After The Storm

Mr S has finally finished his exams and I am the one who is bursting with relief.

These last few weeks have been filled with a lot of anxiety and stress, all resulting from the car incident, Mr S's exams, my health and I think, I should also add to the list; the very horrible weather.

Thank goodness London has not been affected by the floods! Alhamdulillah!

And thus, on the very afternoon that Mr S finished his final paper, we went straight out, hitting the shops - which I have not been to for weeks now! - and then we also went to visit a friend who has been unwell.

Ah..the bliss of freedom from stress and sickness! You tend to forget how blessed your life really is until you are faced with such things!

Mr S took some leave until the end of the week, so the next day, due to the gloomy and dark skies, we strongly felt that we should go somewhere 'indoors' so we decided on Bluewater, which is a large shopping mall in Kent.

Some pics of the children there:



What can I say about this trip except for the fact that I spent some of Mr S's money there and that it cheered me up...?

The next day, the weather forecast showed some promise so we decided to visit the beach at Southend.

Cooked some nasi lemak early in the morning and efficiently packed the sambal, sliced cucumber, boiled eggs and fried chicken without the assistance of Mr S but 30 minutes after we left the house, I realised that we got everything in the car except for the the rice itself - none of us remembered to put that very important part of the meal in the boot!

So we had to put up with the not-so-varied halal offerings of McDonald's once again.

Obviously, I was quite annoyed. I really wanted to eat that nasi lemak by the beach and already, I was feeling ravenous. Instead, I had to make do with a boring fish fillet burger and some fries instead and a cup of hot tea.

To add to my already brimming annoyance, the hot cup of tea spilled - somehow narrowly missing my leg, and I could have been scalded!

What a start to our trip, I exclaimed outloud to Mr S, honestly ready to cry. Mr S just laughed sarcastically. He was equally annoyed and disappointed, what, after smelling the aroma of nasi lemak the whole morning only to have to eat a lame vegetarian sandwich for lunch!

But we cheered up for the sake of the kids.

And the trip was a good one, albeit the skies looked set to fall on us and the wind was the type that had you holding on to your skirts and tudung, for fear that both will lift and give everyone a free viewing.

We spent some time looking at the sea initially.


Then, realising that not much can be done there in that kind of weather, proceeded to the theme park, called 'Adventure Island' just by the beach.

My eldest just looove to go on rides.


But the young one declined with a 'No, thanks!' each time when I asked whether he wanted to join his brother, except for the last ride, which was a young children's Viking boat ride, which they both rode unaccompanied.


And then we went on the train ride on the Southend Pier - that's right, there's a rail track on the pier!




The wind was so strong at the end of the pier that we had to be very careful while walking by the railings for fear of toppling over into the sea. Well, at least, I was scared - the kids didn't seem to mind very much.


Upon returning to the beach, we realised the tide has turned. And so we went down where the water had been to look for crabs and sea shells and just to walk barefoot in the mud.

(You can see the Southend Pier in the background in the pic above.)

As Mr S was busy with the camcorder, it was our eldest that took a lot of the pics - (obviously the ones that are without him in them!) bless him, for otherwise I would not have any pics to put in here of our time walking in the muddy beach!

After washing our feet with the water that Mr S brought along in the car, we put on our socks and shoes and the children rode on the bike and scooter that we had chucked into the boot along the promenade, while Mr S and I watched and nibbled on some Millie's cookies, just relaxing before the drive home.

Of course, the drive back home was a more pleasant one because we knew that we had a nice pot of nasi lemak waiting for us at home.