Cerita choti...and such...

God. I'd better not get used to NOT blogging for more than a month!

All rusty already.

Ayah has been asking me every now and then, "You ada blog posting baru tak?"

I guess, with him being so ultra-busy nowadays, reading my blog might just be the only way he could keep up with what's happening with me and the kids kot? Hehehe...

The last one month had been okay. In fact, more than okay!

Did I mention that we went to Gold Coast?

Well, yeah, we did. We were there for a week - terbang there on 19 November, and terbang balik on 26 November.

It was a really nice break for just us family, and we had a wonderful time there.

We stayed at Mark*am Court, Broadbeach - which was just about 5 minutes walk to the beach and The Oasis Shopping Centre, and 5 minutes drive to Surfers Paradise and Pacific Fair Shopping Mall. We rented a 2-bedroom apartment with 2 bathrooms, a kitchen (fully equipped), a living room, a dining hall, a utility room (with washing machine, dryer, and ironing facilities), with a secured basement parking - only accessible by residents. Worked well with us as we had rented a car for the full one week we were there.

We had booked our car online from Coolangatta Her*z Car Rental and we didn't have to pay any booking fees at all. Right after clearing the customs check-point, we just walked to Her*z Counter at the airport with our rental reference code, and within 15 minutes we got our car - a Camry Sportiva(o?). And on the day we were flying back to KL, we drove to the airport, parked the car at the parking lot, dropped the key at Her*z counter and went straight to the AA Check-in Counter. All done within 10 minutes!

Mark*am Court is located just off the Gold Coast Highway which brings you straight-ish to all the Theme Parks - Movie World and Wet n Wild (20 minutes drive), Dream World and White Water World (25 minutes drive) and Sea World (10 minutes drive). We bought VIP tickets to all the Theme Parks (valid until 30 June 2011 - a good excuse to go back to GC before the tickets expire, huh? ;)It's cheaper getting the Family VIP tickets + 1 Adult ticket compared to getting individual tickets for all) and we did in fact go to Movie World and Dream World TWICE over 4 days - the first time just to go on the rides and do a bit of shopping, and second time - to indulge in more shopping there! Hehehe... :)

Even though it was mostly gloomy throughout most of our stay there - with intermittent showers and sunny intervals here and there, that didn't spoil our fun at all. Well, we just didn't linger on the weather facts even though we only had ONE full sunshiny day in the 6 days we were there. We made sure that, came rain or shine we were on the rides at the parks for most of the times! (Well, at least the kids were :)).

The day we arrived (we arrived at Coolangatta Airport at 7:50am, and at the apartment at 9:30am) we just spent the time resting and lepaking at the apartment, and later that afternoon, we went to The Oasis to shop for our one week grocery stock, and also to purchase our Theme Park tickets.

The next day was spent at Movie World and later at Broadbeach (even though it was freezing cold!)

The day after that was spent at Dream World and White Water World, and later that night we went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Pacific Fair Mall. Like la cannot watch the movie in Malaysia, kan? But, the kids insisted on watching it there that night! Aiyooo... But, Ayah said, "This holiday is mainly for the kids, so, we just do the things they want to do to make them happy lah, kan?". So, the Boss (who's also the Menteri Kewangan) won, and the kids got their movie treat :)

The day after that was spent at Wet n Wild, Movie World (again!) AND Dream World (again).

The day after that - it was my turn for some thrilling "rides" at Harbourtown Outlet Centre, and later that night, we spent some time souvenir shopping at Surfers Paradise.

The day after that - we went to Broadbeach again, and we later went to Sea World, and then shopping (again) at Pacific Fair. And of course - being our last night there - malam tu pulun shopping for souvenirs at Surfers Paradise again!

Hanna and Hasya went on MOST of the BIG THRILL rides at the parks. You just name it, they were on it (except for the ones which were under maintenance on the days we were there). THEY DEFINITELY DO NOT HAVE MY GENES, unlike Hilman who was rather selective when it came to choosing his rollercoaster rides. He opted to NOT go on the ones which would leave one with a zero-gravity sensation and those which would make one feeling ultra-dizzy, post-ride. So very like his Mommy... Hehehe! :)

Apart from the Theme Parks and the occcassional shopping trips, we didn't really go out that much as the kids preferred to just sleep and rest at the apartment. And what with Ayah subscribing to a week Wifi connection to the apartment, the kids had a field day going online in the evenings!

Anyway, as we were not really rushing to go to all the places around Gold Coast and Brisbane recommended for tourists, all in all it was quite a relaxing break for us, for Ayah especially, as he managed to catch up on some sleep over there. (But, having said that, he had to spend a few hours on Tuesday to work on his MM article which he had to submit that night for the Wednesday issue! What to do? Orang Gila Kerja like that lah!)

After spending 6 days in Gold Coast, we checked out of Mark*am Court on Friday morning, took the 9:50 am flight back to KL and by 3:30pm (Msian time) we were back on home soil.

Syukur alhamdulillah, everything dipermudahkan for us from the day we left KL until the day we came back :)

If it's a relaxing but fun break in GC that you're looking for, I think 1 week is just nice with you renting an apartment and a car (with a GPS), and do as what you please in your own time, having a good nap here and there. Just like what we did.

BUT, if you feel like you want to explore a bit more of what GC and Brisbane have to offer, you should rent an apartment and a car (with a GPS, of course!) and stay for 10 days. OR if you can't afford to stay that long due to limited cuti and all, then, alternatively you can go for a 5D4N OR 6D5N packaged tour (which will be pretty hectic as there are so many things to do and so many places to go to (on top of the 5 Theme Parks!) within that 6 days.

Anyway, I had wanted to post an entry on our GC trip earlier, but, after coming back to KL I was pretty buried in an avalanche of exams invigilations, and of course - with the task of marking the exam scripts lah pulak after that. And on top of that, two days after we came back, it was my MIL's turn to go for a vacation, and we were "house-sitting" for her for a couple of weeks, while she was in London.

Nak jadikan cerita, her maid ran away last Friday, 2 days before my MIL was due to come home!

I was not at home when it happened. In fact I was on my way home from the office. My SIL Rubiah was there with her kids, along with Hasya and Hilman, and Bibik Dar. Everybody was inside the house, while the maid - Eton - was sweeping outside. We checked the CCTV recording after she cabut and it showed her tawaf the compound a few times, looking out to the main road nervously every now and then, and at 4:57pm, she went down to the garage with the penyapu lidi, pretending to sweep there, walked towards the garbage closet, walked through it, and never came back in!

And I reached home at 5:25pm.

And we only knew she was gone at 6:45pm when Dar could not find her when she was supposed to start cooking dinner then! All those while everybody was thinking that she was outside watering the plants, and doing some gardening.

And the recordings also showed that the guard was standing about 30 feet from the garbage closet when Eton went out. He was looking out at the back, probably enjoying a breather of the angin petang, watching the golfers doing their thang. And he was oblivious to the fact that Eton had cabut lari right under his nose...

Anyway, like Hilman (maybe rightly?) put it, "The guard is supposed to make sure nobody comes INTO the house, NOT goes OUT of the house, Mommy..."

My MIL came back on Sunday night, and with her being maidless now, we are extending our stay at her place so that Dar can help her out around the house.

So, begitulah ceritanya...

So, that's all for now. Hopefully, there'll be another update from me soon, insya Allah.

In the mean time, here are some pics from our Gold Coast trip. Enjoy!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7


P/S :- Please be warned : A friend took nearly 3 days to go through the pics (in between his free time and work schedule, of course :))