• Can I add one more T-shirt, please?

August 10, 2004

Shopping for tidbits was the easy part; it’s what to bring that’s difficult!	Connie, Fozi and Sabariah's help has been invaluable.

I am not a light traveller. If given a choice, I would probably pack the entire contents of my room. Even then, I think I would be having doubts whether I am truly prepared. Then, there is the other side of me - I must say that I have been spoilt for I rarely do housework. Therefore, I had to ensure that I had enough clothes so I won’t have to wash clothes so very often.

I had such a long list of things to bring, from appropriate clothing and shoes to personal toiletries to tidbits to books. For almost two weeks, my agenda after office hours was nothing but shopping. I reached a point whereby I got really fed up of shopping malls. I must say my mother has loads of patience for I am a really, really fussy shopper, and yet, she patiently followed me around. I suppose the worst part of shopping was discovering that the shopping carnival and sales started exactly one day after all my bags went off with the vehicles to Port Sudan.

I must say that PETRONAS and the PETRONAS Adventure Team have been extremely generous as they provided us with ten T-shirts each. Despite countless reminders that these t-shirts were enough, I packed a few, or rather quite a few :-) more T-shirts. I suppose its partly vanity – the vain side of me screamed, “Colour co-ordination, colour co-ordination!” I had to remind myself that in the desert, colour co-ordination would probably not be the highest priority, and it wouldn’t really matter whether what I wore followed any colour scheme. Besides, I suppose no one would keep track of what I was wearing.

It was also suggested that I cut my hair as long hair would be a little inconvenient. I decided that I would have two sessions whereby I wouldn’t be too shocked with the sudden change of hairstyle. In fact, after the first session, I avoided looking at the mirror for a couple of days. Each time I looked at the mirror I felt as if I was gazing at an unknown person.

I also went to the doctor for a complete medical check-up. I have a phobia of injections, yet I had to endure all the vaccinations. My doctor told me that he has got a reputation of giving painless injections. I suppose it was an attempt to calm me down for I had a really gloomy look on my face. But I must confess that the doctor was really nice and the injections didn’t hurt that much.

I have been reading through the manual trying to make sense of the terms. I also went to PETROSAINS to learn a few tricks of the trade in order to conduct science experiments during the community relations programme. I still need to work on the programme, and get input from Azman Baharuddin, the Media and Public Relations Director for the PETRONAS Adventure Team who definitely has more hands-on experience with the children there.

I believe that I am really, really lucky to be in a car where the daily meals have already been taken care of. For someone who hardly cooks, I must say that Ujang’s offer was heaven-sent. Besides, most people keep telling me that he is a wonderful cook. I told him that I would help out with the washing up.

Well, so much for my preparations. I have a few more days before we leave, and as the excitement mounts, there are also slight traces of fear of the unknown.

Simba paw note: As much as I detest it, if the hair has to be cut, well, it has to be cut!