It was very much a last minute decision. Our neighbours two doors down the street were having a wedding on Sunday. As is typical for a Malay wedding, rows of tents were erected on the street past our house gate. The neighbours also requested use of our porch. The tents would come up on Saturday. We didn’t like the idea of being holed up inside our own house while there’s a wedding going on, so decided to be somewhere else for the weekend.
The original plan was to flee to Afi’s parents’ house. The boys always love to see their grandparents, and their cousins were coming too. However, Afi needed a little time off so proposed that we stay overnight at a hotel instead.
Although the hotel was just thirty minutes away, we didn’t check in till about 4 p.m. We booked a one-bedroom Deluxe Room, again through Agoda.com, and was assigned one on the fifteenth floor. The room was impressively large with plenty of floor space for the boys to play around. It was stated both in the hotel website as well as its Agoda.com listing that there would be two queen-size beds. However, the beds we found were really doubles rather than proper queens. It was quite a let down, but we just wanted to have a good rest so didn’t bother complaining about it.
Afi had not been feeling well since Friday, so we decided to have our dinner at the hotel. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be the best dining experience. The menu was rather limited so we ordered a plate of fried rice and a “premier ½ roasted chicken”, which we were going to share between us and with the boys. When our order arrived, however, the half chicken turned out to be half a quail.
We were quite starved, and a plate of fried rice and one half of a quail were definitely not enough, so we ordered a piece of Oreo cheesecake. I actually went to the cake display and told the person manning the place that I wanted a piece of Oreo cheesecake while pointing at it. Unbelievably, a different cake arrived at our table later! When we asked, the server confirmed that it was a piece of Oreo cheesecake. We sat puzzled for two seconds before Afi stood up and went to the cake display. They later brought us a piece of Oreo cheesecake, the right one, and apologised for the mix up. The cake turned out dry and hard.
The buffet breakfast the next morning didn’t leave much of an impression as well.
However none of those prevented the boys from enjoying themselves, especially Omar. Almost as soon as we arrived on Saturday, he started asking for “Ayah’s robot”—a Lego Hero Factory Evo XL Machine. I only managed to assemble the toy late that evening though, so he could only play with it the next morning. As always whenever we stayed at a hotel, the boys had the best time soaking in the bathtub—a total of four times!
