Sitting in the dark

I am a supporter of Earth Hour.

To show my support that night, I let myself sit in the darkness for more than an hour... literally.. hehehe.. doing my bit in helping the cause to save energy around the world in that moment of darkness..

Hmmm.. well, that is not the whole truth, actually.

The thing is, I did sit in the dark...

but I was actually in the cinema, watching a movie.

It still counts, doesn't it? (^_^)

Baked cheese cake with mango ice cream

I have been craving for cheesecake since yesterday, so I decided to spend my afternoon baking one! This is my second attempt of baking cheesecake, using the recipe that Cass gave to me. It was another success, I think hehe. The recipe is quite easy actually and you only need a few ingredients.

Mixing sugar, eggs and philadelphia cheese

Crushed biscuits and melted butter, chilled an hour earlier in the fridge

Before going into the oven

Baked after 30 minutes! :)

And viola! Cheese cake with mango ice cream! :) I did not have mangoes to try make a mango cheese cake, so I compromised by enjoying the cheese cake with mango ice cream instead :D

I am definitely gaining weight in Brunei, haha :D

We eat, We play, We laugh... We had fun

Today is the last day of the school holiday in Brunei. On Thursday night, we had a BBQ at home, with the families of my Uda, Iring, Bungsu and Amit. Since the BBQ coincidentally falls on the same day as my Uda and Bu Hjh's 20th Wedding anniversary and my Iring's birthday, we then surprised them with cakes to commemorate their special days. During the BBQ, we also had a 'lucky draw' after cake cutting, just for fun. Good food and good company. :)

My grandma, Nini Hjh Pasah :) smiling at her grandchildren's antics, haha

Jilah, me, Mirza and Muni, with our party hats on :)

With my Uda's children :p

Fazreen & Fathul goofing around

Me and my younger cousins.. Qilah, Jilah and my sister Mun

My Uncles BBQ-ing at the back of the house

My aunties at the family room

The guy cousins gaming

The female cousins playing haha.. Qilah and Mun were the finalists here haha :p

The little kiddies jumping with their balloons in the living room, haha

Happy faces :D

BBQing chicken wings

Meat balls of different variety

Eating time after Doa Selamat! :)

Iring's surprise birthday cake :)

Uda & Babu Hjh's surprise 20th wedding anniversary cake :)

Iring cutting his cake

Uda and Bu Hjh cutting their cake

Nini and some of the grandchildren.. this picture is unfortunately of not a better quality

Lucky draw. Dad giving the present to my cousin Khairi

Mom giving the present to my Amit Bini hehe

My Uda, hehe

"I would like to buy a damburger!"

I still find this scene from The Pink Panther when Inspector Clouseau tried to learn an American accent very hilarious! Hahaha. Certainly my favourite part of the movie :p

Oh, the joy of cooking!

Lately I've been on a cooking and baking phase. I love trying new recipes and now that I'm back in Brunei for more than a month and still jobless, I've been doing that whenever the mood strikes me. So this evening, I tried a pizza recipe that I found from the internet, and I am proud to say that I even managed to make the pizza crust from scratch rather successfully! :p Back in Brisbane, we don't really have the time to make the pizza crust, so we just bought the ready made available ones and then added in our own toppings. My family enjoyed the pizza very much and they much prefer the BBQ chicken than the sausages in tomato sauce though they claimed that both are delicious, haha. I will definitely make them again. Another recipe added to my recipe book! :p

Large pizza, half BBQ chicken and half sausages in tomato sauce! Before going into the oven :)

The finished product, with melted cheddar and mozzarella cheese!

Yummy!! :p

Cleaning 101 for the Lazy Bum Bums

So here I am at 10:55pm sitting on my own at the dining table while I watch my mom rearranging some of the furniture and holding a broom in one hand. Hmm, it's late at night and she's sweeping! Nda ku heran... hehehe.. Well, that's how my mom is. My parents just bought a medium sized tv cabinet for the smaller tv in the living room and they were just fussing around arranging the tv and putting some stuff on it. They seemed excited doing it, so I dont dare interrupt their householdy joy. (^_^)

Hmm, now she's moving on arranging the extra table to another prospective area of the house, and doing more sweeping, hehehe. If you don't know, my mom loovveesss cleaning. She always makes sure that everything is spick and span. Well, that is one of her great traits. I believe that for her, cleaning is a joyous chore and I am not going to deprieve her of that, haha.

I am not as clean obsessed as she is, haha. Mind you, I have my moments. But I like to keep my room and stuff, reasonably clean and not be an eye sore. And, I don't go sweeping the floor at 11pm at night :p After all, she always says, "Kebersihan sebahagian daripada iman.."

So for you lazy bums out there :p , how about if we think of some things that could make cleaning more fun!

1) Think of the benefits of cleaning! = Sedap mata memandang... helps to reduce stress, you will also have a healthier and safer home.

2) For the shopaholics in you, go to the supermarket, and browse the different cleaning products. Trick your brain that you are actually browsing for bags or shoes. And have fun buying the products that excites you. Have fun trying out the products at home! :)

3) Cleaner room = less danger of tripping or breaking your neck = longer life span :D

4) If you like to sing or dance, why not do so while you are cleaning? So shake that booty while you clean the toilet bowl while singing Dancing Queen at the top of your voice. But please be considerate of your neighbours. Off tune singing may provide long term effects to the ear drums of the poor souls. :p So do this at your own risk.

5) If you plan on going on a cleaning competition as seen in the Malay film "Cuci", use the daily cleaning of your house as a "practice".

6) If you are stressed out, cleaning is a perfect solution to release your tension or anger. Pound on the pillow as hard as you like, scrub the pans like it is bottomless and scream your heart out while vacuuming so no one can hear.

Now there, these are quite interesting suggestions, I dare say. I may try no. 4 to start with hahaha. Well, I hope these suggestions are useful to you readers, haha..

Have fun cleaning! :D

Long Service Medal

My mother is one of the recipients of this year's medal presentation, in conjunction with His Majesty's 62nd Birthday. She received her 'Long Service Medal' (Pingat Kerja Lama or P.K.L) at a morning ceremony today at Istana Nurul Iman. HRH Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince, presented the medals at the palace. The PKL is usually awarded to workers who have been in the government service for 20 years or more. My mom has been working in the govt service for almost 25 years now. She has previously received her 'Pingat Indah Kerja Baik' (P.I.K.B) medal in Lapau Diraja in 2001. Congrats Ma! We are proud of you! :) :)

My mom at home, after the ceremony :)

With her medals :)

The medals, P.K.L and P.I.K.B

Long Service Medal or Pingat Kerja Lama (P.K.L), 2009

Pingat Indah Kerja Baik (P.I.K.B), 2001

Shipped Stuff finally here!

I received a call from the shipping company, acting as the agent, on Saturday regarding the shipment of my stuff from Brisbane to Brunei. It arrived last Saturday night but I won't be able to get them since I have to wait for the stuff to be unloaded first. Apparently I have to wait for a few days before I can go to the port to retrieve them. It was my first time in shipping stuff, so I am not so familiar with the procedure hehe. My dad rented a pick up truck to get the stuff on Monday but we have to postpone the rental to Wednesday since my stuff will only be ready today. I have waited for almost 40 days for the shipment to finally arrive in Brunei.

We have to pay the shipping company the fright delivery charges which is about $148. I guess this depends on how much stuff you have. So this morning, my dad and I went to the Muara port. We asked the rental truck driver to wait while we organise some stuff. We met Val and her dad so we went to organise the procedures together. It's not as easy as I thought it would be. We have to fill in the declaration form at the main office, then our dads have to get passes for the cars to be allowed in the port and the warehouses where our shipped goods are stored in. Apparently, females are not allowed into the port, so Val and I have to wait outside while our dads went in while driving the car.

To take the stuff, they have to be equipped in a safety attire, so my dad and Val's dad have to go to another building to borrow the port construction safety jacket and a hard hat before entering the restricted port and warehouses area. The image of my dad in a hard hat is so funny! He said that he did not know that he has to go through all this stuff just to get a few boxes, haha. My dad wanted the rental pick up truck driver to ride the truck in with him but the Indian driver was not allowed to go in by the officials since he was not safely attired (he was wearing sandals) so my dad has to drive the truck into the port himself, to get into the warehouses. Fortunately he has both Class 4 and 5 driving licenses as well, so it was alright. The rules there are very strict it seems.

So while both our dads went to retrieve our stuff from the warehouses, Val and I waited outside. Eventually they came back with the goods, and then some of our boxes were checked by the officers, before we get an okay to finally leave the Muara port. Fuh! It was certainly a lot of work, haha. Fortunately, no extra tax charges were given, hehe since most of the stuff are personal effects. They returned the borrowed safety attire, then we went back to our respective homes.

All my stuff littering the family room hehe

Pack N Send

Happy Birthday Tiyah!

Tiyah at Baskin Robbins, Surfers Paradise, 2006

Tiyah, Yunyun, Me, Nabnab and Syimsyim, at Southbank 2006 :)

18/03/2009: Happy Birthday Tiyah! I hope that you have a great day today. Wish you continuing success in your career and happiness in life! :)

We've Got a Monkey Situation

Just a quick post here.. hehe

So this morning while I was ironing my scarf to get ready to go to another wedding, suddenly I heard my mother's shouts. I can hear her shouting from the kitchen downstairs from the room where we kept the ironing board upstairs. My heart began to beat much faster and I stopped my ironing. I switched off the iron then ran downstairs to the kitchen to see what was happening.

My dad was there first and they were making these 'shushing' sounds (like the sounds where you tried to get a cat to go away from you, hehe). I asked them, "Mengapa eh? Ijapku mendangar bunyi kita beteriak tadi atu. Mana tau ada papa.." Then my mom said, " Ambuk! Ada ambuk tadi dua ekong masuk ke dalam, makin berani ambuk ani masuk ke rumah orang.."

Hahaha.. This is the first time that we ever experienced this in our home. Apparently, according to my mom, she was just walking into the kitchen when she saw these two monkeys hanging out by the sink, eating some leftover rice in the drainer in the kitchen sink! My mom immediately shouted in her surprise, and the monkeys, seeing her and listening to her cries were so shocked that they scrambled to get away from the open window, leaving trails of dirt and rice on the sink and counter.

I know that we have monkeys in the small forest in our backyard and they never really got the guts to actually go into the house before this. We have some mango trees and we know that the monkeys would usually eat them, so there is no point of enjoying the fruits of our own 'tanaman' hahaha.. If we were lucky, we would pick up the mango in their unripe state, haha..

So my dad advised us to never leave the kitchen windows open now when there is no one around in the kitchen, hehe.. It could happen again, haha..

Happy Birthday Ayuni! :)

Today is a public holiday in Brunei due to the Maulud Nabi Muhammad S.A.W. celebration which falls on this day. Mid day, my family and I went to my Bungsu's place for a Doa Selamat and birthday celebration of my little cousin, Ayuni, who turns 5 this year. It rained for a while but thankfully, the weather improved as the day progresses.

Mirza and Zarifah

Me, Mun, Jirah

Gathering around the birthday girl

Ayuni excitedly waiting to cut her cake while the others sang

Happy 5th birthday! :)

Fikri, another cutie cousin :)

The kids sliding and bouncing around

The "older kids" haha :p

Noramimah & Faizal's Wedding

Yesterday, my family and I attended the "Bersanding" ceremony, which can be considered as the highlight of the whole wedding ceremonies, of my second cousin Noramimah in Kg Perpindahan Lambak Kanan. Both the bride and the groom were dressed in a gold traditional Bersanding attire. It was a rather hot day. It's usually through these weddings that we get to see long distance relatives and those that we seldom meet in our daily lives.

The newlyweds on the "pelamin", smiling for the cameras

Closeup of the bride and groom

Mom and her first cousins or "sepupu skali" : Babu Hjh Armah, Babu Hjh Timah and my mom

From L - R: Bungsu Zana, Bu Hjh Tangah, Jirah, Amit Bini, Zarifah, Mom and Bu Hjh Armah

From L - R: my sister Mun, Babu Yati, my mom, Bu Hjh Hafsah and Nini Hjh Jariah