We raised our hands together supplicating before Allah swt, seeking His Blessings; asking Him for His forgiveness; begging before Him for giving us good health and safe journey. Muhammad Aiman was trying to hold his tears; the feeling of sadness clouded our mind and heart. This was quite tough decision that we had agreed on. Yes, our trip to Malaysia on 15 August 2009 was the first time for us (Nana & I) after 19 years of marriage and as one family, leaving my five kids alone abroad. ‘Afi, Muhammad Afiq and Muhammad Asri though are adults now and reliable enough to look after the household chores, etc. Again, being our first time was actually the challenge to break away from the pampered zone.
The first time leaving our kids alone was on the other hand, the second time that we (Nana and I) travelled together. The first time was our honeymoon trip in 1990.
Sharp at 18:00 hrs, we went out from our apartment to El Nouzha airport, Alexandria, accompanied by Muhammad Afiq and Afiqah. 15 minutes later, we arrived at the airport. The Meet and Assist staff from the Astra Travel was not within our eyes sight, but Alhamdullillah (praise only for Allah), we managed crossing the first screening smoothly. There was not much hustle at the check-in counter mainly for two reasons, that is, we had done our check-in online 36 hours before the departure, and we were among the first few passengers who arrived early. Subsequently, we crossed the immigration counter slickly and had our cappuccino at the lounge.
At around 19:20 hrs, announcement was made on the arrival of the Qatar Airways QR 512 from Doha. Alhamdulillah, scared to be called by the Qatar Airways ground staff for boarding, I joined the Maghrib-‘Isya congregation performed at the open area of the departure hall. This is one of the good things staying in Egypt; Mosques are everywhere and the prayer time comes, most of the people will oblige and perform the prayer together. However, we felt something was not right when the time ticked at 20:10 hours and we were still not invited to board the plane. Hence, the grief started.
Announcement on the delay was made 10 minutes later after the scheduled time – 20:25 hours. There was no information on why the delay and when would be the boarding time. The uncertainties created speculations, thus to some extend frustration and disappointment. The staffs seem to be very busy; I believed trying to solve the matters, but little time was spared to their customers – the frustrated customers. Perhaps what they should have done was distributing drinks to ‘cool’ them off or approach the confused passengers, who had paid significant amount of money, with appropriate information. This is what I called Crisis Management or People Management. I have tried to seek their attention on our connecting flight to KL from Doha, but to not my satisfaction.
Eventually, announcement was made around 22:20 hours for all the passengers to board the plane. Many were excited though with some disappointments. All the Economy Class passengers had went inside the busses, which supposed to transport us to the Airbus 320. We went to another bus for the First Class passengers. Amid the hot ambience and the unpleasant smell of the smoke emitted by busses, we were idled and stranded inside the bus for about 15 minutes! We were unofficially informed that, the aviation crew had solved the initial problem, but another persisted. With courtesy, we were asked to disembark the buses, I think for two reasons: one they were still not certain when the problem would be resolved and two, they need the busses to transport the Egypt Air Passengers to board the plane at 22:40 hours.
The three and half hours delay had taught us the real meaning of patience, tolerance and emotion intelligence. The great Messenger of Allah swt has taught and reminded us many time about self-control, managing of the inner self, understanding of people characters and the sacrifice. He, after successfully won the battle of Badr during the holy month Ramadan, reminded his companions that this was just small battle (despite the tough obstacles that they went through), but the real big battle is to fight against self-desire. We plan Allah disposes. I believed, the Almighty Allah azza wa jala wanted us to learn something out of it – patience. He says in the holy Qur’an; ‘Allah is with those who are patience’. We met many nice friendly people of different characters who were actually reminded us about our own characters that need to be improved. We talked about sweet and sour past stories that we maneuvered together. The characters that we saw reminded me about each single character of our five beautiful great assets – our kids. Each one of them have their own strength and hence, my responsibilities to collate the strength to form a good team. They are great kids!
Finally, we boarded the aircraft at 23:25 hours and took off at around 23:55 hours
The first time leaving our kids alone was on the other hand, the second time that we (Nana and I) travelled together. The first time was our honeymoon trip in 1990.
Sharp at 18:00 hrs, we went out from our apartment to El Nouzha airport, Alexandria, accompanied by Muhammad Afiq and Afiqah. 15 minutes later, we arrived at the airport. The Meet and Assist staff from the Astra Travel was not within our eyes sight, but Alhamdullillah (praise only for Allah), we managed crossing the first screening smoothly. There was not much hustle at the check-in counter mainly for two reasons, that is, we had done our check-in online 36 hours before the departure, and we were among the first few passengers who arrived early. Subsequently, we crossed the immigration counter slickly and had our cappuccino at the lounge.
At around 19:20 hrs, announcement was made on the arrival of the Qatar Airways QR 512 from Doha. Alhamdulillah, scared to be called by the Qatar Airways ground staff for boarding, I joined the Maghrib-‘Isya congregation performed at the open area of the departure hall. This is one of the good things staying in Egypt; Mosques are everywhere and the prayer time comes, most of the people will oblige and perform the prayer together. However, we felt something was not right when the time ticked at 20:10 hours and we were still not invited to board the plane. Hence, the grief started.
Announcement on the delay was made 10 minutes later after the scheduled time – 20:25 hours. There was no information on why the delay and when would be the boarding time. The uncertainties created speculations, thus to some extend frustration and disappointment. The staffs seem to be very busy; I believed trying to solve the matters, but little time was spared to their customers – the frustrated customers. Perhaps what they should have done was distributing drinks to ‘cool’ them off or approach the confused passengers, who had paid significant amount of money, with appropriate information. This is what I called Crisis Management or People Management. I have tried to seek their attention on our connecting flight to KL from Doha, but to not my satisfaction.
Eventually, announcement was made around 22:20 hours for all the passengers to board the plane. Many were excited though with some disappointments. All the Economy Class passengers had went inside the busses, which supposed to transport us to the Airbus 320. We went to another bus for the First Class passengers. Amid the hot ambience and the unpleasant smell of the smoke emitted by busses, we were idled and stranded inside the bus for about 15 minutes! We were unofficially informed that, the aviation crew had solved the initial problem, but another persisted. With courtesy, we were asked to disembark the buses, I think for two reasons: one they were still not certain when the problem would be resolved and two, they need the busses to transport the Egypt Air Passengers to board the plane at 22:40 hours.
The three and half hours delay had taught us the real meaning of patience, tolerance and emotion intelligence. The great Messenger of Allah swt has taught and reminded us many time about self-control, managing of the inner self, understanding of people characters and the sacrifice. He, after successfully won the battle of Badr during the holy month Ramadan, reminded his companions that this was just small battle (despite the tough obstacles that they went through), but the real big battle is to fight against self-desire. We plan Allah disposes. I believed, the Almighty Allah azza wa jala wanted us to learn something out of it – patience. He says in the holy Qur’an; ‘Allah is with those who are patience’. We met many nice friendly people of different characters who were actually reminded us about our own characters that need to be improved. We talked about sweet and sour past stories that we maneuvered together. The characters that we saw reminded me about each single character of our five beautiful great assets – our kids. Each one of them have their own strength and hence, my responsibilities to collate the strength to form a good team. They are great kids!
Finally, we boarded the aircraft at 23:25 hours and took off at around 23:55 hours
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