MELBOURNE

Alhamdulillah praise be to the AlMighty for the oportunity to visit Suharti and family in Melbourne. It was initially Su's suggestion that I sent in an abstract for the First Monash Postgraduate Conference on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. I knew then whether it would be accepted or not I would be going..alone.. and later when I mentioned it to my SIL and she wanted to come along the desire to go strengthened. Alhamdulillah as it turned out the visit materialised..June 27 to July 4. As I told Su when I arrived at Melbourne airport..I never dreamed to go to Melbourne..that was before I knew how much I could get for the fare..everything changed when I knew I had to pay only RM*** for the fare and thanks to dearest hubby..his job I mean. Of course he allowed me to go on the pretext of attending the conference but later tried to persuade me not to go after knowing that I would not be presenting....but this time around I was a bit "kering hati"..dah bawa pergi HK oklah kan..now I had a conference to attend ok..

We arrived at Melbourne Airport at about 730 pm. Su and Wafir came to fetch us and took us straight to Dandenong where they were staying. It was cold about 6C. The next day Su was supposed to take us out to the city. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the sewerage system at her house and she needed to wait for the plumber to come as the backyard was already flooded. We initially waited thinking that the prob could be solved but it turned out that they had to call the the city council people to come as it was under their jurisdiction. So Su decided that we went with her two daughters dulu if not tak sempat coz it got dark very early now as it was winter. So we went as kak Izan had to meet up some friends at the city. Kak long (Insyirah), kak ngah (Izzati) and I enjoyed ourselves at the city particularly at the Melbourne Central..kira habislah Melbourne Central we all teroka and a few places nearby such as the State Library and Myers. We had lunch at Es Telaar an Indonesian restaurant..the food was not bad. Su was not able to join us as the repair work took up longer than expected but it was fine with us.

The next day we went to the Dandenong Market..terus beli souvenirs..macam-macam ada..not bad for souvenirs...affordable....and got something for myself..had been wanting it for a while..everytime pergi IKEA dok tgk benda tu..now I got it ..alhamdulillah..from the market we went home and got the children ready for a trip to DFO Murobbin..DFO stands for Direct Factory Outlet..got a few pieces of Corning..ada sale..geram je tengok..very cheap but thinking about how to carry them in our limited baggage tu tak jadi beli..but I got a few pieces which are going to be fully utilised back home..have not seen such kind in Msia rasanya..got a school bag for Adam as well..promised to get him one..was a good buy I think..Kak ngah and kak long got a few things for themselves as well..then we went straight home as it was already getting dark..That night we went out for dinner except for the two girls and Wafir..we wanted to go to Sentosa Cafe..a cafe owned by a Singaporean but it was closed so we ended up at an Afghan restaurant..delicious naan and kebab but a very big portion for an order..sampai kena bawa balik..

On Wednesday we went to Monash Uni, Clayton campus as Su had to run a few errands..thus we got the chance to take a look at the campus..Su's office, the student centre, the religious centre, library building etc. posing here and there..and the most important thing dapat a number of articles that might be useful for my thesis..I owed Su for this..appreciate it so much...tapi belum baca lagi..still in my thumbdrive didn't even get the chance to even peek at it..tak pe soon...from Monash Su took us to Dandenong Plaza..went to KMart..looked around the plaza and tukar duit lagi..then Su took us to one Indian shop..MKH if I was not mistaken..had late lunch..roti telur and vadai..we also went to Marmara halal meat market..awesome..varieties..macam-macam ada..back home..Su prepared sphagetti bolognese for us..we bought so many kinds of biscuits from Coles but I just couldn't recall whether we bought them on this day or the day before...

Thursday was the conference day..we were at the campus the whole day and kak Izan stayed at home to babysit the children..The conference was a great experience for me..met a number of Malaysian PhD students besides Shahiza yang I memang kenal from Malaysia..Rami, Azwan, Fandi, Riam among others..the papers presented were an eye opening..salute to Fandi for doing Functional Grammar..we need one at home..Anita from Indonesia and Sarah, both are pg students at Monash. It was a long day for us..at home Su and Wafir had barbecue dinner for us..delicious lamb steak..lain rasanya..the baked sweet yam, mashed potatoes and the beans..thanks again to Su and Wafir and of course the kids..Wafir dok grilled the lamb and chicken at the backyard dlm sejuk2 tu...may Allah bless the family..

Already Friday..how time flied..Su took us to another market in a different district..Caribbean Market..Dandenong Market offered more but Carribean's surrounding area was beautiful..unfortunately it rained so we could not take lots of pics..we went back to Dandenong Market bought more souvenirs and later to Savers..haiyaa..interesting and cheap..got 4 crytal glasses..so cheap..2 for me and 2 for kak Izan..and kak Izan got one lovely jacket..her forever tiger stripes thingy but beautiful indeed. We were actually rushing for time as we had promised Fakhriyah (a friend from Masters days at UPM who is now doing her phd in language policy at Melb Uni) to have tea at her house at 3 but Savers kept us til after 3..apologised to Facky but she was ok with it..we went home first to pray and Su had to prepare something for Wafir as he came back early on Friday..then off to Fakhriyyah's place..beautiful home, delicious curry noodle and battered prawn..spent more than two hours to catch up there and off we went ..thanks Fakhriyyah for the delicious food and the time spent..

Already Saturday, we left Su's home at about 830 with Su, Wafir and Irfan to the city as Wafir had to get something from his office..while waiting for him sempat gak berposing dgn Su somewhere dekat2 Flinders St tu. On our way to Sha's place at Reservoir, Wafir took us through Sydney Road where we could find a row of halal shops and restaurants...Halal Nando's could also be found on that street as we found out later from Nabil, Haslaile's husband. Haslaile (my exstudent at SMPW) is doing her PhD in biomed at RMIT..am proud of her. Su had to rush home..she needed to attend to many things as she was flying off to Brisbane very early the next day for another conference..so we parted there..looking forward to seeing each other again this coming December for her summer vacation in Malaysia....and I made her promise to come to my house when she is back..rasa terhutang budi ni..hehehe..

At Sha's, I met Emy Sha's soon to be ex roommate as she was moving to Geelong. Despite her initial plan to leave that Saturday afternoon, she came along with us to the city which resulted in her delaying her trip to Geelong to the next day..thanks Emy..we took the tram from Flinders to Melb Central then we went to Victoria Market. The Souvenir items were a bit more expensive than Dandenong but of course being the centre of attraction for tourists..luckily we had already bought ours at Dandenong. After jalan2 and posing2 at Vic Market we had our late lunch at a kopitiam where we had nasi ayam, nasi kandar, beef noodle and roti canai..have to say that the roti canai was actually delicious..the roti and the curry..Sha had to attend a dinner at LTU that night and I had the opportunity to have a chat with Emy..great opportunity..and later Haslaile and hubby came to visit..we had a long chat of course since we last met in 1998 when she was in form 5..12 years ago....both of them said "tak sempat teacher datang rumah we all, next time datang duduk rumah we all je"..InsyaAllah, ada rezeki next visit ok..and thanks Layle and Nabil for coming all the way from Coburg..may Allah bless both of you..

Sunday..time to leave but our flight was scheduled at 3 so ada masa to chat lagi..after savouring fried noodle from Sha's kitchen specially prepared by chef Sha, Norhadaliza, my classmate masa form 2 and 3 at CBN came over..after 26 years..thanks Hada for coming..of course tak cukup masa to catch up but the opportunity to meet was worth it..and then came the time to bid farewell to Hada and Emy. Sha sent us to the airport and waited until we went into the boarding hall..we reached KLIA at about 945pm and were greeted by my dearest hubby and children about an hour later...Stories of this trip were represented by more than 100 pics which some I share on my facebook..A trip which was educational and fun..alhamdulillah..