Chicken Pox

And my two boys are still sleeping beautifully.

It’s only on rare occasions that they could sleep this long. I would say an hour is already a miracle to us, especially on a school-off day, when the only thing they could think of is to play, play, play!

I imagined today I will fast with Sayang. Fasting on 9 Zulhijjah is surely not to be missed. When millions of Muslims are preparing to perform their wuquf at Arafah, Allah also offers us to fast on this great day, only for our own benefit. However, to my great disappointment I cannot, as I am having chicken pox. Chicken pox! Surprisingly, I thank Allah and am so grateful for giving me this.

I was swamped by so much work that I at first thought I could manage, on top of finishing my corrections, which is the most important task at the moment. Apparently, I couldn’t, so early this week I broke down to Sayang and said, “I must do something. This won’t work.” My darling responded with his support, “You do what you think works for you.”

And you know, when you are in stress your immunity drops. I remember after Tuesday’s lecture, my spirit was at my lowest and I had a massive headache after dropping by my parents’. I took the next day off as I still had headaches and was not in a good enough shape to work.

True enough, I noticed some spots on my body that day. Sayang guessed that it might be chicken pox. We went to the clinic on Thursday to confirm. When we saw her, our GP smiled and confirmed it. She at first pitied us for not being able to celebrate our usual Raya but after telling her about of my situation, she could feel me and offered her sympathy. However, she advised us not to visit my father especially, as his immunity is also weak.

(I started writing this at around 1 p.m. this afternoon, and the boys woke up 15 minutes later.)

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So here I am, now feeling better having almost completed a 5-day, 5 times daily antiviral treatment. It seems that the spots have stopped spreading, but still I have to wait until they all completely dry out.

This is a sacrifice the four of us have to make, which is to stay indoor while people are enjoying good company, good food! Sayang plans to bring Omar along to Eid prayer, so hopefully it’ll be a memorable one for them tomorrow! Anyway, I am still thankful to Allah, for I always believe that with every hardship, there is a relief. Indeed, I feel a great relief, despite having to be quarantined.

Eid mubarak, everyone!

The picture above was taken during our first Aidiladha in Malaysia, last year. Imran was still small inside my tummy while Omar, wearing his first jubah given by his Pak Ngah, was feverish.

September

We totally missed September, but the blog is still here. Sometimes I do wonder if anyone actually reads what we put on this blog but then I remember that it doesn’t matter.

Of course, September was basically all about our trip to the UK for Afi’s viva. We flew on Malaysia Airlines, in one of those huge A380 super jumbos. Up close, I’ve always thought that airliners don’t look that big at all, even when it’s the largest in the world.

To say that our flight was uneventful would be a huge understatement. Travelling to the airport we were caught in a massive traffic jam due to a road accident which along with the poor weather, which very likely had role in the said accident, then contributed towards delaying our flight by more than an hour. We were already on board in our seats, so by the time the aeroplane taxied towards the runway for takeoff the boys were restless and wanted to be anywhere but in their seats. Or in the case of Imran, anywhere but on Afi’s lap. Thus began our 12-hour flight, with both boys screaming their lungs out.

Thankfully, things generally went well once we arrived. We took a bus to Oxford, and two friends picked us up at the Park & Ride and took us to where we were staying. Here, we would like to record our deepest appreciation to Nazri for hosting us the eleven days we were there. We had quite a few items on our to-do list while we were in Oxford, which we’re happy to say that we managed to tick most of them off. Omar had a really great time throughout, though he took his time to warm up to Pakcik Nazri and started to miss his friends and grandparents towards the end. Besides, he came home with six new jigsaw puzzles.

Most importantly, of course, was Afi’s DPhil viva on September 11. Alhamdulillah, it went well and she’s now working on her final corrections. She missed her celebratory dinner, though, as I had a really bad stomach ache that evening. Since she forgot to take pictures with her examiners in the morning, there goes that as well.

Our return flight was better. It was an evening flight which Omar slept through. Once back at home, it took us the whole of the next week to recover from the journey.