A Quick Stop

Right in the middle of the journey. The boys wanted a drink. Anita wanted some jambu batu. And I wanted the toilet. A convenient stop.

Supposed to be a five minutes stop, it lasted close to an hour, prayers and all. Good thing that the new stall there - Tu dia Pak Tam - was clean and welcoming.

And then the shopping for fruits began.

That's it. I would be waiting in the van with the boys ...

Back to KL

The two day break flew like a breeze. We got back to KL before the evening rush hour, stopping a couple of times. First at Anita's cousin at Seri Iskandar, while the next for lynch at Tapah.

The Tapah stop was interesting. A new cafe had just opened. Spit and span, but now sure for how long. Food was average but at least then place was clean.

As we arrived early, Anita and I took to the cinema that evening to watch Divergent - more on that after.

So, backs to work yesterday, a drive to Park City and an afternoon clinic. Anita spent the day sorting out Mum's maid's permit all afternoon. Today, she would be with my Mum at IJN for tests.

A nice break, but I could do with another day off in KL, sorting out errands and my paperwork. I was still behind on bills and letters. I was on call today, so hopefully this weekend would be a quiet one. Plenty to do ...

Driving up to Penang

I've just reached the rest stop in Tapah, well on my way up to Penang. The traffic was light on my side, but it was clearly building up KL-bound.

Even though there were not much cars, the flow was slow since the lane were cut down to just a single file. Cones were placed in the middle of the highway, blocking the right hand lane. I was sure they would be opening it for the opposite traffic later on. I was stuck behind a couple of lorries for a good 20 km, with maximum speed of 70, down to below 70 km/h on inclines. Excruciating.

I decided to stop for a quick wash and breather. The place was packed with people having breakfast. Judging from the way they were dressed, most of them would be attending weddings. I was sure there were plenty of those going on this weekend.

Well, got to move on. I would be driving straight into Penang to Grandmother's place in Pahang Road, wrote spending the evening at Julia's house in Sungai Petani. Time permitting, I would stop by Kepala Batas for some food and Maghrib Prayers.

Back Home

Now back in KL after a four hour drive. It was a pleasant one, with no jam and the weather was nice. We stopped by McDonald's and bought our laksa to bring back to KL. We finally left Penang just after 3.

We had a quick stop in Tapah for kuih pau as well as jambu before dropping my parents off in Bukit Antarabangsa. Finally reached home at around 8, with enough time for a haircut before a long shower.

Irfan said, "Saya tak puas hati!"

It was a nice trip away, managed to visit my Grandmother and other relatives, as well as being a good break for everybody. Now, it was time for a nice dinner and an evening sorting out the photos. Have to take my mum to see the Opthalmologist tomorrow for her follow-up as well as sorting out some paperwork over at UMMC.

Off to Sungai Petani

Idlan helping with the unpackingAn early start for Puan Anita and me before the mayhem started at around 8.30 when the boys woke up. Breakfast. Shower. Shouting about which toys to bring an which clothes to wear. We finally got our act together and left just before 11am.

This time around we decided to stay in the mainland rather than on the island. It turned out to be a brilliant plan. The Penang Bridge had a fire on the island-bound lanes causing a tailback close to 10 kms. A couple of my uncles were caught up in the jam and it took them over three hours to cross the bridge. Imagine, after a four hour drive up to Seberang Perai and having to endure a few more hours caught in the car with the grumpy boys?

View of Gunung Jerai from our floorWe stopped over at Tapah for lunch. A simple KFC affair where Puan Anita did the ordering and the waitress messed up the order completely! But since it was Hari Raya, we kept our feelings to ourselves ….. The journey went very smoothly. There was a couple of crawls just before Ipoh, but otherwise fine. We reached Sungai Petani just after 4, checked in, and the kids was already jumping on the bed soon after. We stayed at Park Avenue Hotel, just by the Sungai Petani (South) exit along the PLUS highway. Very convenient actually!

One of the drawback of the hotel was there was no Astro Sports channel. I had dinner at my auntie’s place while watching United given away a two-goal lead to Everton. My Toffee-mad friends must have exploded that evening!

I thought my boys would have been tired after the journey and the dinner, but how wrong was I. They were still bubbly and energetic close to midnight when we finally went to sleep. Another long day looming tomorrow.