Base 2 Stay

So I'm in the process of going through the hundreds of photos taken during our trip and culling the one's I want to develop and also upload onto FB. 

Yes people, develop your photos or at least upload them somewhere for people to view. Why take photos and not share them with people? Prints cost 9c everyday at Kmart. You can upload your images online from the comfort of your home, pay online or upon pick up and most stores close at 12pm on weekdays - there are no more excuses for not printing photos. I enjoy the experience of going through a photo album with someone as they explain stories behind a photo they are sharing.

In the mean time (more like while the little man is asleep and I have some time to blog) I want to share our experience and provide a review of the accommodation we stayed at in London. 

We stayed at Base2Stay Kensington, however it's more like Earl's Court. It opened its doors in 2006 so it's a relatively new hotel therefore its interior and rooms have modern fixtures. We booked our room directly through the hotel however, there are other online vendors you can book through. At the time it worked out cheaper to booked through them directly than go with these third party websites.

Cost of the room was ... slightly above our budget in terms of how much we wanted to spend, but the para-Olympics, which started on the same day we arrived, played a factor on the price. Base2Stay is a well priced hotel and rates are usually cheaper than the period of time we were there. Actually because of the para-Olympics we couldn't afford to stay closer to the heart of London.

A summary of my review of our room, 205 at Base2Stay:

• Room was clean and cozy, beds warm and comfy.
• Room was basic but contained a cupboard, small kitchenette, safe, flat screen tv and modern bathroom.
• Kitchenette contained basic kitchen utensils, a small sink, coffee facilities, microwave and a fridge.
• Rooms were quiet, never heard other guests around us although I knew there were people staying next door and across from us.
• Accommodation included free wifi for guests. Rooms even contained a keyboard to allow you to connect online and use the flat screen tv as a monitor.
• Five minutes walk to Earls Court train station therefore can access either the Piccadilly or District tube lines. 
• Because hotel was on the Piccadilly line we could catch a train directly from the airport without forking out extra for the Heathrow Express train. 
• There are many grocery stores, fast food outlets, restaurants, pubs, banks and convenience stores within walking distance to accommodation.
• When we booked accommodation we mentioned it was our wedding anniversary and they sent us a bottle of champagne as a gift.
• Staff were very friendly and helpful. We need to print some documents that needed to be scanned and emailed. Staff was able to assist us with this process by printing email, rescanning document and emailing back to me.
• Rooms serviced daily.
• Hotel monitors feedback from visitors like a hawk via TA and take all feedback seriously so they can improve on their service. They pride in the constant positive feedback.

Faults I would raise:

• There is a building next door currently being renovated / built so could hear the construction noises in the morning and thorough out the day.
• No exhausted in the bathroom so would fog up after a hot shower.
• Using the shower faucet was a bit confusing at the start. Some information provided in rooms would have been helpful however we soon figured it out. There is no cold water, the cold water tap controls the hotness of the hot water.
• Water pressure was not that great, don’t know if it’s the hotel or London as a whole and do not have strong shower water pressure.
• No iron facilities.
• Air conditioner was very noisy when on. It would actually wake me up in the middle of the night. 

Overall Base2Stay was a pleasant stay for us. It was well priced, clean, modern and meet all our creature comfort needs. 

Would I stay here next time I come to London .... if our dollar is stronger against the pound and there isn't a global event factoring prices I would probably like to stay a little closer to the shopping districts of town.   

Comfy beds to crash on after a long day of sight seeing and shopping

The small kitchenette area. The microwave is on the shelf above and fridge is hidden in the cupboard  below. 

I'll upload the pictures taken from Ian's camera ... when I get to them.

We're Back

I'm back from our big European adventure ... booo *sad face*

But yay back with our little man whom we totally missed while we were away. There wasn't a day that I didn't say out loud "I miss Eli!!" or watched one of his videos to get me through the day. He's ... changed so much ... but more on that later.

I want to put some time into writing about my holiday so that in I in a few years time I can recall the moments and experiences with all its detail. So give me a few days or weeks (depending on how lazy I get recounting my adventure) to write in thorough detail about the experiences of our long awaited holiday across Europe.

Our itinerary included:

London (view of the London Eye, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament)

Paris (Eiffel Tower)

 Florence (The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore)

Rome (The Colosseum) 

Crete (beach from Candia Maris Resort & Spa) and

Santorini (view from our suite at Aliko Suites)


All images taken by me with my iPhone.

Holiday Count Down

Our big European adventure is around the corner. In five days time Ian and I are finally taking our European holiday ... and without the little guy.

We're both very excited but I'm also a little nervous. I'm nervous about being away from my baby with sever allergies for so long. Yes of course this was all our choice. No one forced us to go on this holiday and we decided to go without him because Europe is our dream holiday, for mum (more so) and dad. 

Europe is our little reward from the sale of my property. Its a little present for ourselves for all those years of paying a mortgage before most people had a mortgage. It's our little splurge from our investment instead of blowing all our disposable income on things we could have purchased at the time.

We're flying into London first, meeting up with Miss S and Mr E. It will be pretty cool to see them after so many months. I think its best to say I need to get my liver ready for one big week in London. I'm also ready to do my part for the UK economy and do some serious shopping, considering I do all of my shopping online from UK sites. Afterwards we're off to Paris for a week. I'm glad we decided to stay in each country for a week so we can really enjoy the location and not feel rushed to do everything in a short period of time (although I still think a week is not long enough in all these places). In Paris we're even booked for a macaroon cooking class. After Paris we're off to Florence then Rome, Crete then finally Santorini. So technically I will be at Santorini in my 30's which is what I wanted to do for my 30th birthday. 

I can't wait to see all these beautiful places I've been lusting over for years and eat everything! Leading up to this holiday I was trying to work out as much as possible (probably more than I ever have in the past) so that my body is fit and bikini ready, on top of being able to eat everything. By the way my body is not bikini ready, I just said that.

Need to pack ... I don't know what to bring?

Eli's 1st Birthday

It's been over a month since I last posted on here. 

As I have mentioned previously I'm really bad at committing to write in a blog. I forget all about it and when I do want to blog its nothing blog worthy (in my opinion) just some random thoughts I want to take note of, because when/if I re read those comments later on I know what I'm referring to. Surely there must be an app where I can take notes of my random thoughts especially when I'm on the go.

So since my last post my little man turn into a bigger little man and had his first birthday. I can't believe he's 1! I can't believe its been a year since I popped him out ... naturally and in 25mins.

His superheroes themed birthday party was really cute with most children guests rocking up in costume. We hired a ball pit and a jumping castle which was smart idea as it allowed parents to put their kids in a gated area leaving their arms free to at least ate. My sisters decorated the venue to match the theme and sister I was the hostess with the mostess in charge of the games. Food wise it was a filo style menu with filo spaghetti, spring rolls, fried chicken, sweet bread and letchon. He received so many gift and people once again were so generous in their giving. He really is loved and we are so grateful for such wonderful people in his life.

And he can walk now too ... He started walking a month prior to his birthday

Our super little man ... 

Happy 1st Birthday Elijah, you changed our world and also the center of it. Mummy and Daddy love you so much

Supermum

Who's a supermum? I am!!

Since we've been awake this morning (7:30am) I have fed Eli his breakfast, exercised, gone to the shops with Eli to get groceries, made Eli have a nap, washed and hanged his clothes, made a batch of Eli's meals, fed him his lunch and its only 12:48pm.

I am pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Actually now that I am a mum with more responsibilities I'm surprised how much I accomplish, things just need to get done. I guess that's why women were built with the skill of multi tasking.

Have you ever had a day where you achieved so much in the span of a few hours? What did you complete and within what period of time?

A Rock & A Hard Place

The project I'm on is expected to go live next month. So work has gotten really busy and demanding lately. I'm not really complaining, its expected working in projects.

I've been working on the same application since I commenced my employment. Same system just rolled out to another country. It's not that challenging anymore and I'm keen to learn something else and work with someone else besides the Project Manager who has been working on the same projects as well.

I don't agree with how this person runs or "manages" projects. Yes she completes the project but I think the quality of the outcome to me falls short in most areas. She focuses on components of the project which I think are trivial or in my opinion below what she should be worrying about. She deflect any responsibility of issues and rarely suggest solutions. When she talks to people she assumes they have the same knowledge as she does yet refuses to share any information. She makes decisions on behalf of the business based on her experience and knowledge of the company but she's not the business so it shouldn't be her call.

I guess now that we're at that phase in the project where all the components are being tested and questioned, there are many holes. Holes I think are her responsibility to have identified and mitigated, holes that I believe she should focus her time on closing instead of telling off the vendor cause the test environment is always down.

It's hard to work in an environment where you don't agree with the approach of a superior team member. I've worked in enough projects to know how to manage stakeholders expectations, realise when an approach is working or not working, identify processes for mitigating risks and when there's a poor project manager managing the project. It's even harder when this person is like office furniture in the company, that is they've been there forever. So its even harder to convince her to try new things or get other people to doubt her because of her loyalty to the company. 

ALT + TAB

I hardly go online and “surf” at work because we’re at the busy phase of the project at the moment. But every now and then I want to surf. I generally switch between knowing my a current affairs, researching for July or August or snooping on friends. I hardly do it but the last 2-3 times I have done in this past week the CIO of IT has walked up behind me to ask a question. I’m sure he’s wondering ‘Do I pay her to just surf all day?’ Its too obvious if I alt + tab straight away. I just got to commit to being sprung and act like it’s no big deal, play it cool, act like don’t care he can see my Facebook page or Instagram.

So embarrassing.