Separate Long Distance Journey

Ram and I were scheduled to return to PJ, leaving Tenby on Saturday. We planned this several weeks ago and chose Saturday as it would have been convenient for Fahrul to send us to London it being a weekend. That’s what we thought. As always we, mere mortals can only plan but He disposes. It turned out that Fahrul had to return to KL for some work starting on Sunday evening. For Fahrul to leave Tenby with us on Saturday would have been too much of a rush for him. So, he decided to leave Tenby on Friday. As Sita has fully recovered from her confinement they decided to travel together to KL and take this opportunity to introduce little Muhd Fieras Naufal to the family back home. Thus it was planned that Fahrul, Sita and the two kids leave on Friday while Ram and I leave as scheduled on Saturday. We could have changed our tickets to travel with them on Friday but it would have been too costly to change with all the additional charges and penalties.

It was also planned that Fahrul and family uses the office car, a van rather, to accommodate the entire luggage and baby paraphernalia, to send them to London Heathrow on Friday. Ram and I were to drive the car to LHR on Saturday and leave the car at the long term parking facilities for Fahrul to pick it up when he returns to LHR from KL in two weeks time. It was a nice arrangement indeed.

So it was, all preparations were made for the travel. The packing started one day in advance, Najla getting in the way with excitement now and then and little Fieras demanding attention just the same. It was also planned that Najla skips school on Friday. The school had planned an outing to the local beach for all the children on Friday. Najla is one who would not turn down an opportunity to be at the beach. She loves playing in the sand but this time she does not mind missing it as the prospect of travelling back home was more exciting. On Friday morning we told her that if she wanted to join her school at the beach she could as there is enough time for her to do so since they were only leaving for LHR in the afternoon. This was how the conversation went in the early morning of Friday soon after Najla woke up from her sleep:
Fahrul: Good morninggggg Najla. How are you today?
Najla: Fine
Fahrul: You want to get ready to go to school?
Najla: No
Fahrul: Your school is going to the beach today and there is enough time for you to go if you want. Don’t you want to join them at the beach?
Najla: No
Fahrul: I thought you like to go to the beach and play in the sand…..
Najla: Yes, but I do not want to go today
Fahrul: Oh! Really. Why don’t you like to go to the beach today? You can play in the sands with all your friends….
Najla: But I have already said goodbye to all my friends and told them I will be travelling home….
Ha ha ha! That made sense. It can be embarrassing still for a five year old to meet her friends again after having said her goodbyes….

They left in the office transport at about 2.00pm. We were quite apprehensive with the thought of Fieras having to travel long distances, of whether he could take the journey but according to Sita it turned out to be ok. Fieras and Najla slept most of the way in the 5 hours car journey and the 12 hours plane journey. The only thing unusual she noticed was that Fieras tended to pass motion more often, and a lot each time, when in the plane but was none the worse for it. Perhaps pressures of the plane cabin did that.

We started our journey to LHR from Tenby at about 1.00pm, after spending the morning packing the bags. The weather was not so good. It had been gloomy, raining and drizzling the whole morning and was the same almost all the way into London Heathrow. After two hours of driving I began to get sleepy and had to stop at the next rest area to nap. It was a long nap, more than half an hour, and had a leisurely afternoon snacks and coffee at the restaurant lounge after that. We finally arrived at the long term car park area at close to 7.00pm, parked the car (all formalities were done online earlier by Fahrul), and was soon on the way in the shuttle provided to terminal 3 in LHR.
All flight formalities went smoothly. The flight was full but it was pleasant and restful for us, long queues at the limited toilets aside. Arrival formalities at KLIA were also smooth. Tessa was at the airport to fetch us and we went straight to Shah Alam as planned with Tessa and Sita to meet Ram’s sister who underwent a cancer operation recently. Sita and the little kids were already there waiting for us and of course Ram’s sisters too. Then came Ram’s nieces and their families. I think Najla and especially Fieras must have been overwhelmed with all the attention showered upon them.

We decided to put up in Shah Alam for the night and returned to PJ the next afternoon. back to the routine rigmarole of cleaning, laundry, etc., amidst satisfying the jet lag and sleep cravings. More later….

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya