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Travel

Harry Potter, Harry Potter Studio Tour, London, Harry Potter London, Harry Potter UK, Studio Tour, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Hogwarts, Studio, Leavesden, Travel, Europe,
in Europe, Leavesden, Travel, United Kingdom

Travel + Ultimate Guide: The Making of Harry Potter – Studio Tour (UK)

We’re finally done with the Paris leg of our trip and we’re now in the UK! I’m so happy about getting through my backlog, bit by bit.

Today’s post is about one of my favourite bits of our Europe trip in 2015. This happens in the middle of our London leg but I opted to write about it first due to two reasons: 1.) It will be easier to link it to different posts and 2.) The first one is something I just made up the real and only reason is that I’m just hella excited to write about this one. So prepare yourselves. This is going to be a lengthy post.

If you know me personally or if you’ve been following the blog for a while now, you probably already know that I’m a humungous Harry Potter fan. Yes, I’m a grown woman and no, I don’t care what you think. It came out when I was young, okay?!

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It’s weird though how this isn’t my first time in Europe yet I only got to go to the studios during this trip. I guess timing really is one of life’s most important factors. That, and a companion (husband, in my case) willing to spend all day with you at a studio and watch you drool over things while being such an insufferable know-it-all (see what I did there?) and the ultimate fan girl.

Before I move along, I just have to thank Alvin for being such a great husband. We even marathon-ed all 8 movies prior to the trip just so he can be up to date with HP knowledge. I really can’t believe he only saw one of the movies and he can’t even remember which one! Forgave him for not reading the books though. His interests do lay in the non-fiction section of the bookstore.

Though I must say, he did look like he was enjoying himself in the studio in the end. Or… was he just humouring me?

Getting there

The Making of Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour is often advertised to be in London but it’s actually in Leavesden – an area that is actually 20 miles Northwest of Central London.

We took a train from from London Euston station to Watford Junction and the journey took a little over an hour so do take this into consideration! Upon arrival in Watford, we took a double decker bus operated by Mullany’s Coaches to the studio. The bus stops right in front of the train station and is decked in Harry Potter decal so you won’t miss it. The bus ride takes about 10 minutes and will cost you GBP2.50 for a return ticket.

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Tickets

We booked our tickets through the official website months in advance to make sure we get slots. The studio does not sell tickets on-site. So, no walk-ins.

You will get your booking confirmation via e-mail which you can exchange for actual tickets upon your arrival. There are ticket counters right outside the studio. You also have the option to have your tickets mailed in advance to you for a hassle-free entry.

Our tickets amounted to GBP85.85 in total. The breakdown is as follows:

Adult tickets: GBP33.00 each (GBP66.00)

Paperback souvenir guidebook: GBP9.95

Digital guides: GBP4.95 each (GBP9.90)

Tip: If you’ve read most of the books, the digital guides may end up being useless to you. It’s pretty cool though. It has audio and video so you can watch some behind the scenes stuff. But it ended up being more useful to my husband. So reserve the guides for people in your group who are not that much of a die-hard fan. As for the paperback souvenir guide, get it. It’s a steal for the price and is an exclusive piece of merchandise from the studio. You can see me talking about it here at 20:30.

When booking your tickets, you get to choose what time you want to start your tour. This is the studio’s effort to do some crowd control since it can get pretty congested. I suggest you go in the morning since people tend to stay longer and the afternoons will most likely leave the studio full with all the people from the morning tours, still lingering and taking photos. Our schedule was at 9:30 and we arrived to this:

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Not to worry. The line moves pretty fast. While waiting, you also get to see the cupboard under the stairs. It’s enough to get anybody who’s read the novels or seen the movies excited.

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The Great Hall

You will then be ushered in to a theatre room where a message from the cast will greet you. Cameras weren’t allowed so sorry if there are no photos of that. After the short film, guests will be guided towards the doors of the Great Hall.

You can just feel the excitement in the air as kids dressed as Hogwarts students and adults who wished they could do the same and not be judged for it await for the doors to open.

Tip: Go on your birthday. They would normally pick you to open the enormous double doors and be the first to go inside.

Confession: I almost pretended like it was my birthday just to be the one to get to open the doors. Knowing that my husband may not look at me the same way again, stopped me. In the end, the privilege went to a kid dressed in Hogwarts robes with a Gryffindor scarf.

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I did not scream nor run as I entered, I promise. I was able to retain my poise that’s normally reserved for diplomatic events that I attend with my husband. I was the perfect model of calm and cool until I saw these:

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And that’s when I started gushing and pointing at stuff. The fake food supposedly prepared by House Elves, the costumes worn by the cast (Tip: Look for the one worn by Daniel Radcliffe while filming Sorcerer’s Stone), the utensils – everything just lives up to expectation!

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Geneva, Travel, Europe, Summer, Summer 2015, Switzerland,
in Europe, Geneva, Switzerland, Travel

Travel: Photo Diary of our Geneva Day Trip (From Paris)

Hello, my loves. It feels so good to be finally over the Paris leg of the trip! It actually makes me feel that I’m getting over the backlog bit by bit.

I know the updates have been slow in this space (as well as the YouTube channel) but I’ve been so busy, there are days when I just don’t know where my day went. It’s bound to let up by the second week of March – hopefully.

For now, let me share with you some photos from our day-trip to Geneva last August. We took a high speed train from Paris to Geneva early in the morning. The TGV Lyria takes about 3 hours and 5 minutes from Gare de Lyon to Geneva’s Central Station.

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Geneva, Travel, Europe, Summer, Summer 2015, Switzerland,

Since it was still too early for my brain to function, I slept most of the way. But every time I opened my eyes in between naps, I was treated to a beautiful view. It is common knowledge that the French country side is gorgeous but that is quite an understatement and the photos I have here do not give it justice. My excuses would have to be we were moving too fast and that the glass keeps reflecting the train’s interior.

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The main reason for us making a side trip to Geneva is our friend Anne. She’s Alvin’s colleague from our Foreign Ministry and is currently assigned there. We missed her, obviously. 😉

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Paris, Travel, France, River Cruise, Seine Cruise, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, City Cruise, Lafayette, Paris Shopping,
in France

Travel: Paris River Cruise + Travel and Saving Tips for Your Trip to Paris

Finally on my last installment for Paris! Since I’m writing this in the middle of the night as I suffer from monthly lady pains, I’m just gonna make this a quickie post. Also, so I can proceed to writing about Geneva next. 😉

After our half-day trip to the Versailles, my husband and I quickly went back to the city to do some last minute shopping for souvenirs and sight seeing. We first dropped by the Palai Garnier which is the official home of the Paris Opera.

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It’s definitely a grand building and a pleasure to look at. After exploring that area for a bit, we went straight to the Galeries Lafayette. Not to splurge or anything but to just stare and be in awe of the ceiling. Yes, we’re kinda weird. But just look at it!

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We walked around, getting lost in rows and rows of shops till it was almost sunset. We made our way back to the Eiffel Tower so we can catch a river cruise along the Seine. We wanted to do the cruise at the right moment to maximise what we could get out of it.

Normally, we wouldn’t make much effort just to join a cruise but since the ticket was included in our Paris Pass, we decided that it might be a good way to end our trip.

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in Travel

Travel: Jardin du Luxembourg (Paris Day 3)

It’s 2016 and I’m still behind my posting schedule. I’ve already had three other trips after our Europe trip so you guys can really imagine my backlog. Tee hee. Just looking at it is enough to make me feel overwhelmed. So from now on, I’m gonna keep the travel entries for Europe shorter and will keep it to one to two places per post. I will be eliminating some of the minor places we visited or passed by and just focus on the major ones. Will also just opt for photo heavy posts. I’ll still be giving travel tips but they’ll definitely be a lot shorter. Hope that’s alright with you, loves!

***

On our third day, my husband and I decided to bring some breakfast and eat inside the Luxembourg Gardens to have a picnic of sorts. It was a great plan as we wanted a relaxed and kind of a romantic morning.

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It was the perfect place for a breakfast date, to be honest.

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in Europe, France, Paris, Travel

Travel: The rest of our 2nd day in Paris (Pantheon + Champs Élysées + Ladurée

* So sorry for the short hiatus! I’ve been running around like a headless chicken these days as I’m so busy with some freelance work, family visits, and travels. If you ever miss me for not being on the blog, you can always find out what I’m up to on Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat (carolific) though I do suck in making snaps on the go too. 🙂

Paris, Travel, Diplomat's Wife, France, Budget Travel, Europe, Europe Travel, Pantheon

We started Day 2 with a quick trip to the Pantheon which is located in the city’s Latin quarter.

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Before entering, a photo of the husband outside the Universite de Paris’ Faculté de Droit (Law). Yep, I married a lawyer. A geeky one at that. 😉

Okay, back to the Pantheon. Originally built as a church for St. Genevieve, it was turned into mausoleum after the French Revolution and is now a place to bury remarkable French people.

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Its crypt is the final resting place of writer/philosopher extraordinaire Voltaire, philosopher/writer/composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, poet/dramatist/writer Victor Hugo, and chemist-physcist Marie Curie to name a few.

A lot of visitors to this place – particularly foreigners – often forget the nature of this building. Most visitors make so much noise, blowing the solemnity of the Pantheon into smithereens. That’s why I suggest to visit this place early in the morning. Less people – like parents laughing and shouting at their kids as they run after them across the vast hallways.

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Behind the Pantheon is the St. Etienne du Mont that contains the shrine of St Genevieve – the patron saint of Paris.

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in France

Travel: (Paris Day 2) The Louvre + Tuileries Garden + Place de la Concorde

** It’s quite sad that this post (which has been sitting in my draft pile for over a week due to pending edits) was scheduled for posting in the wake of the senseless acts of violence in Paris. My heart goes to the victims and their families as well as those who perished in Beirut due to a similar incident.

A visit to Paris won’t be complete without stopping by The Louvre. While the city does have a lot of museums, nothing compares to the Louvre when it comes to the number of historical artefacts it hosts. It sounds so basic to say that the Louvre has got to be one of my favourite museums in Europe – but it is. Tied with Rijksmuseum, to be honest.

A dream job of mine would be to work there and have a humungous employee discount at their souvenir shop. I’ll just buy all the books I want. 😀 😀

My last visit before this year was in January 2013 and I wrote a quick article for Rappler on some of my must-see pieces. You can find that article by clicking on this link: Visiting The Louvre. If you’re a first time visitor and would love to get a few tips in getting in and exploring the museum, I think that article can serve as a primer.

For this post, I won’t go into detail on the pieces anymore since I already did that in the Rappler article. This is going to be more of a photo diary from our recent visit in August.

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Almost Diplomatic - Newens Tea House - Kuala Lumpur - Diplomat's Wife
in Asia, Expat Life, KL Food, Kuala Lumpur

Foodie Adventures: Newens Teahouse at Starhill Gallery

Tea is a part of my everyday life. Ever since I cured my coffee addiction, tea has been my everything – and while that may not sound like much of an improvement to some people, well, in my case… it kinda is. Even before the major shift to tea happened, I’ve been drinking it in lattes and during afternoon tea (and sometimes even high tea) as this a part of British culture that always had a special place in my girly-girl heart.

There’s just something about sitting with some of your best girls, talking about topics that range from politics to makeup while you sip on something that relaxes you as you treat yourself to a couple of sweets and sandwiches. Not to mention my love for fancy table settings, cutlery, and plates that actually play a big role in my ever so often afternoon tea excursions with friends.

Recently, my friend (and actually one of my fave afternoon tea buddies) Tammy brought me to Newens Teahouse in Starhill Gallery for a new menu item preview and we ended up seeing some of our other friends there – ShopGirl and Kelly❤️

Fancy tea places are kind of a fun splurge every-now-and-then for me and our last afternoon tea date at the Ritz-Carlton Lobby Lounge, left us thinking where we should go next.

Newens is the home of the original Maids of Honour tart. Its recipe dates back to the time of King Henry VIII and coincidentally, one of my favourite ladies in British history – Anne Boleyn. After the tussle with Catherine of Aragon that was followed by the creation of the Church of England, Anne married the King. She eventually had maids of honour (ladies in waiting) following her around and entertaining her in the ladies’ private chambers. One of these ladies created a tart so exquisitely delicious that Anne got the King to try it.

When the King tasted how good it was, he just knew that he couldn’t share it with others and he decided to have the lady imprisoned and only let out to bake for the Royal Court. Such a Henry VIII move if you ask me. *rolls eyes*

After the lady died, everyone thought that the recipe was forever lost but it resurfaced 200 years later when a palace cook leaked the recipe to a baker named John Billet. In 1850, one of Billet’s apprentices – John Newens – opened his own bakery and used the recipe.

Almost two centuries later, Newens Teahouse is still making the tarts based on that same recipe down to the T. And it has been loved by generations of British people from Winston Churchill to Queen Elizabeth II.

The recipe made its way out of the United Kingdom for the first time last year and landed in Kuala Lumpur – inside Starhill Gallery to be exact.

Sandwiched between Dior and Louis Vuitton, it’s hard to miss Newens. With its posh yet inviting couches and the sweet smell of tea and pastries wafting through the halls of the luxury mall. It can be quite intimidating to some but I find the servers are quite nice and welcoming.

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Almost Diplomatic - carolific - Diplomat’s Wife - Travel - Paris - Hotel Home Moderne Paris - Antique Book Market
in Europe

Travel: Arrival in Paris + Hotel Home Moderne, Paris (Review) + Antique Book Market

After a short stay in Amsterdam, we took the Thalys to Paris. It was a pleasant journey that took a little over 3 hours.

Thankfully, we took the train on that particular day as just a few days later, a gunman boarded the same train and planned to shoot innocent passengers as the train sped through Belgium! Good thing there were 3 men – 2 Americans and a French national who stopped him! It’s still a running joke that if it were Alvin and me on that train, God knows what would have happened. :)) But I digress.

Getting there

We arrived at Garre du Nord station where we were able take the Metro to where our hotel was.

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We were lugging around big suitcases and one thing I should tell you is that Paris Metro stations are not that conducive for people with humungous trolleys with them.

I knew this already and I know I should have packed less but we were staying in Europe for 3 effing weeks! I’m not the backpacker type of traveller either – I need my hair products and I will never sacrifice my clothing choices. So I pulled and huffed my way to the other side of Garre du Nord.

Alvin tried to help me but I was too proud. I did let a couple of French guys help me carry my suitcase up a few flights of stairs in two separate incidents. For two good reasons – 1, my suitcase was indeed heavy and 2, I just want show Alvin that I still got ‘it’. 😛 Whoever started the rumour that the French are snobs, I really have no idea whom you’ve met. The last time I was in Paris in 2013 and on this recent visit as well, I’ve only met kind and helpful Parisians!

We got off at Plaisance where the hotel was a good 10-minute walk from. It’s not too far, to be honest. But with heavy luggage, it did feel like forever.

Location

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Hotel Home Moderne is located in the 15th arrondissement so it’s not too near the city centre and all the attractions. However, with the Paris Metro line, everything in the city and its outskirts are always easily accessible.

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It’s more of a residential area where there are quaint cafés and small restaurants. If you want to see actual Parisians (even in the summer!), I suggest you stay here. You also get the feel of actually ‘living’ in Paris because of the neighbourhood.

It’s a tourist-friendly area but not touristy – you get what I’m saying? There’s an abundance of small grocery stores which also makes everything easier.

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in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Denmark, France, Geneva, Leavesden, London, Malmö, Paris, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Travel, United Kingdom, Versailles, Volendam

Beauty + Fashion [VIDEO]: The humungous (affordable) Europe haul

Hi everyone! Finally publishing this requested video which takes over 20 minutes. Crazy long, I know! But there’s just so much stuff to show you! So this is the video where I prove to you guys that shopping in Europe can be VERY affordable. 🙂 While I do have family there who heavily subsidised our trip and spoiled the hell out of us while we were there, the stuff I actually paid for didn’t leave my wallet in a sorry state. I missed Europe and all the things I can get there but I am proud to say that as always, I kept my head and didn’t go wild. Whew! (Always a struggle though if you’re into beauty products and clothes!)

Also, as a disclaimer, I didn’t include everything and even had to cut off a lot of parts just to keep it this short! I kept the most interesting bits, though. The home stuff, I’ll probably talk about them in another entry.

You can check the list of products I mentioned after the video if you don’t want to go through the whole ordeal. 😉 I also put them in order so you can easily forward through the video if you’re only interested in a few products!

A friend of mine who saw this video first before I uploaded it also asked why I didn’t get anything from Sephora during the trip. Answer: Because of the low Ringgit, everything is cheaper in Malaysia at the moment! So it would have been a disservice to my wallet and shopping skills if I shopped for makeup there that’s readily available in KL. 😀

Also, I was able to keep my hands off the Charlotte Tillbury and Tom Ford lipsticks that I wanted with the logic that if I pass on them now and just buy them when I have more savings, then, I will be able to buy more stuff in Boots! Haha! Crazy, I know. I’ve been taking extra freelance work lately as I’ve been saving up for the high end stuff that I want for my next trip – which may be coming sooner than I thought! 😉

Enjoy!

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Travel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Amsterdam Centraal, Where to Go, What to See, Sightseeing, Dutch, Holland, Netherlands, Rijksmuseum, National Maritime Museum, Canal Cruise, Amsterdam Canal Cruise, Cruise, Going Around Amsterdam, Amsterdam Tours
in Amsterdam, Europe, Travel

Travel: Canal Cruise in Amsterdam

There are quite a lot of canal cruise companies operating in Amsterdam and I’ve been getting a couple of questions as to which one is the best. It’s pretty hard to determine which company is actually the best as I haven’t tried them all – only a few. 😀

So I thought I’d do just a real quick post on the last one we tried when we were in Amsterdam last August which left both my husband and I happy with the experience.

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After our visit to the Rijksmuseum, we proceeded towards the Heineken Experience building where the small docks for the Amsterdam Canal Cruise‘s boats can be found. Need directions going there? Click here for a map.

We had to pay €16 each for a 75 minute tour. This is a pretty sweet deal since you’ll be seeing more of the city as some of the tours operated by other companies only last for 60 minutes and will charge you the same amount.

Almost Diplomatic - carolific - Diplomat’s Wife - Travel - Amsterdam - Canal Cruise

The best time to board a boat would be around 4:00 to 5:00 as even in the summer, it wasn’t so crowded.

You will be given disposable earphones which you can plug into audio sources near your table. You can choose among 20 languages (as seen above) for the narration/audio guide which will play you go through several places of interest.

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