Thursday, April 09, 2015

We are THROWNBACK TO 1960s!!!! - How it all happened!

As most of you would have known by now, we the Azimullah Family are currently on Channel 5 every Sunday at 9:30pm for Singapore's 1st ever Family Reality Show called "THROWBACK : BALIK KAMPONG"


Anyway, in today's post, I will try to summarize our experience there at the kampong and try to answer some of the questions asked.

It all started somewhere in September 2014, I received a phone call from the production house asking if we would like to join in this experience together as family. The moment they mentioned KAMPONG, I said NO!

Although it sounds really fun and definitely a good learning experience for my girls, just the thought of living in a kampong surrounded by so many animals like CATS, DOGS, and CHICKENS and knows what else freaked me out. I have been very afraid of cats since young, so I know it’s IMPOSSIBLE for us to live in a KAMPONG! I don't even patronize hawker centres because of cats! Even when we travelled to Malaysia, whenever there are stop overs at their "makan" joints, I will volunteer to be the "caretaker" of our car. I will gladly settle for a Ramly Burger and a can of Coke, and have my "ME" time alone in the car while everyone else will enjoy food like seafood, satay etc...

Back to this story again, however, the people at the production house still feels that we will be good for that show and continued calling me again and tried to convince me that everything will be fine and I still remember one of them promised me that they will make sure CATS will not come into my house in the kampong. With that, I somehow feel a lil safe and knowing that since my Hubby will be around it should not be that bad after all. I finally agreed.

Soon enough, another setback surfaced! On those dates that we are required to do the filming, Hubby cannot take leave and that means him NOT JOINING US!!!! It’s impossible for him to be away from office again coz he have applied for 2 weeks leave during the end of December for our trip to Dubai and that definitely cannot be cancelled nor postponed. So I thought that should settle this issue now. Hubby not around and we can't go without him.

However, the guys from the production house felt that I should still give it a try, just at least audition for it with the girls.

Finally, after further discussion with my hubby and the kids, we agreed to let them audition us. The guys from the production house are so nice that they came to audition us at home instead. (Audition is mandatory to get approval from MediaCorp).

Before the audition, I really do not think we will get selected at all coz we do not have the complete family, however, after the audition ended, I started to have sleepless nights.

I was really in two minds! Part of me tells me that I should do it coz the girls are so excited about the kampong adventure! The other side of me is so worried coz how am I supposed to do it without my hubby around in an unknown place! So yeah, almost every night I can't sleep coz I don’t know if I should hope that we get selected or NOT!

I think like 3 days later, I got the call and YES we are selected!!! For some reason, MediaCorp also felt that we are game (in my word INSANE) enough to be part of this show. It was really a moment of mixed feelings. I remembered telling the staff that called me, "I really don’t know if I should be HAPPY about this or NOT"

And so yeah, from the day of that phone call, we have like about 3 weeks to prepare. And for me it was really a MAD RUSH!

I've got to prepare for:-
  • purchasing of kids school books / uniforms / shoes etc
  • wrapping and labelling of their school books (3 sets)
  • stitching of name tags on uniforms (2 sets)
  • preparing our luggages for the Dubai Trip (4 bags)
  • and also our basic needs for the kampong stay
All the above have to be done on my own (except for the purchasing part) and to be completed in 3 weeks, coz a few days after the kampong trip , we will be heading to Dubai and will return from Dubai on the 3rd day of school!

Anyway, with help from my 2 elder daughters, Neelu and Mehr, we DID it!

Finally the day came, and knowing that I'll be alone with the kids most of the time, we travelled really light!


We packed only the very necessary items and left with 1 BIG SUITCASE!


Anyway, above is a picture of the girls on the morning of our departure to the kampong. 


And below is a picture of them after a week in the KAMPONG!


Okie, now it’s time for me to fetch the girls from school, will continue with the next segment about our first few days in the kampong, in my next post.

Till then, if have missed any of the episodes or just felt like watching them again, you can find them in the link below:-

http://tv.toggle.sg/en/channel5/shows/throwback-balik-kampong/episodes

Stay tuned for more updates from the AZIMULLAH family!!!

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