Jam, not the edible type

Morning guys! Stuck in the morning rush hour again. At least the traffic is moving. To my boss: sorry boss ahir sket. Have a good day guys!

I heart my bike

Aaarrrghhh what a day today. There's a couple of company trips coming up in the coming month. Before today, my boss left it to me and my collegue to decide which trip we would like to go on. There are only the two of us and there are two trips and only one of us can go. Easy right.. I thought so too. In the end, me and colleague came to an agreement where she goes to destination A and I got destination B. (She's been to B while I have never been to either) Both are happy as I dont want to go to places where shopping is great, which is what destination A is well known for and destination B is just the sort of place I'd like to visit. There are a couple of reasons why I chose B. 1. No much shopping can be done, hence I dont need to spend any more money while I'm there unnecessarily. 2. The 'project' is smaller at B hence less work. We both compromised and are happy with the decision. My colleague is very much into shopping and look forward to the trip. The shopping chance cancels out the amount of work she has to do. hehehe Today, my boss decided that I should go to A. Reason: Unknown. But I think he's unhappy about something and decided against our decision. The problem is, my collegue doesnt yet know about this and my boss has been asking me to prepare our travel itinerary. I feel bad now. I dont know what's going to happen tomorow. She will find out sooner or later. I just hope it will not backlash and make me look bad in the end. Coz I know she's not exactly ecstatic being around me in the office as I too have opinion on stuff. Soooooo this might just escalate the prob. Hope not though.. *sigh* Now I have a bigger 'project' and at the risk of spending money.. heheh

Anyway.... I'v got a new toy... tadaaaa A mountain bike! I bought it second hand but brand new. Never been used and complete with the helmet. The set only cost me 100 clams! Not bad eh! Now I can cruise around on muscle power and hopfully loose a some weight in the process. Lets just hope so heheh

The bike also comes with a ... um what do u call it? Bell kah? heheh

Cute kali ah hehe

Oh before I go.. just want to congratulate my brother on his A levels result. 3A levels, B for Maths, C for Accounts and D for Physics. Not too shabby but it could have been better. Hes rather disspointed for not scoring on his Physics as he was banking on it. Congratulations is also in order for my cousin Muizz, he did very well. Managed straight As for Maths, Physics and Geo. So ia bulih jadi Geo-physicist lah tu ah.. heheh

I also have other cousins and second cousins who didnt do too well in their exams... Its is certainly not the end of the world. I hope this experience will open their eyes and motivate them to work harder for their own future. Speaking of opening eyes ani, I have a second cousin who has not been going to school for a year or two, out of the blue decided that he wanted to go back to school. Good on him and I wish him well. I hope he succeeds as he is known to be a clever young chap.

Okie dokie.. c u guys later

*sigh*

Yet another wet and cold day in Brunei Darussalam. Its been raining cats and dogs lately. To be honest I like this weather. No heat to contemplate every lunch hour. Tapi kecarian jua tu karang. Hehe Anyway, have a good day everyone! Ciao

daa di daa

hmmmm cant think of anything to post today.... lets see where my typing will go.. I was sort of free the whole day today in the office. I attended a training this morning at the IT building. The company has introduced an online purchasing system for all the stuff that you require from the company to help us to do our job. This is one of the company's effort to streamline the company's operation and of course eventually cut cost and for the company to be efficient. Last year was the introduction of leave system. All done digitally. This online shopping is quite cool. It works very much like any online shopping, much like amazon etc. the only difference is, we dont have to pay for any of them, well so long as our office has the budget and the 'purchase' will only be approved when the need for it can be justified. Well for the big and expensive items anyway. Of course cheap stuff like stationery, no need for the budget committee to approve. You can get varieties of items on it, from stationery, to uniforms, cooking utensils, computers and even vehicles! Seriously!. Too bad thy do not have free delivery service. We still have to pick-up our orders from the stores :P Anyways.. that took the whole morning.

Speaking of morning.. gosh the weather was really lousy today. It rained all day. My from my freezing cold office, the view outside was very much like any European city. Not! heheh well it was cold and it was wet and grey. It reminded me of England weather. But hey, the forcast was thet Elnino is going to affectbrunei in feb with hot and dry weather. I just hope it wont be too hot and too dry. I cant bear hot weather. makes me wanna skip lunch coz of theat. Come to think of it, inda jua ku pernah kan skip lunch coz of anything. I always brave the weather for lunch. heheh Hujan ribut pun still I would go and feed myself.

Speaking of lunch, had lunch at Auntie Damit's today. It was a stroke of luck. I called up my dad during lunch hour to tell him of the insurance that I had just purchased for my car. The current insurance policy runs out at the end of the month. So anyway, he was at auntie damit's having lunch with my mum and nini bungsu's family. I of course invited myself over. hehehe Hey there were loads of food still. Anyway, there was no occasion for he makan. I had soto, a bit of thai fried rice and then some cakes. whoooaa So full one. Ended up being late for work.

BTW, the insurance I bought was from bibd. you guys who are renewing your car insurance... go and get them from bibd. cheap kali ah.. and they take care of everything.. from your blue card to your road tax. Atu baru ya service.. good job. I hope they keep up this kinda service or even exceed this in the future. It will definitely be good for their business. To be honest, I was going to renew the insurance somewhere else, but sorry matey, time karing2 ani.. I'll go for the cheapest and less hassle. Wudn't you?

oh today... I heard ada atm machine melatup. coz luan banyak kali kana takan-takan. and I also heard ada yang button nya aus... too much of katik-katik. hehhe - Sory guys.. its a pivate joke. but u should get it too. well for bruneians anyways.

Oh oh I need to tell you guys about my presentation at the conference I attended last week. It was my first ever presentation infront of huge audience. And it did not help that they were managers from all over the world, europe, middle east, asian countries and australia. Gosh I was a nervous wreck. Although I mostly read my presentation and not be as impromptu as I would like, I think it went quite well. Couple of people congratulated me. So that was great. But to be honest, I was somewhat dissapointed. But looking back, how could have I done better? It was my first ever. Thats my excuse. But it was great experience. Oh at this conference, I see that I am PR lacking. I need to build my self confidence and be out there more. I just cannot bring myself outhere like some people. I envy those people who could just blab about anything. Nevermind, I'll do better the next time.

Bah atu saja kali eh.. so much for cant think of anything to write.. karang kana suruh panjangi karang lagi. ngalih lagi mikirkan. kekeke

I leave you with some pics i took sometime ago. Nada kraja tah jua ah.. hhehe

Planespotting

Assalamualaikum
On days like today where there isnt much to do and nothing else to surf for on the net, I usually end up looking at pictures of aircrafts. What this is, is popularly known as Planespotting. Ideally, planespotting should be an outing where you go out, of course somewhere close to the airport and look at airplanes and take pictures and stuff. Now in Brunei, yes you can sort of do that, but lets be honest here, how many different types of aircrafts and airlines lands at our Brunei airport. To be frank, I think I've seen most of Brunei airport regulars. The SQs TGs the Silk Airs and the Air Asias and of course BIs. So that would not make an interesting outing would it? Of course there are those odd ones which comes to Brunei occasionally for checks and stuff. And there are those which comes by on a charter, either commercially or otherwise and those which lands here in Brunei unplanned. e.g. refuelling. I remember Air Niugini B747 once landed in Brunei for the purpose of that. Exciting stuff! So obviously, the busier the airport the better it is for plane spotters.

While I agree that some people might find it quite a weird hobby that I have going on. (For those who know me, it would certainly look even weirder. What do I do again? heheh) But it is no more weirder than say watching F1 racing. Which I do enjoy watching too. There are those who consider planespotting a serious hobby. As for me, I would not consider myself anywhere near that. Merely a simple and plain plane spotter. Occasionally looking up in the sky when theres a plane passing by. Once in a while go on the net. But after saying hat I did previously go to airshows. Seiously cool stuff! Planes spotters can be distinguished by the stuff or gadgets they carry with many of them carrying binoculars (to take a closer look at aircraft registration), radios (to listen in to the conversation between the tower and pilots and various other information such as which runway is in use and the weather condition etc) and notes (to jot down which plane is doing what). Those who take this hobby seriously would know stuff like the schedule of flight arrivals and what aircraft would be in use. They would notice when an airplane arrives late and if a different aircraft is sent to operate a flight, it would create a buzz amongst them. The buzz will be heighten especially if that particular aircraft is never or seldom seen at that particular airport. For you and me, I guess its like looking at A380 for the first time, it would have the same sort of buzz. Or maybe not. heheh

For me, what interest me the most is the types of aircrafts and the colours they sport. The beautiful or not so beautiful liveries. Whether their colours suit them. Who has a new liveries. who has the best liveries. Who has a kick ass special livery. Who has special logos/mascots on their aircrafts e.g. Awang Budiman for the 1999 SEA games on RBA airplanes. Where they come from. Which airlines has which aircrafts. Those mismatched colours and logos (esp. leased aircrafts from one airline to another) There is also the history side of the aircraft. When was it built. What production number does it have. Who was its first owner. Who is their current operator. Stuff like that. It is al comercial airlinrs for me. Not so much of military aircrafts. Although those really cool ones do intrigue me too.

Travelling is one of my passion. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to do much of that. Planes from foreign and exotic places conjur up the images of the places they come from. Its a bit like watching a travel show really. Needless to say, whenever I travel and especially travelling to a busy airport, I would have a field day. I would get excited and go mad. Titik2 aying liur~ Inda wah heheh I'd be sitting behind the biggest window I could find and watch airplanes pass by. I must say the best place to do this that I have experienced is the quiet section of the departure hall T2 at Singapore Changi Airport. And now they have added this foot massage machine to help you relax even more. For me its just amazing. I enjoy that so much. I remember when I was as young, about 11 or 12, on one of our trips to Singapore, my parents would let me roam all over the airport on my own. Now thinking about it, I cant believe they let me. Tapinya 11/12 year old atu kira tua jau sudah kali tu ah. So not a big deal. My point is, I've been interested in airplanes since I was at that age or earlier. Anyway, on those roaming trips that I had, I would sit behind one of the viewing gallery's huge glass walls and look at planes taking off and landing. One other airport (yang ku parnah lah ah.. atu pun inda jua sebrapa) which equals this aircraft viewing experience is at the Kansai airport, Osaka Japan. They also have amazing view. Not to mention the view of the ocean.

Yang siok jua mliat is the interior of the aircrafts. I mean for someone like me who seldom fly and if I travel pun usually on RBA, looking at the interiors of other cariers is also siok. Kesian bunyinya heheh Interesting to see who has what in their aircrafts. AVOD and angles bed and flat beds and even a 'cabin' seats. Its amazing how they are trying to outdo each other. As for me.. angan2 saja lah heheh

Anyways, I have a few pictures with links to show you guys of our beloved national carrier Royal Brunei Airlines aircrafts on their missions. For Royal Brunei or otherwise.

I have also put up several links at the side if you wish to see more pics or know more about planespotting.

Picture with Awang Budiman and SEA Games 1999 logo on the side of B767

Another pic with Awang Budiman on the side byut on B757 this time

F100

RBA flights operating with leased aircraft from Lan Chile. Notice the chrome coloured belly as supposed to the usual yellow and the stripes are slightly higher than they are usually on other RBA B767 aircrafts.

No logo no name. heheh weird eh

Even weirder. This B757 Just came back from a stint with Oman Air. Not fully repainted into RBA colours yet. How cool is that eh

B767 with Visit Brunei year sticker

A rare one. B737.


Pictures courtesy of www.airliners.net Kindly please click on the pics to go to their sources.

mtg

Elops. I am attending a conference for the next couple of days. So no updates lah. Macam tah ari2 update. Hehe

Phone?

Yep u guessed it. Its a pink Motorola RAZR V3 decked out in diamonds! My colleague MJ has pimped up her phone, I guess to differentiate hers from her 'Sista's' next door! What do u think? Pretty cool huh? Jaga saja kana rompak! Haha

Blue stuff

Went to solitude again the other day. Somehow I've never seen this drink on the menu before. Cant be new can it? Anyhow, thought I'd give it a try. Its called Gen X float and its blue and red in colour. What a name huh. I think there is something about blue drinks that intrigue me. At CZ, they have something called Baby blue float, which I like. And at McDo, they had a blue fizzy drink with blue sundae during their Atlantis promo, and I like them too.

Pretty cool huh

New year celeb parte deux

some pics taken at auntie damit's during the new years do.




clockwise from top left
see~ I was not the only one without tupi. phew!
little cousin aisyah rania. cute isnt she
traffic at the buffet table
a surprise birthday cake for najihah

Celebrating New Year 1428

Am on the way to my auntie damit's right now for sembayang Isha and hv a bit of makan to welcome the Hijrah new year 1428. We had a sembayang Maghrib d rumah tadi n mbaca doa awal n ahir taun. Just us the family. Guess what?! I forgot my tupi! Aiyoo samseng tah ku ni. Pakai baju mlayu tapi nada tupi! Out che~ hehe

Kaer Azami

For old times sake, I thought I'd give this a mention. I received information that Kaer is releasing his album today in KL. The album is entitleed Menjelma and consist of 10 songs altogether + 1 bonus 'Kembali Bersama - his AF final song. I guess that makes it 11 aint it? hehe In it, there will also be one English song called 'Mama said'. The composer line up is quite impressive I must say, it includes the famous Audy Mok, Azlan Abu Hassan, Mohariz Yaakub, Omar K and Kaer himself has composed a song.

Song titles:
MENJELMA
IZIN KU PERGI - I heard this is now a hit in KL since its promotional release sometime ago.
APABILA
SINAR CAHAYA
TAK INGIN BEBAS
DALAM KENANGAN
KAU TELEFON LAGI - Macam ada urang tesindir. kekekke
HILANGNYA CINTA
MAMA SAID
SERIBU IMPIAN
KEMBALI BERSAMA - Bonus track

So guys.. seperti biasa. I urge you to buy yang original untuk menyokong Kaer dan demi mendokong indutri musik tanah air nya. Anyways.. I heard the songs are nice. Which is great to know since his fans has been waiting for this album for a long long time. And I also learned this album was produced and funded by himself. Wow! talk about confidence eh! In my opinion, he did the right thing. With the current rate of albums his management company is churning out other than their favs, in my opinion he did the right thing. Good luck Kaer.. wishing you all the success.

p.s. Video clip for 'Izinkan ku pergi' is in the process and the talented Rosh is in charge of it. Well some parts of it anyway. Rosh is the dude responsible for Anuar Zain's wonderful video clip ala-ala mangga comic + other video clips Including Sheila Majid's plus a host of other stuff. Check out his site http://www.roshfaizal.com/

New trade

U can see my sis is trying her hand at playing a guitar! Hehe Its a blast! Haha

Btw just incase i dont get to post later, wishing u all slamat menyambut tahun baru. Semoga tahun baru ani brings in health n wealth to us all. Jan lupa doa awal n ahir tahun later ok.

Piccies

Took these pics at Empire hotel sometime ago. Forgot to post them. Here they are anyway.

'Cold' water tap

Asprey cup and saucer

Under the table

IT sent me this. Those feet belong to the attendees at his meeting right now.

Hair cut

Am having my hair cut this very second. This is cool. Hehe Been wanting to cut my hair for a week now but been delaying it. This guy can style ur hair anyway ur heart desire and give a clean shave too. He throws in a head a message as well. Not bad for a $4 job. After this, off to get myself a kebab from the kebab shop next door!

Jam

Great start to the day aint it, stuck in a traffic jam. Anyways, have a good day everyone!

Pointed star

testing....

Hey there

I'm just trying out this email thing. I'm posting via email and added some pictures along. Lets see if it works. The pics below are of a chandelier in a shop I took during one of my sisters shopping trip. I didnt have anything to do so I thought I'd tag along. It was not as painful as I thought it would be. I got to buy some stuff for myself and also I get the chance to see how my sisters shop and what sort of clothes they like and stuff. Just for future reference IF I feel like buying them any on one of my trips abroad.

This chandelier photo was taken at one of the store my sisters went to. Very smart shop and its got nice clothes too.

Christmas decoration hanging from the chandelier.

Pizza for dindin

IT blanjaed me to some pizza sometime during the week. Actually I had his calendar and diary with me, he wanted them as soon and possible, so he sort of had no option but to see me. heheh taruslah. But thanks fr the pizza and icecream. heheh

Pizza capriciosa anyone?

Salt and pepper

The missing weekend

OK OK, here it is.. aarrrghhh IT has been nagging all week for me to post something from last weekend. Well, here it is. This post will tell you the few days that went missing from my blog. Not that I was not going to post anything, I was too tired and by the time I wanted to post them, its like past its sell by date. Here goes...Warning: This is going to be boring as hell. Anybody else apart from IT, I suggest you stop reading here. If you still wish to continue, you do so at your own risk (of being bored that is)

Friday 5th Jan 07

Straight from work, I went to my granny's place. I've have not seen auntie Nans for a few days and she was going off to London on Sunday. I thought I'd better come around and see her for a chat. Kesian jua if I dont. Once I got to granny's place, sure enough she was not there. I cant blame her. Woould you be at home if you are going off in a couple of days time? I didnt think so. Anyways, I stayed on, went to the family room where I found auntie H prepping Hani for her Malay entrance test on Saturday. And there was Hizaam too blowing baloons and stuff for Hisyaam's birthday the next day. With nothing to do, I volunteered my lungs to help Hizaam out. Gosh I could barely blow 2 baloons. Sign of old age? Maybe not. Ampus more like it. hahah Anyways, I managed 3 in the end. After that lame excuse I offered Hizaam, I crashed in front of the tele. Cant remember what I watched though. A few minutes later a message from auntie nans to join her at her fav hangout Deli. After Deli, we went to Yayasan to check out some laptop. Left Yayasan about an hour later with a spanking new laptop in hand! Its pretty cool. Cheap too. Walked over to Fratini to have dinner. Had pizza. I have always like the pizza there. Nayaman hantap. Really. heheh)

Saturday 6th Jan 07

Lets see, what did I do Saturday... Oh woke up kinda late. Received an sms to get my butt to deli. hahaha On the way there, singgah kajap at my gran's to pick up some stuff for Auntie nans. Reached Deli and hungout for a little while. It was 12.30 and time to pick up the children. Not mine but Anutie nan's. Something was wrong with her car. Water hose bubus or something. Yayasan school is only few kilometers away from Deli but due to the heavy traffic it took ages to reach, oh and the heavy down pour didnt do us any favour either. Got to Yayasan eventually and noticed it is under renovation. They are expanding. As I was passing by the wud be main entrance had a dome on it with a hexagon for a base. The designer had stuck the name of the school on the hexagon shape. ( I actually wanted to type something up but I thought, why bother ) Aaahh well.. what do I know)

Anyways, went to coffee zone again in the aftenoon to fill in the ampty tank. Tried out the new laptop. Updated the softwares and virus definitions and stuff. Set up the skype and msn for auntie nans to use in London. I fin the laptop to be very good. Very good value. Went straight to apple centre after that. Auntie nans wanted to get an ipos. She bought an ipod shuffle. It only cost B$138. Not bad at all. Its the coolest thing ever. A flap is connected to its back and creates a clip so you can clip it on while listening to your fav songs and stuff)

Went to gran's home after that. There I saw the huge slides Auntie H rented for her children's birthday. it's been there since 10am and the kinds has been on it since then apparently. Pretty expensive they are $250 for 12 hrs. Great fun though. Well the children looked like they had fun. I wanted to join in. Brought my water slide kits along. But it was too hot. Thought I'd have a go later on before Maghrib when its not too hot. But that didnt happen. I got too lazy in the end. Anyways, it was a fun party, had loads of cake. We had 2 types of cakes. One huge chocolate cake and the other vanilla icecream cake. yummy. Doa selamat was read by my brother Awie. Soone after, it was makan time. Had the bestest roasted lamb courtesy of Auntie Suhana. I tell you, she is just an amazing cook/chef. Shes very humble about it as well. Everytime during any of this soft of function, she'll say the kuah isnt as nice or the lambs are too overcooked and stuff. On the contrary, they are just perfect. And very very nice. Spent the rest of the night to my uncle A. Hes young still and I guess he just wanted to talk. Had not done that with him for ages.)

Sunday 7th jan 07

Well, woke up early. I think about 6. Immediately switched on the PC to read papers and blogs. had breakfast. Watched some tele. Oh Cash in the Attic was on. I like watching programmes like these. I also like watching shows like the Antique road shows. Antah napa kah ia. Weird eh. I guess I just like to listen and learn the history behind those antiques. Interesting. Anyway, I remember they had like a marathon of Cash in the attic on that sunday. I was stuck in front of of the tele for at least couple of hours. Received a msg from auntie nans to come and join her at OGH for dim sum. Showered and got dressed. Straight to OGH. The dim sum was alright. Good value. Not too many choices though. There were quite a lot of people there)

After Dim Sum Aunthie nans wanted to go to Deli, one round of drinks before going off to London in the evening. Unfortunately, it was closed. Apparently, they are closed now every Sunday. Too bad. Went to coffee bean bandar instead. Had the usual Caramel drinks. Gosh, not been there for a long time. Soon it was 3pm and Auntie nanas has not packed yet. So we rushed home. At 5.30 we went to the airport to send Auntie nans off. Kesian Auntie nans, had to leave her boys behind. She said in the afternoon that she should be too sad as this was her chosen path. Plus it wont be too long until Mr B is going to see her in Feb in london, prolly. And we can chat and video conference now. Its not like in the old days when were were studying in the UK when SMS was not even invented yet let alone Messenger. Though IRC was just around the corner. But I was already back in Brunei then.

So thats it!! My weekend documented. Told you it was boring. IT i hope you read all the way through and not skimming through.... Some pics to accompany the documentary above. heheh

Peering through the window of Fratini the Italian Restauant

Haafiy blowing baloons

Baloons for the birthday party

Cool water slides

It may not look much but the roasted lamb was heavenly

Soto also made an appearance

Vanda at OGH

Fried stuff. my fav yam ball

The egg tart was excellent

Can you read tea leaves?

Chocolate cake at Coffe Bean in Bandar

My drink

My dear grandad Hj Murah Mohamad

My uncle's boots.

Scene at Brunei International Airport