London

This is Ashu's (and our) second visit to London and Aj's first. We didnt visit all the hot places this time as we visited most of them last time. Also, we were dead tired with all the hectic schedule before the trip and B still had to attend calls from there couple of days.
Day1 : We visited the london eye, westminister, big ben etc. There was a surprise for the kdis when we came out of london eye. Mickey and Pooh were there right outside the london eye. AJ screamed disney land and went running to them. Got some pictures and then there was a carousel too. We went in that too. It was like going to a mini magic kingdom :) Day 1 was not that cold..but from day 2...BRRRRR! That kinda dampened our spirits.

Day 2: We tried to goto windsor castle but by the time we reached there it was closed, so we were content with some winter shopping. they had nice stuff at very reasonable price (atleast that's what we thought! :)) next day was my birthday, and the previous evening, appu (my niece) gave me the gift as she couldn't hold till tuesday :D She gave me a beautiful touching card and a perfume. Loved it :) Sil was disappointed that she gave it earlier, but i told her it was my birthday already in india and we had a good laugh :)

Day 3 : We finally managed to goto windsor castle and it was beautiful. It was huge. B and kids got me a crown (show piece) as a gift. i guess to signify i;m the queen mom (my mii name in wii :)) I lost my D&G sunglasses inside the castle. i was bummed because of the senti value (plus it was quite expensive..GRR) Next time you go there, you might find it next to the sword of Sultan of Tipu ;-) I enjoyed seeing all the royal stuff inside the castle. We had tea nearby and returned home for a surprise. Myy bil and sil had got me a cake and sil made the yummiest carrot halwa and hot crispy vadas which was like heaven as it was sooo damn cold outside! BRR! The cake was absolutely yummy too. Creamy - just like the ones we get in india. Had a wonderful birthday this year and to make it more wonderful, I did lot of shopping in london before, on and after my birthday and i'm pretty sure that B has decided to celebrate all my future birthdays only in u.s. :D

Day 4: We didnt go anywhere. We just did some shopping. Bil took ashu and appu to a kids place called Snake and Ladder. AJ was so bored to be stuck with us in the mall. Ananya too. They both started fighting for a while to keep them busy and entertained. As usual, me and sil took the naatamai role and did some panchayathu. After all the shopping, we went to starbucks and had some hotchocolate and stuff. Ajay got sparkling water and did abhishekam on me!! It was my mistake i didnt see 'sparkling' in the bottle and got it for him thinking it was plain water. We returned home in double decker bus and i was quite happy about that.
Day 5: We went to the Tassaud's. It was fun. I dont think the kids enjoyed though. Me and my sil enjoyed the most, posing with tom cruise and brad pitt and even our Sallu :P The goof up of the day was B forgot the camera in the car..so i had to use the camcorder to take pics and the pics suck because of the poor lighting inside and no flash in the camcorder. I think just for this, i will make B take me to the one in NY so i can get a good pic with Brad pitt;-) Actually, i like George clooney better, but realized that i didnt take any pic with him after coming home. So, that's due too.
Day 6 : We left london and AJ was quite bummed that bil's family didnt come with us. I got new sunglasses in the airport as another birthday gift :) This year birthday was a riot for me :D
Kids had so much fun in london. AJ was stuck to Appu and kept fighting with ananya. Ashu and Appu got into arguments once in a while but all 3 of them were playing non stop. Poor ananya figured out she was too small to be included in that gang and decided to stay with us :)

After coming here, everyone kept saying that i should've gone to Picadilly Circus and did shopping in Oxfort street. I dont know why people dont suggest anything before the trip!! Maybe B tipped them to be quiet?! Next trip, my first stop will be Oxford street and if we have any money left with us, then we will goto Picadilly circus and the rest of the places :)

Next post will be about Singara chennai :)