Holiday - (Shilpa's Version)

Shilpa wrote this email to here parents and brother and sister - it sums up the holiday beautifully, ENJOY.

"Hi Everyone,

We are back!

Had 3 weeks of fantastic hols although it's great to be back home (except the jet lag bit; I finally got some sleep last night).

Will start with the plane ride to Germany which Simon and I weren't sure what to expect with Seb n Sid coz we've never done a 12 hr journey with them nor have we done long trips without a maid. They were good as gold. Slept 8-9 hrs of it and then watched Bob the Builder and Winnie the Pooh and ate the rest of the time. By the time we arrived in Germany, they were fresh and ready to start their holiday (and so were we). And you wouldn’t believe how easily and quickly they settled in with their cousins and Aunty Angela and Uncle Markus - almost like they've known each other for ages. They didn’t cling to Simon or I at all - just played all day in their sand pit, in our hotel playground, walking in the forest, playing with their dog, KiKi (whom of course I wasn’t very comfortable with especially when she tried to lick me), plus the hundreds of toys that Nico and Sven had for them. They just loved it.

And so did Simon and I. It was really good to see Angela and family after 3.5 years. You wouldn’t believe how big and tall Kirsty and Jan are now. Remember them at my wedding. Well Kirsty is 18 and is over 6 ft tall. And Jan is 17 and is 6 ft 2. Seb and Sid had to stretch their necks and tilt their head all the way back to speak to them.

They live in the Black Forest which is literally paradise surrounded by forests, pine trees, fields, HUGE open lawns, and the most gorgeous views right at their door step (I mean literally). Simon and I took advantage of the place and went running everyday (and Simon ran twice a day most days) - some days with Angela and her running group. It was brilliant. For the first time ever, I actually WANTED to run. And guess what, we didn’t have to worry about the boys coz Uncle Markus and cousins kindly kept an eye on them whilst we went out running.




Weather thankfully was excellent and for the first time, I wasn’t freezing cold. We managed to survive everyday with ONE or NO jumper.











We went to Lake Constance one afternoon on a ferry ride and then on to Monkey Forest. Seb as usual was in his element with animals to the point that he didn’t even realise that one of the monkey's was being really aggressive towards him; Seb continued laughing and attempting to play with this vicious monkey and in the end Superman Daddy had to rescue him.






Also went to Triberg Waterfall - first proper waterfall the boys had seen - not sure if they were wowed by it or not but they kept saying BIG waterfall mummy, BIG waterfall daddy. We did a short walk up, took loads of photos and then headed back down to a café for some black forest gateaux (you can't not have that when you are in Black Forest). Lots of wheat beer for Simon and Markus of course.

Ate and drank loads. Angela and Markus cooked us some great meals especially Brunch the last day was to die for. Simon loved all the wheat beer he had. We also indulged in lots of ice cream - one of our favourite joints is an ice cream shop in Villingen (we visit this place EVERY TIME we are in Germany) - some really yummy concoctions and so of course Mommy, Daddy, Seb, Sid, Markus and kids all had huge ice cream delights.






Just opposite this ice cream shop is a trough (an olden days watering trough right in the middle of the shopping street which I thought was really cool coz we wouldn’t find that anywhere in Asia) where Seb n Sid splashed water at each other (Seb was soaking wet by the end of it) and then played with Sven and Nico on the roundabout. (You'll see Seb soaking wet in one of the photos attached).





I even took the boys for a walk in the forest with lots of pine trees and all they could do was look as high up as possible and say, Mommy, Christmas trees VERY BIG and then run around them. Little darlings, they walked around without complaining.









The first part of our holiday came to an end very quickly - a week just flew by - and we were very sad to leave but at the same time were excited and looking forward to the second part of our hols with Chris, Chantal, India, Kofi and their cats and dog, Purna in England.

Once again, the boys just fitted in easily with India and Kofi - it did help of course that they have a dog, Purna and 2 cats (Seb loves dogs and Sid loves cats), they have a huge back lawn with swings, slides, tree house, children's tractor, cars and lots and lots and lots of toys.

Chris and Chantal just had their house extended so we got our own room and Kofi very kindly gave them his room which made our stay really comfortable. The boys had two single beds with truck and digger and dog beds and a bedroom full of toys - they definitely didn’t need mommy and daddy.

It was here that Seb n Sid learnt to say "MOMMY and DADDY" with a very very English accent which is beginning to really annoy me now. In fact, they turned completely English. When Seb and Sid were annoyed with Simon or I, they would say "Shilpa I don't want to do this or Simon come here now"........at one point Sid even said, Shilpa Cross come here Shilpa Cross.......I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Boys were very good with their meals. Chantal was actually shocked. She kept saying, your boys eat well. Thank god I was thinking to myself coz literally a week before we left for hols, sid still wanted his daal and rice everyday. But he actually surprised us all. He ate better than Seb and tried everything new. He even ate steamed TREE (Broccoli) and sweet corn and carrots. Phew!

Simon and I had a great time catching up with Chris and Chantal and Rocky. (Chris took time off work and Rocky came to visit us) Did lots of running (AGAIN) but this time through fields, tiny little lanes, along little villages. And days when Simon and I ran together, Chantal was more than happy to look after the boys.

Lots of beer for Simon. He loves the English pub and drinking culture when we are on holiday. Weather was good to us once again bar one day of rain I think.



Took the boys to Deal Castle. First castle visit for boys and Mommy. Some bits of it were pitch black so walking through it was scary enough for me but Seb n Sid were quite cool about it.









They went inside one of these olden days brick oven and thought it was cool and thoroughly enjoyed their castle visit.










Went on a train ride, pub lunch and an amusement park the next day.











Even a walk on the beach.












All really great fun, especially the train ride and bumper car in amusement park. Reminded me of Magic Land days.










Even went to London for a day. Took the boys on London Eye but they didn’t seem too excited about the BIG FERRIS WHEEL. We had taken them to a similar size Ferris Wheel in Singapore about a month before hols so we think Seb and Sid were trying to say, "Been There, Done It". Went to Trafalgar Square but unfortunately there weren't any pigeons around. All we saw is a huge crowd watching Olympics on the big screen.





We then grabbed some lunch at Pizza Express - it was just like any other pizza place except they did special 4 course kids menu. So they got a little starter, and then the main course, and then ice cream and then to end the meal a babbyccino at the end (which was frothed chocolate milk). Really cool. Their greatest joy that day was to sit on a red double decker bus. Both boys got in the bus and walked straight up the stairs right to the back watching other buses go by. As we were heading back to Chris and Chantal, we had to take the underground (subway) to get to the main train station and it was hilarious coz seb n sid wanted to walk (of all the times, it had to be today. Usually they say "Carry mummy and daddy"). Undergrounds being as crowded as they are and getting onto trains on time such an issue, we were very stern with the boys and wouldn’t let them which ended up in tears and screams..........Sid refused to get on the train throwing a real tantrum. He said " Siddhart want walk to the train". And just as we got in, the gates closed. We didn’t find it funny at that point but laughed about it later.

On our last day with Chris and Chantal, we went to this tiny little café on the beach to have full English vegetarian breakfast. YUM!

Second part of our hols had come to an end; we didn’t want to leave.

The 3rd part of our hols was with Simon's parents and I was a bit unsure of how the kids would be coz there wouldn't be any other kids or toys. But I was wrong. Grandma and Grandad had organized cars and toys and books for the boys plus their humongous back lawn with geese and chicken (the boys fed them and put them to bed most evenings). All very amusing to the boys. And not to miss the caravan which to the boys was their own little house. Needless to say, they settled in as soon as we got to Brownhills (where Simon's parents live). Plus as soon as we got there, Simon's mom had organised a chocolate cake to celebrate Dad's bday a few days before we got there. Guess who sang Happy Birthday Grandad and blew out all the candles???

It was really good to see them and they were delighted to see us, especially to have the JUNIOR CROSS's visit them. Spent a week with Mom and Dad. Had a brilliant time. Ate and drank LOTS. Lots of pub lunches, had a Chinese take away one evening and even went to a really nice Indian restaurant for dinner plus all the wonderful food Simon's mom had bought for us, especially the chocolate cake and chocolate delight.

One of the pub lunches was by a canal which was very cool. The boys enjoyed watching the boats go through locks. Sid wanted to get on them but mummy had to explain that these are people's homes and people live in them but he didn’t understand it. In the end I had to say, OK you have to buy one of these boats to get on them so where is your money. And he said, in the piggy bank at home. So I said, there you go, your money is not here so you can't get on the boat. At which point he said, Daddy, buy boat daddy. Siddhart want to get on the boat. Poor Daddy!


I even helped Dad close a lock.


















And once again, Simon and I did lots of running, this time with Dad. Can you believe it, he is 76 and runs 10 kms in 1 hr 7 mins. Amazing! And his mom did Nordic walking whist we ran. Ran by the canal, lake and little bits of forest trails and hills. By the end of our trip, Simon had run almost 300 kms and I had run about 100 kms. We have come back fitter than we left!

Simon's parents offered to look after the kids one day whilst Simon and I went shopping to Birmingham and had one day to ourselves without kids, which was really good. We didn’t do too much shopping though coz everything was so expensive compared to Malaysia and we get everything here now, so there was no real craze. Ended up buying the boys GAP stuff again (although we get it here anyway) and got myself some more Gap jeans (yup Kud and Ritu, I did) and Simon got a jumper from Zara. That was it, our shopping was complete. And when we got back that evening, the boys were happy to see us (and we were happy to see them too) but it wasn’t like they really missed us. They just happily played with their grandparents.


We took the boys to a huge playground with lots and lots of swings, slides, see saws, etc. They loved it.

















On another day, went to Cannock Chase which is like a Forest Reserve where we did a 5kms walk with the boys. Oops, don't think they really liked that very much especially uphills. It was only downhills that they loved. Very very pretty though (photos attached) and then we ended up at a huge playground again.







Now the best bit is yet to come. Simon's mom told us of this huge theme park with Thomas the Tank Engine in it.........Little did she know that there is a whole 6 acres of everything Thomas in it (can you imagine that?). We met up with one of Simon's childhood family friends Michael and his wife Aneke and kids there so it made it even more enjoyable for Seb n Sid. After a very tiring day queuing up for each ride, we were glad to be home and the boys fell asleep as soon as we got into the car. That's how tired they were. But they loved it.



We even got them Thomas drinking cups and a Thomas wall clock for their room. I would have happily bought the whole Thomas store but not when I saw the prices in pounds and started converting.......









It was slowly hitting us that our holiday was surely coming to an end. Very sad coz we had such a good time. I suppose it was made easier by the fact that Seb n Sid were enjoying themselves too.....plane ride back wasn’t too bad either. Daddy and the two boys got lots of sleep. Mommy didn't. But hey at least the boys weren't any trouble.

A very outdoorsy trip as you can tell - I guess you can do that in countries where its not soooo HOT and soooo HUMID.

Lots of hugs and love

Shilps