I've neglected my blog!!!

To the few people who are actually reading my blog - a big apology for disappearing for the past couple of months. I have been crazy busy with life. Other than the hectic travelling - which I usually loves. This couple of months, I've been travelling like mad, but I've been super stressed about it. The reason being is that we are repatriating back to UK but instead of a straightforward when, we have been stringed along for a month before being told exactly when. Thus explaining my recent last minute trip to the UK for 3 weeks and the least amount of planning I've ever done for a trip - our october trip to New Zealand which almost didn't happen. 

Anyway long story short, we are moving back in early 2013, and I'm squeezing as many travels in between now and then. Travelling every 2 weeks is not what I call fun, more like crazy. I flew to UK for 3 weeks then came back for 2 weeks and we flew to Christchurch. At the moment, I have again 2 weeks of breathing space before I jet back to UK for another 2 weeks!!! In between, I will be visiting some friends in KL which I am looking forward to before flying to UK. So I am really sorry if I have not been updating my blog. I've so much more of my trips to write about, but I just can't. I think it will be when I am back in good old England before I can write about my adventures. And instead of being stuck in tiny Singapore, I will probably have to call my blog - No longer stuck in tiny Singapore :)

I will just put a little snippets/photos of the beautiful New Zealand. It's a beautiful country filled with friendly locals, and the sceneries are magnificent. I am glad to have a chance to visit the country twice before returning to the Northern Hemisphere. Till the next time, keep healthy and always wear a smile on your face. 

The beautiful sceneries of South Island

Back in London

Sorry all for being MIA. Was in UK for over 3 weeks. It has been 2 years since my last visit and it was great to be back. Another friend of mine was in UK at the same time, and we had a great time checking out old hangouts and discovering new places too. We were also lucky with the weather. It was in the teens and lovely sunshine, the perfect weather for walking around. I also got to drive a lot, from London out to Essex, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Kent & Surrey and it was great. After driving over 1000 miles in a manual car, I didn't grumble at all. It was therapeutic to drive in the UK as almost everyone is a polite driver. Now that I'm back in Singapore, I am missing that very much.

Lots of stuff have been happening since I'm back. The hubby and I are rushing off on our New Zealand South Island trip for 10 days. The shortest planning time I ever had for a holiday - 2 weeks! Followed by arranging to go to Kuala Lumpur for a short weekend to meet up with some friends in november. The hubby also will be popping back into London for another business trip and it is very tempting to follow along.

Anyway, here are some highlights from my trip:

This was taken from the cab from Heathrow to our service apartment

Sun was shining when we arrived in Heathrow. I had to snap this picture as we drove past Buckingham Palace in our cab. The sun was shining and London could not look more beautiful!!!

View of Canary Wharf from our service apartment

London Day out

The next day after I arrived, I met with my friend and off we went for a day of fun!!! We went to check out the British Museum. It was good to be back. We spent a few hours there and went for lunch. Found a quaint little french restaurant that offered a great lunch deal. My friend ordered this yummy pork belly dish. The pork was done amazingly, it was crunchy outside and soft on the inside. After the heavy lunch (plus desserts), we had to walk it off. We went from Holborn all the way to Covent Garden to Leicester Square where we checked out the the humongous M&M shop! It has 4 stories of everything M&M!!

Kent 

The weekend, the hubby and I picked up our rental car and went off to explore Kent. We drove over the familiar Dartford Bridge and entered Kent. We checked out the lovely quaint English villages along the River Medway. Ended up in Maidstone where we stayed for the night and went to have another lovely french meal at Cafe Rouge. The confit duck was heavenly, totally worth every ounce of fat I've ingested :p

Highlights of Hertfordshire & Bury St Edmunds

My friend and I spent a lovely day exploring parts of Hertfordshire. The lower left picture was taken at the village green at Hatfield Heath where we enjoyed a lovely day sitting outside. The temperature was perfect at around 18C. Another day, I drove up to Bury St Edmunds on my own. Went up to see some friends as I used to live there before moving to Asia 4 years ago. We went for a lovely lunch followed by a walk with my friend's beautiful black lab. It was great to be back in the outdoors. I missed this lifestyle whereby the dogs get all this space to roam and fellow dog owners are gracious. Anyway I ended the day with a steal from the wednesday market in Bury with a big bag of cherries costing just a quid!! :)

Another weekend in Kent

The 2nd weekend, the hubby and I popped back into Kent. This time we explored further. We went to a village which had the most beautiful postcard view ever. A lovely bridge over the river Medway, with willows swaying in the background. We had a lovely pub lounge overlooking the river and went off on the public footpaths for a lovely saturday afternoon walk. Life's just dandy!!!

Exploring London

The last weekend in London, we decided to spend some time exploring her. We went off back to Covent Garden and discovered an area that was new to me. I had always gone straight into Covent Garden but this time we turned left into an area known as Neal's Yard. It looked really bohemian. There were cutesy boutiques, and one of a kind shops. Even the cafes and restaurants in the yard looks really funky. A note to check it out the shops proper with a girlfriend. Hubby is not a shopper at all so I didn't want to bore him that afternoon.

London Part 2

For Lunch, we had it planned to go for the Four Seasons Roast Duck as mentioned in my other London posts. It is the most amazing, yummylicious duck ever. Even my fussy tongue hubby loves the duck, so we went there just before the lunch crowd to grab seats to enjoy our lunch. It is still as good as I remembered. After that, we went off to Piccadilly and walked to Fortnum & Masons to pick up some goodies to bring back as gifts. I spent a good while wandering around all the selections to pick up what I wanted. Finally we were back in Canary Wharf. It has a different feel to the rest of London. It reminds me of Singapore with all the tall gleaming offices, and clean streets.

Final Day

Three weeks came and went so quickly. Before we knew it, it was the day to fly back to Singapore. As we had some time to kill before getting the cab to the airport, we went to check out the big new Westfield mall at Stratford. It was huge and had all the known high street names in there. They even have a nice selection of restaurants and an ultra cool food court. I settled for a meatball pho as it's been a while since I had any nice soup noodles. What a great way to end my trip back to London. Will be back soon!!!!

Top ten free things to do in London

I will be travelling to London soon. It's so good to be back as the last time I was there, was April 2010, two years ago!! Truth to be told, I miss UK. I consider UK my second home. Lived there for more than a decade, most of my most important adult life was spent there. I learned to drive there, got married there, graduated with my doctorate, bought my first house and all my other properties there etc etc. You are probably getting my drift here. So I am over the moon to be flying to the UK again. So before that, I thought of writing a blog post on top ten free things to do while you are there. I wrote a recent blog post on the off the beat things to do in London, so this post will probably tie in nicely with the other one.

Along the Thame

Our trip to Alaska : Overview

Known as America's last frontier, Alaska is also United State's largest state and is over twice the size of Texas. Alaska has always conjure an image of the grandest natural landscape and awe-inspiring sceneries. Her wild and rugged wilderness, glaciers, mountains, wildlife, and interesting people are Alaska's many offerings.

The best and most popular way to see Alaska is from the coast, on board a cruise ship. Each year around 1 million people arrive to see Alaska on board a cruise ship and now I understand why. It is a fabulous way to see the coastline of Alaska, otherwise largely inaccessible.

Travelogue: Trip to Greece - Exploring Athens Part 2 (Acropolis)

The Acropolis of Athens overlooks the city of Athens. As you wander around the city, all you have to do is to look up and you will see the Acropolis up on the hill. It is a beautiful structure even from afar. We got to visit the site and luckily on the day where it was the World Museum Day where entry was free :)

Warning: Photo Heavy Post

Acropolis

Top ten things to do in Macau

What are the things that comes to mind when someone mentions Macau? - Casino? Pork buns? Macau has been slowly creeping up the popularity ladder as one of the favourite place which Singaporean goes to for a short getaway. It is getting so popular that even the recent season of the the last few episodes America's Next top Model Show was filmed in Macau!! To help you to plan your trip to Macau, here is my list of top ten things you can do when you are there. Bear in mind that what is listed are my suggestions, and may not be your cup of tea.

The one and only Casino Lisboa

Travelogue: Trip to Scandinavia - Stockholm: Gamla Stan

The first country that we started our Scandinavia trip in was in Sweden, famous for being the home country of Ikea. Would I be seeing Ikea shops everywhere in the country? We flew into Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden.  Just joking. One of the main reason we visited Stockholm was to visit my friend from back in my University days.What impressed us about Stockholm is how beautiful, clean but yet funky and stylish. It provides a lot of attractions and places for tourists to check out.

Stockholm

Travelogue: Trip to Prague, Czech Republic - Part 3

After spending 1/2 a day with Alena at the Prague Castle, we continued with Alena as she took us to explore more of Prague. She and the hubby were happily discussing about Czech Republic history as I wandered alongside enjoying the sights and taking lots of pictures of this beautiful city.

Colourful buildings as we were walking down from the castle

My Quinton turns 7!

Couldn't believe that it was Quinton's time to turn 7 years old today. His Birthday was only a couple of weeks after Reegan's. So after Reegan's mini birthday party with her Therapy Dogs friends. It was Quinton's mini birthday gathering with his Golden Retriever Club friends at Bishan Dog Park.

Quinton at 8 Weeks old

How to plan an Alaska Cruise from Singapore -Overview

Going on an Alaska cruise has always been a dream of mine and yes I realised that my travel bucket list is long or getting longer!! I have been lucky to have been ticking off the list especially with the Scandinavia Trip to see the Northern lights earlier in the year and now going to Alaska!! But can't a girl be greedy?? :p

Top ten offbeat things to do in London

With Olympics happening right now in London, there must be a lot of tourists spending time in London. I love London!!! You will never get tired of visiting her. I am sure there are no lack of things to do and places to visit while you are in London. The numerous historical sites, buildings, amazing architecture, world class galleries and museums, the west end for the musicals, the markets, the shopping, the list is endless. But there are also many other things to do while you are there that you won't find in conventional guide books. If you are looking to do something different while you are there, why not check out my list of offbeat things to do in London. Without further ado, here is my list of top ten offbeat things to do while you are there.

Tower Bridge, London

Travelogue: Trip to Italy Part 2b - Pompeii & Herculaneum - Pompeii

After spending the morning at Herculaneum, we headed towards Pompeii via the Circumvesuvian railway and alight at Pompei Scavi Station. The entrance to Pompeii is about 50m away from the station. Many people gets confused regarding the name, the ancient site is known as Pompeii while the modern town that stands there now is called Pompei.

Pompeii

Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco in Singapore

I am a great fan of Cirque du Soleil's shows and the great news is that they are in Singapore till August 5th 2012 for the show Saltimbanco, playing at the Indoor stadium. A little information about them - Cirque du Soleil (Circus of the Sun) originates from Canada. They have done over 19 shows showing over 271 cities. The uniqueness of their shows are their bright costumes, beautiful scores, live music featuring amazing singers and musicians and most breathtaking acrobatic performances. Don't take my word for it, go and catch one now.

Source: Cirque du Soleil's website

My Reegan is 5 today!!!!

My darling Reegan is 5 today! Happy Birthday!!! Can't believe how time has flies. My baby girl is growing up faster. I cannot believe I love her so much more day after day and I wish she will have plenty more of healthy and happy times with our family!!

Reegan - at 7 weeks when we brought her home

Travelogue: Trip to Siem Reap - Day 2 : Small Circuit (Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei)

After a great night sleep, our 2nd day started with a lovely breakfast brought to our room by the staff at Hotel Be. You get to choose from a menu the day before, and it was brought upstairs to us. You can either have it at the little dining area or upstairs at the terrace.

We had arranged with Ara to pick us up around 9am to start our temple tour in Siem Reap. She had arranged our own private tuk tuk for our entire stay. If you are not familar with the tuk tuk or it's also known as an auto rickshaw, it is a modified mode of transport found in several parts of the world where using a small motorbike, you can transport up to 2 to 4 people depending on the tuk tuk.

Our own Tuk Tuk

Exploring Singapore for dog-friendly places - Sun Ray Cafe

Usually when I need to bring your dogs with me for a pet friendly eating place, I would go to Canopy Dining in Bishan Park. That usually occurs after morning at the dog run, then lunch at Canopy. This week I had the chance to visit SunRay Cafe which is totally dog-friendly. I have heard about it from my friends from the Golden Retriever Club as they regularly have gathering at the cafe.

Told you..they are pet-friendly

Travelogue: Trip to the East Coast USA for Fall Foliage - Visiting Woodstock, Vermont

The idyllic village of Woodstock, situated on U.S. 4 between Rutland and White River Junction, attracts many visitors with its old-world beauty. So we decided to visit it when we were in Vermont.

Woodstock, Vermont was the winner of the 1997 National Contest conducted by the Ladies Home Journal magazine as the "Prettiest Town in America", it was chosen as the community with the most beauty, charm and character. And when you get there, you will agree with them for choosing this town as the prettiest.


Warning: Photo heavy post

Pretty Woodstock

Travelogue: Trip to Macau Final Part

After checking the Macau Museum, we went off to check out the other sights of Macau. As we descended the Mount Fortress, one could see the beautiful Grand Lisboa Casino in the foreground.

Warning: Photo Heavy Post

Grand Lisboa

Post Alaska Cruise thoughts

7 days of bliss and pampering on board the Diamond Princess in Alaska, we are sad that it was all over in a blink of an eye. The hubby and I are cruise virgins and I am glad to report that we are now converted to cruising aficionados. 2 years ago when I first asked my hubby if he wants to go on a cruise, he had refused, fearing that he would have do a lot of socialising on board the cruise and be bored but it wasn't the case at all. We loved it so much that we have put deposit on another Alaskan cruise for June 2013!

Hubbard Glacier

Tips on how to plan a F&E to Tokyo from Singapore

One of my friend is interested to go to Tokyo for a trip and was asking me for advise as she has no idea where to start. Since I visit Tokyo rather often, I decided to write a blog post about how to go about planning a free & easy trip to Tokyo.

Beautiful Mount Fuji

Travelogue: Trip to Perth Part 3 - Mandurah & Perth

The next place we went to during our short Perth trip was to Mandurah. Mandurah is the second-largest city in Western Australia and is located approximately 72 kilometres (45 mi) south of the state capital, Perth. The reason I decided to stop at Mandurah is that  dolphins frequently swim by the city, and dolphin watching is very popular there. Since my parents had not seen it before, I thought it would be a great chance to do some dolphin watching there on our way back from Albany back up north to Perth.

View out from Mandurah's harbour

Travelogue: Trip to North Island, New Zealand- Our accommodation at Lake Tarawera

Our journey to New Zealand, also known as Aotearoa in the native Maori language which means "The land of the long white cloud" started when we landed in Auckland International Airport. We were hyped about our visit as we have heard so many wonderful things about New Zealand, mainly her natural beauty which we were keen to explore. New Zealand has so much to offer: from stunning natural scenery of jagged mountains, fiords, stunning lakes, the most scenic beaches and jaw dropping active volcanic features. We couldn't wait to start our adventure!!

Lake Tarawera where we spent a few days

Live from on board the Diamond Princess in Alaska

It's our third day of our southbound Alaska cruise from Whittier to Vancouver. The last two days have been sea days. We set off from Whittier, Alaska amidst a lovely sunny day, which was a rare occurrence and so far, we have been very lucky with the weather. We saw the Hubbard Glacier followed by today we were at Glacier Bay National Park. We were again super lucky with the weather, as the sun is out shining bright for us. The cruise so far has been fantastic. Will do more detailed blog posts after the cruise. In the meantime, here are some teaser photos. Enjoy.

Alaskan Landscape

My Cats - Part 3: Sumi

Sumi is my third cat, and she joined the family by 'accident'. The husband has already put his foot down that 2 is the final number of cats we can have. For awhile after, I volunteered with the Hertfordshire Cat Protection to do home checks of potential adopters, and that's when I got involved in fostering.

Sumi at one year old

Travelogue: Trip to Macau Part 2

Just east of the Ruins of St Paul's, is the Mount Fortress or Monte Fort. You will noticed that all the tourists are congregating at the Ruins, taking tons of photos, but at path that leads up to the Mount Fortress which and to the Museum of Macau, it is very quiet. Most tourists especially on group troups will not get the chance to visit both these attractions, which is a great pity as from the Fortress, one will find excellent views across Macau. 

Views over Macau on the way up to Monte Fort

Off to our Alaska Cruise!

Hey all,

I will be flying off soon for my trip of a lifetime. We are flying to the US to join our Alaska Cruise on Princess cruise followed by a road trip exploring the Canadian Rockies!! Please be patient as I will still try to post while on holiday. Just so excited as I get to cross off another 2 places off my bucket list!

Alaska Cruise

I will still try to write at least 2 posts a week and will write about my most recent trip when I get back in July. Till then, happy travels.

Travelogue: Trip to North Island, New Zealand - Overview

Since moving to Asia, one of my main places to visit on our bucket list is New Zealand. It always felt that it is at the other end of the world, too far to travel from UK. In addition, we have heard of amazing things about New Zealand and from what we hear, it is definitely a place up our alley as we love beautiful scenery, driving holidays and do you know what is the best part? - there is very little human doted around the country!! It would be a relaxing holiday away from the crowds

Source: www.newzealand.com

Travelogue: Hong Kong Sightseeing - Off the beaten Track - Cheung Chau

Before we moved to Singapore, we lived for a year in Hong Kong. In recent years, Hong Kong has taken the place of one of the top destinations for Singaporeans to visit. There are lots to do from the great food, to the shopping and the amazing scenery. Yep you hear right, Hong Kong has great scenery, more than 70% of the country is designated as country parks. The number of hiking trails is staggering. You get amazing mountain and sea views from every corner. Most people thinks of Hong Kong as a city with amazing skyscrapers, but what most tourists won't see is the quieter side of HK, the country parks, the greenery and the village life. Thus I won't be writing about most of the standard places that Singaporeans are sure to visit during their trip. What I will write about are off the beaten track. So to start off with, I took a friend who was visiting to Cheung Chau.

What most tourists' image of HK- Skyscrapers Galore (taken from the summit of Fei Ngo Shan where I lived)

Therapy Dogs Singapore - We were invited to be on Cesar Millan Show at MBS!

I have been volunteering with the Therapy Dogs Singapore for 2 years now and I have enjoyed almost every minute of it. No words can describe the joy and achievement when you see one of your charges laughing loudly when she has been non-verbal for as long as you've known her, or when you see someone who is so scared of a dog that she breaks into cold sweat to sitting next to one of our Therapy Dogs and posing for a picture. It is a wonderful organisation and all the volunteers and their doggies are amazing people that I've got to know and I am glad to be part of this group of people.

Therapy Dogs at work

Travelogue: Trip to Scandinavia: An Overview

One of the main item on my bucket list was to see the Northern lights. I've written about it on a previous post . The husband and I went to Tromso in Norway to see it but we weren't going to fly all the way to Norway just to do that. For the trip, we took a 2 week trip and went to visit the other Scandinavian cities along the way. I have friends in Stockholm and Helsinki. Since we have never been to that part of the world, it was the great excuse to visit.

Snow everywhere!

Travelogue: Trip to Macau Part 1

While living in HK, we didn't really want to go to Macau. To me, it is a wannabe Vegas and having been to Vegas, I didn't see any need to pop over there. Plus I thought we would be in HK for 4 years. Lo and behold, we were moving out of HK, so quickly the family and I took a couple of day trips over to take a look at what Macau has to offer.

New buildings on Taipa Island

Travelogue: Trip to Greece - Exploring Athens Part 1

Greece is an amazing place to visit, whether if you are a history buff, you will be spoilt for choice here with the vast length of history that Greece was part of. It is the birthplace of Western civilisation. Perhaps no nation in Europe can boast of a more ancient history than Greece. Greece's antiquity dates back to 3000 BC when the powerful Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations flourished here. The evolution of powerful city-states, especially Athens and Sparta, between 800 and 500BC produced the classical age of Athens which was the high point of the Grecian civilization.

The Acropolis 

Travelogue: Trip to the East Coast USA for Fall Foliage - Quechee Gorge in Vermont

Day 4 in Vermont started with us driving towards Quechee Gorge near Hartford. The falls is known as "Vermont's Little Grand Canyon. After visiting the falls, you can always check out the quaint little town of Hartford.

Quechee Gorge 

Travelogue: Trip to Siem Reap - Day 1

Last year for our 10th Wedding Anniversary, we planned quite a few celebratory trips since we love travelling. Rather than spending it on gifts and such, we decided to go for a few trips during the year. So in the end we went to Italy, Siem Reap, Greece and East Coast of USA. Quite a bit of travelling around the world. I was a happy happy bunny :)

Angkok Wat is one of those places I have on my must visit list. It took quite a bit of convincing on my part to get the husband to go with me to Siem Reap. He doesn't really like visiting what you call the Third World countries. He is more at home in developed countries and also remember that he only thrives in temperate countries due to his narrow zone of temperature range where he will not melt. When I finally managed to get him to agree to go to Siem Reap, I immediately went ahead to book our tickets during the week of our Anniversary.

Angkor Wat 

Exploring Singapore for dog-friendly places: Pet Movers at Pasir Ris Farmway

When we first moved to Singapore, we weren't sure where to bring the dogs for a run. I have heard of Pet Movers, as they were one of those Pet moving company we came across when we were moving the dogs from Hong Kong to Singapore. Anyway, we knew they have a pet shop, even a wading pool (only open at the weekends) and a little dog run. Since we were at that time, living in the North, we thought a trip with the dogs there would be fun.

Pet Movers is located at 4 Pasir Ris Farmway 2. These are their opening hours: Pet Shop & Office: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Weekdays) 9.30 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Weekend/Public Holidays) Pet Megamart, Dog Run & Dog Wading Pool: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Weekdays) 9.30 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Weekend/Public Holiday ).

There are plenty of parking there, but the annoying thing is at their office, they do live animals sales. The moment you get out of your car, you are overcome by strong smells of stale urine. Luckily by the time you walked to the dog run area, the smell is reduced. The run is sufficient. There is even some agility equipment located at the far end of the run. There is a covered walkway but no sitting area. Walking to the end of the walkway, you will find the gate leading out to the pet mega mart, a sitting area, washing up area and the wading pool which is only opened on weekends and can get rather crowded on the weekends since it is free to use. Not sure how clean the water is since we have never brought the dogs to swim there, so I cannot comment on it. The pet shop has a good range of products and if you are a member of pet movers, you get some sort of discount too.

Here are some photos of the doggies at the run. Maybe you can bring your dogs there for a look.

The hubby with the doggies

Travelogue: Trip to Italy Part 2a - Pompeii & Herculaneum - Herculaneum the other Pompeii

Sorrento is a town that features beautiful architecture and beautiful landscape. Another great thing about Sorrento is one can use it as a base to visit the other surrounding attractions. As it is on the Circumvesuviana rail system it is easily reached from Naples and an ideal base for visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum. Ferries regularly commute between Sorrento for Capri, making Sorrento an ideal base for exploring that island as well.

So the next day, we took the rail to see the famous Pompeii, not to be mistaken for the modern Italian of Pompei. Pompeii,  UNESCO World Heritage Site, was destroyed and buried under ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Pompeii remained preserved and undiscovered till 1749 after being lost for nearly 1700 years. Since then, Pompeii, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, has fascinated 2.5 million visitors every year. This time capsule provides amazing details and insight into life in the city back in AD 79, is a must visit if you are in the area.

Warning: Photo heavy post

Herculaneum

Travelogue: Trip to Greece - Overview

Our trip to Greece was a last minute decision as I spotted an irrefusable bargain on Qatar Airways. This trip was squeezed in between on the other trips we planned last year for our 10th Wedding Anniversay Year. We went to Siem Reap in early May, a week later I went to Tokyo when the husband went on his business trip, followed by the trip to Greece in late May. Not forgetting we went to Italy for a 2 week trip in late feb/early march. I was a happy bunny with all those travelling :)

Travelogue: Trip to Prague, Czech Republic - Part 2

We started our second day in Prague visiting the Prague Castle. Be warned that this will be a photo heavy blog post.

Prague Castle

Mother's Day Lunch at Seafood International Buffet

Interesting factoid: Do you know that in the UK, Mother's day is celebrated on a different day than in Singapore? I only realised during my first year there, when a friend exclaimed she has forgotten to get something for her mother. So I hastily rang my mum up on the particular sunday in March, and my mum went - Huh? Mother's day not till May. Oops, my bad, bye mum. Did you also know that different countries celebrate Mother's day on different days as in the UK. The second sunday of the month is the most popular amongst countries. Some of them are Singapore for one, Canada and USA to name a few. Norway celebrates Mother's day on the 2nd sunday in February while UK and Ireland celebrates on the 4th sunday in Lent. What is Lent? Lent is a Christian Festival. In the past it was a long, strict religious fast when people gave up all rich food. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and lasts for six and a half weeks and is moveable which means every year, the date for Mother's day is different. It tends to fall around February or March. In 2011, it was on the 9th of March and in 2012, it fell on the 22nd of February.

Travelogue: Trip to Perth Part 2 - Whale Watching in Augusta

Imagine being within feet of some of the most graceful, rare mammals in the world. We had the chance to do some whale watching while we were in Perth. From early June to September you can see humpback and southern right whales cavorting in Flinders Bay Augusta as they head for warm waters to mate and breed. Augusta is 320km south of Perth, and takes under 4 hours drive. The drive is scenic as you pass through Margaret River. We were based in Bunbury which is midway to Augusta from Perth.

The company we went with was called Naturaliste Charter. The whale watching trip runs every June to September, departing from Whale Memorial, Davies Road in Augusta at 10:00 am daily. The cost is $80 for adult and $50 for children ages 4 to 17 years old. They use a 55 ft purpose built whale watching vessel. A word of warning: it can get quite bumpy out in the water. I took some ginger pills, followed by Phenergen for motion sickness and was still got seasick and was throwing up almost 3/4 of the time we were out on the water.

Credit: Naturaliste Charters

Doggies outing to Botanical Gardens on Mother's Day

My cousin recently got a little miniature Poodle puppy from a pet shop as he has been there for more than 5 mths and nobody wanted him. I am against buying pets from pet shops especially when you do not know the specifics of where the pet comes from. It may be a product of a puppy mill :( etc. The last thing you want is to support a trade that makes money from the suffering of animals. Anyway I am not here to judge, but doing a favour for my cousin. It was an impromptu purchase and she was going away for a holiday. She already has another poodle who will be looked after at home by my cousin brother, while Koro, the new pup will come and stay with us along with Quinton & Reegan.

Koro, the miniature Poodle Puppy

Travelogue: Trip to Italy Part 1 - Sorrento

Our 2 week Italy holiday started with us flying into Rome. We had bought Italy rail passes for the both of us. We went with the Italy Flexi pass for 2 First class saver adults for 7 days which cost us 460 Euros. For their intercity trains, you always have to make a seat reservation prior to your trip which is free of charge. You can find machines in any major train stations and do it from there.

Warning: Photo heavy post

Coastline in Sorrento