Malam Berbedak ceremony

Thursday night, my cousin, Surayani from my dad's side had a Berdikir and Berbedak ceremony held in her family residence at Kg. Masin. Malam Berbedak or the "Night of Powdering" is a part of the many ceremonies involved in a traditional Brunei Malay wedding. Family members and friends are invited to "bless" the bride by anointing the bride with several coloured rice flour and scented oils. The Bride is dressed with the traditional heavy brass headgear that has either a symbol or statuette of a chicken (called Ayam-ayam) or dragon (Naga) which is wrapped around with scented flowers. The Bride is adorned with brass/gold plated arm bands, wrist bands, ankle bands and necklace. Also wrapped around her waist is the "kain songket" (usually red) that was given by the groom which is a part of her dowry or "hantaran".

Surayani in her Berbedak attire

All smiles :) During the anointing process.

Coloured rice flours and scented oils used in the ceremony

With some of my female cousins on the wedding throne or "pelamin" :)

At the outside balcony

My parents :)

P.S. Some info obtained from wiki :)

Berdikir and Berbedak ceremony

On Wednesday night, my family and I attended a Berdikir and Berbedak ceremony of Kaka Niza, in Kg Rimba. Congrats on your wedding to Abg Elham. May you live happily ever after, Amin! :)

Sincerely from me and my family :)

Proud to be a Bruneian

From www.world-flags-symbol.com

Today is the 25th National Day of Brunei Darussalam. You can say that it is the silver jubilee celebration here in Brunei. The theme of this year's national day is "Kedewasaan Bernegara". The morning gathering was held at the national stadium in Berakas.

I was up sometime mid morning today to watch the live broadcast of the ceremony, just in time to watch the parade or 'perarakan'. I was quite impressed with the performance which can be considered as the highlight of the show. Somewhere in the crowd were some of my cousins watching or performing.

We did not do much today. On the way to my cousin's house today, there was an accident along Jalan Bunut, which caused us to be held up in traffic for about 15 minutes or so. We had to move our cars towards the side of the two lane road, to allow an incoming police car to reach the accident site.

The weather today has been bad. It started to rain heavily in the afternoon, which then ceased sometime in the evening. Now as I am blogging here on my desk, the rain is again pouring heavily outside. I hope that the consequences would not be as bad as a few weeks ago.

On the way home, we could see the colourful "cucul" near the Beribi round about and the surrounding areas. Too bad that I did not have my camera with me at the time to capture the moment.

With that said, I would just like to say how proud I am to be a Bruneian. I hope that we will continue to live in harmony and happiness. No matter where we are, I would like to wish every Bruneian, a Happy National Day! :)

Bon Voyage!

Sunday, 15th February marked my last day in Brisbane. The night before, I stayed over in Yunyun's new place in Durham St. It was a clear, bright day. I don't really feel quite ready to leave Brisbane yet. Early in the morning, Sady, Syimsyim, Nabnab and Fathmee came over since they were going to the airport as well to see us off. Rahmat, Krl, Dmt and Shrmie arrived at 9:30am with the maxi taxi to pick us up. We arrived at the international airport and checked in our luggages with little hassle. We explored the shops then rested at the comfy sofas while waiting for the time to come before boarding. At a quarter to 12, we decided to head down to the immigration and thus it was time to say our last good byes.

It truly was an emotional day for me, especially at the thought of leaving such great friends behind who can be considered as my family in Brisbane. It really tugs my heart and as painful as it is to say, I really am going to miss each and everyone of them. We've been through a lot together, in times of sadness, in times of happiness, in times of need and in times of silliness. The memories that we shared are bittersweet and I shall cherish them forever. I love spending time with them which helped to chase away loneliness, homesickness, boredom, stressfulness, especially being away from our families back home.

Especially to Yunyun, Syimsyim and Nabnab whom I have grown very close to: I shall miss you guys the most! I will miss spending time with you guys. I shall miss our silliness, our movie nights, cooking together, shopping trips, heart to heart talks almost about anything, sleep overs, excursions, jogging sessions, chatting sessions, night outs, eating out, birthday surprises and so on. Thanks for always being there for me.. Thanks for the relentless and countless support.. Thanks for being such wonderful people.. Thanks for being my friend..

To Sa'dy, Fathmee and Hazzie: Our neighbours across the street! Thanks for all the kind words and support. Thanks for lending a helping hand whenever we need it, for letting us borrow your powerful vacuum cleaner (hehe), for always being so creative and fun (remember all those games of UNO, Charades, etc). I shall miss you guys too after all that we have been through all these years together.

To Cass, Shing, Pei: Thanks also for all the good wishes. I shall miss you guys, your creative ideas (UNO, Mafia!, etc haha), celebrating birthday surprises, dinner together, fruit jelly, cheese cake and different and colourful personalities.

To the seniors: Thanks for providing guidance not only in our studies, but also in matters of the life of living abroad. Thanks for all the kind words and support, and readiness in giving advices that we may need. I shall miss your presence!

To all: Thanks for all the cards and warm wishes, and making my stay in Brisbane, a very enjoyable and eventful one. There are still a lot of things that I would like to say, but I would just like to apologise for anything that I could have said or done in the past that could hurt any body's feelings without any conscious thoughts in my part. "Halalkan" what I have eaten and drank (this would have sounded better in malay, hehe). I wish everyone all the best and keep in touch! :)

The girls

With our seniors

With Syimsyim :)

With Yunyun :)

With Nabnab :)

With Sa'dy :)

With Fathmee :)

Another group picture at the airport

Brisbane: aerial view

Bye-bye Brisbane

I'm sorry that this post is such a sappy entry! :p

Farewell Dinner

On Friday the 13th, we had an x-biomeds gathering for a farewell dinner at Curry Connection, Hawken Drive, St Lucia. Provided that it was after all, Friday the 13th, no ghostly or supernatural encounters were experienced (errrr... ) except for a short-lived terkajutness of watching a possum walking along the fence of a nearby house in the dark of the night underneath the neon lights of lampu minyak tanah.. hahaha.. A possum is similar to an XXL rat with a longish tail. This is a common sight in St Lucia especially at night. Brisbane's possums are Brunei's cats, hehe.. except without the 'taie ucing' :p .... Anyhuuu, before I get off topic in comparing the merits of cats and possums... let's continue on with my story.. heheh.. Despite the unmemorable possum encounter, the night was filled with merriment and a full belly of delicious Indian cuisines. The occasion for the night was a farewell dinner for myself and Rahmat as we will be leaving Brisbane the following Sunday. My favourite dish there would be the Mouglai Briyani. It started to rain towards the end of our meal, leaving a slight chill to the night air. The restaurant was "laku" for the night since there were a lot of patrons enjoying their dinner as well. After the meal, Rahmat and myself were presented with a farewell cheese cake. How sweet of them! I felt so touched by the gesture. After dinner and cake, we left the restaurant and walked towards our respective homes under the light drizzle of the rainy night.

Group picture

Rahmat and myself with the cake :)

Thank you for the cake :)

Harbour Town, here we come!

Hello folks!

So today, we decided to go to Harbour town, which is about 12 zones away from St Lucia. When you say Harbour town, you think of the harbour, fishing, yacht, seafood restaurants and so forth. Hmm, not this time.. We went to the Harbour town shopping centre which is a large factory outlet where we can get things at discounted prices and good bargains. The five of us boarded on the 10:35am bus from St Lucia, heading to the city. From the city, we walked to Central Station, to catch the Gold Coast train at 11:24am. It was an hour long journey until we reached Helensvale station. It was a rather long ride, so it was spent watching the outside scenery where sometimes you came across a farm or barn where a herd of cattles can be seen grazing the grass, horsies galloping along the wide expanse of field and fishing boats anchoring on some un named blue sparkling river or lake. It was a rather hot day to begin with. From Helensvale, we boarded the 715 bus, bringing us to the Harbour town Shopping Centre. In Harbourtown, you can get a variety of fruits and veggies at cheaper prices. Not forgetting to mention the range of factory outlet stores which you can browse to your liking. We arrived at the shopping centre at close to 1pm. At 3pm, we decided to have a late lunch at one of the Halal kebab place. After lunch, we browse through the fruits shop before heading back to the bus stop to catch the bus back to Helensvale station.

Yunyun, Nabnab, Syimsyim on the train

Syimsyim, me and Rahmat

Harbour town.. can you spot Syimsyim in the picture? haha

A late lunch of "baked potato chicken spud". 5 stars! :)

Lunch at a kebab place

Harbour town

Checking out the fruits

At the Helensvale station, we decided to head to the nearby Helensvale town centre since we have never been there. The shopping centre is huge. I think it is similar to the shopping centres at Garden city and Chermside.

Helensvale town centre

After exploring the place, we headed back to the train station to catch the 5:04pm train. It was another hour long train ride. We arrived at 6+pm at city then headed to the bus stop to catch the bus to St Lucia. A funny thing happened just now. On the way from the station, I decided to buy some donuts from Krispy Kreme. Unbeknownst to me, I've been walking from the station to the shop with a piece of aeroplane sticker stuck to my butt! It's the ones that are usually wrapped around your luggage handle, stating your flight no. and so on. It made me look like I've got a tail or something. Thank God, Syimsyim saw the sticker before further embarrassment can be made. I was so mortified and became so paranoid that I began to check my rear end quite a few times, haha! We managed to laugh it off, although it was at my expense (haha!).. Well, as long as everyone's happy, lol.

The view of the city from the train

Our reflections.. hehe..

Gd night! :)

BBQ night

Last night, we attended a BBQ at Bluehouse hosted by Abg Supri. Before the BBQ, we had mass Maghrib and Isya' prayers as well as a tahlil function.

Another game of UNO

Delicious porridge

Jazzy, the house cat.. waiting near the grill

Minding the grill

Cooking sausages and chicken.. Looks good aye :)

A Muffin A Day, Keeps the Growling Tummy At Bay

I was craving for some muffins today. So, I bought myself some yummy-licious Blueberry muffins, washed down with an iced cold Sunkist soda with several floating ice cubes to complement the hot weather.

Ahhhhh, blissss............ :)

Ipanema thongs

Last Sunday, Sa'dy, Syimsyim and myself went to Indroo for some R & R time, when Sa'dy spotted a sale on the Gisele Bundchen Ipanema thongs at Myer. For that one day, the price of the thongs came down from AUD$40 to just AUD$15! What a bargain! So we each bought a pair, hehehe.

From adsoftheworld.com

Greta II, which I got, hehe. From gettheprice.com.au

Dinner and Rahmat's Birthday Surprise

I haven't played squash in ages, so when Rahmat invited us all to play last Saturday, we jumped at the chance. For lunch, we had Damit's nasi katok, which is making its debut this year. While eating, we watched Titanic, and thus came the water works from a few suspicious tear stained faces among the bunch.. you know who you are, hahaha.. At 4pm, (an hour late) haha, Syimsyim, Nabnab, Yunyun and myself made our way to the UQ sports centre to meet up with the others. Cass, Shing, Sa'dy, Rahmat, Krl were already there. I had quite a work out and it felt really good to sweat. I made the mistake of not stretching before the game, leaving me sore in a few places now, haha..

At night, we had a gathering at Syimsyim and Nabnab's place at Mitre St. After Doa Selamat, we had the jamuan. Dinner was followed by a game of UNO which was played by the 13 of us. Fortunately we had two decks of cards, making this possible. The usually "uncomplicated" game of UNO was made much much more interesting when Cass decided to introduce a few new rules. The use of pronouns such as "he", "she", "I", "me" etc is prohibited throughout the game. The person would have to take 2 cards from the pile if a pronoun is being said. Pointing to another person is also prohibited and this will cost the person another 2 cards. This led to some hilarious moments and caused everyone to refer themselves as a third person as well as doing some funny head and hand gestures to convey themselves, haha.. There were also some silent moments for fear of saying the wrong thing, haha.. Well, you have to be there to witness the hilarity throughout the game. After the 2 hour long single game of UNO, we then surprised Rahmat with a birthday cake, baked by Syimsyim and Nabnab.

catching up

Sa'dy and Yunyun

Syimsyim tackling a piece of garlic bread :p

Fathmee and Hazzie

Nabnab, me, Rahmat

Playing UNO

Fruity chocolate vanilla cake

The birthday boy

We had a great laugh.. :)

Random rambling

It has been a while since I last exercised. Well, it's no wonder that I've gained a few kilos in Brunei. How can anyone resist all the good food? hehe.. especially the fatty cholesterol-prone and high sugar delicacies.. I've been getting these junk emails for a while saying things like, "Daily dieting guides..", "how to detox..", "Your diet secrets..", bla bla bla... hahaha.. Yes, yes, I get it! I need to break out some sweat!... and not to mention a few junk mails of "speed dates", "matchmaking", "are you interested?.." and so on, reminding me of my current love life.. or lack thereof, hahaha.. Oh I don't know... Relationship is a tricky subject. I don't deal with this topic well. Perhaps my lack of experience in that department is a factor? *shrugs*.. Do I believe in soulmates? I don't know. But I do believe that there is that one person out there for everyone, who would just accept you for who you are, despite all your peculiarness or vices. However, it's just a matter of whether you will be able to find them or not. It is after all, in God's hands.

Like I said, I don't do this subject well...