The Scoben Takes South Korea - The Winter Preparation
Ok I seldom do things in stages. But I have to this time around. As it will either take a long one to be posted, or it will be too long winded to be put in 1 entry.
The importance of the preparation is due to few reasons. I have never gone to real winter conditions before. The best I had was autumn/winter in Australia, which you know, was still at double digit, and you don't actually need real winter attire. I knew for sure I couldn't stand Korea's harsh winter. Everyone been saying that it will be too cold there, from the bro in law, the peeps at the shop, colleague who's been working there. And we were not only bringing little kids there, but tiny baby of mere 4 months. I couldn't guarantee that I could survive well there, let alone the baby.
There would be so much possibility. From the number of layers that one needs, to the possibility of the baby staining their winter garments. Winter garments referred to here is either their inner thermal or their outer jacket. Then, with that in mind, one needs to think how many pair of garments one needs, both inner and outer. Then you need to think about the times when it gets too cold, and the time when it's not. Which means you need to prep your garment under 2 different circumstances. All that, while at the same time optimising your luggage. So much consideration. The coolest place that I've been to then, was at the summit of Mount Kinabalu. Even then, the stats said that it was around 4 degrees. The temperature could even be well below zero in Korea. I had 4 layers at the summit, how many do you think if the tempt go well below zero. For the elder kids would be easier. Lucky I had the luxury of borrowing from others, So less 2 down jackets need to be bought.
For Qaid, we got a good deal from Universal Traveller's, sometime before Naela was delivered. Probably sometime in April-May. There was nothing for me then. After sometime, there was nothing for me still, until we got to Ikea's Universal Traveller. They were having some good offer there. I was heavily pregnant and almost due. Not wanting to miss the offer, I grabbed what I could at that time, While having a big bump, hence, will not get a good sizing. But I proceeded anyhow.
Then, when Naela was born, hubs's friend was in London and we asked him to get the jacket for Naela. It was around RM 140, so we thought it was a very good deal. Which it is, but it has its other downside, which I will get to later. So Naela's clothing is at least, sort of covered. Or so we thought.
Next up is for my parents. Yes, not only that I had to worry about myself and my kids, I had to worry about my parents as well. Being old people, they wouldn't be able to stand well in cold. They never even been to cold places even. They couldn't even foresee the level of coldness that they might get into even. And of course, being old people, they can easily get sick. Alone as it is, without going anywhere, they would have some occasional colds, what do you think will get to them if they are in winter and the lack of rest from travelling. So I had to think for them, top to toe. I had to think from the inner, to the outer, from the top to the bottom. Yes, preparation is one very big task, to the point of making the travel not that much anticipated. Bringing them out will be out of question, cos we seldom have the luxury to go out for shopping together, so we bought it for them.
Yes, that much thinking and preparation on clothing alone. And the most major one. Other preparations was quite simple. For food, we brought 5kg rice (to be eaten together at the bro in law's house of course), sambal goreng ikan bilis prepared by my mom and rendang tok prepared by mom in law. Since my MIL wasn't coming before our departure, she couriered it over to us. She sent it on Friday, was hoping and confirmed by the mail guy that it would reach us on Saturday, which was the next day. Nothing reached us on Saturday. And that would mean that the rendang will be kept with the mail until Monday. 3 days of wasted, unfrozen rendang. We could only hope that the rendang will still be in good condition when it reaches us. By Monday, it didn't reach us still. When we were getting ready for Maghrib, suddenly someone was at the door and it turned out to be the mail guy with our rendang package. What a weird time. It never happened before. We were thinking that the dish would have been gone stale by then, since it didn't even reach us on Monday. But it did. on the very last moment. We quickly saved it into the freezer.
We didn't bring any Brahim or much packed meals since we would be spending 3 nights at the bro in law's house and only 2 nights in Seoul. So we thought that the rendang and sambal goreng would be sufficient for us. We focused on snacks. Tim Tam, cookies, nuts, chocolates. Lots of it finished during our 2nd day in Korea even. Lesson learnt, never underestimate on snacks and food. Especially if you have kids along. We could have piled up on snacks more and could have brought more packed and instant meal. As they were indeed required as our breakfast and before we got to have any decent meal. Being in winter, the kids just got hungry so easily. The good thing of them being hungry is that, they could eat simply anything, as long as it fills them up. So again, never underestimate on food and snack especially in winter.
When the time finally came, I wasn't that excited even to the day itself. Kept planting the travel thoughts on my mind, to help me get ready with the stuff required, start packing and organising things. Since I didn't take any leave before and after the holiday, I had to start packing even the weekend before that. Packing wasn't easy, as we had to sort out the required winter garments, anticipated snacks into easily accessible bags, while at the same time spreading out the heavy items into multiple bags, so it won't be as heavy on its own.
So I think that's about it. A bit or two of our preparations leading to the Day.
The importance of the preparation is due to few reasons. I have never gone to real winter conditions before. The best I had was autumn/winter in Australia, which you know, was still at double digit, and you don't actually need real winter attire. I knew for sure I couldn't stand Korea's harsh winter. Everyone been saying that it will be too cold there, from the bro in law, the peeps at the shop, colleague who's been working there. And we were not only bringing little kids there, but tiny baby of mere 4 months. I couldn't guarantee that I could survive well there, let alone the baby.
There would be so much possibility. From the number of layers that one needs, to the possibility of the baby staining their winter garments. Winter garments referred to here is either their inner thermal or their outer jacket. Then, with that in mind, one needs to think how many pair of garments one needs, both inner and outer. Then you need to think about the times when it gets too cold, and the time when it's not. Which means you need to prep your garment under 2 different circumstances. All that, while at the same time optimising your luggage. So much consideration. The coolest place that I've been to then, was at the summit of Mount Kinabalu. Even then, the stats said that it was around 4 degrees. The temperature could even be well below zero in Korea. I had 4 layers at the summit, how many do you think if the tempt go well below zero. For the elder kids would be easier. Lucky I had the luxury of borrowing from others, So less 2 down jackets need to be bought.
For Qaid, we got a good deal from Universal Traveller's, sometime before Naela was delivered. Probably sometime in April-May. There was nothing for me then. After sometime, there was nothing for me still, until we got to Ikea's Universal Traveller. They were having some good offer there. I was heavily pregnant and almost due. Not wanting to miss the offer, I grabbed what I could at that time, While having a big bump, hence, will not get a good sizing. But I proceeded anyhow.
Then, when Naela was born, hubs's friend was in London and we asked him to get the jacket for Naela. It was around RM 140, so we thought it was a very good deal. Which it is, but it has its other downside, which I will get to later. So Naela's clothing is at least, sort of covered. Or so we thought.
Next up is for my parents. Yes, not only that I had to worry about myself and my kids, I had to worry about my parents as well. Being old people, they wouldn't be able to stand well in cold. They never even been to cold places even. They couldn't even foresee the level of coldness that they might get into even. And of course, being old people, they can easily get sick. Alone as it is, without going anywhere, they would have some occasional colds, what do you think will get to them if they are in winter and the lack of rest from travelling. So I had to think for them, top to toe. I had to think from the inner, to the outer, from the top to the bottom. Yes, preparation is one very big task, to the point of making the travel not that much anticipated. Bringing them out will be out of question, cos we seldom have the luxury to go out for shopping together, so we bought it for them.
Yes, that much thinking and preparation on clothing alone. And the most major one. Other preparations was quite simple. For food, we brought 5kg rice (to be eaten together at the bro in law's house of course), sambal goreng ikan bilis prepared by my mom and rendang tok prepared by mom in law. Since my MIL wasn't coming before our departure, she couriered it over to us. She sent it on Friday, was hoping and confirmed by the mail guy that it would reach us on Saturday, which was the next day. Nothing reached us on Saturday. And that would mean that the rendang will be kept with the mail until Monday. 3 days of wasted, unfrozen rendang. We could only hope that the rendang will still be in good condition when it reaches us. By Monday, it didn't reach us still. When we were getting ready for Maghrib, suddenly someone was at the door and it turned out to be the mail guy with our rendang package. What a weird time. It never happened before. We were thinking that the dish would have been gone stale by then, since it didn't even reach us on Monday. But it did. on the very last moment. We quickly saved it into the freezer.
We didn't bring any Brahim or much packed meals since we would be spending 3 nights at the bro in law's house and only 2 nights in Seoul. So we thought that the rendang and sambal goreng would be sufficient for us. We focused on snacks. Tim Tam, cookies, nuts, chocolates. Lots of it finished during our 2nd day in Korea even. Lesson learnt, never underestimate on snacks and food. Especially if you have kids along. We could have piled up on snacks more and could have brought more packed and instant meal. As they were indeed required as our breakfast and before we got to have any decent meal. Being in winter, the kids just got hungry so easily. The good thing of them being hungry is that, they could eat simply anything, as long as it fills them up. So again, never underestimate on food and snack especially in winter.
When the time finally came, I wasn't that excited even to the day itself. Kept planting the travel thoughts on my mind, to help me get ready with the stuff required, start packing and organising things. Since I didn't take any leave before and after the holiday, I had to start packing even the weekend before that. Packing wasn't easy, as we had to sort out the required winter garments, anticipated snacks into easily accessible bags, while at the same time spreading out the heavy items into multiple bags, so it won't be as heavy on its own.
So I think that's about it. A bit or two of our preparations leading to the Day.
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