Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Day Before the Trip
The Day Before the Trip
You would have done your outstanding list and pass it to your colleague at work who would take over while you’re away. You arrived home on the last day of work to find your wife and kids absolutely gleeful, looking forward to tomorrow. All the loved ones at home have been sms’ed at least twice to expect you and family very soon.
Normally your flight is on the night of the last day you’re at work but this time because of the summer peak and some technicalities you have to sit out Thursday tweedling your thumbs because your flight is Friday morning. But you most certainly do not tweedle your thumbs, your house is in a mess with preschool kids running riot entertaining themselves during the start of the long summer hols; you sweep and vaccum and you mop so that you will arrive back later to a nice clean house. Wife of course is in charge of the journey logistics, planning and packing while balancing that with laundry, breakfast, lunch and dinner which still have to be prepared. I tell you a nice clean house is a pipe dream to any family who have three preschool kids. They have the talent to turn your just spotlessly cleaned living room topsy turvy the moment you blinked. Chocolate milk boxes, straws and stains are like tell tale footmarks telling you which part of the house they liked most. The play room is like a modern art display of toy disarrangement.
What is it about Malaysia that expatriate families loved so much to go home to vacation to? I must admit sometime we briefly consider Europe or Turkey or similar as an alternative holiday destination but I do stress the word briefly, its no contest. Home and Malaysia always win hands down. I suppose it has to do with recapturing a little bit of our lives at home before we left to settle in foreign shores. Not a small number of expat families left their Malaysian homes as it is, locked and unrented to be checked upon occasionally by brothers and sisters or parents. Why? Well most of the furnitures were bought just after your honeymoon and many things carry sentimental value you wouldn’t want to be trespassed by paying tenants. So for the entire family the few moments you are back in your home is like recapturing a past life you missed quite a lot. But generally you are sober now regarding the economics of the situation. In the early days abroad you’d imagine how nice it would be if you could work in Malaysia again. But as the years go by your Sangkar Emas or Golden Cage becomes more and more liveable so much so, dare I say it, you actually begin to look upon the place you’re in, as home. And trips home are just that, trips home which when over you have to deal with the reality of working abroad again. But that still does not take away the sheer thrill and joy of commencing the trip home. For the Zahid family, Alhamdulillah, they are very lucky we go home many times a year because Papa has to fulfill an obligation to continue teaching Islamic Capital Market in Kuala Lumpur. For many others it’s usually once a year either in the Summer or nearer to Eid Fitr. But whenever it is and how frequent it is, trips home are tops for Malaysian families in Riyadh. It can be described as the ear to ear grinning sort of fun and joy.
Maas Salamah Riyadh. We will be away for a while insyaAllah. Ilaliqo qariban. Ahlan Malaysia.
Wassalam,
Zahid.
You would have done your outstanding list and pass it to your colleague at work who would take over while you’re away. You arrived home on the last day of work to find your wife and kids absolutely gleeful, looking forward to tomorrow. All the loved ones at home have been sms’ed at least twice to expect you and family very soon.
Normally your flight is on the night of the last day you’re at work but this time because of the summer peak and some technicalities you have to sit out Thursday tweedling your thumbs because your flight is Friday morning. But you most certainly do not tweedle your thumbs, your house is in a mess with preschool kids running riot entertaining themselves during the start of the long summer hols; you sweep and vaccum and you mop so that you will arrive back later to a nice clean house. Wife of course is in charge of the journey logistics, planning and packing while balancing that with laundry, breakfast, lunch and dinner which still have to be prepared. I tell you a nice clean house is a pipe dream to any family who have three preschool kids. They have the talent to turn your just spotlessly cleaned living room topsy turvy the moment you blinked. Chocolate milk boxes, straws and stains are like tell tale footmarks telling you which part of the house they liked most. The play room is like a modern art display of toy disarrangement.
What is it about Malaysia that expatriate families loved so much to go home to vacation to? I must admit sometime we briefly consider Europe or Turkey or similar as an alternative holiday destination but I do stress the word briefly, its no contest. Home and Malaysia always win hands down. I suppose it has to do with recapturing a little bit of our lives at home before we left to settle in foreign shores. Not a small number of expat families left their Malaysian homes as it is, locked and unrented to be checked upon occasionally by brothers and sisters or parents. Why? Well most of the furnitures were bought just after your honeymoon and many things carry sentimental value you wouldn’t want to be trespassed by paying tenants. So for the entire family the few moments you are back in your home is like recapturing a past life you missed quite a lot. But generally you are sober now regarding the economics of the situation. In the early days abroad you’d imagine how nice it would be if you could work in Malaysia again. But as the years go by your Sangkar Emas or Golden Cage becomes more and more liveable so much so, dare I say it, you actually begin to look upon the place you’re in, as home. And trips home are just that, trips home which when over you have to deal with the reality of working abroad again. But that still does not take away the sheer thrill and joy of commencing the trip home. For the Zahid family, Alhamdulillah, they are very lucky we go home many times a year because Papa has to fulfill an obligation to continue teaching Islamic Capital Market in Kuala Lumpur. For many others it’s usually once a year either in the Summer or nearer to Eid Fitr. But whenever it is and how frequent it is, trips home are tops for Malaysian families in Riyadh. It can be described as the ear to ear grinning sort of fun and joy.
Maas Salamah Riyadh. We will be away for a while insyaAllah. Ilaliqo qariban. Ahlan Malaysia.
Wassalam,
Zahid.
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