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.

She is now 17...

Today is my daughter 17th birthday. How time flies.  She is now all grown up and becoming a young lady.  Where did all the time go?  It hits me every time her birthday comes about, that she is getting out of her nest and spread her wings.  I am missing that sweet child but at the same time I am embracing this gracious young lady infront of me.  So proud of her.

So....

Here's wishing you a very happy birthday sweetie pie.  May Allah bless you in His protection, and you are graced with abundance of good health, wealth and happiness.

Come to think of it and talking about how time flies by so quickly, I dug out old photos and found these cute pictures of her over the years.  My way of thinking of her and her life so far.  How lucky I am to have her in my life.  Love you as always...

When she was one year old.

In 1999 when we first took her for Umrah.

As any other young girls, she liked to put on my shoes lol.

In Kindergarden during her Kindy Graduation day.

With her friends in Kindy

In 2000 when she celebrated her birthday in school.

In 2008, she was all grown up already

In 2011 when she is 17 years old.

Another eatery introduced!

Introducing another eatery in town. Introduced by my brother, this restaurant is tucked inside the Kiulap area, invisible from the main road and only noticeable when one looks for it. Its behind the Guan Electronic or Excapade Sushi and on the same row as the hiking shop (don’t know the name but we have been there a few times). Although it tucked away from traffic, the restaurant is really popular and well-known. There were many patrons, the place was almost full.

Its a small joint, mid range and specialised in Soto (Noodle Soup) hence the name – Soto Bunut, although there are regular menus as well. (Bunut is a name of a village in a different part of town, can be confusing since the restaurant is located in Kiulap lol) Its a regular restaurant but whats unique about this restaurant is that, the Soto can either be ala carte or buffet style. Meaning you could dig in your own potion into a rather big bowl, doesn’t matter how much noodles, eggs, or beef or whatever condiments you want to take as long as you do it only once. And the cost is B$4.50. If its a ala carte, where you just sit there and order a soto from the menu, it cost you B$3.00. Of course, this will be alot less than what you can take on your own. So its up to you. If you are hungry or you have big appetite why not opt to the first option, although a bit pricey, take as much as you can from the table. We try this and it didn’t disappoint us. The soto soup was nice, there were different type of beef, such as tulang, hati buyah and lemak, there was even cow tongue! For those adventurous ones. Nice.

Another plus sign, there was a discount of 30% for warga emas (elders) of 60 years and above. So my parents were eligible for this. Nice.

Can be very fulfilling. We went home so full. So its worth it to give it a try.  Some pictures of the restaurant.  Apology for the quality of pictures.

From where we were sitting, we sat outside, there were many people.

This was the area for the buffet style soto area where you could take your own portion.

The selection of condiments.

My regular companions whenever we went out for meals.

Another regular companion!

The notice stuck on the wall about 30% discount for the elders

My soto, yummmm...

More Royal Wedding Pictures!

OMG... Do I still into this royal wedding??!  Obviously I have too much free time in my hands hehehe.  Found these pictures from CNN.  I guess these are their official wedding photos.  And some pictures of revellers around London on the wedding day.  I found out there were around 1 million people lining up the streets and at the palace on the day.  Thats alot.

Found this one picture where I could see HM The Sultan of Brunei and Her Majesty amongst the invited guests (click to enlarge please).