Barcelona with Ah Yee

This was the highlight of my trip; to spend time with ah yee. I would love to spend days with her and visit her "not so new" home in Paris but I had been away from the kids for too long a time. Ah yee offered to visit me; I am thankful that Paris is so near to Barcelona.

Our agenda was super simple: chill, catch up and shopping. We weren't keen on sightseeing; there wasn't enough time and I am not much better than the kids when it comes to sightseeing. The cathedrals all looked about the same to me after the 2nd one. Lol.

We done a lot of chatting on Thursday night, turning in only at 3am. The next morning, we were up at 7ish to catch the hotel bfast. The kids would be envious of us, taking our time to enjoy the bfast spread. The cold cuts and bread were fabulous. I miss the bread already.

Ah yee wanted to look for the Zara and Mango outlet, which were supposed to be nearby. The map proved to be no good. I seriously cannot recognise the Spanish street names on the map and ah yee is no good with map reading. Eventually, Google map came to the rescue. We did find the outlets but we're disappointed with the finds.

We walked so much, that we decided to take the metro back to the town center. My poor legs and my back!

It was supposed to be the end of winter but it was fairly warm especially when the sun was shinning. That was when the jackets come off. It was constantly wearing and taking out jackets.  Very busy. Luckily no kids.

While the outlets were disappointing, the normal Mango and Zara stores were wonderful. Mango is slightly cheaper than in Singapore and Zara was the go to place. Mango and Zara were EVERYWHERE. On a street, we can sometime find 2 Zara stores, even though the merchandise were similar. Bcos Spring is around the corner, there were some pieces suitable for sunny Singapore too. I bought quite a few for the kids. HAPPY!

We had a late lunch, just like the Spanish style and al fresco some more. It was fantastic to people watch and enjoying the cool weather. Totally thumbs up.

We did spend the entire day as intended, taking a leisure pace. On the way back to the hotel, we passed by the square where hundreds of pigeons gathered, waiting to be fed. I was reminded of how thrilled the kids would be if they were present and at the same time, I was secretly happy that they weren't here. Otherwise, I would be busy yelling at them not to touch the bird and poo and would have a hard time tugging them off. Lol.

Dinner was easy; we had BK in the room. It was St Patrick's day and ah yee said that there would be crazy drinking in the night. I would love to do that and stay up the whole night to chat with ah yee. Unfortunately, the body is weak and I knocked out at 9pm. Seriously, I was freaking tired.

Mummy Lim

Barcelona

The hotel was less than 30 mins car ride from the airport. I was surprised to see people walking on the streets unlike Geneva that goes dead after 5pm. Apparently, Barcelona is like Singapore and shops are opened to 10 in the night. Cool.

I got my room quickly upon arrival and spent the next hour settling in, preparing for the next day and tossing around the big bed. Nice. Wine and coffee must be really cheap here. I got a complimentary bottle of red wine.

Though I am not a wine person, I am still impressed. I thought of lugging it home but had such limited space in the luggage. There were also expresso machines everywhere, including in the room!

Daddy Lim would be thrilled. I only fancy the chocolates that come as part of the welcome pack.

Sleep wasn't too bad, largely bcos I was so tired. Day 1 meeting went fine but I was dead tired by 5pm. Maybe it was the jetlag. Tired or not, the team dinner didn't end until 11pm. Zzzzzz. You can guess that the 2nd day sleep was 200x better bcos i could hardly lug my body onto the bed.

Day 2 meeting come and go. We had another dinner on the 2nd night and I was so glad that it ended at 10pm. I retreated to my room for a much needed rest while some of my powerful colleagues continued with a drink at the bar back in the hotel.

Half of the 3rd day was team building and we spent 2 hours walking the famous streets of Barcelona and visiting iconic sites.

It is a city with lovely sights. I particularly enjoyed the cool breeze; I am so sure to miss it when back in Singapore. 

Coincidentally, it was a day where the taxi drivers were on strike. Even more coincidentally, we found ourselves in a spot where the protesters pass. It was loud, they were throwing some firecrackers, shouting slogans and basically making a lot of noises. There were many of them protesting and I wouldn't flip an eye to know that many weren't taxi drivers but there to join the "fun". It was an intense experience; I would never see this in Singapore. Nothing even close to this.

My meeting officially ended at 4pm but there was some more drinking at the end and saying goodbyes. It was too early to do nothing and I headed out to experience the shopping paradise with my colleagues. I love ice cream in cold weather.

I was back in the evening to wait for ah yee. I had a good and long nap before she finally arrived at 11pm. 

Barcelona was still bursting with life when ah yee reached.  We had a last night snack and had the tapas with this famous Spain drink that ah yee said I must try. 

It was red wine and sprite. I could taste a lot of red wine. Zzzzzz. 

Anyway, the point was really catching up and we chatted until 3am. I was totally up for that having taken a 4 hour nap before she arrived. I was totally powered up Lol. 

Mummy Lim

Business Trip to Barcelona

It is my annual global meeting and this time it is held in Barcelona instead of Geneva. Untimingly, the trip falls exactly in the week of the school holiday! I was crushed at the thought of not going on a holiday but was at least saved by the fact that I could be recharged by being away from the kids. Hehe.

Poor Daddy Lim would have to handle the kids on his own. He then decided to bring the kids to Penang on his own with the Chan and Lim family. So damn brave. I had to applaude him. And yes, my husband had planned to go on a trip with my friends without me. Sound strange isn't it?

Unlike my usual night flight, I decided to take a day flight to Barcelona this time so that I could spend an extra night with the kids. On Sunday night, I was feeling depressed; the thought of not being to join them on a holiday totally sux. The anxiety wasn't helping too, I couldnt help but remind the kids for the 100th time to behave and to stay close to Daddy Lim. What if Daddy Lim only comes home with 1 kid???!!!!!

I left home at 7.10am on Monday. I took Emirates and flew business. Nice, I know. Hehe. Emirates business comes with arranged transfer. Totally cool.

My ride was a Mercedes wor.

I arrived at the airport right on time and took my sweet time doing cosmetic shopping. I had been doing my shopping so regularly at so the airport that I even applied for the rewards card. Haha.

I also spent some time looking for the playground bcos Daddy Lim and the kids would be flying off from the same terminal the next day. Viola! Found, status and location reported.

I also couldn't help but a selfie with Lee Kwang Soo. Muaks.

I was dressed very comfortably. My new sneakers.

And I have Lil Shauna's watch bcos I didn't want to flash Daddy Lim's expensive watches around.

Time passed so quickly when there is no kids. Soon, I was in the plane. Woohoo! Look at that leg space.

Touch screen.

The last trip to Geneva was a night flight and I had to turn up for work upon touch  down. Sleep was very much needed. This time, it was a day flight and I will have a night's rest before the meeting. Thus, the business class flight was totally a luxury.

As you can tell, I was enjoying the flight meal in peace and I watched movies after movies. Muahahaha.

Emirates' service was great and the stewardess came so regularly to check that things were fine. Of course they were.

After 7.5hrs, I touched down in Dubai and had 2 hours of transit before another 7.5hr flight. The wait wasn't too bad.

The 2nd leg of the journey was great too.  I was trying my best to stay up in order to combat jetlag. However, I feel sorry for traveling business if I don't at least catch a cat nap on the seat that can be converted to bed. My cat nap turned out to be 2 hours. Hohoho.

Finally, after almost 18 hours, I was in Barcelona!

Not looking too bad huh?

The driver of the arranged transfer was waiting for me at the arrival gate. I like traveling in style. Hehe.

Mummy Lim

Legoland Again!

Teacher Raymond was not available for class and mummy's antena started sourcing for activities to fill our Saturday.  Coincidentally, it was the 1st day of the March school holiday. Of course we must do something big to commensurate the occasion. Haha, any excuse for something fun and BIG. Let's go Legoland.

Our last trip was more than a year back when ah yee and C were in town. Then, we were at Legoland way too early and spent a long time waiting for the park to open with bored kids. This time, we strategised for bfast in Singapore before heading in only to learn that there was a massive jam at the 2nd link. Zzzzzz.

We spent an hour clearing the Singapore custom.

We exchanged Popo for Felicia and I think the wait for the kids was slightly less painful.

We were hoping that the Malaysia custom would be a breeze. Fat hope. It was another 1 over hour wait in the car crawl. It was so painful. Why were there so many other cars going to Malaysia?

It was already noon when we finally reached Legoland. The car park was surprising empty, which also meant that the park was empty. I like.

There was almost no Q to the rides. The weather was tolerable too.

The heat was a little too much and we hid in the air con lego car workshop. The kids had a blast.

Did you spot what were the parents doing? Let me give you a closeup...

Don't play, play. It took years of training to build this foundation and be able to sleep anytime, anywhere.

It started raining when we left the workshop and we decided to have a late lunch. Nobody complained of hunger anyway bcos of the huge amount of snacks we had in the car while stuck in the jam and Popo brought our entire fridge from home for the trip. The timing was perfect and the rain stopped when lunch was done. The rain did fantastic in cooling the weather.

We caught the new ride too. It was good. The best part was the Q; we barely waited 15 mins.

We took a few more rides and it was nearing the time to go. We past by the Flume ride and I was reminded how wet we all got when we rode it with ah yee and C a year back. Hohoho.

I remembered ah yee asking me if we would get wet while q-ing. I had never taken the ride but confidently told her that we wouldn't. We ended up soaked to our underwear. Lol.

To end off the trip, the kids went to drive some lego cars.

Zaky was some bad ass driver who tried an illegal u turn and got stuck. Lol.

We left the park at almost 7pm. Jump shots to complete the trip.

Dinner was at our favorite korean bbq place.

You could tell that the boy was hungry from all the fun right. Lol. He had a big portion of the bbq chicken.

We finally reached the custom at 9ish and thankfully, it was a breeze. Phew. It was a great trip. The kids had fun; they always do with the 3Fs.

Mummy Lim