Hello London! - The Arrival

*Lengthy entry*

After another 7 hours flight from Dubai, we finally reached London Gatwick Airport! It was so surreal, that I kept pinching myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. :P

Even from inside the airport, we could feel the coldness of the weather outside, no kidding! And as soon as we stepped our feet outside the hall and spoke to each other, there was vapor coming out from our mouth! Baru lah betol London wehhhhhh. Hahaha. *batak mode totally turned on* :P

After doing some registration, we headed to our life savior for the rest of the trip -- our car! (Or, should I say, our mini van :P)

Yeap, it's not hard to miss our car with it screaming "Hey! Hey! I'm the one in bright blue over here, come get me!" Hehe. Sorry, can't find decent car that could fit in 2 families! Even my SIL's family that came with us had to take another car!

It was freezing cold, even in the car. So instead of turning on the "aircond", we turned on the "heater" to keep ourselves warm. Yeap, cars over there have both aircond and heater! :D

The journey to our house was beautiful. I saw cottage houses, very green grass and even sheeps beside the highway! :D

Tip : You need to have a carseat in the car if you're travelling with a baby in the UK; without it you can be fined. You can choose to either bring yours from Malaysia, or rent one there (charged £15.00/day). That's like RM82/day and we were going to be there for 10 days, so we brought ours from Malaysia, for the obvious reason! :P

As expected, the first day we were in London, we spent the day just resting in our house. (too bad I forgot to take a picture of the house!) The next day, we got up early in the morning to start our adventure in the city.

But first, let me take a selfie breastfeed the baby.

That's Haney, my youngest SIL. Her baby is just 7 days older than Adeena. The best thing is her baby Wildan is also a fully breastfed baby, so it was fun to have someone that shares the same misery, I mean, experience that I had there! Bahahaha.

The 2nd day we were in the UK, we decided to just visit the city of London itself. The first shop that I went as soon as we reached the Oxford Street, was Mothercare! Cute baby shoessss. Cute baby shoes everywhereeeeee!

Sorry, I know I looked like an Eskimo in here, but it was just because it was too windy and coldddd outside, and my Melayu skin hasn't gotten adjusted to it yet! :P 

After that, we spent the whole day just taking pictures and exploring London!

See I wasn't kidding about London being very windy! It was raining most of the time when we were there too, so that kinda suck as it was affecting our programs!

After a lot of walking, our tummies started to grumble. Surprisingly, it was not hard to find Halal restaurants in London! Look at our happy faces when we spotted the first one! :D Di yakin HALAL ok. :D

Then, the day continued with more sightseeing in central London! In the pic below, you will see that I took picture with bicycles available for rental there! Gila ah. Kalau buat macam ni dekat Malaysia, confirm orang buat jadik harta masing2 je :P

We also managed to find a musolla nearby to perform our solah. It's called Mayfair Islamic Centre, located near Hyde Park , next to the Hilton Hotel. Wherever you are, whatever you do, remember to put your head on the ground.

That's my MIL in their kind of "telekung" (praying attire). Over there, they do not have the kind of telekung that we have here in Malaysia. Theirs are fancier, and mostly found sewn like an oversized jubah, with a hood, just like that.

And that's Adeena making friends with the local there :D

After we were done with our solah, we went on and explored the busy street of the Oxford Street again. I looked around and saw people zooming in and out this store, most of them had at least 2 bags in hand. Curious, I went in this store...

And I understood what the fuss all about.. It's basically like Giant/Tesco here in Malaysia, minus the wet market. You can find everythingggg and borong everythingggg here without burning a hole in your pocket! Women's wear, men's wear, kids wear, underwear, shoes, cosmetics, accessories, bags.. the list goes on and on and onnnn!

(The last 2 pics Googled to show how the store actually looked like without an ocean of people crowding it!) And the hanger.. how cute are they! :D

After all the excitement, we finally called it a day.. Well, for us adults that is. The kids were still jet-lagged, they actually got up at 3am in the morning and refused to go back to sleep!  ><

But even that didn't stop me from enjoying the huge Westfield Mall the next morning.. (To be continued)