Gong Xi Fa Cai

I would like to wish every Chinese friends and population out there a very Happy Chinese New Year! May all of you have a prosperous new year, filled with laughter and happiness, success and good health.

Mount Cootha Summit Lookout and Botanical Gardens

Yesterday, Yunyun, Syimsyim, Nabnab, Sa'dy, Fathmee, Rahmat and myself spent the day sightseeing at Mount Cootha Summit Lookout and Mount Cootha Botanical Gardens. I have been to the summit before at night, but never been to the gardens. We met at the bus stop outside of Nandos at 9:30am. It rained unexpectedly. I have checked the weather forecast the day before which have stated that it was going to be a hot day. Hmmm.. I guess you cant 100% trust the weather predictions here, hehe. So anyway, we took the 412 bus to city, with hopes that the rain will stop pouring. We reached the city, and waited for 30 minutes at another bus stop, to catch the bus that will take us straight to the look out and botanical gardens. We decided to just go ahead with the initial plan anyway despite the rain. The trip to the top was about 30 minutes. By that time, the rain had stopped, thank God! :)

We reached the Mount Cootha Lookout Summit, which is the highest point in Brisbane where we could see the city and surrounding areas clearly during the day. It was such a beautiful sight, post morning rain.

The beautiful view of the city and surroundings from the summit

Sa'dy, me, Fathmee, Yunyun, Syimsyim, Nabnab, enjoying the beautiful and scenic view

Looking through the telescope? hehe

The lookout area

After staying at the lookout, we boarded the bus which then took us to the botanical gardens, about 6 minutes away from the look out point. The sun was starting to peek behind the clouds. After getting a guide map of the Botanical gardens, we started on our walk. The Gardens was huge and very beautiful. There were many exhibitions to see, from the fern house, to bonsai house, to the bamboo walk, palm tree lawn, fragrant plants and herbs, fig collection, fruit trees including cocoa and many types of rainforest and so forth.

Outside the Tropical Display Dome

At the Cacti and Bromeliad House

Huge and strange looking cacti :)

Inside the Tropical Display Dome

Beautiful landscaping area

Beside the lake

Duckie duckies

Surrounded by beautiful flowers on bloom

The beautiful Japanese garden

Visitors

After visiting the garden for almost 2 hours, we visited the nearby planetarium.

Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium

With my astronaut :)

While waiting for the bus to take us back to the city

The city..

After sightseeing, we went to Southbank to catch the 2:20pm showing of "Bride Wars" at the cineplex. The movie was good. I'd rate it 7/10. After the movie, we had a late lunch at Seafood Express in Southbank. We went home after the day outing. Fun and exhausting day indeed. :)

PS. I will post up more pics on facebook soon. :)

Trip to Labuan

Last December, my family and I made a trip to Labuan. We set off late in the afternoon and arrived at the Serasa terminal at 4pm. My dad parked the car while we waited inside. It has been a while since we have been to Labuan. The Serasa terminal has been renovated. It is quite spacious and able to accommodate a large amount of passengers. We were quite lucky actually. It was actually quite a last minute plan. My dad managed to get the tickets that same day after making calls several times. We left the car at the terminal parking lot for just that one night. We did not have to wait long, before proceeding inside the terminal to go through immigration and walked the long open roofed walkway, leading to the waiting ferry outside. We boarded on the "Seri Labuan 3" ferry.

C Bulan on the way to board the ferry :)

My parents :)

The docks near the ferry terminal in Serasa

The "Seri Labuan 3"

Inside the ferry

We reached Labuan in 1 hour 20 minutes. Thankfully the weather was cooperating. After going through customs we went directly to the hotel where we will be staying for the night.

In the hotel

After checking in, we went to find a restaurant nearby for some dinner. We met some Bruneians also having their dinner. By this time, most of the shops are closing down. After dinner, we walked along the stretch of small shops until we reached the Labuan supermarket. It began to rain, but thankfully, it did not last long. We returned back to the hotel to rest.

Dinner

The next day, we went to get some breakfast, then went shopping. We also visited the "pasar labuan" which is being allocated at another location since the usual location is being renovated.

The view of Labuan outside the hotel window in the morning

The old shop houses along the street, outside the hotel

We stayed in Labuan until 3pm, before we proceeded to the ferry terminal to board the "Sri Anna" ferry, which will bring us back to brunei.

On board the "Seri Anna" ferry with my loving family, hehe

It was raining on our journey back to Brunei. On the way, we saw a mini tornado in the distant! Fortunately, the tornado was no way near our ferry. The mini tornado caused a bit of chatter among the passengers, with many whipping out there cameras and mobile cameras to capture the event in the distance.

The mini tornado, picture taken through the ferry window.

We managed to return back to Brunei with no further incidents. The trip to Labuan has been very relaxing indeed.

An outing

Satu hari di bulan Disember di kingdom of unexpected treasures... Lps mengisi parut arah restoran Nyonya, kami pun jalan2 cuci mata....

Drebar kami yang mematuhi undang2 jalan raya, c Nabnab hehehe

Passengersnya

The beautiful Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, Brunei Darussalam

Can u seen Nabnab through the rearview mirror? :)

A day out with the sister and little cousins

Sometime in November, I had a fun day out with my cousins Jilah, Mirza and Zarifah, with my sister c Bulan. We had a great time watching Madagascar 2, followed by arcade time, then off for snacks and playtime at McDonalds.

Little Zarifah and Mirza just before the movie

At the Mall Arcade

Merry Go Around

Mini-Basketball time for Zarifah :)

At McDonalds; Zarifah, Mirza, Jilah, Bulan

Jilah, Mirza and Zarifah

Mirza with her pose

Hello matey!

Hello all!

Yes, I know, I know, it has been a while since I last blogged, hehe. There are so many things happening in my life right now; both the good and the bad. It's quite a long story actually, and I am still thinking on whether to divulge that part of my life to you all or not. Well, some people may know of it, while some may not. There are some quite 'nightmarish' events that I have encountered lately and I don't feel like talking about it at the moment. Maybe some other day perhaps. And due to that, I have not felt like blogging for the past month or so. There's always a small part of me that feels the pain, but right now, I am moving on and looking into the future with optimism and hope. Thanks for all the kind words of advice and support, and helping me to look into the future with new eyes. After all, it is often said to me, "It is not the end of the world".

With love,

jannah

P.S. Some updates coming up. Happy thoughts everyone.