself busy with whatever that was around me! Thankfully, that restaurant was real 'kids friendly' where it had toys and finger food to keep me entertained.



After lunch, we went to the Edinburgh castle with Uncle Keith (because Mommy had admitted shamefully to Dadda that in all the time she stayed in Edinburgh, she'd never been to the castle! What a shame, Mommy!) Dadda had been to the castle when he went to visit a friend years ago so he promised to take both of us there. It was so windy when were at the castle compound that I fell asleep most of the time.




I only woke up when we stopped to have tea at Queen Anne's cafe somewhere inside the caslte area. After that, we took a walk around town, went into a bookshop and several souvenir stores and then headed home by bus. Oppss, I forgot, we also had an early dinner at the famous Kebab Mahal!





The next day, we went back to Edinburgh town to meet up with the newly weds. We arrived at the bus station, took a tour bus and got off halfway through the tour and walked all the way to
Mommy's old school, James Gillespie's High School, where we met Mommy's headteacher, Mr. Wallace (he was the Assistant Headteacher then). We stayed for awhile and talked to him, took some photos and walked back. On the way, we stopped to take pictures at Pak Su's school, Sciennes Primary School and the apartment where Mommy and Pak Su used to stay with Tok Mama.








Our final stop was Aunty Anna's shop called The Covet. Aunty Anna's one of Mommy's school friends too. She owns a very 'posh' shop which sells leather goods such as bags, purse as well as jewelleries. We then had to bid farewell to Aunty Rachel and Uncle Steve Aunty Anna before taking the bus straight to the airport where Uncle Keith was waiting for us to fly back to Bristol.




Aunty Rachel and Uncle Steve will also be leaving for their honeymoon on Friday to Venice and board a cruise to go around Greece and later this year, they will probably migrate to New Zealand. Hopefully we will see them again, perhaps in New Zealand next time. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I really miss everyone in Edinburgh; Granny Glenda, Pops Pete, Nana Belle, Aunty Jill, Torin, Arlo, Aunty Rachel and Uncle Steve. I got a lot of presents from them, books from Granny, Pops and Aunty Jill and a lovely bracelet from Nana Belle. I didn't get to meet Aunty Jill's daughter, Rosa, though, because she was really busy preparing for her big exams.

Don't miss the next part!
I promise it'll be the last of the My First Trip Overseas Trilogy series.

It's going to be more interesting and more photos to look at too!

My First Trip Overseas, Part I

I was looking forward to this trip since last year!
Finally, the day came when I had to wake up real early at 6am,
not to go to school but to get ready to go to the airport. Woohoo!


Days earlier, I heard Mommy and Dadda talking and worrying about our trip (they mentioned something about a volcano in Iceland?).
Mommy was really angry at the volcano and kept saying

"let us go there first and then you can erupt all you want and we can get stranded in UK but not here!"

I guess the volcano did somehow listened to Mommy and our flight were right on schedule.

Tok Abah, Tok Mama, Pak Su and Mama sent us off and at the airport, Umi Yoyoi walked with us right till the boarding room. She was able to do that because she's working there.

The flight to UK took about 13 hours. I had fun and really enjoyed myself on the flight. I played games, watch movies, ate and slept.



Finally, we landed. Mommy put me on the stroller we borrowed from Aunty Alma (because mine is too big) and walked out of the airport. Everything was normal till I felt the wind blew. It was really NICE and COOL! Wow! So, this is why we were looking forward to this trip...

Anyway, we then took the bus to Uncle Keith's house in Cheltenham. I think the journey took 2 hours. I slept all the way and when we finally got off the bus, it was already dark and it was freezing! We took a taxi to Uncle Keith's house but he wasn't home and had left the keys with his neighbour for us. We ate supper Uncle Keith cooked and left for us and slept.



Next morning, I woke up because I heard some noise outside our room. I thought I was dreaming but when I woke up and looked outside, there they were, lining outside the fence. I saw sheep in the field or meadow behind the house! I immediately serenaded Mommy and Dadda with my rendition of Baa Baa Black Sheep. I didn't realise that it was 6.30am because it was bright and sunny outside. I found out that the sun comes out early in UK, apparently. To my surprise, I woke Uncle Keith up too and he peeked into our room to wish us Good Morning, hehe... sorry about that, Uncle Keith.

So, when all of us were finally ready, we went down and Uncle Keith had fixed us some breakfast. He asked Mommy and Dadda of our plan. They said they didn't mind doing whatever Uncle Keith had planned for us. So, off we went to our first sightseeing tour with Uncle Keith.



We came to a place where there were lots of ducks and a river. It was beautiful. We walked around, had tea and scones and finally went to see a miniature village. Mommy said the name of that place is Bourton-On-The-Water.



After that, we went to a museum quite near to Uncle Keith's house. Mommy was the one who wanted so much to go there. She said the museum was the birthplace of a composer named Gustav Holst. I was asleep most of the time we were at the museum. By the time I got up, we were upstairs, somewhere, playing with old toys.



That night, Uncle Keith made Fish n Chips for tea and then after watching a bit of TV, we went to bed. Tomorrow's another big day. We have to wake up at 4am to drive to Bristol (which was about a couple of hours from Cheltenham) to take another flight to Edinburgh.

Why were we going to Edinburgh? That's the whole purpose of this UK trip. I'll tell you all about that in my next post... Stay in touch!