During the last few of weeks of carrying Sarah in my tummy, mi familia camped in Taiping. (Our Janaminda Training Center is there). Abie was busy with INFAQ shooting so I was in charge of the first few classes. Driving the big ‘gedebab’ hiace around town was fun and hefty..hahaaa. Home-class-home-lake garden-home-jayeng mini market (not Giant, k)-home-pasar malam. That’s the routine.

All this while I’ve never really driven ‘our second home’ – prefer to be co-pilot instead so I can catch up on my slumber.. zzzzz (I love napping!! I do.) So when I HAD to chauffeur myself , I found myself ’steering-wheel crazy’!!! yabadabadoooo. Behind the wheel, I felt kinda powerful…a big momma driving a mammoth machine. But I admit, I shied away from narrow parking spaces. Lady driver la katakan.. It’s not that I was afraid I might hurt the little cars around but I didn’t want my huge hiace to be hurt. Yeah right!!! Then again, finding parking spaces in Taiping was not mind-boggling, honey. But finding a spot in KL is a real toughie.

The van can only be parked outside, so ‘adios’ MidValley, IKEA. Either we park far and walk or wait for empty spaces outdoor or just avoid these places.

Alamanda surprisingly is hiace-friendly, so the van can go through the bar. SmarTAG no problemo, so far so good.

KLIA? This is funny. We used to think that it couldn’t go through the bar. Until one fine day…….. we saw another hiace parked nicely among other cars in the basement. BINGO. (But that’s paid parking spot right..so, nevermind, we’ll stay with big buses and blend in with them).

It’s been a year having the van in the family. The kiddos even include it as part of the familia. It’s big, bulky and looks like a flowerhorn fish. But I love it. We all love it. We even traveled to Haadyai by bus (with kiddos) to do a research – how do Thais ‘make-up’ the van interior.

Can’t wait. My first goal – to paint it black! Elegant, huh?