Finally, all in their place!

After living with boxes for nearly ten days, the nightmare's finally over! We have arranged, stocked and kept all the 'stuff' in their final resting place...hehehe

The first few days was definitely a nightmare! Since all the other 6 families' things were among all the boxes, I didn't know where to start looking for other people's things. Unfortunately, this time subalipack didn't do very well in packing the things. Can you imagine if in one box, crammed together, ridsect, bath gel and also food stuff!!! 

My primary concern was to be able to give the others their things first! Can you imagine a few tins of coconut milk being packed inside several boxes...sigh... It was definitely challenging times for me! The day after, I asked the 'owners' to start collecting their things (things that were already found!), so that I could start unpacking others boxers underneath those boxes...and for me to have some space to move around...hehehe

I pitied the maid because she only had a tiny space to mop the house...heheh, plus the dust! Oh, some of the boxes were really dusty! Slowly, I managed to clear most of the boxes. With the help of a new Sudanese maid that I hired, we finally finished storing everything on the 17th of February...sigh, what a relief! Just look at the pictures and gave me a pat on the back! Hehehe...

In my store room...

On a rack in the kitchen!

In Hadi's room...well, what used to be Hadi's room...hehehe

In one of the kitchen cabinets!

Even in closets!!! Amir's also going to be wearing girls' pampers...hehehe

 (Mydin gave us the wrong one!)

The Arrival of our supply!

Early in February, we received news that our 'things' were already at the Port of Sudan. Yeay! It was definitely earlier than expected because we estimated that it would arrive sometime end of February. But, who's complaining, right? The earlier, the better because we already had to 'borrow' a pack of rice from a neighbour while waiting for our own supply...hehehe

At first, we were told that there was some complications with our kontena. It seemed that the customs wanted a health certificate to be issued because we're bringing in a lot of foodstuff. Huh?!! As if others before this did not bring food stuff. They've got to be kidding!!! Finally, it was cleared from customs. What a relief!

Actually, I would have liked it to arrive after our programme on the 13th of February but never mind... It finally arrived on the 10th of February. It reached the complex around 6 p.m. But it finally reached our house after isya'. It lasted until nearly 11 p.m for every box to be put inside our house! There were about 120 plus boxes altogether. It filled up Hadi's bedroom and obviously the living room was full to the max. Hehehe... I felt so tired just looking at the hoard!  Just look at the pictures and feel free to laugh out loud and say, "Oh my God!"

My husband was making a bad-taste joke!

The gentlemen were also waiting for their stuff in our kontena! Che' Ku's waiting for his 'tudung saji'...hehehe

From this picture, you could see the full bedroom and part of our living room!

These little people were so eager to find their toys, actually!

Some of the students who helped carry our things. They tasted the first bottle of 100plus...hehehe. There's no 100plus in Khartoum, okay?!!

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...

A trip to the east coast : Hadi, The King of the Waves!!!

I just want to share some photos of Hadi. He was truly the King of the Waves that day. Even looking at the pictures months later, I could remember his joy of playing in the water. I think I've captured his happiness in these photos. I love watching him happy!!!

This is my favourite photo of him!

The others were holding on to each other, but not him!

He was in a world of his own!

The joy in defeating the waves!

Always on the move!

Defeated by the waves...fell under the pressure...

This is in the beginning, he was still a bit scared of the waves...

In a group, but he's alone...

Always, always moving...

A trip to the east coast : Kemaman...

I've 'rested' from blogging for such a long time, I don't know where where to start. So, I think I'd better continue from where I left off.

When we arrived in Kemaman, the kids were very excited to get into the water. After Asar, all of us went to the beach. The beach was just about 100 metres from the house. It was very beautiful, though we could see that the sea was quite rough. We just played near the edge and we had fun. Well, they had fun, while I had to struggle to keep the camera from getting wet and at the same time tried taking their photos...hehehe...

Amir and Afiq were not that fond of playing in the water, they preferred to play with the sand. The water hero of that day would be... Hadi!!! That's so surprising because he was always afraid of getting in the swimming pool. He was having so much fun that I started feeling a bit panicky of his safety. He was running everywhere, even talked to the waves...hehehe... He must have some sort of competition with the waves...hehehe

Anyway, we came back to the house just before maghrib. At night, we played a game of carrom. My husband and me won the game against Adik and Angah (much to Angah's consternation ...hehehe). The next morning, the kids 'forced' us to bring them to the beach again...sigh... And we spent the morning on the beach. 

We were supposed to leave for KL after lunch, but there was a change in plans, we're going back after Zohor instead. So the kids had time to play on the tree-house. At first, we let only the older kids on the tree-house, but Amir and Natrah wanted to go up there too. So, we relented and they had fun up on the tree. Well, it's not usual that they get to play climbing on trees and such so I thought it would be good for the city kids to experience that kind of fun... What I got up to when I was small was a different story altogether...hehehe... I definitely had a more colourful childhood. Climbing a tree-house was very 'mild' indeed...sigh... I wish I was 'lighter' enough to climb trees again...hehehe

Anyway, on our way to KL, we stopped at Kuala Kemaman to buy fresh sata...delicious, though it was a little bit too sweet for my taste. We arrived in KL around maghrib, very tired but for me it was such a wonderful trip. We managed to meet long-lost relatives and spent the time with our immediate family members. We had fun, I don't know when we get to be together again, like that. Oh well, that's something to look forward to, I suppose... Just enjoy the pictures.

Amir and Natrah...

Hadi : the king of the jungle!

Afiq and Aliah : Two peas in a pod! Inseparable!

Afiq and Amir, opting to play with the sand, instead!

Hadi was on his own, enjoying it!

My husband was holding on to his kids...

On their way to the beach, rushing to the beach!

Aliah and her Che' Su...