Never too early to learn

24th December 2012

Prayers and doa selamat at Warya family's new residence. Syifa looks cute wearing her "telekong"! Love you baby sister!

Daddy turns 35

1st November 2012

 

Happy birthday to our beloved daddy... Our role model, our saviour, our hero! Love you lots, and remember, age is only a number! Hehehe....

Birthday party fit for princesses

21st October 2012

(Post by mummy)

We had a double celebration in conjunction with the birthdays of our two princesses. I personally love the cake courtesy of Citscakes. May both my little ladies grow up to be amazing, successful and kind persons who will make a great impact on this country and our lives too. Amin!

More pictures on our facebook page.

October is here

1st October 2012

Wow... time really flies! It's already October, which means that we only have two more months before welcoming the year 2013. It also means that we have two birthday celebrations coming in our family; Safiya turns 6 this 15th and baby Syifa is turning 1 on the 26th. In addition, cousin Raniya is also turning 1 earlier on the 9th. Hmmm... lots of birthday presents to buy :)

Talking about our baby sister, we are proudly happy to say that she has proven to be a cheerful and bright baby, and we hope that she will grow up to be a person who is liked amongst her peers as well as being successful in her life and career. Here are her latest photos ...

 

 

Brunei's Royal Wedding Of The Year

24th September 2012

It has been a happy and joyful week for the people of Brunei Darussalam in celebration of the royal wedding between Her Royal Highness Princess Hajah Hafizah Sururul Bolkiah to YAM Pengiran Anak Haji Muhammad Ruzaini.

The historical event came to its highlight yesterday with the "Istiadat Bersanding DiRaja" when the royal couple for the first time sit gracefully side by side on the dais at the Istana Nurul Iman.

We humbly wish the royal couple happy and wonderful years ahead, Amin.

[More exclusive photos at infofoto Brunei]

New gadget, new user

26th April 2012

Daddy recently bought the new Samsung Galaxy Tab. Apart from himself, we were also excited to use a new gadget and explore its functions. Amazingly, our 2 year old brother is also an "expert" in using it, and from the pictures below, there seems to be another little person wanting to play as well.

Firstly, smile at the camera...

Then, observe my brother...

 

"Hey, i think i get the idea!"

 

Finally Safiya says, "Okay abang, it's my turn now!" Hehehe...!

Trip to Labuan

2nd April 2012

It's been quite a long time since our last family vacation. We had our school holiday last week and at the same time mummy also took two weeks off from work (the thought of putting all four of us under our grandparents' care was unacceptable to her).

As a last minute plan, our parents decided to go to the Malaysian island of Labuan. Mummy remembered that the last time she went there was with my grandparents approximately 23 years ago. Wow... such a long time! Another driving factor for us is that now we can go to Labuan by car on board the Shuttle Hope ferry.

The initial plan was to go on a day trip, but nini laki suggested that we spend a night there so that we will not be rushing to catch up the ferry back home on the same day. We found a nice accommodation online and managed to book a 3-room apartment, right above a shopping complex. It's not a walking distance from the ferry terminal but since we had a car, that was not a problem for us.

Once we arrived at Labuan, we checked into our place of stay and rested for a little bit. We then went shopping whilst our grandparents stay a bit longer. Apparently nini bini got a bit sea sick because she was mistakenly led to believe that it was better to travel by sea on an empty stomach to avoid throwing up. Lesson well learned; never do that! Make sure you eat before travelling - in moderation of course.

In the afternoon, we ventured around Labuan to locate our long-lost relative. Helped only by GPS, we managed to find their house and had our afternoon tea there. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures! Oh well, perhaps next time.

Then, we made a stop at Tanjung Aru to have our dinner. Acting on his friend's advice, daddy made a reservation a day before via phone call. Never have we tasted such fresh crabs before, and it was definitely worth the trip! We had chilli crab, buttermilk crab as well as the signature barbeque chicken famous to Tanjung Aru. We also took some pictures just before sunset.

 

 

 

The next day, we did some more shopping and then went back home to Brunei on board the 4pm ferry. That time, nini bini was feeling okay throughout the journey.

Safwan's 2nd birthday celebration

 

25th March 2012

Safwan turned 2 on March 15th. However, our parents decided to postpone his party until the school holidays. Usually, we host gatherings and parties at home, but since we are still "maidless", mummy thought we make an exception this time and have the party elsewhere. After much deliberation and making choices, we finally settled for the Poolside Cafe at the Jerudong Polo & Riding Club.

Since the venue hosts its afternoon tea every Sunday afternoon, we requested that our party be held in the morning instead. It proved to be a wise choice since we ended up having the pool all to ourselves! The only downside is the heat since it's outdoors, but the organiser helped by providing extra fans to ensure our comfort.

After prayer recitation, it was birthday cake time. Safwan was excited to see the cake in the form of his favourite cartoon character, Lightning McQueen. He was a bit shy becoming the center of attention that day, but he was definitely happy!

To all our immediate family and friends, thank you for making the event a successful one. We also hope that all of you had a great time dipping in the pool! Till the next one!

Back in action

12 March 2012

Oh gosh! It has been a while since we updated this blog. Frankly we are not even sure if there are still anyone out there who still remember reading blogs! Everyone seem to be busy updating their status on facebook instead. Hehehe

Anyway, for the few remaining followers, we appreciate your time reading this blog. Life for us has been wonderful as always, a bit hectic though especially for mummy and daddy since our maids have gone back to their home country. Still, we do enjoy family time together; we recently visited Yayasan Complex in Bandar and took some pictures in front of the SOAS mosque.

Our grandparents' orchard

11th January 2012

We have mentioned about the orchard a few times now. It's only fair that we publish it here to give our hard working grandparents some credit. We actually visited the place during the new year holiday recently and took lots of fruits back home. So what types of fruits do we have?

Firstly, pulasan or also known as maritam. Its similar to rambutans, except that its skin is thicker.

Secondly, buah tarap. According to nini laki, this fruit is quite fragile. It must be picked at the right time and it cannot fall on the ground (it'll break). When stored, it's best hung using a string rather than sitting on its own skin since the flesh may become ruined. The taste however is worth all that tender loving care!

We also have jackfruits...

... as well as rambutan. This is called "rambutan budak sekolah" or translated directly as "school kids rambutan". Nini bini says that its named that way because it doesn't take long to bear fruit after planting, and more importantly because the fruits grow close to the ground, making it easy for small kids to pluck them.

We also have durian trees ...

... and membangan too!

Local fruits "fever"

10th January 2012

As we Bruneians must have already realised by now, local fruits are in abundance. Here are some more fruits that we enjoyed recently...

The first is of course "buah tarap". Luckily, our grandparents' orchard produce lots of these. As a result, we can happily say that we eat this fruit almost everyday!

Another fruit that is in abundance now are local durians, which comes in assorted colours and flavours!

In addition, we are also lucky to be able to taste "durian sukang" which is quite rare. Even according to some people, it's almost extinct. Coincidentally, a local newspaper had just published an [article] about this type of durian yesterday.

The fruit is small in size which can almost fit the palm of one's hand. Interestingly, this type of durian has to be cut in half because it's difficult to open unlike other types of durian, which means that it's almost impossible to plant since the seeds are already cut as well. However, mummy didn't know this and opened the fruit the usual way (and succeded!). Our family's mission now is to try plant the seeds and hopefully future generations can also taste the distinctively sweet and delicious flesh.