Wednesday 25 February 2009

Shopping like crazy!!!

One of our agendas when we were in Malaysia was to buy food supply to bring back to Khartoum. My husband's colleague, Kamal offered us his kontena to bring stuff to Khartoum. When I heard that of course I readily accepted. And being in such a small community, words spread and we ended up buying for seven families...hehehe

Before we went to the east coast, we send a copy of the list of items to Mydin in Subang Jaya. When we came back, we gave them a deposit of two thousand for them to get the items out. And on the 20th of December we went there to check and pay for all the items. We went very early, by 8 am we're already in Mydin. Lo and behold! There was a section in the warehouse provided for our things. 

Anyway, we spent about 3 hours to check everything, just the two of us. Well, we were given a bangla staff who was supposed to help us with the quantity and such things. But he was mute! or was he deaf?!! So, it was such a struggle asking him for help, we ended up doing everything ourselves...sigh... And we were so tired that we just made some quick decisions that if the items requested was not in stock, we would just forget it! Some items were in stock but in smaller quantity for example, we asked for a 5 or 10kg of Breeze but was given small boxes of 500 gm in weight, we would convert that into the desired weight. It was hard work, okay?!!

Around 11 a.m, we started to put the items through the counter. We had so much stuff that one counter was devoted wholly for our items! It was kind of embarrassing because everytime other customers tried to queue up behind us, we would point to our stuff and they would go to another counter...hehehe... If I'm not mistaken we used around 26 trolleys altogether! And the funny thing was, on some trolleys, they've put a sign saying, "Fasri, Sudan". I bet the other customers thought that we're on MERCY mission or something... hehehe, well, in a way it was a mercy mission...my mercy...hehehe

Anyway, I pitied the cashier because he had to postpone his lunch to keep on attending to us. We finished everything by 2 p.m. Unfortunately, my husband forgot to bring the deposit receipt, so we had to pay around 18,000 altogether! (Well, the total was rm17, 936.23!). A staggering amount by any standard but in my defense, it was not just for us but also for another 6 families...hehehe

We managed to get most of the items. The bulk of the items were pampers, powdered milk and things that we couldn't get in Sudan. Items like cooking oil and rice are really expensive in Sudan. Well, what isn't expensive in Sudan?

I did a really 'bad' mistake when I was there...hehehe... I was taking pictures for this blog and when I tried taking a picture of the cash register, I was told off by the security. Well, it was so tiring just hanging around while the cashier keyed in my purchases. It was 3 hours of standing and trying to act nonchalant, okay?? Because of that, the security started checking all our purchases before it could be brought down to the bay area...sigh... as if I was going to cart away unpaid for items...cheh!

I'm sure, you're wondering how did we manage to cram everything into our tiny car?!! hehehe... Of course not! We had a Subalipak van waiting for us at the bay area. It took another hour of waiting for everything to be put into the 1 tonne van...Finally, it was over by 3 p.m. We rushed back to Taman Tun to pray and then managed to dash to Ampang for a wedding. Hehehe, what a day! Even thinking about it now made me tired. So, so glad that it was over! 

Not to mention the various shopping trips to IKEA and other shops to buy things to bring back to Khartoum! I think I had my fill of shopping within those few weeks. I think that's why I'm so content doing nothing in Khartoum...hehehe...Subalipak came to our house on the 23rd of December to collect some more items. And we're finally done to enjoy our holidays by the 23rd of December...Alhamdulillah.

My husband checking the items...

Some of the trolleys!

While waiting at check out...

This is the fated cash register!

Finally! The Subalipak van...

5 comments:

RozIlah Kamarudin said...

7 families at 18K is not so bad... average would be the most 3K

when i did my shopping to be in alex, the first trip costed me Rm3K alone.. i didnt remember how many i did..

itulaa malaysia mmg heaven!!!

Ina said...

Dear Kak Olie,

Hehehe, sebenarnya kitorang punya aje 12k...hehehe. Insyaallah tak kebuluran kitorang kat Khartoum ni. Sekarang ni rumah I dah jadi kedai runcit kat sini. Sapa takde barang2, sure tanya kitorang dulu...hehehe. Untuk buat hampers family day pun beli from us. Ye lah, economy tak berapa elok ni, kalo beli kat Khartoum ni, apalah benda yang dapat dengan budget yang ada tu...sigh...

Sizuka said...

wah ina, engkau memang super woman when it comes to shopping. cant imagine mcm mana kalau kat sudan tu ada shopping center mcm klcc, mau everyday engkau go on shopping spree.. hehehe

elisataufik said...

Astaghfirullah!
And you do this every year ke?

Ina said...

Shidah,

Dah lama aku tak gi shopping tau...sob! sob!

Kak Elisa,

Hehehe, tidaklah every year, kebetulan ada member offer guna kontena dia, so, apa lagi, kira ambik kesempatanlah kan? hehehe