Bandung Family Trip Day 1

As mentioned, we went to Bandung again. People did ask me why we are going there again since we have been there before. I answered that this time we are bringing the kids, it's always better to bring kids to places you are familiar with. At least you already know how to go about in that place and where to go to eat and shop and so on. Hence Bandung! Plus the shopping there is great!

So okay, we got the passports ready and off we went. This was the second trip for my mom as well. This time we stayed at the Patra Jasa Hotel. We were lucky to have booked the hotel rooms two months prior to our trip, because I did recommend this hotel to my friend who went earlier and she couldn't get rooms anymore.



We arrived at 10 a.m. and it was a Sunday. Since we brought the kids, Zul thought we had better hire a van and driver, and the driver was recommended by his nephew who was just there the week before. The driver was really nice, very punctual and helpful but he doesn't really talk much. I'll update this post later and include his name and number just in case anyone is interested in using his services.

So when we arrived, the driver was already waiting for us, and he took us to the hotel, surprisingly the roads were busy and congested and we were caught in a jam. We were not, the first time we were there. But it was the school holidays and so people, including the locals flocked to Bandung. We arrived at the hotel earlier than we were supposed to, coz we were too early to check in. Anyway, we decided to have our lunch first and then go back to the hotel. We went to Simpang Raya, a restaurant we went to during our first visit. After that we went back to the hotel but the rooms weren't ready yet. So Zul said he'd wait at the hotel when my mom and I decided to check out the nearby shops but instead of walking, we took the van since it's paid by the day. Oh boy, we got caught in the jam and it took us half an hour to get to a shop which would have taken us 5 minutes walking. but we saw there was a kebun binatang. That means zoo and the kids got excited. So first thing the next day was to go to the zoo. It was holidays after all for the kids.

Kids want to play STEPMANIA. To be continued....

Soooo lazy!

Guess what I'm doing? This is me rebelling against work. I'd thought, 'hmm since I want to put work out of my mind, why not blog?' I've been staring at this box for a good few minutes and I'm thinking, where do I start? It's been ages since I have really written. I mean , a recipe or two was fine, as that didn't require much thinking.

Soooo much has happened. At work, I've been promoted. That happenerd in April. I don't like to tell people about it. I dunno why. In fact, my mom just found out. So much to do, it's just crazy. I'm still trying to fit it all in.

Then, I had a miscarriage. That was in early May. I was 8 weeks pregnant, and I lost my baby. I had just returnbed from a teambuilding course and before that, I was traveling as well. It's easy to blame the trips I've been making but at the end of the day, I guess, it was just not meant to be. The doctor just a couple of days earlier couldn't detect the heartbeat and told us as long as I didn't bleed I was fine. But on the 3rd day, I did. I was on MC for a week, and bleeding that whole week until on Sunday, I felt this funny sensation that compelled me to go to the toilet and it just came out. So tiny that if you held it and clenched your fist, you wouldn't even be able to see it in your hand. Not that I wanted to. Whatever I did see, it was because I had to wash the hand that was holding it. It was so tiny but it had eyes and nose and everything and attached to a transparent plastic bag like thing. Allah is so great. I saved it and took it with me to the doctor's. The doctor looked at it and said that it's all out. I was like, "Really, so I don't need to do the D&C?" Thankfully, no, but that was upon the condition that she doesn't detect any blood clots in the womb during my next visit.

The ironic thing was that I had just come to terms with the fact that I was pregnant. Anyone watched Marley and Me? I was exactly like Jennifer Aniston's character when she got pregnant the second time and was sooooo totally not ready for it. I did 3 pregnancy tests. The first one had a faint line, so I had thought, nope, couldn't be. It's too faint, it can't be, so I did another one, showed hubby and he said, "Yup, you're pregnant!" but me, I was in denial. "No way, I can't be! You can hardly see that second line! Tomorrow, we've got to go to the pharmacy and get those pregnancy kits without these damn lines."

So, my hubby, God bless his heart took me to the pharmacy the next day and hah, nah engkau, i bought like 2 more kits! Puas hati, but guess what? There are no kits that show that you're positive without those darn lines.

Took them home and well, whaddayaknow? I was pregnant...still that faint line. I guess that was when I finally accepted it. I think I had felt it was too soon and that I wasn't ready for another. Hana was just a year plus. Anyway, that weekend, we went to the doctor's, who did a scan and confirmed it.

So, I accepted that I was pregnant, and since this was not my 1st pregnancy, I basically knew what I needed and began shopping for stuff. Though not that much. I figured since we were supposed to go to Bandung again at the end of May, this time with the kids and my mom too, I'd do my shopping there. I had already imagined myself tired from waddling from one outlet to another. Hehe.

I remembered thinking when I miscarried that I would be walking normally in Bandung. Haha, really, and a part of me wondered whether my initial denial phase was the reason why I didn't get my baby. Another part of me wondered if it had anything to do with work and the trips and courses I had to attend. At last, I just felt that it just wasn't meant to happen, the baby had no heartbeat.

For that I had another 2 weeks of sick leave and it was really difficult to be on leave coz it was so totally unplanned. I was still sending memos to tie whatever loose ends I'd left hanging. I had to find people to replace me for this and that meeting on short notice. I am really thankful to all my colleagues who stood in for me. Haha, but by the time it was the 3rd week, I wasn't ready for work anymore. Dah malas dah...

But I swear the 3 weeks that I was on leave was the first rest I had in a long time and I do mean, real rest coz there were so many restrictions. My parents just wanted me to stay in bed, especially the first week of MC. There was still hope. Friends of mine and friends of Jaja's had the same experience before that the doctor didn't detect heartbeat but the pregnancy came through. My friend just gave birth recently to a baby girl and at first her doctor told her that there was no heartbeat too. But after it came out, then it's like confinement all over again. Some say, you go to take extra care coz miscarriage is like plucking a fruit that's not ripe yet. Oh yea, the first week after the miscarriage was painful. You could feel the contractions and the medication made me drowsy.

But, it was during that 3 weeks, I bonded back with Hana and my Inez and Mika. Maybe, that was why it was fated. Hana was at that time, so close with my mom, that my mom was like her birthmom and I was like the grandma. As I said, I was just real busy at work and was away a lot. It was just nice to be spending a lot of time with them.

And where was Zul all this time? In the US, for some factory visit, and the H1N1 had just started. Thankfully, he returned home safely and H1N1 free.