Hazia’s Reflections

After a meeting at Putrajaya on Tuesday evening, I took the KLIA transit train to the airport. I got to finally meet Blogger Simah from Turkey (http://refcobass1.blogspot.com/) for the first time. Yeah, she had been in the country for 2 months and yet I couldn’t make it anytime before this. She was in my hometown Kedah for her sister’s wedding. I couldn’t even meet her after that in Singapore. Pre-departure was the last resort. Her flight was taking off at midnight.

I was worried that something might turn up and ruin my plan. Thank God I made it. While waiting for her to arrive, I walked around. There wasn’t much to see but to my luck, Tie Rack has decorative tops on sale, free size - but it’s Western’s free size which is just nice for me. I grabbed 2 pieces. She called me when she arrived. I saw kids running around, I recognised her Hatice and Badin from her blog. Both of them are real lookers, Middle Eastern blood.

Then, I saw her in the queue, with a heavy trolley packed with 4 huge bags and a roll of tikar rotan. She said 1 is full of souvenirs only while another is filled with spices. (She said Halil, her Turkish husband, had already carried 1 bag filled with spices when he left 6 weeks ago). She was out of breath. She even had a knapsack filled with books - the children’s summer homework. Her parents were seated while her brother stood nearby to handle the luggage. We chatted like old friends as she moved along the long queue.

We knew there would be excess baggage. She was even prepared to leave some stuff behind. I relayed my colleague’s experience while departing for Cairo recently, they managed to get away with RM700 to RM900 of excess baggage. Luckily, the ground hostess took pity on her and charged only RM300 (instead of RM900). Her brother had to lift the additional luggage off the roller and put them back onto the trolley. The black one was really heavy, it took him several attempts. He wheeled the trolley away to where her parents were.

I accompanied her to pay the RM300 at another counter. They only released her ticket after that, the kids’ ones were already issued earlier. Then, we met her brother and took the trolley to the excess baggage check-in counter located right at the end. My, I didn’t know how complicated the whole process would be. I could imagine how tired Simah must had been, after the massive packing and all.

She said the kids were doing well, especially Hatice who was open to her environment and responded to the new experience. She could understand Malay already; give it another 2 months, she would have been able to speak the language. Badin was more reserved though. I think Hatice took after her mother. Simah herself seemed the adventurous and lively type. If not she wouldn’t have dared to go and marry a stranger and live on a foreign land forever, would she?:)

She didn’t want her parents to wait, so she went straight into the departure hall. It was a tough goodbye, her mother was in tears. We stood at the balcony and watched them walk in. Her mother asked how did we met. When I said through the internet, she laughed. Her parents must have gotten used to that already by now. We might not had met before, but Simah had supported me through the most difficult period of my life a year ago.

All and all, it was a nice experience. It was like having a scene from her blog coming to life:)

p/s: I forgot my camera, shall upload the pics at KLIA once I received them from Simah.