A Meet-Up with Ikelah, DITH & Family

I am simply ecstatic to be able to access the internet again - and here I am again for a much delayed update. The past one month I have been trying my hardest to enjoy my time off but, despite always wanting a holiday before I start work I am finding it very difficult to enjoy doing nothing. I keep telling myself I should savour the quality time I have with Mama Sarah and the two children but part of me is terribly looking forward to starting work - despite knowing that work is probably going to be hell.



Okay, the past one month I haven't really been completely inactive - I have been doing what I have always wanted to do whenever I get the time, namely ... catching up on sleep (sleep is extremely precious to those deprived of it), reading, playing with Amar & Sarah, catching up on movies I had always wanted to see and spending time with friends.



Speaking of spending time with friends, I have recently had the pleasure of meeting with several blogger friends; the most recent being Ikelah, DITH and their wonderful family.



Momad, DITH & Ikelah's son, was lucky to be accepted to study medicine at Bristol University and we all arranged a meeting at KLIA the evening of Momad's departure to England. That was the first time after around 2 years of knowing Ikelah & DITH via Blogger that we had the chance to meet.



I was pleasantly surprised meeting Ikelah & DITH, especially by the fact that although it was our first ever meeting - it felt as if we had known each other for years. Everyone warmed up to each other instantaneously and strangely, I felt like part of the family instead of like just a friend. Ikelah had good humour and was funnier in person that I had imagined him to be, but DITH was just as motherly as I had expected. When Ikelah saw me he said he could recognise me anywhere from my pictures on the blog and one of DITH's comment I liked was on how young I look (heh heh!)

In fact they were all a LOVELY family, and I am already looking forward to seeing them again, perhaps around Eid time Insya Allah.

Another lovely family, and blog friend we had the pleasure to meet was non-other than Pycno. At first I didn't know whether Pycno would consent to me writing about the meeting at all but I now I hope he wouldn't mind.

It was a BIG surprise to Mama Sarah and yours truly meeting the blog celebrity that is Pycno & his family but to me the biggest (and most pleasant) surprise was how nice, intelligent and friendly they all are. In fact, I would bet that anyone who had met Pycno & family would wish they have a family as intelligent and "muhibbah" (hopefully that's not a wrong word). Meeting him in person, I finally understood the secrecy and it was just great to finally meet the person behind the words (and pictures).

Hopefully there will be future meet-ups with these wonderful people.

Finally, and as usual, here are a collection of pictures mainly from the meeting with DITH and Ikelah. I took lots of pictures of Pycno & family but have sworn not to put them on the internet. The only picture I dare to put up is the picture of the delicious chocolate cake he bought us.

On with the pictures:



Ikelah and his Nikon D50, and Panglima.

Momad who was flying to England, and his brother & sister.

I finally get to meet Maman! He was just as I imagined him to be. Quite a funny guy.

Ikelah was more of a sport & funnier that I had ever imagined him to be. Also in the picture is Orang Kilang.

This was our large convoy. We had to hire several busses to transport everyone (only joking about the last part).


I finally get to meet DITH!!! Motherly/sisterly, friendly & wise - that's our DITH.

I have always wanted to discuss photography with Ikelah as I have learnt a lot from him over the years. He was one of the influential people in me buying a DSLR a year and a half ago. Our discussion is to be continued at a later date Ikelah ...

Momad - I'm quite proud this guy got himself a place in Bristol for Medicine. Safe journey and the best of luck to him.

DITH and Momad - this is my favourite picture of the lot.

OK

And this was the delicious cake Pycno bought us when he visited. I have a few pictures of Pycno and family, and I was thinking of posting severely cropped versions - but decided against that, just in case Pycno wouldn't approve. A meeting with Pycno & family gets the highest recommendation from me & Mama Sarah -- it's great to meet the person behind our internet celebrity :)

That's it for this update my friends. My plans in the next few weeks is to spend Eid with our families in Terengganu. We will be staying with my family after Eid for a while - but don't worry, then I'll get full internet access. I am hoping for another meet up with O-K, Ikelah & DITH while we're in Terengganu and here's hoping for great pictures during the trip! Till then, Wassalam and Ramadhan Mubarak.