A little haven called Terrain..

The little monster Sam and I accompanied Mr Lim on his work trip to Philadelphia over the weekend. While Mr Lim was away at work, I took a short little road trip myself to a lovely town called Glenn Mills, a 30 minutes drive from Philly. After dumping the little boy at Petsmart for grooming, I used the free time to visit one of my favourite stores in the states - Terrain @ Styers Garden Center. Just a little background - Terrain is a home & garden lifestyle store from Urban Outfitters and is a 11 acre garden center blending home fashion and horticulture. I was first introduced to this place when I went with Ray and Yilin on a day trip and I loved it! 

 Lucky me..it was another beautiful winter day! (Hee, the winter's been treating us real nice this year!)

 I absolutely adore the outdoorsy vintage cupboard (well, it was priced at USD2000+ though. -_-).

 I was tempted to buy the 'dogs' sign but felt that the USD25 price tag was a tad bit high.

I went for a yummy lunch at the Styer's cafe which was well hidden behind the bar. It was a glasshouse cafe and was just gorgeous. 

 Probably the best ginger beer ever!

I love how they served the popover bread in a flower pot. It's definitely true to the store. And the maple and lavender butter (topped with a little sea salt) was heavenly~~~~ Oh, and yes, the bread tasted wayyy better than its burnt look.  

My main was a Lobster roll which was decent. Hee, I was so blown away by the the butter that I left half of my croissant. =P

After the heavenly indulgence, I shopped and bought 4 jars of Philadelphia-made honey and a chalkboard sign. Well, I really couldn't afford any of the furniture pieces and I would probably kill any plants I buy. But all in all, it was an excellent trip and very relaxing as well. Hee, here's another motivation to follow Mr Lim on his future road trips to Philly!

My few steals from UK..

As mentioned earlier, I really didn't spend much buying things in the UK. I seriously think Zim spent more after investing in his Hugo Boss suit (even when all my purchases add up). Anyway, I managed to buy some items in London for Zim to bring back with him.

No surprises.. more Crumpler!!
I was so upset that I could not find anything that I liked at the factory outlet that I decided to just purchase a burberry scarf despite it being ridiculously expensive (sigh, it was about SGD200. -_-). I guess I was just pissed that Zim bought tons of stuff and I refused to return empty handed. grrrrr. Yap, an impulse buy. Pui~
A doggy umbrella and a doggy key chain that were probably worth less than what I paid for, but still, it works for a dog lover sucker like me. But again, Radley was quite a popular brand in London.
That was pretty much what Zim brought back for me. Pathetic huh?

For the dog lover sucker part of me, I bought some handmade items from a quirky store. (These I really love and do think it was probably the best buy of the trip.)
Oh oh, and of course, to add on to my shotglass collection!


For the food junkie part of me, I found some really yummy bites from Marks & Spencer that zim's sister used to get for me when she travelled for work. Love love love it!
To bribe the little monster and to distract him from attacking my snacks, I bought him some treats from Marks & Spencer and a little highland cow from Scotland. (Okay, I wanted the highland cow for me, so this is just an excuse.)
Well, I was so disappointed in my steals that I went on a shopping spree at Heathrow Airport. I swear I could have spent more had I not spend one stupid hour standing in line for VAT refund for a mere 5 pounds. (Like WTF right?) I found a tea towel, a foldable shopping bag and a pouch from Harolds! And yap, all of dog prints. ^_^
Hee... and shhh.. I also bought a longchamp duffel bag which I shall not post a picture of, lest Qian scolds me even more. =P But that was a lifesaver as I was able to fit everything, including my camera bag, into it to carry on the plane.

Guess that explains why I still have so much cash left behind. I barely did any shopping!!!!!!! T_T

Better luck in Rome. This I will ensure.

UK..

Okay, I conclude, Backpacking really ain't my style. Carrying a shitload on my back and constantly moving from hostels to hostels really just don't cut it for me. I'm still having a massive backache from the weight and the really uncomfortable beddings (I think age did contribute as well). Oh, did I mention that there was no TV! Thank god I had my faithful old kindle and iPod to keep me sane during the early nights. Oh well, I guess that's it. My future trips, either go luxury (okay, not extravagant, just reasonable.) or not go at all. Period.

That being said, it was a pretty good trip. My travel buddies were really nice and accommodating and UK is beautiful beyond words. I fell deep in love with Bath (and almost refused to come back had it not that Zim threatened to throw Sam away if I don't return) and was equally blown away by Edinburgh (which I would almost certainly return to).

It's funny to say this, but since I'm doing nothing most of the time in NYC, going on vacation is actually more exhausting than ever. All I could think of on the trip was to return to NYC, back to the comforts of my bed and couch and to indulge in my ever favourite pastime of watching trashy reality TV and just surfing the web. (Yeah, yeah, I'm pathetic.) Going on this holiday, while scenic and breathtaking, took away the simple joys of my life - TV, internet (this I could probably live without if I had TV, oh, and CABLE) and bringing Sam for walks. There was even one point of time that I was contemplating cutting the vacation short to come home (okay, yes, I'm that spoilt.) but thankfully stopped short of doing that.

On another positive note, this was probably the one trip that I spent the least as I was constantly worried about fitting everything into the backpack. Thus, after ALOT of self-editing, I came back with pretty much what I went with. Yes, I was wayyyy under budget and have a hell lot of pounds left. Damn. Hopefully, it's not going to fall too low. *Fingers crossed*

Yet, the biggest smile and joy I have had for the past two weeks was when I finally arrived back to NYC and held the little monster in my arms again. That was, without a doubt, the best moment.

Me Time trip.. Planning..

OMG. I didn't realise how difficult it is to plan a backpacking solo trip. It's even tougher for someone who tends not to plan for any trip and kinda do things as and when she feels like (Well, I'm a super last minute, impromtu kinda person I guess). I'm having a major headache just selecting the places I wanna visit, and suddenly, 2 weeks seemed to be wayyy too short!

I wonder if I would ever get done.. The scary (yet really thrilling) part is that, I would have to have a pretty complete plan as I won't really have anyone to lean on when something shitty happens.. Well, I'm pretty sure something IS going to happen. (Maybe a charming English prince or knight would come to my rescue then.) But till then, I'm definitely on my own! The unknown is just so exciting!!!! Sigh, wished I could have done this earlier!

Here's a quick look of the top places that are the highest priority in my itinerary as of now...

1. Bath

It's kinda stupid why I wanna go Bath. I was watching some HK drama (which I can't even recall) about a couple meeting and being together in Bath and I thought that I wanna go there someday.. And yap, that someday is in October!

2. Stonehenge

Definitely have to visit the iconic prehistoric site right?

3. Glasgow

Yap, Scotland's in my travel plans as well!!!

Other places include Liverpool, Cambridge and Edinburgh as well!!

Hopefully, the photos I upload in November will be that of those I took myself! Meanwhile, back to planning... *Pulls hair*