Post vacation blues

As expected, getting the kids out of bed was hard this morning.  Along, while having his breakfast said, "Saya dah tak biasa dah dengan rumah ni.".  Oh my God, we were in Penang for only five days and he is now not used to his own house.  Funny.

Angah, brought down the pillow to the hall after having his bath, and then into the car saying "Saya ngantuk".  Achik?  Cried her eyes out when passed to the babysitter =(

EBM on board

I was a bit reluctant to take the cooler box with me to Penang that day, considering the already many luggage that I have to carry, including the three kids.  However, at the very last minute, I decided to bring it and I am glad that I did so.  I brought home a total of 12 oz EBM placed in a sealed cooler box together with the rest of the baggage.  Enough to cover one day supply for achik.

Safely home

The whole thing wasn't that smooth though.  The refrigerator at abah's house was faulty.  The freezer in particular was not working.  First day produce of 2 oz did not freeze even after 24 hours in the freezer.  It was only chill.  I discovered that when I wanted to store the second day produce of 2.5 oz.  So, on the way out for our sightseeing tour on the second day, we dropped by at abah's office to store the 4.5 oz EBM there.  On the third day, abah took the 2.5 oz expressed that morning to the office.  See?  The importance of husband's support in a breastfeeding journey.  Make sure you get one before you embark on the journey :)

Alhamdulillah, the refrigerator was replaced on the fourth day, avoiding the need to transport the fourth day (3.5 oz) and fifth day (1.5 oz) produce to the office.  On the way back, we dropped by at abah's office again to collect the frozen EBM there and then off to the airport :)

To complete the journey, we met Chef Wan after claiming our baggage.  Along was so excited and wanted to take photo with him, so I snapped one for him.  Achik was puzzled (as you can see from the photo) and Angah was like "Ada aku kesah?".  He he ...

Meeting Chef Wan

I heard Chef Wan said, "Oh, awak pun bawak cooler box ye ...".  Because he also had one, obviously a lot larger than ours.  The content was surely not the same :p  All of the EBM safely arrived home, 99% frozen :)

The price for being honest

Honesty is the best policy.  The thought of going to be on board again this evening reminds me of what happened during our previous trip to Adelaide.  During inspection at the airport, the custom officer took everything out from the luggage, including a container of rice that he evetually threw the content away :(  Then, he asked about another container, containing Angah's formula powder inside.  I was nervous, but at the same time prepared for any consequence.  I started to imagine the trouble that we might face if we had to find a replacement as we had no idea what kind of formula was available in Australia, not to mention their halal status.

My nightmare came true when the officer told us that he had to throw that powder away too.  We should have brought the one that was still sealed in its original packaging, he told us.  Suddenly, I remembered about the small amount of the same formula powder in my backpack, meant to be mixed in the plane if needed.  It somehow passed the inspection unnoticed.  Then, I naively told the officer, "Well, in that case, maybe you would want to throw this away too.", taking the small canister from the backpack and showed it to him.  *Ha ha.*  How honest.  When that small amount of powder could be the only resque if Angah really needed it later.

He then looked at me and then the canister and said, "Okay.   You can keep it."  Miracle happened!  He closed back the container lid and let us have the formula powder, both in the container and canister.  Alhamdulillah.  Being honest really paid.  In this case, immediately.  So, never hesitate to be one :)

Welcome aboard!

It has been ages since the last post.  I'd better post something before October ends and goes with no post :)  Actually I have written many, but they are all stuck in the draft list.

So, what the title is all about?  We are going on board tomorrow evening, Insya-Allah.  Flying with Malaysian Hospitality to Penang.  My record of never flying with Air Asia is not broken yet ;)  It is going to be the first time ever for Achik, and the third time for Along & Angah.  Though it is just a domestic flight, it is going to be challenging enough as I will be single handedly chaperoning the three kids. 


May Allah bless our journey.  Please pray for our safe return.  Subhanalladzi sahkharalana hadza wa ma kunna lahu mukriniin.  Wa inna ila Robbina la mun'qolibuun.  Aamin.