Birthday boy in the house!

Chakkk! Hehehe...

I know, I know... I still owe you the continuation of my Sabah vacation but nanti lah eh? Mood suda lama terbang. The procrastinator in me is alive and kicking it seems.

Today, my post is just to remember a special day that occurred 4 years ago and the days following that meaningful day have never been the same. Lahirnya my buah hati nombor 3. 

Today. 4 years ago.

I'm not so big on celebrations and such. I've always preferred a private and low-key affair just within the family circle. In other words, mim alif lam sin nak beriya-iya hehehe... I don't always get my way though. But this year, Muhammad's birthday falls within the Ramadhan month. What excuse is better to not throw a party than that it is a month of fasting, and that the 'party planner' is tired?

But really, I am exhausted most days from fasting in this sweltering heat. The heatwave has been intolerable at times. Couple that with me running errands, in and out of the house. The mid-day heat almost always hit me right in the head with a sudden headache. Like, the moment I stepped out of the car, wham! Adehhh... But anywho, this post is not about that heheh.

So yes, in our attempt as parents,  who are somewhat struggling with parenthood, we wanted to remember this day for the sake of our little boy. So we divided the work between ourselves. I went to get his birthday presents, and my better half, the cake (and party hats tiba2 came into the equation!). 

This little micro party must happen.

After iftar, we rounded up the kids for a quick happy birthday to you sing-song, potong kek, some pictures and voila! Party's done. 

We did it!

Hey, don't judge us, okay? Lol!

That's all, folks!

Good night!

Cuti-Cuti KK Day 2 - Bumpy van ride and finally, KK

Hik!

Sorry lah, lambat la pulak nak masuk chapter 2 ek? Bukan tak ingat, tapi takde masa lapang nak mengarang.

Ok lah, kita sambung...

1 June 2015.

Keesokan paginya, awal2 we all dah bersiap nak bertolak ke KK. Anak2 lah yang paling bersemangat. Al-maklum... bukan diorang yang nak susah2 packing kan? Maknya yang berasap hidung-telinga nak pastikan barang semua orang tak ada yang tertinggal.

Bila dah siap2, turun lah kami sekeluarga ke lobi hotel. Disebabkan van nak bertolak pukul 7, maka tak sempatlah kami nak sarapan buffet di hotel. Apa2pun, sebagai seorang ibu yang bersedia (ehem!), I pergi jugaklah ke restoran sorang2 sambil pegang beberapa helai ziplock bag kecik2. I ni kalau berjalan, suka bawak ziplock bags sebab banyak gunanya beg plastik berzip ni. Kalau makan di restoran tak habis, masukkan dalam ziplock bag.  Kalau anak2 beli apa2 jajan yang tak habis makan, terutama yang bangsa melekit, sumbat je masuk ziplock back, zip elok2. Settle! InsyaAllah, tak payah risau tumpah bertabur. 

Anyway, sampai kat restoran, I pun mintak lah kat adik waiter tu nak tapau sikit roti atau kuih kering untuk anak2. Mula2 dia tak bagi, tak boleh tapau katanya. Then I pun pujuk2 la sikit mintak jasa baik dia untuk consider, ye lah... kang anak2 lapar tengah jalan how? Sorang pun tak sarapan lagi tu. At last dia benarkan, so I pun cepat2lah ambil ngam2 6 ketul french toast, dan 6 ketul popiah goreng. Idok le kita nak ambil kesempatan tapau sepenuh2 plastik kan? Please lah!

By the time I sampai semula ke lobi hotel, tengok van dah sampai dan En. Suami tengah sibuk tolong2 driver van tu masukkan barang2 we all yang bertimbun tu. Seperti biasa, En. Suami I ni orangnya jenis yang nak pastikan semua benda ok, semua benda dia paham etc. jadinya secara semula-jadinya dia memang banyak soalan. Selagi tak puas hati dia, selagi tu lah dia bertanya. Nak dijadikan cerita, driver van tu pulak rupanya baran orangnya. Elok2 I sampai kat lobi sempatlah I nampak dia tengah tinggi suara marah2 En. Suami I. Dalam hati I, alamaakk....

Tak patut kan? Kita dah memang lah pelancong, terdesak pulak tu sebab kereta rosak. Ko jangan lah marah2. Orang tanya elok2, jawab je lah puaskan hati pelanggan. Ni tak, kita bayar dia tambang, tapi dia buat kita seolah-olah dia bagi servis percuma. Dan attitude dia macam, ko tak suka servis aku, pi lah ko cari van lain kalau pandai sangat! I hate these kind of people. Sombong.

Dah tengok driver tu macam tu, I pun cepat2 lah suruh anak2 and mak naik cepat2. Kang kalau lambat kang, kut dia marah lagi. Dah jadi kebiasaan anak2, kalau naik je kenderaan, benda pertama diorang akan capai ialah seatbelts. Memang I dah train, naik kenderaan, duduk depan ke, belakang ke, atas bumbung ke, seatbelt wajib pakai. Sekali.... tengok2 seatbelt dia semua si driver bertuah tu dah seal cenggini....

My FB status on said situation.

Mula2 I nak bukak lah sebab ingatkan yang kita punya je berikat. Rupa2nya semua! So En. Suami pun tanyalah dengan driver "Boss! Seatbelts tak boleh pakai... semua ikat..." something like that lah. I nak highlight part laki I panggil dia BOSS tuh sebenarnya hehehe...

Korang tau apa dia jawab? "No need, no need! No need to wear." Kepala hangguk dia kan? Ko boleh la cakap dah bukan keluarga ko dalam ni kan? Kitorang bertujuh ni satu keluarga tau?

Anyway, we all pun diam je lah. Kang kalau komplen kang kut ditinggalnya we all tepi jalan kang, lagi susah ye tak?

But I tell you, I was very, very pissed off with the driver. Dah la mula2 I sedih sebab dia tempik kat laki kita depan passenger lain macam lah laki kita takde airmuka kan? Then obviously dia haram tak kesah keselamatan we all sekeluarga. Stinky selfish fella!

Bukan saja tak boleh makan,
kentut pun tak boleh. Heheh!

Along the way, adalah singgah satu tempat ni, tak ingat plak namanya, for bathroom break. Driver eksyen dah turun pegi shishi. I cepat2 ambil kesempatan ni bagi mak dan anak2 makan kuih2 yang I ambil kat hotel tadi. We all makan cepat2 dan sorok2 sebab kalau ikutkan, ada sign kata takleh makan dalam van ni. Hik hik! Nasib engkau lah!

The more-or-less 3 hour ride to KK was bumpy. Faham2 je lah suspension van, mana nak sama dengan kereta kan? Dah la tu, laju pulak. Asyik memotong je kerjanya. I kat dalam tu, sambil pangku Aisyah yang tengah tidur, asyik berdoa je mintak Allah selamatkan perjalanan kami. Akhirnya, sampai juga ke sempadan negeri Sarawak-Sabah. Cer uols tengok imigresen diorang ni... kelakar tak? Selangkah je jarak hehehe....

Sempat snap gambar walaupun sambil
pangku Aisyah =D

Alhamdulillah we all selamat sampai ke Kota Kinabalu. Bila dah masuk KK, barulah driver tu ramah berceloteh dengan En. Suami sambil didengari penumpang lain. Dia tanya rancangan we all nak jalan2 KK, cemana takde kereta. En. Suami pun cakaplah, takpe, we all dah uruskan nak sewa kereta nak drive sendiri. Then dia pun bagi cadanganlah tempat2 yang boleh dilawati, termasuklah Kundasang. En. Suami cakap, a'ah, Kundasang memang termasuk dalam list kami. Kami nak drive ke sana. Then si driver tu cakap, kena baik2, bahaya naik bukit tu tambah kalau tak biasa. Gaungnya tinggi, malah dalamnya lebih-kurang ketinggian bangunan tu (sambil tunjuk kat satu bangunan tinggi tepi jalan). Dalam hati I, elehh... nak takut2kan kita la tu, suruh hire dia bawak kitorang jalan. Piirahh! I dah turun-naik Cameron Highlands tu berkali2. Jalan baru, jalan lama, semua dah rasa. InsyaAllah, we can tackle the drive up to Kundasang. Ko ingat aku nak berholiday dengan orang baran macam ko?

Tak lama kemudian, sampailah kami ke apartment sewa. Yang ni lagi satu hal. Rupa2nya yang I booking tu bukan lah service apartment macam gaya service apartment yang biasa kita lihat di KL. Rupa2nya ia adalah apartment persendirian yang mana, ia sekali dengan apartment2 awam yang lain. Kira lebih tepat lagi kalau kata homestay, tapi dia advertise online as serviced apartment. Jadinya, tak adalah lobby khas untuk tetamu sampai, whereby ada pekerja hotel yang boleh tolong angkatkan barang atas trolley khas tu. Sungguh tipah rasa sangat tertipu. Si driver bangang tu pulak main lambak je barang2 we all kat atas pavement tepi jalan, tengah2 panas. Serious time ni rasa macam nothing is going right with this holiday.

Setelah I telefon, turunlah seorang pompuan ni, pekerja of the so-called service apartment. We all tanya lah, siapa nak tolong we all angkat barang yang berlambak ni? Dia pun terpinga2. Last2 we all jugalah, termasuk pekerja tu, yang bersusah-payah mengangkat barang2 semua sampailah ke lif blok bangunan yang berkenaan. Penatnya, masyaAllah....

Unit apartmentnya tu, kira ok lah. Nak kata elok sangat, tidaklah. Sliding door almarinya dah 'derailed'. Silap2 memang boleh tumbang ke luar, timpa orang. Kebersihan so-so. So many little things I can pick on tapi I told myself, tak apalah, at least we have a place to stay, and the location is great. But I'm not recommending this place to anyone though, as the service is very poor. They only use a mobile number and that too, our calls almost always went unanswered. Kalau dah after 4pm jangan harap lah anybody nak jawab! There are many other hotels along Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens, where this apartment unit is located you can choose from.

Sunset view from our apartment unit. Yes, this apartment's location is
strategic. Walking distance to the new Oceanus Mall, and many shops
and restaurants, even clinics in the area for all your needs.

Once we settled in, all I wanted to do was rest. Penat woo... So En. Suami yang baik hati pun turunlah sorang2 pegi tapau food for lunch. Rupa2nya while waiting for the food he ordered, En. Suami pun dah buat program dia sendiri. Kalau ikutkan, we all memang dah buat perancangan awal untuk sewa van driver baran tu semula hari Jumaat nanti untuk pulang semula ke Lawas, sebab kereta yang rosak tu akan dibaiki di Lawas. After seeing my FB status pasal seatbelt tu, dia pun tukar program. Kensel naik van tu semula, cari transport lain. Lega I sebab I don't think I want to give anymore of our hard-earned money to that rude and selfish driver. No need seatbelts, can you imagine? Dia tau pulak pakai seatbelt kat depan tu. 

Reunion with old friend, Dila. Masa ni
dah kenyang. Alhamdulillah.

Anyway, the day was not all lost. Malam tu, sempat juga I ber-jejak kasih dengan kawan lama yang dah kawin orang Sabah dan menetap di KK. Kali terakhir we met was back in America masa zaman student dulu, I pernah singgah apartment dia on my way to NY. Tapi dia tak ingat peristiwa ni. Nanti I korek balik album tunjuk dia gambar we all berdua kat US dulu kat apartment dia hehehe.

We had Nando's for dinner that night, sambil tengok sunset sebab location Nando's kat dalam Oceanus Mall tu tersangatlah strategiknya, I tell you! Dalam gambar ni tak nampak sebab dah malam but you can choose to dine in the restaurant itself, or you can dine outside as you watch the sunset and enjoy the sea breeze.

Guess which one we chose? Obviously!

That, my friends, was how our Day 2 of Cuti-cuti KK went. Baru day 2 tapi dah rasa penat macam dah cuti 10 hari hhuhuhu. Is age catching up on me faster than I can run?

Tunggu sambungan Cuti-Cuti KK Day 3 - Stuck in a lift! pulak eh? 

Kan I dah cakap, this was a holiday like never before!

Cuti-cuti KK Day 1 - Kereta Rosak

30 May 2015

Kami pindah ke Miri tahun 2010, dan sejak dari itulah I dah berkali-kali cakap dengan hubby, jom lah kita ber-roadtrip ke KK. Macam best jek driving 10 jam lintas2 sempadan Sarawak-Brunei-Sarawak banyak2 kali sampai lah yang terakhir, sempadan Sarawak-Sabah. I love roadtrips cause obviously, there's more to see, and more to experience.

Akhirnya, setelah hampir 5 tahun dan setelah penambahan ahli keluarga seramai 2 orang menjadikan 6 orang kesemuanya, tercapai jugalah my roadtrip dream. Hik!

I had this trip planned as best as I - an impulsive and disorganized person -  could.

Booking bilik, checked! 

Kereta hantar servis - checked! 

Passport semua valid - checked! 

Makan-pakai untuk seminggu - checked! 

Pendek kata, insyaAllah semua keperluan covered lah.

Kebetulan our neighbours depan rumah, Geena and family, had also been planning the same trip on the same day. What a lucky coincidence! So we decided to make the journey together. Konvoi gitu. Since they've made the trip before, who better to guide us kan?

About 10 minutes into the journey, hujan renyai-renyai.
Konon GPS tapi tak set pun. Mentang-mentanglah
ikut pilot car kat depan hihihi.

Maka dengan izinNya, on the morning of 30th May, pukul 6:10 pagi, dalam cuaca hujan renyai, bertolaklah kami 2 kereta yang kedua2 sendat dengan penumpang dan barang2 keperluan. Masing2 kereta ada 7 passengers. Geena has 4 children, and she brought her maid with her. I pulak brought my elderly mother with me.

Everything went smoothly from there. The first checkpoint, Sungai Tujuh, lintasan sempadan yang pertama ke Kuala Belait, Brunei. We stopped at Kuala Belait for breakfast. Lupa lah pulak nak snap gambar kedai tu... al maklum... dah lapor! Pretty decent shop and good food too. And then we continued with our journey.

Alhamdulillah, lepas cross border ke Brunei, cuaca dah tak hujan. Malah, elok sepanjang jalan. Maka menjamu matalah I tengok kiri-kanan. Maklum, memang seronok melihat negara orang ni kan?

Happy faces at the start of the journey.

We crossed borders a few more times, and I was pretty much enjoying the ride. Sampailah di satu tempat di Brunei ni... mungkin Bangar atau Temburong, tak berapa nak pasti, when tak semena-mena we accidentally hit a road hump yang agak tinggi. Al-kisahnya, encik suami yang memandu masa tu tak perasan di depan tu ada zebra crossing yang ditinggikan sedikit dari aras jalan. Maklum, ikut belakang kereta orang. Tau-tau I nampak kereta Geena ter-melompat gitu so I pun cepat2 warning kat driver to watch out, but it was too close, too little time. Maka termelompatlah kereta kami di situ dengan agak kuat. I swear, I heard something in the engine went "toing!" macam ada benda putus/patah and I feared the worst. But not wanting to cause unnecessary stress to anyone in the car, I diamkan saja sambil dalam hati berdoa mintaklah takde apa2 kerosakan berlaku. Amiin.

Leaving Brunei Immigration (left), entering
Malaysian Immigration (right)

But then, when we reached the last Brunei-Sarawak border, sambil menunggu pegawai imigresen chop-chop passport kami bertujuh, the engine started making a rattling sound. Itu pun perasan sebab tingkap terbuka and me being me, I'm quite sensitive to something sounding quite out of the ordinary. When I asked hubs, "bunyi enjin kita ke?" Dia dengan kondifennye menjawab, "bunyi enjin kete sebelah, Hilux" cewah! But I was not convinced. As we started to push forward after the passport checks, the rattling got louder. Sahlah, our car!

Hoping for the best, since the car was still running, we continued on. But barely 2km or so after the immigration checkpoint, akhirnya, the engine gave way and died on us.

In the middle of nowhere. As far as I was concerned.

There we were tersadai tepi jalan in mid-day sun and quite honestly, not a clue of what to do next. In my head, thoughts were running wild... my kids in the car, my mum, in a foreign place that has no internet reception... Where are we? What do we do now? Who to call for help? Haish!

I quickly called Geena yang maybe tak perasan we all dah takde kat belakang dia huhuhu. They turned back. At this point, I was so thankful that we were travelling with friends!

At first, we tried to get help from a house tepi jalan. It was the only house there, and ada anjing lah pulak! Tuan rumah cakap dia tak tau any tow truck company or anyone who can help. Macam taknak tolong jek... takpe lah. In the meantime, hubs called his regular guy in Miri to ask if he has any contacts in Lawas, the nearest town to where we were stranded. Si Geena and hubby pulak, God bless them, when they turned back to get to us, sempat lagi diorang survey2 pekan Lawas looking for a workshop that's open. And they also noted that there's a Hotel Seri Malaysia (HSM) in town.

Mind you, this happened on a Sunday, and to make things worse, the coming Monday and Tuesday pulak cuti awam sempena perayaan Hari Gawai. Mana nak cari workshop yang nak amik job time pekerja dia bercuti, ye tak?

Anyway, long story short. We had no choice but to make a quick decision to spend the night in Lawas. Geena and hubby then ferried me and the kids over to HSM. Disebabkan ramai, terpaksalah buat 2 trip. For the first trip, Geena left her maid with my mum and hubby while they ferried me and all the children to HSM. Bayangkan, 3 adults and 8 children ranging in age between 13 and 2 all in a 5-seater car hehehe!

Sungai Lawas
Pic courtesy of Geena.

When we reached HSM, hubby called cakap tak payah datang balik to fetch them. The house owner, alhamdulillah, eventually came out to help and got one of his friends to ferry my mom and geena's maid along with all our stuff to HSM. Hubby plak managed to get a tow truck, thanks to his friend's contact in Lawas, to tow the car to HSM until we can find a mechanic to look at it.

Layan anak-anak sementara
tunggu makanan sampai.

We proceeded to have lunch in HSM. A late lunch. Kesian kids semua kelaparan. Jangan kata kids je lah, mak-pak nye pun sama heh! After lunch, Geena and family continued with their journey to KK dan tinggallah iols sekeluarga di pekan Lawas. Rasa nak nangis masa ni....

We spent the night in Lawas making alternative plans due to the unexpected turn of event.

We went to bed that night exhausted. But at least, the plan for the following day had been laid out. We were to continue our journey to KK via a public transport in the form of a van. Hubby got all 7 of us booked for the 7am departure. Maknanya, kena bangun seawal-awalnya lah kan? We don't want to be late and delay the trip for other passengers.

Our car, it seems, would have to be left at the hotel until the workshop resume business on Tuesday. Itupun, masih belum pasti whether they can fix the car or not. But tentatively, the plan was to come back to HSM on Friday, and hoped that the car would've been ready by then.

At this point, I was still feeling positive and hoping to have a good family vacation.

To be continued...

Cuti-Cuti KK Day 2 - Bumpy van ride and finally, KK.

SABAH - Most EVENTFUL Holiday Ever!

Hi!

I've been wanting to blog about our recent roadtrip to KK, tapi mood tak datang2 hehehe...

It was one of my most memorable roadtrip ever, and one full of unexpected events, including an earthquake!

Never in my wildest imagination that I'd experience an earthquake, melainkan kiamat, of course. Yet, it did happen and alhamdulillah, I survived.

Some friends likened our holiday to a National Lampoon holiday hahaha! And yes, to a certain extent, it is a pretty apt comparison.

It's been 5 days since we came home but to be honest, I'm still recovering from the exhaustion of travelling with 4 young kids and an elderly mom.

Seluruh badanku sengal2, let me tell you that! Because simply, it was a week of non-stop moving for me. Dari bangun pagi, sampai lah ke malam. Tu pun malam2 masih bangun buat susu. Kids have constant needs and endless requests... haish! Tak kasi chan langsung mama nak bersantai2.

I will eventually blog about our holiday, insyaAllah... as soon as I get my daily routine back on track. As soon as I get my realities and dreams sorted out.

Seriously, I need a post-holiday holiday...