Monday, September 14, 2009

Lebaran Holiday Trip

RE my London accommodation fiasco; the loss of GBP 800 is heart-wrenching!!!
I was telling H that I need to have another ten orders like this to recuperate my losses.
Thankfully, he has not blamed me for the losses. Otherwise, I think I would feel much much worse that I already did. He did make a couple of jokes out of it.
He told the boys..."Boys. The next few days, you guys better start collecting cardboard boxes. Because we need to sleep in them when we are in London."
And told me "Well, instead of buying five handbags, you'll just have to make do with four."

I am not going to let this go. I am going to put a CLAIM to Holiday-Rentals under their RENTAL GUARANTEE scheme. I did register for this scheme, and did get a registration confirmation from them. I have also reported both Holiday-Rentals and Paulina Thomas to the Consumer people.
All I have to say that this has caused loads of headache and stress! Not to say the hassle that goes along!

Anyway, I have cancelled my booking at Citadines South Kensington, and booked So Quartier over at Kilburn Park; which costs GBP 100/nite for a one-bedroom apartment from Laterooms.com. Yes. It's in Zone 2. Figured that we are not going to spend extra 52 pounds from travelling from Zone 2 to Zone 1. Difficult to gauge from the current posted reviews as to whether the apartments are good or not. But photographs look quite nice. Go here for a peep.
It's quite close to where I used to live yonks ago... in West Hampstead, which is not too far from Kilburn Park. Will post about the accommodation after the holidays.

So far, I've got almost everything sorted out. I've booked the following:
- One night Hotel Room @ Stansted Airport
- Roma Passes
- Tickets for Vatican Museums & Sistene Chapel
- Rome Apartment (this was also booked through Holiday-Rentals. But I think it's A-OK for this one. Nope. Did not pay full amount. The owner only required a deposit of 110 euros.)
- Limo Transfer from Rome Ciampino to our apartment
- London Apartment
- Tickets to Buckingham Palace State Rooms
- Tickets to Tower of London
- Discounted Tickets to London Dungeon
- Theatre Tickets for Sister Act (but this one I am abit confused whether the purchase is confirmed. Have emailed for clarification)

Why Sister Act?
Well, I've not watched this one. H initially suggested Lion King, as the boys could relate to it. I was like "Huh? Lion King again? So boring. If I were to watch it again, I DEFINITELY will fall asleep".
H replied with a "That's true. Think I would to." BTW, he did FALL ASLEEP when we watched this in February c/w snoring and all!

I didn't want to watch something that I've seen. And Oliver was waaaaay too expensive. As there were some offers for Sister Act,...why not?
So now, I just have to get the boys to watch the film version of Sister Act, which Whoopi Goldberg starred. I also have to watch Angels & Demons so that I could follow the TRAILS where the cardinals were murdered! Hahahahaha

I think the planning/booking is almost done. I now just have to decide how we are going to get from Stansted to Central London. Train is out as it is too expensive compared to the other options. We will either take the coach/tube OR take a pre-booked taxi. Will have to check on the costs again.

Later....

4 comments:

mott said...

Wah..i like ur hub's words, hv to live with FOUR bags, not FIVE.

Heh... still got sense of humour...

Anonymous said...

actually hor how u know for sure that the accomodation u booked earlier is no longer available? Just go there la...the apartment cannot just disappear overnite rite??

NomadicMom said...

Mott - I supposed he knows that being upset about it is not going to solve the situation. SO at least this is a positive.

Laundryamah - Apartment NOT disappear overnight. But the owner/or whatever you call her just "disappear", i.e. not responding to calls nor emails etc. How to check in if NObody there? It's apartment rented out by owners through Holiday-Rentals.co.uk

flow said...

Hi,
I also have a bad surprise when I came to London with some friends.
Today, (ie one month after the trip), we can't join Paulina Thomas any more.
Have you got what you wanted from the website?
Have you got some news from Paulina Thomas?

Thank you very much

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