The allergy?

I just got home an hour ago after a long trip to Lawas. We visited SMK Merapok. The journey by boat was the usual, me being excited and all, especially with the cool fresh breeze in the morning. We left the jetty as early as 6.20am. A bus awaited at Bangar jetty, which is brand new. It was not open when we were in Temburong last December. Well improvement there I must say :)

Then the trip was spoiled when the veterans bought the strong scented durians sold just outside the jetty. I was like, WTH! So the 8 hours trip, to and from Lawas was accompanied by the unfavoured smell. What's worse, after the visit at the school, more durians boarded the vehicle, giving even stronger scent. Two teachers suffered from migraine today because of it and me, I had asthma attack. The smell was so strong that it gave me such impact. I was cursing silently seeing dozens of the fruit being carried to the bus.

By 4.30pm, we reached Bangar. My plan to catch the boat ride back alone to Bandar failed: the jetty closed soon as we were there. So, I had no choice but to spend another 3 suffocating hours on the bus back to Kuala Lurah. I was in hell! This is what happened when an extra 30 minute duration was spent on shopping at the market at Lawas!! I was soooo angry!!

Thank God Sharul was on time picking me up in Bandar. With the cold rainy weather, my condition would have gone worse. He took me to a restaurant for me to have some hot soup. Obviously I was shivering with fever. When I got home, mom even directed me to go to the hospital. But I need to be in bed soon. One, I am very tired, and two, if I agreed to, I am sure I would be given an MC. I can't do that because I need to be present at tomorrow's course presentation. I hope I will be fine tomorrow. The course is from 7am til 4pm..

I better hit my bed now. Wish me luck peeps! Let's hope that I don't dream of sea of durians tonight. Now I know I am allergic to it :(((

The latest me

Well, I am sick *uhuk uhuk* @_@ The more meds I took, the more I cough, especially the Dequadin. I have had sore throat since reaching home from Jakarta - thanks to the passenger sitting at the front seat on the plane! She was sneezing and coughing like, all the way to Brunei! I think I had caught her cold! Chiss!! Having less sleep and rest, I guess my immune system is just weak right now. This is the first time I fell sick since end of 2008 *sigh* Now I am on MC leave. When I saw the doctor yesterday, he warned me to see him again IF I still had not had my voice back by today. He said to forward me to the throat specialist in RIPAS Hospital. Thank God I have it back right after taking the anti biotic pills last night pheww!!

So ... the trip! It was great! I spent a lonesome of cash on my wedding souvenirs - I bought them at a non credit card shop. To convert, I spent less than B$2k for 3 functions alhamdulillah :') It was cheaper than I thought. I would go to Bandung again to pick up the things I've ordered or I'd ask the Indonesian driver we had to post them to me. Either way, I would still go to Bandung again! There are just too many things, cheap things to buy there! :D I love the factory outlets!!

I don't fancy Jakarta. Our time was mostly spent on the road coz of the traffic. We had less shopping there compared to in Bandung. Besides, our driver didn't know much of Jakarta. His home town was Bandung so our days there was way better! We stayed in Savoy Homann Hotel in Bandung. If you plan to go there, do stay in that hotel! The service was first class!! Even mom was making friend with the lobby girl there hehehe :D In Jakarta, we stayed in Ascott Apartment. It's a 5 star hotel but Louie got me the diplomat price :) Thanks so much Louie! Without her, my family trip wouldn't be as smooth :') She was the one arranging our accommodations and transportation. Indonesia is sort of her second home so she knows a lot of people there. I'm blessed! :)

I plan to go to Bandung again this June, right after my KK trip, which is in the first week of the second school hols. This time I'll make sure the Bandung trip to be way before the school reopens. It's my fault for having the trip done a day before the school started. I feel so bad staying in bed now thinking of my students without their teacher in presence :( It will not happen again! Promise!!


PS: I met up with this very very nice fashion designer. She had designed wedding gowns for 3 Bruneian brides in the past. She offered a package of B$10k for the 4 wedding gowns! I was like, NO WAY!! I have had a wedding package here in Brunei, which belongs to my uncle's sister. It's cheaper. Besides, I don't believe in keeping the fancy gowns since I'm only wearing them once on my wedding. I guess it's wiser to rent them then making them. But I might be asking her to design my "baju nikah" since my tailor had gone home now *sigh* She designed my "baju tunang" last December and I liked her work. We haven't discussed the price yet but I hope it will be affordable .. I also might ask for the make-up wedding package that she has. The make-up artist is working with Indonesian celebrities. It has always been my dream to put on the Indonesian style make ups on my wedding functions :) Then again, it's not cheap :( for 4 functions, it would cost me B$1,200. And that EXCLUDING their flight tickets to Brunei and their accommodations *sigh* :(

And owhhh ... To update, the wedding is postponed AGAIN!

Sharul's mum's side of family were on bended knees begging to take our wedding dates since their Singaporean family members could only make it to Brunei on those dates and so, the rest is history *sigh*

It's decided that the wedding will be next year in January. Now let's pray my cousin will be understanding enough to swap the dates with mine coz he's planned to get married in January too yikes!! I hope he won't mind having it earlier in December this year instead ... *sigh*

The Junjong BnB new look

I was over the moon learning that Junjong BnB has had two additional cabins for stay overs so we had our getaways there last 27th February. The cabins are named Sulap 1 and Sulap 2. The name itself is a Bruneian name for cabin or hut or in standard Malay, "pondok". Just the right name for both :)

Each cabin has two rooms: one with a queen sized bed and another with bunk beds. It has a living room, a dining table, a kitchen equipped with kitchen wares, an oven and stove as well as a fridge. The dining room is also provided with a TV and DVD player. The cabin is air conditioned too. The bathroom is big with toiletries (of shampoo and shower gels), towels and a heater. In short, the cabins are meant for a family getaway :) There's also a story book meant for kids in the bunk beds room :)

The cost per night per Sulap is B$130 while the house is B$180. If you meant to rent all three, you'll get the two cabins a B$10 discount each. Have a getaway at Junjong B&B for a stress free sleep in and a breakfast for each the next morning upon request of two choices menu: the American breakfast or the Junjong Nasi Lemak and of course, juices and hot drinks :)

The kitchen. Further right is the bathroom.

Part of the living room. On the right is the bunk beds room, next to the queen sized bedroom.

The bunk beds.

The sight of the bathroom.

The cabin porch.

The morning view at Junjong B&B.

The swimming pool on the right side of the cabins.

The nice scented flowers.

The reflexy stones for the tired feet.

A fishing spot and the perfect view for Proboscis monkeys in the early mornings and late afternoons.

The barbecue stand of B$10 rent.

Sulap 1 and Sulap 2.

The junjong house opposite the cabins.

The unique hanging lamp on the cabin porch.

Junjong Nasi Lemak breakfast upon request.

The weekend getaways

It was a 3-day off last week so we took the Friday off to Miri. Mom, my bro, Azri, and two cousins, Haris and Arif, tagged along. DF was planning to go to the workshop to get some spare-parts for his Vitara while I just wanted to do some shopping ;) So, while we went hunting for the stuff, we left mom and the boys at Parkson. Let it be a practice for both mom and Azri before our Bandung trip this March hehe. Sure mom was complaining coz Parkson is now a big big shopping mall! I said, gotta get those feet do some exercises :) We dropped by Boulevard before leaving and we got home some time after 10pm. I spent RM500+ on cat food and stuff. I know! But it's a bargain. Here in Brunei, Royal Canin can be very very expensive. It's way cheaper there in Miri. So we bought 2 bags of 15kg Royal Canin, grooming scissors, 2 cats shampoos, kitties vitamins and ... ok I lost count! The cats were meowing seeing their food upon our arrival awwww~~ :)

The next day, it's Junjong getaway yeayy!! :D Leng and Lulu stayed with me in Sulap 1 while Johnny with Evelyn and James in Sulap 2. I invited Azri, Haris and Arif along to stay so I paid another $40 for them. They loved the place for sure! Even said that Junjong is better than Empire!! Heee :D The boys even planned that we rent the 3 houses for us cousins one day. They loved the idea that it's private and all :) Great to know they enjoyed their stay :) Johnny's two other friends stayed over too that night.

The boys had to go home at 5pm coz dad coincidentally called his friends to our house the same night for a barbecue. So Azri was needed for barbecuing the chickens and stuff. Us in Junjong also had ours. Evelyn invited around 10 more guests so it was quite a happening night, though I was the only Malay around - didn't really realise that in the first place till I noticed that I couldn't get into most of the conversations coz they were speaking in Chinese hehehe :D Lulu, Leng and I had our food in our cabin coz we couldn't take the mosquito bites LoL! Then we heard a big splash at the pool coz I think the guys just threw James, the birthday boy, in hehehe :D The boys arrived at the cabin at around 10pm, just on time for some nibbling on the food :) They had a night swim before finally went to bed at around 2am. I was the earliest to be in bed I guess. Sorry girls for my loud snoring kekekke :P

Johnny made this lime juice! I loOike!!!

Chicken lasangas by me :)

Johnny put these two cool lamps up, specially brought in from Germany :D

Pieces of lambs on the hot plate yummy!!

Evelyn. Very funny girl! Hehehe :D

Ahaha! Intended for Maya to see: yes Maya! Modeling with the LAMP POST again! Haha!!!

What we had that night sllrrpp!!!

A night swim for the boys :)

No boredom with board games! :D

Yep! Thanks to Lulu for bringing in the DVD :DA morning swim at the pool :D

Leng and me in the pool heee :D

The "giggling" boys hehehhe...

Loving the place and keeping it clean ;)

The "closing" getaway with a drink :)

Us: me, Lulu, Leng and Johnny :)

We checked out the next day at 12pm while Lulu and Leng at 11am. It was a fun getaway. Before we left, the landlord told me that Johnny and his friends had just booked the house for 30th May. They sure love the place. The landord should give me a discount next time huh for introducing the place to them! Hehehe ;p

Thanks Junjong B&B for another fun getaway! More cabins in the future? Heheh ;)

The professional trip II

After the first professional trip to Miri last year, today marked our second with 53 delegates to our neighbouring country, Limbang, Sarawak. The bus left at 7.30am and reached the Limbang Resident Office at around 9am. There we were welcomed by the education officers and briefed on the development of the state of Limbang which included its races, religions, educational development, infrastructure as well as local economic productions. Here then I began to feel at awe with Limbang's "hidden", shall I say, precious information.

A welcoming speech by the officers of Limbang Resident Office

A speech by Cikgu Ahmad bin Haji Hussin, the group leader of the trip

Me and Bibi, a colleague of mine

The mikes were then passed on to the invited counselors of the home country who shared with us the history and journey of counseling worlds in the state. There, every counselor has to take 500 students to supervise. So it's a 1:500 fixed condition. The speech also included the division of local schools into clusters, similar to ours. However, the schools in these clusters actually have to "fight" to get into certain clusters with the aim to build schools' potential to their best performance. Hence, clusters label schools in its very own group in terms of their administrations and development of students' educational achievements.

The briefing was then taken over by the Parents-Teachers Association representatives. Throughout this part, the Brunei delegates were very impressed with the active involvement of parents into the development of education in their children's schools. They are actively involved in schools' administrations with the aim to build schools' potential achieving qualitative performances in education, hence getting into the best clusters. This also include beautifying and decorating the schools (especially creating reading rooms, reading huts in school compunds and reading corners in kindergarten classrooms), handling students' discipline problems, providing incentives to students with best results in exams, co-curricular activities, money raising for individual schools, and many many more. I personally think Brunei schools CAN become much much better if teachers and parents have this kind of connection with each other like the ones achieved in Limbang..

The two PTA representatives at the Limbang Resident Office

Our next destinations were to SMK Agama Limbang and SMK Kubong. The first school is a religious school, somewhat similar to Mahat Islam and Arabic School that we have here in Brunei. The school is big, clean and also has parents as its backbones. The school even gives incentives to students with best results in exams like RM500 for PMR students getting 9A, RM1000 with students getting 11A in SPM and so forth. We respect the school for having to raise funds from the public to do such as this. I respect how they work so hard for the children. We then visited the school's Reading Room, Anti Drugs Room and Counseling Room. We left the school at around 5:30pm. We reached SMK Kubong at 6pm.

At the briefing at SMK Agama Limbang

Signing off the guests' certs

The school's counselor

A few of the gifts from the school, which are also a towel with the school logo on it

Anti Drugs Room

Two of the murals painted by students and parents of the school

Refreshment before leaving

SMK Kubong achieved 100% passes in PMR. The school administration shared with us their tips, which are very much similar to ours, in most schools I bet like the Parents-Teachers Meet, extra classes and such. One particular action the school takes is having to separate the students into 3 classes: the good, average and low performances 2 months before the big exam. So the students are re-streamed according to their educational achievements in individual subject. The school also carries out a system where students are told to achieve their minimum grades in exams to help them aim the best results they could actually achieved. The outcome? The 100% passes in PMR. It's very very impressive indeed! I didn't take any pictures in this school as it was already dark and my camera was out of battery pfft!!

We left Limbang province at around 7pm. Along the ride, a teacher played an horror movie: 4Phobia. Having very dark street that we drove along, the journey back was not very comforting. As we watched the fourth series, which was thankfully a funny one, I drove home alone without even a glinch of fear. We got back to Brunei at around 9pm and I reached home just before 10pm.

Read here for brief info of the visit by the Borneo Bulletin.

All I can say now is, the trip this time was really fruitful. I never thought that there are treasures in that small state of Malaysia though I've been there many times. I'm glad I joined the trip and the next one will be in March to Acheh Indonesia, and in June to Labuan.