Terbang Selesa dan Bergaya

We booked flight tickets 4 months in advance but not during any kind of promotion. Tiba-tiba terdetik, bincang bincang bincang bincang, check sana check sini, banding sana banding sini, pap! Beli tiket MAS. Sebab harga tak jauh dengan Air Asia. Travelling with friends meaning the cost that I had to fork out was all for myself. Lalu boleh la nak bagi can tiket mahal sikit. Bersedap-sedap sikit naik MAS.

A few months before our travelling date, I received an email from MAS; a chance for an upgrade promo. The concept was simple : You'd be given a price range, chose your preferred bidding price and submitted. You'd be contacted if you won the bid. Wining the bid meant getting upgraded to business class seats. Sounded fun. It got more interesting knowing that our bidding could start as low as RM50 up to several hundreds ringgit. Of course we bid for the lowest; RM50. Kalau dapat, maknanya kami bakal mendapat pengalaman menaiki kapal terbang dalam kelas perniagaan (and of course in style!) dengan hanya RM50. Keyed-in my credit card particulars, I'd only be charged if we won the bid. Bismillah, finger-crossed.

1-2 weeks later I received a message that my credit card was charged with RM150 by MAS. And that meant, 

WE WON THE BID!

For both inbound and outbound trips.

Yiiiiiihah! It was not my first time since I'd got upgraded for free for my flight to KK around 8-9 years back. But it was a 6 a.m flight, I was extremely sleepy and I did not know that I could request for as much ice cream as I wanted. Rugi betul 2 jam 45 minit perjalanan.

And this time I determined to enjoy each and every second of my business class experience. Even though it was just around 1 hour flight, please don't disturb me while I'm relishing my precious moment of winning an RM50 bid. Aaaaaaaaahh.....

Lambang kegembiraan (1)

Lambang kegembiraan (2)

Memang seronok dapat terbang dalam kelas perniagaan. Memang berbeza dengan kelas ekonomi. Namun yang tak seronoknya adalah :

1) penerbangan hanyalah 1 jam

2) makanan sedap, tapi perlu dimakan dalam masa 1 jam

3) banyak movie dan rancangan menarik, tapi kau hanya ada 1 jam!

4) ada bantal, selimut segala tapi kau tak sempat nak buka plastik pun kerana penerbangan hanyalah 1 freaking jam!

5) Hanya dapat lepak di Golden Lounge sekejap je, sebab flight jam 7.45 pagi, gerak dari rumah pukul 5 pun dah rasa rabak mata aku.

Ni je sempat dinikmati di Golden Lounge.

Sadis! Tapi memang seronok dan kelakar juga. I ignored those 2 most of the time, they are my BFFL, I love them dearly but I was busy ok. I tried to finish everything on my tray, tapau-ed those that were still packed. I previously had watched Malificient halfway and hey they had it on board and I was determined to finish watching this movie before we arrived (and I did!). Busy busy busy. 

Actually, I managed to finish all and even continued with the new X-Men sebab tanpa dijangka, our landing was delayed for almost 1 hour due to unpermitted weather. Damn it. Buat penat je aku kalut-kalut makan, kalut-kalut forwardkan part dalam Malificient yang bosan-bosan sikit. Kalau tahu awal, boleh minta makan macam-macam lagi. Eh, I bayar RM50, ok! Biarlah!

Tapi masa flight balik aku relaks sikit la. Dah faham, kata orang. Tapi tak sempat nak enjoy Golden Lounge, sebab Golden Lounge at Krabi Airport can only be accessed before you checked-in.

Above all, kalau saya berduit, memang saya akan menaiki penerbangan kelas perniagaan dan lebih manis jika pengalaman ini dapat dikongsi dengan suami, anak-anak, mak dan mak bapak mertua.

Ini mungkin Ishah punya.

In confirm aku punya. Flight pergi.

Ini mungkin Fatma punya.

Ini confirm aku punya, flight balik. Sedap weh!

Ini mungkin Fatma punya. Lupa weh!

A ah. Gambar makanan je sempat ambil. Tu pun sebelum makan. Kan I dah kata I busy! Hish!

A Quick, Needed, Relaxing Getaway

So we went to Krabi, just the three of us girls.

Wah, cara aku cakap macam tak berperasaan, padahal this is one of the highly anticipated things that we are looking forward since months!

SO YEAH WE FINALLY MANAGED TO HAVE A GETAWAY AND THIS TIME TO KRABI!! YAHUUU!!

Gambar wajib kot, kalau tak buat "berdosa".

From year to year from one baby delivery to another baby delivery, we still did not manage to repeat our vacation, just the three of us, for years. And several months before, tak de nak tunggu promo or what not, check je harga flight mana yang paling reasonable, book and all set. No turning back! Pepandai lah kau nak curi cuti ke, curi tulang ke, kalau tak dapat pergi jugak, halal je la flight tickets tu. Tapi alhamdulillah, despite personal things that each of us were going through, we managed to realize this escapade.

I plan to break the story into several episodes, kalau aku nak himpunkan, memang lah namanya lagi lima tahun baru siap. Tu pun kalau hidup lagi.

So I consider this post as an introduction : Ana, Fatma dan Ishah telah berjaya bercuti ke Krabi pada 25 - 27 October 2014 and the trip was not just successful but was so memorable and appreciated and we shall do this again (if not soon) girls! Gambar semua tak transfer apa lagi, walhal dalam hati begitu membuak-buak benda yang hendak diceritakan. Laters.

Rombongan Sekolah

You have to wake up early tomorrow.

You have to listen to your teacher.

Hold your friend's hand, don't let go. Walk together.

Kalau Eirsa nampak "Oh so cute teddy bear!" and you want to take a look, tell your teacher first. Don't go alone, it's dangerous. 

Mommy put your towel here (show the inside of the bag).

If you need to change your clothes, ni baju (show the inside of the bag). "Ada panties tak?" Yes, ada.

And ada bread, if you are hungry (show the inside of the bag).

And your water bottle.

And ada lagi satu small towel, if you go kencing, use this to wipe.

And Eirsa nanti naik bas and go to Teddy Town! Yeay! (Ya, aku yang berlebih-lebih).

Jumaat lepas.

Yes, she's going for a school trip for the first time ever. Of course we are excited; parents will get excited for every first experience happens to their children. Excited and anxious. Their first experience will usually be the benchmark; akan suka dan nak buat lagi or if they're experiencing it badly in the first place, it'll stop them from doing it until they gain confidence to start all over again. Dan kau ingat mudah nak memberi keyakinan semula kepada kanak-kanak? Boleh, tapi tak mudah. Oleh itu, adalah penting untuk mereka mempunyai pengalaman pertama yang motivating. Tapi jika ditakdirkan Allah berlakunya juga pengalaman pertama anak-anak yang tidak berapa baik, berusalah mak bapak untuk memberikan semangat untuk mencuba lagi.

Mari kita lihat apa yang mak budak Eirsa ni bekalkan :

Air kosong, baju sepersalinan (dan panties, begitu penting ya), roti, tuala kecil, tuala kecil, beg kecil siap dengan tag nama.

Aku nak tunggu sampai bas datang, konon-konon nak berlambai-lambai dengan sambil bergenang air mata, tapi sampai jam 8 tadi bas tak sampai lagi. Lalu terpaksa lah beredar saja dan mendoakan supaya Eirsa selamat and has a good time. Kalau perhati kelakuan dia pagi tadi, tak de la benda yang merunsingkan dia, elok je tersengih-sengih dan terkadang terkinja-kinja. Dah lepas berpeluk-peluk, bercium-cium, berlalulah pergi mak pak budak ni.

Macam ni punya teruja rupa nya, inshaAllah hati tenang nak lepaskan dia pergi.

*   *   *

Pastinya Eirsa akan mengomel gembira perihal rombongan sekolah kali pertamanya itu.

Sepatutnya.

Tapi tidak terjadi begitu.

Sudah ditanya baru dia bercerita sedikit. Dan kemudian lagi sedikit. Mungkin dah habis diceritakan pada Atuk dan Opah sekonyong-konyong Atuk dan Opah menjemput dia balik dari sekolah. But we knew she had a great time. She recapped how she decorated the teddy bears, got on the bus, held hands all the time with Adam Omar (bukan skandal), slept on the bus next to Adam Omar, ate some bread and kenyang.

Yang tak pergi pun (Eivie), dapat juga,

And. She also drew a map from her school to Teddy Town, Kajang.

Jalan nan berliku liku liku liku.

Calories Burning - The Alternative

What did you do when you go to Ikea?

Getting some ideas?

Window-shopping?

Browsing?

Actually DID some shopping?

Budgeting?

Killing time?

Bonding time?

Looking at people's behavioral (wow!)?

Pretending to know about stuffs?

Taking measurement?

Taking measurement for a millionth times?

Taking selfies and posting it to social medias? (dengan niat bermegah-megah aku-dah-sampai-sini-hoi! atau mungkin tidak, saya tidak judge anda)

Planning for the new house?

Planning to revamp the current house?

Planning to revamp your mom's house for as a surprise birthday gift?

Dreaming?

Or.

Sleeping, like these two did?

I was actually scheduled for a 5km running->jogging->walking->crawling TM Fan Run last Saturday. But I've got chickened out several weeks prior to the event, disebabkan langsung tak training hapah benda hamjadah pun sejak bulan puasa. Kot ye pun semangat kobar, aku masih kenal hati budi stamina sendiri.

Thus, I scheduled another form of calories burning activity cum aktiviti menggembirakan anak-anak cum tengok calon-calon perabot untuk rumah cum breakfast session; at Ikea.

Arrived at 8.40am, breakfast started at 9.00am, continued buat macam rumah sendiri di seluruh pelosok Ikea afterwards until 12.30 pm. After acah-acah surveying (survey apakah namanya kalau 80% of the time entertain budak-budak sahaja), one thing for sure; we needed to find other candidates for our dining set and sofa. It's either the price didn't suit with our budget or the cheaper options were not at par with our angan-angan tinggi tak sedar benchmark. And another thing for sure, benda-benda yang pasti akan dibeli di Ikea memerlukan satu lagi sesi membeli-belah yang lebih serius dan fokus dan tenang dan waras (read : sesi tanpa anak-anak). And another another thing for sure, the kids had fun there, lalu kuota bergembira mereka telah dipenuhi untuk minggu ini.

Lagi gambar-gambar kegembiraan.

Lagi 8 minit sebelum pintu dibuka. Ni yang dinamakan pepagi lagi dah pergi beraya rumah orang tuan rumah pun tak bangun lagi.

Dah besar sikit, layankan je permintaan untuk guna pisau garfu sendiri, dengan pemantauan secara terperinci dan kadang-kala boleh mengundang sakit hati si pemakai.

Yang ini pun sama. Asalnya mahu taraf yang sama dengan si 5 tahun Eirsa, padahal awak baru 2 tahun, pisau lebih panjang dari lengan. Sebagai alternatif, mommy bagi peluang bercomot-comot menyuap sup sendiri. And Ikea was being thoughtful by supplying this disposable bib for free!

Dan ada kalanya budak-budak ni tak nak makan. Mak dan bapak kau kena la lebih kreatif bagi menampakkan aktiviti memakan itu adalah satu aktiviti yang menggembirakan, bukan setakat aktiviti bermain sahaja ya menggembirakan. Berikan kayu aiskrim/pengacau kopi, lalu jadilah lollisausagepop. 

Acara wajib, lebih kurang highlight of the day. Gitu. Sekarang aiskrim ni dah semakin murah, RM0.80 sahaja.

Farm In The City - Seri Kembangan

So this was our second time here. Masa pergi pertama kali harapkan gambar kat phone, langsung lelap je gambar tu dalam phone. Eivie was rather small and she basically spent most of her time in her stroller. Eirsa on the other hand was excited, being it 18 kali sekalipun. I think it's the idea of getting up-close and personal with the animals excites her.

Entering the area (car park) you'd go "Betul ke tempat ni? Macam tempat terbiar je." but there was a Farm In The City signage that would assure you that it was the right place. Entrance memang lah macam tempat terbiar. When it was our first, lagi lah kosong je entrance tu. But when we got back there in June 2013, dah ada fun fair area that might be operating at night.

The entrance fee's quite pricey but you'd be given with unlimited supplies of animals' food. RM30 for adult and RM20 for children taller than 90cm, plus another RM15 x 2 for poney rides (RM15 each), were what we paid that day. You could basically spend your whole day there, had a lunch at a small eatery area, but no surau I supposed. We spent 5 hours that day, termasuk 1.5 jam masa makan. Lepas makan puffff berdesup semula Eirsa masuk ke dalam, sambung main dengan arnab.

The highlights were of course the animals feeding and petting the animals (not all, of course). Eirsa sangat sangat sangat suka tempat ini, especially the rabbits and hamsters section which we spent around 2 hours at this section alone. The good thing was, this section was well-shaded so tak lah panas membahang yang boleh membawa kepada amarah. Animals were sectioned based on their categories. Ada section kekura, ada section burung, ada section rabbit + ikan, ada small reptile sections (dulu ada rama-rama, sekarang dah tak de), goat and deer section (kambing ini boleh berdiri, kalau mood dia baik), ular pun ada. Some exotic animals too (not in big scale though, seekor dua je bagi setiap spesis). Oh, of course there's a fish pond for fish feeding. Rasanya macam ada satu lagi section, under renovation.

Eivie pulak on and off, kejap dalam stroller, kejap main dengan animals, kejap naik balik stroller, tapi tak boleh lelap. May be due to the heat. Bawak kipas pon tak jalan, apa pun tak jalan. But she was a good company, tak merengek pun.

For us who live in the city, this place is a good place to expose our young kids with farm animals. Ok lah, budak yang besar pun boleh but I think younger kids (2-12 years old) will find this place more interesting than the older kids. Oh ya, during our second visit, adalah dalam 3-4 bas budak sekolah rendah / tadika kat situ. This place make a good field trip choice too.

And I would suggest you bring along plenty of water and snacks for the kids. You don't know how long you'll get stuck in there. Yes, it's allowed.

Masuk-masuk je inilah pemandangan anda. Sebelah kiri ada access ke pony riding area, so basically you can move around in a loop. Duduk berjam pusing-pusing dalam ni je pon tak pe. And this place accommodates large tortoises, waiting for you to feed them.

Nah. Makan. Ikut nasib, kadang dah kenyang, kekura tak nak makan. Tapi biasanya mereka rotate beberapa tortoises, supaya tak de lah senak semua kena paksa makan sentiasa.

First round of pony riding. RM15 for a less than 30 seconds ride, memang pedih di wallet sikit lah. But ini orang dah lama sebut nak naik horse nak naik horse. Nah, naik.

She learned to carry a rabbit for the first time. And addicted. So the plan is to get her a pet after raya.

Learned a new way to carry her buddy(ies) too. Dah berlengaih tukang dukung.

She could go hours like this, I tell you.

 

Two Japanese girls with so much passion towards the rabbits. 

Eivie pun bagi makan. Rabbits will never bite your fingers, they's only bite food. Aksi Eivie ini adalah cubaan nak menonyoh menyuap invisible kangkung dalam mulut arnab ni.  -__-"

Mommy's sweetheart. She didn't play with the animals all the time, mudah bosan orang ini. But she's was a good girl, tagged along with me when Eirsa and Papa were playing with rabbits (again, for 2 hours).

Birds section. Ada peacock juga.

1.5 hours break. Tunggu food lama jugak sebab ramai orang.

Sesi penerangan oleh pegawai bertugas (not, laki lah aku tu).

Second round of pony ride. Penutup acara pada hari itu.

Dah sangat penat dan panas.

Sedikit gambar-gambar sewaktu lawatan pertama.

Ada parrot show 2 kali sehari.

*Sebenarnya aku rasa banyak je gambar lain, tapi mana? Mana aku save?? Manaaaaa?!!

Singapore March 2013 - Final Day

Huarrrrgghhh.. Mengeliat bangun pada hari ke empat dan tak sangka dah last day. We planned for this vacation for a year (from date of ticket flight purchase), tiba-tiba je dah nak balik. Ye tiba-tiba. Diam.

Siloso Beach Resort has a nice swimming pool and of course the last day would be the day for everyone to enjoy this beautifully landscape-ed swimming pool (kecuali aku of couse, sebab sedang sibuk packing untuk balik. Dan oh ye, ibu bapa mertua). And to travel with two kids and with the anticipation of at least a swimming session, now you understand why do we always always have to pack for around a total of 15kgs of bags. Tu pun terbabas 1-2 kg, pinjam 'quota' ibu bapa mertua. Bayangkan pula proses packing, unpacking dan repackingnya. Bayangkaaaaan... Bayangkan saja tapi jangan muntah dek kerenyahan kerja. Kami mak-mak dah biasa.

Shhhhwiming time!

Budak-budak biasalah, suka air. Sedangkan mak bapak budak pun suka, ye dak? The resort's swimming pool has this mini water slide and no one was there except my family. Apa lagi, conquer slide entah berapa ratus kali. 

Eirsa was first getting down the slide on Papa's lap.

Then she got down the slide, still Papa but off Papa's lap.

And many many many times later, on her own. Papa pon dah tak larat nak memanjat slide tu entah ke berapa ratus kali.

My baby Eivie on the other hand, macam biasa lah, Opah tak bagi lama-lama sebab kecik. Sejuk katanya. But of course she still had fun. Budak ni pun pencinta air.

Celup-celup air dua tiga round.

Slide dua tiga round.

Makan biskut dua tida round.

Opah dah panggil naik.

Kemas-kemas, bilas-bilas segala, dah ready for checkout at 11.45am. Our flight was at 4.45 pm and we already booked the van for direct transfer to airport at 2pm. With standard checking out time at 12pm, we still have 2 hours to explore the island. So we hopped on and off the train shuttle exploring the island. Banyak lagi tempat yang kami tak pergi, nanti lah. Mana muat nak sumbat semua dalam itinerary 4 hari 3 malam (bajet pun tak muat).

So yeah. Everybody is looking forward for another Singapore trip in November, same arrangement but different hotel (as mentioned here) and of course itinerary. See you in November 2013, Singapore!