Our Adventures

Dragon Weekend

2012-01-24T18:47:00.000+08:00

Happy chinese new year to all our chinese friends! I'm grateful for these occasions because that means we get long weekends! :D Didn't do much over the weekend because Hakeem's been ill, but we managed to have some fun still.. :)

We had to go to my office on Sunday (I know what you're thinking.. Where's the fun in that??) because I remembered I haven't switched off my office's aircon. Hee I loved that Hakeem recognises it as "Mummy office".

After that we went to Charcoal...

...to meet up with this guy! Heehee

They were very nice to each other and was very diplomatic when it came to playing with toys

Playing hide and seek

On Monday, we started our day with breakfast at Fleur de Lys. Any day that starts out with breakfast at FDL is a good day! :D

Hakeem proving that he CAN point with his pointing finger, just that he WON'T

Play-boxing with daddy

At this point I wasn't so sure it was play-boxing anymore

But it all ended with a hug so it's all good :)

We then transformed a small part of the room downstairs into a play area since he's always playing there during the day

He loved it so much he even suggested, "No sleep bed, saja sleep pool."

Aina and Aisya came over that night. Here's Aina playing in the ball pit.

Aina and Aisya

Aina and Hakeem playing together. I say "together", but it was really just Hakeem snatching everything Aina picks up. Sigh. I need to teach this boy to share more.

I had to go back to work today but Hafidz is on leave for two weeks! Lucky him! He spent all day nursing his youngest patient though. Hakeem is sick again today just as he got better. He's even sicker now than before, poor thing.. Hope you had a lovely weekend too! :)

Happysad

2012-01-23T09:39:00.002+08:00

Things that make me happy:

Tabasco on pizza :)

Having Tutti Frutti froyo with Hakeem :)

Having my boys in my office :)

Playing Temple Run and constantly trying to beat my own high score :)

Things that make me sad:

The book I'm reading is narrated by a five year old kid whose mum was kidnapped for sexual exploitation. Very sad stuff :(

Hakeem getting a kuligata-like reaction :(

Hakeem having a fever. Poor baby. :( But he's fine now though :)

The Many Ways to Watch TV

2012-01-19T23:24:00.001+08:00

Bidi-Bidi

2012-01-18T22:01:00.002+08:00

Here's Hakeem choosing his "bidi-bidi" - that's DVD to you and me. That's his and Kaka Aisya's language. :)

Picture Diarrhea: DST Carnival

2012-01-17T23:25:00.000+08:00

I got upset yesterday because I lost a whole bunch of pictures from my iPhone. I swear, this whole iCloud thing is working against me with the whole syncing business. Sigh.. Anyways, I was looking for the pictures I took from when we went to the DST Carnival and I couldn't find them. Nothing upsets me more than losing a portion of my picture collection - this is probably how it feels like losing a fragment of my memories!

But, alhamdulillah, I found some of the DST Carnival pictures in my laptop's trash can! Not all of them though; I lost a good number of videos but still, I'm grateful! Anyways here they are! Yes, all TWENTY of them! Not taking any more chances! :D

That morning we whined about Brunei not having a zoo and us having to resort to going to the pet store (which is slim pickings, let's be honest) to bring Hakeem to look at animals. They only had a bunch of hamsters and three or four rabbits.

Then we had breakfast at Fleur de Lys

Eggs florentine - my favourite FDL brekkie :)

Hakeem having his American breakfast

After breakfast we were going to go to Jerudong Polo Club next to take Hakeem to look at the rather skinny horses, but on the way there the DST Carnival caught our eye so made a u-turn. Parked our car in the designated area and boarded the shuttle bus to the carnival instead! :)

And I'm glad we did because there was a horse-riding session offered free of charge! :)

They even had a cute pony for kids to go on

But when it was our turn, we could only go on the big horse. I guess the pony needed a well-deserved break.

Hakeem hopping on board!

I'm surprised he was very well-behaved on the horse and wasn't scared or anything

Afterwards, he kept saying it was fun and he was happy. Even just now when I showed him these pictures, he still commented "Fun!"

There were other things going on too - they had rabbits, chickens and a peacock for us to see.

Our prayers for a zoo was answered (sort of) that day! :)

They even had a mini zoo! But it was a reptiles show so as usual, Hakeem wasn't into it too much. He's like me in that sense.

Hakeem was exclaiming, "Eee BIG gagak!" Gagak is his word for lizards, originating from the work "cicak"

More "gagak"

You can't really see it from this picture, but honestly this snake was HUMUNGOUS. It was huge. It's probably as big as the guy's thigh, who by the way was happily patting the snake like it was his good buddy. I only found that a bit disturbing.

We were happier outside of the reptile mini zoo so we went to the bouncer. Didn't stay long because it started to rain.

Back in the shuttle bus on the way back to our car

Goodbye DST Carnival! It was fun while it lasted. Please hold another one end of this year! :)

Fave Activities

2012-01-17T11:03:00.000+08:00

Our favourite daily activities include:

Swimming at RBRC

Going to Toys R Us

Swimming..

Eating fruits

Toys R Us..

Swimming

Painting

He's a bit queasy when it comes to sticky stuff. Heehee

Drawing!

Swimming..

You get the picture ;)

CF9

2012-01-16T18:20:00.000+08:00

I'm long overdue for an update. It's been a rather eventful past couple of weeks so there's plenty to update on but I'll start here! Heehee we went to the Consumer Fair again this year despite our initial instincts. Last year it was quite boring but we thought it would be unfair to condemn all the forthcoming Consumer Fairs based on one only so off we went again. Unfortunately, Hafidz's prediction that it would be "just a lot of traffic and a whole lot of 'meh'" was quite accurate.

Outside ICC

We had walk up the hill all the way to ICC from the parking lot outside the Indoor Stadium because we couldn't find the shuttle bus

One of the main attractions of CF9 was the House of Snakes

Huge snake but not as big as the one in the Mini Zoo at the DST Carnival - which reminds me I need to blog about that! It was quite fun!

I don't think Hakeem enjoyed the show too much. He loves animals but reptiles, not so much..

Hafidz wants to get something like this as a pet

A styrofoam gorilla - even then Hakeem was a bit frightened, I could tell from his iron grip on my neck!

So when a giant, animated bee came around he totally cried his lungs out! That's Haris, by the way, totally chilling and shaking the bee's hand! Haha. We need to man up my little boy a bit.

Today in Pictures

2012-01-02T21:01:00.002+08:00

Today in Pictures

2012-01-02T01:44:00.003+08:00

This is actually events of 1st January 2012, eventhough the blog is labeling it 2nd. That's because we had a late night (from game night, yay!) and it's now 1.49am. I should sleep soon. I just discovered PhotoShake by the way and loving it so far. Thanks for the recommendation, Jus!

First Post of 2012

2012-01-01T01:34:00.002+08:00

Seeing that this is the first post of 2012, I think it would be appropriate to wish you all a happy new year! :D As I was doing a mini reflection of the past year, I found out that we've been blogging for almost four years now! Amazing. And it's even more amazing to see our years go by recorded in pictures and blog posts and this has reinforced my resolve to blog more often.

We decided to spend new year's eve the "boring" way - at home - which turned out to be so much more meaningful with our friends around! We rallied the troops for a barbecue and ended up having a sixth floor reunion. :) The sixth floor gang as we call it is made up of tenants from, well, the sixth floor of Brunei Hall in 2006. Here we are again today with life partners and children, five years later, celebrating new year's together. :)

Hakeem getting his toys ready so he can share with Haris

And here's Haris! They got a wee bit excited jumping around and bumping into each other. Heehee

Chubby Humayra also came to play with the abangs!

Yup, very excited.

Having a discussion about how to close the box properly. Sometimes I wonder if they'll grow up to have a relationship just like Hafidz and Adli! They're already similar in some ways - both of them like to be referred to as a cat sometimes, and they both don't eat eggs. Heehee.

Hakeem hiding under the table

Haris building a tower of blocks while Hakeem plays with his well-loved Simba

The brill BBQ stand which I have a feeling will get a lot of use out of us. Thanks to my dad for sponsoring it! :D

The men manning the BBQ stand

Hakeem was manja to everyone tonight. He doesn't get the concept of Aunts and Uncles yet so he calls all the guys "Daddy" and aunts "Mummy". Haha

The sixth floor reunited (L-R): The Muscle King, The Brute King, The Game King and The Hustle King. These titles is due to be revised after four years.

Hakeem busying himself with toys and making sure he knows what daddy's doing outside

There was lamb, chicken, quarter pounders and skewers of fishball and sausages. Yum! And Izyan brought yummy brownies as well. :D

Hakeem knows how to smile to the camera now. He does it with much gusto!

Hakeem playing with Auntie Kong

Haris and his best friend of the night, Pakcik Adam

And there was a time period where Hakeem could not, would not, let Lyn go! Kesian Auntie Lyn then has to carry both manjas!

Maybe all that attachment was just a ruse to get Humayra! He was trying to bring Humayra into the play room but Pakcik Adam caught him red handed! Heehee.

The box of shisha we brought all the way from UK was finally opened tonight (after a year and a bit), but then before anyone could take a puff the glass dropped and broke! Hahaha but not to be defeated, the three boys (Adam, Lyn and Humayra's gone home by then) got creative and by sheer ingenuity produced a shisha bong out of a plastic bottle. :)

Hakeem changed into his pjs but refused to sleep knowing "Awis" is downstairs. So I let him play with Haris. They ended up playing Scrabble. I was saying how their dads' geekiness might've transcended down to their kids. Heehee.

Here's Hakeem in the morning screaming his head off. Seriously, he's in such a ~~terrible~~ terrific two stage now - he demands attention every few minutes by screaming at me. It's quite cute first thing in the morning, but after a whole day of that I was ready to relegate the honor to Hafidz! Haha.

Anyways, we had a great time tonight. We're so happy that the Adlis are back and that we're not only enlarging our circle of friends, but Hakeem's too. Hakeem is fast asleep now. Oh and for the first time ever, tonight Hakeem did not ask to breastfeed at all as I put him to sleep. Is he finally weaning off breastfeeding? Sign of good things to come? I sure think so!

Here's to a blessed 2012. :)

Today in Pictures

2011-12-31T15:03:00.003+08:00

Hakeem watching zoo animals on YouTube

Saying to his Achoo: "Shhhh.. Hakeem bobom"

This was when he actually did fall asleep after being all hyper all morning!

Had to bust this thing out today to hand in an application form. Hope it all works out. Here's to a successful 2012, ameen!

Lazy Day

2011-12-29T08:32:00.002+08:00

I'm off today until the new year so yay! As you'd expect, it's a lazy kind of day today as depicted by Hakeem in this picture:

Midnight Rambling

2011-12-27T01:26:00.001+08:00

Too little time and even less adventures have officially rendered this blog redundant. But since I can't sleep (I tried everything; washed my makeup brushes, read a book, social-networked to death) I thought, well, a post is in order so here I am!

So what's happened in the last month or so? Pictures might help, as usual.. :) This might get picture heavy. And pictures are not necessarily in chronological order.

Hafidz took up golf. And by that I mean going to the driving range to practice his swing. He hasn't braved the golf course yet but I don't think it will be long until he does. Here's Hakeem imitating his dad. He's in the monkey see, monkey do phase - but only with his dad. I try to get him to say sorry, whatever the reward, he will not follow. Sigh.

Remember this? Brought me back to simpler times..

We go to Toys R Us a lot (aka "woyshop") for recreation. It's the only place that makes Hakeem go "yay!" just by the mention of its name. We tend to walk out empty handed though. Well, sometimes.

Hakeem and Kaka Aisya. Still very hyper and very very loud the two of them together!

We also welcomed another Cali baby into the world. Hi baby Zayan Ali! This is Mumtathil and Fizah's baby (cough and picture is taken off Mumtathil's Facebook without permission cough). But congratulations Mumtathil and Fizah on the gorgeous beauty!

Oooh and of course we welcomed the Adli's back! We're quite excited about this, but I'm going to try to keep my cool about it because it was ALL we could talk about a few days before their arrival! Heehee.

Oh. And oh my god. The other day we decided to go to Portview Waterfront in Bandar for dinner. During dinner we were talking about how our blog's come to a standstill because we never ever have any content to blog about anymore. And then when we walked out we saw these boats pictured above and Hafidz thought we should give it a ride. I would've had a separate post for this if I had more pictures, but Hafidz told me to put away my phone after taking this picture above so, yea, no post.

Anyways, it was the scariest 15 minutes of my life! Let's forget for a moment that it was night time and that we were completely dependent on the boat driver's tiny torch light to see anything at all. As soon as he "drove off", I clutched on to the seat for dear life and remained that way throughout. The ride was shaky and really fast, and he was giving a commentary on his beloved Kampong Ayer (he was a tenant there) as he drove off into the wide expanse of water.

Before long, I recognised where we were going - to that area between the Attorney General's Chamber and the Bomba place in Bandar? Yea, where it is strongly rumored to be filled with crocodiles thank you very much! Needless to say, I told him ever so politely to turn back. (Politely because I don't want to piss off the only guy who can bring me back to the safety of flat solid ground!) He did turn back, but not before pointing out to a vacant house and showing us the "biawak", oh about six of them, just lounging on the stairs and whatnot. They were huge okay! I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about them now..

And then he started bringing us around to nowhere! We were supposed to be sightseeing, but there was nothing to see but water which obviously freaked me out because if the boat driver was to rob us, or kill us, we wouldn't have anywhere to go. As I furiously searched for an escape plan which horribly failed, I panicked and asked him to turn around again. I think he rolled his eyes at me. I know I must've looked (and sounded) like worried cow but hey, rob me on flat solid ground and I could at least have a fighting chance innit!

And then he brought us around to the Pintu Malim area which is surrounded with cemeteries and stronger rumors of it being haunted - I was done. I asked him to bring us back to the Waterfront because I must've been pale by then. He was still chatting away about how the Government is building two storey houses in Kampong Ayer now, completely oblivious to my fears! He did eventually bring us back. For transporting us safely back on land, we gave him an extra $5 - not that that's the price of our lives of course.

But yea, that was somewhat an adventure especially for me who was shaking in my flip flops the whole time! Gosh. I had fun though and was exuberant as soon as we reached safely in our car (probably because I was so grateful we're still in one piece), but heck I will not be doing that again any time soon!

Anyway, so that's that.

We also joined the Royal Brunei Recreation Club (from here forth be known as RBRC) upon Adam's recommendation. So far we've only gone once and we weren't disappointed (save for that sourly grumpy man in the Poolside Restaurant waiting on tables - someone give him a pay rise or the sack please!).

We also attended a friend's wedding just yesterday. I think she's the last girl in our group of friends from high school to get married. Everyone's all married now. I feel significantly much older now. From left to right: Azim, me, Amel, Faisal, Noi, Alai, Mizah, baby Humayra and Lyn.

On the way to the wedding

Also yesterday, we had a Cali barbecue at Muara beach! Muara beach's parking is such a pain, but the place is soo nice and windy!

Izni manning the BBQ and Niza helping out

Lyn and chubby cheeks Humayra

Hafidz enjoying his lamb chops, or as he calls it "slabs of meat". We were in charge of bringing the meat, and we both had different ideas of how we wanted the meat to taste like. In the end we reached a compromise where I get half of the meat and marinate it the way I like, and he gets the other half for his recipe. In the end I liked his better (and so did he, of course) because his was much more tender than mine. I think it was the 7up he added in his marinade! Heehee well done hun!

Safiyya just chillaxing..

The boys playing frisbee (after talking heatedly about work - on a holiday!)

Our spot under the tree :)

A nice picture of the girls (plus Shauqi, Humayra's holder) looking at the camera. Heehee lateng!

Anyways, the weekend came and went too quickly. I'm so sad I have to work tomorrow! But never mind, only two days and then I'm off until the new year! :) 2011 has been good to us, alhamdulillah. Here's hoping for a more meaningful 2012; one full of iman, rezeki, patience and good health. Amin!

I'm not sure how feasible it is to sustain this blog especially at the rate of updates right now. I reckon it would be more feasible to do more micro-blogging rather than having to sit down and compose a lengthy post. You know, I was on my iPhone this evening when I realised I am now actively contributing to four, yes four, social networks. I'm on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and more recently Path! (I think the word for this is overkill).

Anyways, as I navigated my way through the four social networks (in an attempt to fall asleep), I thought how crazy is it that I'm updating FOUR social networks and I have no time to blog? So yea, I think the game plan next year would be to micro-blog (the same way I update the four networks) on here so that I can actually have the pictures saved onto this blog. I think the blog is a more sustainable platform for all my journalling as opposed to having them on Path.

I'm going to call this post midnight rambling because it is literally midnight and I am rambling. Before ending all this rambling, I just want to say that Hakeem's doing great. He's enjoying school a lot now and asks for school when he's not there. They're currently having school holidays so he hasn't been going and I think he misses it. He's so much more talkative now since he joined. And he's so much more cheeky these days but I think that comes with age!

Here he is cheekily escaping nap time. He's saying "Hachem sleep pink bed. No mummy, saja pink bed." It was my parents' bed. Sigh.

Anyways, just in case I don't get the chance to, I want to wish all readers (yea, the few of you who made it through all that rambling and severe lack of updates!) a happy new year! :D May all your dreams come true, amin! :)

Hakeem's Firsts

2011-11-23T18:38:00.001+08:00

Hakeem's first day at school went relatively well compared to the days that followed. After the first day, he was crying just at the mention of school. We did everything we can to placate him by telling him we'll be right back, that we'll go to the toyshop right after, that he'll have many friends to play with and the list goes on. But all in vain because the vehement cries persisted for a whole week.

And then suddenly that one fine day when his teacher Julia came back from overseas, he actually willingly went towards her (as opposed to kicking away wanting me to carry him as soon as I left him in his teachers' good hands). From that day onwards, there would be a few tears here and there, but he wasn't screaming blue murder anymore.

Today is officially his first day in school sparing no tears whatsoever! Hurrah! Well done Hakeem! When I sent him off, he even waved me off goodbye. And when Hafidz fetched him from school, he just whimpered a bit and then took his toys from his teacher.

Oh and we were just discussing about when we'll be able to see what he does in school or any other school activity stuff to, in Hafidz's words, "see what I'm paying for". Haha! And today we finally got something! We got Hakeem's drawing and also his first class birthday party invitation!

Hakeem in the car ready to go to school. The week before, he'd be screaming and crying in protest just at the sight of the building!

Hakeem and daddy

Hakeem wants to do everything "Daddy Hafidz" does. Heehee yea, he knows Hafidz's name now and has started calling him "Daddy Afeesh"

Hakeem's first class birthday party invitation!! And turns out it's Nawnaw, our friend Jus's niece!! Heehee

Hakeem's drawing. Heehee yea I know, such a sekadar thing to be so excited about but I am his mom after all! Hee.

Hari Raya Haji and Birthday

2011-11-23T17:56:00.000+08:00

Here's where I'd usually put in a preamble about being so busy with work and how that has prevented me from blogging. And how work is so busy I don't even have time to get a haircut. You know, boring stuff like that. So I will spare readers the joy of having to read those mundane expressions, just for today. :)

Anyways, I'm about to publish a super-belated post tonight. I have some pictures of Hakeem in his cute gamis during Hari Raya Haji and also some pictures from my mother's birthday dinner. :)

Hakeem follows everything Hafidz does. He truly is a shadow of his dad (aside from maybe his features) because even when he sees his dad shaving, he wants to follow suit. Sigh!

He calls this doing the "Spiderman"

Wheeee!

At my mom's birthday dinner. We had dinner in Pantai Restaurant, Empire Hotel. The kids were super sweaty from playing outside next to the pool. Heehee now having a rest, playing Kaka Aisya's iPad.

Nene Girl and her three cucus! :D

Sharing the iPad

Sharing a conversation. Looks like a serious one.

Group picture! :D

The pure unadulterated joy in their faces! Oh to be a kid again.. I love it!

Being sakai over the giant donut

Our Friday Morning

2011-11-18T12:41:00.002+08:00

Hakeem's Day

2011-11-14T19:44:00.003+08:00

Learning is Fun!

2011-11-04T19:39:00.000+08:00

Today Hakeem had his first day of school! Well, it's not really a school, school. It's more of a playgroup with subtle educational elements integrated into their playtime. Basically they have group activities and each of them are given one-to-one reading lessons some time during the session.

They're open everyday except Sunday and public holidays. Hakeem's in the afternoon session so it starts at 2pm and finishes at 4.30pm. You can imagine sending and fetching him would be a logistical nightmare at first, but I'm sure I can work something out. Heehee I'd probably have to work through lunch or something like that, but if that's what I have to do, I'll do it! :D

I'm really quite excited about it now. Before I was completely riddled with anxiety so I couldn't enjoy it so much. Haha. Good thing I had Hafidz with me to share my misery. In the car, I explained to Hakeem that we're going to school and he'll be meeting lots of friends, and that we'd be leaving him there but we'd definitely come back. I think that explanation helps a lot because we didn't get any time at all to coax him into staying there.

As soon as we arrived, the teacher immediately whisked him away from Hafidz and straight into the classroom where parents are not allowed in! :'( That kind of killed us a bit, but I'm sure they have a strong rationale for doing that. I guess it's part of their settling-in strategies; extended goodbyes aren't healthy for kids anyways.

But he was such a good boy though! He didn't cry at all when he was brought in, Alhamdulillah. His parents on the other hand was a complete wreck! We were sobbing in the car wondering where did time go? It was especially hard on Hafidz because he was totally unprepared for this (unlike myself who spent the last week being anxious about it!). Sigh!

For the first week, we have to leave him for just an hour to give him assurance that we will come back. I wanted to just wait outside for a whole hour. In fact, we didn't even want to wait an hour! We were ready to just come back after 30 minutes! Haha. But in the end, he was absolutely fine! He happily waved his teacher goodbye and all.

We heard him cry from outside when we came to pick him up and that set me right into a panic. But according to the teacher, he was so good throughout and was just playing and singing with the other kids; it was just when they wanted to put on his shoes that he started crying. Heehee yea, he's not a big fan of shoes. He's more of a slippers and sandals kind of guy.

In the car, we asked him if he had fun and he kept saying and waving, "Bye friends! Many friends. Bye!" Heehee his first day and already surprising us with new words! So that's really promising. And it seems like he had a lot of fun too and was very friendly with his teacher. :) Hope we can keep this up!

In the car before school. He didn't want to wear his shoes then either.

Outside the school

The waiting area of the school - I don't think we're allowed to wait here either..

Fun2Learn! :)

This is after his first "class"

He did this under Hafidz's care. He thought this was "cute". Sigh!

This is Hakeem's favourite sitting position

So that's all about Hakeem's first day of school. It was only an hour so it's hardly "school" per se, but he learnt so much already in that hour, we look forward to hearing more new things from him! Just 10 minutes ago he said very clearly, "I want to play." Already stringing four words together! Good job buddy!

And this is a video of Hakeem a few days ago when he just knew how to say his name. Heehee.

No Rest for the Wicked

2011-10-28T00:26:00.000+08:00

At this point in time, I have become too busy to even cut my son's nails for him. Work is usurping my life and I can feel it most in my husband's disappointment when I can't join him for dinner because there is some pressing work matters I need to attend to and in my son's constant calls "Come on, Mummy!" that I cannot entertain.

And as a friend kindly pointed out to me earlier this evening, it's stated clearly in the general order for all government officers: "Keseluruhan masa seorang pegawai adalah di bawah kawalan Kerajaan" which crudely translated means "An officer's time is wholly owned and controlled by the Government". This depresses me even further. Is it just me or is there no justice to that statement at all? Employee rights what?

Oh and I just found out that I actually failed the written test that would allow me to be placed permanently in my post! How hysterical is that? Working so hard for something temporary seems a bit ludicrous to me yet that's my reality right now! And what's ironic is that there were three questions in that exam paper and I knew all the answers to it. So what went wrong, my boss asked. It was in Malay. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a Government officer after all!

But anyways, on a happier note, Hafidz's dad was kind enough to allow us to sleepover at the Empire hotel for a few nights which works out perfectly because I have to work tomorrow (on a Friday!) but at least I'll be closer to my favourite boys this way :)

I have a lot more work due tomorrow so before I have to run off and finish it, let's get through this one blog post then shall we! Heehee I promise, no more talk about work! Anyways, I think it was two Sundays ago when we had lunch at my brother's house. Heehee they've moved in to their own house now in Tutong and I admire the independence and space they're enjoying right now. So much fun seeing them cook together and what not.

Some pictures! :)

Hakeem kissing Aina

Brother and sister-in-law made us some Sunday Roast that day. It was lovely! I'm salivating just thinking about it actually.

Aisya's playroom

Haha we found a lot of pictures in our camera with views from a shorter person. Aisya had been busy taking pictures with our camera! Haha this was one of them..

And here's Aisya hugging Hakeem. No kids were harmed in the taking of this picture.

As you can see from the last picture, Hakeem's hair got uncontrollably long and curly so we took him to the barber a few days ago to have a trim. It was a good trip, Alhamdulillah. He didn't cry a lot and even when he did he was easily pacified with the Zoo Sounds app on my phone! Heehee. Pictures! :)

Long unruly locks

Looking a bit worried and confused

But still being bibiran - probably asking, in his own language, what the Indian man is doing to his hair

Sempat lagi being cheeky to the camera

And then the next second he was like this. I think it's safe to say that he was feeling rather uneasy or as Bruneians have coined it, "Tak tentu rasa".

But he was a good boy regardless

The nice Indian man who cut Hakeem's hair will due diligence - I've put him on the blog so I can remember his face when we want to cut Hakeem's hair again which will probably be next year! Heehee

Hakeem, smile!

Hakeem, show teeth!

Heehee so hair all short and smart, he looks a lot like Daddy now. :) Some more pictures before I have to go and finish my work.

Upon arrival at our hotel room. This chap just woke up thus the manja look. Poor guy has cellulitis on his feet so his right foot is a lot bigger than his left at the moment :(

Our favourite feature of an Empire hotel stay - the bed! I hope they keep ordering the same ones because like Hafidz says, "It's just like sleeping in a cloud."

Aaahh.. Sweet dreams everyone! :)

Hakeem Says The Darndest Things

2011-10-09T21:57:00.000+08:00

Hakeem is two years and 16 days old today and he says the darndest things. Like just a second ago, Hafidz let out this huge fart to which Hakeem said loudly, "Daddy bau! Daddy poot! Daddy bau!" Haha! And he recently learnt to say, "Astah!" And he says it melodically, it's quite endearing - until this afternoon, when Hafidz was tickling me and I was screaming about, Hakeem said, "Astaaaaahhh mummy and daddy!!!" - then it was just plain hilarious! The dark side of picking up these vocabularies is that we now have no excuse. When he wants us to play with him, he clearly tells us, "C'mon mummy and daddy, main!"

And to think just a few months ago I was worried about him having speech development problems just because he didn't know how to say his name. He still doesn't say his name but insya Allah, he'll learn at his own pace just as he has with his daily speech. :)

We Love Sundays

2011-10-09T19:18:00.000+08:00

This was one Sunday in the past few weeks that we were free from any work commitments so we took full advantage of that. We didn't do anything fancy, just the normal everyday stuff that we take for granted. Like going out to have breakfast together, sending off Hafidz's dad at the airport, taking an afternoon nap together and then go to the park! Heehee.

Hakeem and his iPad

Chugging down some Milo for brekkie

In the afternoon we went to Taman Jubli! We initially wanted to take Hakeem there so he could ride his bike, but as soon as he saw the expanse of space to run around in, he totally forgot about his bike...

...and ran instead!

We made sure we wore sport shoes to keep up! :D

Playing on the field

Crying because his dad tried to take away his little ball from him

Hafidz eventually did throw his ball into the air. Here's Hakeem scratching his head wondering where it went!

There were some kids playing ball on the field - and proper balls too not just golf balls! This is his "mengintu" can-I-play-your-ball-please face. Heehee

Not something to aspire for!

After that of course we had to stop by the playground! But it was too crowded and lots of rowdiness going around the playground..

...Hakeem actually fell and accidentally bit his tongue. So there was a bit of blood going on. Here's Doctor Daddy having a look at the little boy.

He was perfectly fine like 20 seconds later and went back for more!

On the monkey bars

Having some ice cold chocolate milk in the car after we were done

Posing with daddy's sunnies! Heehee

I haven't had time to curl up in bed with a good book for a few months now which is terrible. Today I managed to do just that and I'm going to say it's been a good, relaxing day! Till next time! :)

Mummy and Hakeem's Day

2011-10-07T20:29:00.000+08:00

Today I made a point to spend all day with Hakeem. We haven't been able to do much family activities these days what with Hafidz being on call two to three times a week and work at my place has been quite demanding too. So I moved all my Friday appointments to free it up so I can spend time with Hakeem who, bless him, has been such a good boy. Heehee. Hafidz is oncall again today so it was just the two of us.

In the morning, I brought Hakeem out to Mothercare because he needed some new pyjamas. He sat dutifully in the booster seat of the car throughout the journey, pun intended. Hee.

Just had to make sure his favourite cartoon is on!

Mothercare must've been a bit boring for him so I took him to Bebeland just next door where he found a pair of sunnies to try on

Heehee it was hard to get him to take it off in the end! He was shopping around the toys section very slowly with the sunnies on. He even said, "Dark.." Well.. No duh Hakeem..

Wearing the pyjamas he picked out. This was taken at 11.30AM by the way.. He insisted he wanted to take his afternoon nap in his new pjs. Heehee.

Okay, gotta go now! He's pulling my hand now and saying, "Mummy, main!" The other day I taught him to say "Please, mummy?" I haven't been able to resist it since, god help me!

Samping

2011-10-06T07:23:00.000+08:00

Hakeem is fond of wearing a samping around the house these days. It's quite funny! Heehee and cute too.. "Samping" by the way is almost like a kilt. Hee.

Weddings and Toothaches

2011-10-03T16:33:00.002+08:00

It's been a hard two weeks for Hafidz what with his relentless oncalls and ongoing operations. Last week, for instance, he worked 88 hours including his oncalls and working-through-lunch days. I mean honestly! Mere mortals like myself only work 40 hours per week, if that (you know, discounting all the "minum" and "cerita-cerita" hours). These doctors have it hard! Any medical student out there would like to consider doing surgery to lessen the workload of these surgeons please?

Anyways, last weekend we went to Hafidz's cousin's wedding and weddings are always so beautiful and dreamy. Here are some pictures :)

Hakeem REALLY having a laugh at his dad's antics

Hafidz and his beautiful sisters! :)

Hafidz with beautiful mum and aunties

Family of three

Hakeem was overall quite well-behaved that night. But after a long stretch of just sitting down with his iPad, he'd get bored and run off! Heehee here he is hiding between two doors.

Indignant at daddy for closing down the doors! Haha

The bride and groom :)

Anyways, as soon as I find some internet, I shall be uploading a video from Hakeem's 2nd birthday! :D Oh and I might just add that I'm having an off-day from work today because I got an MC from the dentist. I had my tooth pulled out last Friday and I swear it was at least two inches long! I have never experienced anything more painful - yes, giving birth included! Is that normal? I don't know, but the dentist said it was a rather difficult extraction and now three days later my right cheek is swollen because the cut got infected. Sad times! Now I'm on stronger antibiotics and even stronger painkillers. They only gave me three painkillers - THREE! Do they not know the extent of my pain and suffering?! (Heehee drama..)

Anyways, till next time! :)

Hiatus

2011-09-27T08:38:00.000+08:00

I can't remember the last time I properly sat down to write a blog post; must've been quite a while ago. I think it's safe to say that with our current circumstances, we'd be on a long hiatus from the blogosphere. Heehee but I will come back soon because I haven't finished writing about Hakeem's second birthday celebration!

Hakeem is doing well except he won't eat! We think he might be feeling a bit ill or something. Poor baby. But here are some pictures from the past month or so :)

Hakeem having a massage

"I'm two years old today!" :D

Happy Birthday Hakeem!

2011-09-23T10:59:00.003+08:00

Hakeem turns two today! I haven't had time to write a proper blog post but here's some pictures of our little birthday boy :)

Hakeem with his presents from Daddy and Kaka Aisya :) Why so serious, Hakeem?

Aah, that's better :)

Two years old tapi masih mau jadi baby! Haih!

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Barney, the purple dinosaur

2011-09-10T19:50:00.001+08:00

YouTube Video

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Third Day Raya 2011

2011-09-02T19:38:00.000+08:00

Today we only went to two houses for Raya - two houses! We are so lame. But it was a fun day nevertheless! :) First house we went to was our SUT's house who was kind enough to invite us to his open house.

"Open house" is where people invite the masses over to their house to have a meal in addition to the cakes typically served during Raya. Anyways, SUT's open house food was pretty yummy. The teh tarik that went with it was just divine, especially after a whole month of not having any! Heehee.

Hakeem fell asleep in the car. Hee what else is new? ;)

The grown up men choosing the fancy chairs that matches the color of their baju melayus! Hee.

Hakeem woke up eventually and started playing with the readily available toys

Department of HRD and family :)

Family picture! Today we did not forget to take one :)

After our SUT's house, we went to my Angah's house where there's Baby Nadya. She's a year old and Hakeem was totally smitten by her!

So was Aisya.. I don't blame them, Nadya is super cute!

Aisya and I - Aisya's doing her current fave pose. Heehee

What a way to keep the kids happy - give them a book, some ampau and TV time!

1st September 2011

2011-09-02T10:53:00.002+08:00

We started off the day with some shopping because it was Aisya's third birthday! :D So we went to Toys R Us and bought some presents for her, and then proceeded to go to Dairy Queen to get her cake. We only went to visit houses after that. Heehee.

Picking out her presents

And her cake.. Surprise, surprise, she picked a pink cake! Heehee.

"Hmm.. What ice cream shall I have?"

We went to Shauqi's open house later on. Safiyya is all grown up and walking around already! Heehee

The boys playing Wii

Shauqi broody.. ;)

Hakeem trying to put on his socks by himself

Going to KS's open house. Hafidz teaching Hakeem how to smile to a camera.

Girl wearing blue and boy wearing pink. Shakes head. No wonder people always get their genders mixed up! Heehee.

Latest: A video! :)

First Day Raya

2011-09-02T00:26:00.000+08:00

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI, MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN

From Hafidz, Nisa and Hakeem! :)

How's everyone's raya been? Ours has been quite good. We haven't gone to as many houses as we'd like, but it's okay. Sometimes things just get in the way and we've vowed to have a stress-free raya this year so we just have to let these things go, you know? Heehee. Anyways, here's how we spent our first day of Hari Raya:

Dressed in matching attire :) Hakeem's sinjang and songkok stayed on him until the end! No such luck today though..

Holding hands while dancing

Aisya likes to "sleep" there. She says it's supposed to be like sleeping on the beach.. Haha

Cheeky smile from Hakeem!

Kiarong family picture :) We didn't take a family picture with my parents though. We're waiting for my brother and sister-in-law to come back from Umrah. Heehee.

Hafidz family picture :)

We resumed our raya-ing after zuhur prayers and look what Hakeem picked up. Sigh!

Oh and last week Hafidz bought me a portable massage cushion as a Raya present. We had it installed in the car for extreme raya-ing experience! Heehee!

Hakeem's nap had to take place, no matter where he is. He is his daddy's son after all!

And that was it! After this last picture, we sent Hakeem home and continued to visit some more houses without him. Today is the second day of Raya, but more importantly, is Aisya's third birthday! So more pictures and video in the next post. :) Till then!

Cousins

2011-08-25T20:36:00.000+08:00

Five or six more days before Hari Raya is here! It's hard to believe but it has been almost a whole year since we've been back in Brunei. Wow! When I look back, so much has changed in our family dynamics especially with me working full-time, Hafidz being in surgery and Hakeem growing up so fast. Overall, it's been such a fulfilling year, Alhamdulillah.

Anyways, earlier I had a conversation with my work colleague who is currently pregnant with her third child. We were talking about when our kids should start talking and she said something that made a lot of sense. She was saying that it's normal for first borns to speak a little later than their younger siblings because being first born, they don't have a companion their own age to speak to and stimulate them.

I guess it's true in Hakeem's case because he's been "alone" since he was born. But since last week, his cousin Aisya (who is turning three next week!) has been staying with us and we've just seen his speech develop exponentially since. I really can't underestimate the value of social interaction for kids from now on. Heehee.

Anyways, here's a video of Hakeem and his cousins, Aisya and Aina:

New Jungle Gym

2011-08-20T04:07:00.000+08:00

We brought Hakeem to the new Jungle Gym last Tuesday and for the life of me, I cannot remember what they call the place! It's the new one at The Mall Gadong and it's huge! I think it's called Kiddie-something. Anyways, I love that place! It's new so everything still looks nice and fresh, but also because it's quite big. They managed to fit in a trampoline in there which can be perused by adults too, unlike the one in Times Square! Heehee.

In other news, Hakeem turns two next month! Gulping gallops! I still remember writing a post about his birth and now he's turning two whole years old. We're still trying to figure out what to do on his birthday. Probably a trip to Jungle Gym would suffice for a two-year-old right? It's not like we'd let him eat his own cake anyways! Heehee.

Anyways, here's a video of Hakeem at the new Jungle Gym. It will be called "the new Jungle Gym" until I can remember what it's really called. :-/ So please feel free to jump in and let me know what it's called if you know.. :)

AF's in the House!

2011-08-18T12:09:00.000+08:00

AF's as in Aisya Farhanah and Aina Farzana Nurtayybah that is! Heehee Baby Aina is quite the star of the house today because everyone wants to kiss and cuddle her!

First Hakeem..

Then Aisya..

Hakeem can't get enough of her and wants to hug her

And kiss "bayybeee"

A picture of the three of them. :) I don't know what was so funny, but Hakeem was laughing out loud!

Sunday Funday

2011-08-15T07:15:00.000+08:00

It was another one of those fun sundays for Hakeem. We had a bit of a Sunday-appropriate lie-in in the morning and afterwards we decided to let Hakeem have a splash outside. We blew up the pool that he had chosen for himself in Toys R Us and the rest was history.

In the afternoon, his Kaka Aisya came over and boy was he excited! He had been calling her name everyday since he learnt how to so when she was actually here, he was practically jumping up and down (except his feet never left the ground - he still can't jump, heehee). Thankfully, no nightmares last night despite being incredibly ayung and hyper all day!

Toys R Us

2011-08-14T12:04:00.001+08:00

After a few days of its opening, we finally went to Toys R Us in Mabohai. I believe it's the first time Toys R Us is open in Brunei so naturally people came in their masses to have a look at what the hype is all about which is fine - except I think the owners of the building were too busy expanding, they forgot to put in parking spaces? Because every time we attempt to go there, the queue of cars is so long it's enough to put us off.

But last night we finally braved the crowd and had a look at the store. Overall, I think we're happy we finally have a Toys R Us here. I have to admit though, I was kinda hoping they'd have a Babies R Us section in the store, but that may be asking too much! Heehee. Anyway, here's a video! :)

Sungkai at Fleur de Lys

2011-08-07T18:34:00.002+08:00

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Sungkai at Empire

2011-08-06T16:27:00.000+08:00

We went to The Atrium in Empire last night for sungkai. Well, technically we had dinner there because we had sungkai at home first before leaving for Empire. Anyways! Empire is so beautifully decorated!

There's this big-ish model mosque at the grand entrance..

Sigh.. I look so short next to these two towering girls.. To be fair, they were wearing 5 inch heels ok! I need to invest in one of those..

Another model mosque downstairs. This one I believe is masjid SOAS?

And of course one picture at the fountain.. :)

Anyways, while the ambience was really nice the food wasn't so much at par. It's still really nice though but I think during ramadan, there's just a lot of competitors fighting for their customers so everyone's doing something special. Rizqun's buffet was really nice too last time I went, and so was Tarindak. And I read Excapade Sushi has a sungkai buffet too with salmon asparagus up for grabs. Hubba hubba!

Here's a short video from last night:

Anyways, happy 5th anniversary to my best friend and companion in life. Ratings may have gone down in season 5 but it can only get better! :)

Eating, Singing and Dancing

2011-08-04T22:15:00.000+08:00

I have to say that I am completely bitten by the video-blogging bug. I was inspired by Nina, the cutest Japanese girl (kindly click on link to see who I am talking about), whose videos are always so endearing to watch. And I thought, how brilliant is it that her dad keeps videos of her growing up.

It's just not the same as keeping still photos - videos bring so much more to the table. So completely inspired, I have endeavored to keep a recording of Hakeem growing up. Plus, he's so much more interesting and interactive now so it's fun to watch. :) Let's see how long I can keep this up! Heehee.

Tamu Ramadan

2011-08-04T21:07:00.000+08:00

It's the third day of Ramadan today, Alhamdulillah. Haven't had a chance to puasa though because of, erm, biological reasons. But soon insya Allah.. We went to Tamu Ramadan the first day of puasa just because I haven't been in maybe four years? And also because both my boys never went there before.

I think we went at the wrong time.. By the time we came, most of the food was sold out and there was still so many people we could barely look at what the stalls were selling!

I think Hafidz was more interested in the way they made murtabaks more than the tamu itself..

Oh well.. We shall try again another time. I still want my bingka susu! Happy fasting to all muslims out there! :)

Zoo Train

2011-08-02T11:44:00.001+08:00

A video of Hakeem playing on his iPad. This game's called Zoo Train. :) This will probably not be interesting to anybody but his doting parents (or just mum)! Teehee.

Splashtastic Steamboat Sunday

2011-07-31T23:15:00.005+08:00

Today we had a steamboat lunch at Shauqi, Niza and Safiyya's place. :) It has been a lovely Sunday minus the fact that we have to go back to work tomorrow. (Groan!)

Anyways, the plan was for the babies to play in the splash pool after the parents ate. But some parents wanted to play in the splash pool too, so we had to bring a bigger one to supplement the baby pool in order to meet demands. :) We had fun!

I recently discovered this feature on Picasa that makes creating a slideshow a breeze, so here's a slideshow of our afternoon. And a full video of it to come, insya Allah.

Animals!

2011-07-30T21:22:00.003+08:00

YouTube Video

My jungle gym champ!

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Majlis Ilmu 2011

2011-07-27T23:28:00.003+08:00

Majlis Ilmu is the current big thing happening in Brunei. To be honest, I had no idea what it was and what a big deal it actually is. I was told last minute that myself and my colleagues would be involved in it. "Last minute" means a lot of running around and demanding things get done quickly so it's been a rather exhausting seven days for me.

Anyways, the Knowledge Convention (is what I think they're calling it in English?) has a pretty cool theme. Basically the whole exhibition is supposed to be sort of a time tunnel which starts off with marriage..

Here's the whole timeline of the exhibition

After marriage, insya Allah if there's rezeki you're given the best gift ever created.. A child.

So in the exhibition, after you pass through the wedding theme, you go through the giving birth theme which is where you go through this dark tunnel which is supposed to simulate being inside a mother's womb. (Oh and that's me by the way with my colleagues! Just the girls, not the guy in blue.. Heehee)

Part of the simulation

The different stages of a baby's conception

So once you have the baby, you have to educate them..

... and provide them with a good home...

... teach them to read the holy Quran...

... and, errr, teach them to write jawi? Heehee.

And they had this Klinik Al-Fatihah which is basically where they correct your Al-Fatihah reading. Pretty cool.

After going through the nine years mandatory education, hopefully your child will take part in higher education and then later look for a job - so this is where UBD's booth and ours came in. Well, strictly, it wasn't our (as in JPKE's) booth. It was APTK's - which is Brunei's job centre. (Don't you just looove all the abbreviations?)

Here's the thing that I have been slaving over the last eight months - all compressed in one banner. Basically, we have introduced a new scheme for the private sector employees to upgrade their academic and professional qualifications. Very generous scheme if you ask me. If you have one year's (genuine) work experience, letter of reference from your employee and is a citizen of Brunei - you are eligible to apply. Of course, there are 20 odd more pages of terms and conditions to this scheme but it's worth a shot I do think!

Oh and lookie here! Who's this reading my banner? :)

Prince Jefri

The boss who instructed us to create the scheme..

Anyways! Back to the theme! After higher education and consequently work, you have the Warga Emas stage and passing down our Ilmu to the next generation

Not sure what this is.. Warga Kampung I think it says on the window? I could be wrong really..

There's our beloved Sultan again.. :)

Anyways, after the warga emas stage, you get to this. "Husnul Khatimah - Kesudahan yang Baik" is what we should all strive for in life.

And that's it!

Well that was a rather morbid ending..

Maybe a cheerier one next time? :)

WoW!

2011-07-26T19:08:00.000+08:00

Isn't it a bit too soon for WoW, Hakeem?

KK Day 4

2011-07-22T18:36:00.000+08:00

I just realised I never finished uploading the pictures from our last day in KK! Haha better late than never I guess..

The famous Fish & Co. opening in 1 Borneo soon! I've never eaten here before, but I hear rave reviews about this restaurant.

The last day in KK, we had lunch in Dome. Here's Hakeem drawing on the menu.. :-/

But it's okay because it's a disposable menu especially for kids.. At least I think it was..

Hakeem's artistic work

Did you know? I didn't!

Special utensils for Hakeem

Honeycomb coffee.. Really nice.

We ordered Caesar salad

Hakeem requested for Hafidz to draw figures for him and this was one of them. It was supposed to be one of the ladies that just passed by, but we thought it ended up looking like Hakeem's Mama Anis!

Hakeem falling asleep in the taxi cab

The floating mosque

Hafidz was feeling generous and shared his ice-cream from McDonald's with Hakeem..

Hakeem was grateful

Needless to say, he was practically bouncing off the walls after a while. He couldn't sit still!! Gahh!

Here he is at the airport belt, trying to reach for his stroller. Leave that for the adults, honey!

And that just about wraps up the KK series! Heehee. Next time, we'd probably do more research and actually attempt to do more activities instead of just staying in a building for four days? Haha. Here are some more random pictures:

Hafidz and I bought Hakeem some DVDs. Here he is choosing from the lot.

Oh and last night, Aisya came by and requested to stay a bit longer so she can play with Hakeem! Hakeem was delighted and it showed from his face! Heehee. Here they are watching Tangled, or "Papunjel" as Aisya calls it.

And here they are, changed into their pjs and a bit more subdued after all the initial excitement! Heehee

Happy 28th Birthday Hafidz!

2011-07-18T07:02:00.000+08:00

It's Hafidz's 28th birthday today and he generally hates the whole idea of celebrating birthdays and have always been uncomfortable about celebrating his. To him, everyday should be a chance to make someone feel special and not just that one day in a year.

Whatever. I wanted him to have a proper birthday celebration! You know, with friends and family! So you can imagine what a pain it has been to organise events for his birthday, especially since all he wants to do is stay home and immerse himself in his long list of hobbies.

In the end, we did manage to have fun (God forbid!) on his birthday. We had lunch with his family at Charcoal, and then went to see his aunt's gorgeous new house, and then had a Cali gathering at home with the two baby girls and finally went to watch Harry Potter 7 Part 2 at the cinema! :)

Grumpiest birthday boy ever :)

He loves wearing hats now.. Let's hope he maintains that love during raya!

By the time we arrived at Charcoal, we found him like this..

But that's okay because as soon as he woke up, he knew where he was and remembers the play corner of Charcoal!

Laughing his heart out

Big fire at Charcoal

The whole family :)

Hafidz getting a cake and sung to by the waitresses. Heehee..

The delish cake from Bakerlyn

Hakeem had a piece of the cake..

And then another..

And another!

By afternoon when Adam, Lyn and Humayra came he was just BOUNCING off the walls! When he saw Humayra, he was like, "Baby! Baby! Baby!"

Trying to "sayang" baby Humayra

Hafidz and his birthday present from Adam

Humayra didn't like being inside and cried every time she was, so Adam had to bring her outside..

We all ended up hanging out outside taking in the fresh air! Heehee

Pretty Safiyya after her lunch

Safiyya and her Baba

Humayra and her Ayah

Hakeem and his Daddy

At the cinema, getting very confused...

Happy 28th birthday darling! :)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-13T13:47:00.001+08:00

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KK Day 3

2011-07-10T23:44:00.001+08:00

Hakeem only woke up at 9.40am today so we had a good lie-in this morning. I love it when Sundays are started off with lie-ins.. Cheers, Hakeem! Today was quite uneventful in a fulfilling way. We seriously contemplated going to Manukan Island just to have a look, but then the lazy bug bit us hard and thought, "Eh, there's always next time." So we just spent the day going around 1 Borneo again.

Ready for breakfast

The restaurant

Remember that post I published last week about Hakeem just discovering the iPad? Well, a few days later he was navigating through the iPad like he's been doing it for years. These kids learn fast! Thanks Steve Jobs for making it so user-friendly even 1 year olds can use it ;)

He gets really engrossed when he's on the iPad - no care in the world about double chins and dirty shirts!

But when he realised we were openly talking about him and how he's so attached to the iPad, he kind of gave us an embarrassed smile only to go back to his iPad like two seconds later.

When we returned to the room, no guesses on what he was STILL doing! Sheesh! But Alhamdulillah, so far we don't have such a hard time taking it away from him. We still have to do that counting down technique though and he'd cry for three seconds before realising he can live without it.

Amusing himself with the iPad. I bought some really good apps for him that I'm really pleased with their educational value. Maybe I should blog about it next time.

The boring thing about 1 Borneo is their "Opening Soon" shops - and there are plenty of them! Oh and another one of our pet peeves about this place is the rule where we can't bring in our bags into the store so we have to leave it with them at the counter. And then they have this caveat at the counter saying, "Don't leave your valuables behind" - I suppose this is to save their behinds when we find our stuff missing from our bags? Well, how the heck are we supposed to bring all our valuables inside without our bags?! Am I supposed to be lugging around my phone, wallet, keys, iPad, Hakeem's iPad with me while I go shopping? Oh all that AND a toddler? Sheesh! Needless to say, we did NOT entertain such a system and refused to go into Giant at all..

Ok rant over. Here's my boys infront of another closed down store having some Famous Amos cookies :)

Got some shopping done here

But the boys were getting bored.. Hafidz resorted to playing games on his phone, and Hakeem playing with his feet?

The "Rest N Go" stations I was talking about in my last post..

Hafidz decided to try it for himself after hearing me rave about it. He fell asleep and the whole mall could hear him snore. I can't say I didn't see that coming actually..

To show that our room is on the 15th floor. My ears pop everytime we reach our floor via lift.

Teehee, we went to New York New York again for lunch today. Tomorrow when we go again, we might ask them to put our picture up on their "Regular Visitors" board! Heee! Here's Hafidz with an inexplicable gangsta pose, and Hakeem on his iPad again..

Playing his ultimate favourite game. He's played this 2 billion times in the past week.

My drink this time is in a much more reasonable size. It's called Pink Inc - very nice!

Hafidz and I shared a pizza - a Bolognese pizza! Genius! It's super delish, we almost resented sharing it. Almost. Oh and that's Hakeem's untouched Meatball Spaghetti in the background. Sigh! How do I get my boy to have a big appetite like the kid at the next table who was having a steak all to himself?

He's always asking for our drinks though..

He even had several sips of my caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks. I've been having Starbucks every day since we got here. I feel obliged to do so because there are three (THREE!) Starbucks in this mall. Why can't Brunei have one? C'mon business people, have mercy! Hear our cries for Starbucks..

Here's the boys both playing Angry Birds on their respective iPads. The saying, "Bapa borek, anak rintik" comes to mind..

KK Day 2

2011-07-09T22:12:00.049+08:00

Day two in KK and so far we're having fun being bums and lazing it out. We started the day waiting for this little guy to wake up so we can have our yummy complimentary breakfast...

Snoring too I might add! He's been sleeping so well since we got here.. I think it might have something to do with the aircon. It's really nice and cold here and of course, he gets to cuddle up with both mummy and daddy!

After little big boss woke up (about time too!), we went and had breakfast in our jammies..

This is the restaurant. Nice place.

This is Hakeem's breakfast complemented by Chuggington utensils to make it look more appealing. Heehee.

Oh and Day Two is marked by a milestone - Hakeem agreeing to sit in his stroller! Hip hip hooray!

Then we went to check out the archery place

It was quite cheap - RM 9 per game.

The line up of bows and arrows

Hafidz getting some free coaching

He made it look so easy..

Getting some good hits too..

But when it came to my turn..

Yea.. wasn't so easy.. It's quite a workout on the arm muscles man!

Hakeem getting bored..

Did some shopping at Factory Outlet Store, or more popularly known as F.O.S.

Somehow this display setup reminds me of Primark. I miss Primark.

Oh and they have several rest stops all over the mall called "Rest and Go". It's where you can insert some notes (RM 1 for 3 minutes, RM 5 for 15 minutes and RM 10 for 30 minutes) into the chair and get a massage. I, of course, HAD to try it out.. It was quite lovely. After that I felt like I *needed* the chair at home. And maybe another one in my office.

While I was having my massage, the boys went to the arcade

After that we had some food at New York New York. Thanks to mum-in-law for introducing the place because we LOVE IT! When we were making up our minds on what to order, Hafidz actually said, "Can't we just buy the whole place and bring it back to Brunei?" Heehee.

"Please, no more pictures.."

I ordered a Root Beer Float and Hafidz ordered Lemonade. Finishing my drink was quite a tall order (pun intended)

We had some Baked Mussels as appetisers, but they came way after our main dish that's why there's two mussels missing - we devoured them before taking a picture! Hakeem had an all-day breakfast which he refused to touch! He didn't eat at all for lunch and then asked for his dad's Pop Mie tonight. Haih! And then I had Mushroom Swiss Burger and Hafidz had Juicy Supreme Burger - both really good. Mustard really makes a burger..

Oh and they have this thing called Giant Yankee Burger which scared the bejeezels out of me! They weren't messing around when they named it "Giant"!

KK Day 1

2011-07-08T22:55:00.053+08:00

Such a classically unimaginative title I have going on there. Heehee. Anyways, it has been at least five years since Hafidz and I was last here in Kota Kinabalu. We took the plane this time and the trip was so short, we never got to a point where the seatbelt lights actually went off so we could move around the plane.

The journey itself was pretty flawless except for the fact that Hakeem was sleepy (he did wake up at 5.30 this morning) and therefore super clingy to his dad. We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel and already we had a gist of things to come; the taxi didn't have a meter on it and the driver casually asked if we bought tickets at the airport. Funny he should ask this after driving off and not before taking us in, right?

When we said we didn't know what tickets he's on about, he told us he's just going to charge us RM 50 for the taxi fare on the basis that that is "murah sudah". I don't know what kind of fool he takes us for because I've read online that it shouldn't cost more than RM 20 to get from the airport to our hotel - but whatever, we paid him anyway because we were just happy he took us to the hotel and not anywhere we didn't want to be if you know what I mean.

When we reached 1 Borneo where we would be staying, the grandeur depicted in the pictures of their official website was missing in real life. But that's okay; we weren't disheartened yet. But then when we tried to check-in to our hotel room, Novotel (which is one of the hotels inside 1 Borneo) they didn't have our names and did not make an extraordinary effort to make calls to ensure we had a room. The problem was solved eventually and after a few hours of waiting and walking around with a kusut toddler, we finally settled down into our room.

After that initial stump, the holiday started getting good. It's all about managing your expectations isn't it? Hakeem got a good nap, the shops started to open and we got our tummies filled. We're golden! As usual, pictures to tell the story. :)

Since this was kind of an impromptu trip, it only just sank in yesterday that we had to pack. So we went to Hua Ho and found these cool foldable cabin bags and backpack. Hafidz, the keen bag collector, went bonkers at that section in Hua Ho! Heehee.

Hakeem and daddy - best buds!

Not too happy with mummy though because she is the bad cop who won't let him run precariously on the chairs!

Hakeem enjoying the view of the plane, clouds and birds! He even waved the plane goodbye when he saw one take off.

He fell asleep in the plane

But then woke up as soon as we got out of the plane

But got a bit sleepy again in the questionable taxi..

Is that a smile? :)

Hotel we're staying in

Omg, one of the challenges of this trip is Hakeem's severe aversion towards his stroller. Gahh!

The only time he sat still in his stroller was that time we waited until our room was cleared..

Having a preliminary look at the 1 Borneo Hypermall. This is one of the deco.

Hakeem picked out some toys at the shop - animals, of course!

The hotel gave Hakeem a panda toy

Our room when we finally got it.. Very nice and cosy

The famous (or infamous, whichever way you want to look at it) see-through toilets!

Hafidz, naturally, thought of the classic pose for this scenario!

Hakeem having a look at what his daddy's up to

Hakeem playing with his toys

Bringing his toys to different areas of the room and to different levels in his head! Heehee

When we were supposed to take a nap, I heard someone shout loudly, "Hallo, hallo, hallo". It was this guy.

Having McDonald's for lunch

They have GCB - Grilled Chicken Burger. Quite good..

And then of course we had to go to Toys R Us. Hakeem has a chronic attachment to his daddy today. I've had to surgically remove him from his dad because Hafidz was getting a sore back! And it's because he won't sit in his pushchair and every time we put him in there, he cries. And his crying to his dad is like Kryptonite to Superman. Talk about super manja!

Hakeem happily browsing and taking a particular interest in the Toy Story 3 horse!

Talking to his "friends"

Now it's sleep time! More pictures tomorrow! :)

Banci-less

2011-07-08T22:51:00.001+08:00

Oh yes, I am indeed free, emancipated, liberated from Banci - hopefully, forever! I tell you, the past few weeks has been a right nightmare what with difficult people to handle, incorrectly filled Banci forms to check and a tight deadline to meet. It seems like my life for the whole two weeks was regulated by Banci - not a situation I would like to revisit anytime soon, thank you very much! I finally handed it all in on Wednesday. It only took three days of my annual leave away, grumble grumble. But nevermind, it's all done now.

(Almost) all the borangs in one place

Anyways, my parents in-law must've sensed how busy we've been that they decided to sponsor us on a holiday trip to Kota Kinabalu! It's a birthday present for Hafidz who turns 28 on the 17th. Heehee so I'm actually blogging from the hotel room in KK now using Digi's unlimited broadband thingy that lasts five days. :) But more on our KK stay in the next post(s).

I was actually going to dedicate this post reflecting on my Banci experience because, yea, I haven't talked about it enough on Twitter, Facebook, texts and in real life of course. Heehee. Anyways, eventhough it's not an experience I would like to repeat ever again (I say that now but this may change) I still thought it was a valuable one.

For starters, I was frankly surprised at how poor Bruneians still are. I think I've been living in a bubble too much where poverty is fabricated by the notions of wealth and oil leading me to think that surely everyone in Brunei has a car right? I couldn't be more wrong. A majority of the houses I was monitoring has no car, no job and most of their kids drop out of school at Form 3. And this is where it hurts me the most.

I literally feel a pain in my chest every time I read that some kids leave their education at Primary 2. Isn't there a mandatory nine years education that Brunei has implemented and therefore should be enforcing? Why are there still kids staying at home and not getting the education that they direly need? Wouldn't this just perpetuate the poverty? I'm one of those people who truly advocates education as I think it is people's one way ticket out of poverty.

So that's one area I think should be highlighted once the results of the census is out. Another is probably the over reliance on social welfare help. Once too many, I have read in those forms that the reason why they are not working and not actively looking for work is because they are just too lazy - one of the reason written there literally was "Tidak berminat".

What kind of mentality is this and what message are we sending across by feeding them with dole money anyway? You've heard that Chinese proverb, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life". Should we not focus our efforts on educating them, giving them some valuable skills and making them employable? Of course, one of the underlying problem in this case would probably be actually creating jobs for these people.

But are we really saturated that we cannot create anymore jobs for the unemployed? So why do we still have an 'X' amount of foreigners working in Brunei? Are we too good to be laborers but not too good to be unemployed? I've had a brush with a group of unemployed youth before. One of the reasons for this particular lady to be unemployed for eight long years was simply because "aku inda suka melayan orang". Where has this culture of false sense of superiority come from? When I needed money, I found no qualms at all in enrolling myself as a waitress - some people saw this as "kesian" but I treated this as independence. Independence from government help that may or may not be there tomorrow.

Generally I feel sad with the insights I have gained from reading all the Banci forms. Granted, this may just be an isolated case; the area I was monitoring may just be a particularly poor area. But like most countries all over the world, I have just realised how unequal wealth is spread throughout our country. While I do appreciate how the government introduces initiatives to "help", a bit too much help may become counter-productive in that it sends the wrong messages about what a resilient economy we should and need to be.

Anyways, I think it's too late in the day to be having a tirade over the problems of our youth! I shall move on to happier, less painful, topics tomorrow! :)

The Discovery of iPad

2011-06-28T22:29:00.004+08:00

For the longest time, Hakeem has shown a complete and utter disinterest in the iPad despite all the games and videos on them. But I think he has finally discovered it. This is him at 10.26pm:

Masih lagi drawing kah? Bila tah kan tidur ni? *groan*

Then I realised that he's still a child and needs boundaries which I as the mom should be setting. So I counted to 10 and pre-warned him that at the end of the counting we're going to say goodbye to the iPad and go to sleep. His reaction:

"Nooo.. Whyyy???"

That was DURING the count. This was after the count:

Oh dear.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Crime and Punishment

2011-06-27T22:03:00.004+08:00

Who would've thought I'd blog so soon after my previous post? Heehee but considering the events of the day, I just felt inclined to spend some time to ink it down in the blog. And plus my boss, as if on cue, was advising us during our departmental meeting this morning that we should try as much as possible NOT to bring work home because it's "not healthy on your relationships" and also "unfair to your kids". Such a noble boss he is.

Anyways! Back to today's events.. Hafidz reminded me that he had a court case this morning. It was charges brought against him from the accident he had in December last year - that's when he accidentally crashed the car in front of him when the car braked abruptly; oh and he was driving with an expired license. Since it was such a minor damage on both cars, when Hafidz got a court letter, I didn't really think much of it. I didn't even plan to come along but I decided at the last minute to go with him to offer moral support.

And I'm glad I did. We were seated in court with all the other offenders; excuse me, I meant accused persons! Heehee. After waiting an hour just chit-chatting quietly to each other, the judge finally came and the room instantly became tense and so formal. Our chit-chats were reduced to even quieter whispers and we had to bow and the whole shebang.

As soon as the proceedings began, the first thing that came to my mind was, "How cool is a judge's job? He gets to speak English all day without having anyone judge him." Haha. Anyways, the cases we had to hear before Hafidz's turn was quite amusing and some were quite kesian too. The first few road offenders were those who were caught not wearing their safety belt and one of them pleaded guilty and "minta kesian" because he is unemployed and retired.

The second non-safety-belt-wearing offender pleaded guilty and claimed that the belt could not fit her because she was "too fat". At this point, Hafidz and I looked at each other and had to refrain ourselves from laughing out loud. I tell you, the sheer discipline it takes a judge to keep a straight face from day to day is applaudable! The judge just very calmly pointed out that the rules are there for a reason and that if she cannot abide by them "because of one reason or another" then she shouldn't drive.

Then there was also a case of a young man using sunshades on his car and then asked for a lighter sentence because his salary is "too small". The judge voiced out exactly what was in my mind, that if he can afford to put on illegal sunshades on his car then he should be responsible for paying the fine. Another guy was trying to reduce his $750 fine by negotiating with the court and proposing to pay $50 per month. To this the judge pointed out that this isn't a civil debt and that this was his penalty for not paying road tax and insurance. He added that the alternative would be term in jail.

At this point, I got a bit more sobered. I prayed that the fine would be something affordable so that Hafidz wouldn't have to serve time in jail. :( But when it came to his turn, Alhamdulillah it turned out okay. He pleaded guilty and for his mitigation of charges, he explained that the reason why his license was expired was because he was in UK when it expired and he had just came back. Also, at that time he was holding a British license thus the reduced urgency to renew his Brunei license. He also added that he needed to drive to get to work.

The judge probably stayed silent for a good two minutes while he absorbed all that - I swear, longest two minutes of my life! Eventually he said that he takes into account Hafidz's guilty plea and the fact that it was his first charge, so he imposed the fine of $250 for the reckless driving and $300 for the expired license. A total of $550 payable in a week's time. We paid the full amount straight away of course.

So yea, that's the story of how Hafidz got $550 poorer on pay day.

Oh yea and also about renewing your license on time and the importance of rest before driving. Doctors should NOT be allowed to drive after being on call for 24 hours. There should be policies and directives on the maximum number of working hours they can be allowed to work at one time - health and safety (and LIVES) are dependent on them! Work on it Ministry of Health!

P.S. Here's a snippet of my Twitter conversation with Hafidz post-court case. I was saying I hope he feels better now that the sentence is just $550 and not jail. This was his reply (and as usual, read from bottom up! Heehee).

Banci Penduduk dan Perumahan 2011

2011-06-26T23:19:00.003+08:00

There may be interruption in the regular blogging pattern because as everyone (hopefully!) in Brunei knows, the population census is currently undergoing and implemented by JPKE. I was blissfully detached from the whole process until that one day when I decided to open my big mouth to utter the word, "Bah".

You see, JPKE is a relatively small department with a population of around 200 people. So when this whole Banci process was underway, they (the people in Department of Statistics) realised they needed more Pegawai Penyelia Banci and they started asking around if anyone would be interested in taking up this post. They made it sound attractive too; two weeks' job for $700 and you don't even have to go from house to house interviewing people. All you have to do is monitor the progress of eight interviewers and check on their work. Easy right? Thus the "Bah" moment.

Little did I know, checking forms filled by people across the country is NOT straightforward. Questions are not understood by all the interviewers, let alone the general public. So there's challenge number one to be overcome pronto! There's also the case of people not cooperating and refusing flat-out to provide information, which by the way, thanks very much, this census is ONLY to help the whole Brunei, you included! I have to go to those houses and stand to be refused myself.

And then of course the mathematics I failed to do before my "Bah" moment - each interviewer has to go to 40 houses each which means at least 40 forms, and I have to monitor eight interviewers which means I have to (painstakingly) go through 320 forms! This is the part where I laugh hysterically.

So yea, that's the story of why I haven't been able to blog much. These two weeks will be consumated completely by this Banci process and I will be happy when 3rd July comes (because SUPPOSEDLY that's when it's supposed to end). Heehee.

Is this whole process worth $700? I may be jumping the gun here, but I think, yes absolutely. Banci only happens once every 10 years and one week into it I have already gained a wealth of new experiences and insight especially on the state of our country (more on this post-Banci!). So yea, eventhough it may be eating into more time than I'd like, I'm happy to be involved in the process how ever little it may be. And plus, who knows if I'd ever get to be involved again in 10 years time? In the era of boundaryless career, who stays in their first job for more than 10 years? ;)

The pile I need to go through

The habit I need to break!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Old Skool is Cool

2011-06-19T16:48:00.002+08:00

It is so unbelievably hot outside; perfectly conducive weather to stay indoors and blog. That is just as well because I actually have something to blog about! Hurrah! But before that, I just thought I'd say that Hafidz and I just finished watching Green Lantern and what a disappointment! It is definitely no Thor or Ironman; heck, I'd say even X-men was more enjoyable. I thought the movie really magnified the mediocrity of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's acting - they're hot beings but they really fell flat in this movie, I thought.

Anyways! Last night we had another Cali gathering! We had it at my house and it was the first time Hakeem would play with both Safiyya and Humayra. As usual, pictures to tell the story... :)

Daddy and son before the guests arrived

Hakeem stealing a cookie from the kitchen

And looking well pleased by it!

Walking around the room, happily munching on his cookie like a little big boss

Enough sugar now to make him climb on furniture and everything else

Trying to speak with his mouth full

Yea that's right buddy. I think you best finish chewing first before you speak!

And then our guests came! Adam, Lyn and Humayra came first because Shauqi, Niza and Safiyya were coming in from Belait. After our initial socialising, we had some food which we forgot to take a picture of before devouring it.. Sigh! But anyways, we cheated and bought takeaway from our favourite chinese restaurant, Curry House in Gadong. We had the staples Buttermilk Chicken, Baby Kailan, Black Pepper Beef, Yam Prawn and Salad Prawn (from Nyonya). Lyn made cheesecake for dessert! :)

Lyn's cheesecake that had Cali wording on it with grapes, not jellybeans!

After dinner we had karaoke. Yes, karaoke sessions. And it wasn't even karaoke with PS3's Singstar or anything cool like that. We had a throwback-to-the-90s-karaoke complete with the wired microphones and box TV! Haha! When Hafidz first brought the karaoke set home, I thought it was going to be quite boring what with the old songs and all, but it was a surprise hit with the Cali's particularly the boys!

Kickin' it back old skool!

Keen on getting 100%. Oh yea, the karaoke set also sets scores. Haha..

Jamal Abdillah! Awie Wings! Amy Search! M. Nasir! So old skool!

The Calis picking a song...

...while Hakeem happily plays with his toys!

Lyn singing Kau Ilhamku by.. I wanna say Manbai? Mambai?

Safiyya looking bored by the adults..

So it's time to engage in a meaningful conversation with peers her age

"Hey what's up, my name's Safiyya. Is that a dinosaur you're holding?"

Humayra couldn't join Kakak Safiyya and Abang Hakeem because she's still too little. Soon she will! Oh and she was asleep almost the whole time - throughout all the rough singing and laughing!

Oh and when Hafidz started to talk to Safiyya, suddenly Hakeem felt the need to inch a bit closer to his daddy. It was quite funny. And Safiyya doesn't eat rice so she only eats bread as a substitute (made in England banar!)...

...and Hakeem TOTALLY out of character asks us for bread! He NEVER asks for bread but seeing that Safiyya was holding on to some, he suddenly needs bread. Haih!

Cheekily giving a wave

Enjoying his bread while Safiyya guns for the toys

And then he realises, how rude of him not to offer!

And so he gallantly offers Safiyya the half-eaten bread he was chewing on

Bersuap-suapan sudah anak kami ani kah?!

Safiyya got a bit frustrated that the feeder is incompetent in getting bread in her mouth and therefore growls very loudly at him and tries to take the bread from his hands..

...and growls even louder when Hakeem resisted...

...which then scared Hakeem away and on to his daddy's lap for comfort! LOL!

Menyamal..

For quite some time too..

Safiyya remains victorious in the pursuit of bread! Go Safiyya!

The rest of the night was spent with the boys singing more old songs - from Hotel California to Staying Alive. Gosh! All that bad singing was complemented by bad dancing. I have videos to prove this and I shall post it as soon as I can produce and upload it. But until then, I have to bid farewell because I have to run errands now. Boring!

Toodles! :D

Snack Pack

2011-06-16T12:52:00.003+08:00

Mummy let me have a snack pack today. Not only that, she even let me make a mess and feed myself!

Daddy would be so proud of me!

Love, Hakeem.

P.S. By the way, I want to take this opportunity to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wawa! Happy birthday Wawa! May your life be blessed with happiness and good health always. Also, I want to meet Kaka Aisya and Baby Aina soon please! Thank you! :D

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Kampung Boy

2011-06-13T21:42:00.001+08:00

I love weekends when both my mummy and daddy are at home. This is me the past few weekends:

Mama said I looked like a kampung boy in this attire...

I think it's a pretty cool ensemble!

Oh and the other day, daddy got me a play pen. I think it was meant to be a gate for the stairs so that I won't fall down.. But they haven't found anyone to put it on yet..

So in the mean time, mummy says I can play in it. So I took the liberty to play with all my soft toys!

This is me dancing while eating my fruits! Mummy caught me in the midst of my dance moves, thus the crayzee eyes!

Taking a break dulu..

This is me and my daddy, who is in his friday prayer garb, just chilling..

I love my daddy. I think he loves me too! Oh and notice how both daddy and I have the same "jerawat" on our forehead? Heehee

Till the next post! I want to go and draw now.. Bye!

Funday Sunday

2011-06-12T18:37:00.003+08:00

For our family, on a Sunday, we did quite a lot today as opposed to just staying in bed and taking numerous naps. Heehee. I started off the day with a short (minuscule, really) jog. And then Hafidz and I went out to get breakfast and on the way enjoyed some Mraz music.

Is there a better album than We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things?

For breakfast we had our favourite murtabak

This place makes THE best murtabak. Nice and crispy, and their curry makes it perfect! I took a picture of their address in case any of y'all wanna try :)

After breakfast we brought Hakeem to Times Square to try out the arcade place. First we went to the playground where he had a ball going on the big slides. We've noticed how agile and brave Hakeem is now and how easy it is for him to climb things. It's embarrassing, but it was quite hard to keep up with him man!

Climbing the very steep "steps". You'll notice that Hakeem held on to his little cat toy (that's not even his, but his Mama Ana's!) from the beginning until the end.

They had fun slides! Oh and might I add that that lady sitting on the stairs who is supposed to "monitor" the kids might as well have not been there. She was taking a nap. Such an inconvenient place to nap, I do think.

We had to take turns bringing him up the slide. He seemed to have limitless energy, unlike us oldies.

The straight slide was fun enough but this swirly one was even more so!

Just look at the pure joy in his (their) face(s)!

"Mau lagi!"

And then we went on the safari ride thingy. It's just a place where they had a few animals and a track for the cars we went on. It was quite fun. I think Hakeem enjoyed it, although he was quite tired already by then.

The setting of the "safari". Heehee. Good effort, good effort. :)

After that we played some air hockey! Heehee.

Then we Hakeem got a bit tired, so we went downstairs to get us some Each a Cup drinks. Here's Hakeem entertaining himself by turning the table and watching my wallet and his cup turn with it.

And of course a trip to Times Square wouldn't be complete without visiting the bookstore. I got him his first coloring book and color pencils because he was showing interest in drawing (read: scribbling all over my books!).

And he was making so much noise in the store with a xylophone, so we decided to get it for him to play at home.

"You wanna try, mummy?"

"Bah jangantah, daddy saja play with me then."

Then we went home to take a nap before going out again to get food. I decided to stop by the optician to get my eyes checked because I was starting to get headaches and dizziness after prolonged use of the computer, and true enough my eyes are slightly damaged. I probably could do with a few more years without glasses, but I decided to get one anyways for when I'm at work and having to stare at my computer all day.

I have to go now and play with Hakeem. He's still on his xylophone. Something tells me we are going to regret getting him that xylophone. :-/ Toodles!

Cozy Coupe

2011-06-12T08:00:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I came home to this:

Hakeem and daddy playing car outside - in his Havaianas!

He's at this phase where when we say, "Cemana cute, Hakeem?" he does that to his mouth.. Heehee

"Are we there yet, mummy??"

Chilling in his coupe

Spotted a bird!

Baby Aina

2011-06-11T23:30:00.000+08:00

That's the name of our new baby niece! After the last two dragging posts, I'm actually feeling physically uplifted starting this one with our new niece's name! Heehee. Anyways, if you've read our blog before then you'll probably know about Aisya, our lateng and beautiful niece. Well, she just received a baby sister on the 2nd of June!

We went bonkers that morning when we heard about the news of the birth; we couldn't wait to see her! But anyways, we saw pictures of her first and I remember thinking she looks exactly like Aisya when she was born! Heehee. See below for illustration :)

Aina is on the left and Aisya's on the right

Isn't Aina absolutely beautiful? I'm in looove! Her name is even prettier because it has a sentimental value to it - Aina Farzana Nurtayybah. :) "Nurtayybah" being the name our late Kaka Dina's dad gave her.. :') More pictures to see how pretty baby Aina is:

Aina and Nenek Girl at her aqiqah ceremony

She slept throughout the whole thing! Heehee

We only managed to get Aisya to sit still for a second to take this picture! Wheeee!

And this is a precious picture ~~illegally~~ taken off my brother's twitter. Heehee. How sweet, right? I want a girl now..

Congratulations once again Banggo and Kaka Dina! :)

The Chali Crew

2011-06-11T22:30:00.000+08:00

The other day, I realised how important it was for me to maintain regular meet-ups with friends. Sometimes we get too caught up in the rat race that we forget the simpler things that means a lot more - family, friends, yourself and iman. That's why it was so refreshing to be reunited with the Cali gang after so long! :) Unfortunately we were missing a few important people that night - yea that's you LutfiZimah!

That night we had a lot of discussion about Brunei and life in general. It ignited a lot of thoughts and helped me regroup and gain more insight on things - you know, more boring stuff that will potentially make your forehead and keyboard meet! But it was definitely much needed just to keep us sane and grounded. Anyways, sorry to be so cryptic and vague but I just wanted to ink into our blog that we had the reunion the other night with MumtathilFizah who were in Brunei for a few days! Heehee.

And they bought us cake! Albeit with an extra "H" in Cali...

...but nothing a knife can't fix, innit! Oh and can I just say that DQ cakes are the bomb! I've tasted two flavours so far and both are so superfrigginlicious!

Congratulations by the way to the good news bearer that night! :)

This is Brunei

2011-06-11T21:35:00.001+08:00

Wow, it's only been 12 days since my last post? It feels much, much longer I must say. Unfortunately our hiatus has nothing to do with anything as exciting as a holiday; we've just been bogged down by work. It's been almost a year since we came back, and six months since I started work, and I am already battling the daily "this is Brunei" mentality - you know, the one where we must never question the old ways and must always conform lest we be cast aside by society? It's quite exhausting.. I've suffered a few identity crises already since I started work - am I the person who compromises favourable chances in the workplace to push forward what I believe is right, or vice versa?

Anyways, I will save my time (and yours) and talk about happier times instead - like weddings! :) Last weekend we went to Hafidz's cousin's wedding in Lumut. We went to their nikah event at Masjid Zainab and their sanding was at the SPARK building. I think Belait district in general is a place we need to venture out to. Despite being in Brunei (and Brunei is only a small country for Pete's sake!), Belait is still very foreign and unfamiliar to me. I've heard they even have a different culture there - more industrious and civilised, apparently.. :)

Hafidz and Zaki waiting around after the event. They should really switch on their air conditioner next time someone has an event there? :-/

This is during the sanding. We only found out that day that Hakeem's matching baju melayu was too small - his head couldn't even fit in the hole! Sigh! So he had to come as the cool guy wearing a white tee with jeans.

Another picture just to show his outfit. Couldn't really get a nice picture of him standing still, understandably so..

His favourite way to be carried by daddy (or is it daddy's favourite way to carry Hakeem?)

Fancy a monkey, mummy?

Hafidz, Hakeem and his nana. Such a nice picture this one is! Even Hakeem was looking at the camera! Heehee.

I wasn't so lucky though.. He. Just. Couldn't. Stay. Still..

The only picture of us three

Little big boss..

On the red carpet.. :)

That's it for now but please excuse the impending influx of posts! I happen to finally have free time! Woohoo!

For The Love of iPad2

2011-05-31T13:04:00.003+08:00

Last Sunday, we did something we never thought we'd do; we joined the masses and kiasu-ly queued for the iPad2 outside AV Electronics - the only shop that officially sells Apple products. It was the first time we ever queued for something that is so popular and doesn't have enough supply to meet the crazy demand! So we thought we'd do it in full force! :)

We came at 7.20am (the store only opens at 10am) and needless to say we were the first one in line! Heehee.

Hafidz was well pleased that we were the first ones there; I was a bit embarassed to be honest. I can't really say I'm much of a kiasu person but Hafidz's enthusiasm was quite infectious. The second couple in line came at about 8 am. They tried three times before that to get the iPad2 3G version but failed all times so they weren't taking any chances with this shipment.

By 9.30 am the line had become like this:

Overall I think there's a happy ending for all. I think everyone got what they wanted in the end so hurrah to AV Electronics for bringing us the iPad2! :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Kungfu Panda 2

2011-05-29T08:46:00.004+08:00

This weekend has been quite eventful so far because last night we brought Hakeem for his first cinematic experience! And alhamdulillah, he sat through it all! Of course we had to explain beforehand the concept of a cinema - dark room, huge screen, strangers sitting next to us, etc so that he wouldn't be too confused and overstinulated by it all..

Overall I think Kungfu Panda 2 is a great choice of movie to bring Hakeem for his first time especially since he loooves the first one.. When Hafidz said to me a few weeks ago that he wants to watch Kungfu Panda 2 with Hakeem at the cinema, I totally disregarded it as unfeasible but I was pleasantly surprised last night :) A few times he got a wee bit excited and screamed "Haiyah, haiyah, haiyah" and at some painful parts reiterated "Ow, ow, ow" very loudly.. But his loud enthusiasm didn't hold a candle to the kid behind us who was super hyper and super loud! Heehee.

Some pictures but of crap iPhone4 quality only because we forgot to bring our camera (slaps forehead):

Before the movie started. We overcompensated by bringing maybe too many of his stuffed toys.. Heehee..

After the movie

Screaming "yayyy" at the Kungfu Panda 2 poster. Haha!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wedding Weekend

2011-05-15T18:56:00.002+08:00

Last weekend was a rather busy one because my first cousin who lives next door got married. Ironically, I didn't actually get a picture of the bride. :-/ But got a few of Hakeem in his majlis attire though! Heehee.

Here he is trying to fasten his sinjang which is way too small for him now

Trying to get Hakeem to stay still for a picture is just impossible!

Especially if his dad's quite restless too!

Here's a family pic we got using the timer. That's Hakeem forcefully trying to slide away from me and me holding on futilely by grabbing his err crotch.. :-/ Sorry Hakeem.

Hakeem making friends with a girl his age

Hakeem helping the girl up the stair. Good boy.

And finally his favourite cousin's here!

With Wawa

Playing with Kaka Aisya

Stacking blocks really high with the help of Kaka Aisya

Twitter Conversation: HP

2011-05-12T18:57:00.001+08:00

Twitter conversation this evening with my siblings.. As is the nature of Twitter, kindly read from the bottom up (starting from the last picture) to make any sense out of this post. Heehee.

Haha I guess Harry Potter IS lame to an army guy who, I imagine, would hate losing on the battlefield. And let's face it, HP's nothing without his comrades.

But seriously, is Harry Potter's last movie out already? And yes, my batt was indeed only 8% charged and is now dwindling to 6%. I better goooo!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Peter and Jane

2011-05-12T18:09:00.000+08:00

We bought Hakeem his first Peter and Jane book last week.

He immediately took it in his hands..

...and flipped through it.

Reading..

Still at it..

After a while he handed the book back over to me...

...because he would much rather be doing this!

Peter and Jane Book 1A - do kids still read this in school?

And a book for mummy! ;)

Kungfu Hakeem

2011-05-06T15:31:00.001+08:00

Inspired by Jack Black's Kungfu Panda:

YouTube Video

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mamaaam!

2011-05-06T09:10:00.001+08:00

At LaMee last night, Hakeem demanded for "mamam" as soon as we sat down. Uhm, Hakeem that's not how it works. We have to actually make an order first?

YouTube Video

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Temburong Bisai

2011-05-05T21:01:00.000+08:00

For the second leg of our orientation excursion we took an overnight trip to Temburong. This time it was more of a laid back chill session rather than a weekend of power grinding positive motivational team building concepts into our skulls. What Malai promised us was a more relaxing time since we worked hard during the Rambai trip. Having been to Temburong only once or twice when I was smaller I thought this would be a great opportunity to explore another part of Brunei.

Naturally the day started out bright an early 7am sharp. We went to Temburong by boat which took roughly 45mins. Our first stop was to visit Temburong Hospital, which in itself was a real eye opener. Having previously worked in hospitals with 2000 bed capacity in UK, I found it quite remarkable that Temburong Hospital only has 32 beds in total! Normally this would be the size of one ward, and while we were touring around there were only four inpatients! So the sheer difference in scale was amazing to say the least.

The guys waiting for the boat
Something tells me safety has been compromised somehow...
SOAS Mosque from the water...flashback to 50 years ago...
Touring one of the wards in the Hospital

After the tour we finally touched down to our homebase for the trip. We got the privilege to stay at Temburong's youth centre (Pusat Belia). The accomodation was a shade better than Rambai, this time we actually had mattresses, showers, a washing machine, and shops within 5 mins walking distance. We spent the rest of the morning playing a game of 'pop the balloon' however this had to be accomplished with flimsy poles made of straw with a needle at the end while being blind folded. Not the easiest task in the world, especially when everyone was shouting instructions all at once. It got a bit chaotic in the end and once the activity was done the feed back from Malai was that we were still not working as one. His argument was that eventhough we were competing in teams we could still 'cooperate' and work side-by-side instead of stepping on each other's toes. This would prove to be a a foundation for a later challenge that day.

After the balloon challenge we had lunch and a bit of down time before we set out for the main event of the day. That afternoon we were taken to Bukit Patoi for a bit of a hike. Bukit Patoi is one of those natural forest hills converted into a recreational hiking trail, ala Bukit Shahbandar. The climb to the 'peak' took us about 45mins and the view from the top was spectacular. I won't claim to be the fittest person in the group however me, Adam and Shauqi were able to stick with the lead pack. But what perplexed me was that the person at the lead was Malai himself! and this dude is technically twice our age but was still able to lead the group and reach the top first. Something to aspire to I guess if I reach that sort of age. I guess this shows the importance of having a health mind and body.

Bukit Patui entrance

Onwards and upwards!

A lot of trees and a lot of stairs...grumbles

This was called the Shear Wall...halfway to the top!

Triumphant exhaultation victory pose for the win!

After our hike we went back to homebase and we had another hour to kill before the evening activities started. We took this oportunity to explore Temburong town and to sample the local cuisine. The guys decided to visit the local india restaurant and try Temburong's very own murtabaks! Once we regained the calories we burned from the hike we went back to base chilled out a bit more while waiting for Malai to start his activities.

Waiting for our orders

Our authentic cook! (we checked to make sure he wasn't wearing any rings!)

So the activities for the evening consisted of more of the standard working together and thinking out of the box stuff. By this time D.R.S was working like a well oiled machine of destruction. We were dismantling Malai's challenges and completing them in record time. In actual fact the other teams were performing similarly aswell. One of the notable challenges was something called 'The Zin Obelisk'. Without giving too much away this challenge required us to share information and bring our heads together to try and solve a puzzle. Apparently this game is a favorite when it comes to corperate retreat team building sessions like ours and it was pretty satisfying when we figured out the correct answer!

But the last challenge of the night was our ultimate test. Malai just gave each team an envelope and just told us to get on with it. Inside these envelopes was a piece of stationary, two strips of colored paper and two lines of instructions. The first one was that we were meant to make a chain of six different colored pieces of paper with specific dimensions. The second instruction was that we were meant to create the Brunei flag out of the remaining paper, also according to specific dimensions. So essentially what we were given was a stapler, a yellow strip and a red strip. It took us a few minutes to realise that the other teams had different tools, for example a ruler, and different colored strips. A guy from another group, Shahriman, was the first to suggest that we work together and in the end we pulled our resources and by working together we completed what initially seemed to be an impossible task.

Malai was impressed with how quickly our group managed to figure out the point of the exercise and praised us for being one of the faster groups to acheive this. In fact he went so far as to say in all his eleven years of doing this our batch was the best he's had so far! (I wonder if he says that to all his participants?). Essentially he wanted to see if we'd work together and the chain represented our symbol of unity and bonds that we've made during this orientation, and the flag was there to instill patriotism and to remind us that we are here to serve our people and our country! We ended the exercise with a very enthusiastic singing of the National Anthem!

This was the 'House' puzzle in which the team had to take it apart piece by piece and reassemble it on another table, all to the done while blindfolded with one unblinded team member giving out instructions
We used a human chain to transport the pieces, then the edge of the table to provide a nice edge to work from, lastly each member remained useful till the end by holding down the pieces that were already place so they wouldn't move too much!
The Zin Obelisk instructions...den den dennnn
Finally working together on our last challenge
The result! A chain representing our unity and our flag!

It was quite and exhausting day and we were all ready to hit the hay. The next morning we took a trip to this ourward bound place for a little fresh air. The 'Cali Chaplins' got up to mischief once again when we discovered a small waterfall and decided to go for a swim. The water was nice and refreshing. On the way back we stopped over and attended a first aid certificate giving ceremony as Malai was involved in this aswell (busy man). After the ceremony we all stopped over at the local market to buy some of the infamous 'wajid temburong'! The boat trip back was peaceful and serene and I actually slept all the way back to Brunei.

Enjoying a bit of waterfall goodness

Another group photo for the nostalgia album...somehow you feel they'd always look great in black and white

Breakfast and Shopping

2011-05-04T21:38:00.001+08:00

Last weekend we did our ritual Sunday morning thing - breakfast at Country Patch.

To keep him still in his seat, Hafidz got him the house's toy - it just happened to be a Disney Princess toy laptop. Erm...

Aaahh.. This is much more interesting!

And on Saturday we went shopping with him in Manggis Mall. :)

Wearing his dad's cap. Oh and don't forget your recyclable bags peeps!

Hehehehe

'Sup?