My Maltese Memory

It has been almost a month since I was back from a week holiday in Malta. We initially planned to go to Japan, but due to the pandemic of Influenza H1N1, we cancelled our trip to Japan. However, we couldnt change the Brunei - Singapore return air ticket. Instead of staying in Singapore for 10 days, I was looking up at any flight offers out of Singapore.

Voila! Emirates was having promotion in June to European and US destinations. A week was too short for visiting USA, so we opted for European destinations.

So we were deciding between Nice and Malta. As we couldnt get any more cheap places to stay in Nice, we went to Malta. Emirates is the only airlines that have good connection to Malta from Singapore.

When we first arrived in Malta, unlike other European countries immigration officers, theirs were extremely friendly. Instead of having stern faces, they were laughing with us as well as showing us the tourist information brochures. I think all immigration should be friendly. Not everyone is entering a country with suspicious intention.

The followings are what I think of Malta:

1. Almost the same population of Brunei, but the land area is half of that of Singapore.

2. Everyone speaks English so there is no language barrier.

3. The students follow the British education system. They sit for GCE "O' and "A" Levels as well :)

4. Weather was very warm. In June, the sun rose at 5.30am and set at 8.30pm.

5. A very relaxed atmosphere. We only did sightseeing after breakfast till 1pm. Then we rested and went for walks at the seaside promenade in the evening.

6. Almost everything is imported, especially from Italy.

7. Yummy gelato! and cheap as well. It is like B$4 for 2 scoops. Dream on...Dream cone!

8. You can get anywhere on the island within 45 minutes bus ride. The buses are classic!

9. Food in snackbar was cheap.

10. The churches have 2 clocks on the walls in front. One is the real time, the other one is to trick the devils. So the devils will not know when the mass prays are, from avoiding the prayers to stray away by the devils.

Click here for more pictures

My winning Bill with face masks

On Thursday, I received a phone call from DST that I won some kind of cash bonanza from my BroadBand account. That sounded great but the only thing was I didnt ask her what I won. Silly me!

So, I did online research and found out that the prizes are $10000, $6000, $4000 or $140. And of course I am the lucky 7 who won the $140 as the other grander prizes will only be drawn in August.

Look at the above picture obtained from Weekend Bulletin on Saturday 11 July 2009. There are some people with face masks on. Okay I just need to share the story.

We arrived at the main entrance and our body temperature was checked. We were then ushered into a lift of 10 or more people. I had to hold my breath due to the worries of the spreading of any virusesas we all were in 'close proximity'. When we arrived at the top floor, we were then given a face mask each to put on. Duh!

So the whole ceremony consists of winners receivinfg prizes with face masks. I felt I was attending some sort of 'secretive' or 'medical' award ceremony lol...We only saw the beautiful eyes of the winners.

The time for group pictures has finally arrived. We still saw people wearing masks while taking pictures, but not me. Come on, my pictures were taken and I wanted people to know who I was in pictures, not just my pair of eyes. I think I did look okay with face mask :p What's the point if taking pictures with face masks on?

Anyway we still had to take off my masks sooner or later...Of course, like every function in Brunei, the refreshment of nasi lemak and kuih muih. No matter how careful a person is, by putting on the face mask, they still had to show their true faces while 'devouring' the food.

Countdown to Singaporean efficiency

Last night, we caught the MRT train from Bugis station to Changi Airport, to catch flight out of Singapore to Brunei. After having a brief dinner of roasted chicken with noodles at Banquet Food court at Raffles Hospital, we left Bugis station at around 710pm. It was a great hassle to drag 2 huge luggage from Arab street to the Bugis station. It was damn crowded with the Friday night crowd.

We managed to jump on a train and when it reached Aljunied, people who were getting on the train at that station mentioned about someone fell onto the track. And we could see security personnel and police rushing to the scene and a pair of slippers on the platform. We couldnt see anything else due to the crowd, but to wait inside the train.

We were worried if we would miss our flight and how we would get a taxi in this station during rush hour. Impatiently, I was thinking why the man could not fall onto the track 5 minutes later so our train would not be disrupted.

Then the announcement saying that the train would be delayed for 15 minutes, stating the reason of a fault in the track. 5 minutes later, there was another announcement. But this time, it stated the train would be delayed for 10 minutes. Wow, there was really a countdown. The next announcement came 2 minutes later saying, "doors closing".

Great! I find everything is very efficient in Singapore, and I wonder why Singaporeans still complain about it.

More story on 'a man falling onto track' can be found here

Mama Mia! in Sicily

This morning, we took a one-day excursion to Sicily with Virtu ferry and it was 116 euros each, including transport from our hostel.


The transport picked us up at 5.30am, and the ferry departed just before 7am. Ferry ride was very choppy.

After a daunting 2-hour ferry ride, we arrived at Polazzo and the bus picked us up and dropped us at a cafe for breakfast. The chocolate croissant was delicious with thick chocolate filling. And of course, a cappucino. Italians only drink cappucino in the morning. So, when in Rome, do as the Romans. In this case, it is Sicily.

The coach then zigzagged us all the way up to the beautiful hilltop village of Taormino. The streets are full of beautiful gardens and orcahrds, as well as the souvenir shops. It was a lesant change from the warmer and drier Malta. We had a simple Italian lunch overlooking the beautiful sea down below.

After lunch we zigzagged back down, and zigzagged up to Mt Etna - an active volcano. On Mt Etna, we didnt go to the summit, but at 2000m above sea-level. It was windy and cold; and that was the excuse we had to have hot drinks and snacks at the cafeteria.

The ferry ride back was not as bad, maybe due to the motion-sickness pills provided by the crew. Or maybe we were 'silently' singing along while watching the in-house movie, Mama Mia!

Click here for more pictures

The joy of flying

I was supposed to go to Japan this June school holiday. Due to the H1N1 flu scare, I have decided to cancel my trip. Then I found out that Emirates has a great deal flying from Singapore to European cities. And first city comes to my mine is Malta.

Why Malta? Firstly, not a lot of Asian airlines fly there, so the great fare deal is too good to miss. Secondly, I have never been in Malta before.

Few asked me where Malta is. People hear of drinks called Malta as well as Maltesers. None of these are related to Malta. It is a small island nation in the south of Sicily, Italy.

To get here, I flew RBA from Brunei to Singapore. I stayed at the Changi Airport for about 5 hours, before catching Emirates 7-hr flight to Dubai. From Dubai, it is 3 hour to Larnaca, Cyprus. We were not allowed to leave the plane, but stayed onboard for 1 hour. From Cyprus, it is another 2 hour flight to reach Malta. Needless to say, I was very well-fed many times onboard the Emirates.

Animal Shelter in Brunei

An animated cartoon, showing a dog catcher catching some kid's pet dog. Then the parents brought the kid to an animal shelter to 'rescue' the dog from the evil dog catcher. That was my first knowledge of an animal shelter.

According to wikipedia, an animal shelter is a facility that houses homeless, lost or abandoned animals; primarily a large variety of dogs and cats. The animal is kept at the shelter until it is either reclaimed by an owner, adopted by a new owner, or placed with another organization.

In Brunei, we have seen lots of road kills ranging from small frogs to dogs and monitor lizards. There are lots of stray dogs in commercial areas. Some dogs are aggressive, while others are shy and scared of us. Most of them are mal nutrition. The stray dogs are mostly the results of the abandon of irresponsible owners.

We have read conflicting views on the issue on stray dogs. The good thing that came out of it is the setting up of an animal shelter by volunteers. It is sad to read some of the blogs on the fortune of those unfortunate animals.

There might not be a RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), but at least it is a start and make people in Brunei to be aware of this problem.

For a start, click on Animal Shelter

The New Virus E1X1 aka Exam Fever

Exam fever is everywhere at the moment: students sitting for June A and AS papers.

Sometimes I am so happy that I dont have to go through it again. However, this year is my first trial on the GO and FR exams so I have to do the revision as hard as my students.

Just a few thoughts about exam revision period:

- I feel extra-ordinarily tired and sleepy

- there is always so much to study

- there is always a tomorrow to do the revision

- there are a lot of nice TV programmes especially during the revision period

- making post-exam plans and only too lazy to follow the plan after the exam

Anyway, just wanna wish whoever sitting for the exams now

ALL THE VERY BEST!

The Winning Song sung twice

No Boundaries

(co-written by Kara DioGuardi on American Idol Season 8)

Seconds, hours, so many days

You know what you want but how long can you wait

Every moment last forever if you feel you’ve lost your way

What if your chances are already gone

Started believing that I could be wrong

But you give me one good reason

to fight and never walk away
Coz here I am — still holding on!

Every step you climb another mountain

Every breathe its harder to believe
You’ll make it through the pain

Weather the hurricane

To get to that one thing

When you think the road is going nowhere

Just when you’ve almost gave up on your dreams

Then take it by the hand and show you that you can

You can go higher

You can go deeper

There are no boundaries

Above and beneath you

B-reak every rule coz there’s nothing

between you and your dreams

Every step you climb another mountain

Every breathe its harder to believe

From: http://showstalker.net/2009/05/no-boundaries-lyrics-kara-dioguardi-american-idol/

No Boundaries

By now, we have known that the American Idol 2009 (Season 8) is Kris Allen from Arkansas.

Most people were expecting Adam Lambert as Adam's performances were mind-blowing every week . So why the winner is Kris and not Adam?

A lot of theories are circulating in the internet.

Firstly, we need to see whom Danny Gokey's fans would vote? After Danny was eliminated, the fans were going to vote for someone. And in many ways Kris is more similar to Danny.

Is American Idol more of a popularity contest rather than a talent show? Kris captured more fan base while Adam captured slightly more adult fans.

Can America accept Adam's outrageous styles and makeup? Adam only answered "I know who I am" when asked about his sexuality, after his pictures of kissing another man was circulating in the internet. So maybe America didnt like his lack of truthfulness.

During the economic downturn, America is not ready for Adam's style but prefer a more soothing Kris's the boy next door image.

Kris's version of "No Boundaries" sounded more of the 'traditional' American winning song, as commented by the judges.

Again, all these are opiniated theories and some are plain weird excuses...However, the only fact is that Kris Allen is the new American Idol...

Disco night on Idol

I totally enjoyed the songs by Kris Allen and Adam Lambert on American Idol tonight. They both managed to take up-tempo songs and turned them into sentimental slow songs. Below videos show the originals and the ones that were performed on AI.

Only Adam's performance is available on youtube.com showing that his performance is more popular than Kris's.

"If I can't have you" performed by Adam Lambert (2009)

"If I can't have you" performed by Yvonne Elliman (1978)

"She works hard for the money" by Kris Allen on AI

"She works hard for the money" by Donna Summer

Getaways 2009

I was looking back at my blog posting from last year and realised that I have booked my December 2008 holiday as early as in the month of June 2008. So, it suddenly hit me that we are coming to the middle of the year soon and these are my travel plans for 2009.

Hanoi, Vietnam (March 2009)

Tokyo, Japan (June 2009)

New Zealand (September 2009)

Middle East (December 2009) - not yet confirmed

Cuisines in Hanoi

My trip to Hanoi was not only sightseeing, but to eat as many types of food as I could. In addition to Vietnamese food, Vietnam is also renowned for its colonial French cuisines. I had a French lunch buffet (USD22) at Le Beaulieu, Metropole Hotel Hanoi. This French colonial hotel was established in 1901.

Vietnam is also the 2nd largest exporter of coffee after Brazil. Not surprisingly Vietnamese coffee is strong and delicious and the stainless steel coffee filter adds another novelty to coffee drinking.

Bun cha: Rice Vermicille with BBQ pork and green papaya pickles

Steamed catfish in beer at Little Hanoi Restaurant

Appertisers at Le Beaulieu: Sashimi, foie gras with figs, teamed clams, braised scallops

Grilled oysters, spaghetti with clams, Beef Bourginion, ratatouille


Duck confit with bacons and croutons

Sponge fingers with chocolate dips, banana crumble, macaroon

Crepes with fresh strawberry and mango sorbet

Lunch onboard: Frieed fish, fried spring rolls, beancurds, beansprouts etc

Rice with beef and fried chicken with vegetables

DIY grilled fish at Cha Ca La Vong

Snails, Shrimp pancakes, nem (spring rolls) and bánh cuốn (steamed rice cakes)

Fried pho with beef and vegetables

Che, sweetened dessert with shaved ice

Condiments: Sausages, fried eggs, pate, roast pork and many more

Sticky rice with condiments

Traffic in Hanoi

The horrendous traffic at the Hanoi Old Quarter is something that newly arrived travellers have to get used to. There are 2.5 millions motorbikes in Hanoi (pop: 5 million) and the bikes were parked along the pedestrian lanes in front of shops, in the shops as well as in the alleys.

The traffic can come from all directions. And the honking is the norm in order to 'warn' the others. Some riders just cant be bothered to sound the honk when necessary, but do that all the waywhile driving. Some even talked on their mobiles with helmet on, while driving.

The speed is so well planned that when the traffic comes in 4 directions (maybe more than 4) at the crossroads, no one needs to stop at all. (movie clip 2)

Areas near schools are less congested with motorbikes but bicycles, as students are not allowed to own motorbikes till 18 years of age.

The good thing is, despite of the traffic no accident occurred while we were there.

The videos explain everything.

Guiltless UN-necessity!

I have been travelling with my Delsey LARGE suitcase all this while. I have decided to buy a smaller suitcase for shorter trips and use the Delsey for long trips. I have been window shopping for a while now, trying to get the most suitable one.

I finally bought a Samsonite suitcase. (Sound like SMSO! hahhaha) Since it is a good brand and more expensive, I hope it will be more lasting for my many trips. Guess what, when I brought it home and compared to my Delsey, they are almost the same size. Aiyooooooooooooooooooo!

After careful scrutinisation, Samsonite is slightly smaller than Delsey. What a relief! or is it a thought to make me guiltless!

Delsey (L) and Samsonite (R)

The arrivals - What a journey!

The box of printed materials has finally arrived. I was worried of the limited luggage weight allowance by the airlines so I decided to send all these by post using surface mail from the UK. It was 4.7kg and cost me £25.13.

It contains the inflight magazines, cookbook, transport tickets, guide books etc that I have used during my trip in Turkey, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and the UK in December 2008.

I sent it at 10.28am on 22 December 2008 from Leeds, and arrived at the Mail Processing Centre in Brunei on 4 March 2009. I collected it from MPC at 3pm on 16 March 2009.

So, it has been 84 days 4 hours 32 minutes for the box to leave my hands in Leeds, and reached my hands in Brunei. What a journey!

Deadly Addiction

I was on my way home when I heard DJ Frankie from Pilihan Radio mentioning about the 10 warning signs of Facebook addiction. So how many of the followings apply to you?

1. Facebook is your home page.

2. You update your status more than twice a day.

3. You have over 500 "friends" half of whom you've never actually met.

4. As soon as you step away from your computer you're on FB on your phone.

5. You are a FB stalker. You qualify as a FB stalker if you
a) click on someone's profile more than once a day even if they haven't messaged or tagged you in a photo.
b) have dragged and dropped more than 3 FB photos (not from your own profile)
c) actually go to a place mentioned on someone's page in hopes of seeing them in real life...creepy!

6. You change your profile picture more than a 12 year-old girl.

7. You have checked your FB page while reading this article.

8. You clean up your "wall" so it looks like you spend less time on FB.

9. You are a member of more than 10 groups and respond to every event invitation "attending" even if you have no intention of going.

10. You change your relationship status just to mess with people

Note: The 10 warning signs are obtained from this website as well.

3 out of 10 for me....so perhaps I am not that addicted...

Who the hell are you?

Lately I have been receiving lots of friend request on Facebook. I added them because I saw that we have many mutual friends, thinking that they might be my friends or someone I know. Then some of the new added friends do not have pictures, or their names are some kind of created fantasy 'glamorous' or unglamourous nicknames.

I thought Facebook is supposed to be used as networking, and is especially very popular in the West. People use FB to search for long lost friends or keep connected with the current friends. That is the reason why people use "real' names or some names that 90% resemble to their real names.

Now look at the FB community once it becomes popular in Asia. All kind of names and I dont even know half of the people there without the real names or pictures.

Lately I have been extremely busy with my work, as evident in my infrequent blogging nowadays. Once I am freer, I have decided to delete all the unknown 'friends'.

You mights say "Who cares!", then I would just have to reply "Who the hell are you?"

Schizophrenia & Family

When a person is judged by his/her action, the reason given is usually the character. So how is the character shaped?

Are we born with it? (nature) or Are we brought up with it (nurture)?

R.D. Laing in his Sanity, Madness and the Family (1970), explains the ideas about the role of family in causing psychological disturbance and schizophrenia.

So do I agree with that? Hmmm, partly.

Case 1
A guy who is self-pity and always avoids meeting people he knows. He is very cautious to have someone close to him, hence he doesnt have any close friends. He has the tendency to feel that he is a failure and everyone looks down on him. As a matter of fact, some people don't even remember who he is.

Case 2
A guy who is always buying the latest gadgets and showing them off to his friends. He likes to make comparisons with his friends and make sure that he 'wins' in every circumstances. At the end of the day, nobody really cares of what he has.

So, these are the two cases at both ends of the scale. By examining them, they both maybe the results of a certain kind of family upbringings.

The first guy is from a broken family and is very conscious about what people think / ask of him and his family.

The second guy comes from a lower socio-economic background and has always be envious of his friends from a higher socio-economic background. Thus when he starts working, the first thing he does is to make sure he 'wins' materialistically.

Do all criminals come from some sort of distorted families? Is schizophrenia a result from an abnormal family? So, are our characters really shaped by FAMILY?

Cannonball

I really like the lyrics of this song. First heard the song in 2004 and still like it, especially the very ironic chorus

Cannonball is a song by an Irish singer, Damien Rice. It is a very slow song...some people will like it, but some....hmmm will complain that it is a 'sleepy' song




there’s still a little bit of your taste in my mouth
there’s still a little bit of you laced with my doubt
it’s still a little hard to say what's going on
there’s still a little bit of your ghost your witness

there’s still a little bit of your face i haven't kissed
you step a little closer each day
that I can´t say what´s going on

stones taught me to fly
love, it taught me to lie
life, it taught me to die
so it's not hard to fall
when you float like a cannonball

there’s still a little bit of your song in my ear
there’s still a little bit of your words i long to hear
you step a little closer to me
so close that I can´t see what´s going on

stones taught me to fly
love taught me to lie
life taught me to die
'cos its not hard to fall,and I don't want to scare her
its not hard to fall and i don't want to lose
its not hard to grow
when you know that you just don't know

stones taught me to fly
love taught me to lie
life taught me to die
so its not hard to fall
when you float like a cannonball.

stones taught me to fly
love taught me to cry
so come on courage, teach me to be shy
'cos its not hard to fall,
when you float like a cannonball

Blackout 2009

This is my first blog of the year, and I have to start with this. How depressing!

The Bandar Blackout of 2008 was on 26/27 April 2008. At that time, some places were affected up to 2 days.

The current blackout 'started' last night at around 11pm. I didnt know about it till this morning as I slept early and the weather was cool enough for me not to notice it.

Major inconveniences:

- Ice cream is melting in the fridge

- Grooming for work at morning twilight

- No aircond., no fans, hot hot hot

- No internet

- No TV means no American Idol on SWR

I left my 'blackout'ed village in Pulaie around 8.33pm, and came to my rented house in Sengkurong. Along the way, police was manning major traffic lights, the 'left' side of Jln Gadong towards Beribi (from Riverview Hotel till Land Transport Dept after Supasave), Kebangsaan Lama, Anggerek Desa, The Centrepoint, and many more places are STILL all affected.

What time will the Brunei Blackout 2009 end? And will there be another one?