It's all about God, me and you

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Sunburn -

Jared and Bibs arrived in Brunei yesterday and mom and I took them around. Starting the tour with a visit to Kg Ayer, as it wasn't raining and we grabbed the opportunity. It must have been the longest boat ride in Kg Ayer I've been in!

One of the stops in the forested part of Kg Ayer where we saw many proboscis monkeys. hehe... It was the first time I've seen them in real life! Interesting Borneo creatures. =P Jared saw a crocodile too, which I missed. We saw lots of bangaus..but then again, bangaus are everywhere in Brunei. haha.. (Bangau is the local word for a stork) I think we were on the boat for almost 2 hours in the midday sun..... and I didn't realise until I went out for coffee after that, that I had a sunburn!

My back

Red as a lobster, my skin was and still is! Ouch. It still hurts now as I'm writing this. haha. Good thing it's only around my shoulder area. I've never been so sunburnt like this in my life before. I think my skin has gotten used to the lack of sun in Dunedin! haha.

I'm loving it being back in Brunei. No more hustle and bustle of the city. I'm just planning to relax in the next month before I return to NZ for the rest of the year. (It will be winter again when I return to NZ. D-oh!!!)

Singapore has been great. I've been so blessed. God really works in ways we can't imagine!

This post was written at 10:14 AM

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Malacca -

=O)

View of the Malaysia eye : the circular thing on the right hand side just off the middle of the photo (I keep wanting to call it the Malacca eye just because it's in Malacca)

Man-made jetty thingee

Malacca beach

Cousins

Cousins again

Hong bao decos on the plant

Jonker Street on Saturday night

Colourful lamps

Pretty lanterns

It was great being able to go home to Malacca, after 2 years or so. Wonderful time with family: grandma, cousins, relatives. Everytime I go back, nostalgia kicks in. I think of the times when we went back as a family every year for various holidays - and the crazy things that my cousins and I would do at my grandma's place. It wasn't fenced up from the beach like it is now, and it used to be one big open space where we could run and play and make our way to the beach. I remember being in this big 'drain' and the water buffaloes were nearby and we would try to get as close to them as possible, only to be freaked out by their enormous size (we were small at the time!). Or the times we would swim in the ocean and mom would look for kupangs (a kind of shellfish). The times when all of us cousins will stay at popo's house for CNY and we would stay up late watching tv or wait to light the fire crackers at midnight on CNY day. And because all of us stayed at popo's house and she only had one bathroom, we would have to queue up to use it and we all had to shower before dinner time.

Now it's so different. Not everyone is home at the same time. The annoying fence that was put up to separate the kampong houses from the Malacca club property containing tennis courts, swimming pools etc meant that we had to walk along the road out to only one part of the beach, cos the other part is now private property.

Nonetheless, I still love it when I go back to my kampong. Despite the astounding heat (crazily hot over there! And it's quite difficult to bear the heat without an airconditioner!), the buzzing mosquitoes that come out at night and leave you with lots of red bumps in the morning when you wake up, the annoying flies that buzz around you during the day, the 'wangkung' (aka muslim prayer from the mosque nearby) that wakes you up at 5ish in the morning, the annoying rooster that crows so many times in the morning that you feel like killing it because it knows that you're not awake yet =P, the loud voices of aunties and uncles when they come over to my grandma's place in the morning (which wakes me up most of the time)...what else? Oh and having to speak in Mandarin because English is not their first language and because 'wo bo bat hainan hua'(I don't know Hainan).

Yea, despite all that, I still love going back to our kampong and being with my grandma. :) I love it how I'm treated like a princess there because it's not everyday that I return to my grandma's place! hehe. I love trying to communicate with my grandma in Mandarin, until it comes to a point where we don't understand each other that we stop talking and just watch tv =P Sometimes she starts talking to me in Hainan and I'll just be staring at her, not understanding a word she says! hehe. I love how I'm known by my Chinese name there, and it is only with my mom's family that I respond to that name. Although one of my aunt calls me 'Ah Moi' and I get a bit confused because that's what she usually calls my sister.

I'm still all 'Malacca-high' =O) What can I say? After all, it is my 2nd home =O)

I love my popo <3

This post was written at 9:00 PM

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Monday, January 19, 2009

Family -

That Chinese New Year food concoction thing (whatever it's called)

The family mixing it all up

Me enjoying my meal :)

Clarke Quay

Chinese New Year decos at Bugis

Chinese New year is coming soon! That means long weekend this week! :) We get Monday and Tuesday off, which is why I am taking a bus up to Malacca. And I leave this Friday :) Exciting times! I haven't seen my grandma in 2 years (I think): can't quite remember the last time I saw her actually. It didn't seem like that long ago; but I'm not sure.

So that means, only 4.5 days left of elective work for me! :) I is of the happiness. I can't wait to touch down in Brunei. Not that I don't like it here - don't get me wrong. But after all this travelling, I want to be in my home sweet home. It's not the same staying at someone else's place.

(CNY reunion dinner pics above are with my uncle and his family in Singapore. This Uncle is my mom's cousin - and I had dinner with his parents, his family, his brother and family, and his sister and family. It was slightly difficult explaining who I was and how I was related to them and how some of their relatives are related to me. Turns out my family tree project might not be quite complete after all!)

This post was written at 8:30 PM

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Singapore -

Food court in Funan - with fat man statue in background

With Joy

Some of my new friends from other parts of the world :)

Olive rice - YUM!

With Popo Connie and Kong Kong Derrick

Tay Family - Koko Albert, Marcus, me, Aunty, Koko Alex, Jie Jie Alina

Koko Albert + family (minus baby who was sleeping at home)

In Singapore, it's all about food and catching up with people. :)

The hospital here is wonderful too. I am blessed with a wonderful consultant who lets me do what I want - which makes this elective a holiday too! haha. But of course I wouldn't take so much time off. =) Unless it is needed.

Chinese new year is coming up. Which means, MORE holidays! Yay! =)

This post was written at 9:24 PM

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