Easter eggs

6th May 2010

When daddy arrived home from work today, he brought special surprises for Safiya and I. It's souvenirs from NiniBoy and NiniGal from their recent trip to the UK and Spain recently to spend time with [Mama Usu]. Although we do not celebrate Easter here, the fact that we got two huge chocolate eggs really made our day! Thanks Nini and Mama Usu!

Can't get enough of his smile

6th May 2010

At just under 2 months old, our baby brother now smiles and talks a lot. Sometimes, he even seems to understand when someone makes fun of him, he will show off his sad face as if he wants to cry. He also definitely recognises familiar faces especially mummy and will cry just at hearing her voice... giving a signal that he wants to be held close. Hopefully he'll be alright once mummy goes back to work this Monday!

New exercise routine

5th March 2010

The afternoon today marks another new venture in our lives. Before this, we went for afternoon strolls on and off, only when daddy or mummy feel like doing so. However, it seems now that daddy is keen to make exercise a must in support of his current weight-loss program. As such, this afternoon daddy brought us to the Jerudong Park Playground. While daddy does his brisk walking, Safiya and I enjoy playing at the playground within daddy's sight. We do this during the weekends and if we are lucky, during weekdays too (when daddy arrives home early from work). Of course, it also depends on the weather!

All of this reminds us of our favourite Guyatt Park that we always spend time at during our stay in Brisbane in 2008. Ohh... we miss Australia! Hehehe...

Getting into the Malay spirit

3rd May 2010

Yesterday, we attended a nikah ceremony of a cousin and the theme colour of the day was gold / yellow. As mummy was searching for a suitable outfit for baby Safwan, she came across a cute baju Melayu (a Malay traditional outfit) that once belonged to me. It was especially made for my mandi belawat ceremony almost 6 years ago. Thankfully, it is properly kept and still looks new. Of course, it looked good on our baby brother too!

A trip down memory lane... Here's how I looked like back then! If you notice, during the actual ceremony, mummy put on me a full songket baju Melayu that was lent by a relative. However, after a while, I became grumpy perhaps due to the heat and all those powder paste on my face. As such, the other outfit came in to the rescue and made me a happier baby again. Hehehe...

Safwan's new look

27th April 2010

During Yee-Po's recent stay with us, she mentioned that Safwan's face has changed since her last visit a week before. She was amazed with how fast our baby brother is growing up. Another of her favourite development is that everytime Yee-Po talks to him, Safwan will give her his biggest smile.

At 40 days old last Saturday night, Safwan surprised us all with his never ending baby talk which went on for a good 5 minutes or so. From past experience, mummy said that Safiya and I were the same when we were the same age... which means Safwan will grow up to be as talkative as we are! Hehehe...

Our last weekend with Yee-Po

26th April 2010

As planned, Yee-Po spent another weekend sleeping over at our home. We were very happy since everyone had grown attached to her, especially her grand nephews and nieces! She arrived home on Friday night after spending some quality time with Ngangah and Bungsu. Although she was a bit late, daddy and mummy waited happily for that knock on the door.

Once she came, Yee-Po requested that daddy switch on a Chinese network on Astro. Apparently she has been following two Chinese dramas. That really brings daddy and mummy back to almost 6 years ago since our late granny loves watching her Chinese channels. Since she passed away, all that disappeared, until last weekend.

The next day after breakfast, we all brought Yee-Po to nini's house in Pengkalan Batu since she had not yet meet nini bini. It turned out to be a walk in the garden for Yee-Po and she really loves nini's plants all around the house.

Sadly, it's not the local fruits season. Yee-Po was craving for some local fruits, especially yellow durian that she ate sometime around 30 years ago when she was still living in Brunei. However, it must be her lucky day since nini bini has some frozen durian in stock. Yee-Po was extremely happy!

After the visit, we stopped by the Kampong Parit mini recreational park located close to nini's house. There, a large replica of our local durian stands proudly to commemorate a fruits festival held there last year. Then, we went to Gadong to have sushi for lunch. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed and as such we switched to Thai food instead. Then, we dropped by another sushi restaurant in Kiulap to take away some sushi before heading home.

That night, Wawa, Ngangah and Bungsu came and we had a feast with foods from Ideal restaurant. It was a treat from Ngangah. The actual plan was to have a picnic at Jerudong Park Playground but we decided to have dinner at home instead due to heavy rain. After dinner, we took some family pictures with Yee-Po.

The next morning, daddy brought Yee-Po to the Gadong plants market. We stayed home and played with Adam, Sasya and Nazrah. In the early afternoon, Ngangah brought us to Jerudong Park to make up for the ruined plan the night before. The fun didn't end there and once we arrived home, we played at our pool slide until almost dusk!

Unfortunately, the weekend had to end with sadness. It was hard to say good bye to Yee-Po without shedding tears. Everybody knew that it will be long until we meet her again, and even more so since she lives far in Melbourne, Australia. Good news though, Yee-Po is planning to come back early next year and that time, she will spend 2 months here in Brunei.

For now, we'll always keep her close in our hearts... and we have something to remember her by at home... a lovely orchid plant that Yee-Po gave mummy as a present which now proudly decorates our kitchen. We love you Yee-Po!

First family birthday season

18th April 2010

In our large family, birthdays seem to be close apart for some. In April for example, we get to celebrate the birthdays of our cousins' parents, namely Nazrah's dad (17th), as well as Adam's dad (18th) and mom (23rd). One thing that we like about it is that we can celebrate them in one party with multiple birthday cakes. Even better this year, Yee-Po is around to make it even merrier.

For this birthday season, we had only a small gathering (but loud!) and enjoyed steamboat and kolo mee last evening. Coincidentally, Ngangah and daddy bought almost similar birthday cakes; Oreo cream cheesecake and Oreo ice cream cake.

To Ngangah Hadanan, Wawa Jufri and Wawa Jay, happy birthdays!

Looking forward to another family birthday season in June!

Long parted family comes together

17th April 2010

This weekend is special. A few days ago, daddy received a sms from one of his cousins in Malaysia informing that daddy's aunt is coming to Brunei. She is our late grandmother's younger sister who resides in Melbourne, Australia. If we're not mistaken, only daddy and Wawa had the chance to meet her once when they went to Melbourne with our late granny approximately 16 years ago. For the rest of us, it's our first time meeting her and we wondered how she looks like.

When we finally get to meet her yesterday, we all agreed that she resembles our late granny not just physically but also the way she talks and acts. We call her "Yee-Po". For her visit, Yee-Po mostly stays with her brother but this weekend and the next, she will be staying at our place.

Yesterday, it was Nazrah and Syahmi's turn to spend time with Yee-Po. Today, it's ours! Here's what we did...

Firstly, we went to Brunei's most famous landmark; the water village we call Kampong Ayer. Funny enough, Safiya and I had never been on a boat before which is ironic since nini green owns a home on the other side of the river. As such, we took this opportunity to try it out and visited the newly opened "floating museum" located in the heart of the water village itself. It's known as the Kampong Ayer Cultural & Tourism Gallery.

The boat ride was scary at first and I even ducked when we went under a bridge. The return trip however was another story. We started to like it. The boat felt even faster than daddy's car! The only downside is that mummy couldn't accompany us as she is still within her 40 days post-delivery confinement period (according to our custom) and the boat trip would not be suitable since there was definitely lots of bouncing on the water.

Then, we had lunch at the Tarindak d'Seni restaurant which is located at the Arts and Handicrafts Centre building. The buffet was great and affordable. They even have ambuyat as part of the buffet menu and we ate a lot.

After lunch, we visited the Royal Regallia gallery.

Before going home, we stopped by the fish market and bought some prawns to prepare for a special dinner. Our home-made noodles is our exclusive family dish and of course Yee-Po must taste it too. With the help of our expert dough kneader, the recipe is successful yet again. Yee-Po said that she also likes to make it back in Melbourne but ours is definitely better tasting because of the cangkuk manis; a vegetable she can't find in OZ.

After a satisfying dinner, we shared stories with Yee-Po. Since Adam, Sasya and Nazrah are sleeping over, Safiya and I got busy playing while the grown ups take the opportunity to learn more of our Chinese side of the family. In addition to those in Malaysia, now we know that we have a large group of relatives in China! We sure hope that we can meet some of them someday...