When Brunei met Kuching

Update: Managed to upload the pics and links here. Yay! – 01.05.2010

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Things have been just crazy (in a good way) since my last post..I really should have taken the opportunity to sleep in today but instead, I had been online since 8.30am! And I really should be going back this weekend but again, I’m just not doing what I should be lately..what have I been doing? What HE would want me to do instead of what I think I should..

Take last weekend for example.

On Thurs, 7 of us flew all the way from Brunei to Kuching (Bishop was already in Kuching and another arrived all the way from Philippines) just to attend a 2-day Conference..honestly, we didnt have much time to even jalan2 much less to meet up with old friends! Sorry abt that fellas, next time I go back it will be purely for balik kampung and you can have me all to yourselves then ya! :p

The Alpha Conference was awesome and although the program was pretty packed, we learned a lot (more on the conference on my other blog – soon!)..but miraculously, we managed to have quite an adventure in Kuching during our 4D3N stay.

Upon our arrival at KIA, we were wlecomed by Uncle F and Auntie R who brought us to SPC

where the Church has kindly accomodated us for the weekend.

Soon after we met up with our friend from Philippines, another Auntie (Aunt A) piled 8 of us into her Avanza and took us on a scenic route around the City with the last stop being The Spring.

My foreign friends (well, 3 of them were Sarawakians but 2 had never been to Kuching and 1 was a Kuchingnite but left Kuching years ago..) were very much excited with the sights esp the old town area (waterfront, carpenter st, india st, padungan, golden triangle, etc) and I had the opportunity to practice being a tourguide. Gave them live commentaries all the way through!

They were impressed by the rich cultural influences and the historical remnants of the past like the old courthouse, the fort on the waterfront and of course the Astana and Fort Margherita at the other side. And of course, the new DUN was impressive as well. (I say new cos when I left Kch, it was still under construction)..and then when we arrived at The Spring, they were just super excited! “Now THIS is a Mall!” Sadly, we only had less than an hr to spend there so it was motsly window shopping although some managed to buy a good read at MPH, I on the other hand, managed to check out the new MBO cineplex, That’s just awesome! Unfortunately, we could not accomodate the show times in our Conference schedule..nvmd, the next time I go to Kch, 3D movie is a MUST!

Leaving the Spring, we were dropped off at SPC and just had enough time to freshen up before a group of friends from CHOICE (in 3 or was it 4 cars?) took us out to dinner – at Peach Garden! You should see how excited everyone was over the food!

We had Crispy Oyster (Oh Jian?)…

Laksa, Kolo Mee, Dian Bian Hu, Chakueh, etc..food I’ve missed and food most of them were having for the first time..wished we had more variety of food here in Brunei or at least FOOD COURTS!!! Good food and good company always make a good combination!

After dinner, we all went to do the compulsory tourist MUST-DO when in Kch

-phototaking at the Cat statues! Lol. After that, went strolling at the waterfront

(thankfully not a lot of people that night since its a weeknite) and I actually some some youths basking (I never saw that before in Kch!)..and we wrapped the night up with chillaxing at Starbucks the Spring

(this was Bishop’s MUST-DO whenever he went abroad and he only managed to join us from the Cat statue onwards) until it closed at midnight..oh yes, 2 ladies from KL also joined us that night and 1 was particularly lucky cos she’s a blogger too and she managed to see the famous kch blogger in the flesh when we were at Starbucks, or maybe she was dissapointed he looked diff than in his blog. Haha..1 word for you dear: Photoshop. :p

The following day was the Conference of course so we only mananged some free time at night. That night we went to 101 for another gastronomic adventure.

This time Bishop managed to join us so he was pleased he got to have his Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee..

I ordered Manok Pansoh for them as well…

and they loved it (and it was barely half as nice as my Mom’s!) – my dear gastrpnomically-challenged friends.. :p Anyhow, we all split when it started to rain but it was getting late anyways so we just called it a nite..

The next night, after the Conference officially ended, all the Catholic delegates went to St Joseph Cathedral

(yes, it IS a Cathedral inspite the name says Church and dont ask me why. Why ah? I had to explain this to at least 2 of my friends then..) for the Sunset Mass. It was indeed wonderful to see the Mass being concelebrated by the Archibishop himself, 7 Bishops and 17 priests (maybe I have the number slightly wrong-I lost count)..

and after Mass there was a Fellowship as well. I didnt join the fellowship and I joined my brother and his family for dinner instead..thankfully I did manage to meet them especially my soon-to-be 2 yr old niece! I missed her..and she remembers me now!

After a hearty dinner at Jojo Cafe, they dropped me off at 121 Stutong where the Empowered team brought the rest after the Fellowship..

It was wonderful too that after a decade++ my brother managed to meet Bishop again, with his family, after he left Brunei aft his Form 3.

Aww.. and then after dinner/supper, together with our friends from Empowered (we truly enjoyed the company guys!!), we all went to Aunt A’s house cum religious articles shop and did some late night shopping!

Sadly, it was time to leave already the following morning..said goodbye to the 2 KL ladies (the only other delegates apart from us hosted by the Church-Thanks for having us Fr. S!) who were pretty much a part of our Brunei team haha! and as our flight was 10.45am so we were at the airport already by 8am+..said goodbye to our friend who was going back to Philippines and pretty soon, we were flying off as well (not without grabbing a final cuppa at the KIA Starbucks of course! :p)

Our flight was to Miri and from there, 2 cars came to bring us back to Brunei..had lunch 1st at 2020

(that popular eating place in Miri) and a very brief shopping spree (in the end we were much too tires to do anything else but sleep) before we left for Brunei..arrived in Bandar at 4pm and immediately crashed till 6, AM. On Monday morning!

Told you its been crazy..and I still haven’t fully energised from last weekend and here is yet another weekend which will be like all my other weekends most of the time – very eventful! – my colleague would often ask me, “How do you manage? You’re so energetic!” Honestly, its not me..HE strenghtens me and I shall just do my best and try to be and do what HE wants me to, which at this moment is go for Alpha training..

So yeah, till the next update (this turned out to be pretty lengthy!) take care and God bless!

A week now

A week into the end of the 1st quarter of the year…a week into turning THREE…

Lent has passed and it’s now Easter!

This time around, EASTER seemed to kick off with Eating…Eating…and MORE Eating…hmmm…

This week alone there are 2 “Eating Functions” that require my attention…

Yesterday we had our Vicariate Young Adults “Easter Fellowship”. I must admit, I was a bit afraid that not a lot of people would be able to make it since its kinda like the middle of the week – a very awkward time to have an “Eating Function” but we were just crazy…as always! However, to my relief, we had a good turn up of 20 people!

Annoying Alwin (not!) did a great job of being the host for the
night..and moving the venue to the Conference Room! All the glorious
food!!!
Sexy Samsul came with the Saucy Satays and we’re glad to see Blizzard
Bridget with the Brr..icecream!! Nick was being Naughty as usual, especially
after getting drunk on Pepsi..and it was great to see Corny Clive as
well! Next time,bring the wife and kids! :p
Ruch was as Radical as always sprouting a new look *ehem* and Val had
a new Vain haircut! and of course Angie was as Adventurous as can
be – spiking the fruit salad with liquor! Lol.
Attractive Alvin came with the equally irresistable Chips and Dips
(especially irresistable to Audacious Aubrey!) and Jerome’s Kung Pao
chicken was a hit, no wonder he’s so Joyful! :p Daring Diana and
Astute Ashley also came with a variety of CHOICE kuehs.
It was especially meet our new bro and sis- Adison and Fiona! They
were Amazing and Funny and downright AWESOME! (Welcome to the Vicariate
Young Awesomeness!) And it was also wonderful that Jolene, Andy and
Robin managed to join us as well…and of course Fr Romeo!

And the next “Eating Function” is this weekend and this time its a BBQ! I haven’t had that in a while so it should be good!

But what I’m most excited about is NEXT WEEKEND! Why?

‘Cos we’ll be going to KUCHING!!! (Balik kampung! Woohoo!!!) and you guess it – we plan to be EATING there too! ;p

P.S. Three also marks my 3rd year in the working world. Wow.

The Last 2 Weeks

Aramaitee! KOTOBIAN TADAU TAGAZO DO KAAMATAN

&

SELAMAT ARI GAWAI! Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai!

…hw ur gawai will b dis year?..y u so silent since last week? bz kah?

- my BFF via sms early last week.

Yes, I owe everyone an explanation why I dropped off the radar after my birthday…but where do I begin? Well, if you want to know the details…read on. Be warn, it’s very very long! Otherwise, skip to the “FINALLY” part at the bottom…

Indeed, the past 2 weeks have been very busy! Let’s just say I have an alter-ego, 2 separate lives, a secret identity…Career woman by day, an active member of the COLA’s Young Adult by night!

My usual weekdays (apart from the “career woman” part) would be somewhat like this…

After work, I would head straight to COLA for daily mass and spend the remainder of the night there, usually arriving home 10pm (earliest!)…After mass, Monday nights, we have Bible Study. Tuesday, Holy Hour. Wednesday, Adult Faith Formation. Thursday is usually “free” (my 1 night in a week which I usually spend at home doing chores). And on Friday, I would take the 1hr drive back to Seria for the weekend and come back up on Monday morning…and that cycle begins.

But the past 2 weeks was a lot MORE than my usual weekdays…

Week 1: 18th May-24th May

That Thursday, I was NOT “free”. We had to go shopping for food for the young adult activity that we were having on Sunday. So after mass, we went shopping (Part 1) and had a late dinner at the newly-opened branch of Escapade (a popular chain of Japanese Restaurant in Brunei) in Kiulap before calling it a night.

Friday, after work, I did not attend mass (and also missed the 1st day of the 9-day Novena to the Holy Spirit in preparation for Pentecost) as I had to go to for the Firm’s badminton session and after that, went for dinner with colleagues. This was the FIRST weekend whereby I did NOT go back to Seria for the weekend.

Saturday, spent the day doing chores (in place of Thursday) and in the afternoon, after some minor hiccups, went shopping (Part 2) and late lunch. Another mini shopping spree (Part 2.5) and just enough time to get home and bath, attended the 2nd day of Novena - a few seconds late at that. After Novena, went for the final shopping session (Part 3) before 5 of us went to tapau some late dinner from WYWY (another well-known chain of eatery in Brunei) and went to A’s house where we would be preparing the food for the following day. More like the next few hours actually as it was almost midnight when we actually began our “preparation”…

Sunday, midnight. In the midst of the “preparation”, we took a few minutes to surprise one among us with a birthday cake for it was her birthday on Sunday! “At least this is better than spending my 28th birthday alone in my bedroom” she said gratefully, not realising that she would perhaps regret saying so in a few hours! Anyways, we were finally done with the food around 2am and after bathing/washing up, all retired to bed. Between 2am-3am, the 4 of us (1 slept in a different room) were far from asleep. We were talking and laughing and joking around and at one point, well TWICE actually!, 2 of them decided to form a human pile crushing the birthday girl, fulfilling her birthday wish? Haha! However, I was beside the birthday girl so I was partly crushed as well. LOL! It was only at 3am that we actually slept…

And we woke up at 4am!!! Only 1 hour of sleep! Why so early? Because our Sunday activity was “Easter SUNRISE Beach Party”…meaning we had to be at the beach to watch the sunrise! I know, we are one crazy bunch of young adults!

So yeah, we left for the beach when it was still dark and rays of the sun gradually crept from beyond the horizon as we made the half-hour drive to the beach. And we were the first to arrive in time to watch the sunrise. Only about half of the people managed to catch the sunrise as the others only arrived when the sun was well up. I admit though, I was kinda dissapointed that the “beach” wasn’t quite as I expected. This was my first time to Serasa Beach and well, it had a lot less sand and a little more grass than you’d expect at a beach. It was more like the side of an isle(?) rather than a beach beach if you know what I mean…but that didn’t prevent all 20-odd people of us of having a great time all day!!!

The eating (there was lots and lots and lots of food!), the company and the activities were super AWESOME! Bishop even came to join us for a while after he was done with the Sunday Mass!

Some had to leave earlier as they had other activities to attend to in church, but the rest of us left around 2pm. I reached home at around 3pm, washed the pots and etc from the BBQ, bathed and freshen up and managed to take a 1-hr nap before it was time for Mass. During Mass, most of us were well exhausted and had body aches from all our physical exertions that day. After mass, a quick dinner at the nearby stalls and then its the 3rd day of Novena. After that, I immediately went home and slept. It was 9pm.

Week 2: 25th May-31st May

Only about 9 hours’ of sleep later did I wake up (more grudgingly than usual!) and spent a torturous Monday at work trying to stay awake! Gosh~ After work, I immediately went home to grab a quick 1-hr nap as I still have not recovered from the previous weekend. Then after bathing, went for the 4th day of Novena and began work on the activity for this weekend – “The 43rd World Social Communication Day”. A contest had been run for the Friday and Sunday School children and the COLA Youth and we needed to shortlist the entries to be passed to the judges. Imagine this: There was 3 of us, all exhausted, and it was late (and we still needed sleep!!!)…we resorted to judging ala American Idol, “YES!”, “NO!”, “THAT’S A DISASTER!”, and shortlisted 6/40 essays and 10/40 posters.

Tuesday, I intended to go to mass but missed it as I had to buy paper for the contest certificates – for ALL 80 participants and the winners. So I went home to bath and then left for Novena. After Novena, printed participation certs for those that were not shortlisted but had to stop as the printer ink ran out on us. Also, it was already 10pm+…and we still needed sleep!!!

Wednesday, finally managed to attend mass and before Novena managed to print the participation certs for the shortlisted entries. However, we still had the winning certs to print which we could only do the following day after they had been judged. But that was minor considering we already printed MOST of them already…and it was only on Wednesday that I felt I had fully recovered from the previous weekend…

Thursday, after mass before Novena, we obtained the winners for the essays and posters and after Novena printed all the winning certs. But there was 1 more category which have not been judged – video making by the COLA Youth, and that was the following night. On top of that, the full preparation for the weekend began…setting up the venue, etc etc…

Friday, after mass before Novena, we got the winners for the videos and after Novena printed all the certs and finally we were done with the certs! However, we still hadn’t secured the prizes – to be done the next night but on this night, the setting up was in full-swing and almost everything was in place for the weekend! – THIS being my 2nd weekend in Bandar…

Saturday, took the opportunity to sleep-in and spent the day doing chores (in place of Thursday) and in the evening, went to COLA to help out with the gift-wrapping. It was also the beginning of the “The 43rd World Social Communication Day” and we had the exhibits going on as well and our special edition magazine was off the press! My first article in print! and it was the final night, the 9th day of the Novena to the Holy Spirit. Only after Novena managed to continue with the gift-wrapping – which unexpectedly took a really long time as I had to make 45 small paper bags to keep the small indiviual prizes for the members of the winning videos as the entries were by class…we ended up staying till past midnight! That was a first!

Sunday, woke up at 7am and got ready for the big event. Went to COLA a little early to set up the prizes and certs before making it in time for the 9.30am Mass, after which the event was in full-swing up until noon. Main item for the event was the LIVE Video Conference between the 3 parishes in Brunei. This was the theme of “Communication” and it is the first time such a big-scale link-up was tried, and it was successfully accomplished!!! We were thrilled! And of course, all our hard work paid of and all our winners got their certs and prizes…

FINALLY

Finally, after the most exhausting-but-fun 2 weeks of my life after I started working in Brunei, I could go home for the weekend (since today is a public hol here)…it might be shorter than my normal 3 nights weekends but at least I am with family. Furthermore, when I reached Seria yesterday afternoon, it was a nice surprise that my MOM and BRO had arrived from SIBU!!! They arrived Saturday and didn’t tell us earlier cos they wanted to “pay back” for our surprise…

All in all, the past 2 weeks have been very busy indeed huh? Now, its time to go to bed and hibernate…

HAVE A BLESSED PENTECOST!