NBT Treasure Hunt - In Pictures

With three friends, I took part in the 12th NBT Treasure Hunt which took place on 6 July 2008. While trawling the NBT website for information on the upcoming Classics Concert, I stumbled upon the report on the Treasure Hunt and saw this picture......

Yup, that was us doing the first task of the day: to pose as a tribe on a hunt, while one of us had to pose as the one being hunted. Our creativity went overdrive and we spent a lot of time thinking on the pose and the props used.

The report on the 12th NBT Treasure Hunt can be seen in full here. Our picture appears on this page.

Public Announcement Service....

Syawal is only a week old and I am sure that with the weekend coming, there will still be open houses and visits to be done.

Just a word of advice to all: hosts and visitors alike. Please look after your belongings while you are in the company of strangers. I have heard this story before, but here is another, as told by CL on her blog and this is something she witnessed herself.

It's quite disappointing to know that in the spirit of Aidilfitri, hosts open their houses to visitors, only to be taken advantage of. That is not what Aidilfitri is all about.

So be very careful.

Kids!

I have friends commenting that I take a lot of pictures of inanimate objects and it becomes our joke whenever we go out for dinner/coffee. So I decided to do some a bit more challenging: taking pictures of children.

Taking pictures of children may be a bit more difficult to do, compared to taking pictures of glasses or boxes. You would first have to get the attention of the children, as they tend to be scared of the camera pointing at them. Once you get their attention, you have to get the children to stay still. I have quite a lot of shots taken as the children looked away. One of my nephews liked to move towards me as I was trying to compose my shots.

But, as much as it is difficult to photograph the children, it is also a rewarding experience. Once the children get comfortable with the camera pointing their way, they would do all sorts of poses for the camera. I have this nephew who would actually pull my hands and asked me to take pictures of him. It is fun to be able to show them the results right away and this can encourage them to pose more. It is also fun to be able to capture the children doing things they love: having fun and fooling around.

In this series of photographs, all the models are my nieces and nephews.

There are times when this girl would not stand in front of the camera, but I managed to make her smile for me here.

This is my biggest model; in one of the pictures, he posed as a Cicak Man.

This boy was giving me his 'ugly face' (muka bida!).

This girl smiles in the mere sight of a camera and she's only 8 months old.
I put her on top of a car and she was terrified of the height, which you could see on her face.

These two are cousins and they spend their time playing together a lot. I asked them to hold hands and if you look carefully, they were trying to hide it from the view.

Raya Collection

I went crazy with my camera during Hari Raya and found these pictures quite nice to share...

Asked Dad to pose for me in front of the house and I thought I might edit it. I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

A group of ladies and a boy of the house.

The buffet spread at home.

Another group picture, I like the way everyone posed for the picture.
This picture perfectly captures the mood of the moment; a Mum lovingly speaks to her baby.
Found this old picture somewhere in the Living Room; it was taken in the early 1970's. A few of my elder sisters and brothers were in the picture and the rest were our neighbours.

This was a pair of knitted cowboy boots.

This box was given away to the visitors to the Palace when it was open to the public to personally wish the Royal Family with Hari Raya greetings.
Another group picture; I thought it looked like an album cover!

My three younger sisters.

Hari Raya So Far.....

The first thing that we did on the first day of Aidilfitri, which fell on Thursday, 2 October, was to visit my Mom's resting place. This is the second Aidilfitri without Mom and it is not getting any easier; the least we could do was to offer prayers. I share CL's sentiment, at times like this when just about anything would trigger the flood of memories of Mom that we keep somewhere deep inside us.

We then spent the whole day in Bandar, visiting relatives.

Dad, my two younger brothers and I.

Dad with some of my sisters and nieces. Ever since Mom died, Dad is our father and our mother.

My nieces and nephews..... one of my nieces was away celebrating Aidilfitri with her parents and grandfather in Kota Kinabalu.

This is just about a quarter of the family, so you can imagine the logistical effort to ferry us around!

With my usual (un-)willing models not around, I had to resort to my nephews whom seemed to be too happy to help. They had these natural talents to make faces and pose for the camera.

Some of my favourite shots:

My bro-in-law with one of our nephews.

The youngest member of the family, with his mom. He's just 2 months old.

A buffet spread at one of the houses that we visited.

Happy Birthday Bro.... again

Here's wishing my other younger brother a very Happy Birthday which falls today. Moga panjang umur dan murah rezeki, dan sentiasa di bawah rahmat Allah.

He's only 364 days older than the other younger brother whose birthday was yesterday.

Happy Birthday Bro.....

Happy Birthday to Ak. Asrin, our youngest brother, which falls today. 

Moga panjang umur dan murah rezeki.

Nah, for you......

Macam mana business minuman & chocolate fountain? Laku?

Also, Happy Birthday to Chris. Enjoy the day dude.

'Green' Packets

A collection of green envelopes produced for Aidilfitri this year (not mine, I only got one this year!). Well, they are not all green nowadays. The designers are getting more creative and have come with all sorts of colours and designs. They used to be just green coloured envelopes with gold letterings; now some of the envelopes are in the corporate colours of the banks or companies that produced them. The envelopes are now bigger and notes do not need to be folded anymore. 

Takaful IBB Berhad: I think this is an old one

Tabung Amanah Islam Brunei (TAIB): this is the first time I see an envelope with 'Eid Al Mubarak', not 'Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri'.

TelBru: I like this one, very cheerful and colourful.

Standard Chartered Bank

HSBC: for its non-Premier customers

HSBC: For its Premier customers, in its purple colour scheme

Parkson: very batik

DST Group

Citibank

Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam: too simple to my liking

Baiduri Bank group

Brunei LNG: this is the first time that BLNG produced its own green packets. Not bad for a first timer.

Which one is your favourite?

Happy Birthday Jester!

Just a belated birthday message for Jester, whose birthday fell on the first day of Syawal. Happy Birthday! Hope it was great.

So any more hints re. the iPhone sleeve?? :)

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Enjoy this Aidilfitri. Drive safely. Eat well.