Its done!

At last!  We have our newly tarred road.  Over and done with.  Although they could make it more fancy and nice, like a road line, maybe?  (kes inda besyukur, lol). Well... you never know.  It may happen.  At the moment they are doing the humps.  We could live without those but might as well have some.  I saw most people tend to drive faster since the road is finished, which I thought was quiet dangerous, being in a residential area with lots of kids running around.  So never mind, let the humps be!

Birthday Lunch

We celebrated our mom birthday on sunday, that was one day early since her birthday fell on monday where its kind of hard to gather everyone due to all the committments.  Lunch as usual at Aneka Rasa restaurant in Kiulap, we frequented this place very often these days but the place is always busy and full.

My mom is 67 this year.  Its wonderful that we get to celebrate her birthday every year.  She is aging gracefully and has a full life.  We are happy that she is still healthy and still get to enjoy life with her children and grandkids.

My mom and dad

Happy couple

Us

The buffet spread

Yumm...

Enjoying the food

As usual, the duo

Always good to see them

The playful one.

Family time

We had a full sunday.  We had buffet lunch at Aneka Rasa to celebrate our mom's birthday (I will feature that in another post).  Then in the late afternoon, the whole family went to visit our aunt who is admitted at Gleneagles JPMC due to heart problem.  She would be having a surgery to open up a blocked artery today (monday) so we went to wish her all the best and pray for her fast recovery.  After the visit, we all went to have an early dinner (without my parents) since they had to rush for another function, a sembahyang berjemaah also to ask blessings and well-being for our aunt organised by her children.

I never been to the Gleneagles part of JPMC, so thats my first time there, although I didnt see much since we didnt go to the ward itself.  It was rather a long walk from where we parked our cars, nothing to see except long coridor since we went through the back, although we could see the beach.  Then we came to the general ward where we were only allowed to sit at the foyer and only two people to visit at one time.  My mom went in first, since there was already someone inside so only one was allowed in.  There are 10 of us (minus the kids) so imagine how long it would take if only two were admitted at one time?  We asked the reception, what if that visitors took an hour to visit?  How long it would take us to wait?  Not realistic at all.  So in the end, my aunt was allowed to go out and greet us in her wheelchair.  A good idea rather than every two of us in rotation, two at a time, hehe.

So at least all of us got to meet her and wish her well.  She looked ok though so I am hoping she will be ok during the surgery too. 

Then after the visit, we all went to a newly opened restaurant in Jalan Jerudong.  My brothers told me, this restaurant is not new, they already have a branch somewhere in Jalan Muara, and they are famous for their "Kolo Mee".  I saw some advert also where they had this kolo mee urat which is really yummy.  But when we arrived and ordered that, they didnt have that in the menu for that day.  What a pity.  So we just had other Kolo mee to order.  And as usual I opted for my favourite Kueh Teaw goreng, yumm.  So dinner was sorted for the day ;)

Now onto some pictures.

At the Gleneagles JPMC back entrance

Our entourage

We went through the corridor, nothing to see around here actually.

At the waiting area, we couldnt go in at once.



Me with my parents



My auntie - wishing you a fast recovery

We arrived at Happy Dean restaurant in Jalan Jerudong.

Ready to order?

We occupied a few tables

Eating time

My dinner, rather oily but yummy.  Couldnt eat this as often, I may end up like my aunt!

The chicken rice was not bad too.

Most of ordered this Kolo Mee

Maharaja Lawak 2011

I've been following this show from the very beginning until the final last night. Its a stand up comedy competition in Malaysia which has made a huge impact over there.  I think the show has its own followers in Brunei as well.  Although some weeks were more funny than the other, but overall it was a harmless and fun programme to pass your friday night time. Maybe sometimes not suitable for younger audiences and children due to some languages and acts the previous participants have done.  And in Brunei we got to see it for free on Astro Warna (included in the original subscription of Astro package) whilst in Malaysia you have to subscribe to it to watch (additionally I mean).

Well, its over and we knew who the winners were.  These 3 guys really rocked!  They were consistent throughout the competition.  Everybody like them and as expected they won the RM350k price.  Although I feel that they were more creative and funny when acting like women and dressed in women clothes.  And they did do this alot which seemed a bit frugal.  But since people love them and so be it, they won the competition.

I enjoyed the 13 weeks and after this there is no more Maharaja Lawak, am I gonna get a withdrawal synthom after this? lol.

Old Photo

There are times when I reminisce about older times, when I was a kid and living with my parents. It was a fun time where life was more free. It was much family oriented kind of living, that old days. We were so close with our siblings, aunties, uncles and cousins. We visited each other most of the time. Not like today, were were more isolated and not keeping in touch as often, cant be blamed though, everyone is busy these days with their own life.

When I went to my parent’s house the other day, I came across this old picture. Picture of our relatives who were living in Sandakan at that time. I stumbled upon it by accident when I was looking for something, and I was really taken back on how much I forgot about these people. They were relatives although I do not know how we are related! (Note to self – must ask my mom later how we were related and how they ended up in Sandakan Sabah).

I haven’t seen them for maybe 30 years? I remember it was in the late 70’s or early 80’s when they came to Brunei looking for us. They found us and other relatives and we started visiting each other. I also remember we went to Sandakan to pay them a visit twice. We were really close by then. It was the good old days. Then somehow we lost contact until today. I remembered my dad told us, the uncle died, and from then on we didn’t keep in touch again. How sad. I don’t know what happened to all of them, but I am sure all were married, and living their own lives although they would be much much older than this picture.

I don’t mind seeing them again. Afterall they are still family.

Good news for our Simpang!

Well.. Well.. Well... Look!  Our Simpang will get a facelift soon.  I've just blogged about it

here less than 2 weeks ago voicing my frustration on the condition of our road, and there are now big machines in place.  Cant wait.   

Wedding door gift

We attended hubby's friend's daughter (thats a mouthful!) in BSRC Seria yesterday.  I didnt mind going since its been a while since I travelled to Seria.  And I never attended a wedding at the club before so off we went.  For those who doesnt know, BSRC stands for Brunei Shell Recreation Club.  Its a BSP club for social activities and sports for all Shell employees, located at Panaga.  Off late, its now becoming a wedding venue as well, since it has a rather big hall at the vacinity,a and there is not many big halls in the Belait district.

Arrived and seated at the hall.  I've heard that, since its a Shell building where safety is paramount, there usually was a safety announcement, telling all the patrons on where to look for emergency exit in the event of fire.  And after a while, the annoucement came!  Better safe then sorry, I guess.  I guess totally unexpected for those who were not used to Shell way of working, and way of life.

What I liked most of the wedding is the door gift.  Its a very nice and minty chocolate biscuits. I like that much better than the previous weddings I've attended, and was given gifts like mugs, ceramic, plates, glasses and so on, which I think was just a waste of money. And at the end of the day, we just didnt know what to do with these mugs, plates, glasses, onaments and so on.  And no place to keep too.  At least we got to eat and enjoy these treats, then we dont have to worry about where to keep them.

Slow week

I am so lazy to update the blog these days.  Its been a slow but nice and mellow week, I just love it.  Work is so so but traffic are at the minimum, of course, its school holidays this time of year.  Much much appreciated, lovely.  Watching too much tv as well.  Must be my favourite pass the time hobby, girly nights most of the time, when hubby is away, we eat dinner infront of the tv hehehe.

Finish up the job please..

Not trying to sound ungrateful, but please.. to the relevant authority, finish the job already!  In the older days, our Simpang was so famous for being a flood prone area.  Whenever there was rain, heavy rain, in less than one hour, our neighbourhood road would definitely filled up.  There were a number of incidents where we, the Simpang folks, suffered a very serious consequences of flooding.  Most of our neighbour houses were flooded and they lost a few household items.  We moved our cars out to a higher ground but Alhamdulilah, our house were spared on all of these mishaps.  I remember there were two major flooding in the last couple of years, one 2009 that I blogged about and another major one was in 2008. There were other small floodings over the years but those two were the worst.

Then after those incidents, the authority stepped up and repaired the whole simpang.  They constructed a big drains for the whole area and widened the road.  The work took about a year and our road looks much better.  We are all grateful and couldnt wait to have a nice tarred road.  Then the work suddenly stopped.  Though we have a wider road and gated drain now but the road was left unfinished.  Its not tarred yet and only filled up with peebles, which make driving on them very uncomfortable.  We couldnt drive too fast and when it rains, although no flood anymore, all the potholes were filled up with rain water and dirty the cars.  And during hot weather, dont tell me about the dust!

So please, we need the work to be finished, not half way like this.  I wonder what happened as to why the work stop?  The contractor doesnt get paid, does it?

Our road during the construction.

And now it looks like this when it rains.

Entrance to our house

This is how it looks like now, when its dry

Well... this is the same road during the  flooding time

We couldnt even see the road or the drain

Cars couldnt even pass these water

Good effort

I received this letter in the mail today.  I must praise the Brunei government for making this effort and sending this letter and brochures to all the women in Brunei, urging us to go for Pap Smear to avoid and detect cervical cancer. Wow.. how many women are there in Brunei  with a population of maybe 400k?  I know in Brunei  the cervical cancer is on the rise.  And only 30% of Brunei female undergo the pap smear.  Its really scary when we think about it. 

I feel so lucky to be a Bruneian.  The government has been helping us alot.  This urge to go for pap smear is at the government hospitals is all for free so why dont we all make full use of this facility.  Afterall its so very important to go.  Never mind it hurts a bit and uncomfortable for a while but I know its all worth it.  I never miss doing this every few years so I hope I am on the right track.

"I am so bored" post

How can I forget?

We were supposed to attend a cousin’s thanksgiving ceremony and how on earth it happened that I forgot all about it? We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 and had dinner outside instead!

Well my daughter wanted to see it, she has been urging me to go since last week but as usual, being an old mom like me, I was not so sure. Afterall its a cartoon and I usually spend some time thinking about whether to go or not. Not a big fan for cartoon I must say but I’ve been watching quite a few cartoon movies and so far none disappointed me. So then I went with my daughter for our girly night for the umpth time!

It was so so. Didnt quite enjoy it, maybe because too many martial arts? Not really suitable for an old folk like me? And its not 3D. We watched it at the Empire Cinema so that may contributed a bit. But I did find some of the dialogue hilarious though. My daughter laughed a lot and the rest of the audience too. But I was not that entertained. Anyway, as long as my daughter had fun and enjoyed the movie, its all that mattered. I guess the movies did capture younger audience. I was not alone being bored, one of the fathers accompanied their children played on his Iphone for the whole duration of the movie, imagine that? Hehehe.

Then off we went to have dinner.  We didnt know where to go at first, and we were a bit lost since we've been to many eataries already.  In the end, we tried a newly opened restaurant along Jalan Jerudong called Kaka Restaurant.  I've heard about this establishment before but we never been there.  They have another branch at Kg Rimba I think.  I heard their Nasi Katok was really good but we didnt end up trying that.  The food was ok, and the service was ok too.  The ambience was relaxed and I could see many patrons too, although when we first arrived, there were not that many people.

Brunei 8th Consumer Fair

We dropped by at the ICC to attend the Brunei 8th Consumer Fair last week.  Its the 8th! so we didnt really expect anything different but since we had some times on our hands, we decided to go and see what the fuss were all about for this year.  

One of the reasons we usually went was to see new products on sale.  There was always something that caught our fancy although it didnt mean we ended up buying it!  But its good to know certain products existed.  Hubby always reminded me to buy what we need and not what we want.  Thats really a good way to put things into perspective.  Do we really need it?  Or its just nice to have?  And when that came into mind, then we would be able to refrain ourselves from spending unnecessarily.

 

At the entrance to ICC, we walked up the hill to the venue.  Although shuttle buses were provided we decided to park our car at the Indoor Stadium and walked.  At least its a good 10  minutes of exercise lol

Inside the entrance of ICC, when we arrived, there were still not so many people.

We didnt go to this.  We've been to Night Safari in Singapore and would prefer to see LIVE animals, thank you very much!

At one of the exhibition galleries

Flat screen tv on sale, which seems to be so popular amongst the consumers these days

Hubby looking at one of the properties developer booths, houses for sale anyone?

People starting to arrive

I liked this!  These pictures and picture frames were made of chocolate! 

This was so nice. Look! Those pictures were made of chocolates.  But then you gotta to eat it and there gone the pictures :(

Hubby was always interested in IT products

The thing that caught our fancy - the Auto Gate.  We wanted to order this but our gate may not be suitable.  Very useful to have an auto gate when it rains and no Amah to open the gate hehe

This one was good too.  Very simple gadget to use in the bathroom.  It featured that round thingy there where we could fix our toothpaste on top and the gadget sucks the toothpaste until dry.  We just need to pull the small trigger at the bottom and this will be stuck on the wall.  I wanted this but then again, do we really need it?

We spent a few minutes at this table.  This machine was called ozone remover or something.  It was a simple device to remove all the impurities and chemicals from the vegetables or livestock (chicken or beef).  As we all knew, most livestock/greeneries are raged with chemicals these days.  We thought about buying this for health reason.

Now on to the food section!  I was tasting some nuts and crackers from the Indonesian booth.

Emm.. lets try this out!  I never seen this before but hubby did.  It was so so. Not consider buying it again.

The ever so famous Keropok Lekor, a regular Malaysian booth in every consumer fair.

We loved this too.  Originated from Thailand and in the Thailand Pavilion.  The pulut mixed with Thai Mango, it was yummy.  There was also Pulut with Durian too, and even more yummy!

These pins were made of fish scales, very creative.

And ohh.. the shuttle buses which took the visitors to ICC from the Indoor Stadium car park.

Thats it for now.  There were some more pictures but I think that rounded up everything.