A little grown up

warning: i hate posting long entry (cos i know i myself wont bother to read long entries), but im afraid it's gonna be long this time :] nak baca, baca lah, tak nak sudeh..

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i decided to go back home for summer holiday right after the exams are done. i bought my ticket last February, i kept the date a secret between me and my crime partner cousins. i wanted to surprise my family and friends back home, which i did big time haha! Since i decided to go back so early, no one wants to join me in that flight because most of them wants to go somewhere before heading home; German, Italy, Paris, Russia etc. 

To be honest i kinda regret my decision. Should've gone somewhere before home. God knows when will i ever have the chance to travel outside Malaysia, maybe never again. Ahh well, harm's done, there's no use for regret now. And if i had chosen to travel Europe before home, im damn sure i'll whine too saying "ahhh there goes my saving for Penang, now im broke, i should have gone back straight after the exams". Manusia..tak pernah bersyukur :]

i have my own reasons for going back home so early. i was so stressed with 2nd year of Medicine, the 1st semester of 2nd year to be exact. had a few breakdown plus some other personal problems. different people deal with stress in different way, in my case, i pulled myself out of the society; which is a wrong move. Gosh 2nd year really taught me that Medicine is not something you can take for granted. And with the amount of stress i encountered in the past few months, all i ever needed is support which i don't always get or maybe have no idea how to get it. 

i guess it all started with a bad beginning. i wasn't ready for to go back to Dublin in September last year; mentally and emotionally. And so i got carried away. As the saying goes, "failing to plan is planning to fail". Lesson learnt, i'll make sure it won't happen again this time. I'll use this holiday to really clear of my mind, to really plan ahead of time; like how i used to when i was planning for my SPM. 

oh enough with the emo parts haha. now lets talk about the surprise! My solo journey back home was on May 13th. susah juga sebenarnya travel sorang2. My flight with Emirates was at 1350, so i thought tak payah la membazir 40euro for taxi. so dengan gagahnya i pulled my only-back-wheeled 30kg luggage from home to the aircoach bus stop, that is about +/- 1km. no im not kidding. i walk a total of almost 3km everyday to class, to and fro. so 1km is nothing la bro haha. 

Wani, my housemate helped me pull my 8kg cabin luggage. Tapi akhirnya i gave up just about 250 meters away from the bus stop. Tak mampu dah kudrat wanita ini nak mengangkat 30kg luggage. Nasib baik a taxi passed by and we ended up using taxi for only 250m -_- i told the taxi driver "i know it's silly to get you to send me just up front, but i just can't handle it, the bag's too heavy!". And he said, "it is indeed a heavy bag." u might say, 'alaaa apa susah, tarit jak lah beg ya.' Well this is the model of my bag:

It only has back wheel, does not have that long handle like other luggage so i need to lift the handle and... arghh never mind, i dont know how to explain this. i was in the taxi for less than a minute. Lucky me the bus was already there. Tapi mangkok punya taxi driver charged me 5euro for only 250m! that's equivalent to RM20 grrr 

So off i go the airport. Sampai di Terminal 2, took out my luggage and went to the check in counter to drop my luggage since i've checked in online. The thing is, i can't find my printed boarding pass anywhere! i think i gave it to the bus driver when i was giving him my printed bus ticket. They were probably stapled together. Tepaksa lah waste another euro to go online and print myself a new boarding pass.

After i dropped my luggage, i went to check if my cabin luggage fits the maximum dimesion allowed. But it doesn't fit! Oleh kerana kecuakan yang amat, i went back to the lady at the counter and told her my bag doesn't fit. Dah lah dgn bag terlebih berat. They only allow one cabin luggage for economy class passenger and must not weigh more than 7kg. Mine is 12kg plus my handbag :o 

im not sure either Emirates is not that strict or i am just being plain lucky to have such a nice lady to assist me and let me board with overweight cabin luggage. This is my first experience with Emirates, and my verdict: awesome! we were given hot towel at the beginning of the flight, the in-flight entertainment is way cooler that MAS' (touch screen uolls!), the seat is slightly spacious than MAS, the food are yummehhh, they have big mirror in the toilet so i can camwhore if get tired of sitting (which i did LOL) etc. but of course there are things that i think MAS win over Emirates: the blanket and the cabin crew. MAS have wider blanket and much friendlier cabin crew. 

i sit with an Aussie guy, and there was an empty seat in between us so we slept with our legs both on the empty seat like a boss haha. After 7 hours or so, we touched down in Dubai airport. Just as i got out of the plane, i became like cacing kepanasan. Ya ampun, it's so warm even in the airport itself! i was this close to shower in the middle of the midnight but i don't have a towel and the transit time was only ~2 hours. 

Skip the flight part, lets go straight home. My cousin picked me up at Kuching airport and sent me home. When i reached home, my dad was out for dinner and my mom was in KK. My eldest brother and my sis in law were shocked to see me. the first thing that came out from my brother was "bodo kerja kau tok..haha" he said he took quite some time to process the image in front of him, he even thought i was 'jelmaan Skype'. LOL. Then my younger sister came out from the shower room and pukul2 manja. haha...then i went upstairs to my younger brother's room. He opened the door and freezed as if he just saw a ghost. Then tiba2 cried and hugged me LOL. Then he sat on his bed continued crying, and i was like "nangis jak kau sia dolok, kaktok aku nait balit." haha...those who know me will know me. 

Rupa2nya my bro was on the phone with my mom, and so surprise failed for my mom when she heard my voice. haha...When my dad came back home, i was hiding in the kitchen and my younger sis asked my dad to have a look at an insect in the kitchen. As soon as he saw me, he was so surprised that he grabbed and hugged me, aku pulak yg terkejut haha. i didn't expect them to be so surprise. LOL. 

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Anyways, it's good to be back home. But somehow the feelings are different this time. It's like i've finally accepted my fate that i'll always be perantau and coming back home is just like a short treat to clear off the mind before i get back on track. Been away from home since i was 13, i wonder how it feels to never leave your hometown. 

i had many moments in this solo journey, but my favourite of all is when the plane touched down in KLIA. There's this one guy, quite berusia, prolly in his 50's, and prolly a Malay. He was smiling as the plane touched down :) that feelings, when you know you are finally home, where you belong. If only i had my camera in hand that time, i would have captured a great moment.

A little grown up :)