an expat's wife (in khartoum no more...): Reunion in JB: Part 1

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Reunion in JB: Part 1

One of the highlights of my trip back home last year was of course the reunion of my classmates in Johor Bharu. I was so looking forward to seeing my friends again... I missed a few of the gatherings because I was busy preparing to go to Sudan and while I was away in Sudan.

We left school in 1990, going our separate ways. A few years ago (maybe sometime in 2004) our friend, Shidah was kind enough to create a new yahoogroup for our class. Since then, the friendship has been growing and now we're more like family than friends. Even though we lead separate lives, we shared happiness and more importantly, we shared our sadness as well. The original group include Shidah, Nora, Anne, Ella, Nita, Zana, June, Gayah and As (hardly join because their so busy) and me... hehehe. Now we've add a few more of our classmates such as Syeeqah, Niza, Nini, Yana and Zmin. Alhamdulillah...

So, we planned for our gathering in JB with Ella as the host and I as the sponsor...hehehe. Ella was kind enough to book the hotel for us in 'U' Hotel. It was in Taman Universiti near UTM...figures, huh?!! She made all the arrangement for our food as well.

Anyway on the 25th of December, we made our way to JB. We were a bit late because we started the journey after 2 p.m. At first my husband drove but as usual he soon felt drowsy...hehehe. So, I took over the wheel, yeay! Being driven around for so long, I find that driving's quite therepeutic...hehehe. For the first time, I reached 160km/ph when my husband was sleeping. To cut the story short, I arrived in JB around 5 p.m, which made Ella a bit flustered because she was expecting us around 6 p.m... hehehe

As usual, slow traffic around Seremban...sigh...

Anyway, when we arrived at 'U' hotel, Zana and her family also just arrived. Yeay! We rested for a while, because Ella would be picking us up after isya'. The hotel was surprisingly spacious and clean! Around 8.30, we followed Ella to pick Gayah and her family in Bluewave and them made our way to ZZ corner to eat the infamous mee rebus tulang. We were shown to 2 connecting huts way at the back. How do they know we're going to make so much noise?!! Hehehe...

We were hungry but when we looked at the mee rebus...we looked at each other... What's the straw for? Ella laughed at us and told us that it's for 'drinking' the 'gear-box'...hehehe. Gayah and me just ate the mee and I could personally vouch that it was the best mee rebus, ever!

Look at the mee rebus!

We ate and we chatted and ate some more... This was plus the noise made by our kids...hehehe, don't ask me about husbands because even though they were near but it felt like they were a million miles away...hehehe. Just look at the pictures...

Zana and two of her kids...

The husbands next door...

Amir asked Auntie Ella to feed him...

We managed to finish most of the food...

Couldn't remember what we talked about, but it was fun...

After the meal Ella asked us whether we're interested to go to Danga Bay. Of course, we agreed (except for Gayah that is). My kids were excited when they saw the rides there. But finding a parking spot was a bit of a challenge...sigh... Anyway, we discovered that the rides were a bit 'pricey' but since we're there and the kids were already jumping up and down, we just paid.

First, we tried the train ride around the carnival ground. It was quite short but we had fun taking pictures. Later the kids went on several rides such as the merry-go-round and Ella and me got stuck on the merry-go-round...hehehe... we were supposed to help the kids onto the horses but before we know it the 'thing' moved.

They also played the frog and the kids bumper cars. Amir cried because he was too small to be on the rides...hehehe, he really had a tantrum because he couldn't join the others. Aliah played with Zana's daughter and Thaqif, Ella's son. They really had fun. around midnight we went back to the hotel...Enjoy the pictures!