Where to stay at Shrewsbury, UK?

Written on the 29.01.2009





The Mercure Shrewsbury Albrighton Hall Hotel was apparently the best hotel Shrewbury can offer.

It's a huge lovely looking cottage-like hotel with a lake right in front of it. The outside of the hotel were decorated (can't think of a better word!) with trees and plants. It was very pretty.

The interior however, was something like what you'd see in Harry Potter movies. There were paintings of ancient looking people all along the hallway from the lobby back to our room. It almost felt like they were staring back at us. Kinda creepy. Well, this place is probably older than my gramps.

Beggars can't be choosers. If the place only offers this hotel as its best, we didn't really have a choice.

The room was tiny and cold, which was quite disappointing after a night's stay at the Marriot just the night before.

The Spa treatments though, deserves a thumb up from me.

This was the first time I experienced a body massage and facial in this country. Growing up, I usually have my massages done once a week and facial done once a month. And none after moving to this country, this was definitely a luxury for me now.

The massages they offered here is different in terms of strength, if you don't like mild massages you won't like it. It's totally not your typical Thai lady. But to be fair, it did relieve the stiff neck and shoulders I had.

The facial wasn't spectacular either. More like the beautician applying face cream after face cream, massage then slap on a mask. But it felt really relaxing from beginning till the end of the treatment.

Interested to stay here? Check out: http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-6629-mercure-shrewsbury-albrighton-hall-hotel-and-spa/index.shtml

I went to Colombo, Sri Lanka when I was 23..

Written on the 23.06.2008

I was made fun of when I told everyone I was flying back to Malaysia from UK with Sri Lanka Airlines. I can honestly say the trip back was awesome. Sure, I did take a day longer than others to reach Malaysia but my 23 hours transit in Colombo for a day was really really worth it. Why would I visit Colombo otherwise right?


Peter and I get to try the local food.


And maybe some international food...


Peter is my baby brother from Miri.


Excited to go home!




The resort that the airline put us up for the transit was beautiful. Sucks I can't remember the name of the resort now.


More food!




The bed was comfy though there were mosquitoes at night.


The beach by the resort.


Pool area.


We took a walk at the beach before sunset. We joked about how we ended up there with the wrong partner wtf. But I love my baby bro. So, holidays with him will always be pretty awesome.



The Sri Lanka Airlines' cabin crew were very polite and helpful. And the seats in their economy class is quite spacious...well, at least it's more spacious than KLM.

To be fair, maybe I did not have any expectations for them because when I went to the UK for the first time, I flew with KLM and it was awful. I hated it so much. Everyone had to share one TV throughout the 7 + 7 hours flight.

This was definitely way better. Even their airplane food was great.

Well done Sri Lanka Airlines =)

Let Me Take You On A Journey To The Sea - Norwegian Jade Cruise

Hey hey!

My 7th Happy Week working at Nuffnang! :) One amongst many other things I shared in common with my fellow Nuffies is the fact that we all went on a cruise last year. Although my experience was fairly different from them, I would also like to share snippets of my trip after reading about their awesome trip through their blog posts.

If you know me, you'll know how much I love the sea. I don't like what's under the sea, just the cliche SUN, SAND and the SEA.

Being on a cruise when I was a kid is different from being on a cruise as an adult. I know I certainly enjoyed my time as an adult cruiser more than I did when I was a kid. Heh..happy times!

I got loads of pictures to share but I really don't wanna overkill it in one post. So I'm splitting them into a few parts to post when I can find the time to do so again.

This post is more about what went on on the ship during the day.

I know that it is important during a holiday to bring sunscreen, make up and nice clothes.

Unfortunately for this trip, if you're read my previous post about how I only have 45mins to pack for 7 days, you'll know I even forget to bring my facial wash. But lucky for me we can get them on the ship!

Minimal make up and fats. Please don't judge me!
 
During this trip, I know for a fact that my beautiful fair skin will be gone for good.


I don't know what game this is, but the oldies seemed to be enjoying it a lot while the children watched.

Giant Chest.


It's so huge it's not funny. It probably reached my underboobs.


Golf for everyone. Shame that they don't have Miniature Golf on the ship or I'll probably get worst tan than I already did.


Just wondering around with my juice.... hey, I'm on a holiday!


I love the colours on this particular picture of people playing basketball. So cool.


Looking at these pictures, really brought back tons of great memories.


I love staring down and see if I can spot a dolphin or two. And no, I didn't spot any.


If the world were flat.


I love holidays. They make me happy. Especially if I'm in a place where nobody cares aboutwhat's going on other than just wanting to have some fun.




Jason Mraz's I'm Yours must have been on my playlist when I'm looking at this view, mesmerised by it.




Fat white people sun tanning. Some of them were so burnt, they reminded me Ben Stiller's wife in the movie, Heartbreak Kid.


I was chilling on the top deck myself. Look at the kids queuing to go onto the slide. And no, I didn't go onto the slide okayy..(even though I'm probably their height) - too much work to just get up there!




Many parents allow their daugthers to wonder around just with their swimming bottoms. I seriously think that, it's like an open invitation to the paedophiles considering some of them already developed boobs. *shakes head*



A better view perhaps?

Cruise crew preparing for BBQ in the evening.


Alrighty then, that's all for now. I'm off to bed! xoxo

Alexandra, New Zealand

Hello Carol!

It's been 6 years since I last saw you. It was great catching up at Alexandra when I was in New Zealand even though it was for only an hour. Congratulations on your engagement and it was lovely finally meeting Mark.

I'm looking forward to attend your wedding this coming March 2013. Now some financial planning is needed! :)

xoxo,
Mimi Pie

****

Alexandra was nice and quiet. It's a very small town but there's quite a lot of sports and recreational places there.

Initially we weren't going to pass through Alexandra but the night before Tim asked me if I wanted to see my friend if we head back to Christchurch using that route. I said yes if she's free because it was pretty last minute.

So that morning we decided to take that route and I Facebook messaged her to tell her I'll be reaching Alexandra in an hour. I gave her my mobile number and asked her to text me as we do not have each other contact numbers.

I didn't hear from her till we reached Alexandra and stopped by for lunch at this place called the Kiwi Milk Bar and Cafe. I ordered my food and 5 mins later I got a text from her to say she's working 5 minutes away. So, I told her to hurry and come over. I so need to see her.

From the restaurant I can see her crossing the street so I rushed out, ran towards her and we hugged. That's so movie worthy I tell you.

Carol got slightly emotional and I was in disbelieve. We haven't seen each other for so long. So so long. So much has changed. I've changed.

It was great.

She called her fiancee at work to come meet us. She said I was the only other person apart from her mother who've visited her since she moved to NZ to be with Mark.

It was awesome. I was very happy to have met her then.

If my finances allows it, I'll be heading to NZ once again in less than 6 months.

Oh....Happy days!

Little Paradise Guesthouse - Queenstown, New Zealand.

I've chosen to write about my time in Queenstown first because of our stay in the Little Paradise Guesthouse.  Basically, we stayed 20 mins drive outside the city center of Queenstown where there's no mobile reception at all and the owner does not have internet at home. We joked about how it's a cabin in the woods and how we'll get cooked by the owners because we can't call for help if we needed it.

Scary? Not at all.

This place is the highlight of our trip. The view is magnificent. Imagine living in a house where it was built meticulously from scratch. Every corner of this place were put together by Thomas, the owner. I remember how surprised I was learning that interesting piece of information because it certainly required a lot of time and dedication to build this beautiful place. 

They said that a picture can paint a thousand words but I beg to differ because I think all the pictures I've taken of the place did not do any justice at all. Still, I can't help but to take as many picture as possible so I can remember the entire trip.

Let me walk you through some of the pictures I've taken with my mobile.

When we first arrived, we were greeted by this creep spiderweb and in my head I was thinking - Oh god, we're fucked aren't we?!

The first look into the Guesthouse. Very strange but unique. I wasn't sure what to feel about it initially.

Oh yea, I don't think I've mentioned that we lived right in front of the beautiful Lake Wakatipu.

People actually travel out to this remote Guesthouse to see the place. That's how awesome it was. Need to pay NZD3 some more.

Here's the very small part of the entire garden. You'll need to spend at least 30-45 mins to thoroughly look at everything on the garden. I took pictures of everything but I don't want to give it away as it was so magical. You really need to see this place yourself to understand why I hold this place so close to my heart. Definitely a honeymoon worthy place.

This is me looking slightly cray in my polka dots tights.
Note to self: Never wear that again. It made you look stumpy.

Yup. I can always count on Karen to join me. We wanted to replace the statues so that we don't have to come back to reality.

Looking in from outside the house. You can see the ice caps through the reflections on the window. That's what we woke up to everyday then.

In to the house, we have the fireplace in our room. I was really excited because even when I was living in the UK I never had a chance to come this close to a real fireplace. It's always the electronic ones. I was very pleased!

Karen and I shared this bed. We get to see the lake lying there and star gaze before we sleep. Tim would join us but the bed is too small for three. Haha.

This is the other part of the room. We choose the room called The Singing Frog because it's the nicest and biggest. Really got frog singing at night wtf.

Everything in this room is real. The plants that's growing out of the chairs, the old school TV and the VCR player. We watched the movie, Animals on that and forgotten that you need to rewind a VCR to start from the beginning. It was hilarious. We agreed that it definitely is the last time in our lives watching a movie in VCR.

Karen and I. My face bloated as soon as I landed on NZ. WTF.

Here's more pictures of the interior. I've never taken so many pictures of a toilet before. Every pebble and carving on that wall was assembled by Thomas.

I do think that the toilet it's slightly creepy with the lalang by the window but it was very well kept and clean. There's no down time at this place other than the fact that all the guest have to share one shower room and one toilet.

The obligatory full body picture whenever there's a full length mirror. It's right behind the door.

Okay, brace yourselves for a blast of panoramic pictures of the house. I just had to. It's too hard and too much work to explain everything.

Here's the living room where guest can sit and chat. The wood thing on the wall is 100 years old.

I took a picture of the kitchen in different views. That's Thomas' wife, Christie.

That's the dining area. We were allowed to make our own food during our stay there. Shuts at 10pm though!

Our room in a panoramic view. It's beautiful. Tim slept at the single bed while Karen and I shared the Queen sized bed.

I wasn't going to post pictures of individual cool stuff in the garden but you can check out the entire view of the garden here.

Thomas is a hunter and we once saw him heading to the woods with his rifle. And below is a product of his in-the-woods activity.

Some are goat skins and some are racoon skins. I think...

Happy faces.

I hate how the camera can't capture the ice caps behind us.

It took us a while before we noticed this eagle behind our bed. I think it's real.

It took us more than an hour to get over how beautiful this Guesthouse was before we actually started unpacking.

I saw this place as part of Queenstown rather than just a place I stayed to see Queenstown. I would definitely go back. The owners wants to sell the place and I secretly hope that it's not successful. It's a special place and nothing should change.

***

Visiting Queenstown, New Zealand?

Check out Little Paradise Guesthouse. Details here: http://www.littleparadise.co.nz/