London Trip

After several aborted attempts, we finally managed to have Omar weighed last week. He was 6.58kg, at fifteen weeks. “Textbook,” commented the health visitor. Though we knew that he was gaining weight and growing well, we were very happy to actually see it ourselves on the scale.

Then on Sunday, all three of us hopped on a train to London. The objectives of the trip were to register Omar at the high commission and apply him a Malaysian passport. We decided that it would be best to settle the affairs now before Omar grows heavier, the weather gets colder, and Afi becomes more inundated with work. Since we expected a lot of jumping on and off different modes of public transport, we took Omar in a baby carrier instead of the Xplory.

The train to London was jam-packed. It was not an express, running from Hereford. We only managed to find seats at Reading. Once arriving at Paddington station, we sat down for a drink before finding a bus to our hotel at Euston. We tried to feed Omar at the station, thinking that he might be hungry, but he was more interested in checking out the new surrounding.

Next morning we went straight to the high commission at Belgrave Square. The service was quick, especially since we already had all the documents and copies and Omar’s photos ready. By 1100 we were all done. The pickup was at 1530, so with plenty of time to kill we went to MSD for some authentic Malaysian food. Afi had her favourite ikan patin dish while I chose the sambal ikan keli. We also had the beef rendang. The food was heavenly. We also bought fried noodles and nasi lemak to go.

It was a surprise to see a familiar name signing Omar’s birth registration. It was my old classmate Mahathir, whom I had not met for almost sixteen years! It was nice to meet him after all these years. Small world.

We went straight to Paddington station afterwards—mission accomplished—and then home to Oxford. Omar behaved really well throughout the trip, as always. Now he has his very own passport, YAY!

:D