Veron: Speedy Gonzales

I took annual leave on Friday, 29th January. We were supposed to visit my MIL's mother during the weekend. It was postponed to Saturday, 30th January morning due to my 2 brother-in-laws were still working. I was worried of not getting enough rest as we have to rush back on the Sunday itself as I will be going to work on the following Monday. We had previous bad experiences on coming back from the north on the highway during festive season. We were stuck in the highway for at least 8 hours as people started to come back from their kampungs. It was so bad that even the trunk roads were congested. We reached home at about 12am that night and I had to work the next day!

Ok, ok back to my story... Well, we had a dinner with our close friends on the 29th at a seafood restaurant in Jalan Genting Kelang. Me and hubby was quite disappointed at the selection of menu by our friends. It was one of those like a Chinese Wedding Dinner menu with like 8 courses of dishes. Duh I have had enough of those, judging from the number of wedding dinners that I have to attend last year. Anne was getting cranky again as she was bored with the seafood in the tanks and also the aunties that were trying to get a piece of her... (Sorry ladies, don't expect Anne to call you 'Sister' meh...) We left about 10.30pm from the restaurant. Yes, I was struggling to change her into her PJs as it has passed her bedtime. She knocked off in the car. Hubby said we had to leave by 4am the next day for Sungai Petani. He even mentioned to set my alarm clock to buzz at 3.30am. Huh! I was worrying about Anne of not getting enough sleep.

I woke up as expected and I had a bath before I sponged Anne. I got her into her long pants, shoes and sweater. Well, it will be chilly in the car. We reached SP about 9am. Of course, I dozed off a couple of times in the car. As usual when we reached there, there will be breakfast got ready for us. Ah Khem and PoPo was also preparing Bak Kut Teh for lunch. After savouring breakfast of Char Siu Paus and Kuek Kaks, we hit the sack for a cat nap. Well, we so tired, looks like the nap took longer than expected. We woke up when the 'alarm clock' snoozed for the second time... (1st it was my sis-in-law who came in and wake us up, then my bro-in-law came to give warning... =.=)

It was about 1.30pm and it was time to go to Kuala Kerteh to visit my MIL's Ah Khem & family. That was a place where my MIL grew up and they are still staying in the old sundry shop. Picture this, it was those olden sundry shop where it was gloomy inside. The goods were on wooden shelves and was with dust and also cob webs. You will see those junk foods in the plastic bags hanging on top of your head and you still see biscuits stored in big jars. I remembered the last time we came here was last year where Hubby bought himself a toy revolver gun which is no where to be seen now... It was about 4pm when we left Kuala Kerteh. We visited Ah Yi's (MIL's elder sister) house before we were back again to Popo's house for a shower. We were set to attend a dinner with the family members at a restaurant near Popo's house.

All of us were seated in 2 tables. At the same time also, there were a wedding reception at the restaurant. Luckily they were not noisy. I guess people in small towns prefer simplicity. After the dinner, my FIL decided to visit his brothers. Well, Anne and I went to bed early and decided not to join them. I asked Hubby what time are we supposed to leave the next day. He said, "As early as possible.." I was thinking, "Huh, what about now?" I did not sleep soundly through the night (as usual lah..) as there were sounds of rockets and firecrackers that memecah kesunyian malam.

I didn't know what time all of them came back from visiting but I was suddenly awaken by a husky voice, "It was 4.30am. You guys better wake up else we will be stuck in the jam." It was MIL, losing her voice to I think from sleep deprivation, tones of coffee and viral infection from within the family? There were 6 of us in the room and we took turns to use the bathroom.

We left SP about 5.30am with my FIL driving my car. Hubby slept throughout the journey. Along the way, we saw a few cars being caught by traffic police near Slim River due to the speed trap set by them. And we made it to KL in 3.5 hours. This is call drive smart. We reached Bukit Jalil about 9am. My parents-in-law were in Wangsa Maju for breakfast while we headed back to BJ to settle Anne. After breakfast, Hubby and sis-in-law knocked off. (For your information, my sis-in-law was still in bed at the time the post is created... o.O).

After all the speedy journey, to and fro, I am glad that we had time to settle down and catch up with some sleep before both of us head for work on Monday. Well, I am actually looking forward for the next weekend's holiday...till then, its work...like a cow..MoooOOooo