Arose early from bed, and woke Insyirah up as early as 7am. “We’re going to swim this morning, sayang!”, I told her. To make sure that we would be able to jump into the pool early, I was buying everyone buffet breakfast at the hotel that morning. Therein lies the irony in our judgment, as after savouring the range of food that the buffet had to offer, we found ourselves too stuffed up (and in my case, too horrifyingly ugly) to don our swimming suits and jump into the pool. Hence, the swimming plan had to be postponed again. Hannah was feeling rather edgy with the swimming pool in full view from the hotel’s café. Although she was showing early signs of diarrhea, she was a picture of excitement and looking forward to play in the pool. My sister had to take her to the clinic to check her diarrhea, and with most of the entourage feeling like reincarnated whales stranded at the beach after the heavy breakfast, we all opted to go free and easy that morning. My brother and I had a few games of table tennis that morning to get the food down, and before we knew it, it was already time to get ready for Friday prayers.
Finally, the beach and swimming pool!
I went to the beach early that afternoon. I had planned to play the kite I had bought as far back as December during this vacation, and I just couldn’t wait to get started, given that this was the earliest available opportunity that I got. We had bought 2 kites, one the shape of an owl while the other the shape of an airplane! The idea was to get Hannah and Insyirah excited when they see the kites flying. Hannah had been pressing me to get the kite out from the moment she saw me brought the kite home from the shop, and I was going to teach the girls how to hold on to a flying kite. Unfortunately however, Hannah had to rest given her state of diarrhea and missed all the fun.
I was with wifey, Insyirah and my brother DD at the beach as early as 4pm. The wind was blowing very hard that day, and my airplane kite was gaining height gradually. It reminded me of my younger days when I first flew a kite on the Tanjung Kidurong beach in Bintulu, Sarawak in the days when my father was posted there for work in the late 1980s. And although I have not really been flying a kite since then, it just came back naturally to me when I negotiated the string of my airplane kite to make it go higher and higher. Tragically however, the wind blew so hard that the string of my kite broke and let the kite loose. The kite ended up in a branch of a tree about 15 metres off the ground, and I figured there was no way I could retrieve it without risking (big time!) breaking a bone. Sigh...
Insyirah: "Pants.. wheezes... fly kite.. fly!"
Me: Ok Insyirah. You run with the kite again, and I'll navigate it to fly!Insyirah: Aye, aye Abah!
The master at work... hehe!
The kite flying gloriously. My airplane-shaped kite had already got loose and stuck in a tree...
Losing my kite made me feel down a little bit. However, there was nothing to dampen Insyirah’s mood as she finally got herself dressed for the swimming pool! To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about her going to the pool. Up to that point, she had never wanted to get into any swimming pool and would scream and cry should we ever tried to get her in. The last time we were in Cherating in 2006, her swimming experience ended in tears when she got freaked out the moment we brought her into the water and she probably wore her old swim suit on for nothing more than 10 minutes in total.
However, 2 years is a very long time and this time she took the swimming pool with glee and pleasure. She had no apprehension whatsoever this time around, and she was kicking her feet about in the water as my mum and wifey guided her about the pool. We were later joined by Hannah, my sister and my bro in law and had a splashing time!
"I'm swimming, I'm swimming!" Insyirah complete in her swimsuit and goggles...
Hannah: "Come on mama, I'll race you to the other end!"
My mum wading Insyirah around in the pool...
Wifey and Insyirah drying up after a good splash!
Room service for dinner
After the exertions in the day, most of us were not that keen to go out to dinner. Considering that our cars could only be parked as near as 5 minutes walk away from the villa, it felt like an arduous task given the physical conditions we were in. Most of us were tired from the fun at the pool in the afternoon, and the kids were not in great conditions to go out anyway. Hannah’s diarrhea was acting up even worse that night, and she was practically throwing up whatever that she was fed. She struggled when given her medicine, and had to be held down by my sister, my bro in law and DD to make her take it! Insyirah on the other hand, slept as soon as I washed her up after coming out from the pool, and didn’t wake up until late that night for a midnight snack (so I was told. I was long gone into dreamland by that time!).
So the whole family agreed to call the room service for dinner. I finally went for the char kuey teow I had been thinking of since the first day of the vacation. It wasn’t bad, although whether it was worth the RM20 I paid for it was another matter altogether. I went to bed almost immediately after dinner, curling up like a snake that had just swallowed a goat for a meal. Wifey told me Insyirah later woke up close to midnight feeling hungry. We had bought her some fries when ordering room service, just in case she woke up. Before going to bed, she apparently told wifey, “Tomorrow we go swimming again ok Ibu”.
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