Family Vacation In The UK?

Dear hubby told me that he would probably go to a conference in Italy sometime next year. I am so excited as we have been talking about going for a trip to Europe for sometime. It would be like a dream come true for me. (LOL)

After the conference, we plan to visit the UK for one week. Since there is still no black and white about the conference just yet, we can just plan our vacation and think about the hotels' reservation later. However, I am not really worried about finding good last minute on accommodation for the trip as I have found plenty of great deals for cheap hotels UK. Cheaperthanhotels provide last minutes' accommodation and hotels in the UK and year round discount on all types of accommodation and hotels. Some of the deals they offers also include free breakfast, free use of facilities such as gyms, swimming pools and internet access facilities. So this is great as we have many choices at last minutes and not just grab whatever deals the hotels offered to us.

London Eye.

Our first destination is London and later to Scotland and Manchester. I would like to visit some popular tourist destinations like Windsor Castle, London Eye, Buckingham Palace and many more interesting places in the UK. With the long list of places to visit and with so limited time, we definitely need to find the right London hotels to stay. I would surely check Cheaperthanhotels for the best deals for the hotels in London.

Dear hubby and I love old historic buildings. One of our European friends suggested we should visit the famous Scottish castle, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. She said it is magnificent and we would definitely like it. Sound very interesting indeed. Good thing, I found that they also offer great deals on Edinburgh hotels. Cheap hotels mean more shopping money for me. (LOL)

Southside Guest House, Edinburgh

The Famous Edinburgh Castle.

Anyway, our trip to the UK, would not be completed if we do not visit Manchester City. Yup, the home of the world's most famous soccer club Manchester United. We should at least stay a day or two in Manchester. So I would be looking for a great deal for Manchester hotels too.

Golden Hotel Tulip Manchester.

I hope to get the same or better deals for us to choose from if dear hubby got a nod from the boss.

Durian!!!

Look what I got from the Asian store last weekend! Durian(King Of The Fruits)! I love eating durian but hubby hates its distinctive odor. So being tolerate, I only buy durian once a year. (LOL)

These frozen durian cost $8.70

While we were at the checkout, I remember have not gotten one thing in my list (LOL) and went back for it. When I got back at the counter, dear hubby was having a conversation with a Phillipino couple. They were asking him about the durian. I thought they were curios of him buying a durian because not so many western like durian. The conversation goes something like this:-

The Hubby; Is it good?
Dear Hubby; No. It’s stunk. But my wife likes it. She is from Malaysia. (By the time, I reached the counter)
The Hubby; Bad? Like a fish?
Dear Hubby; Oh no, worse than that. It smell like something went bad, very bad. (All of us laugh out loud including the checkout guy.)

I asked the couple if they eat durian and the wife says she does. She agreed with me that durians are really yummy. They have durian trees in some part of the Philippines too.

Looks nasty but taste yummy.

It didn't last long.(LOL)

Happy Weekend!

Happy Sunday all! I hope the sun is shining where you are. We have pretty good weather today. Actually, it is cloudy but nice. It has been raining since yesterday until early this morning. Hopefully the weather would be nice for the rest of the week.

I am so happy that Billy and dear hubby are recovering from cold. They were down with cold since last week. It’s pretty heartbreaking to see them coughing continuously. Dear hubby even loss his voice for several days. Poor one. Thank God they are getting much better now. It’s hard to have both the big and the little guy sick at the same time because they can get very cranky at time…..hihi!

Happy weekend!

Incredible Love Story

This story sent to me by a friend sometime ago. It’s a beautiful love story, so I decided to share it with you.


An incredible love story has come out of China recently and managed to touch the world. It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace for over half a century.


The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which has been the couple's home for the last 50 years.


Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang a 19 year-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin.


In a twist worthy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticized the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children. At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County in Southern ChongQing Municipality.

In the beginning, life was pretty harsh as they had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a kerosene lamp that they used to light up their lives. Xu felt that she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him, 'Are you regretful? Liu always replied, 'As long as we are industrious, life will improve.' In the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began and continued for over 50 years, to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily

Half a century later in 2001, a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved steps. Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, 'My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day. He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s conveniences, although she doesn't go down the mountain that much.'


The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years, returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed with her husband as he passed away in her arms. So in love with Xu, was Liu that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife's hand even after he had passed away. 'You promised me you'll take care of me, you'll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?' Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband's black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks.


In 2006, their story became one of the top 10 love stories from China, collected by the Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladder and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever.

We Are Going To New York City!

I have been very excited these past several weeks. God has been so good to us. Praise God! Many good things seem to come our way lately. One of them was something dear hubby and I have been waiting for quite sometime. We got positive result on it just recently! So you bet how excited we can get ……haha! NO! We are not expecting another baby. I better rule that one out before you flood me with congrats and trigger another excitement on me..…haha!

There is another reason why I am so excited right now. We are going to New York City in several weeks. Yeah!!! Finally I am going to step my foot at the Big Apple. Dear hubby hates big cities so no surprise New York City was not in his ‘Must Go’ list. I have been giving hints to dear hubby to reconsider a trip to NYC for many years and only gotten the ‘nay’ answers. The best answer I have gotten were ‘you can go there with your sister when she comes visit’ or ‘maybe someday, hon.’

However, he seems to have changed his mind recently. As we are going to Pennsylvania in several weeks, he has given me some hints that he would not mind traveling to NYC for a couple of days afterward. And the best thing was he has given me the job on looking for hotel for us to stay while we are there. Of course without any hesitation, I took the job….haha! Since neither of us had been to NYC, it was quite a challenge to find the hotel that we would like. The key is the hotel must be at least 3 stars, good user reviews and close by to Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Park and other major attractions.

After searching at several popular hotel reservation sites such as Quikbook, Hotels Combined and All Hotel, I have found four hotels that I am interested at.
The first hotel is The Hotel At Times Square I found through Quikbook. The rate is only $215 per night, quite cheap considering it is a boutique hotel and the location is almost what we are looking at. Times Square and Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station and many more attractions are within walking distance from the hotel. They also offer varieties of amenities and services including free Wi-Fi, continental breakfast, personal safes at the front desk as well as in each room, cable TV, laundry and many more.

I found the second hotel, Hampton Inn Manhattan Times Square New York through Hotels Combined. It’s a three stars hotel with a very good user reviews and the rate is just $220 per night. Yeah, I am pretty cheap…haha! So I was searching for the best yet the lowest price I could get. This hotel is only three blocks away from Times Square and Rockefeller Center and five blocks from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Central Park is only about 0.5 miles away. So we would probably take public transportation to go there, if we stay at this hotel. One more thing I like about this hotel is they offer a buffet-style breakfast as complimentary. Dear hubby would definitely love this.

Another hotel at Hotels Combined that caught my attention is Murray Hill East Suites Hotel New York. This hotel is located in the heart of the historic Murray Hill section of Manhattan. All rooms are furnished with full equipped kitchens with free coffee and tea. Sounds great! Our little one is a picky eater and to be able to make him food while we are on the trip would be great. I also like the fact that the hotel is within a walking distance from Grand Central Station. At least we would not have to think about the transportation problem. There are also a variety of fine dining, shopping and entertainment venues that are only minutes away from the hotel. Oh yeah, the lowest rate for this hotel is $308, not bad for all the features it offers.

I searched at another site called All Hotel and found Excelsior Hotel. This is a 4 star hotel, located on the trendy West Side between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Their rate is quite cheap with the lowest price is $239 per night. I like this hotel because it’s close by to a museum such as American Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Children’s Museum of Manhattan. It would be nice to be able to bring Billy to one of the museum particularly the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Dear hubby would probably insist that we visit the museum if we decided to stay at this hotel.

Then I get to the hard part, to decide which of these hotels is the best for us. After looking at these hotels, I decided to choose the Hampton Inn Manhattan Times Square New York that I found through Hotels Combined. Other than the great price, I like what most of the visitor say about this hotel. I am hoping that dear hubby would not have any objection so we could make the reservation soon. That’s one exciting job!