Disinhibitation and Desensitisation

Just watched Batman: The Dark Knight this afternoon. I felt like I was watching a tamer Saw movie. Nowadays, even movies adapted from comics contains gore and violence. Killings, bombings, tortures in almost every action movies.

Do we really want this? Are audience now asking for more? Have we been disinhibited and desensitised? What will the effects on our children? Do parents still bring their children to all movies without considering the violent content?

A photo album for SMSOnians

Majlis Ilmu or Knowledge Convention is held annually, in conjuction with HM's Birthday Celebration.

This year, the theme is "Negara Zikir" - Negara Zikir ialah negara yang bangsa dan masyarakatnya sentiasa ingat Tuhan dalam berfikir dan bertindak yang misinya untuk menjadi umat terbaik yang disebut di dalam Al-Quran, Surah Ali Imran, Ayat 110, iaitu umat dilahirkan bagi menyuruh berbuat kebaikan dan melarang daripada kejahatan.

Even though I am not an Ugama teacher, as a Head of Career, I was the one who organised the visit there. It was good as I didnt have to wake up early to go to school in Tutong, as the venue was in ICC, a 5-min drive from my house. I was also the photographer for this trip.

I have realised that it was a bit difficult to put all the photos here in this blog. And not everyone has facebook account to view the pics there. So I have uploaded all the photos (past, present and future) involving SMSONians to

www.flickr.com/photos/smsothman

Missing a part of My Life

Remember when Capital Radio was first on air?

I was quite surprised when I first heard it in my car radio on 100.1FM. I couldn't believe it at first that the radio station that I listened to so much while I was in the UK, was broadcasting through the radio here in Brunei. I basically live through my life in the UK with Capital Radio.

It was quite weird as they were broadcasting the traffic jam on M25, while I was driving on Muara-Tutong Highway. lol

Capital Radio was with us here in Brunei from 1996 to 2005. With its presence, our own local stations have becoming more innovative too.

Now, my favourite station is Rangkaian Pilihan on 95.9Fm or 96.9FM. Once in a while I listen to Capital Radio online. It has been a part of my life........

My would-be adventure in September

My trip in September is all set and ready to go.

I will be flying to Dubai on RBA on 17 September, stay a few hours at the airport before taking a Qatar Airways flight to Doha then onwards to Paris. I am sure the airport will be jam-packed with scholarships students leaving for the UK and their friends and relatives seeing them off. So I guess I will ask my dad to drop me off somewhere near the parking lots, and I will drag my luggage to the departure hall.

After staying in Paris for 4 days and gonna watch Madonna's Sweet and Sticky concert, I will take a train to Luxembourg and stay there for another 2 nights. Luxembourg is this small country sandwiched among Germany, Belgium and France. I have never been there so I am sure it should be fun as I will be staying at the Youth Hostel.

Okay, now...when I travel, I always stay at hostels. Some of the hostels can be dodgy and horrible, some of them are excellent. Also, you don't have to stay in a shared rooms in hostels; some have private rooms. Before I have the 'habit' of hosteling, I always stay in Bed & Breakfast on my own - It is boring when alone. But with hostels, you can stay in some fantastic buildings and meet lots of wonderful people. I have stayed in a mansion in Scotland, an old hospital in Switzerland, and even a water tower in Austria. And best of all, they are cheaper than hotels. Just look at the reviews from other travellers when choosing hostels. Opt for the higher ratings even the price maybe a bit more. But again, you pay for what you get.

So, after Luxembourg, I will travel to Bremen. Bremen has always fascinated me though I have never been there. My 1st German lesson talked about Bremen. So it is like a must-see thing for me. After Bremen, it will be Dresden (Florence of the North) in the former East Germany, before going 'back' to Berlin for shopping and museum visits.

After Germany, I will fly with Qatar Airways to Dubai via Doha. So I will spend a morning in Doha by walking around. In Dubai, I will visit my ex-colleague David, who is currently teaching there.

It should be a good fun trip ALONE...lol

How I met the Tapau Family

Take away is usually known as "Tapau"colloquially in Brunei. It comes from the Chinese word "da bao", but the proper word in Malay for takeaway is actually "bungkus".

It is our local culture that refreshments are served after each meeting/function. Usually there is some food left after everyone has taken their shares. So the leftovers are usually "tapau"ed by some people, rather than throw it away.

Since it is leftover food, what is so big deal about this "tapau"? Why do I still want to make a big fuss about it.

Actually I am p***ed off with people 'tapau'-ing the food even before everyone has taken their shares. We usually nickname these people "Mr Tapau" or "Ms Tapau", depending on the gender. If it is the 3rd gender, we just nickname the person "Tapau".

It happened again this morning when we were served food after His Majesty's visit to Tutong. The menu was roasted chicken, curry beef stew, curry pineapple stew and savoury rice, served with softdrinks and mineral water.

When the food was served and we were queuing for the food at the buffet table, some members of a family were putting lots of food in their plates. The sick thing was that the children were doing the same thing for their parents. After they collected the plates of food, they went back to their seats, poured the food into containers, and went back to the buffet table and repeated the process.

Due to their process of 'tapau'-ing the food, the queue was not moving. As an aggressive person when it comes to food, I pushed my way into the queue, stood behind the boy who was 'tapau'-ing. Then when he finished filling his second plates and wanted to pass the food to his father, I blocked his way.

Then I shouted to my students, "how many of chicken pieces do you want? I will take that for you before someone finishes tapau-ing the food?" Then another former student said to me "Sir, can you pass me the rice as I have been standing here for a while as people are tapau-ing here?"

We were trying to embarass the "Tapau" family. Not only they took the food, they took away the scoops as well. Why dont they just take the whole food trays, and make their life even easier.

One of the funniest thing is that a student actually stood in front of Mrs Tapau and pointed at her plate of food and said loudly to me, "Sir, look! She tapau so much!". hahahaha

After we all had our shares of food, there was lots of leftovers, and people were busy tapau-ing. I dont mind these people as we have already eaten. Better to tapau than to throw away.

Just don't tapau before others even take their shares.

Dont tell me this is extreme poverty. I would rather consider this as secondary poverty (Seebohm Rowntree 1901) or just plain greed.

I have taken some pictures of the infamous "tapau-ing"

Flashbacks on Career Sharing Session

More pictures from the link below

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29624&l=d25df&id=758743249

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29634&l=aeeb0&id=758743249

SMSO Career Sharing Session 12 July 2008

The sharing session was successful, despite of the presentation was not given as planned. I hate technology sometimes. It helps alot but it always messes up eveything as well. Maybe its a good thing that there was no presentation as it was totally irrelevant to the ex SMSOnians and they most likely would find it boring.

I will not go into who they are in details as it will be featured 'professionally' in the next ABADI. There were 32 of them attending the sharing session, consisting of students from a variety of fields ranging from European History to Mechatronics and Robotics systems. Some of them were under the MoE or BSP scholarships, while others are from UBD, ITB or twinning with those institutions.

It was great to see them coming back. We, as teachers, are very proud of them, and the juniors were so into the sharing session with them. I hope the juniors would benefit tremendously and follow their footsteps. lol...it sounds like I am doing a career moivation talk here.

I normally will include the pictures in every post I made. However, I will post them when I sort out the pics as Mr Lim has helped me to take 312 pics. I wont post all of them here...Maybe just one or two. I will post it in my facebook album. WIll post the link here when it is done.

What is so great about Seria?

I like to go to Seria for a number of reasons. Maybe that is because I always spent my school holiday at my grandparents' house there. And the food, of course, is cheap and yummy. Nowadays it is always due to the relaxed atmosphere and the beautiful sunsets (if weather permits). I need not to say much.

Another culinary adventure

I haven't been blogging for quite a while. It's not only because I have been busy, it's also I have no inspiration at all. Something like a writer's block. Actually I have some 'topics' to write about, but as some of my students always say "Malas!" (Lazy)

Last Saturday I invited 4 of my Accounting students (2003-04 batch) for dinner. As it is a sitting down 3-course meal, I could only invite few of them and not all. I am not gonna say who they are in here, as they haven't signed the release form :p However, they appear in my facebook photos

Starter: French Onion Soup

Main course: Roasted chicken and sausages with sage, served with potatoes and broccoli

Dessert: Raspberry Ice Cream Cake

Review:

The soup was delicious. I used 1 kg of onions and cooked them over low heat for 50 minutes. Then top it up with a slice of french baguette topped with cheese. The main course was good as usual for meat eaters. As for dessert, it was again too sweet. Actually that was a innovated Ice cream cake from Nigella's chocolate ice cream cake. I guess, I will not use the digestive biscuits, but some cereals next time. Healthy, yet delicious.

Since I was staying for the night, I baked 24 banana muffins the next morning for myself. Yummy! Store them, freeze them and eat them later.