Driving at two something...

After enjoying a one-week hari raya break with non-stop eating and visiting around beloved kampung, yours truly and the clan started to pack up their things and find their way back to their home away from home,the nasi kerabu land.

Our actual plan was to shoot off on Thursday morning, 5 th Syawal because angah had to be at her hostel by 8 pm.However, as usual, things turned out differently.

My other half who at the moment is so obsessed with his oil palm trees spent most of his hari raya in his kebun.In fact dia beraya dalam kebunnya in his loreng uniform (of course minus the M16),except on the first of Syawal.

So on that particular Thursday morning,again he was in his kebun.Although I had reminded him to be back by ten,so we could meet the curfew time,he seemed to get carried away with his work and came back at almost 3:00pm!

Without much choice left,we left my dad's house at 5:00 pm and angah had to ponteng her extra class that night.

At first the journey was smoothly run,leaving Muar,Tangkak and passing by Segamat,Bandar Muaazam and Kuantan.I was amazed at my other half's strength, to be able to drive 4 hours non-stop and what more after spending three-quarter of the day at his kebun under the hot sun.He didn't even complain of being sleepy or tired.As for me, I would be in and out of my slumber land..

When we reached Kuantan,big baby started to feel hungry and hubby decided to hit Kuantan city center to find a good decent restaurant.However, due to time constraint I protested and suggested we just grabbed any snack sold by the road side.I didn't want angah to ponteng her class the next day.So, my hubby continued driving until we got to R n R at Bandar Al-Muktafibillah Shah.Of course R & R in the east coast area is not as good as the ones along the North South highway.We had no choice but to choose either nasi goreng kampung or mee goreng Singapore.Since our stomach was already making all kinds of music, especially big baby's,we just took whatever they offered.

Then our journey continued to Bukit Besi and Kuala Berang.Exactly in the mid-town of Kuala Berang, hubby started to yawn non-stop.Had I not asked him to stop, he would continue driving.The time was almost 12:50 am when he finally swerved to the roadside and brought the car to a halt.I let him sleep and as for me I was contented enough to just sitting silently and listening to the snores and the whistles of the others.Although I felt wide awake,I did not have the courage to take over the driver's seat at that time of the night.

An hour passed and I woke my hubby and asked him to continue the journey or else we would not be able to reach home before morning.After driving for half an hour,again he started to yawn.This time I didn't ask him to stop for I had to get angah to her school before 8 the next morning.However , his driving seemed to get from bad to worse,our car was swaying to the left and right.Of course I didn't want to join this year's "statistic",so the best thing to do was to ask him to stop.This time I braved myself to take over the driving.

At Sungai Tong I took the lead and drove the car in the silence of the morning on the not so busy road.In the darkness I manoeuvered the not so familiar road carefully and slowly.Everything was quiet except for the kkkrooohhh and khraaah sounds that came from the back seats.A few times my hubby talked in his sleep but I didn't interrupt him, instead let him do the talking alone.Luckily what came out was nothing secretive.

I tried to tune to the radio station but the reception was not clear.So I pushed in the cassette of Koranic verses by Abdul Rahman Sudaish.A few vehicles overtook mine including the Gardenia bread van.But when another and another gardenia bread vans overtook me (three times) my mind started drifting to eerie story that I had heard from a friend....a story about the same yellow volkswagon overtaking a car for a couple of times.As much as I wanted to wipe out those frightening thoughts,more and more creepy stories came to my mind.I started to remember a story of a white figure flying across the windscreen of my neighbour's car as he was driving at midnight somewhere along Ayer Keroh highway.Another story from my cousin who had had an encounter with a long haired legless woman sitting on a big rock by the road leading to his kampung...another and another story which I read in 'Mastika' seemed to occupy my mind.At the same time I couldn't help myself from looking at the back screen through the front mirror ..Silly me I know..

I was deep in my train of thoughts that I didn't realise I was approaching Jerteh.It was 3:30 am when I shook my hubby to ask him to continue with the rest of the journey.He took over but not for long because he was stopped by a roadblock.Still in a daze,my hubby couldn't figure out the traffic offence he committed that time.The police officer patiently told hubby that not only he overtaking on a bridge but at a double line too.Wow...Surely a few bucks would be flying away from his pocket.But when the officer looked at hubby's identification card,he closed his summon book and advised hubby to drive carefully and follow the rules even at the wee hours of the morning.

We reached home sweet home at 4:00 am.The next morning,Friday, at 7:00 am I was already on my way sending angah to her hostel.

Along left the next day,Ssaturday,for his college, while hubby drove back to KL on Sunday.

The house is quiet now.

Time to rest and recuperate...