Our family picnic

We had a family picnic at Pantai Muara on sunday.  I loved the day, it was nice and breezy, not too hot and made the day so suitable to have a picnic.  We arrived at around 9.30am and the place was already buzzing.  I always love Pantai Muara, I have been going here for as long as I can remember, since I was small and had always been my favourite beach.  And the place is getting prettier with the new huts and other facilities, although a lot I mean ALOT need to be done to the public toilet.

Overall it was a fun and relaxing day, with good food and good company. 

Me and hubby

Me and Ayang

My mom, my daughter and my brother

My daughter with her grand dad

Two best of friends!

Always the beautiful girl!

Edon...

Hubby busy taking video

Ready to indulge on the good food

Day dreaming?

Yumm....

Aiezul... so cute!

Playing in the sun

Hubby with Adik.

Love this beach!

My dad enjoying the ice cream



The hut (our hut!)



Grilled chicken, a must have when heading to the beach

Playing football

No plastic Bag day & Earth Hour

A very significant weekend I must say.  Its a start for Brunei wrt the no plastic bags day.  As reported by The Brunei Times , the response from the public was quite good.  I was impressed too when it was reported no one got angry when they were not provided with the plastic bag tehehe, since I know how Bruneians are sometimes, so it was really good response.

As usual we went shopping during the weekend as well, specifically at Hua Ho Tanjung Bunut, and we brought our own recycle bags. It went without a hassle, there were many  didnt have any bag.  So what Hua Ho did was to provide them with boxes.  Hua Ho did sell the recycle bags though but of course some people were not interested to spend a single cent on something they thought didnt do them any good and opted for the boxes instead.  So whatever!

But its good that the public accepted the initiatives without any problem.  I hope this noble cause will continue.

At the counter of Hua Ho.  The boxes at the back of the cashier are provided as makeshift carry-on lol.



Our recycle bag.



I wish more shops took part, not only the "big" ones.

 

As for the Earth Hour which happened on the night of 26th March, we did switch off the lights for one hour.  I know there were some big gatherings going on at some parts of the country as reported here (again - Brunei Times) but we didnt join in but stayed home and watched TV in the dark (Project Runway was on!)  But at least we did take part :)

Our dark house

The wonder of a Pressure Cooker

I am so in love with my pressure cooker! We bought one recently and that was the best buy ever (B$68 in Hua Ho :) ). I didn’t know about it actually (shame on me since pressure cooking has been around for a long time, lol). But I was not much of a cook until recently but really get into it now. Better late than never right???

The advantages of using pressure cooker are endless. See these and pay more attention to the font in bold!

Pressure cooker uses a fraction of the energy of conventional cooking methods. In a pressurized cooking environment (i.e. inside a pressure cooker), the boiling point of water is drastically lowered (allowing for higher cooking temperatures) and very little heat energy escapes. Food cooks more quickly requiring far less external heat, making pressure cookers one of the most energy efficient appliances you can own.

Pressure cooker saves time. Vital high protein, nutritious non-perishable foods – such as rice, beans, legumes and root vegetables – take a notoriously long time to cook using standard preparation methods. For example, dried black beans can take up to 6 hours to prepare (soak for 4 hours and simmer for 2 hours). In a pressure cooker, very same beans can cook in as little as 25 minutes.

Pressure cooker has no issues in areas with limited access to gas and electricity, it’s completely infeasible. Not to mention how hot your kitchen gets with all that heat escaping from a pot right into the air.

There’s also no need to worry when removing a pressure cooker from heat and removing the lid. pressure cookers have manual pressure valves that release the pressure to a safe level before allowing you to remove the lid. The steam that escapes is perfectly safe and will not burn you. You can also simply allow the pressure cooker to cool, which will naturally relieve the pressure inside the cooker.

I cooked using the pressure cooker at least twice a week nowadays. I love the fact that I don’t have to be there in the kitchen once I put everything inside the cooker. I could leave it there to cook. Contrary to the conventional cooking, where I had to be in the kitchen and monitor the food until its done, really troublesome, where the cooking could evaporate and I had to keep on adding water into the dish until it cooked.

And it took a fraction of a time when I cooked meat from tough to tender.

I love it.

But a word of caution though. Do Not open the lid until the pressure is released or you will get burnt from the hot steam.  Or just leave it there until it cools itself down.  Other than that, no issue whatsover!

My pressure cooker

Easy cooking in the making.

First term school holiday

Its time of year again for the school kids on holiday, only for 10 days though but it does alot of good to all commuters!  No traffic jam and its so blissful.  I can even leave home 15 minutes later than usual. No stress, no dangerous and think-I-am-so-smart manuvers from so called stunt drivers, no queue cutting (you know who you are, Jangsak detour?  big headache!).  OMG.. its such a bliss.  I think my blood pressure drops to a double digit because of this, LOL!!

We are not going anywhere.  Our daughter is busy doing her fasting, should read her blog here ;).  And the holiday is too short anyway to go away.  So I just enjoy my quiet and stress free journey to work everyday.

No plastic bag weekend - 26th March 2011

We welcomed this initiative.  As reported recently, starting on 26th March 2011, Brunei will start this initiative, on the same day as the Earth Hour.  Well.. its about time that we do our part to save the energy (since most plastic are made from natural gas) and the environment.  Even for shopping on weekends only, at least we start from somewhere.  I heard about it since last year but it didnt materialise.  So I hope this will be the reality come 26th March.  We have no problem whatsoever with it.  We are ready.  We have maybe 5-6 recyle bags at home already, so ready to use them.  We have used it once in fact, at supa save. 

Its interesting to read the harm of using plastic bag, and Brunei Times has done a good job in promoting this awareness.  Just read all about it here.  Interesting stuff.  I wish some businesses start selling paper bags instead, thats a good replacement for plastic bag, although maybe not as strong.

I tell you  this plastic bags are so hamful to the environment.  Plastic bags can clog drainage systems and contribute to flooding, and when plastic bags are washed out to sea, they pose a threat to animal life.  These bags can even strangle wildlife or, if ingested, can choke or cause wildlife to starve to death.  And they dont decompose for hundreds of years and will stay and clog the environment for a long long time.

So there!  I hope that make us all think to switch using the recycle bags from now on!

We went shopping in the weekend and as usual we got lots of plastic bags on our trolley.  Hubby asked the cashier what will happen next weekend when the no plastic bag come into affect?  At least the cashier was aware of it and told us there wont be any plastic bag.  Hubby further asked, what happen to customers with lots of groceries  and she said they may give paper carton instead.  So we will see.  That must be the last time we were given that much plastic bags for a long time! 

Our full of plastic bags trolley

My recycle bag.

Favourite Gerai - Gerai Muafakat Kampong Selayun

One of our favourite weekend activities is going to our Kampong Gerai (stalls).  Its just on the opposite side of the road at Selayun.  We go there almost every sunday, to get some hearty breakfast.  The place is usually popular among the kampong folks and can be crowded at times, especially during the weekend.  Most sell ready made food, lots of malay delicacy and very nice local kueh. 

Our regular choice is the nasi lemak sambal pusu or tahai (thats for me and my daughter), hubby usually opts for more mild stuff like kueh and staff.  The food are sold at mostly B$1.00 which is quiet cheap.  Its good to go around 7am in the morning, the place is buzzing and packed and there are still lots of dishes to choose.  Around 8am to 9am, the crowds are getting thinner and most dishes are already gone.  And the weather is getting too hot so better go early in the morning, where the food are still fresh and hot ;)

The label

Lots of local delicacies are sold here, and favourite amongst the local folks

On the other side of the gerai

The place where I satisfy my craving for nasi lemak

Cheap and tasty

Amongst the crowd on sunday morning

We parked alongside the road since there usually no more parking space around the gerai area.

The gerai parking area - full!

"Make you feel better" song

Love this song! This is what I call "Make me feel better" song. So catchy and seems to drain all the problems and all the troubles. The lyric is so fitting that we dont need to take life so serious. Dont add stress to your life. Enjoy whilr you still can because you would never know when it will end.

At last, finally I found a good song I could enjoy!

Should I or shouldnt I?

Ok.. now thats the big question. I wanted to buy this for a long time already. Maybe even from last year! I felt that I need to have something nice and trendy and new and up to date, which I can call my own. But until today I havent bought it yet.

Its Samsung galaxy tab, in the market for a few months already. I am still contemplating. To buy or not to buy, lol.

This tab is definitely chic. Its not a phone but a computer. Very similar to Ipad but smaller (7ins) with camera and video. Unlike the first version of Ipad (which didnt have any of those) before. But now Ipad had come up with a new version with camera, so not so hot now eh.

But this Samsung galaxy looks quiet advanced. It has a 7” TFT-LCD display and can be used for watching films, viewing pictures, e-reading or sharing documents. Its also very light (380g) so its quite portable. It has the latest Adobe Flash Player 10.1. And like Ipad, it fully supports swift, seamless viewing of every single page of the web.

 

Looks chic right?

Maybe I am too old. I dont have that nagging feeling to get one (yet). Thats the problem. Not like going on holiday, which I must have at least twice a year. These new technologies dont impress me much (reminds me of Shania Twain song? lol). I would prefer to spend my money on holidays (relaxing is so important!), or on the house, like buying kitchen appliances or renovate the living room, things like that. I may not even use this gadget very often once I get it, and thats what I am afraid of. I just dont have the time to lounge around and browse the internet from the tablet. Or sit at the coffee house and surf and update my status of facebook or tweeter. I am just simply too old. On the other hand, its no harm if I get one. Just to be a bit savvy, and have something to play with, if I do have the time. But then I have our good old computer at home!

 

gggrr... I guess only time will tell.

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

I was so slow to record this tragedy, it happened 6 days ago but I am sure the devastation and rescue effort was still going on right this minute.  Its really was tragic.  After NZ, now its Japan.  I was horrified of what I saw on TV, it happened again after the Tsunami in 2004.  A magnitude 9.0 earthquake strikes an area 370 kilometers (230 miles) northeast of Tokyo, Japan, at a depth of 24.5 kilometers.

The offshore quake, the fifth largest worldwide since records began, sparks a major tsunami warning across the Pacific. Within an hour a wall of water up to 9 meters (30 feet) high hits the Japanese coast, sweeping away towns and villages in its path.

Below are some vivid pictures I took from CNN.com of the aftermath.  I cant even imagine what these people must have gone through.

People are scrambling to get food supply which are running low

I would feel and act the same if I was in the same situation

This man was missing for 2 days before he was rescued.  This old was is 60 years old and spent two days floating on a piece of roof in the water.

Cant imagine the devastation

Just to get food supplies is agony, look what they have to pass through.

Lost stare

A rant post

Thankgoodness we only have to renew our identity card every 10 years otherwise I dont know whats gonna happen!  I spent 4 hours.... yes 4 hours at the Immigration dept today just to renew my IC, its almost expired, in 2 days to be exact.  So had to do the inevitable.  And it was really a torturous experience. 

I arrived around 9am got my number amid all the sea of people and found a good seat.  I was already weary looking at my number.  I got queue number 1164 whereas the current number displayed to be served was 1035, that was like 129 people before me?  Hubby advised me to bring along something to read just to pass the time.  So I brought the paper and spent some time reading it but it just didnt do any mercy to me.  I finished reading, (twice!) and I was still there stuck there until 1pm!

I didnt know why it was so slow.  All I know there should be more counter.  And a bigger area.  Or a new process flow.  Maybe photos were taken somewhere else?  Whatever!!!  Someone... yes some genius from the ministry  need to look into this issue and get it solved pronto, its just simply radiculous to spend 4-5 hours (for some people I am sure) to get the ic renewed.   Today there were 4 ladies at the yellow/purple counters and another 4 at the green counter working their butt off entertaining everyone.  And they didnt even break off for lunch but still the queue didnt get any thinner.  Well.. during lunch break, only one lady at the yellow ic counter but there were about 3 ladies at the green ic counters trying their best to do their jobs (I am sure they were, I am just being positive here) .  But it was just so damn slow!  I knew I was not the only one who were already so tired and sleepy doing all the waiting.  I could see people were yawning and rubbing their eyes.  It was really radiculous.  I just couldnt believe it.  Anyway, as I said, at least we didnt have to do it like every year, I would just die!

As promised....

When our daughter started studying and revising for her O level last year, I made a pact with her.  I promised if she could get all straight 8 O level then I would buy her a brand new latest iphone on the market.  Doesnt matter what model it is but it will be the latest one!  She was nervous and not sure of herself all year right until the exam.  She didnt know if she would do well but I have faith in her as usual.  I knew she could do it and I knew she would do well.  And I also knew she hasnt got any new handphone for a long time, her Motorola phone was 4 years old and she is such a good girl that she never asked for a new phone.  I felt to get her a new phone is the right time.  And in my mind, no matter what result she would get, she would definitely get a new one, maybe not latest iphone though but still a new phone!

We were ecstatic when the result came about.  She scored all 8 O level and as promised we bought what we promised to give her as a gift.  A new Iphone 4.  Although she said she doesnt deserve it because it was so expensive.  Her friends were in awe that she got an iphone but I told her it was ok, she deserved to have it.

She is now a happy bunny, swiping the screen with all 4 fingers!  Amazing what a phone can do to a teenager.  Even more so, it can connect to the internet she can browse through, listen to music, enjoy the You Tube and update her status in Facebook and Twitter. 

Ayang new Iphone 4

The latest gadget in our household.