Holiday in the Sun 0.5

From the 4th of Jan to the 6th, my family and a number of others took a little trip to the countryside. 'Twas awesome, to say the least, and I'm about to reiterate it here, but first I have to say it's going to be superdy long, hence it will be split in two parts.... and just so you don't get confused about the company, here are the 'stars' of this show: 

1. Sam - my older sister.
2. MJ - one of my older sister's best friends, the only non-Muslim non-Curry (she's Serbian) to accompany us on the trip. It was a first x)
3. Creepy Z - a family friend who has a talent for making creepy faces. I mean, I love her, but she knows just what to do to give me the skeevies... her stalker face is just O_O
4. Aisha - another family friend, the youngest of us all at 13. She defied my expectations, turning out a lot more mature and awesome than I thought.
5. Sasha - Creepy Z's cousin, who joined us on the second day.

There's me, of course ^_^ 

Where Everything That Could Possibly Go Wrong Went Wrong

The idea to go on a trip formed a little over a week earlier, at a barbecue in the park. It was just a hint dropped, but when we got home, my sister hopped online to check out this one country estate that’s been a favourite within our family. I don’t know what she was expecting, but when she looked up the pricing, it turned out they had a special offer of $99 for some rooms/cottages. $99 for our family of six – well, seven now – is amazing. So we called up all the families and informed them of this miracle, and the plans were underway.  Bookings were made, sleeping arrangements decided (maximum people in minimum space, Curry style ^^ ), while the men sat around planning what they’d cook.

We were invited to a dinner party a few days later, and so were the all families involved in this trip, amongst others. There was a mutual agreement that we wouldn’t speak about this, because we didn’t want to do get all cliquish and exclusive. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened with the children. Yes, cliquish is exactly how they went. They didn’t shout it out explicitly, but Aisha’s younger sister kept saying to my little sister: ‘Let’s go to a room, I want to talk to you about something private.’

She was implying the trip. There were other little girls around, and you know how it is when there’s a secret. Every kid wants to know it. So they kept pressuring my little sister until she spilled. They were an annoying breed, sadly, and ran off and told their parents.

The thing is, these girls were Creepy Z’s relatives. This created a huge uproar, for reasons I can’t really explain. Something about a twisted sense of propriety – how can you go with these people and not invite your own family?!

So although we had everything arranged, by some kind of formality, we had to start extending invitations to all these families, and we had to re-evaluate our bookings. There weren’t enough $99 rooms, the sleeping arrangements were just fitting already, and everything got muddled up big time.

Then there were complications with some families dropping out, others wanting in, numbers going fluctuating. The main problem for my family personally was that every room being booked was done under my father’s credit card. If these families failed to show up, he’d get charged extra. It was crazy. 

But we pulled through, and things settled down. The new families would arrive on the second day, when there were more rooms available, and we managed to fit everyone in with the other families that dropped out. For a while.

Then we got a call from the estate saying that they had to cancel one of our rooms. They had some kind of hot water leakage that flooded one of the rooms. Everything else – even normal priced rooms – were booked out. Just when we had everything fixed up to the last detail, we had to start all over again.

Then kids in two of the families got sick – two of the main ones that had been confirmed from the beginning – and there was doubt as to whether they’d be coming. These families constituted of 11 people altogether. More re-evaluating.

Now for my family personally, one of the most important things about this trip was taking my cousin out. Since he came here, we hadn’t been able to take him around the country due to our financial crisis, and he’d been a little cooped up. We wanted to take him to see some of the more beautiful parts of the country, let him loose for a while. The day before we were to leave, it was established he couldn’t come. Apparently he was needed at work for all three days, and there was no replacement because everyone else had gone on holiday.

Great, right?

It doesn’t end there. The next day, we were all ready to go. Bags were packed. Food in the eskies. Frozen drinks. It was a sweltering day, the kind where the cement burns under your feet, the sun feels like a physical force, trying to suffocate you, and the wind is hot, just to be extra mean.

All but one of the cars had the air-conditioner working. Even with the windows down, let me repeat: the wind was hot.

We baked. We fried. Our iced drinks melted within twenty minutes. I was in Creepy Z’s car, and we put ice cubes from the esky on our heads. 

Oh, to top it off, practically every ten minutes, we had to stop because our van kept overheating. It should have been a two hour drive. It took three and a half.

Then we got there. It should have been oh sweet relief, right? WRONG. To my sister’s utmost horror, when she went to the receptionist to ask for our keys, the guy told her the rooms we booked weren’t actually $99, they were $129. We’re Curries, so every cent counts. $30 extra is… beyond comprehension. Heart attack. Polite insisting and arguments. Finally, they decided that for now, we’d just move in, the prices could be dealt with the next day.

Finally. Oh, sweet relief.

When the heat attacks you from every angle, make your own cool.

One of my favourite parts of the country estate is the bikes. I know, normal people can just buy their bikes, but I don’t have one. I want one bad, but more than that, I want one to ride in a nice place. Riding in a residential area is not nearly as fun as riding in the serenity of the countryside.

So one of the first things I did, after unloading the bags, was run off to get a bike with Creepy Z. The heat hadn’t died down, and I realised how incredibly unfit I was. My legs ached after five minutes. Granted, it was hot. Granted, some of the areas where we rode were uphill. 

Still.

We just about died, but I couldn’t stay off the bike. I had to make adjustments.

Firstly: riding downhill. Just letting your legs go and soaring. The wind isn’t so hot then. You don’t feel so heavy. Minimum effort too.

Something I learnt: another lovely place to ride is on a tennis court. So flat, so smooth. No gravel. It’s nice and effortless.

Note: Do not wear a long skirt or dress when riding a bike. My ratio of falls, with long skirt v. not – 2:0. I still have bruises.

 The best feeling ever: riding through sprinklers. Gosh, I miss it already. I don’t usually whoop or squeal, but I found myself doing it naturally when we rode circles around the sprinklers. When the freezing water just hits you, sends electricity down your spine, brings you back to life. It’s only a snapshot of a moment, but it’s clear as crystal.

Bugs

They were in the pool. It wasn’t like this the last time we came. They floated about, sometimes looking lifeless, sometimes not. We only really noticed when we dived in, and we didn’t really want to get out either. But it was repulsive.

“Pretend we’re in a river,” I said. “You know it’s not perfect and there will be all sorts of creepy crawlies and what not. But you’d swim in it anyway.”

We agreed, though that didn’t stop them calling me every two seconds to take out some bug. I don’t know if I’m scared or not – I just don’t really think about it. I scooped them up and put them on the sides.

Creepy Z and Aisha followed me around, their faces half-immersed in the water, their eyes stony and unblinking. Aisha was picking up the creepy art well. We flung water in each other’s faces and ducked our heads under the surface. 

I hate chlorine, I do. You can’t make me go out of my way to swim in a pool. But when one is there, I have an intrinsic pull to dive in. Kind of like l’appel du vide, just… l’appel d’eau. I can’t help it – I love how the water holds you.

We finish at the pool around 10pm. When we get back to our room, we’re horrified to see creepy crawlies teeming around the doors and windows, fluttering about the lights, laying siege until we let them in.  We hurry inside, and some of them come in with us. They crawl about on the floor – where my sister and I are supposed to sleep. I sort of shrug it off. She will, when the time comes, cocoon herself in her blankets.

When Sasha joined us on the second day, she was a bug-spray-toting maniac. I think, that night, the bug population of the countryside decreased. A lot. 

A kind of simplified tennis

During all the preparation time, my sister had established that we should maximise our fun – so only 3 to 4 hours of sleep every night.

Pshhhh.

After watching Gnomeo & Juliet, and playing the Icon Pop Quiz on Aisha’s iPad, we sleep around the three. My alarm goes off at 7. I turn it off. We keep sleeping. I wake up at 8. Then I go back to sleep. I wake up around 8:30 again, then go back to sleep – the kind where you’re floating just below the surface, aware of everything, but not really connected.

We get up at 9, and laugh at the failure of my sister’s strict game plan.

And it gets so hot, all we can do is sit in the main air conditioned lounge and watch stupid videos and play the Icon Pop Quiz game. I’m the one who gets most of the historical figures ^_^ 

But eventually, we get out again, driving the golf buggy like it’s not supposed to be ridden. MJ took me on my first round and she spun so fast around the sprinklers I almost fell off o_o – then I had my first driving lesson, and I wasn’t as hazardous as I thought.

And then tennis.

The only ones who can really play are my sister, Creepy Z and I. That being said, only Creepy Z and I want to play ‘seriously’, as they call it. Everyone’s just so exhausted.

So we compromise.

It’s three on three, Sam, Aisha and I v. MJ, Sasha and Creepy Z. The rules are simple: hit it over the net, and within the lines. How many times you have to hit it is irrelevant. Oh, first to twenty wins.

MJ is a prima donna. Her strokes are extravagant and dramatic and rarely connect with the ball.

Sasha is a walking disaster. No matter which angle she hits the ball, it goes soaring in the opposite direction.

We’re practically hysterical as the sun sets, and the kangaroos in the distance watch us somewhat warily. 

Peace in,
Laila