Weekend Retreat

I think I mentioned before that we’re impulsive travellers. And last week, we did it again. Barely a couple of days before the weekend, we decided that we needed to rejuvenate before I begin my final semester studies this coming Saturday. Never mind that DD would be sitting for her exams starting from tomorrow (she’s in kindy for goodness sake), or that we didn’t even have an idea of where to go.

I particularly detest long hours of travelling, so we cut the choices down to three places: Melaka, PD and Genting. But then we realised that we had a problem. DD had to be back in KL early on Sunday because she had made prior engagements with my BIL (nowadays we have to make plans around her schedules). So we cancelled out Melaka, because we wanted to save on the travelling time.

And then DD gave us another caveat. She wanted the maid to join us on the trip. When I asked her why, she said it was because she wouldn’t want to follow us on our shopping and jalan-jalan trips around town! I wasn’t sure about taking the maid along, mainly because I wanted to have some privacy, and also because of the cost of renting an extra room. On the other hand, I realised that we had never taken the maid on our holiday trips, so perhaps it was time to give her a little treat.

With that in mind, we gave in to DD’s request. We may be fierce parents, but we do try our best to fulfil our daughter’s wishes. But we had our condition too. We would have to settle for a more affordable (read: cheaper) place. DD was okay with that, but DH and I were slightly disappointed. We had to forget our secret wish to go to Avillion. But perhaps that was for the better money-wise, because it would cost us close to an-arm-and-a-leg to stay at Avillion.

We asked DD to choose between a ‘cold place’ (Genting) or a beach holiday (PD). She chose PD. After numerous searches, finally, at around 10 am on Friday morning, we settled for an apartment. While I took my shower, DH made a booking through the telephone and asked the maid to pack her stuff. We planned to leave after Friday prayers.

After taking my shower, I went downstairs to tell the maid to pack some food. I found her sitting at the kitchen table instead of packing her clothes. I sensed that something was amiss. Then she dropped the news: she wasn’t joining us because she had already made plans with my BIL’s maid to go out on Sunday to celebrate her birthday.

I went back upstairs and duly to announced to DH, “She’s not going with us! Cancel the apartment. Let’s just stay at Avilion’. Judging from the look on DH’s face, I guess I must have said it with some drama, but that was because I was quite upset that the maid didn’t tell us about her plans in advance. She didn't realise how much time DH and I spent searching for a decent place for us to stay.

DH scratched his head, muttered something incomprehensible, and then made calls to cancel the apartment booking and make the reservation at Avillion. Then he cheerfully said, "Well, it's for the better. Now we can stay at a much nicer place".

So that was how we ended up spending the weekend at Avillion. Secretly, DH and I were happy because we eventually got what we wanted, but we were worried about how DD would react when she finds out that the maid wasn’t going afterall. So I said to DH, this time, we should follow DD’s schedule. Previously during our holiday trips, she had to follow our schedules. But for this time at least, we would try our best to accede to her requests. And that would mean more time at the beach and in the pool, and less time for shopping or jalan-jalan.