Good Day, Mate! - Day 1 (Part 1)

Hola, amigos. Yamseng!

Yamseng kepala otak kau. Inikan bulan Ramadhan. Haa... jemput. Jemput. Makan kurma tu lebih sikit.

*intro yang sangat bedebah*

Well, anyway, back to the story. We reached Tullamarine Airport around 7:50AM. So it took about almost eight hours to get from Malaysia to Australia. Lepas keluar dari perut kapal terbang tu we all walked along the tunnel until we were greeted by the local custom officer at the entrance.

Actually not.

She didn't greeted us like "Hi, welcome to Tullamarine Airport. Enjoy your day here." She was actually standing there to examine the passengers and see if there were any suspects.

But it was my damn fault all the way long *I hate me for being me, you know*

Because I looked at her like LOOKED at her macam minta attention. It's like "Hey lady, please looked at me back. I'm an attention seeker and I'm from Malaysia. Read my lips: AT-TEN-TION SEE-KAH. You hear me?!"

Ambik ko, sekali dia perasan saya pandang dia, terus dia panggil and kena soal siasat. Putus urat sekejap. Hahaha.

She asked us so many things like what we're doing there, how long we would be there, tinggal kat mana nanti, bilik ada berapa, muat ke tak. I was so lucky that I knew such questions will be asked because Australians are very particulars about this and Akak Besa' has told me earlier. We were not supposed to stay with my sister because it is HER house. Kalau nak jumpa dia boleh jumpa kat tempat lain like dekat park or club or anywhere as long as not at home. And let say kalau ada dua bilik je dalam satu rumah, the family members are not allowed to be more than three. Lebih kurang macam tu. Sebab budaya kat sana mementingkan privasi. Even antara famili sendiri pun. Sebab tu saya mentioned awal tadi yang we're not supposed to stay at my sister house. So saya tipu here and there.

Saya perasan all the other passengers elok je went away to the checking counter. Famili kitorang je yang stranded kena tahan dengan that local custom officer. Susah betul kalau ada dalam satu group tu ada orang nerd bermasalah macam aku ni. Hahaha.

So we proceeded to the checking counter but in the middle we stop untuk ambil gambar sebab ada spot yang yang menarik. Again, kena tahan lagi dengan  officer yang sama sebab we were supposed not to take picture in the free tax area. Perempuan ni dah macam followed saya all the way long from behind and perhatikan saya. She asked me to delete all the pictures taken there before she went away. Awkward betul masa tu. Oh my, malu tahap siput sedut dah ni.

At the luggage checking counter, I would say it was quite smooth. Walaupun Mak ada bawa kuah kacang kering, saya bawa sos dan kicap, Kak Yong bawa mi segera and tat nenas, semuanya passed. Alhamdulillah. My brother said it all depends on the person in charge. Kalau okay, then okay lah. It just that dairy and egg products yang memang tak boleh bawa masuk (See, I've to lie about the ingredients of the tat nenas).

Dan akhirnya... Jeng! Jeng! Jeng! Kami lepas! Actually this was the part I was most afraid of. Sebab takut kena tangkap sebab bawa kuih raya yang mengandungi telur. Kalau masuk jail sebab bawa dadah kira up la sikit kan, nampak la macho sikit. Tapi sebab dah level noob, maka takat bawa telur pun dah boleh jadi reason masuk lokap. Hahaha.

Okay, see you next time for Day 1 part two!

Good Day, Mate! - Departure Day

Okey, marilah kita melupakan perkara yang lama sekejap... huhu.

On the departure day, I was very busy. Tengahari sempat lagi jumpa colleague kat office for something and then rushed to apply for Mak's travelling insurance in the afternoon. You can apply it from AXA via online. I didn't survey for other companies but I think this one was cheap enough which costed less than MYR20.00 per individual with basic cover and I'm not sure how much it costs for a group. I just bought for Mak since I already covered by takaful and my brother in law already applied for his family.

Oh, not to forget, at 4.00PM I still hadn't packed all my clothing yet. Semua baju saya longgokkan dalam plastik Mydin sekali dengan kicap, sos, dan bihun yang Akak Besa' pesan. Mak yang bawa bagasi kosong saya dari kampung. Jadi semua orang akan berkumpul dekat rumah Kak Yong nanti which takes only seven minutes from my house.

Tapi pukul 5.00PM lebih baru saya sampai sebab singgah kat Tesco dulu untuk beli penimbang. Masa tu mak memang membebel gila sebab saya tak sampai-sampai lagi. Dah la masa tu hujan.

So here we went, pukul 6.00PM tepat kami bertolak.

And the most unacceptable thing I did was I think that our departure is at 11.45PM.

Wrong, Syahmi! Wrong!

Sekali lagi kena bebel sebab salah timing. Hahaha... It was at 10.30PM actually.

Lucky we reached LCCT at 7.00PM and we self-checked in there. Easy meezy.

I was a bit nervous when we reached at the custom examination counter since it was first time. Kelam kabut juga. And then suddenly, whe we passed the boarding room, I heard an announcement "Penerbangan ke Melbourne akan bergerak sebentar lagi."

Hell, I was so panic at that time, kesian sebab Mak pun terpaksa lari-lari juga. And I push the door entrance and did some 'just like a boss' style. Alah, you know, yang tolak dua-dua daun pintu guna dua belah tangan serentak tu.

Dan kemudian kami sekeluarga terus berlari-lari anak ke tengah-tengah lapangan terbang untuk mengejar kapal terbang ke Melbourne itu dan saya mendapati ada seorang staf di tengah-tengah sana lalu saya bertanyakan kat dia, "Has the Melbourne flight departed yet?"

"Hah?? Cepat, dik. Cepat! Kapal terbang dah bergerak tu!" Muka pakcik tu sama gelabah macam saya. Cis!Cis!

And suddenly came this guy which I think the head officer in-charge and he said, "Ni siapa bagi diorang lepas ni?!"

Oh, man! Bagi lepas?! Like... 'bagi lepas?!'

What, are we kangaroos?

Dan sebenarnya flight yang tengah berlepas tu pergi ke Gold Coast instead of Melbourne. -_-"

So the officer bawa kitorang balik ke boarding room. Perghh...malu gilo time tu. Dah la kat boarding tu penuh dengan orang yang start dari awal, started from we rushed from the custom counter, berlari-lari anak dan tolak daun pintu tu *like a boss* and then kena halau balik ke boarding room and doing the walk-of-shame along the aisle, they had seen all of these. Oh my, malu macam berjalan naked di khalayak ramai....sob sob.

Yes, I noticed a group of Caucasians laughing at us. So kesimpulannya, lawak ini memang sangat mudah difahami dan diterima sampai ke tahap antarabangsa. Lawak oleh keluarga Abdul Rani. Cis! Cis!

 Sigh, I still have this trauma... and that Caucasians' laugh... Ahh!

Well, anyway, to my defence, ni semua salah announcement. I mean, how long is 'sebentar lagi' would be?

Again, saya dibebelkan lagi. Dah la duduk dekat dengan abang and kakak kastam. I'm pretty sure they overheard this. Even they had been warned by that head officer sebab tak guard dekat entrance ke lapangan terbang tu. Sekapal la kita.

Nasib baik kakak tu sporting siap cakap "Takpe, dik. Orang first time memang camtu."

Haha. -_-"

After less than half an hour baru the entrance opened.

Bila masuk dalam kapal terbang, wah, macam dalam keretapi je. Haha. Adoi, what la to expect when you opted for an economy package. But the stewardesses, I admit, were very beautiful.

In the airplane, nothing much that I did but I saw a very spectacular view of lightning from the higher level, above the clouds. Masa tu hujan and banyak kilat but I felt safe somehow. Subhanallah, vair vair interesting.

I was sleeping most of the time. Kak Yong, on the other hand, tak tidur langsung sebab takut. She said lepas ni tak nak pergi oversea dah kalau duduk dalam kapal terbang lebih dari lapan jam. Okey, Kak Yong, lepas ni kita bercuti kat Segambut je. Set?

Anyway, since we didn't pre-order the meals, we'd to buy them with the price of harga barang di langit. A Maggi cup costs MYR6.00 whilst a regular size bottle of mineral water costs MYR4.00. Now you see how rich our beloved Fernandes can be?

Oh ya, apart from all these, I learned a new thing about praying. We can do khuf when travelling. It is a simplified way of ablution. I'll make a special entry for this and macam mana nak sembahyang kat negara orang bukan islam later.

Till then, ciao.     

So She's Taken

Early this week I had a conversation with S. She was F's best friend during our technical program years ago and now still is. As I still cannot forget about F, I asked S and confirmed whether F's taken or not but she also couldn't assure.

Until today.

Somehow S had a conversation with F and asked her on behalf of me recently.

Yeay! F gave the answer at last. And yes, it's not a good one - at least for me. She admitted that she's taken by a guy. I should have a gut for it. So part of my heart feels a bit relief right now because I knew the truth but the other part feels the pain... of becoming the third wheel.

The second truth revealed - S told me that she also had (or still has??) a feeling for me but I was too late. I mean we... We met when she's already with that guy.

F cakap dia tak nak beri harapan kepada saya. Semuanya atas izin dan jodoh dari Tuhan. So, I don't know what to say any more. It's just hard to find someone like her, which I've waited for so long ago, for the past six years.

I knew up there, God is still planning the best for me.

Oh, how I wish I would be married before 32.

When I'm awfully low

I'm feeling like to have a dance partner.

Or in a worse case scenario, a partner-in-crime.

The Way You Look Tonight was originally sung by Frank Sinatra. Michael Buble made a cover of this song but I prefer Tony Bennett's the most.

Good Day, Mate! - Months and Days Before

Okay, so here we're again. Baru nak sambung cerita balik sebab sebelum ni takde inspirasi nak menulis. Ceewah.

So, actually how it was planned? Tetiba je pergi Melbourne. Well, it was Mak's intention of course since she likes travelling. But since then, Mak can't go anyway far from the dialysis centre sebab Mak ada masalah buah pinggang. So everywhere she wants to go is limited.


Early 2012
Akak Besa' (please read this as Besar with an Utara slang and I don't know why she got that name) went back to Malaysia, Mak tanya macam-macam about Australia. Since she looked so eager and keen so my big sister got this idea about bringing Mak to visit her later. Pity her since Ayah is not the type yang suka pergi travelling, so Akak asked me whether I could bring her to Melbourne together.

At first, Akak Besa' asked me to go with Abang Besa' (it sounds like a rap, haha), my elder brother together with his family sebab they all also planned to go to visit Perth, where my nephew studies. They planned to go next year and waited for winter but I insisted to go during spring which  is around October together with Mak alone. With Mak's condition, I'm afraid if anything bad happen. And I don't like winter. Spring would be better since Mak likes flowers so much and I like to eat lots and lots of fruits.

But I think my sister wouldn't trust me that I've to wait for my brother decision. Nasiblah kau, Syahmi. Siapa suruh berperangai macam budak-budak. Dah orang tak percaya dengan keputusan kau. Anyway, I'm get used to it, so let's just wait.

End of 2012
I received a call from Akak Besa' which suddenly she changed her mind and asked me not to wait for Abang Besa' because rasa macam lambat sangat pula.

Sudah kukatakan, Labu...

Anyway, October has passed, so I just checked for next year punya schedule and matched with the Australia's calendar and with the AirAsia ticket promotion. Sikit betul Australia punya public holidays. So the nearest public holiday is the Queen's Birthday in June. Which is winter time. Blergghhh.

So I booked two tickets.

Later, Akak Besa' called me again suggesting that Kak Yong, our eldest sister should join us. She and the other siblings would pay for her expenses - alone. Sebab Kak Yong dah banyak berjasa dengan adik-adik dia sepuluh orang ni so this is the time we treat her. I didn't mind about this but, seriously, alone?

I knew it never can happen! She got her kids. Of course the kids were eager to go too.

Again, they didn't hear me.

Why? Why? Why they hardly listened to me?

Okey, kenapa tiba-tiba penulisan ni berbaur amarah dan lepas geram? Haha

Anyway, back to the story, yes, the kids and the husband were going too - with their own pocket money. I was happy actually because the more the members the merrier this trip would be.


May 2013
I bought this Samsung smart camera just for this vacation. Yes, you can edit the picture right through this camera and it has WiFi and a small front LCD screen for cam-whoring.

Tadaa!

I got a student discount for this item. Which I never think I would get a student price because I forgot to shave my goatee and moustache. Oh, okay! Maybe because I was wearing my hipster t-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans and that SAG sling bag.

Oh dear, thinking back how cool I was at that time *usap-usap dagu*

My old student life...

Anyway, it will be an anti climax entry since I want to stop writing now. I feel tired and sleepy (and want to dream about my ideal cool student life back). So we'll continue the story later.

Ciao babeh.

Good day, mate! - Epilogue

I love this picture very much. It shows how we're closely bonding together like long lost brothers. Hehe. Details will be updated later. 

I'm going to have a late lunch now. Bye!

Goodbye. Thank you, memory.