recap of 2015 - a great one no less!

as with tradition, recap of 2015:-

jan - YZ advanced to P2 and YR started his K1 journey with the same old church kindy as gor gor. YR transited to the new school better than i thought which is awesome. the husband turned 38 (!!) and i brought him to try italian food at etna for his bday. YR turned 5YO too and we spent a lovely evening at night safari as per his birthday wish! an extremely short 2D1N trip with colls to batam - montigo resorts is crazy big and i dont think i will want to come here with the boys! went for an internal interview for a team lead role - was feeling apprehensive but i knew i did my best then and will be at peace with whatever the outcome may be.

feb - watched the Dream of the red chamber play with hubbi and while some parts were lost on us, the title song is really good. celebrated 13 years anniversary with hubbi!! had the most delicious dinner @ restaurant ember. started my new role as team lead - a journey (on hindsight as i look back now) in which i grow a lot and forces me to step out of my comfort zone countless times.

mar: the ng family went to HK with my mum + in laws! the highlights was staying @ langham place - good location and 5-star amenities but such a group combi is a bit..... i dont think i want to attempt such a trip so soon again. :P bought tons of lego back from HK! :D
got myself the very versatile and functional tube WOC from fendi too. and it was a sad month too when LKY passed on and (almost) the whole SG mourned for him. i went to pay my respects at the parliament house too.

apr: share matching for my company shares so i enjoyed a modest neat slice of profits when i sold those shares. :) bought a classic pair of CD earrings - goes extremely well with formal outfits!

may: Dividends month - handsome sum of dividends from all my shares even when the share prices plummeted. @_@ with the help of the extra windfall, i got the cartier love necklace that i've been eyeing for some time! and thrown in with the indulgence was a matching CD bracelet (to the pair of earrings bought last month)! the husband wasnt too impressed. :P

jun: family trip to BKK during school holidays - siam kempinski hotel is a comfortable stay and strategically located next to siam paragon! nice! the boys enjoyed kidszania lots! it's sad that BKK has to suffer the bombing incident later in the year. everywhere is getting unsafe nowadays.

july: quiet month - attended big bang concert though. :P

aug: sammi's concert and it's good to hear her singing live after so long - very nostalgic! ng family did a SG50 staycation @ shangri-la too. breakfast at the line was great though the hotel room has seen better days..

sept: 9 years wedding anni with the husband! and we did a st regis staycation with lightbulb YR in tow! tsk tsk. and it's staycation month - we tried lloyd's inn during sept school holidays. the location is alright but i wasnt too impressed with the size and not-so-great sound proofing of the room.

oct: YZ's 8YO bday! we brought him to science centre per his preference to catch an omni-max theatre show. and he started wearing specs.... same as mummy. why cant he has perfect eyesight like papa? went to USS halloween night for the 1st time with friends and it has been a long while since i took any rides! im more scared of the rides than those actors/resses wandering around! but the whole set up was really good and it did get more than a few screams from me! 
went for annual health check-up and received a good report card with the exception of higher body fats %. i really need to get back into some form of routine exercising soon!

nov: paris bombing, change of plans and in the end, we were off to central japan for a good 10D9N!
it was lovely to revisit kyoto, takayama with the boys and hubbi. we enjoyed the whole trip a lot even though the boys were making me lose my temper like n times everyday! LOL. 

dec: it's confirmed at work that i will be getting a new and bigger portfolio in the new year. i've accepted it apprehensively (again!) but at the same time, im looking forward to the challenges (which i view as opportunities for now..) too! come what may! if we take the step to make a deliberate and conscious choice, we can only grow and be better after each experience. *positivity galore*
and of cos, im turing 1 year older to ..... 34!! gosh. to cheer myself up, we will be heading for a staycation (yes, 4th one this year!) @ oasia hotel tomorrow! only YR will be joining since YZ is down with cough so he's checking into hotel gramps again. and since it's birthday PLUS year-end sales month, i have been buying lots of stuff after japan trip. :P all this while, my shareholdings continue to shrink given the really bad market outlook. *sniff* i need to start giving some tender loving care back to my bank accounts i guess. 

all in all, a great and lovely year for me! im extremely grateful and feel super blessed to have my loved ones with me, staying happy and healthy together. i look forward to an equally great, if not better, 2016 with my family + friends!

birthday dinner celebration with the peeps

met up with the peeps again tonight for jx+my birthday dinner! venue was at long chim and we had such a hard time trying to locate it - its at #2 MBS atrium but it's served by limited obscure lifts!

in the end, i realised it located at where guy savoy was previously.

the food aint too bad but again for that kind of pricing, not a place whereby i want to bring the husband to try...

still, crazy fun time with the gang! lots of laughter over lame jokes as usual. we will be meeting soon for zm & grace bday in jan soon! sweet!

 i heart them.

YE SHopping Part 5 - GG5+ zara!

and so we went town for a spot of shopping (for the household) yesterday but of cos, i managed to squeeze time to do my own shopping when the husband was bringing YR to window shop at other levels. :P
we were at 313 and yesterday was the 1st day of zara sale!! i wanted to check out only gg5 so imagine my surprise when i saw the sale going on @ zara! *wee*
in the end, the damage for me was a dress from gg5, a skirt + a top from zara. yeah!

we headed to heeren robinson and bought some long overdue stuff like:
- 2x pillows + bolsters for the boys
- 1x bedsheets for us
- hand towelssss

the ones that we are using at home have been with us for yearssssss... it's really time to change them. and wow, certainly not cheap. good thing is robinson having YE promotion - $20 voucher to use for next purchase for every $150 spent! so we broke up the bills and managed to get $60 off? it's good buy lah though the husband wasnt too convinced.

and TODAY, i did a spot of shopping during lunch time and bought 1 dropwaist dress from gg5 + skirt & top from zara. ok, i think im finally done with my YE shopping now.
you think so? there's only 3 more days to go, what can possibly happen right?! we shall see...

Sentosa Fun Pass!!

we woke up not too early yesterday but nonetheless decided to head for sentosa to have some fun for the day. after some quick checking online, sentosa fun pass for 5 was selected and purchased! :D

we drove out to the first fun stop for the day - RWS aquarium! it was few years back when we first visited it when it opened to public. nothing much has changed just that there is no queue now and the crowd is much more manageable! :P

the aquarium is still as lackluster as my memory. the only more interesting bit of our time there was we get to touch starfish and sea cucumber (this is the eeky one!)!

then it was quick lunch at insadong korea town since i've cravings for korea food.. :P

next (2nd) stop: trick eye museum as per the elder boy's request. huge mistake. at the end of the day, all of us ranked this place last of all the fun activities/places for the day. the place is so SMALL that the art pieces are within arm's length of each other. there's simply no space to point and shoot as when you are shooting for your friend/family, you are practically standing in the space of another art piece! so rubbish!
definitely not worth a revisit!

obviously we still managed to take some crazy photos after much jostling and waiting time...

then it's time to board the monorail and head to imbiah lookout for our 4D rides! the boys were looking forward to it so much that we decided to use up 2 activities for 2 4D shows.

and luckily, they were actually very exciting and lived up to our expectations!

we watched journey 2 mysterious island in a theater setting (alike shrek @ USS) and the effects were good! next was extreme log ride where you sit in 3 by 3 motion-simulated unit - this is much better than the 1st 4D ride! 

left: luge ride right: 4D ride

we used up our last fun pass for skyride and luge ride! YR saw with papa and YZ got to luge-ride by himself! he was pretty good though he did bumped into the side of the trail once..

the boys wanted to have another try after it but given the long snaking queue, we can only tell them a firm no! haha, queuing is so torturous..

we took the monorail back to waterfront station and settled for dinner at malaysian food street (of cos, initiated by the husband since i decided lunch venue....).

it was a long and tiring day for us yesterday but it was great for the boys to enjoy what's left of their school holidays this way. :)

Fun x'mas @.........changi airport!

guess where the ng family spent our afternoon + evening on xmas day? Changi airport!

im getting lazy with planning and this is what happen when you leave planning to the husband. his fav places/activities are not only not at the top of my to-do list but at the bottom of it! but once in a blue moon, it aint so bad when we go with his flow though.. HA.

we took the boys to try the slides and im very proud that they actually dare to try both slides and enjoyed both tremendously! i dont think i dare to take the higher slide.. *gulp*

happy boys!

we spent time walking around T3 and we signed up changi rewards card so we can buy things w/o GST. cheap thrill indeed. LOL.

im actually very proud of our airport! great design, so clean and so efficient!

dinner was at thai express which i havent try in eons and surprisingly tasted alright.. some stuff you can only try once in a long while to appreciate it. :P

we walked to T2 since the sky train was down. the connection through the MRT - a path less trodden on was interesting. both boys told me that they have walked this connecting path before during their separate school field trips!

before heading to T2, we spent like more than 30mins in a .... bookshop! YZ + my fav place! hubbi decided to play santa and we can all choose a book! the elder boy chose a book from the wimpy kids series, YR a watercolor painting activity book and me a book from John Maxwell. :D

hubbi finally saw his beloved star wars display at T2!

we had early supper at krispy kreme and YZ and i started reading while snacking on donuts! reading while eating (i know its a terrible habit) is so satisfying!

@ krispy kreme!

we need to zzz early today for tomorrow is another fresh day for us to head out and have fun. for now, the tentative plan is head to sentosa for the day! i wonder if it will be the main island or RWS...

quiet xmas eve 2015

this used to be my fav day of the year back when im younger with more energy. it will normally end in town with some sort of countdown involved and of cos drinkssss.

nowadays, i look forward to spending quiet time with the husband and boys on these "eves".

went to a half empty office to work in the morning. though many were not in office, i still have much to do. WHY!? still, scooted off for lunch with suz + kc, my fav. colls. im really starting to miss ping. :( we had lunch at erwin -  not the best choice but an easy one. it was great company for my birthday lunch in advance. :)

hubbi came to fetch me and we headed home after fetching the boy. it was so nice lazing at home in the afternoon. hubbi made reservations at new ubin seafood since he wanted to try the food there for the longest time. im not too keen but given the man hardly has any cravings for food anywhere, i went along. and it was surprisingly a great choice!

the angus beef was really good and im not really a beef person to start with. and the fried rice that's cooked with the beef oil was really really yummy. somehow tasted like those lap cheong fried rice! my mains was my fav . chilli crab of cos - i think i ate 70% of 1 crab myself together with many other food. oops. i really need to start jogging more regularly (1-2x every other week doesnt count) again. the muffin top is back and bigger than ever!

good meal!

we let the boys stayed up but by 10+ they are showing signs of fatigue so off they go to their bedroom and they were snoozing in minutes! i think im hitting the sack too! when you wake up before 7AM, staying awake past 11PM becomes an uphill task..

yeah to healthy living bah!

YE Shopping part 4 - GG5!

my determination and perseverance shock me at times. :D

knowing that gg5 sale has started + the husband meeting his friends for dinner tonight + im driving the car today = a quickie shopping trip at parkway parade after work before fetching the boys! LOL.

tell me, am i a genius or not.

life is so much more fun when you do stuff according to decisions make up in 3s. HIAKS.

and so i drove to PP, parked, headed straight to GG5, paid, and im out of PP on my way to ubi for the boys all under 1 hour! *wee*

i got myself a lovely peplum sleeveless top + dress going at ridiculously special price. life is good.

now time to plan for the next 2 days' activities. waiting for the husband to be home.....

and im sure the shopping is not stopping yet. who can forget zARa!

dine + wine with peeps!

met up with gb and jt yesterday night! they were very sweet to treat me a really hearty dinner + desserts for my birthday! :D

we met at luxe sydney at keong saik street. the food aint too bad though i dont think i will want to go there the next time. :P

desserts was at mad about sucre and im impressed here! great desserts, impeccable service from the waiters/ess, lovely ambience and i heart the tea pairing bit. :D

all in all, a lovely night with the peeps. we need to do this more often. and i really hope this trio can go some foreign land together in the new year. yes, the trio consists of me!

lovely decor @ mad about sucre

we look as lovely as n years ago *in mad denial*

getting ready for the new work with added responsibilities!

be very careful what you wish for! haha.
and so there was some mini restructuring within my function and i will be taking on a new role and heading a new team (or 67% new) in the coming new year!
before this, i absolutely relished the thought of new work scope and cant wait to get on board with it. and i was very glad that this wish and intention was heard and supported by the leadership team. BUT, now i got more than what i wished for! my portfolio minimally doubled. instead of having 1 revenue line under me, now i have 2 revenue lines + 1 corporate overheads. 

*wee* time to exercise the positivity muscle! im sure i am stretching it now..
well well, every situation is an opportunity in itself. and i get the exposure to not 1 but 2 new areas at 1 go. it's definitely a rare chance by any stretch.
so the best thing i can do now is to milk it i guess. make the experience counts!

in times like this, planning will be paramount. i need to start blocking time to plan in a way that the transition and first quarter BAU will be as smooth and sustainable as it can be. but i have to admit it's rather going to be hectic these 2 months amidst the transition and rope-learning.

at this rate im going, i think it's really high time i seek out a mentor! given my ex-mentor has now relocated to houston and it's impractical to reach out to her on an on-going basis. *sobs*

ok! focus on the positive! dec is a quiet month and i will make good use of the remaining 1.5 weeks to plan for the transition! i can do it!

movies - peanuts, star wars + christmas market

and so i was on PM leave on both wed and fri last week. 
i kept wed afternoon to myself and fri for the boys so we have a good me-kids balance! :D

wed i went for some shopping in town but there's really nothing much that caught my fancy. in fact, i almost left town empty handed until i saw a nice ring from threadbare and squirrel at wheelock place. :P it's good when your shopping comes in mini sizes that the husband has a hard time noticing.. ha!

after that, i went to fetch the kids and hubbi and we headed to the christmas market @ garden by the bay!
given its a wed evening and we reached around 6+, the crowd was OK and we had fun playing carnival games (basically, just money down the drain. :"(...), took some rides and exploring the pretty set-up there. 
great evening - a departure from our usual routine.

 the swinging chairs were good fun for the boys!

pretty decor

fri, i bought the boys out for a spot of movie time at bugis+! we watched peanuts and it's just......underwhelming....
it's not bad but its not fantastic too. it just left a strange taste in my mouth and got me thinking "ok, it's not so bad that i feel like i've wasted money but why do i feel i could have spend my time elsewhere??".
so...

peanuts!

and yesterday, we watched star wars - the force awakens!! never a star wars fan myself (LOTR LOTR LOTR!!), i watched it more out of obligation to accompany the husband and of cos to see for myself if the show lives up to its hype.
and of cos it...doesn't. i didnt want to do any spoilers here but casting got to be better than this. i mean kylo-ren?! seriously.
and the plot is at best unoriginal, at worst recycled. you go watch and be the judge.

Busy fun(?) filled saturday for the ng family!

finally the elder boy's berries' classes have ended for the year! no more enrichment class for him every saturday for the rest of the year (or whatever left of it...)! *wee*

so yesterday, we decided to head out in the morning and off to river safari we did! it was pretty much decided on a whim. we asked the boys where do they want to go and they were giving all the @_@ answers like legoland, korea, USS.... finally, the elder boy said he leave it to didi to decide and YR mentioned river safari. both hubbi and me thought it was doable given the last time we were there, it was the soft opening and the amazon river cruise was not yet opened. so quick purchase of tics online and off we go! it was a swift 30mins ride from our house. :P

everyone is heading to the zoo!! river safari is rather quiet which was good for us i guess!

again, only managed to see kai kai... jia jia when are you getting out of your enclosed space!?

river safari is good in the sense it's small and very manageable and all the pathways are sheltered!!! god-send in this crazy hot weather at times. but given it's very "manageable" size, we were done in like less than 3 hours. @_@

relaxing trip

we took the amazon river ride and it was sooooo.... SHORT. LOL. hubbi was shocked by the whole duration of it and half the time, we had problem spotting the animals to our left and right. 

the good thing is the mini downslope bits of the ride where the boys were thrilled that few secondssss...

 In the end, we were outside river safari at around 2pm and wondering where can we go next....
after some googling, spontaneous (thats my real nature and the husband getting good at it after years of conditioning... ) us decided to head to the newly opened national museum of singapore!

we explored the temporary exhibit from the british museum as well as the Singapore history gallery.

compact but very rich collections of treasures round the world indeed

highlight of the tour was viewing the mummy. the younger boy was asking repeatedly was the person within the mummy dead? and the elder boy didnt help much by adding that the mummified person's organs were put in jars next to the mummy. @_@

and so YR feared for mummy nightmare last night.....

we didnt explore the singapore history gallery thoroughly as the boys were getting tired and getting distracted by then.

so we left the place for early dinner - PS cafe petit at tiong bahru!

early dinner!

after a hearty dinner (truffles fries inclusive!!), we walked down yong siak street and i managed to get a lovely book from woods in the books. :)

by the time we reached home, the boys were all ready to hit the sack after bathing! lovely day!

Day 9: Nara

last day in osaka and the itinerary for the day is a day trip to nara! just slighly under an hour away by train or was it 1.5hr? i cant really remember. :P

we took the kintetsu line which station is right next to our airbnb so it was fairly straightforward. nara was definitely colder than osaka. the original plan was to walk to the todaiji, unesco site which houses the biggest Buddha statue in japan. but the cold and drizzling made me changed my mind in an instant to take the local bus. *brr*

approaching todaihi!

impressive structure

huge statue - YR thrown in for perspective purpose. :P

i like this temple because unlike the other temples that i visited back in kyoto, the presence of buddha statue made me feel very at home as i grew up accompanying my mum to buddhist temples for her praying. 

the drizzling, light as it was, was not helping with the cold weather

after leaving todaiji, i decided to try my luck feeding the wild deers that are so famous in nara. BIG MISTAKE. when i was buying the deer food from one of the many vendors outside the temple, unbeknownst to me, 6-7 deers have already started surrounding us! before i can pay, i was head-butted by one, prompting me to shout out in shock. and then the money was taken from me, deer food thrust to my hand by the vendor, hubbi running away with the younger boy and leaving me+YZ facing the deers which were approaching me for food. YIKES! HELP!

the next few moments happened in a flash, i was throwing the food on the floor frantically, trying to get out of the circle of deers..but to no avail. only after i have almost thrown all the biscuits away, then did the deers leave us alone... gosh.

with the last biscuit, i managed to feed a innocent bambi-looking young deer in peace...zzzz

top left: feeding the young deer. just moments before it was all mayhem and shouting

we walked back to the downtown nara (next to the train station) and had our late lunch there.

pretty manhole in nara

spent some time at a cafe and window-shopping at downtown area before making our way back to osaka. the rest of the day+evening was spent at shinsaibashi area before retreating back to airbnb to pack our luggages for our late morning flight back to SG tomorrow.

it has been a fun-filled though very tiring 9D9N trip for the ng family. and i cant wait to plan for our 2016 travel! but, that has to wait a bit now given that the husband has just started his new job...

im hoping he can confirm his leave plans for mar and jun holidays soon! :P then i can spring into action and do what im best at! booking tickets and planning itineraries! yeah!

oh, and what exactly did i buy in japan:

- SKII moisturiser and masks which i think the pricing is on-par with what DFS is selling. @_@

- onitsuka tiger sneakers - i got a pair that is made in japan and hopefully it's cheaper than those sold in SG. :P

- a hat + lightweight coat from local shops

- uniqlo basics

- a pair of chanel earrings that cost $10 more than what is sold in SG after TAX-FREE. this is so frustrating.

yes, thats all i bought for the trip...

YE shopping Part 3, mockingjay2 plus spending time with the boys

i was on PM leave on fri and since i have spent time with the boys for my PM leave on WED, i decided i can do with some me-time this time round. :P

and so at 1+pm, i drove to vivo for SS show+shopping!

i caught mockingjay part 2 and it was just....alright. not a let-down like mockingjay part 1 but not even close to the hunger games which is the best out of the series.

lawrence is still acting too hard at the start of the show. but i like the ending. i like the ending where even a character like katniss can mellowed down with time and love. 

anyway, it's the time of the year again when oscar-nominated films are being released soon. saw some movie posters that i think i will be very keen to watch when they hit our shores.

the revenant starring leo - this may just be the film that will help him nab the little golden man!

joy starring the silver linings playbook main casts. i think director david o.russell really love the same few people. hopefully, lawrence will find her magic for this show. i really wasnt impress with her recent films like serena and mockingjay series. she needs to get her american hustle mojo back.

and of cos i shopped. :D

ok, just a pencil skirt from bimba and lola. flattering cut and going at 50% off - how to resist, you tell me. 

today brought the younger boy with me to attend Don's daughter 1YO bday celebration at kidsamaze. it was great catching up with rachel and him! i think we didnt see one another for more than few years... 

anyway it was so tiring trying to catch up with YR in the playground that i gave up after awhile..back-breaking trying to squeeze into tunnels and navigate impossible tiny spaces! but was glad to see the boy having fun.

having fun @ toa payoh safra

the husband and YZ picked us up in late afternoon and on a whim, we decided to head for the snoopy, charlie brown and peanuts gang exhibition at philatelic museum! glad to find that its free for singaporeans and though the exhibition is small, it was worth a short visit.

@ philatelic museum

we settled at funan for some grocery shopping and dinner before heading home. it was a long day for the boys and they were snoozing before 930PM. :D quiet time for me yesternight to catch up with K-dramas and some reading. awesome!

Day 8: Osaka - USJ!

the most anticipated leg of the trip by the boys! ever resourceful me managed to purchase the entrance tics + express passes for the family before the trip on USJ jap website! yes, the english website doesn't offer the purchase service. so with some guidance found online posted by helpful fellow travellers and translation features by Chrome, we got the online tickets.

read that the park is open at 9.30AM daily and people started queuing up an hour before that! so being ever kiasu singaporeans, we arrived at 9AM and this sight welcomed us:

@_@ 

the park is open 30mins earlier for those staying in USJ affiliated hotels but luckily that queue is not horrendous. we were considered rather ahead in the lines and actually once the crowds dispersed inside the big park, it is not that bad. though of cos the crowds congregated at certain attractions and that's when express passes come in handy.

to be honest, we only need to use 3 out of the 5 express passes since we took the popular rides earlier in the day. but the 5 rides express pass is worth it simply of the fact it allowed us entry and fastpass queue for harry potter castle/ride saving us up to close to 120mins of time!

first stop - spiderman 4D ride!

we rushed for the spiderman 4D ride for once we were in. :D

so little crowd that for our ride capsule, it was only us occupying it even though it has 3 rows of 4 seats. we took the front row and it's every bit as good as transformers 4D ride in USS albeit a little shorter and spidy shouting in jap ha. 

only the younger boy didnt enjoy it so much so that he cried at the end of the ride! LOL. too scary for the poor little fellow. for the rest of the day, his question for every ride is "is it as scary as spiderman?". HAHA.

lovely backdrop. i want to attempt mary-ann and spidy kiss but there's a queue behind us waiting impatiently, so no.

this is the only photo we bought from USJ cos apart from us looking good in it (the official one not this one taken with hubbi's camera though we look not too bad here too), the frame was pretty with pop-up effects! it was like 1500 yen? 

minion parade!

en-route to back to the future ride, we managed to catch the minion parade! minions never fail to make anyone smile! :D

buying stuff from minion shop! someone got himself a minion cap while the elder one deemed minion too kiddish for him and didnt want to get anything #growinguptoofast

we had minion waffles here too! banana chocolate flavoured! what else?

clockwise from top left: back to the future car, jurrasic park, jaws area, backdraft attraction, fooling around at jaws shop

for the rest of the morning after minion parade, we took the back to the future ride which is the elder son's personal fav after spiderman ride. it's akin to omnimax theatre, just more exciting! we were at jurassic park area but deemed the ride too scary for the little ones and didnt want to risk getting wet so nah for that ride. we went for the backdraft attraction which wasnt too bad. quite impressive to see how different fires can be created and the heat felt was no joke. the boys kept asking if the fire was real, ha. 

on board jaws!

we settled lunch at amity village (jaws area). and after that, we went for the jaw boat ride! it was mostly harmless though the boys were taken aback when the (very) fake shark surfaced.. ha.

next up, we headed to the wonderland zone! it's paradise for the kiddos! all the rides are kids-friendly and i think we managed to do 80% of the rides here! the boys had a blast here though towards the end, it was a lil' boring for the husband and me.. heh.

@ wonderland!

the snoopy great race (roller coaster) and elmo go go skateboard are pretty impressive! 

and by 3+pm, it's time for us to enter harry potter land! it was unfortunate that it started drizzling then but with the overcast sky and greyish clouds, it did lent a suitable vibe to the place. 

lovely!

YR didnt make the height for the HP ride and hubbi and i did the child switch thingy. the HP ride was the most awesome ride in my opinion! it's the only ride out of all the rides i took in USJ that i was really scared! not to mention feeling some motion sickness after it. i was half-worried about the elder boy next to me being scared out of his wits and i was trying to hold on to his lap while trying to stifle my ahhs.. and whoas! LOL.

in the end, he had his eyes closed half the time and he ended the ride half-shaken as compared to me...

after HP land, it was dinner time so we dined in one of the eateries at main street and for the rest of the evening until closing time, it was shopping time for us!

it was a good thing that there's shelter almost all over the main street for us to catch the fireworks without being affected by the rain.

top: shot with pink panther!

we cant resist the cute spidyman cup noodles with spiderman face-shaped veg bits! that's our supper with the boys back at our airbnb after we made our way back at night.

pipping hot cup noodles is the best to have on cold rainy nights! *yum*

it's the first time the boys tried cup noodles. :P not very healthy but an enjoyable experience for them im sure!

last day in osaka tomorrow before flying back to SG the day after!

travel insurance is important!

when we decided to cancel our trip to paris+london, we were prepared to forfeit all the sunken costs made for accom+rail+other misc stuff. basis on the full refund from SQ and the extremely short turnaround time to make a call for the replacement trip, hubbi and i were on the same page that we are prepared to give up the deposits/payments made earlier in lieu of a peace of mind and ensuring of safety.

we did called up some of the service providers if cancellations/refunds are possible given the circumstances but as the terms and conditions set out in the fine print for most of them, that's almost not possible. a friend of ours mentioned travel insurance and we were like yes, we did buy and why not give it a try but we weren't too confident. we just checked if the terms and conditions exclude terrorism which it didn't and we called up the insurance customer service to clarify. the advice we had was to fill up a claim form and send that in together with supporting documents with responses from vendors/service providers saying it's not possible to cancel/refund.

we didnt have time to do that so what we did was send out emails to get confirmations from vendors before our trip and let them reply in due time. so when we were back in SG 2 weeks back. we compiled the necessary and sent over to the insurance by snail mail (yes, we confirmed twice.. LOL). finally, we had a call from the agent today that we will be eligible for the claims and the refund will be made in few weeks time! what a great piece of news!

so we will be able to get back the monies paid for paris+london accom, eurostar, TGV train tickets and museum tickets! all these amount to close to 3k for us. it's really a blessings.
i always buy travel insurance more for flight delays and loss of baggage (which we unfortunately experienced at CDG airport 12 years ago and very fortunately able to claim under travel insurance as we buy all the necessities before the luggage was returned to our hotel 2 days later). but it definitely seems like travel insurance is equally important for trip cancellations like this. 

let's all be safe and make sure we buy travel insurance for our travels. it's not worth it to not purchase it just to save that tens to hundreds.

YE Shopping part 2 - indulgence

the husband allowed me to go shopping on sunday with the younger boy while he brought the elder boy to in-laws house for lunch. BAD idea. why, actually bad for him but i was looking forward to it. hehe. it's my birthday month and i wanted to shop for a bag originally for my europe trip but since it fell flat and japan obviously has nothing much to offer, i turn to home. :D

so it was a lovely afternoon spent with the younger boy shopping to my heart content (i know wont be long before the little nut join his brother and papa and start boycotting my shopping excursions... but i shall enjoy while it last!). sale is everywhere! and it's so hard to resist..
i got a berry nice nano luggage from celine (no sale..how i wish). i was struggling choosing between a nano and micro that i called 2 friends for advice... and none pick up! who says everyone is glued to technology 24/7! not always the case or maybe just a case of selectively answering... :'(
ANYWAY, when they called me back, the decision was already made. a nano! i prefer a bag with straps and i seldom have much stuff in my bag so a micro size is really too big for me but given the price difference, it's definitely more value for money... the happy problem for for some of us - bag sizes. how irritating, i know.

and i chanced upon the mcqueen leather bracelet that i wanted to get back then BUT having 40% sales at onpedder now! *wee* so i have to get it right and i did.
and..really cant resist getting another pair of ferrgamo - a (close to azure) blue pair of wedges going at 50% off. a steal, no?

so as the story goes, the husband aint very happy when he picked us up.. :P
but as the story continues, this is only the starting.. :O

Day 7: Osaka - airbnb + dotonbori

we were ready to move out of our kyoto accom and made our way to osaka! but first, a hearty breakfast before that. the elder boy requested for breakfast at kyoto's travellers inn...dont ask me why. still, it aint too bad..

he finished the whole set by himself.. now i shared food with the younger boy instead of the boys sharing between themselves...

though osaka is quite near kyoto, its still some distance. we took the local bus from our hotel to JR kyoto station. from there, we took the kintetsu line to osaka in slightly less than 1.5 hrs time. while shinkansen will whisk us there in much lesser time - think 30-40mins, kintetsu is much cheaper and it stops at local subway (at our accom) as compared to shinkansen stopping at Shin Osaka stop only and you have to transit a local metro again to the city.

we hopped off at nipponbashi stop (1 stop away from the central namba station) where our airbnb is just 3m walk away! :)

this is our first time staying at airbnb and i was rather apprehensive before the trip. how to check-in and how do contact the host when there's problems etc. but the worries were undue. our host is a very nice and responsive lady who sent us clear instructions on how to retrieve the key ourselves from the letterbox. so we walked into this local apartment, entered the building passcode which let us into the main lobby. there, we went to the letterbox where you open it like how you open a safe (eg: think left2, left8, right3) and there is the keys! 

the apartment is exactly like how the pictures show on the website! and the place was spotless like how you would expect a jap home to be. :D

this is the bedroom area - its a studio apartment essentially, compact and cosy

outside the bedroom, there's a narrow corridor - to the right its a compact dry kitchen area and toilet (yes, with heated toilet seat and all), to the left is the bathroom completed with vanity top and space for a washing machine too! at the foyer, there's shoe cabinet and umbrellas that come in handy for our day trip to nara the day after next! truly a home away from home!

our airbnb has no tv but came with portable wifi so for this last leg of the trip, the husband and i were more connected to the world while on the go. very handy when navigating around for this trip, we didnt bring any travel guidebooks and minimum planning.. :P

after settling the stuff abit, we ventured out for lunch. our place is a short 10m walk to the famous dotonbori street. along the way, we were spoilt with eating choices. we settled on this local eatery place as the husband wanted to try vending machine for meal ordering and the menu here offers the boys' fav - curry rice and udon.. @_@

lunch!

then, it's time to explore dotonbori! its really every bit as lively and colorful as what i read from reviews.

dotonbori!

and of cos the iconic glico man!

we spent the rest of the day shopping and walking around shinsaibashi the main shopping area in osaka. though i relished city shopping again but shopping in japan can be frustrating...most recognizable brands are more expensive over there than in SG so it really takes a lot of the joy. :( 

oh well, help me to save money i guess..

tomorrow we are heading to USJ! *wee*