Eduardo's 1st birthday

Eduardo is ONE. We held a small party at his childcare centre which has a party and play area for rent.

We invited my husband colleagues, friends and our fellow Singaporeans. The children food and party stuff are all taken care of. The Party was held from 11am to 2pm. Therefore, I just got some finger food such as churros, tortilla, chicken wings, salad and drinks for the adults. I also ordered a 'Kico Nico' birthday cake for the Birthday boy as he is so in love with it (his bedtime companion). I was so afraid that he would grab the figure when he saw it on the cake. Thank goodness, he was just feeling excited and happy as I passed him his actual Kico.

We were very happy and Thanks for all the well wishes and presents.

Spanish Hair stylist who can manage Asian hair

Recently I finally found my courage to cut my hair in Madrid. My husband has tried a few stylist from Spanish to Chinese but none can meet my expectation. I was afraid to try as I have my own perception that Spanish cannot manage Asian hair as our texture are very different. And I am very particular on my hair cut. That's because in Singapore I have Sherman Lew whom I follow for more than 11 years and still counting. 

Through my fellow Singaporean friend who she has been living in Madrid for 10 years she recommended Jordi to me as she looks good in her cut.

Jordi works in Op/Zon Peluqueria at Fuencarral no.45, 28004 Madrid. He can speaks English and had been in Japan for 3 years as a stylist too. He is a very friendly and outgoing guy. After knowing his background, I felt more at eased when he snipped my hair as Japan street fashion is always in style. Most importantly, Japan is part of Asia.

So far, I have revisited to trimmed my hair. In general in all salon, they charge for every single steps unlike Singapore. I get charged on wash, vitamin, colour, cut and blow- I find that he like to blow my hair in curl using the handheld machine (it cost a lot more) even I said I just want normal blow dry for my hair. I always ended paying more because of the blow dry part. Well, but at least I like his work.

For the above services, I paid 110 euro and without colour I think it was about 40 euro lesser, forgot the actual price.

Oh by the way, the chair for rinsing hair is a massage chair with relaxing colourful lights. Although the time spent was short but it was quite a good experience and I really feel relax when I close my eyes.

I would recommend anyone to go if you wish you pamper your hair.

Massage chair for rinsing your hair

For second rinse if required. The projection
showcase the work that the various stylists had done

The chairs

Jordi and me.. look at his earring! He has
tattoo everywhere

Andorra

From the previous post of Zaragoza, we continued our journey to Andorra and its about another 4 hours drive. It is situated in the heart of the Pyrenees mountain. It is an independent state with an area of 468 square km southeast of Europe between Spain and France. Sad to say that we do not have enough time to cross to France.

The only way to get to Andorra is by car or bus. If by train, there are buses to connect to Andorra while several international airports are 200km away which tourists still have to rent a car or take a bus in.

Andorra is internationally known for its ski resort and low taxes. Therefore, make shopping even more exciting for me and 90% of the country is forest.

Driving from Spain to Andorra was never tired as the scenery that we saw along the way just kept us awake throughout. We heard 'wow…wow… look so beautiful…wow and wow'

When reaching the Spain border I saw custom booths, I thought we should stamp our passport since Andorra is another country but there was no one in any of the counters and we just drove across to Andorra. No need to queue like we we do in Singapore to Malaysia. Something very different ya! 

We check-in our hotel at about 9pm and were too tired to go out for dinner, we had instant noodles in my room with my relatives.

Next day, we checked out The Caldea spa and leisure centre. It is the largest in the south of Europe. It's the best for you to rest and relax after the tiring journey or after a day of shopping. I didn't get to go in as my boys are underage. Therefore, my rest and relax time was to do Shopping. I got a pair of sunglasses for Enrique and nothing for me but Eric got his best bargain. I was probably too busy shopping and forgot to take photos of the shopping area. 

With mountain surrounding us, we decided to drive up to get a closer view of the snow. When returning to Madrid, we stopped along the way when we saw attractive scenery. One of them is a dam and Enrique was like doing his personal photo shoot with his new sunglass.

The Caldea Spa and leisure centre 

On the way to the mountain 

Drinking water from the mountain 

On the way back to Madrid

Our first free jump shot

The Dam 

Enrique having his photo shoot
 in his new toy and sunglass

Zaragoza

In June, our relatives of 4 came visiting us and one of the itinerary was to visit Andorra and stop by Zaragoza for our lunch in our rented Mercedes Vito 9 seater.

From Madrid to Zaragoza is about 3 hours drive. It is situated on the Ebro river and it hosted Expo 2008 in the summer of 2008- a world's fair on water and sustainable development. 

We only managed to walked along the Elbro river and took some pictures of the surroundings. We settled on buffet lunch as we saw many crowd and the spread next to the window bay looks appetizing.

There are lots of beautiful sightseeing in Zaragoza and the Mudejar Architecture of Aragon is listed under the UNESCO World Heritage which I managed to capture a photo below.

Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar (Church)

Mudejar Architecture of Aragon
 is listed under the UNESCO World Heritage

Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar (Church)

Fuente de Hispanidad - iceberg alike fountain

Along El Ebro river

Spain National Day

October 12 is Spain's National Day. It is also the religious Feast Day of the Virgin of Pilar, Festival of the Guardia Civil, Feast Day of the Police and the Armed Forces.

The parade starts at 10am, many crowd around Plaza de Colon just to get the best view when the military parade along Castellana boulevard and the Royal family reviewing the troops at the grandstand of Plaza de Colon.

We too joined in the fun and squeezed in with the crowd. Both my boys are excited and happy. It was a fulfilling Saturday. After the parade, there was a 'counter' to distribute drinks to the troops… but we went to get one free drink too (assumed its free for all).