The Shopping

My purpose for our UK trip was basically to visit my sister and my brother in law, and to shop (for aidan),hardy's trip was a business one. aidan? well.. he's just tagging along! :)


With my sister and brother in law's tight work schedules, they still took a couple of days off work to be with us. bringing us round, shopping. the first day we went to WING YIP in birmingham. we met up with ez, adam & family, and headed off to the biggest asian/chinese supermarket/wholesaler. (note: the hardys and adams shamelessly took a photo below the pintu gerbang, i couldnt care less since i dont live in the UK, who'd recognise me? where was kakak? hahaha.. she headed straight to the entrance! cabut lari malu!) since lately i'm really into cooking, well, i felt like jumping up and down!! sadly, the flight allowance only permit us to carry such a number of kilos. what amazes me there was the number of malaysian products on their shelves! first on my list was pau kacang merah! lekker!

I certainly did shop, for aidan. mothercare was irresistible and so was NEXT. early learning centre was alluring, and so was M&S. i just couldnt help it! but i am very selective in buying things.

Books was our no. 1 on our list. i would want our son to learn as many languages as possible, taking advantage of the location of the country he was born in. and of course i'd want him to learn some arabic. who knows he'll take over the company his papa works for?! and so we bought these for a start. apart from these, the usual nursery rhymes, bedtime books, as well as mister men books! there's a few good collection at my fav bookshop called THE WORKS. cheap and good. but if you're after recent published books, go to WATERSTONES. i even tried OXFAM BOOKSHOP to get some second hand books (some dont look like they're second hand!)


Next up, TOYS! the stuff that we have here in holland are fairly ok. not much choices. there might be some good ones in bigger towns, but where we are, there's not much of educational toys, good ones. there's just too many choices in UK, be really careful in choosing which one you get for your kids. some are unnecessary ones, you can make do without, some are just brilliant, some, no purpose whatsoever! We bought LEEAPFROG's catterpiller conting pal and a frog named TAD. catterpillar will introduce numbers 1-5, colours and classical music. this is so far, our best buy! aidan loves it! i bought TAD coz it's in english and french. besides, they were on sale at mothercare, buy 1 get 2nd 1/2 price!

CLOTHES! you just cant have enough of them! baby clothes are so adorable. best material! and value for our money was of mothercare's and NEXT. i've spent 90% of my money there, on clothes and shoes. (picture: one of the tshirts i bought for aidan).

Last but not least, yes, the polyurethane bumbo and the bouncer. get the bumbo early! we got this too late, aidan's now 6+ months. aidan had to squeeze his butt in it! its good as it helps and teaches the child to sit in his/her upright, safe, natural position and your hands will be free to do whatever you please, that is if he/she stays put in the chair! it's basically like a potty. it states on the box: for babies from 3 to 12 months, but i think they should change it and make sizes S,M and L. L for bigger babies, at 6 months weighs 9kgs, like aidan.

The bouncer is for sure, by far, the best present for aidan! he's been jumping in it, loving it! sampai tercungap cungap (till he ran out of breath!). i'd say to most parents, get it! good excercise! and yes, it IS safe!


Anyway, we had a good time, great in fact. thank you papa, for taking us along. thank you tante fifi and om redza, for cooking, putting up with us. we had so much fun, a really good time!

Hartelijk Bedankt!!!!

Z