Two greetings......

Firstly, many Congratulations to a new mother and hubby on the birth of their baby girl.


And, Happy Birthday to the One Who Had Left to Do His Masters, aka Jester or PP (Precision Processor).

So been to Old Trafford sudah?

Selamat Berpuasa

It's not too late to wish everyone Selamat Berpuasa, is it? But anyway, Selamat Berpuasa!

Check out this video:

Happy Birthday!

A birthday greeting for our own Word Warrior (with his fully-extended ..... lens)!

KNK Outing

A few weeks ago, some of my friends and I decided to have our own KNK - Kenali Negara Kitani - outing. Apart from the obvious touristy reason, it was also intended as a farewell outing for a friend, who had left to pursue his Masters degree in UK.

Did not get permission from the KNK tourists, so can't really post pix with our faces in them.

I was wearing my new slightly-oversized Man Utd jersey ...

We started off with breakfast at CAM Yayasan. We had this ...

and this ...

We had a good view of Masjid Omar Ali Saifuddin with its tilting fountain 'bowl' ...

First stop was Kampong Ayer ...

Made a detour to see Jong Batu ... (so kids, be kind to your parents!)

Made a quick pitstop at the Riverine Filling Station ...

Got off at Sungai Kebun and walked through Kg. Peramu ...

Took this picture and thought it looked nice ...

Stopped briefly at the latest monument in Bandar; the HM's 60th Birthday Monument. It definitely looked bigger in the picture....

How much did you have to contribute to be a platinum sponsor?

Made quick visits to the Brunei Museum and the Malay Technology Museum. Was not allowed to take pictures at the Brunei Museum. Comments on both museums: it was hot (not as in nice hot, but warm hot; no aircons perhaps), most displays were outdated (cantik was spelled chantek), most interactive displays do not work anymore, same displays as the ones that I saw when I last visited it 4 years previously, some displays were just too scary (just go the the Brunei culture gallery) and yeah, some galleries were not even lit up properly (energy saving measures kali?). And yeah, we completed our visit to the Malay Technology Museum in 15 minutes! We saw some funny comments left by visitors to the natural history gallery; one visitor was disappointed because he did not see any dinosaur bones.

Because of the disappointment with the Brunei Museum, I just could not be bothered to take my camera for the Malay Technology Museum. So no pictures from either museums. One positive point: we now know how a Kedayan tribal house looks like!

We then made a stop at the Sultan Bolkiah's Mausoleum ...

We then head off to visit the Royal Regalia building ...

We were wondering what happened to that statue of Winston Churchill and all those fish in the Aquarium. Several must-see items: the Crown as used during HM's coronation, the miniature Throne Room of Istana Nurul Iman and spot-the-face game at the Silver Jubilee Chariot Hall. No camera is allowed within the inner galleries, so only took pictures in the hall that houses the Coronation Chariot.

Last visits were to the Jamek Asr Hassanil Bolkiah and Masjid Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin. One of us tourists had never set foot into a masjid before. Again, no cameras were allowed. One of us tourists was stopped from entering the Main Praying Hall of Masjid SOAS as he was not a Muslim. Think I was more embarrased than he was; what's wrong with a non-muslim entering the Main Praying Hall? I know it was almost time was the next prayer, but they were not going to make some noise, were they?

Well, lastly the tired feet of the KNK tourists ...

Apparently these are some photos....

This post is a photo post....




This is where I stay here in B-Town.




The state of the car after I ran over the dog!





Can you see dog hair?




The new mall in B-Town.

That's all folks!

Posted by: The Bulgemeister

I am back...

Been almost 2 months since the last post from B-town (or any other place!).

Just to keep this blog alive, I am recycling some posts that some people may have heard somewhere else. Enjoy!

It's the third month of my stay here in B-town and I am still staying at the hotel. At this point, I think it's too late to try and find another place to stay. As rightly pointed out by a friend, I would have to worry about getting satellite tv, broadband and other things. And going back home during the weekend might leave the house an attractive target to burglars. There are offers to stay in a shared house, but malas jua eh. Someone said that I would have to listen to my housemates debating on politics which I am totally no into. At the moment, there are 3 STL cars parked at the hotel in the evenings,which, I found out later, were driven by fellow home company engineering staff who are helping SMDS with their shutdown. Strangely enough, I have never seen these people at the hotel.

Only just got enrolled to the K-Club recently. Well, what can I say about that place. I might have expected better, but I was bitterly disappointed when I checked out that place. The place was old, dirty, dingy and probably crumbling away as we speak. The badminton hall and the gym were so-so. The gym was locked most of the time and I could not find anyone who kept the key. So the main plan to shed some kg's here is not happening yet. I dare not checked out the other facilities; I do not want to be disappointed further. And another thing, P-staff in executive level (similar to senior staff in home company) and non-P-members pay minimal monthly fee to K-Club. I found out my monthly fee is almost doubled theirs.

Had a little incident while driving down to B-town from Home last week. I ran over a dog and damaged my front bumper and the radiator in the process. Somebody asked if I need to 'samak' the car; I dont think I have to samak the car. The dog left its mark on the bumper; some of its hair got stuck on the bumper. So when it rained that night, I drove straight in puddles of water, hoping to get rid fo them. But they didnt go away; just a sick reminder of what I did. And when I sent it off to the workshop, I made sure the guys repairing it was non-Muslim, so no concerns of having them touching dog's hair!

I did a search on the email list here and typed 'Ak', in case there are other Awangku's here. Well, awangku is spelled awangku here and searching 'Ak', puts me into a group of the 'Wai' clan!! I think I was the one Malay in the list!! By the way, descendants of Pengiran use 'awangku', 'dayangku', 'awang' or 'dayang'. So dayang norfaezah has a pengiran somehwhere in her family tree. And they dont really use Pg here, so you could find "awang A bin awangku B" or something along that line.

Anyway, hope that's enough for this time.

Till the next time, take care and be good!

Posted by: Bulgemeister

Week 3 in B- Town

Hey peeps!

Updating this while at work. Well, there is no internet connection from work, I am drafting this using MS Word; while hearing the LadyBoss telling off one of the staff.

Yup, the LB is very vocal and loud, and tend to tell off her staff in front of everyone. This particular staff is a real quiet type and his responses range from ‘hmmm’ to ‘yes’, via lots of head noddings.

This is my third week here. Only just got my professional work permit which last till the end of the training. Training is going ok; nothing particularly spectacular. It’s becoming more like revision for me. Will need to do more hands-on training la.

As mentioned, I still haven’t got any access to IT network here. I don’t have the slightest idea why it takes this long to give me a simple password to my account. I usually rely on my hotel WI-FI connection, which tend to slow down after 8pm. At least, it’s free and I should not complain. Shot off one email to my colleagues back home, but I guess no one missed me! Nobody replied!

Ever since I started working in this B-Town, I tend to listen to an English-speaking radio station, which transmits to the whole country. I notice most DJ’s tend to be K. Wonder why ah?

And you need some times to get used to driving here. You can basically throw out your highway code book out of the window. You can see people driving on a snail’s pace on the right-hand lane and cannot seem to notice frustrated drivers behind them; kamikaze drivers and motorcyclists overtaking you as if they were on a racing track; thoughtless drivers stopping suddenly on the road picking up/dropping off passengers; drivers running through the redlight as if they’d spend a day’s worth of time waiting for it to turn green again; and list is endless.

OK lah; need to go back to the training. Will post more later.

Ciao!

Just a short post

Hey peeps.....

So here I am, another weekend, another trip back home... I am not complaining. Think I'm getting used to the journey now. Somehow the trip felt a bit shorter the last time. It was either I drove too fast or there were not as many cars as the week before.

So how had the week been? Nothing special, started training proper on Monday. But the host seemed to be busy, so sometimes I was left to my own devices. And sometimes, I tended to do 'not the things I was supposed to do'. Well, I'll do better.

A bro and his friend came along with me to B-town. At least I was not that alone. Dinner and lunch 'bedangan jua'. They seemed to take in the place rather well. I Think I need to learn from them to like the place better. Most days I am left counting for Friday.... So it's 2 weeks down and another 28 to go.....

Anyway, will keep posting more nanti.....

So long friends!

Posted by Bulgemeister

First weekend post from B-town

Not!

So here I am. Back home. Well, I did tell you the place was boring, didn't I?

Well, I really did it. I did cut down the journey by an hour! Work place to home was just under 3 hours. L Hamilton would have been proud with my overtaking.

Gonna get some work attire from the host company. But don't be fooled. They ain't free. Hopefully EdJ won't get too shocked with the bill from here. Everything will be provided, PPE and all, but the parent company will have to pay for them. So whose idea was it to charge them when one of their guys were trained back home?

Why can't I use my own stuff? Apparent--ly I need to blend in with the rest of the people here and not to cause confusion among the rest of the people here. Nice!

Ok, now let me enjoy home.

Will post more soon.

Posted by: Bulgemeister

First post for the town of Kudos

Hey peeps!

Miss me yet? Give yourselves a few more days and you'll be begging to EdJ to ask me to come back!

First thing first. Driving for 4 hours home to hotel was not part of the plan yesterday. But it happened. Follow the relative speed seemed to be 90kmph. I think I can cut down the journey by an hour. There were some places where overtaking and faster driving might be possible. But some places just cannot allow any. There was a stretch of roads with bumps and watch out for heavy vehicles.

Hotel is not too bad. Quite happy with the hotel. Free wi-fi in rooms too! First evening's dinner was room service. RM18 Kampung Fried Rice anyone? The hotel is by the sea, too bad there is no beach to lie around on.

Hotel to LGNM takes 10 mins of driving. First impression of LGNM: very nice buildings. They've got some nice new buildings. The first thing that one might see as one approaches the place is this "corporate" feeling, if you know what i mean. Heard they only moved into the new buildings in the past year. The alb is also new, but I think it's just a tad too big. I have not got any pc access yet. Was taken out for lunch, apparently the food at their canteen is much worse than 'home' canteen that many people opt to eat out. I saw there was only a handful of people eating there during lunch. The management even stopped giving away free coupons to employees so that the staff are not obliged to spend the coupons there and giving excuse the canteen operator to continue. Apparent--ly the canteen operator used the excuse that people still spent their coupons there, so they must have been good. Do you think H K have the balls to do that back home?

Back to the hotel. The hotel has swimming pool and gym. Think I'm gonna start using them. I may chart my progress through this site! By the way, the K Club membership fee is RM25! Not bad!

Went around Town Centre.... looks like nothing will make me want to stay the weekends here. So Prez, might see you for breakfast this Saturday! Oh, there'll be a new large shopping mall opening here soon. So come and visit me here!!

Anyway, happy belated birthday to OL. So did you "insert hand gestures here"? Ha!

Watch out for more updates.

Posted by the Bulgemeister.