London 2015 - Day One

this was a last minute, barely planned, not-full-quorum trip. it was a should i, shouldn't i; can i, can't i; will i, won't i trip. a few discussions held and in the end, because it coincided with a long weekend, it was a yes and it was an, unfortunately, only 4 of us trip.

we took a long time to pacify amir and asyraf, to calm ariff and akmal down. i was excited yet i was not. i was looking forward yet i was not. maybe because it was not the 6 of us for the first time ever, maybe because the boys had school and hubby was working up to the day before, maybe because we would come back on the day before school resumed and i had to make sure everything was ready for school. maybe it was one of those, maybe it was all.

finally came the day. we sent the elder two boys to damansara very early in the morning. they were still in their pajamas. it was heartbreaking to see them off, very very heartbreaking. i've never been away from them except when one (or two) had to be admitted, or when i had to be admitted, or when work requires me to but that barely happened. so to leave them and going so far away, was so difficult. amir cried, asyraf was moody. i just could not stop bawling.

in the cab on the way to the airport, the younger two boys slept and i texted amir from point to point, hoping he'd be ok, hoping he'd take care of asyraf, hoping he'd remember everything we told him - don't be naughty, don't miss your prayers, study hard, eat good, go to bed on time and, a special note from me, do your laundry!

we got to the airport a couple of hours before departure time. we checked in our bags and took the aerotrain to the satellite building to have breakfast. when it was time to board we were all ready to start our journey. the flight was a bit empty, the crew asked the passengers to move around if they wanted, i had an empty seat in front of me so no fear of the seat in front of me pushed back right to my face.

we had good flight, it was so very long, but it was ok. i got scared at some parts of the flight but hubby seemed to think they, the turbulence, were nothing. must be just me and my old age then.

we landed safely at heathrow on time, at 415pm. as we were sitting only 10 rows from the door on an empty flight, we were one of the first to leave and walk towards immigration. the line moved quite fast and we were there only 20-30 minutes. then we went to collect our luggage, which was also quite fast, and walked out towards heathrow express. with only 1 bag to pull and only 2 boys to grab on to, i decided to take the train to town.

heathrow express was literally a 15-minute ride from heathrow to paddington. short and sweet, even more so with free wifi. we got into paddington before 6pm and made our way to bayswater via the circle line. from there it was a short walk to the apartment that we booked. check-in was simple, it took around 5 minutes for the guy to show us where everything was.

after he left we walked to the nearby sainsbury's local to grab some groceries for breakfast and subway for dinner. we were totally knackered and went to sleep quickly after dinner.