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Monday 26 December 2016

Summer in Sydney: Air Asia

I know I have not posted detailed account of our long, wet, summer in Ireland yet, oopsie-a-daisy.

We left for Sydney, Australia as soon as school holidays started. It was our first Air Asia flight as a family so you can imagine my nervousness coupled with streaks of anticipation. We were blessed with an awesome GrabCar driver with Nissan people mover. She provides wifi, water, snacks and and YouTube onboard from home to KLIA2.

As soon as we were dropped off at KLIA2 Departure Hall, we ate our dinner at the first cafe we stumbled upon, Secret Recipe. It was nothing special but kids were thrilled with the cold chocolate treat after dinner. We had to sugar them up to last until check-in and boarding time at 11.30 pm which is way past their bedtime.

As we had lots of time to kill before checking-in (we were first timers at KLIA2 and had no idea how to plan out timing), kids explored the few shops and Malaysian aviation milestone board. I hope they remember something about aviation history in this country, but I doubt it. I bet they only recall the mock palm trees and large screen LCDs.

When our check-in counter finally opened at 8.30 pm, we were nearly the first ones to check-in. We packed really light (thanks to reliable washer and dryer at Meriton Pitt St) and since Bean had just been potty trained, we had even more space in the luggage sans MamyPoko Pull-Up Pants.

Immigration clearance was uneventful, luckily. We then finished up all our water in our bottle just in time for toilet time before boarding. Theboredom stemming from long waiting time nearly killed us so fortunately the shopkeepers were not too fussed about having 2 noisy and active children jump into their rides, touch their early Christmas display and laugh the place down. Cold chocolate drink after dinner, remember?

The boredom of waiting without lounge and creative ways of inventing new games are all eye-opener for us 4. The 2 noisy and crazy travellers were a bit sleepy by 11 pm and started misbehaving from sugar crash. Instead of curling up to sleep, they noisily climbed on every seat at the waiting area. I think I have never glared and hissed that much before my entire life.

By the time we boarded, got our seat belts buckled and settled in, Girl mumbled that she wanted a flatbed (we got hot seats, not knowing earlier that we should have bought flat beds). Point to note if we ever travel with Air Asia again (mentally guesstimating the cost to be equivalent to MAS tickets).

Bean basically suckled to sleep. One other traveller was curious of his age and why he has not been weaned to a bottle of formula yet. Me, being the thick skinned nurse in public mum with lack of sleep just politely replied that I was tired and dozed off.

The sound of creaking trolley woke me up. We refused our pre-booked meals as we were sleeping. Luckily, we have packed travel blankets for the 2 of them but the upright seats with limited recline were not the best beds. Too tired to care, everyone slept and stirred.

In the end, the flight comfort (or rather lack of comfort) had not matter that much because we woke up to glorious Sydney! We were thankful the kids travelled well without incidents. We were just so thankful Bean has been officially potty trained and kept dry without accidents. He wore his Mothercare trainer pants just to be safe throughout the holiday, but his potty training had been relatively easy because he told us when he was ready. I learnt an important lesson from Bean: Often times, it is OK to be led by child.

The Sydney air did us 4 a whole lot of good. It was the change of scenery and circumstances we have been waiting for, for an entire year. Syukur alhamdulillah!




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