Lunch at Aneka Rasa Restaurant

14th June 2008

Today is Saturday, and that means we can spend the whole day with daddy since he works Mondays to Fridays only. From morning until the afternoon, we were around the major shopping areas in Brunei, mostly because daddy and mummy were looking for suitable chandeliers for our new house.

Anyway, for lunch today, daddy brought us to a restaurant famously known in Brunei as 'Aneka Rasa' (which means 'Various tastes' in English) located in the Kiulap commercial area. At home after dinner, I enjoyed some red dragonfruit slices, and my hands, lips and teeth all turned pinkish purple! Hehehe... Enjoy these pictures!

Enjoying lunch at Aneka Rasa restaurant.

Safiya having a great time too.

Mummy ordered 'Sizzling Japanese beancurd'. It looks hot and I attempted to cool it down.. hehe.. silly me!

'Air Bandung' - simply put: rose syrup with milk.

'Teh Tarik India' or Indian pulled tea. The colour should be a layer of white milk at the bottom and a brown layer of tea on top. However, this picture shows the drink after being stirred.

Overlooking the jetty, hoping that a boat will pass by. This is an equivalent of the City Cat Ferry in Brisbane, Australia, only that our boats are smaller and made of wood. I'll post some pictures of the traditional boats in the future.

Hahaha... purple hands and teeth!

Visiting our new house

13th June 2008

In the afternoon today, mummy brought Safiya and I to the construction site of our new home in Kampong Selayun. We had lots of fun, especially that we had the chance to play around on the spacious land area at the back of the house. Look at the pictures below and I'm certain that you can see how happy we are!

By the way, pictures regarding the new house can be viewed at our other BLOG (click). Enjoy!

The spacious land at the back of our new house. Look at us running around!

There was a wet spot on the ground, so Safiya and I decided to make our own shoe prints.

My shoe print.

Safiya's shoe print.

There's a river at the back. It originally runs through our land but now it has been moved to the back.

Daddy planted some baby trees some time last month. Nice!

Safiya was mesmerised by these small white flowers.

Round and round we go! We really enjoyed our time with daddy here in Brunei...

House warming and birthday party

12th June 2008

Since morning, mummy has been busy helping out Ngangah (daddy's younger sister) who is throwing a house-warming party in the evening. Safiya and I stayed home with nini laki and nini bini. The ceremony starts at around 8pm in the evening, which begins with recitation of prayers led by nini laki. For non-Malays, you can see from the pictures below that we have a custom of sitting on the floor together and it is a great time to catch up with each other's stories.

Traditionally, long floor mats will be lined up on the floor and food is served and arranged in clusters enough for 4 people, and guests will sit on the floor according to the arrangements. However, nowadays, it is quite common to host a buffet style arrangement for convenience, as we did at Ngangah's house warming party today.

After enjoying dinner, we celebrated the 64th birthday of nini Belait (daddy's dad) and the 6th birthday of my cousin, Adam, which are today and yesterday respectively. Mummy bought one cake each for nini Belait and Adam, and to our surprise, nini Belait bini and aunt Liza also brought one cake each, both for nini Belait... and we ended up with having 4 cakes altogether! It's a good thing though that all cakes have different flavours: yam ice-cream cake, chocolate fudge cake, chocolate cream cake and cheese-oreo cake.

Hehe.. It was quite a feast! Especially for Ngangah, enjoy the pictures below!

Recitation of Islamic prayers.

The women guests sit separately from the gentlemen

Nini Belait cutting three birthday cakes. Notice Safiya really admiring the cakes...

Candles blown. Safiya still admiring the cakes...

Adam... the birthday boy. He turned six yesterday.

Nini laki and mummy enjoying the birthday cakes. By the way, I took this picture myself. And notice that nini laki has trimmed his hair and beard... nice!

Teaming up with Adam massaging Ngangah's tired feet ... who is heavily pregnant anyway!

Trip to Miri, Malaysia

10th June 2008

Daddy is actually on leave today (yesterday as well), so daddy and mummy decided that we take a trip to the neighbouring town of Miri, Malaysia. Daddy's younger sister (we call her Ngangah) was also on leave, and since she didn't have much to do at home, she joined us. It was a lovely experience. In case any of you are wondering (especially non-Bruneians), the trip by car from our house takes roughly one and a half hour. The trip will be much shorter though for those who lives closer to the border.

Later on, on our way back home, we dropped by the house of nini Belait (daddy's father) to visit my new cousin who was born about 3 weeks ago. I did post the baby's picture earlier in this blog. I'm glad that both mother and baby are well and healthy.

Here are the pictures that mummy took today:

Hehe.. While waiting for everything to be ready for the trip, I played with my motorcycle that I got for my birthday last year.

Taking picture with Ngangah in one of the shopping complexes in Miri. By the way, you might notice that Ngangah is pregnant, she is due to give birth early August.

Safiya posing at the fountain.

Having lunch at one of the fast food restaurants.. Yummy!

Safiya having a go with the spoon and fork. Nice work sis!

A busy Sunday

8th June 2008

It's Sunday, and in the early morning, daddy took mummy, Safiya and me to our new home in Kampong Selayun that is still under construction. It was really exciting to finally have a place to call our own home. Mummy and daddy really had a good house plan, and although it is still far for completion, I can tell that it's going to be beautiful.
(For more pictures and updates, click HERE)

In Brunei, Sunday is a busy day for weddings.. It just so happens that today, mummy's long time friend becomes a bride. Mummy had been friends with her since they were in the same kindergarten, and their study life together continued until they both receive their bachelor degrees in Malaysia. We attended the wedding ceremony at noon.

Afterwards, daddy and mummy brought us home. After changing to casual clothes, we went sight seeing, and later daddy brought us to the Gadong wet market to buy some crabs and clams. At home, daddy cooked delicious honey soy sauce crabs, as promised to mummy. Wow.. the dish is really delicious. Thanks daddy! Mummy didn't want to be left out, and cooked the clams for us too. Yup, we did have lots of food for dinner!

Anyway, here are some pictures that we took today.. Enjoy!

The newly weds... Congratulations!

This shopping complex was opened while we were in Brisbane, so daddy brought us there to check it out.

There is an indoor playing area in the shopping complex. Safiya and I had lots of fun.

At home. Before the crabs are cooked, I had a first hand look at them...

'Supervising' our maid cutting the crabs before daddy cooks them.

Wow... I was admiring daddy's cooking.

Daddy's cooking.. Honey soy sauce crab. I know it doesn't look presentable in this picture, but believe me, they taste great!

Enjoying daddy's crab dish. Really delicious.. thanks daddy!

Mummy's cooking.. Steamed clams with lemon grass and garlic, dipped in tangy soy sauce.

Yipeee! We're in Brunei finally!

7th June 2008

At last, after months of anticipation, we are now officially on Brunei land. The flight took a good 6 and a half hours from Brisbane, but it was quite fun especially that I get to play with a new friend on board the flight (Hehe.. silly me, I didn't get to ask his name though!)..

I know this blog is created especially for our new experience living in Brisbane, but now since we are in Brunei, we will keep posting updates to this blog. We will be in Brunei until 19th July, so do expect lots of updates from here! To non-Bruneians out there, this may be your opportunity to have a sneak peek before you visit Brunei in the future!

Our Royal Brunei Airlines plane has landed on Brunei soil.

Safiya and I at the arrival gallery... Look at that smile!

Farewell card for my friend Mateo

5th June 2008

After a long break from school (I missed school last week due to my ill condition), I finally met my friends today. It's sad though since this is my 'last' week before going back to Brunei this Saturday. I'll resume school on 24th July, so I'm definitely taking a long break! Nevertheless, what's even sadder is because this is Mateo's last week too. He's going back to Mexico for good.

As an appreciation for our friendship, mummy helped me make a thank you card for him. In addition, I also gave him a bundle of pencils printed in Brunei flags as a souvenir. Mateo's parents were happy to see the beautiful picture.

Especially for Mateo, here's the image of the card that I gave you..

Last minute shopping at the city

4th June 2008

The rainy season finally subsides and Safiya and I are nearly recovering from fever and cough. So, we took the chance to go to the city to do some last minute shopping for souvenirs for family and friends back home. Mummy took some lovely photographs.. enjoy!

Handbags from Guess.. The store was having a 25% off sale.

We finally found the Big W store at the city.. Mummy got the information from one of her classmates. It was quite a walk from where we usually hang out, which explains why we didn't discover the store before. In case you are wondering why we really want to find the store, it's because we always receive catalogues via mail and they usually offer good bargain price.

Taking picture outside Big W.

Enjoying the city in the afternoon.

There was a fountain.. Safiya was so excited that she ignored mummy's camera.

Mummy says that I still have that "sick" look in this picture, but I think it's perhaps because I was tired!

Safiya enjoying the fountain, showing off her new Koala back pack.

Welcome to the winter season

1st June 2008

Today is officially the first day of winter in Australia, although we have been feeling the cold weather for quite a while especially at nights. Now that Brisbane is experiencing frequent rainfall, the weather gets even colder.

Waking up this morning, we didn't have any plan to go out since mummy still needs to finish her two research papers which are due before we leave for Brunei... which is in 5 days! However, we definitely need to go shopping to get more souvenirs for family and friends back home. So, mummy decides that we go to Toowong Village today.. If we were to stay home, mummy probably wouldn't achieve much in updating her assignments anyway since Safiya is really clinging on mummy.. I guess it's because of her fever and cough and Safiya definitely wants mummy's warm cuddle all the time.

We didn't take much pictures today, but I can tell you we did buy lots of stuff! Mummy didn't take pictures of the things we bought though, because almost all of them are souvenirs so we do not want to ruin the surprise! That includes a wedding gift for mummy's elder sister who is getting married early July. Anyway, on daddy's request, here are some pictures:

Look at this long shopping receipt of mummy and nini!

Safiya wasn't really in the mood for shopping today.. In this picture she fell asleep in mummy's arms.. Poor Safiya..

The main reason for going out today.. The medicine at home was almost out. Get well soon dear sis!