My Pet Turtle

Bugs Bugs Bugs

I think there are bugs flying, running, spreading around the country right now! Everyone seems to be sick. Cold, Fever, Cough and sore throat! It's probably the inconsistent of Brunei's weather.

In the office, everyone seems to be sick. Most of them with running nose. I just hate getting cold! I will feel really lousy when I catch it! The worst thing is I get very hungry when i get the cold! Damn cold!!

The weather today is a bit gloomy. Nothing much to do in the office. Getting bored sitting in the office and do nothing!

Jaclyn Victor 'TRIPPED'

After seeing a short video of Jaclyn Victor tripped from the stair while she was on stage, it urge me to get the full length of it...hehe.. It's one of those mistake or accident that artist did. This is a LIVE show! I bet it is really embarassing but she cover it up really professionally and continue with the show!

Jaclyn Victor is a marvellous singer and really adore her!

Lazy Weekend

Nothing much happen for the past few days. It's a slow and boring week. Over the weekend, I didn't do much. My parents stay over at my place last thursday and went back to KB on Sunday.

Watched AF5 final and was so glad that MILA won the show and she is the FIRST FEMALE WINNER since AF started in 2003! She was amazing!

I bought a wireless security camera on Saturday! Well, my sis is getting a housemaid soon and we never trust the housemaid when they are still new! So decide to get the camera and video recorded her moves when we are not at home for work! For trial, I put the camera in the kitchen. My sis didnt know that i have install the camera and i caught her eating again(after having breakfast at her in-law's house) and walking around the kitchen cleaning the sink and so on..hehe..

It will be fun to see what the new housemaid will do when she work with us!!

$$$ New Spectacles $$$

Since my conjunctivitis, I decide to wear less of contact lens and more on glasses. I wore my old spectacles and it's kinda blurry and gave me a crap day yesterday! I have headache and blurry vision the whole day.

Just after work, I went to the Optician (Vision Express) to get my eyes check. As usual I will look through all the spectacles frame and I must say...there are few nice ones! Then this nice beautiful filipino staff came to assists me. She told me that they have special offers! OOooooo..I just hate the words OFFER when you know you will have to spend quite alot for a spectacles! I can get a 2nd pair of spectacles FREE if I spend B$200 on the first one!

Damn Offers! It really tempt me! So I was sitting in the shop thinking, shall i get a new spectacles as my old is not in a good shape...hehe....That's what I think though..hehe..

Finally I decide to have a new one done and chose the frames that I want :). I have the expensive frame for my everyday wear and the other one as my sunglasses. Went for the eye test and GOD!! my eyesight is getting worst! My left eye is increase by 25 and right eye increase by 50! In total I paid $260 for both my spectacles. There goes my $$$$!!

It only take them an hour to complete both my spectacles. Fast eh! It's kinda weird to see myself with this new spectacles..but after awhile, it looks fine and as my friends say "WHY U LOOK SO CHINESE OH!!" It does make me look chinese with this new frame :) SO here is how I look now...

Camping at Belaban (Ulu Tutong)

After few days of ordeal from my sore eye, I manage to get out of the house and went camping. I went there with the same group of friends, John, Minah, Jospeh & Fanny (Newcomer).

John picked me up from home at 10.15am. We are meeting Joseph at one of the restaurant in Lamunin at 11am. When we arrive at Lamunin, Joseph called and say he will be late and will arrive by 11.30am. So we decide to have lunch while waiting for him. Joseph arrived a bit ealier and he bring a bird with him!! When I say bird, doesn't mean a real bird. To make it simple, Joseph brought a girl with him. He introduce Fanny to us and admit that she is his sister, which later we found out she isn't! She is too pretty to be Joseph's sister...hehe

We got to the camping site at 12.30pm. It was really hot that day! We have to carry our stuffs and walk for about 5 mins to the camping site! We set up the camp...bla bla bla..the usual things and then rest for a while. Suddenly we heard noises of moving object. Got a bit excited to see what it was and to our disappointment, there were 2 goats and a cow wandering around our camping site. We were expecting for some wild animals! Ah well.....Anyway, there is one of the goats that wasn't afraid of human at all. She will just come in and munch the grass and even try to steal our food!

We then went fishing..well me and Jospeh. The rest went to the river and cool themselves up. We didn't have a proper spot for fishing so we went into one of the local's boat (temuai) and do our fishing. No luck at all...there isn't any fish that eat our baits!! Good thing Joseph brought his Thai Net with him and manage to catch 6 small fishes..hehe..better than nothing!

During the night, we start up our camp fire. We had lamb chop BBQ and also sausages for dinner. We chit chatted all through the night and John had too much to drink! Good thing he didnt do any unwanted show since his trousers keep falling down on him..hehe...

We do not allow any conversation regarding work! It's meant for us to enjoy and getting out of the city and basically relax our mind and get drunk! We went to bed quite early as the rain start pouring heavily!

The night was quite cool and woke up at 3am to have my No.1. I can see all the bright stars in the sky which you can hardly see it when you are in the city! It was so beautiful.

Woke up around 6am and Minah is still asleep! Minah is John's amah. She suppose to do breakfast for us and she overslept. Minah is a lovely amah and have a very good sense of humour. How can we continue our camping without Minah..hehe.

Guess who appear while we have our breakfast! The goat!! She just came in start stuffing her face with grasses. We actually ignore her and without us knowing, she ate our food! We were a bit pissed off but laugh in the end as we look at the goat eating without bothering what's around her!

We left the camping site around 1 and then stop by few places to do some site seeing.

Sore Eye II

This is my 3rd days of sore eyes. It is much better but still a bit sore and reddish. I was given 2 days leave on my 1st visit to the GP. As far as I know, Conjunctivitis is infectious,so I went back to see my GP and get his advise. He decide to give me another 2 days of leave. My smile suddenly get broader by the second..hehe

It's kinda boring just to stay at home. I have to stay away from people. No eye to eye contact...and can't stay too long in front of the computer!!

Sore Eyes!

Really not my day! I had the sore right eye last nite but didn't expect it to get worst! Woke up several time cos my right eye getting worst. Woke up this morning and I can't even open my eyes! Once I open my eyes, it feel like a knife stab through my eye!! It was so painful especially when I look towards the light!

Decide to get up and see the doctor! The challenging bit is driving to the clinic with one eye close! Imagine that! If I open my sore eye, it will be really painful!

The doctor gave me few medication to apply in my eyes..eye drops and ointment. It feel a bit better now but still very sensitive to lights! Here is the look of my eyes now!!

Don't Ass With Me!!

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into awell. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and thewell needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over andhelp him. They all grabbed a shovel and beganto shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Remember the five simple rules to be happy

Free your heart from hatred - Forgive. Free your mind from worries - Most never happen. Live simply and appreciate what you have. Give more.Expect less

NOW ............ Enough of that crap . . .

The donkey later came back, and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him. The gash from the bite got infected and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.

MORAL FROM TODAY'S LESSON:

When you do something wrong, and try to cover your ass, it always comes back to bite you.

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.

Kong Xi Fa Chai 2007

Welcome to the year of PIG!

NBT has a reputation of putting up elaborate and beautiful displays each festive celebration, and this year they have chosen traditional symbols of Chinese culture for their extravagant display.

Every Chinese families can be seen selecting brightly coloured cheongsams to wear during the festivities. The traditional dress is normally made from red silk and embroidered with gold thread, but nowadays, cheongsams can be found in an array of colours including black, blue, orange and gold.

Here are some of the photos taken at NBT.