Meeting an old friend at last

This is going into a memory lane :)

I posted a story sometimes in 2010 about thinking of an old friend who I havent met for 20 years.  Almost a year after that post, I am glad to say that I finally found her!  Not only her but another friend of hers whom I met during those days as well.  And of course I found her through Facebook, where else right?  I am just so glad about that, at least FB did something good in this regards.  We keep in touch all these while although we havent got the chance to meet yet.  We are waiting for the right moment to meet and hopefully I should be able to visit her in Singapore soon.

Well.. what I am about to post here is the other friend has came to visit Brunei, in fact she is in Brunei right now on holiday.  And I met her at the Empire this morning.  Imagine after 20 years we finally met again.  We met at the lobby of the Empire and she waited for me with a friend.  She still looked the same although after 20 years and a mother of 5 boys.  Who would have expect?   But I am glad she did come and I got the chance to meet her.

I wish hubby and I could take her out and go visit some places in Brunei but her schedule was packed with activities organised by their tour guides so its a shame that we didnt get the chance to spend more time together.  Although its good that we had a blast catching up and talking about the old times, the family and our lives.  Its so good to see her.  And I wish Midah was there too... 

And hope to see you both again ladies.........

Airport Renovation Part 2

During our recent trip I couldnt help but noticed how different the airport was  during this renovation period.  It really noticeable at the arrival hall compared to the departure hall.  As I mentioned earlier the airport is under renovation for 3 years so we hopefully see the improvement gradually.  Cant wait to see the finished product though.

Before are some random pictures that I took during our arrival last friday.

 

The new temporary meet and greet area

The coridor leading up to the meet and greet area

From the main building to the meet and greet area, not too far away.

Our BSP transport pick up area

Taxis area

My latest toy - Nikon V1

Well.. what can I say?  I bought another gadget or should I say toy for myself...

I always wanted a camera of my own.  I mean a good proper one, all these time I've been using hubby's camera or our small Sony camera.  I've been on a lookout for a good reliable camera for  a while.  I wanted a small camera (which I can fit in my handbag) but good enough to take good pictures,  thats when Nikon V1 came into the picture. 

I've been having this craze of owning a number of gadget lately, after my Galaxy Tab, HTC Handphone, Sony Vaio Laptop, and now its Nikon V1.  I bought it during our trip to KL last week and I fell in love with the chick white body of the camera.

Now I am a happy camper!

Back Home After the Holiday

I just got back from a tiring but fun holiday to Langkawi and KL of Malaysia with hubby, daughter, my parents and one of my brother and his family.

I just LLLOOOVVVEEEE holidays!  Didnt we just came back from London & Paris less 3 months ago??  Well... this one will be our last for the next 10 months or so.  Our daughter has warned us there wont be no more holiday until her exam in November!  Got it baby!

We left last saturday and just arrived home a few hours ago.  We planned the holiday since January and as usual it was great to be with them and enjoyed our outing together.  We spent 3 days in Langkawi and 4 days in KL.  Weather was hot and we didnt do anything much except lots of shopping.  We came back to our apartment hot, tired with aching feet.  My poor dad had to bear with us but being good kids (ehem.. lol) we sent him back to the apartment after lunch and continued our quest.

I have to confess shopping is so addictive and I bought so much stuff!

And here is the picture of us at Langkawi. More will be uploaded at our holiday blog.

New Apps Found! - 1Malaysia TV

I just knew about this new Apps.  Its an Apps which allows me to watch Malaysian TV channels online using my Samsung Galaxy tablet.  Wow... thats amazing.  I knew about this new apps from my brother who install the Apps on his Samsung S2.

So I tried to look for it in the Android Market and found it.  Its called 1MalaysiaTV and there are about 9 channels on it including TV3!  

I was a fan of TV3 before but since Kristral Astro didnt include TV3 in the package I didnt get to see it anymore.  There are some programmes I like to see though but I am not sure the Online TV is similar  to the real thing.  So I need to find out about that.

In the meantime, I will try to enjoy this new Apps while it lasts...

I was watching the TV3 Channel online

The list of Online TV on my galaxy

Brunei Airport Under Renovation

As an ardent traveller, I am excited to know that our airport is getting a facelift!  I think its the right time, the appropriate time.  The current condition of the airport is alot to be desired. Nothing was being done in terms of renovation ever since the airport became operational in 1974.  Sorry to say, its just a shame to call it an international airport.  Its small, its hot and very aging.  Every time we went overseas, I feel a pang of sadness to see the condition and all the basic facilities.  Brunei is such a rich country and I just dont know what tourists see when they first come here.

But that will all be history.  The airport is now under renovation and it will look quite nice when its fully finished in 2014.  Its going to be modern, up to date and will have that international feel to it.  Cant wait to see it.  Although at the moment going to the airport can be a nightmare.  With all the sign boards, the detour and the faraway parking space.  Not to mention all the dust and noise that come along with the construction, lol..

The other day we wanted to try out the Singapore food buffet at the Airport International Restaurant but changed our mind at the last minute due to the detour and the parking area which was too far away from the restaurant.  And we will fly off to Malaysia in a few days time so we will see how the building looks like now..

Anyway its for the better, so we will not complain.

I have a few pictures of the airport when its done taken from the BEDB website and it looks awesome.  At least it will look like any other airport around the world!

The aerial view of the new airport

The arrival hall

The departure hall

Worried

Today I cant help but feeling a bit worried about my daughter.  I think she is in a tremendous amout of pressure to do well in school.  She has lots of homework every day. On top of that she has to do her revisions.  Exams are coming soon and she told me it seems she doesnt have enough time to revise.  This is such an important period in her life.  Her future lies here and now.  This exam will be the tool for her to choose a career in her life.  I know its not easy.  It requires hardwork and dedications.  She has done alot.  She revises every day but still she worries she doesnt do enough.

My poor baby.  I keep on giving her advise.  Study smart and try your best.  Thats all there is to it.  And I do hope that all she does now and later will prove that she can be successful.

She is also not happy about our upcoming holiday.  She told me its a waste of time!  She said she wants to study and not going on holiday.  I was shock to hear that, I now know she is seriously worried about the whole thing.  Which I think its not good for her.  Not good for her health and her emotional well being.  I try to assure her that she needs the break and I am hoping this holiday will give her some breather so she could just relax for a bit, even for a few days.

I want her to enjoy school and not to be too stressful and uptight.  But it seems school and all these studying makes her an emotional wreck, sometimes she cries and told me she couldnt cope which breaks my heart.  So many up and down at the moment.  And being a hormonal teenager doesnt help at all!  Although there are good times of course.  She still listens to music, watches a bit to tv and dvds, helps me in the kitchen and looks after our Robbie.  And I try to be supportive to her, gives her lots of assurance and advise, not to mention lots of hugs and kisses....

I am praying that at the end of the day, she will achieve the best result and she could be smiling and put all these hardwork and struggles behind her.

Hang in there honey, a few more months and it will be done.

Robbie's New Home

We bought our pet a new home.  She loves it!

She has been in her home for the past 3 years and her home is depleting.  So its time for a new house for our little princess :)

The minute we got the new cage into our house, she already there and busy with us looking at it.  She is a curious type, hahaha... so funny.

Hubby fixing the new home and our Robbie was there being busybody hahaha...

Robbie warming up to her new home.

Its a 3 stories and she loves it.

Robbie's new home!

My love of reading

One of the things I like to do in my spare time is to read (apart from travelling of course). I love reading and I am glad that my daughter inherited that interest. She loves to read too and has spend alot of money buying books whenever she can. I usually buy a lot of books too and magazines or newspaper. I spend so much time reading whenever I can and I don’t feel good if I don’t read in any time of day. I have to look at something and read!

However ever since I got my galaxy and now laptop, I have not been reading books alot. I switched gear and now spend so much time reading through the internet. And found out that there are so much more to read in the cyberspace! Be it news, articles and blogs! I love reading other people’s blogs. Especially those blogs which are inspirational and emotional, real life experience, the hardship of people and so on. I used to read cancer patients blogs. They are surreal and at times very sad. They made me realise how fortunate my life is. The ups and downs, the sadness, the denial, the emotional and physical pains. Phew... And some of the ladies who owned the blogs died along the way. Although I don’t know them personally still I feel the sadness and the void they left to their families.

These days I read 2 blogs by 2 ladies who are paralysed. Both are from the US and both are really beautiful and young. They had an accident and paralysed from the neck down. Although both ladies are equally beautiful but they are totally different.

Heather who accepted the fact that she is now paraplegic and happy with her life so far.  She was involved in a car accident, had been in a hospital for a long time, doing rehabs and has been paralysed ever since.  But she writes so well, happy and positive.  She is such joy to read (suits her blog very well).  And she posts lovely pictures of her family as well.  She is quite content, although her life is hard but she says she is happy.  Such an inspirational.  Her blog reflects that, its her happy place and she brings happiness to her readers with her.

On the other hand, there is, Christina.   She dived into a shallow pool and broke her neack.  She was feeling so guilty and blamed herself for her accident because of her poor judgement.  She was so unhappy after her accident, very frustrated and sad with her life that she didn’t want to live. Did you all notice the past tense? Yes.. she died. By committing suicide. She refused treatment and refused food for two months until she fell into a coma and died. How sad right?

It amazed me how different these two are. They have their own issues but Heather strived to win her battle but Christina refused to fight and would rather die than being a prisoner in her own body. Its dramatic.

I have finished reading Christina’s blog, there wont be anymore update though. But I still follow Heather’s blog since I enjoy her blog so much.

I am not going to judge.  Both are entitled to their own opinion, decisions in life.  Christina is now gone but I hope Heather will find peace and happiness with her life and I will continue following her life.



Heather




Christina