Food Food Food!!

Food!! Food!! Food!! All I think is food! hehehe...Just realise that I have been posting about my favourite dining places. Today, for lunch, I was at Azmee @ Gadong. I had Kueh Tiaw goreng. Normally I do not like noodles or kueh tiaw, but today it was totally different! Probably they have sack the old chef..hehehe... I really enjoy the Kueh Tiaw.

De Royalle Cafe

From Pizza Hut last night, we went to de Royalle Cafe tonight! We just got so much time to kill!

A brief description about this cafe, well it was open for few years now and located at the heart of the country, just next to Coffee Bean in Bandar Seri Begawan.

Used to be just a small cafe which probably can fit less than 10 people! Eversince they started opening the cafe for 24 hrs (which is really good), their business boom and now the owner open another one at Kiulap called de Fountain Cafe.

Quite a cozy place with free internet. Unfortunately I can't access the internet from the cafe tonite!

Weekly Activities at Pizza Hut

I'm at Gadong Pizza Hut while doing this blog. Me and my two other friends who want to call themselves SE W880i and SE P910i. Malu lah tu kan reveal their real name. We normally hang around either at London Kebab or RBC or Pizza Hut in Gadong where Mr SE P910i crazy about downloading "stuffs" using his Limewire...and absorbing 90% of the broadband speed!! He is so busy discussing with Mr SE W880i on how to fill up Mr SE P910i application form to study abroad and leaving me all alone...so saddddd...hehehe

We normally spend until 10 ish, just before PH closes..hehe..It's good just to hang around with good friends to chit chat and laugh at things even it's not funny!

Which Tree Did You Fall From?

Gloomy Day

The weather in Brunei is kinda funny for the past few days! It gets really hot at times and rain whenever it wants. Can't do anything against mother nature eh? It's only 3:50pm now and it feel like 6pm. The sky is really dark and rain really heavy now! Good time to sleep.

Bad Day At Work

Bad day at work? Well I did..Not really a happy day for me! Anyway, good thing I found this clip from http://www.youtube.com . Really cheer me up.

So sit back and relax and make sure you don't have anything in your mouth or else you will get choke from laughing!! hehehe

Sleepless Night

I didn't sleep well last night! I had this weird dream that feel so real and really make me realise how it will feel when you lost someone that’s really dear to you!

I normally have a peaceful dreamless sleep and snore through the next morning. But last night was totally different. Occasionally I do have funny dream, naughty dream and all sort of weird dream but last night was totally different. I dreamt the death of someone that I'm really close with! In the real world, I have never lost anyone that's really close to me yet beside my grandmother who passes away over a decade ago. She is such a great woman. May she RIP. I was still young then and know nothing about death.
Last night’s dream really hit me and I could feel the pain and really crying in my dream! And also I could feel the emptiness in my life when my loved one is no longer part of my life on earth. I don't know how long the dream was, but suddenly I realise that I must get up from this dream and do hope it is a dream! And when I woke up, I look at the clock and it was around 2am. I have tears on my eyes and glad that it's all a dream!

This dream really makes me think, what is it all about? Is that a sign? Is that a punishment for me for not appreciating what have been given to me? But I do realise that I should respect and care more to my loved ones. Life is so short on earth. You will never know when they will go and leave us for good. Once they are gone, they will never return. Life can end just from a blink of an eye.

Little Johnny's Big Story

Camping @ Kuala Balai

Kuala Balai is situated at Belait district. Take about 25 mins drive to the end of the road from the main road. Nothing much here really but the local have been trying their best to preserved and maintain their culture in this village. There was no support from the government or whatsoever. There is no power supply and water. The only water that you can get is from the river or rain water that was collected in a blue tank.

Oh did I tell you that we are here for fishing too! Not so lucky with the fishing. There were 4 of us. Joseph, John and I went on a fishing trip over the weekend. Minah (John's maid) joined us as the catering service – no camping trip is complete if you don’t have a maid.

The weekend trip went well! Caught some fish and udang (prawns). Joseph consider the champion on that day as he caught 3 big prawns and a big fish. I was accused by John for pushing him off the walkway into a thorny Nipah tree (ouch) during the night. He was walking behind me without a torch!! Imagine that!! hehehe...Then J&J went hunting for babi hutan (wild pig) with no success. As for me, I was in the tent trying to sleep! Feel like sauna!! J & J had a great time trading stories until 2am. Joseph killed 124 mosquitoes and lined them up on the food box. I suspect it was the tigers (beer) that got to him, however judging by the snoring, he did not have enough to knock him out.

We had chicken curry and rice for dinner followed by fresh prawns and fruit. Action point – buy a can opener that works rather than resorting to parangs, spoons and other hardware.

Sunday, Minah found out that the water held in the village storage tank was rotten (after she had washed her hair), so none of us smelt too good on Sunday as we could not wash properly. Cannot swim in the river because of the crocs.

I had a wonderful weekend and would like to do more camping in the near future.

Ching Ming Festival

Ching Ming, Grave-Sweeping Day, falls on 5 April 2007.

Normally we do it on the Sunday before the actual date. This is due to everybody's usy schedule with work. For you who do not know what Ching Ming is all about, here is an extract from author Don S. Gee.

The date is indicated on the Chinese calendar with the two characters: ching, meaning pure or clean, and ming, meaning brightness. Combined together, Ching Ming means clean and just.

The Ching Ming observance may have had its beginnings as the original religion in China. Ancestor worship is the only native religion to China. All others, including, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, were imported from outside of China. Confucianism and Taoism originated in China but are philosophies rather than religions. In the philosophy of Confucianism, a form of ancestor worship is incorporated with the virtue of filial piety.

Ching Ming rituals not only include weeding of the area, cleaning of the headstone, and replacing the wilted flowers with fresh ones, but also the lighting of incense and burning of imitation paper money. The burning of the imitation money is for the deceased to use in the afterlife. One year while visiting in China, one of my uncles from Canada even purchased a paper facsimile of a pair of eyeglasses and camera in Hong Kong to burn as part of the offerings; and an aunt in Hong Kong lit a cigarette at the end of a twig to make as an offering.

In addition, food is laid out in front of the headstone as an offering to the spirits of the deceased. The food may include a steamed whole chicken (including the head, which is later twisted off), hard boiled eggs cut in half lengthwise with shell attached, sliced barbecued pork (cha shiu), cut roast pork with crunchy skin attached, and dim sum pastries. In addition, three sets of chopsticks and three Chinese wine cups are arranged above the food and closest to the headstone.

The head of the household usually begins by bowing three times with the wine cup in hand, then pouring the wine on the ground just in front of the headstone. This procedure is usually repeated three times. Each member of the family comes in front of the headstone and bows three times with the right fist held cupped in the left hand. Some families will then eat the food together there at the grave site, similar to having a picnic with their deceased relatives. It is said to bring good luck to eat the food that was offered to the deceased.

In addition, some families will begin by setting off firecrackers to scare off evil spirits and to alert the deceased relatives that they are there to pay their respects.

Today, the responsibility to hang san or ’walk the mountain’ as visiting the cemetary is commonly known, still falls to the eldest son. Today families may be more likely to prefer simplified offerings of only the incense, paper money and flowers.