Island Adventure

Yesterday was the last day of the course that I attended in the army. After having a group presentation, exam and certificate presentation in the morning, I am now a para counselor! Alhamdulillah hehe. To spend the last day together, we had an outing to Pelumpong Island for another round of activities and bbq in the afternoon.

It was a sunny day and looked promising. With all our equipments and food, we departed from the Navy base in Muara using army long boats. It was a rather exciting experience for me since it was an opportunity of a lifetime and that I have never ever been to Pelumpong island before. The journey did not take long, and we eventually reached the island. The beach is clean, the water greenish blue and the air fresh.

We unloaded our equipments, then started to set up camp, bbq area and so on. The afternoon was spent with doing group activities (Thank goodness, no swimming this time, haha), mingling and eating. We stayed until 7pm, before heading back to the base. It started raining on our way back to base and no one was spared from getting wet haha. The last day was bittersweet with everyone promising to keep in touch and a possibility of a reunion in the new future. I am rather sad to see the course ends as I have been enjoying the course and everyone's company for the past 2 weeks.

At the base


Me in the long boat. This type of life jacket is heavy :)

Before departure


One of the ships at the dock

Off we go! :)


Nearing the island

The view of the beach


With new friends :)

Setting up bbq


Setting up

Group activities at the beach


One last group photo. I will miss everyone! :(

Time to head back..


A personal photo collage gift from S. Borhan for memoir. Thank you very much! :)

Til the next post!

Roughing It Out at Sea

Hi everyone! :)

I have been super busy these past 2 weeks. I have just finished attending a para counseling course in the army. It was a super awesome course, which I have enjoyed tremendously. I think that from all the courses that I have attended, this is the most fun that I have had. In addition to lectures and practicals, we also have outings, visits and outdoor activities.

One part of the course is adventure based counseling. For this activity, we spent 1 whole day at the Watermanship in Serasa. It was a day of many firsts for me. As you may not know, I am not a swimmer. It turned out, the day's activities will be spent mostly in the sea! You can imagine my trepidation when this was announced hehe. Most of my course mates are army personnel and they are fantastic in helping out a non-swimmer like me at the sea! Thank goodness for the existence of life jackets which helps to keep me at least afloat, lol. However, there was a time where we were asked to remove our life jackets in the waters and to combine all the jackets together before we move to another location!

I have to say it was rather terrifying for a non swimmer like me to be floating in the middle of the waters with no ground to at least centre myself. I remember the feeling of lying flat on my back, bobbing in the waters, looking up at the blue sky and praying that I will stay floating while being pulled by my group mates to reach our destination. For that I am very grateful for their help in motivating me along.

We spent a few hours doing a few activities in the waters, then headed back to land to build a raft per group using logs, ropes and floaters and then to use the raft that we built to go rafting in the sea. Despite using tons of sunblock, I still managed to get sun burns and cuts on my arms which I think I got while holding onto the poles in the sea. The poles has corals or some sharp things stuck to them haha. Building the raft was also a great experience since our main concern is to make sure that the raft will stay put, our ropes tight enough and the raft will stay floating for us to go to and fro from the departing area. Overall, I enjoyed the activity very much and it will certainly be something that I will always remember in a long time. :)

Group photo! :)

Listening to instructions before jumping to the water


Can you spot me just before jumping in? Haha (Dalam hati tungkal, hahaha)


With my group mates! :) Awesome bunch of people hehe

In the waters. In groups


Formation

Back on land


Building our raft :)

Carrying logs hehe

Rafts built by the 3 groups


With my group. Off we go! :)

Heading back


Resting at the female's hut.

The view at sea


One last photo before heading back home :)

Some photos are taken from abdb mates :)

Til the next post!

World Cancer Day Walkathon

Hello dear readers! :)

Wow, it has been a month since my last post. I have been super super busy as of late hence the neglect in posting. I hope everyone is doing well. Current update in my life: same old, same old me, hehe, busy with work and such. Oh and my sister is still in Brunei on extension. While waiting on further news on when they will be resuming studies in Cairo, she has been attending a few lectures at Tahfiz & KUPU every week. Mom and dad just had their birthdays last week. I'll post some pics later on.

On 13 February, I attended a World Cancer Day Walkathon at Jerudong Park. We had to be there by 6:30am and started out with a warm up and aerobic session before starting the walk. Below are some piccies! :)

The crystal arch at JP

Ka Hjh Radiah, Shidah, Watie & Izni :)

Start of the warm-up session :)

With my colleagues :)

And we are on our way!

Til the next post!

Beach BBQ

Last Sunday, we had a BBQ at Seri Kenangan Beach in Tutong. We convoyed from my house to the beach and met up with Farah there at around 10 in the morning. We had a potluck, and had chicken, prawn, lamb, pulut panggang, kelupis, sausages, curry puffs, drinks, snacks and so on. I managed to get a bit of sunburn from the outing. Hee! :)

Trying to set up the bbq

Tiyah & Ayun :)

Syimah :)

Farah, Rahmat & Nabilah :)

BBQ-ing

Me and my ride, haha. Rental of this thing is $5 for 12 minutes. It was worth it! :)

Farah, Nabilah, me & Rahmat riding along the stretch of the beach. Fun! :)

Til the next post!

Swing that Racket I say!

As part of my unconscious effort to exercise (see earlier post), I decided to join Rahmat, Nabilah, Shing & her brother, Ayun & her siblings to play badminton last Tuesday at the Centrepoint Hotel. I did not realise that there are badminton courts in the hotel until Rahmat introduced it to us. The courts are on the 7th floor of the hotel and rental fee of 1 court is $10 per hour. We played for 2 hours before ahem, Nab and I headed to Coffee Bean to take away the ice blended DOUBLE chocolate drink. Yum! There goes the exercise down the drain, lol. :P

Til the next post!