Taking the recommendation of our host, we went to this pancake restaurant which sold pancakes that reminded us of the ones we ate at the Potong Pasir coffee shop...ha, ahhhh sweet reminder of home
They had such beautiful crockery and even put white chocolate mice on the topping saucers!
Tucking in time! Jie liked the pancake, but the boys did not quite fancy it. ha, it would have only cost a fraction of the price if we got chocolate pancakes at Potong Pasir.
Ok, we finished our breakfast and it was time to explore the comely place again.
Walking through the Christmas market
Checking out the wares
A not-too-fancifully-decorated Christmas tree in the middle of the market
Quaint black and white houses
He bore an increasing resemblance to his older brother.
Ancient building that housed modern institutions now
Castles, cathedrals everywhere
The high street that every city has
Viking Museum
Glimpsed into how the Vikings led their lives
We sat in a carriage which brought us through the years and different parts of the Vikings settlement
Papa told Jun that they reared little pigs so Jun wanted to see a photo of them
The ride was over in 15 minutes? Then the tour was over! Ha we only spent half an hour in the museum. It was rather informative...wished it could be bigger and have more interactive things to explore though. Next up - York Castle Museum
Some ancient tower
It was a drizzly day
The museum had rooms that depicted the different times and how the house settings would look like, and included writings of people from that era that gave a glimpse of how life was like
Toys from long ago...papa saw his childhood toys "Thundercats" on display there, gosh, were we that old? Heh, he mentioned it to er yi zhang and all and none of them knew that toy and teased him that they were younger so they did not play with those toys.
papa commented that this house was really messy, ha, like ours when the three of you were up to no good and took out all the barang barang to play?
A storytelling and play corner
Provided some respite for us coz the boys liked to whine about leaving the place when the exhibits did not attract them. Jie was fine as she loved to read and learn new information, just like mama!
Ha the bear was as tall as Jun
A section showing how fashion evolved over time...ha...jie looked so trendy in those high boots!
The baby said he wanted to wear these super high knight boots
oooo modern times
A map depicting when each different cuisine came to York. Wow, some were a few hundred years old... amazing
A little servile servant
The Victorian Street
Wow it was already December. We had been here for 4 weeks, just 2 more weeks to go and we would be back in sunny Singapore.
Exploring the other section of the museum. Here was a gallery dedicated to World War 1.
The castle used to be a jail...how macabre, we went into the dark cells and heard and read the accounts of different criminals who were put in there...
ah time for lunch at a sushi restaurant, boy, this was an expensive meal, some S$125!
York Minister - a really breathtaking structure
We did not tour the inside of the cathedral though, I heard it was beautiful but I did not think that the kids would appreciate the splendor and beauty.
Here we had Tong Tong the Great
Caught a group caroling
Went to the museum gardens. A man fed pigeons with nuts out of his hand and the children were thrilled to try it.
The ancient ruins of what once was a stately palace
I loved these charming old black and white houses
Saw another lady feeding peanuts to the squirrels who were very wary and only came to take the peanuts after a long while
ha it was fun listening to them crunch the shells. There were greedy ones who would stuff two peanuts at one go in their cheeks, which reminded papa of the children who sometimes took a long time to chew their food
Ha, kind of a silly picture with everyone squatting the Asian squat and waiting for the cautious squirrels to come....Did you know that the westerners could not do this Asian squat apparently? ha...I meant...it was something that came so naturally to us..hmmm
Well, the squirrels were much like rodents actually, what explained why they were loved and elicited warm responses of "oooo cute" when rats were stampeded upon and ridden off?
Ah.... the parity in treatment...if you were cute, you could get away with things...ahhh
We headed back to Solihull and had comfort food (instant soup noodles) for dinner. Heh it was just Saturday night but it felt like Sunday as we were out with Papa exploring York for two days. How nice! More exploration tomorrow.
Sunday 3rd Dec
Read about Sheldon Country Park and asked papa to bring us there.
The children had fun at all kinds of playgrounds, no matter how simply furnished.
The Vikings on an expedition
The baby was of use now as he liked to push the structures, yay....he was living up to being a useful minion...Tong's little minion to be exact for he almost always sided with Tong's preference. Ha, so he always chose to sleep next to Tong at night too, to Tong's dismay for he rather wished to snuggle next to me...well...we retorted him saying that since Jun's his little minion, Tong could not have his cake and eat it and tell Jun to sleep with jie at night...
My little adorable Vikings with an intrepid spirt
There was a farm, and animals always fascinated you kids.
Were the turkeys going to live beyond Christmas? ha
So, we finally knew who was making the loud ruckus. This alpha male cow was lowing really loudly all the time, we could hear him from the playground.
Ha, cute critters - rabbits and guinea pigs
A pig sty with little clean pigs - this came near to us and peed in our presence. ha
Snack time! OOooo a really rich chocolate cake, piping hot chips and warm chocolate
Went to the Fort Shopping Centre and saw a snowman!
Checking out fire hats at H&M
Masks and silly accessories
Jie bought an advent calendar at half price (7 pounds). She had been looking at advent calendars but they were all rather pricey (Smiggle was selling theirs at 25 pounds!). Well, she was allowed to open two slots a day and they were all stationery so she was jubilant. heh....wanted a photo of just her but the boys photobombed it!
Ok end of week 4. I kind of wished to go home, to the familiarity of our house, having the support of friends and family...hmmm...well...maybe not too much of work but it would be nice to earn money so I could buy some pretty things. ha. Tong said he rather liked England but he missed home too...eh and he asked what bedsheet did we use for our bed, he could not recall how our house looked like...silly boy. Jie missed her friends and soccer practices...Jun was always a homebody so I guessed he must be missing home too....ha...and yup, the ipad at ah Ma's house!
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