After we waved goodbye, tat was the start of our 11 hr journey.... we didn't really have much to explore or do anything else... we just went to toilet and went straight to the gate that we are boarding and went on board the flight shortly. By the time the plane took off, it was something like 2.30am sgp time.. so I expected that my son would be so tired he would sleep.. alas, he was so excited by the entertainment system tat he watched movies and played games and only finally slept like some 1-2 hours later..
Ace did not really like the food served. I must say tat compared to Emirates, Qatar Airlines only has ONE good thing.. their planes are really new! Other than that, they are so so.. the service is not really tat great and so the food they served (as it was not kids type of food) was not well recieved by Ace... so he only ate like a fruit salad on board the flight... and also, they did not give out any kids freebies to Ace to keep him entertained.. so minus points again.. wahahahahahah:)
Then after a 7 hour long flight, we arrived at Doha airport and thank goodness there is free wifi...we just sat around and while I entertained myself with the free wifi, my son played happily with Cai Xiaozhu (that's the name he gave the little piglet that veron gave us). Thank god for the pig lor.. initially we were still joking if they will allow us to bring a piggy soft toy since they are a muslim country... hahahahahah... but leh, heng got the pig lor.. it kept Ace entertained, for a good one hour and then he said he wanted to go toilet... so we went toilet..
After the toilet break, he sort of felt bored just playing with the pig and so, he started to entertain himself by putting the pig on my head....
That's Ace starting to look very tired....
By the end of the transit, he was so tired he couldn't even smile for the camera and right on board the flight, he just promptly fell asleep. He was so tired that even though he told me he is very hungry while we were waiting for the flight, the lure of food could not even wake him.. I kept calling him and calling him but he just wouldnt wake.. I guess he was really tired so I let him sleep and I just kept the extra set of sandwhiches and orange juice in his backpack.
So finally right.. after another hour plus of flight, we arrive in dubai.. and Ace is so excited thinking that he can finally see his daddy.. so he kept asking me where is daddy and when can we see him...
Then finally we are at the immigration clearence point. We met this friendly gor gor who even tried to shake Ace's hands.. and then he asked me a strange question... "Where you come from?" I said, "Singapore.,.,."
"How long you stay in Singapore?" he asked and I answered, "All my life, I grew up there..." and then he asked me again how long i stayed in singapore and I wondered if he is trying to test me cos it is my birthday today... and for a while, i cant even remember if i am 33 or 34.. wahahahaha...
And then he wrote something on a piece of paper and asked me to go to to office one. And Ace asked me why we had to go to the office, I jokingly told him, "I dunno, maybe because it is my birthday and they wanted to give me a present..."
And true enough it was a BIG present lor... according to the slightly kwai lan but nevertheless friendly young man in office 1, my resident's visa is no longer valid as I have been out of Dubai for more than 6 months and so there are now two ways to go about getting it extended... either Max passes them his passport and they get it done at the airport or Max goes to the immigration HQ to get it done...
"Do you have your husband's phone number? Give me.. I will call him.." I asked him to wait while i started my phone to see the number and he went jokingly, "tsk tsk tsk... how can you not remember your husband's number?" And he called Max to explain the situation. Alas, Max left his passport in his office (which is like a 45 min drive away) and so I forsee this will take another few hours...
And since I cannot go INTO dubai, I have to hang around in the office and do nothing.... And because i did not want Ace to panick or be unhappy, I felt it was important that I did not get irritated or upset at the turn of events myself. I turned to HJ's present to me (a spiritual download) and found that I was quite cool about it... and that everything happened for a reason. I am just thankful tat our flight got screwed up and we arrived in the morning in dubai where pple worked.. if we had arrived in the evening as per planned after they knock off or something like tat (it was EID/ Hari Raya).. or if i arrived at 6pm had to wait another few more hours, more lagi sian.. no need to eat birthday dinner here liao,..,.
Anyway, I explained the situation to Ace that the gor gor is trying to help us sort out our visa as we needed a visa to get in. To get it done, we need daddy to go fetch his passport and so we had wait here till daddy gets everything done. Since we can do nothing but wait, let's just play games..
Ace kept complaining that he was hungry but as it was Ramadan, he was not allowed to eat in public in daylight.. so I kept asking him to tahan... and tried to think of new ways to entertain him... I let him sleep a little on my lap but he was too worried about why daddy is not here yet and why we cannot see daddy quicker...
So I changed technique.. i took out my laptop, loaded it and started showing him photos and videos on my laptop with my limited battery left and then we started telling jokes and funny stories and laugh in the office while we watched people with solemn faces walk in and out of the office.. (cos most pple walk into the office cos their visas or travel documents were screwed)
Then we started playing Guess What I Am Drawing on Ace's macna doodle and this is a birthday cake that Ace drew for me to wish me happy birthday:)
And then, we also watched the arabic airport staff do their jobs and I realize that they are actually a happy and jovail lot.. always talking and chatting and teasing each other. And when people came to the counters, the interesting thing I noticed is that they will actually continue their conversation till they are done before they asked what the person wanted.. wahahahahaha....
In between, the KL guy remembered me and said, "I think Mrs Chua, where is your husband?" "I dunno.. probably still on the way.." I replied.. "I think, because you cannot remember his phone number, he is not coming already..." he joked.. "Aiyah, don't make me even more worried..." I told him...
Then Ace got bored and started running around in the office. I told him he cannot do that and asked him to ask the Policemen inside if he could do that.. and the Policeman ( think he cannot speak english) just smiled shyly at him while the KL guy said, "Yes ask this policeman.. he is a very good man.." And then I told KL man that Ace wanted to be a police man when he grew up and they started to make their fingers into guns and play shooting at each other games...
Finally, we got everything sorted out, we had to go to the baggage room to collect our baggages and finally finally finally we met and could see, touch, hug and smell him!
Max drove us home and I made us some maggi noodles while he went back to work...
And me and Ace just zone out a little, rest, tried to sleep a little, watch tv while waiting for time to pass...
As it was still Ramadan, Max actually came home earlier and we drove along the business district and finally came to ......
APPLEBEES! :) It is a place that Max frequented when he was in Bahrain because he says it has wonderful dessert... so he decided to bring us there to celebrate my birthday...
Max is so used to ordering for one.. he forgot how to order for three and we ended up with a really huge spread tat we had to tabao back cos we really could not finish it...:)
Lovely non alchoholic margaritas:) And a sign tat says "TOGETHER".. very befitting for the occassion:)
The famous molten choco cake:P
And our happy family!
I am so glad we are in dubai with Max now.
But I must say that it was a rather strange feeling that took some getting used to. Having to be around Ace 24/7 again... being able to talk face to face with Max and communicate in words instead of just in email, watsapp and phone.. I think Max felt strange that after all the quiet time he had.. he now had to hear an extra voice that keeps talking.. and another extra human being always jumping and hoping around the house... and he forgot how quite to react to it.. wahahahaha.
And the strangest of all is that after spending all my time in the company of friends intensively for a month, I now am in a position that I only have 4 friends (in Dubai..) Max, Ace, Adam, Gan... and I only got to meet two of them (Max and Ace) in the past one and half weeks I am here:)
Anyway, we sort of got used to it after 1-2 days. And the most amazing of them all is my son.. cos i took a few days to get used to the jetlag but my son just lives in dubai time the very next day without any need for any adjustment at all!
Previous Post: A Very Special Birthday (Part 1)
Okie, this post is titled The Naked Chef with this accompanying picture to grab your attention..
Anyway, we woke bright and early to go out... because we had a mission in mind.. to buy Ace a study table and chair... I was very against the idea of buying another table when we already had a table.. and Ace was pro buying another table.. but those tat we saw last night at the brochures in the furniture shops and in ikea were not really up to our liking.. so in the end leh, we managed to persuade Ace to agree to buying a nice new chair to match our existing table and to buy him some stickers to docrate his table....
But of cos lah.. before we go to Dragon Mart.. we have to fill our tummies.. so we decided to head to Mac Donalds for breakfast.. we realized tat the Mac we frequent has a new neighbour.. a restaurant called MAX! hahahahahaha... Anyway, Max and Ace are two very common names for companies here... you see signs tat say Max or Ace ALL OVER DUBAI one lor...
That's us with our breakfast.. too bad for Ace that the breakfast does not come with happy meal toys...
We walked around IC and finally found some stickers for Ace to decorate his table.... We actually also found the pool table we wanted to buy but they were asking for 550dirhams for this pool table tat can be turned over to be used as pool table, ping pong table, table hockey and dunno wat lah... 6 games in one or something like tat... but we thought we will think about it first lah.. toys not so impt anyway....
That's Ace doing homework in his NEW CHAIR:)
Anyway, Max offered to cook dinner... and Ace went to learn how to cook rice from his dad.. so leh, I happiness, surf the net with my racing car mouse from Ivy and watch TV:)
Hahaha... so tat's the naked chef at work.. I told him I will title this The Naked Chef and Max purposely pull his trousers slightly lower to give the illusion tat he is.. well.. naked.. hahahaha:) and therefore the pic you see at the start of the post...
This is the end result.. mushroom rice with some fried veg...
Yums!
