It's that 'last night together' feeling all over again

So it's finally here, the night before Nadiah leaves us to set for her year's travel. One month in Vietnam then to Australia. Whilst we are left here in this stormy and windy weather, Nadiah will be jetting off to where it's somewhat 30degrees and dry.

Here I was sitting in the living room just watching her pack her 25kg back pack, hoping that she has got all her important travel documents safe, praying that she keeps her sensible head on at all times. She will be missed terribly especially I do rely on her for quite a bit, like 'who is going to take the cats to the vet' or 'who can buy some groceries on the way home' or 'who can cook dinner tonight'?

With Nashrah at Uni, there will only now be three of us at home. I can't believe, just in this year my household occupants fell from six to three? Seriously, 2013? 

I will be looking forward to 2014. The next time our family will be reunited it will be in sunny Malaysia...we will all be together with the rest of the extended family as well! That's massive to my English friends' standards...Friends, I am not talking about 20 or 30 ... We are talking probably 100s! 

I do hope Nadiah and Liyana and Munz will all be able to join us in Malaysia for Eid 2014. It will be great and we can all plan a big family holiday by the beach.

Rome, Italy - 4 - 6th October 2013 . More photos on Google+

Florence, Italy - a day trip from Rome - More photos on Google+

Ciao Roma!

It has been three days since Alias and I left London and headed for Rome, for a short break. After all the excitement that has happened, it's time to chill and take time-out from it all. Left for Rome at some ungodly hour to catch a 06.45am flight. Leaving from Gatwick, would mean leaving the house at 4.45 am. As we always prefer getting to the airport ridiculously early, we actually left the house at 3.30am only so we were happy we didn't have to get unnecessarily stressed when/if there were any holdups like traffic jams or accidents or flat tyres.  Luckily, I booked the parking, and checked-in online. This saved me at least half hour to forty five minutes of our time.

It was busy but not too busy at Gatwick. I guess the advantages of going in the midweek.

Arrived Fiumicino Airport in Rome ahead of schedule. Excellent start. So headed straight for the bus terminal to City of Rome.

We love random travels, sometimes not planned, and we travel light on low cost budgets. This time we stayed right in the middle of the city....in a 'homestay'. Apparently it's a new concept where people who have extra guests rooms in their house rent the rooms out to tourists. We were lucky to have stayed with this lovely Italian lady who spoke little English but her hospitality was A*. That's the great thing about this concept is it has a personal touch to it. You feel well taken care off whilst in this place where you will call 'home' for the next few days.  She made us feel like being at home, making sure we were comfortable and respect our privacy. 

There were two other rooms in her house that were hired out to other people. We had the ensuite, whilst the others had shared facilities. We met the other 'housemates' at breakfast, one couple didn't say very much, I think they didn't speak much English, and managed to say 'Good Morning' and the other couple were Swedish, who spoke perfect English. 

I managed to pick up some Italian Greetings too taught by Iginia, the home owner and some shop assistants during my short stay here. Some I learnt from the Easy Italian App I downloaded onto my phone, which I found useful. The Roma App which had the local map came in first class during our walks in the city. I would highly recommend it. Another useful gadget to have is the power bank for battery for your phone. We used a lot of the phone not only for checking maps, weather etc but also to watch some English Language TV news or programs. 

Anywhoo, I'm sitting here at Termini Stazione, waiting for the bus back to the Fiumicino Airport in 20minutes, back to Gatwick. I can't upload the photos I took on my camera yet, I'll do this on my return home.

In the meantime...Arriverderci Roma....

Monday feeling

It's Monday again and I'm all alone at home waiting for the Monday traffic to die down before I head off to work.  I usually try to leave very early, a gym session then feel nice and fresh for work. Today however, I haven't got the ummph to jump out of bed.  It was probably that anti-histamine I had to take last night after an allergy attack.  Really not sure what is causing my sudden outburst of rashes and itches like crazy.  I have been suffering from it for over a week now and it still keeps coming back.  It also just comes up randomly.  I could happily be sitting watching TV and a sudden reaction.

Anywhoo, yesterday we celebrated Nuradilla's 18th birthday. And that is it, no more what's classed as 'child' in my household. My babies are all officially adults now.  What a strange feeling - makes me feel ancient.  Hay-ho it is a great feeling when you are ancient but still keeping active though - in some cases more active than a lot of the young generation. I must admit it makes me feel sad when I see the young generation being inactive (lazy!). On the other hand sometimes there are 'bigger' people and a lot older people than me who can run a half-marathon or a full marathon even - R E S P E C T them totally!
Hmm back to what I was talking about, so we went for our usual birthday lunch - this time Adeen wanted to go to a buffet. So we thought of Jimmy Spice.  I couldn't help it but felt incomplete as there were only 4 of us. We never have birthday lunch with just 4 of us, it is just not right.  It was always a family do - but this time 1/3 of the family is missing. It didn't seem right. Adeen and Nadiah had their snapchats fun - so this is what 'adults' do ?? And Papa and I just enjoyed watching them making sillies of themselves. There were the moments that I just needed some comfort to re-assure me things are cool.

Lunch was good - food was excellent - it started off as crazy when we had to queue for about 20minutes before we could get a table. But worth the wait though.

Lump In My Throat (idiom)

Is is Day Two since Liyana and Munz left the country - not that I am counting but just read Liyana's latest post on her blog, that just brought the lump in my throat again. Click here if you want to have a read too...

Liyana's blog

All is good now - life is back to 'normal'. Everyone is now back at work, uni and school.

So far my #100dayfitnesschallenge is going ok- it is only day 2 or 99days to T! It is keeping me motivated though. Alias is also doing it over lunch time and when he can after work - Great stuff!

I am looking forward to next week - Alias and I will be jetting off to Rome for a few days - hope the weather is better in Rome. Yes I will still do my fitness challenges - it only takes half hour - so no excuse.

I set myself a 100day fitness challenge-100days to 31.12.2013 starts tomorrow

This idea came about after reading a FB page of a Fitness Instructor I know, who does this annual 100day challenge for charity. I couldn't join her FB group since I don't want to dissappoint her at any point of the duration

 So I thought I would challenge myself the same too and it starts tomorrow. Now I need you guys to keep me motivated.

First thing I will need to do is measure myself tonight, chest, waist, hips and thighs.

Set my first exercise for day 100 (tomorrow) - and it's going to be power-walk 30mins.

As soon as I've done it I will let you know. And set day99's exercise challenge. 

Do join me in this daily challenges...I need your push. 

If you do join me, don't forget to properly warm up and cool down after.

The Last Few Precious Moments are now here

They are now just about to depart, by the Departure Entrance...me clenching my fists to channel the energy- Alhamdulillah I did not breakdown in front of them. Didn't want them to have that picture in their minds when the flashback to those precious times. I want them to remember me smiling and proud of them.

My first baby has flown the nest ...

                          

Time to go home

                                    

It's the D-day

We are now at Gatwick Airport with the families minus a couple. Emotions going all over the place at the moment. Last breakfast together at the airport listening to Bob Marley - Three Little Birds .. Everything's going to be alright.

And it's the night before the last

And it's the night before the last night and Liyana will be off to Trinidad with her hubby. Strange feeling for me. I'm not sure what . I guess it's all happening so fast. I haven't been able to properly digest she is someone's wife and now they are off to start their own life on their own together. 

Wierd that I'll count two less heads when it's 'cooking for the family' day. I will not miss the cooking but will miss seeing them enjoy the food no matter how bad it turns out...usually it is actually good though ;)

Hay-ho life goes on. I'm happy for them, they are doing what I did 15 years ago, left my home country to make ends meet. Never regretted a second of it. If we didn't leave then, I can't think how we would survive the economic downturn during those years. Alhamdulillah we made the right decision to come to England and start our life here. Only for them, they have it all cut out for them... It's an opportunity not to be missed. Perhaps one day they will return to England to settle down, InshaAllah.

My prayers will be with you both always.

Peveril Castle - Peak District - 8th September 2013

It was time to drop Nashrah off back at Uni with all her belongings. Now into second year of her degree, she has now moved out of campus into a lovely residential area in Handsworth Wood, Birmingham. A massive house with massive bedrooms, this is where she will spend the next year with 5 other Uni mates. Rather unusual for such a beautiful house as student residence, well looked after and a big garden too, big enough for another town house I would say.
We took the opportunity of having to drive up north to spend the weekend away and walk the Peak District. So after Birmingham, we visited a friend living in Liverpool and had a lovely dinner at theirs. We then head to Manchester where we had booked a room so we can walk the Peak District the following Sunday.
Early morning, we made sure we had our big breakfast, eggs, beans, mushrooms, quorn sausages, toast, hash browns and tomatoes! That's as English breakfast as you can get for us!
We then drove through Glossop into the National Park via Snake Pass.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_Pass

We started from Peveril Castle in the beautiful village of Castleton. We walked/climbed the Cave Dale Trail. Wow that was a challenge. Suffered burning muscles descending that lasted the next few days.

 

   

  

  

  

Durlston Castle in Swanage - 25th Aug 2013

One of our favourite hobbies is to do random trips to various cities/towns, kind of doing trips on impulse. Luckily I have a husband who enjoys putting up with my on-the-spot requests and enjoys country driving. We would just pack a bag and go for a 2 or 3 hour trip away from home.
That's one of the best things about living in the UK, everywhere is just hours away and commutable by car or train.  We have decided once the kids have all left home, we will get ourselves a motorhome and just travel from one town to another, kind of like that family who drove from somewhere in the north of UK to Malaysia. Awesome! They would stop at campsites over a couple of nights to take a break and start driving again.
These days we do day trips away or weekends away, just find a travelodge for the night so we could go for our leisure walks to enjoy the beautiful countrysides and National Parks.
About 3 weeks ago, we decided to visit a friend who were were camping down in Swanage. We didn't camp as our camping days are over - been there, done that when the kids were young.
We arrived Swanage early in the morning about 9, had a good big breakfast, ready for our walk later in the day.

Steam Engine passing through the campsite

We then went to Durlston Castle and it's surroundings in Durlston Country Park .