kill my time?

Went to the mall at 11:30am, planning to eat in pizza hut with a couple of my JIS friends. Reached there n hung out with mali n izzi who were there as well. Waited for around an hour in the mall for the rest to turn up. ohh my.. must be the bruneian timing ey? Nabil came not long later, followed by adib. Wanted to eat in pizza hut but it was full, so ended up eating in swensons with mali, izzi, nabil, adib, muiz, zimah, nads n connie. swensons changed their menu! or maybe i just haven't been there for such a long time. the meal ended with the concoction of this drink filled with water, tabasco, pepper, salt, lemon, tomato sauce by mali, bil, dib n muiz. it is basically anything they could get their hands on.

Walked around the mall aimlessly again as usual. Went from shop to shop. there was even a catwalk/ show involving "beautiful models" (according to pilihan fm) occuring on the 1st floor. Watched a small section of the performances by some bruneian shufflers on the ground floor. there was quite a crowd there, some people with their cameras recording the shuffles!
Saw eric come out of the mall as we were about to split n leave. benny n he pierced their ears! haha ohh well.. goodluck trying not to get bombed by your parents~

Had dinner at home before heading to Yappy to have a drink with my cousins. i might need to find a job, something to kill my time?

3-lane roundabouts~ phew

Went out for lunch with JC, rach n javon in pizza hut mall. Ordered the family set n tried out the new pizza, cheesybites which is quite nice! Brought JC to the post office in kiulap, quite funny seeing her send her letter to her uni. on the way there, we get to hear a live talk show - javon n his lovey dovey talk to that someone. haha. Went back to the mall n watch javon at work while rach lined up to use the ATM.

Met up with clayton n bryan in the mall before sitting in clayton's car with JC as the driver! wicked sound system n sound-proof windows but that didn't go far. the music was turned to the low for most of the ride~ JC as the driver.. oh dear~ heart-attack man! well, to be honest, i was quite nervous n scared to see her drive. i bet the others in the car were scared as well.. Drove around for a little while before ending up in matedoe to have a drink n play cards. Chinese poker it is!

Clay brought bryan n JC back before dropping rach n i in the mall. but the ride back was even freakier. Nearly died in his car in the 3-lane roundabout, as he swerved away from a car which was doing a wrong turn from the outer lane! crazy guy.. must have thought he was jay chou for a day! haha.

Brought rach home before heading back home then out for dinner in Sushi-Teh.

out and about~

Went out lunch with leo n izzy to yappy. its been 2 years since i met n talked to leo, so we had a good time catching up. he is on holiday in brunei. As for izzy, it has only been a couple of weeks. Went for the movie, Incredible Hulk in Q-lap mall before heading to master alim to play pool for a couple of hours. Incredible Hulk was quite good actually eventhough i nearly slept at the most exciting part of the movie. i don't know why my eyes wanted to close at that part. izzy went back not long after pool so leo n i went to yappy to drink again. Chatted for a little while before heading back home.

Was in the round-about when javon rang me up, asking me to go out for dinner in Cheezbox with rach. the food there in cheezbox was nice! i thought the place would be quite expensive but the price was reasonable. we even had a computer with internet to play with, but the connection was crap.

Spaghetti carbonara with salmon

Walked to Unitek, 'heaven of fake discs' to look for movies before heading to the mall. Met adib, najib, muiz there. Didn't know what we were doing in the mall, so javon came up with the idea of sitting down at the stairs at the cineplex n pretending as if we are waiting for a movie. haha it was a funny moment there, sitting there aimlessly.

emperor's court~

Went out for with lim n alex to emperor's court in hua ho mangis for the dimsum buffet lunch. the food there was ok, nothing really special that i haven't eaten before. Had a good time catching up with the lads till around 1ish pm before heading to lim's house. haven't seen them in ages eventhough they study in uk. Played magic cards n tekken as usual there. its been some time we did this.
Went to yappy to have dinner. gary n hao were there as well. Had curry fish head with rice.

airport

Sent fred off in the airport as he is leaving to melbourne yesterday. Picked JC up from her house so she could send fred off as well. Chilled in the airport restaurant for around an hour. Javon n rach were there as well.
Sent rach n javon back home before heading to Yappy for lunch.
Went to misato for dinner with my family. i didn't eat much as i was feeling sick. must have been the lack of sleep these past few days. Went back n slept at 10pm which is considered dam early.

Cooking?

Went to Yappy for lunch with my mum n sis. Met the aunts there as usual. Hung around there till about 2pm before bringing my mum to land transport. Went to JIS to bring my bro back. my mum brought Ba-kua back from singapore! Had a couple of pieces before going out.

Ba-Kua!

Went to the newly opened Hong Kong restaurant near Yappy with fred, rach n jia chi to limteh. The food there was ok, nothing really special. But something special is yet to happen today as it was fred's last day in brunei. JC then planned to cook dinner for us in fred's house. Went grocery shopping in Supa Save. One of funniest n yet weirdest shopping experience. Fred must have called back to his house at least 5 times to ask his maid whether there were certain items such as eggs n fish sauce.
Headed back to fred's house at around 5ish pm n started preparing all the stuff before cooking. it was JC who was the head chef! she tried teaching me how to wrap Wan-tan but i still can't do it. instead, my wan-tan is triangle!

Stuff bought...

Black-peppered lamb

Wan-tan!

Spent around 3 hours preparing n cooking. it was tiring but we had lots of fun in the kitchen, wrapping wan-tans n ordering kelly who ordered mila to get certain items. Finally, dinner is served!

Brought my karaoke set including the shure player n the disc player to fred's house to sing karaoke cos fred's set was spoilt. it was quite a quiet night though - everyone looks knackered.

Piggy-back?

What has gone into his mind? LOL

fred, rach, my bro, me n JC

Night out~

Went to Le Taj in Kiulap to have dinner with fred, rach, jia chi, javon n my bro. A very nice place to have spicy indian food. you wouldn't get anything as cheap as this in london. Only paid around 8 dollars each (which is around 3 pounds).
Went to the night market in gadong (tamu?) to buy drinks with javon, jc n my bro while fred n rach brought kelly back home before heading to empire beach. we were planning to sit by the rocks but in the end, sat near the swimming pool in some cool-looking like chair/bunk thing. Did a fair bit of catching-up before our attention was turned towards javon n his experience in sdyney.
Was suppose to get my mum from the airport at 11ish pm but her flight was delayed till 2am. Chilled out in De Fountain in Kiulap till the time struck about 1:40am. A very enjoyable night out. however, fred is going to go back to melbourne this friday! n our so-called party thing didn't happen as well, which was a let down. So much about getting me drunk ey fred? There is always a next time! till that time comes~

Steamboat~

Went to Yappy to have brunch. Met eric n his dad there (eric just came back from fitness zone). Found out that to register in fitness zone is quite cheap. its something like $40 per month? Went shopping with my sis in Hua Ho to buy groceries before heading back home.

Had a steamboat dinner in fred's house with rach, jia chi, javon (one of fred's friend who i have seen somewhere before), gary, eric n my bro. Played rummy with the group n then sang karaoke. there is something wrong with fred's dvd player so most of the songs cant be played which was a shame! but anyways, we still had fun. Not long into the party, ted n his gang came by n brought gary, eric n jia chi back. We continued singing after they have left - Javon with his uber high-pitched voice singing quite alot of girly songs (Barbie girls n viva forever by spice girls - just to name a few). Ended the karaoke session with the Jay Chou album. forgotten how to sing most of the songs already cos i havent been listening much to the old jay albums.

Ahkong's Bday

Went to Ahkong's house to celebrate his birthday. Met everyone there except for kevin, clemen, victor, chia n edwin. Clemen is in singapore, vic in aussie, kevin somewhere in brunei n chia n edwin in uk. its great to see the yap family under one roof again!
will post up photos next time. i need to get the photos off kae who was the photographer with his Canon 400D.

Yappy?

Sunday which means free-day. Woke up at 12ish after being bombarded by morning phone calls from 5th uncle n fred. Went to Yappy for brunch. Met joel's parents there n a few of my dad's friends.

Butter milk prawns with fried rice

Watched Kung Fu Panda in the cinema in Kiulap with my bro, sis, gary, fred, rach n kelly. It's quite a funny movie. didn't even know that there are quite a number of famous stars acting in it. Jack Black as the panda, Angelina Jolie as the tigress, Jackie Chan as the monkey.

Spent the rest of my afternoon in the music room at home. Watched live badminton while listening to some old songs from a CD. Lee Chong Wei the malaysian world number 2 beat Simon Santoso of Indonesia 21-13, 21-5. he totally destroyed Santoso in the 2nd round to win the gold medal.

The music from the ProAc speakers in the room was some wicked! Very clear mids n highs could be heard~ Now, i know what my dad n uncle simon are talking about last time.

Black-pepper chicken chop n fries for dinner!

my bro n gary enjoying their time at Yappy! haha.. they dont get stuck in Yappy for hours now.

Upgrade!

Went to Yappy for brunch n had butter fish with fried rice n mango milkshake. i m already kinda sick of that place.. eating at the same place everyday. anyways, i m enjoying the food in brunei! no more washing dishes, doing my laundry n cooking (eventhough i enjoy cooking)~
Went to TTCO to upgrade my laptop. Changed two of my 512mb RAM (1Gb in total on my tablet) for a total of 3Gb RAM. It's so much faster now, loading warcraft takes so much less time n Solidworks (engineering program i used for mech eng) loads quite fast as well. Got a good offer from the store as my bro knew the manager in the store.

Played pool with alex n my bro in FullCan (ex-Arena) near Supa-Save.
Went to Yappy to have dinner again. Met 5yi, 3yi, 2yi n uncle simon there. Today was the first time i met uncle Simon eventhough he is my neighbour.
Walked to the hotel which opened quite recently near Yappy (there isn't anything to do there as most of the shops are closed).

Yappy Dry Curry Mee

Curry fish with fried rice

Came back n played DOTA again with jon, hao n my bro. I am going to watch the Spain- Sweden match now. Thats all folks!

Escapade!

Slept at around 2am n woke up at 7:40am to send my bro to JIS for school. Got back n couldn't sleep, so ended up watching TV for a little while. Astro has changed from the 2-digit channels to 3-digit, so i was basically exploring out the channels. The splitter in my house doesn't work anymore and there is only one astro card, meaning that i can only watch astro with the card in one room. Went to Yappy with my sis n met fred, rach, gary n eric there. Had Ipoh Ho Fun n Iced 3 Sour. Not long later, vincent came back from Bath, London n had his lunch there. Met ahkong n ahmah there as well. Spent the whole day with gary on my back. Did random things like scaring eric when he was in fitness zone (we asked the receptionist to call him down, making him think that he was in trouble). Went to the mall to check out laptops as there was a fair there n to look around. Collected a handful of brochures from the stalls before i was confronted by some middle-aged saleswoman who thought i was going to buy the vaio laptop (thanks to gary n his mouth!)

Got my hair-cut at Erick's at last.. but it is awfully short! Got my bro from JIS before heading to Yappy again. Had indo-mee n Milo shake. Went back n checked out the music room n the amps. Sounds impressive but i am going to try it out tomorrow since my sis starts her holidays n my bro doesn't have school tomorrow.

Too Short?

Went to Excapade to have japanese food dinner with 5yi, 2yi, gary, eric, kae, yenyen (kae's son), my bro n sis. Went to the mall again coz 5yi wanted to change her shoes in iwalk n i needed to buy fresh milk. The Mall has changed... there are no more so-called "poklans" smoking outside due to the public smoking ban n there is no more pool (it's taken over by the arcade).

Gyoza

Asparagus rolled in salmon

Soft crab

More crabs

Raw salmon fish

Played DOTA with eddy n my bro when i got back before playing with gary n eric on hamachi. i can't belive that i spent almost 9 whole months in uk without playing games n now i m back in brunei playing games. it must be the boredom thats hitting in n the amount of freedom i have now (with no worries about exams).

i need to find something to do~

2nd day~

another day has passed in brunei. went to renew my driving lisence in the land transport head-quarters (some blue building) in the morning. spent around an hour waiting for my number, which is fast for a government building? anyways, i feel safer now with a renewed driving lisence! Sent my sis to school then went for lunch in yappy. Had Yappy Curry Mee n Yappy Twin (coffee n Teh-C). Didnt take a photo of the food again~ this isn't like london. everyone will probably stare at u if u take photos of food in brunei! Called alex n went to Master Alim to play pool for about an hour or so before he left coz he needed to go back to the Mall to take care of his game shop.

Sent my bro to JIS for his last exam, then headed to Erick's. Wanted to have a haircut but the hair-dresser wasn't there so ended going to Yappy to have Roti Kuning with peanut butter n iced barley with lemon. i need a haircut! everyone i see have been telling me to cut it (looks like i came from the jungle.. Orang Utan!?) Went to Hua Ho Kiulap to do a little shopping since my mum wasn't here before heading to PDS to get my sis n JIS to get my bro. dam.. if theres something such as a driver's award, i will probably get it!

Went out for dinner in B1-Manjaro with fred, rach, eric, gary n my bro. the food was not really nice n it was quite expensive~ Took a few photos, but they are in fred's camera. Will take them off him sometime. Fred n rach headed to carrie's house for some party not long ago after eric n gary arrived. Went to Master Alim again to play pool. it's dam smoky there eventhough brunei has implented the so-called "no smoking in public places" rule.

Back to Brunei~

Woke up at 4:30am in my hall, packed my toileteries after taking a shower n headed out of the hall at 5:30am. Took the first tube from Caledonian Road towards Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3 n 5. This was the last time i m going to be in PC hall. Its a beautiful morning with the sun-rise from my window as i looked for a new beginning!

My hair when i woke up.

Beautiful morning~

Tube ride was boring.. took around an hour to reach heathrow terminal 1,2,3 station. Walked towards terminal 3 to meet up with alex before checking in at the counter. I only had 1 small luggage to check-in as i was travelling light n all my remaining luggages are in brunei hall storage room. We had around 2 hours to kill before the flight, so we walked around, looking at the eateries before settling for spaghetti bolognese n coke for our breakfast.

Time ticked by... n soon it was time to start boarding! the flight was boring eventhough alex was flying with me (he was sleeping almost the whole way!) Reached dubai international airport n we had around 1 hour to wander around. By the time we got out n started exploring, we only had 30 minutes left. Took a couple of photos here n there~ Had around 10 minutes left, so we just lined up n ordered McDonalds. Didnt have time to take any photos of the special Big Mac Chicken n McSpicy Chicken Burger coz we were both hungry n rushing towards gate 8.

Reached the waiting room, found a seat, hoping to go back as soon as possible.. but the hope got crushed. Announcements n apologies of late pilots n air-steward/stewardess were reported n a so-called 5 minute delay was expected as they made their way to the gate.. the 5 minute turned out to be 1 hour! soo sitting in the waiting room, waiting n waiting. i could have went out to look around the airport but decided not to in case i miss the flight.

In Dubai International Airport

On the flight back to Brunei from Dubai, time passed by so slowly eventhough i tried to sleep the whole way. Instead, talked random junk to alex.. (Joyce: my holiday gone already.. 11:30 departure. hai~) haha.
Soon, the plane landed on brunei airport! The land of unexpected treasures! Fred was there to pick me up. Familiar faces were seen, Jia Chi n Rachel were there with fred to get me! Fred brought me back to my house.. first thing i got back.. WOW~ it has changed. tiles replace the cement floor that used to be there. My room has transformed into an RnB freak's room. The music room has gone empty! there stood some huge amplifier instead of 3.

Sent my bro to JIS for his exams before heading off to Yappy in Kiulap to have lunch. Met even more familiar faces there (1 yi, 5 yi, 2 kim, aunt eden). Had dumpling with kolomee n ice Tea-C special! something different from my cooking~
Went to Yappy again for dinner. Had penang fried kuey tiaw n ABC with ice cream. Met up 5 yi there as she was taking care of the shop, being the cashier. 3 yi n 3 ku came after a little while. Had a litle chat then im back home coz shee needs to study for his exams tomorrow n celine needs to sleep for school tomorrow. Haven't met any of my cousins yet though other than fred.

i just noticed that my driving licence has expired n yet i m still driving around. Planning to go renew it tomorrow morning before sending my sister to school n my bro for his exams in JIS. here it goes.. back to my job of being driver~

On the way back~

Spent my last day in london by going out for lunch with ming n izzi in misato in china town.
Headed to Odeon cinema to watch Iron Man.. it was pretty good but i would have preferred more action to talking. at least its much better than Indy~ took the bus to brunei hall to meet up with dave. watched around 20 minutes of france vs romania which ended in a draw.
Went to nandos in bayswater for dinner with dave, ming n izzi. Time passed by.. soon, we were heading seperate ways (back to our halls).. They bid me farewell n a safe journey back to brunei~

i heard that fred will be the one picking me up from the airport.. haha haven't seen him for quite some time~ waiting for the 5:30 mark.

Packing -> Storing

Spent the whole day packing today.. i had to do it today coz i will be going back to Brunei on the 10th of June. 2 more days!
Today was Sunday.. so our hall had another BBQ!

This week’s choices are:

Beef Burgers & Sausages
Chicken Thigh & Drumsticks with Sweet Chilly Sauce
Chicken Skewers with Oriental Flavour
Sweet & Sticky Pork Ribs
Singapore Style Pork belly - this was exceptionally nice.. never knew pork belly tasted tat good!
Mushroom Skewers
Lemon & Honey Salmon Skewers - the salmon was only half-cooked.

Stuffed myself with too much meat today! its probably more than a weight-lifter would eat in a day!

Brought 3 luggages and 3 shoe boxes filled with books n notes to brunei hall for storage. (A reminder to myself that my stuff is kept in storage room B9) - this room is only supposed to be used by residents living in brunei hall according to the receptionist.
Travelled by tube twice to brunei hall from PC Hall.. i m extremely knackered now. I only just had dinner - rice with chicken curry n carrots.
Time to rest n enjoy my final day in London! Brunei - Here i come!

End of 1st Year!

this marks my 1st year in imperial! i just had my very last design lecture/tutorial.. it was all about improving the design of the pump project that we did a few months ago. im glad this is all over.. to mark the end of the 1st year, we had a LAN-party in david's room in brunei hall.. i came late due to the delays in the tube n some stuff i had to iron out before burning the midnight oil in brunei hall~
Played Vampire Slayer on half-life.. was a wicked moment there with lots of crazy screaming, shooting n swearing from all of us! soon, it was 11pm so we headed to tesco to buy snacks n drinks! We were back again to his room, snacking away on crisps n playing WC3 custom maps. GAMER's LIFE?

my spot on the top bunk

dave n ming just below me.. look at the mess! haha

Izzy on the floor.. look at ming munching on those kettle chips!

Dave n his heroic post?

Played from 10pm to around 5am.. it was a funny night filled with wicked memories.

Greenwich + Indonesian Food!

Went sight-seeing in canary wharf n cutty sark today with ming n izzi.. Met in green park at 1am n left to canary wharf by tube. When we got out of the tube station, all we saw were buildings after buildings.. it's like a business centre! The weather was perfect, windy n sunny unlike the usual London blues where its all moody n rainy.

Out of the station..

Building with stock market prices strolling along the sides

We are to take the DLR from Heron Quay to Cutty Sark.. but first we have to find our way to the DLR station...

Still in Canary Wharf (the business-looking like area).. u see trees n flowers unlike in South Kensington

DLR on its way to the station..

This was one of the cutters used to open up the tunnels to build the tube

Alas, we're in Cutty Sark.. Off ming n i went with our cameras, taking tons of photos of random stuff n of course the tranquil environment.

Cutty Sark Gardens...

Does the river n the sky look beautiful?

Continued our walk along the shore n was met by this building. This place was so serene, with wonderful soft green grass, sunny weather accompanied by slow lashing winds n the crescendo of music flowing out of the windows of Trinity College of music.

Met with construction work going on at the Tudor of Palace of Greenwich which was built by King Henry VII, so we didnt go in..

We were there!

On our way to Greenwich Park..

Some artistic sign ey?

Who is that in the reflection?

Sun-dial showing its 2:40pm

This park is so much cleaner n nicer then hyde park~

A broadway of trees...

Peaceful sights of people playing football, picnicking..

Met with the 5 intersection junction.. ( counts 1 2 3 4 5.. its an inside joke haha)

One Tree Hill.. yes its the name of the hill.. if u notice there is only one tree on the hill!

More blissful sightings of mother nature~

Climbing uphill for around 5 to 8 minutes, we reach the top! its quite tiring especially when i m carrying a bag filled with jackets!

Amazing view from up here, looking towards the Queen's House n the National Maritime Museum

Ming n i

Izzi n i with the Royal Observatory Greenwich Clock

The exact time? it is 1 hour slow though due to the daylight saving..

The building of austronomy

We were mucking around when we got here. Each of us got our own certificate that showed that we were here at some ridiculously exact time! i was there at 14:22:0463!

in between 2 time zones!

looks like the brunei rainforest ey?


The Peter Harrison Planetarium.. its made out of copper so it gets hot when the sun shines on it!

Went to the cafe there n had a quick snack...

Sausage roll

Purple flowers!

Tasek - mountain climbing?

After spending around 1 to 2 hours at the top, its time to go downhill n back to city-life London.

Amazing view! but as u can see it is starting to get cloudy

A squirrel!

I wanted to go to the deer reserves but then izzi n ming were tired already, so we ended up not going.

We didnt go into the Greenwich market as well. at least i got a picture of it!

Soon, we were back at Canary Wharf..

Went back to Caledonian road with izzi, chilled in my room for a while before heading off to Highbury & Islington using the overground. We were going to izzi's aunts place to have Indonesian dinner! its a pity i didnt take any photos there. it would be awfully embarassing to take a camera out especially when she invite other guests as well! We chatted n introduced ourselves. was introduced to aunt Ineta (Izzi's aunt), Geraldine (aunt Ineta's daughter) who cooked the satay n Jon (Geraldine's friend) who helped out. Other guests started coming n i was introduced to more names. They were all very nice people, easy-going n friendly!

Soon, dinner was served...

The food was scrumptious, we had prawn salad n satay with peanut sauce for starters.For the main course, we had the aunt's signature dish (tender lamb in a pot of strongly flavoured soup!), spicy chicken with chilli, onions n garlic messed up to form the flavour, steamed fish with a wonderful touch of spice, brocolli n carrots in dark spicy sauce n rice. Everything had chilli in it n the feeling of hot spices burning in your mouth was wonderful! Her signature dish was exceptionally marvelous, with the lamb so tender that the juices seeped through my teeth when i bit into them. For desserts, we had strawberries, kiwis, papaya n a rich Puerto Rican glass of sweet custard with cinammon.. It was splendid!

All in all, a very nice house with very friendly people.. i thank aunt Ineta for inviting me over for this special dinner n bringing me back to caledonian road by car.. hope to meet u again sometime in the future. thanks to izzi too for bringing me over..

Overground in Caledonian Road.. looks quite old, but apparently it just opened not long ago (after i got here)