Being spontaneous isn’r the easiest thing in the world when you are part of a family of five. So on Tuesday this week when I had an idea for a spontaneous weekend away I quickly dismissed the idea as simply impossible due to not having at least three weeks to prepare to be spontaneous in.
However as the hours drifted by the idea gained traction and the urge to be spontaneous took hold more and more, especially as my spontaneous research had discovered that the Lawrence Family’s favourite cheap and cheerful resort on Langkawi was offering us the opportunity to be flown there and back, plus two nights accommodation and breakfasts all for RM 320 each. After a bit of consideration, that evening, after the children were asleep, Lexi and I decided that we should indeed be spontaneous and go for a weekend away (with the children too).
As we all know there is many a slip between cup and lip and the first slip was a RM20 person increase in the 13 hours between me first looking at the deal and considering pressing the booking button. Next there was the RM30 per person extra in order to fly back at a time that wasn’t very early or very late and then there was the the extra cost, RM84.50 to pay for the privilege of paying that almost stopped us from being spontaneous. However we overcame all those hurdles and booked. The planning, to be spontaneous, went in to overdrive.
I had booked through Air Asia, so knew there would be various problems that would challenge us, least of all printing off the tickets, which took several attempts. But I managed it. Then came the small matter of synchronizing our timetables to get us all in the right place at the right time to stand any chance of getting to the airport for a 1740 flight. This synchronization started 24 hours before the flight with Rupert, Trixie and Lexi packing their stuff while I took Edwin to his latest dance lesson, this time with a new dance partner. All appeared to go well as he and I returned to find two packed cases and Rupert’s rucksack with stuff in. He and I packed, lunch money instead of sandwiches was put out (no lunch boxes due to not wanting to have them sitting in a car while we were away) and it was off to sleep.
Amazingly we all got out of the house on time the next morning, with the right number of bags in the right vehicles. The day preceded well and was made even better when I received a text from Lexi telling me that she had remembered to bring the passports with her, something that I had overlooked.
End of school came and conveniently Edwin was not in the pre-arranged place at the vitally important time of 3.15pm, preferring instead to saunter along five minutes later seemingly without a care in the world. He caught up with Trixie and I who then moments later rendezvoused with Lexi and Rupert in the neighboring car park. All was going to plan.
We arrived at the airport, parked, dashed through the vast shopping mall that is KLIA2 and then tried to get out documents approved by Air Asia, something we found out that we did not not now need to do. We then increased speed and dashed to the departure gate, getting their, somehow, 45 minutes before departure time, allowing for the purchase of hot drinks along the way. Feeling pleased with ourselves Edwin celebrated by managing to spill dollops of hot-chocolate down his while school top, but that seemed a small price to pay for the minor miracle of spontaneity that we had pulled off.
Being Air Asia the flight was its customary 10 minutes late and we reached Langkawi without a hitch. We even managed to get a hire car without any hassles and with next to no petrol either.
Feeling flushed with success we arrived at our resort before sunset, checked in and felt that our spontaneity had really paid off. Marvellous. Of course there were a few minor difficulties we started to notice. All three children were there as were both Lexi and I, relief. However Rupert had managed to leave all his t-shirts at home, as had Edwin with his swimming trunks and Trixie with her sandals. Fortunately for RM10 per item we managed to purchase two Langkawi t-shirts, a pair of flip flops and a very flowery pair of shorts, thus solving the children wardrobe problems. We made it to the beach for food and drinks. (Food took well over an hour and three reminders to arrive, but then there are often challenges to be got over when being spontaneous).
Saturday involved eating a very late breakfast, lazing by the pool, admiring the copious amount of bird poo on the hire car, and more swimming / relaxing / eating and drinking on the beach. this time without such a long time to wait for food to arrive. And then there was more of the same this morning before flying back to KL at 1125.
However there were more spontaneity challenges to be had when we got back to KLIA2 in that we initially struggled to find where we had parked the car and then, when we found it, discovered that it wouldn’t start, due to someone switching on the internal light to look for a phone on the floor on arrival on Friday and then being in a spontaneous hurry to catch a flight. Thank heavens for jump cables and Lexi’s ability to charm we managed to get a jump start.
All in all a good 48 hours away and it was nice to be spontaneous, although it takes a lot of work!