Double Wedding

Busy weekend. We’ve been in and out of the house all day and night. Obviously this was the only time where we could go for an outings, being at work on most working days. We visited the Consumer Fair on Saturday then we went for a Thanksgiving ceremony at one of my cousin’s. On Sunday we went to another cousin’s daughters’ wedding. This wedding was unique, since there were 2 daughters who got married and had a shared reception. I love the stage (pelamin), its so lovely. And the girls were beautiful too. Both grooms (who were not related apparently) came at the same time which made the bersanding a success! Imagine one groom was late, it wont look nice leaving one bride on stage waiting for the groom lol.

Some pictures we took from our seat on the wedding day.  Not very clear since I was so lazy to get up and approach the stage.

Astro Beyond

Since watching television is very much a big part of our lives, hubby and I decided to subscribe for Astro Beyond. The decision coincided with the 10th year (or was it 13th?, sorry cant remember) anniversary of DST and they did a promotion on the Astro Beyond package. What they promised was that, by having Astro Beyond, we could watch tv with richer colours, picture perfect clarity and cinematic surround sound. Wow.. And other features wow us as well.  We only had to pay B$165 to get a new dish/receiver and the Astro Beyond set, new smartcard, a new HDMI (HD Multimedia Interface cable) one month subscription fee, a PVR capabilities and 12 added new HD channels. We were told it will cost much much more if its not on promotion.  So why not?

We did the deed last month but they told us they were out of stock. Duh... why did they do promotion when they knew there would be lots of people who wanted to subscribe? So we were put on waiting list. And only 3 weeks later, last weekend, the installation vendor came and installed the set. And we have been enjoying a new “tv experience” thus far.

Huhu.. the new added 12 HD channels are awesome man. My favourite HD channels are : Movies HD, HBO HD, FX HD, AXN Beyond HD, AXN HD and History HD.  Some others, not interested.

Let me tell you what I love about Astro Beyond (haha.. mind you, I am not doing the promotion on their behalf, I just want to share my experience.  If its good then its good right?): 

• I could record my favourite show/programme! I don’t have to worry if we go out and miss the programme, the tv could record it, just “book” the show and it will record for me! Or even better, I could watch one channel and record another channel – no problem. Or I could watch and record it at the same time.There is a planner where all the scheduled recordings are listed for easy reference and I could go back and re watch it again.
• I could pause the show! If I want to go to the toilet or to get some drinks in the middle the show, I could just pause it or rewind it or fast forward it, no problem!
• The clarity is great! Provided you have a HD TV! This is the best thing. We could just sit on our sofa and flip the remote one whole day.

The only downside is that, we have to pay an extra B$15 monthly from now on. But its ok, its no problem since we love watching tv anyway.

Our best spot in the house

The clarity is magnificent.

Our new remote control

Two of our favourite gadgets at home

Important message - Do not use laptops in bed

A friend sent me this, I guess this is a very important message to all people out there.  It may or may not be true but there is no harm in practicing.

---------------------------------------------

Please take time to read!!

Very important!!
Tell your sons/daughters about it.



A well known family in Mequon lost their 25 year old son
(Arun Gopal Ratnam) in a fire at home June 4th.
This is what happened.
He graduated with MBBS from University of Wisconsin-Madison
two weeks earlier and came home.
Had a lunch with his dad at home and decided to go back to
clean up his room at school.
Father told him to wait and see his mother
before he goes back for a few days.
He decided to take a nap while waiting for his mom
to come home from work.
Neighbors called 911 when they saw black smoke
coming out of the house.
Their 25 year old son Arun died
in the three year old house.


It took several days of investigation
to find out the cause of the fire.
It was determined that the fire was caused
by the lap top placed on top of the bed.


When the lap top is on the bed
cooling fan does not get air to cool the computer
and that is what caused the fire.


Uneven surface of the bedsheet has blocked the
air intake vent below the cpu fan.
When the laptop is placed on a flat surface i.e. on desk/table,
there is a gap between the desk surface and the base of the casing
to allow air to flow/suck in through the air intake vent
by the cpu fan to cool the cpu.


The paragraph below is added in by sender for better understanding of the senerio.


He did not even wake up to get out of the bed
he died of carbon monoxide (CO).
The reason I am writing this to all of you is that
I have seen all of us using our lap top in bed.
Let us all decide and make it a practice not to do that.
Risk is real.
Let us make it a rule not to use lap top in bed or
put computer on bed with blankets and pillows around.
Broadcast this message & you may save others!!

Hospital Visit

We were really worried about my daughter when I realised that her feet was swollen. Hubby suggested we should take her to the doctor and get her foot checked out. Just to be on the safe side and to rule out any other complications such as fracture or whatnot. I was contemplating whether we should take her to the government hospital or private clinic. I was thinking, government hospital – it gonna take ages, long waiting time but the facilities were more comprehensive, and its free, except for B$1.00 registration fee (Are'nt we lucky to be Bruneian?). Private clinic – much shorter waiting time but no facilities like x-rays and have to pay. So we decided to take her to the government hospital (the nearest to our house in less than 5 minutes – Sengkurong Medical Centre. So off we went. I haven’t been there for a while and I was impressed with the new face of the clinic! It was renovated and painted new. And looked real awesome so bravo!

Anyway, the waiting wasn’t too bad, maybe because I had my galaxy tab with me lol. Or maybe we were early, before the clinic opened after lunch we were already there waiting by the closed door. And we were the 2nd patient called in. The doctor really looked at my daughter’s foot and sent her for x-ray. I was glad there was no fractures just sore muscle and sprain. Then we went on to get some medicine for her and she was given a few days sick leave. Which means only one thing. She gonna miss lots of lessons, which is not favourable for both her and me.  It bothered her alot I can tell.

Sigh.. didnt expect the field trip turned out like this.  Her left foot was fractured once before (in 2006) and she had to be in cast for a few months.  And now this.  She will be back at school tomorrow and I bet her foot will still be painful so it will be inconvenient for her to go to school and climb the stairs.  I just hope her foot will get better drastically so she can walk comfortably.

My daughter with her friend during the trip that turned out nasty.

Her foot in bandages at home

Sprain

Thinking about my girl right now.  She is recuperating at home from the ordeal yesterday.  Poor baby.  The only consolation I could think of from all these, is that, at least she has the experience and the knowledge on how it felt like to be in the jungle.  She went to Bukit Teraja in Labi yesterday with her friends organised by her college.  And she had a very awful time when she fell into the river and sprained her feet.  They went ahead despite the heavy rain, well not at the site anyway but still it was raining throughout the day.  We sent her to their meeting point, ie. college at 6.30am and she didn’t go back until about 6pm.  What a long day, wasn’t it?

So we are going to the hospital later.

TGIF

What I love about Friday?

Wow.. its Friday. I love Fridays...

Mainly because:

• Last day of the week, meaning I can already look forward to two days holiday (Saturday & Sunday), no work, yay....
• No traffic jam, I could leave home for work at 6.45am and reach office at exactly the same time as if I leave earlier.
• I could have longer lunch! Spend lunch with my daughter and rest for a bit.
• Maharaja lawak is on tonight, hahaha...

Sweet Lemongrass Restaurant

Hubby is good enough to take me out and had a Thai food last night.  This restaurant is by far our most favourite restaurant in the whole wide world! (yes, I am exaggerating but its true that we love to go there).  I don’t particularly like spicy food but I make a big exception on this one.  Their Tom Yam soup is out of this world and it never fail to impress us.  They are really good.  Actually there are two branches of this restaurant, one in Kiulap and the other one is in KB.  We used to go to KB branch alot when I was still working in Seria but not anymore now. 

The KB one was more busy and more customers, obviously frequented by Shell people. The Bandar one was a bit quiet, and mostly frequented by Chinese.  Maybe people thought its not Halal?  I dont know but we know it belongs to a nice Muslim lady who wears tudong and sometimes went around the tables serving  customers.        

How the restaurant looks like, nothing fancy.  Its very simple

The only downside of this restaurant is the chairs.  Look at them.  Not very comfortable at all.  But for us, the good food compensated with it.

Our ultimate guilty pleasure - the tom yam soup.

My favourite - Chicken chilli paste

Hubby's favourite

Pandan Chicken - this is nice too.  Usually it came wrapped but we didnt want the wrapping.

Fried fish salad!

Bona Petite!

More birthday celebrations

Two of the kids celebrated their birthdays recently.  So it was a joint celebrations at mom's place. 

Happy 5th birthday, Afizul a.ka. Edon.  May Allah bless you, be a good boy!

Happy 3rd Birthday Akif.  May Allah bless you, and be a good boy too!

Thanksgiving doa read by the eldest brother

My old camera had no quality at all, lol..

Akif with his Tom & Jerry cake

Its Edon's time to cut the cake, by the way, this cake was so yummy!

The two cousins celebrating together.  Cant wait to see them 20 years from now, Insya Allah.. hehe

Wonder what Edon thought.

The two boys which I must say as cute as a button, but so so naughty

These two enjoying their cakes.

I love my job...

Well... not really. At least its more bearable. I love the distractions my galaxy is doing to me lol. I can now do my job and browse the internet at the same time, without having to worry about being on Top20 in the office!

My daughter birthday picnic

As requested by my daughter, we celebrated her birthday at the Muara Beach on sunday.  This was the first time we did this so we didnt know what to anticipate.  We arrived early on sunday morning to get a good spot and we were abit worried when it was raining very heavily.  We arrived at Muara Beach at around 7am and the beach was deserted except for a few people who wandered around and picked a spot for themselves.  Luckily, the rain stopped at around this time although the place was wet.  Well, just hope for the best...

We found a good spot but it was clearly a bit dirty so hubby cleaned the whole place up and ready to receive family.  The day went so slowly (I wondered why), a few of Ayang's friends turned up (7 of them only, lol).  We understood though, it was rather far from everyone's home and the weather was bad in the morning.  But the day turned out ok.  As usual, fancy eating was on the go.  We started to fire up the bbq set and berbequing away.

We were lucky the rain stopped from then onwards, so it was a nice and cool day.  No blowing candles or cutting cakes though.  It was a rather relax day for everyone.  Relaxed and full as usual.  So thanks for everyone who turned up.

Mommy and daughter

Grandma and granddaughter

My brother started the fire pit for the berbeque

As usual these two were inseparable

BBQ in full swing

BBQ in progress

Hubby was busy supervising hehe

Hahaha... two cowboys in action!

These kids favourite beach activities - playing on the sand.

Everyone chipped in

My daughter with her friends

Wonder what did they write?

Eating time

Enjoy everyone!

My daughter distributing the cupcakes

Friends

Now onto the food.  We opted for birthday cupcake this time.  Considering where we were (at the beach), we thought it was a good idea for cupcakes since we dont need to cut the cake and distribute to everyone, turned out this was a good idea, where people just reached in and took the cupcake.  We ordered the cupcakes and a few other dishes from http://kitchenofjasmine.blogspot.com/.  It was delicious and proved to be so popular!  Like their shepard pie where I didnt get to see at all, lol.  And now pictures of some of the food we had...

My daughter birthday cupcakes.  Theme - girly stuff.

This was yummy too

Mini Pizza

 And the bbq stuff we got to enjoy.