The Travelling Children

Macam apa je tajuk

Alhamdullilah my kids behaved very well all throughout the journey. They were their naughty selves alright. But well it was all tolerable. They made a mess in the car with their crumbling crisps and water spills. We got tired of nagging but still nagged anyway. They still do it now. Nagging is pointless really. But I will still do it. It keeps me sane.

I prepared each child a folder before the travel. There was a map of our journey, the very same that I kept putting up on my past entries, a drawing block, an A4 sized photo of each of them so they'll know whose folder is whose (eh betul ke ejaan whose ni? macam salah je) and also a set of pencil colours each. They drew (Sya) and wrote (Haziq) and scribbled (Jack) on the nights staying in the hotel. But since I do not know how to draw nor do anything creative I didn't really supervise them. And by the end of the journey when we spent most of our nights out, the projects were somewhat stalled. *shame*.

But the map was very fruitful especially for Haziq and Sya. With Haziq I went even more detailed naming him the border post and all. Sya seems to show an interest in reading map but kept asking question over and over again.

"So now we are here", pointing to a point on the map, which I showed earlier.
"And we are going this way", tracing her fnger following the route we are going.

Five minutes later.

"Are we here now?", pointing to a point like hundreds of km away. I pointed to her, that we are still here. At the same point I showed earlier.
"Still there? How come? The last tower I saw just now are not there anymore"

Makcik tak kuasa nak cerita konsep distance and time ni lah kekadang i just said we have a small map, you cannot see everything in here.

We also brought a big tupperware of medicines. You know for the cough, dry, chesty, non productive. Cold and fever. Even for us. Sneezing sneezing cold or blocked nose. We have it all. Zachary had fever before we left for Oman, and it got worst along the journey. When we reached Dubai, I knew it would be a sleepless night for me. His fever was bound to go on for days. What more with a hectic journey like this. Pop goes the suppository, and his fever subsided the day after, albeit a bit of cold.

We also brought with us 20litre of water in a jerry can. Equipped with a siphon type pump. This is to serve for wudhu, general cleaning, radiator and kids easing themselves in the middle of nowehere. But we didn't use much of it, for mosques are everywhere. So it wasn't so bad. Perhaps a 5 litre one would suffice the next time.

I think the children learn tremendous. At least I hope. I know Haziq learned about beraucracy and what nots, a bit of geography, everchanging landscape, sembahyang Jamak Qasar and meeting people whose english is also their second language. Batrisyia was clearly improving her reading. She showed so much enthusiasm in reading everything she sees.

OM-AN...ahah..OMAN. Yayyyyy!
MUS-CAT. Yayyyyyyyy!
She tries to read the book I read.

Jack, the oompa loompa, likes to say these two words. Salalah and Wajaja. We only went to the latter. Haziq and Sya love asking him, "Where are you going Jack?" He would rely astoundingly, "WAJAJA!!!" Uproar. Wajaja! Wajaja! Wajaja! Salalah! Salalah! Salalah! Falala! Falala! Falala! And all the made up words.

They made the travel easier. Bless 'em children.