The lil’ dude and his family…

The plan was to enjoy Manly Beach with the sunny weather and the Jazz shows but it rained from the night before til late evening. :( Nevertheless, Zehan still brought us to Manly and we managed to watch a few Jazz shows here and there.

We had fresh seafood for lunch, but unfortunately Irfan didn’t have any as he fell asleep right after we left Zehan’s place and only woke up when we were having hot chocolates for tea. Heh. The rain finally stopped by then but it was so lecak everywhere and Irfan had fun jumping in the puddle and see his Mama turn beet red! :P

After watching this really great saxophonist and his band, we made our way back to Zehan’s place to get ready to have dinner at Cafe Sydney - a gorgeous dining place overlooking the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Since it was really really cold that night, they had the place all closed up. Damn, what a waste! But dinner was great (and pricey!) but we didn’t really get to enjoy the whole ambiance because Irfan was tired and cranky and although the waitress offered him a dvd player (which we politely refused), we thought that it’d be best if we went home and not disturb the other diners. There was this one old lady who was giving me the killer looks. Macam dia tak pernah ada anak like that. Geez.

So anyway, there we were, walking in the cold (brrrrrr!) and Irfan suddenly thought that he’s not that sleepy anymore and was running, jumping and tergolek-ing everywhere. Ish! His new hobby was to press the pedestrian button and whenever we let him press, he’d be ever so happy. Kids. What simple minds they have. :)

I couldn’t tahan the cold and the furious wind (although I was wearing Zehan’s jacket) and hurriedly got to the car. Stopped at a souvenir shop to get some stuff and off we went.

Stayed up that night to pack as I didn’t want to do all the packing last minute, but the next day, I did keluar masuk barang for god knows how many times and since it rained on that day too, we didn’t go to the beach. Cooked some breakfast, got all ready and left for Aryan’s place for a Raya open house. Again, Irfan slept in the car and when we arrived at Aryan’s, we left him in her room and had some really good nasi lemak (go all the way to Sydney to have nasi lemak! haha!) and ketupat and satay and cakes. Yum!

Daylight savings started on the day we were to depart, so I was quite kancheong because I didn’t want us to miss our flight to GC. If we did, hoo-boy, we’d be stranded in Sydney for quite a bit and we don’t want that to happen, do we? So we left Aryan’s place not long after and when we arrived at Sydney Domestic Airport, there were just so many humans queuing! I checked ourselves in at the kiosk and got our boarding passes, but we still needed to queue to check-in our luggages. The queue was moving at snail’s speed because some people just didn’t bother to have themselves checked in at the kiosk so that delayed a lot of people. By 530pm (our flight was at 605pm), we were still nowhere close and an announcement was made asking us to go to the “last minute” counter so that we can settle our stuff in a jiffy and board the plane.

Once we boarded, it took quite a while for the plane to take-off. And I was still a bit worried because I wasn’t sure whether we’d arrive in time to collect our luggages, go through immigration and check-in again at the AAX counter. I got all panicky for all the wrong reasonslah. We had so much time and got bored waiting at the GC airport. Haha. Our flight to KL was at 935pm and we arrived at LCCT at 4am. Took forever to get ‘em luggages and decided to try the Skybus (since we were too early) and the ride was just hor.ren.dous. Well, that’s another story for another day. Suffice to say, the CEO of Skybus called me the day after I wrote in a complaint at their website and apologized profusely.

So, that’s that and now we’re saving for our next trip puyak (Irfan’s slang). ;)

Pictures from Aryan’s place - taken with her camera. :)

Bondi has been in the itinerary for as long as I can remember because of the *eherm* reason. Aaanyway, as soon as we got to Bondi Junction via the train, Irfan was already sleepy and wanted to sleep. It was a hassle to pick him up, fold the stroller and masuk the bus that was jam packed like a can of sardine as it was a sunny Friday and everyone wanted to head to the beach. What did we do? Go round Westfield we did. While I was going through stores after stores after stores, Irwan went to Borders to read some books. That was a good move because otherwise he’d nag at me non-stop for going shopping in Bondi! Abih tu, dah anak tido? :P

Fast forward t.h.r.e.e hours later and Irfan was still asleep. So we decided to have lunch and wait for the lil’ master to wake up before deciding on our next course of action. I can’t remember what time he got up, but it was pretty late and so we fed him his lunch - prawn spaghetti - that I prepared earlier on. Looking at the time, it wasn’t a good move if we head down to the beach (45 minutes walk) since Zehan said that we’ll be watching some fireworks at Darling Harbour at 8 p.m. We walked around the area and found the Centennial Park, but it was way.too.heeyuge for us to explore. And I was already tired from walking everywhere. Heh.

We took the train back home and Irwan thought that he’d take Irfan to a playground near the train station at Zehan’s place and I had to lug (literally!) the stroller, the bags, the loot and everything else that we had with us. Climbed up the hill and was thinking that I might just die half way (that’s how unfit I am!). Arrived in one piece at the apartment and I had 3 floors to climb (it’s a walk-up apartment). Just thinking about it now makes me go woozy. :P Had to leave the stroller and some stuff downstairs first while I sent up the loot and by the time I was done, my legs felt really really wobbly. Teruk kes!

Zehan called me after about 20 minutes and said that her earlier plans got cancelled and I was to pick her up with the car at a nearby restaurant. We caught a glimpse of the fireworks while crossing the bridge and that was that. Like so short. Ish! It was tough to find a proper parking and I ended parking us 15 minutes walk away from the Latin Fiesta at Darling Harbour.

Music was too loud and it was too smoky to remain outdoor, so we went inside to have some yummy kebabs. It wasn’t as good as what Irwan had for lunch at Bondi, but can dolah. And my son being my son, decided to do his big business right after dinner. Aiyo. Since it was quite a distance to go to the car and get his bag and come back again and also the fact that it has started drizzling (like dammit!), I told Zehan that we’d go back to the apartment instead, and to call me if she needs me to pick her up later. That’s how our Friday night ended. Not very happening, ey? :P

This one was edited by Aaron:

On Thursday, we took the train to Chatswood (which is a few stops away from Zehan’s place) and ronda-ronda the place. The whole idea was to go get some souvenirs and clothes for Irfan and his cousin and so we thought since we wouldn’t be long, we needn’t bring Irfan’s strollerlah. Wrong move. He woke up earlier than usual that morning so he was already sleepy and cranky around 11-ish pagi and so, he decided to lie down on the bench in the mall and sleep. His head was resting on Irwan’s lap, so Irwan couldn’t move and read his book and zonked out as well for the next 1 1/2 hours or so. By the time I was done, Irfan was still asleep, so we (read: Irwan) carried him to the food court and we had lunch there. I had grilled salmon and Irwan had grilled baramundi. They were so fresh and oh-so-delish. And the rocket salad went well with them. Best part? Only AUD 9 per plate. It’s not that cheap once you convert to RM, but 1:1, the price is pretty decent to me. Where to get that here in KL?

Irfan got up after we were done with lunch and so I bought him nuggets and fries from Mackers. Yeah yeah, bad parent. What-ever! :P Haha. While he continued eating his nuggets, I went into Myers to check out their sale. Sale amende? Still so mahal! We had to leave already by then as Irwan was going to meet up with someone whom he used to work with while he was with HP and that someone passed him some headhunters’ numbers as they are currently looking for people to fill in some spots in Sydney. *wink* Oh well, he said he’s going to try the other new place first, so we’ll seelah how it goes. Apa-apa hal, I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that his new job won’t take him away from us too often. Heh.

I digress.

Later in the evening, we brought Irfan to the park nearby Zehan’s place thinking that there’s a playground there. Unfortunately there isn’t, but Irfan had fun anyway running around and kicking about. I’m happy that he’s happy. :)

After it got dark, we headed back and got ourselves ready to have a (Raya) dinner with Zehan’s friends at Tre Scalini. It’s a nice Italian restaurant in the city and although it doesn’t serve the normal Raya food (like duh?), we had lots of fun getting to know her friends. Most of them studied there and refused to come home because of their reasonslah. Had I studied there, I might have been one of them too. Haha! Irfan was really tired and slept after we arrived there for like 15 minutes. We extended the dining chair and he baring-ed and slept ’til we had to leave. I think it was almost midnight when we got home.

We arrived at Coolangatta airport on 27.09.2008 around 7-ish a.m. (GC local time - 2 hours ahead of KL’s time) and the queue at the immigration counter was just hor.ren.dous. We were only done after about 2 1/2 hours and I thank God that Irfan really behaved. I guess since he managed to sleep throughout the whole journey, he wasn’t all that cranky. And I brought along his cars and books in the Trunki - so that occupied him for a bit.

We didn’t declare his milk as food stuff, but that wasn’t such a big of a deal. Some of the other passengers brought so many other food stuff and most of them were confiscated. I didn’t bother to pack anything because it’s Australia we’re going to and most of us know how icky they are regarding these things. Heh.

We stayed at an apartment called Freshwater Point at Broadbeach. We thought that we’d skip Surfers Paradise since we’ve been there before and opted for a more relaxing area. Our room was upgraded and we had the view of the river. It was just magnificent! Unfortunately, our room was not ready when we arrived, so after dumping all of our luggages, we took a stroll down to the nearest mall and bought our groceries from Coles. Irfan slept on the way back to the apartment and got up after I was done preparing lunch.

Had our lunch and the three of us napped again after that and got up in time for a swim. The water wasn’t that cold as it was quite heated but the wind was just brrrrrr since the pool was located next to the river. I couldn’t tahan for long and left after a jacuzzi stint. Note to self: kena increase lemak di badan! Hahahaha…

The boys came up after 30 minutes or so and we all got ready for a walk to the town. Irfan was all knackered and slept in his stroller while we pusing-pusing until it got really cold and windy and we headed back as we weren’t really in our warmest of clothes.

We got up quite late the next day and headed straight to Pacific Fair to get onto the bus that’ll take us to the Nerang train station since we wanted to go to Brisbane. We didn’t bother renting a car because we figured that we wouldn’t be doing much driving (since we’re driving everywhere in KL!) and thought that we’d use our legs to get around instead. And besides, Australia’s public transportation is really good, so we didn’t really have any problems. :)

When we arrived at South Bank, the place was filled with kids and families and younglings. I brought along Irfan’s swim gears and he had fun at the man-made beach. There was a flea market there and while I busied myself looking at the stuff there, the boys went to watch some-guy-eating-some-fire show. After the show was done, I changed Irfan at the nearest public toilet which has a baby changing room - something that I can’t find here in KL - and we made our way to Brisbane town via the CityCat ferry.

The ferry crossed the river and voila! We were there already. The last time I was in Brisbane was when I was 14 and the place has changed so much! Like duh?! Haha. We just let Irfan run around while we enjoyed chilling and lazing around. Didn’t really feel like doing all the tourist-y things actually. We just wanted to chill. And chill it was.

Got back to South Bank around 7+ p.m and missed the train. Since the next train wasn’t scheduled for the next 50 minutes, we went back to the park and watched the lovely scenery. By the time we got back to the apartment, it was already 9-ish and I was freezing my butt off! :P Irfan, as always, sudah tidurlaaaaa…

Am swarmed at work like an orang gila at the mo’. And I have about 11gb worth of pictures to edit. Eeeeeppp! I’ve just imported 8gb worth of pictures in the morning and there were about 758 of them. Crossed out a lot and still have about 500+ more to go! I’ve only done this few, so pelan-pelan kayuh, k guys? Heh!

These were taken on Day 3 (silly me forgot to take the SD card that contains pictures from Day 1 & 2!) at Seaworld Gold Coast. Irfan had a fab time watching the Sesame Street shows and going on all of ‘em rides. His fave? Elmo’s Sea Subs. Haha.