Birthday Surprise!!

Thursday, 13 May 2010

One of our Bruneian friends is celebrating her birthday today, Aizah. Her aunt, Reny, organized the surprise party for her. We all gathered at her house right before she came back from Uni. And when she comes, we gave her the surprise of her life!! Hehe! It was a fun night with loads of yummy foods. Mummy made some ayam masak merah.. yummy!

ASEAN Uni Games 2010

Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Early last week, Monday, 3rd May 2010, some of the Bruneian girls competed in the ASEAN Uni Netball Game. Some people misunderstood my post. Don't worry, I didn't play, just being one of the spectators. Other than being a spectator, i joined my friends picnic-ing and selling local foods at the side of the venue. Our baby is our precious treasure at the moment, more important than anything else. Don't worry, I wouldn't do anything to hurt our baby and most importantly, my hubby's feelings. This is what we have been missing for the past three years of our marriage.

Last weekend, Saturday, 8th May 2010, some Bruneian boys and girls also took part in the ASEAN Uni Basketball Game. 10 different countries participated. It was a 2-day game, Saturday and Sunday but I only went onto the one on Saturday. It was fun!! This time it was held at QUT Sports Hall, the exact same hall where Friday prayer was usually held every Friday, which the best thing is, it is only not even 1 minute away walk from home. My neighbours and i went there during the morning session and manage to see Bruneian girls battling against the Malaysian team. It was a very tough game for them, but i must congratulate them because they worked really hard. Our Bruneians boys on the other hand, almost emerged as the champion. They won second place overall, congratulation!

Will post some photos in the near future.. :)

Mee Laksa for Dinner

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Tonight, we (our neighbour and us) made a group order of Mee Rebus from a Malaysian living here in Brisbane. Thanks to Midah for making the order for us! Overall, my parents really liked it. I tried some, not much, because i'm not really a fan of noodles myself, except for spagetthi. To Hubby, what do you think hun? When you come here, we can order some more.. hehe..

Raining in Brisbane

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

We experienced something new today. Something which is pretty unusual here in Brisbane. It was raining heavily! We heard a bit of thunder too. But not as much as we get in Brunei. Its worth blogging about it, hehe, because I sorta miss rain a little bit.

Ayam Penyet for Dinner

Monday, 10 May 2010

Yesterday, our lovely neighbour, Midah made some ayam penyet sauce and gave us some to try. Thanks dear Midah! It was very yummylicious! I thought, what is the use of the sauce if there is no fried chicken?! So mom and i were on a quest to make ayam penyet to complete the dish. This whole thing actually reminded me of me and Hubby used to go to this particular place in Sengkurong that makes the best Nasi Ayam Penyet. Talking of food, suddenly i feel like going to The Mall, Gadong food court.. :'(. But here goes our ayam penyet tryout! Trust me, it tasted better than it looked in the photo below, i had to refill my rice twice..

Found these ingredients and how to make it over the internet:

6 large chicken legs or breas, deboned

2 stalks lemon grass, crushed

2 bay leaves (salam leaves)

1 tbsp coriander seeds (ketumbar)

1/2 tsp ground cumin (jintan manis)

2 tbsp thick coconut milk

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp cooking oil

Fry coriander seeds over slow fire till fragrant then grind coarsely. Wash chicken and drain well. Prick chicken all over with a fork. In a mixing bowl, combine ground spices with ground cumin, coriander, salt, sugar, coconut milk and crushed serai. Add chicken and mix thoroughly. Leave to marinade for 30 minutes.
Grease base of cooking pot with some cooking oil. Arrange chicken in pot, add crushed bay leaves. Cover pot and cook over moderate heat for 8 minutes. Turn chicken over, cover pot and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes or until almost dry. Remove chicken and drain off excess liquid. Grill or roast chicken on high heat, 250 deg Celcius until golden brown on both sides.

(http://original-indonesian-recipe.blogspot.com/2009/03/ayam-goreng-penyet-indonesian-smashed.html)

Watching Malay Drama

Sunday, 9 May 2010

My neighbour had been telling me alot about TV3 drama that we can watch online. It was easier than i thought, just register and watch any dramas uploaded in the website, absolutely free. I just started watching a drama called Adamaya. I'm really addicted to it already and will continue to watch other drama. You guys should try it! Just visit www.dramamelayu.com or tv3.com.my

Preparation for Hari Raya

Sunday, 9 May 2010

I'm only going to be back in Brune sometime mid-July. I found a solution to tailor my own Baju Kurong for Hari Raya. I have a personal tailor that I always go to since i was young. Her name is Elsee, a Malaysian Chinese woman who lived in a small apartment in Menglait. She is really good!! Highly recommended. All i had to do is pass on to her the fabric early, so that she can get the beads done on time.

Initial plan was to let hubby go to First Metro and choose 4 nice kains for me. But I found a better option. Shopping on facebook! I have been adding accounts of facebook that sells nice kains for Raya. To date, manage to get myself about 4 pieces, just enough for Hari Raya. So excited!!! I'm currenly loooking for a nice maternity design for Hari Raya. Looking forward!! The photo below is my fabrics that i bought over the internet except for one which hubby bought from my usual fabric shop in Brunei, First Metro.

Playing Kite

Thursday, 6 May 2010

It has been a pretty quiet week for me this week. Things in the lab seems to get pretty hectic. Everynight I have to catch up with the experimental methods, details and results. I need to get some results.

Weather has been quite windy lately. Our neighbour, Akim came over to show us his new kite that his mum made for him. Dad got an idea to make a small kite from A4 sized paper which young kids always play in Brunei, called 'Kikik Katak' directly translated to english as Froggy Kite. I dont know why it is called that way. Probably because it looks like a frog. It was a succesful one, Akim manage to flew it up in the air. Just needed a longer string.

Female Netball Tournament, UQ

Monday, 3 May 2010

Today, i went to watch (not playing, don't worry... hehe) a female netball tournament amongst ASEAN countries in which, Bruneian female netball team was one of them. This tournament was held at the University of Queensland. I guess it is best to have it today because of it being a public holiday, labour day.

What made it more exiting was, one of our neighbours got invited to sell some of Bruneian delicacies. Some of the menus were chicken rice, kuih kusoi, soto, kuih linggang, karipap, onde onde, kacang kuda etc. The sale was really good, almost everything was gone in the first hour. I feel lucky i pre-ordered some, otherwise i wouldn't be able to get anything. It was yummy!! It has been a while I haven't eaten local foods. I offered a hand in selling the food but most of the time I was just watching the netball match. Hehe. Still i'm glad i could offer some help. I didn't take much photos but thanks to Hj Zil who took most of these photos. Great photo collection!!

    

    

    

Oriental Foods

Sunday, 2 May 2010

Today we went out to get some pratha for my breakfast and afternoon tea usuals. One of my cravings, pratha. When we arrived at the shop, we were very surprised with what we have found there. We found more that what we bargained for. We bought a very famous bread spread in Brunei called kaya (made from eggs and coconut), grass jelly drinks, fried onions, mung beans, rice noodle, coriander seeds and plain flour. We'll surely go there again!

Congrats Sis-In-Law

Saturday, 1 May 2010

Hubby just sent me an email (and some photos) saying his sister have just had a baby girl born today. Congratulation to Sis-In-Law Lijah and her hubby. I wished i was there to congratulate the both of them. This means i now have 30 nephews and nieces altogether. Yeay!! Cute baby girl, a great latest addition to the 2 girls they currently have. That completes the 3 girls super-hero team, The Power Puff Girls!!

    

    

    

    

    

    

Mountain Coot-tha & Botanic Garden

Saturday, 1 May 2010

This coming Monday is a public holiday, a labour day. That only means a long weekend for us here. Yeay!!!

Today, we took the time out to visit Mt Coot-tha, which is about 15 minutes drive from home. Mt Coot-tha is located 7 kilometres west of Brisbane's City Centre and occupies one of the most beautiful vantage points from which to view an Australian capital city and surrounds. Commanding panoramic views over the city of Brisbane!!! One could even view over some island to the East, and the mountains to the West. It is surrounded by the 220 hectare Mt Coot-tha reserve which is an oasis of natural bushland and native wildlife. It is well known that Mt Coot-tha forms a backdrop of hills to the city of Brisbane, it is afterall the tallest mountain in Brisbane.

This place reminds me of Bukit Shahbandar in Brunei, jogging track up to the mountain, places for barbeques and picnic, except that here you could drive your car up to the mountain. However, to get to the top was the hardest bit, as the roads was quite steep, so we had to drive really slow. But don't worry, they were actually plenty of cars around.

Our first stop was the Mt Coottha Lookout, this area gave us an opportunity to view Brisbane city from the top view. They were gifts shops and restaurants around this area too.

    

    

                  

We then made our way to the next destination, Botanic Garden, which is which is located just at the foot of Mt Coot-tha. The garden was actually pretty big. Out of all the different kinds of landscape in the garden, i love the Japanese garden the most, I'm sure hubby would love this place. He's really into gardening and I think this is the best place to get ideas for our future house garden.

    

     

     

        

        

       

       

       

       

      

      

      

      
      

We ended our trip by having a small picnic with some simple food which mom had prepared before we left home. Yummy!!!