visit to the wax museum

when in London for the first time, who would pass up the chance to visit Madame Tussauds? not me. there's almost always a better offer to get your tickets cheaper online than purchasing them at the counter, and even better discounts if you decide to visit more than one tourist attraction. in our case, we decided to take the London Eye + Madame Tussauds ticket package. we were debating on whether we should get tickets for the London Dungeon as well but we decided against it in the end.

if you purchase a combination ticket (more than 1 tourist attraction), you must visit Madame Tussauds London first because that's where the tickets will be issued, the rest of the tickets will have a validity of 30 days from the day you redeemed your Madame Tussauds tickets, inclusive. we spent a whole day at Madame Tussauds, and visited the London Eye on a different day.

Significant Other has been here before, this was my first time.

Madame Tussauds London
Address: Marylebone Rd, London NW1 5LR, United Kingdom
(a two minute walk away from Baker Street tube station)
Opening Hours:
- weekdays: 9:30am, with last admission at 5:30pm every day of the year.
- weekends and UK school holidays: 9am to 6pm
- closed on Christmas Day

if the wax figures in the museum represented the real life person exactly to the miniscule measurement, then i must be a really tiny person indeed - every single wax figure seems to tower over me! the museum was divided into different categories to house the wax figures. i think we took about more than 3 hours to cover the whole museum. the more visitors there were, and depending on which figure is more popular, the more you'd be spending your time waiting in line to take your photo with the wax figures. there's no proper turn, you simply just have to seize the opportunity once someone has finished taking their photo, seriously. some people took their own sweet time too just to snap a photo T___T. kamonlah. so many people waiting after you. hurry, plish?

what's inside Madame Tussauds

sorry for sounding so touristy, but it was my first time gawking at wax art so whatever wax figure we chanced upon, we took photo. some of the figures i did not recognize (especially in the Sports section), but most of them were labelled so if you didn't recognize anybody, you can just inconspicuously read their name plaque and do not need to rack your brains trying to figure out who that person is =P. i'm not gonna spam every single photo here, only just the well-known figures =D.

in the Bollywood section, i met these two: my favorite Bollywood actor ever (during his Kuch Kuch Hota Hai fame) and that pretty lady Aishwarya Rai =D.

Shah Rukh Khan! *swoon*

the actress whose name Significant Other has trouble pronouncing

these people resides in the Party section:

Tom Cruise

George Clooney

Helen Mirren, she's so freakin' tall!

you know what? i think i overlooked Edward Cullen. i found Jacob (i know because i took a photo with this guy), but i couldn't find a single photo taken with Robert Pattinson. ooops, sorry =P

Jacob! the hot werewolf (sorry Edward =P)

J Lo?

Emma Watson must be super hot to snag a spot in the museum, not just because of her Harry Potter fame. and i don't even see Harry or Ron here! Significant Other declares her as his new young girlfriend, lol.

Emma Watson. even i don't have a photo with her haha

the Beckhams

Nicole Kidman

the Jolie-Pitts

his other new girlfriend, someone was purposely cropped out =P~

Julia Roberts, doppelganger#3

Leo DiCaprio

some bystander whom we thought was real, haha

Jim Carrey

and here's the Film section:

Marilyn Monroe

i dressed up as Marilyn Monroe for my company annual dinner two years ago. you definitely know that i do not have the same vital stats as her, boo (didn't help that the dress was a rental and it was super big!). but someone else apparently made a better Monroe than me. HAHA

flashback: meet the Monroe's! kggal

fiiine i look nothing like her

Bruce Willis

Daniel Craig, not Joseph Craig ya =P

Robin Williams

Tinkerbell!

Daddy took a photo with Shrek to show the kids. so while i was typing all this i showed Dayana the photo of Shrek. she was like 'oooo i like Shrek!'. then after a pause she asked me, 'what is Shrek, Mommy?' T_____T. note to self: download Shrek for the kids to watch.

Shrek

Steven Spielberg

Sports, where i had to read their labels because i didn't recognize about 80% of them. the ones i do recognize are below:

Nadal

Significant Other is a big tennis and f1 fan. so naturally the photos above and below must be taken =D.

Lewis Hamilton!

i just wanted to touch his helmet lol

don't. mess.

Tiger Woods

moving on to the London Royals:

Lady Di, another freakin' tall woman

Harry!

you had to line up to get your photo taken with the Royal Family.

with the Royal Family, without George.

Culture:

Madame Tussaud

Einstein

the Music section:

even One Direction holds a spot in the museum. they must be really big among the teens, eh? *thinking back to the BSB/Boyzone/911/Westlife/NSync era*. i didn't take a photo with them though, too many die-hard teen fans flocking about *ok baru tau One Direction is English-Irish*. i didn't take a photo with One Direction, but i took a photo with this legendary group =D:

the Beatles!

MJ

and here is Significant Other with 3 of the hot girls in this section:

Britney Spears

Lady GaGa

Beyonce

i took a photo with Elvis =D

King of Rock. so. tall.

there were so many wax figures in the World Leaders section. i can't believe we didn't take a photo of Nelson Mandela (or did we?):

he really blends in well with those other two, huh?

we got to meet Mr. President

there was also a Chamber of Horrors and Scream! mini walking tour that you could choose to go for or bypass it altogether as it might not be suitable for kids or people with heart problems. real live actors are used to scare the crap out of you as you walk through the dark maze not knowing what to expect T_T. this section also displays some of the world's (or probably London's) infamous murderers.

we skipped the Behind the Scenes section, where they show you how they make their wax figurines from scratch. all celebrities’ vital statistics are kept secret though, so you might want to carry around a measuring tape if you wanted to find out anything 'vital' haha (kidding!). there were too many people at this section  you'd have to elbow your way around to absorb every single information, so we just glanced through and and moved on to the next.

next we took the Spirit of London taxi ride. hop into one of London's infamous black cabs and take a journey through the capital's history, and witness the historical and cultural events that have shaped London into one of the greatest cities in the world. i must say history never managed to hold my attention for long, i was never a fan of history -___-. i couldn't get any decent photos here, lighting was wonky and the taxi cab was always shifting from side to side so you get to see the sights from every angle throughout the journey.

the final section was the Marvel Super Heroes and the 4D Movie Experience. the climax of the experience is a 360º animated 4D cinema attraction, complete with high impact special effects from water and wind to tremors, making you ‘feel’ like part of the action. the story unites a crack team of Super Heroes including Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Iron Man in a battle against one of Marvel’s most villainous baddies in an action packed adventure set in London. LOL. the last 4D experience i had was at Moody Gardens, three years ago =D. super ohsem this one.

we didn't get any souvenirs here, but we did take a couple of photos =D. (*mental note to find and upload photo) you should come visit here at least once in your lifetime if you ever come to London. you know, just to get the experience, lol. i asked Dad whether he's been here before, he says he hasn't O_o.

wet dreary London indeed =)

the flight out mishap

well waddya know, my first international flight out since 2010 and what happens? i get stranded during transit. lol.

au revoir

me is going to London! *peace*

my initial departure time was supposed to be at 0955, but after rushing to the airport this morning and getting stuck in seemingly the most slowest check-in line ever, i found out that the flight got delayed to 1245. i overheard a passenger also heading to London saying there was no way to make it to Muscat on time for the connecting flight, which was true. our initial flight layover was only 1.5 hours.

not my fault. you late, you fix.

i need to get a new pair of Sketchers. the ones i wore this morning got eaten away in time, the soles were practically coming off. i've had them since 2009. i'm not sure if i could have them resoled, since they're shape ups. luckily i had another pair of shoes in the car.

for our troubles, they gave us a complimentary Burger King breakfast voucher to use while waiting to board. i think it was meant to be used at the BK located at the satellite building, but i wanted to express milk in the baby room before boarding so i redeemed it at the outlet on the arrivals floor. in my rush this morning i didn't have time to empty out the boobs T___T.

breakfast voucher

not to my taste T___T

i've never heard of Oman Air prior to this. the A330 took off from KL at 1320, and the journey to the middle east took 6 hours (better than Significant Other's flight, straight 13 hours from SGP, but he's on the A380). the main problem with these long flights i've been thinking about was where to express milk. in fact can we express milk on the plane? the lavatory itself was too cramped already, are we allowed to hog it for 20 minutes? haha.

the airline interior

erm... movie time?

overall the crew service during the flight was good (as in no snottishness emanating from them unlike some airline i know). i was initially seated beside a young boy but i changed place with the father who happened to get a seat alienated away from his family. i didn't mind, i'd have wanted to have done the same if it was me. future karma, you could say.

being economy class, leg room sucked but other than that i guess it was okay. seating was 2-4-2 so it was easy for anyone to clamber out to get to the lavatory. the food was edible, being Oman Air the food served on board was halal. i was kinda amused when i saw the catering service providing for the airline as they were getting the plane ready for takeoff - Brahim's, lol. Significant Other used to buy those instant meals whenever he traveled overseas for Baker Hughes.

Brahim's... bahahahahah

during the flight i:
- got to watch two movies, one included The Internship (Owen Wilson! the funny guy),
- went to lavatory once (i prefer not to 'go' on a plane, only when necessary),
- got served food twice,
- snoozed for awhile, and
- given a hot towel to freshen up.

we arrived in Muscat at 1520 and as expected, our connecting flight had already left, bahahah. a whole bunch of us got stranded in transit, half of whom were supposed to be headed to other destinations, some being Kuwait, Doha, Munich, Zurich, to name a few.

i got rescheduled to board British Airways to LHR later at midnight Muscat time, so i got a hotel transfer while waiting for the flight to depart. even the family i gave up my seat for was stranded, they were headed for Qatar (i suppose he works for oil and gas) but those headed to Doha seemed to have vanished early - i guess their reassigned connecting flight was early. we all signed transit visas and got chauffeured away to a hotel that was nowhere close to walking distance from the airport.

our transit visa valid for 24 hours

for our troubles, i got an Oman stamp in my passport =P. oh just so you know, the weather in Muscat is hottttttttt. the time in Oman is GMT +4. Oman drivers drive on the left side of the road, and their currency is Oman Riyal, which i don't happen to carry with me. lucky i still had that burger leftover from this morning. haha.

welcome to Muscat

as you can see, their buildings are very squarish and in similar colors too

the hotel we stayed at

welcome foyer

in case you got lost

camwhoring in the bathroom

spacious room for ONE lol

the last time i pumped was at 10am Malaysian time, which is almost more than 8 hours. i wish i brought d3 along. how i miss her. for the next two weeks i'll have to strengthen my relationship with my freestyle, what fun.

pumping time!

last Monday i came down with plugged ducts on my right side, which hurt like hell and made me come down with a fever @_@. it hurt so bad even after popping 4 panadols it didn't help much. i ended up taking antibiotics from the Dr.

i reallllly need a hot shower and a short nap. my iPhone needs charging too. cellular data really drains out the battery -___-. kinda regret not buying the same powerbank Significant Other bought recently (in my head i can hear his voice telling me, 'i told you so' tsk).

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one hot bath and a nice short nap later... i'm awake and was in the midst of pumping another round when i got a call from reception asking me if i had dinner or not. i said no, i only had my measly burger which i hoped would last me until my next flight. but apparently they provided dinner for us downstairs as well, all thanks to Oman Air, lol.

food. yumms.

i had only 10 minutes before the transit bus arrived to bring us all back to the airport. the small buffet they provided was quite nice. i especially liked the chicken stroganoff and the mushroom soup.

checking in at the airport. those two are also headed for London

halfway to London!

at the airport after checking in i dropped by the perfume counter to spray perfume haha. i didn't have a single piece of extra clothing with me, only my camera and my medela, lol.

now i'm waiting to board British Airways to London... via Abu Dhabi? or so that guy behind the counter told me, after asking him how long would this flight take. i'm off now. i'll let you know when i finally get to my destination (to me at the moment, i feel like i'm in some sort of Amazing Race for all that has happened so far, haha).

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British Airways to London via Abu Dhabi was even longer than my first flight out @_@ yeah flying to Abu Dhabi took only less than an hour but the stopover took 1.5 hours so it was 0230 when we took off from Abu Dhabi, and arrived at LHR just before 7am.

old skool BA

when i boarded the old school Boeing777 (lol elly prefers this aircraft very much over the new A380) i asked one cheery looking stewardess how long would the journey take, and she happily replied '11 hours, but it would feel faster if you sleep during the journey!' @_@. even the lady who boarded at Abu Dhabi and sat one seat from me told me the flight would arrive at 7am. lucky this time we had an empty seat between us, so it didn't feel so cramped. the aircraft seating was 3-4-3, i got a seat by the window so i only had to get past her to get to the lavatory =D.

the interior. looky a blond FA!

someone travelled with a young infant, they got the seats that came with a baby cot as explained by people who travelled with infants (teeny wished i brought dira to lug around with me for company haha. or mostly just to experience travelling alone with an infant. must be challenging i expect).

didn't really do much on this plane except to watch at least 2 movies, slept (they kept the lights dimmed throughout the whole journey anyway), and only got served breakfast just as you could see the sun's rays breaking the horizon in the distance through the window.

breakfast

first view of London - Thames River

immigration as expected took long, i had to pump in the bathroom first because i was so smart to keep my things in the overhead compartment and didn't want to trip in the dark (with all that darkness i could practically pump at my seat lol). luckily during the whole missed connecting flight my bags where happily going round and round the conveyor belt when i went to collect them.

and i found fil and Significant Other happily/patiently waiting for me at arrivals =D.

took me a whole extra 12 hours just to reach my destination. phew. i had so much fun just getting here haha and btw, London in September is COLD! gahhhhh. now i know why i could withstand Houston weather the last time - i was eating for two. now? it's just me, skins and bones HAHA. i really thought i had mercury blood last time. guess not. phooey.