Saturday, August 26, 2006

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide


So far, I've been to 6% of all the countries in the world, let's try for the other 94% shall we? :)

xoxox

...And its the long-awaited weekend! :) How're you guys spending yours this time around? I think I've become a bit of hermit, cause I'm at work everyday during the week and I've got my dance classes after work, all I wanna do during the weekend is stay in and watch my dvds.. Speaking of which, I've gone a bit overboard with my boxset shopping I think.. So far I've bought 24 Season 5, Bones, House, Ghost Whisperer and Supernatural =P I think I'll watch about...5 episodes into one of them before its time for me to go again haha...Flight's been booked for the 14th now, and apparently it's a full one. I've got 2 weekends left and its bye bye Brunei, yet again =( Already thinking what foods to bring back, which shoes (V. impt!!), clothes, handbags (even more impt than shoes!). I've been trying to get some melinjau (sp?) crisps to take back from this place in Beribi but its closed everytime I go there over the weekend =/ Can anyone suggest the best place to get keropok pedas and melinjau please, much appreciated! =)

The past week I've been occupied with trying to find someplace to stay next year...As of now I am currently homeless, and might end up squatting under the London Bridge or becoming a Big Issue girl or something.. I just need to get me a sad looking mongrel and I'll be all set! =P Received my uni schedule already and I've got to be at uni by the 2nd of October to start registration, but I'm coming 2 weeks early so I can look for a house/flat/anything. Then I need to sort out moving my stuff from Leeds to London. And for once (since the 3 years I've been studying abroad), my parents won't be coming with me to help me move in!! =( I foresee a lot of stress for me in the near future... I'm taking that weekend when I arrive off though, P's coming to pick me up and I plan on just relaxing that weekend, maybe make a long awaited visit to the Museum of Natural History...Heheh.. Although I suppose I have the rest of the year to go if I wanted to...

There's a function in Bandar next week organised by friends that I'm not too keen on attending...I'm just not comfortable with the whole thing, not my kinda scene at all. But then I haven't seen these girls in ages, so it wouldnt be cool to cancel on them last minute..But bleh..not keen at all =/

The 3 remaining Granbies are currently in Thailand having the vacation of their lives (biatches hehe..) K emailed telling us about their elephant trekking, island hopping, black moon partying adventures and it sounds fantastic! Definitely planning a trip there sometime soon =) Although K got so drunk she ended up giving a little flowerseller about 20 quid worth of baht! AND she didnt even get any flowers in return! Lol! Bet she regretted that the next day hehe.. I can imagine how happy the little kid must've been though, 20 pounds must be worth a lot of money in baht...

Hmm.. this post is getting inane, so I shall leave it at that yes? I'm off to drool over my boys Jack Bauer and Tonyy Almeida yet again :)

xoxox

Saturday, August 19, 2006

*snorthonksniffle* Hello duckies =) Yep, I'm ill, and I've finlly found time to sit down properly and compose a proper post about what I've been up to since I got back 2 weeks ago...

The rest of the Granby household landed in Brunei 2 days after I did, and I stayed in Bandar with them for the week. It was really good to show them *my* part of the world, the girls were loving the sun (tops off and in their bikinis at any opportunity haha), the beaches, the exchange rate, the foods and the people! =) Cause I hadn't been back for that long before they came I wasn't confident on driving them around so P got assigned to be driver, along with C. we took the girls to Temburong and did the whole canopy walk thing (never again!), Tutong to the beach and a mini zoo which had 2 of the biggest arowanas I'd ever seen! They were easily 4-5 feet long and apparently they've got a tendency to jump out of their pool =S We also managed to catch the tanglong, even though we had to stand in prickly bushes to see properly, and C organised a bouncer party at her house on the weekend to celebrate. We went to Jerudong Park one night and coincidentally the Malaysian tug-of-war team was visitng as well, and these guys were practically following my housemates lol! The girls tried out satay, kuey tiaw, murtabak, etc and they loved it (except for a few mishaps hehe)!! I even managed to convince them to try satay camel and ostrich, they took very tiny, tentative nibbles first though bless them hehe..Having them over made us look at Brunei with new eyes, I realised that although there doesn't seem to be much for us here, the girls loved it and couldnt see why we would ever leave home for dull gloomy UK! My tour guide skills left a lot to be desired though because P corrected my stories about Brunei so many times that the girls have now concluded that I am completely clueless about my own country! =P

The girls left on the 7th of August, and I started my attachment the same day... Said bye to them the night before, after a gorgeous dinner with myy family..It was quite an emotional goodbye on my part, I couldnt stop crying! It was a combination of the fact that it was the last time we'd be together in a long while, and it signified the proper end of my life at leeds before a new start...plus the fact that P was going home a couple of days after the girls left probably had something to do with the waterworks too :P

P left for the UK on the 10th, the same day there was that a terrorist plot was discovered in London..*sigh* I wish people would just live in peace with one another, all these terror threats doesnt make me feel good about going where I am next year :P I feel like I barely had any time with him before he had to go away =(
But then again, whats another 5 weeks, or in this case 3 weeks? Yep, thats how much longer I have here before I go back again, it seems hardly worth the effort to unpack and pack =P

Work's been alright, same ol' same ol'..they've finally put me in a different department from the one I've been at for the past 3 years. Only problem is my office is isolated from my friends', they're at HQ and I'm in some little building at an industrial area =/ I'm missing out on office gossip and daily canteen trips, but I guess thats compensated by the fact that the lack of a canteen (and someone to makan with) at my place means I wont be stuffing my face so often heheh



Bleh.. nose is getting really bad now, so will continue with the updates later! xoxoxo

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

My plane landed at Brunei International Airport at 1015 am yesterday and I am finally home. The past two summers I got worked up about having to come home and wished I could stay in the UK longer. Yesterday, walking through the arrival halls, through baggage reclaims and customs inspection, all I felt was peace. As corny as it sounds, its oh-so-good to be back again =)

P was waiting outside for me with bubble tea and inexplicably, Express chicken lol! It was good but, awkward in a way as well cause we couldn’t really say hi properly. Not in a dodgy way lah, just that it would have been improper to hug him too hard for too long in a place so public, let alone in front of the parentals :P Got home about 3 hours later and met my grandparents and the new kitties (I will *will* make friends with them this year!) Even managed to go the KB perayaan to satisfy my food cravings. I practically inhaled a plate of satay urat from my favourite satay vendor lol! Contemplating another visit there tonight, or maybe to CA Mohd, or Riviera hmm.. decisions decisions! =D When my grandmother got round to asking whether all the luggage we brought home comprised all my belongings in the Uk, my mom had to break the news to her that I wasn’t back for good yet, that I’d be going back another year. My grandmother was like "Oh..ok..another year? Does she have to?" Then she said "Well lai, I don’t know whether I'll be here after a year to wait for your return from uni" =( My grandfather didn't say much, just asked whether I'd be celebrating Raya with them this year and had to tell him no. He just grew quiet and didn’t ask me anything else after that. I was prepared for their reaction, but it was still painful to tell them and have them react like that. Lying in bed last night, I kept thinking about what they said, and I'm scared they really won’t be around when I come back next year. It's not like they're getting any younger, and every year they look older and frailer than when I left them. I laid in bed and I thought and I cried. Finally got lulled into sleep at about 2am with the sounds of the rain thundering on the zinc roof.

Got up at about 2 pm today, and I can foresee issues tomorrow morning, seeing as how I need to be up for 7 so I can get ready and go to the airport to pick up the Granby girls! =D Can't wait but I’m gonna be exhausted! It'll be good fun, and I've heard that more than a couple of guys want to meet my housemates; I have a feeling their intentions are slightly less than pure lol! Tasks today include getting off my bum so I can unpack a bag, and susbsequently pack it with clothes for the next week =P

Lots of love everyone!
xoxoxo