welcome to my paradise

The other day me and my friends decided to head to the beach. Unaware of which one not that there's a lot of beaches around we opted for nearest one which was at Kuala Baram road.

We got ourselves ready with beach gear. Kinda. And readied the boot with 3 cans of Carlsberg, some barbecued hot-dogs, a camera and ourselves. It was me, Fara and Kevin and mainly it was my idea to go for screaming out that thought for days now. I finally decided it was time to get sand in my toes and the feeling of water and sun, not the scorching kind but a little UV ray exposure for the benefit of our skin. Everyone agreed and from there our journey began.

me

The beach was hidden behind a pile of boulders which we had to climb over from the main Kuala Baram road. Parked the car on the side of the road and after we had a rock-climbing session which almost made me squirm and fall, but I didn't. Thank goodness.

me and kevin

The sun was a bright orange. It was almost evening but the sky was not so pretty on the said date. I was a little bummed cause I wanted to take pictures of the sunset, but the weather was a little gloomy and the sun a little blob which made the sunset not so interesting to look at.

Kevin had this bright idea of writing our names in sand

Fara's name is actually spelt Farha but it would be easier just to say fara fara fara. Kevin mispelt her name which resulted in me wiping the wrong spelling out with my slippers just to correct him.

Kevin and Fara

me and Fara

we decided to be a little vain in the sun with the water soaking up our toes

and our romantic shot

The company was divine. And the beach, a little less awesome that normal but we had a good time relaxing ourselves from the stress in our minds before the sky turned dark.

till you drop

Life in university is not always all about studies and exams. Sometimes we do have our own share of fun and methods to entertain ourselves. A few days ago there was a party at Imperial Hotel Apartments that I was invited to attend. Some friends rented a night over there and decided to throw a party without forgetting to invite others to participate. My way of spending the weekend was to drive down to Brunei to see my family. Yet after a bit of convincing and coaxing I decided to stay instead.

The night was young. My friends and I all got dressed up while putting a casual vibe to our apparel of choice. We reached the downstairs of Imperial which is like a good 20 minutes from home and waited for our friends to bring us up into the room where the party was at.

This is Leah and I making use of the toilet downstairs while waiting for Bertha to bring us up into the apartment party.

me and Leah

We arrived and mingled around without forgetting to add our own presence and existence into the room. Glow-sticks were all around. Kevin was the first person to notice these glowy things in the room. And soon all sorts of trinkets were made from these glow-in-the-dark sticks when we found connectors that connected one to another.

Mind the pictures. I have no idea why it came out all blurry and the like.

This is Fara and the glow-stick

Gillespie and Leah

Kevin and the glow-stick

These sticks started of as well.. sticks.. then made into bracelets where I was one of the people that wore these illuminous objects for the said event.

After eye-wear was made

And everything followed suit.

Do notice Fara adorning these sticks on her neck. A huge floral pendant was made from our creative minds which, she wore on her neck for the entire night.

me and Ayu and Leah

After a bit of time, even head-wear was invented

And here is the Queen of light

Kevin, Leah and Gillespie

Me and Lyanis

Mind the drunken faces. Of course there was alcohol for the party.

me, Leah, Nabila, Fara, Tim and Lyanis

Yes that's me red, intoxicated with alcohol. I didn't drink much though. And I was peachy in skin tone after just one cup?

me and Fara

Leah and Yusuf

We have this inside thing where Fara is our momma while Yusuf her current beau, made him is the father of the crew

The happy family

Momma and her boys

Gill, Yusuf and Kevin

me and Nabila

me and Nisha

Hearts all around people

and don't forget to smile

The night ended up with people getting high on alcohol. While others continue to stay on, some left for another location. I ended up at Al-Fresco. I didn't do much there not that I know of. People continued drinking yet I wasn't a part of that. I just sat around. I do remember being hungry so supper I had before we headed home after an adventurous night indeed.

because

Semester starts and a new beginning commences. Classes are .. I don't yet cause its been two weeks and already I'm lazy to go. I haven't attended much. I guess old habits never die hard. But hopefully from the third week onwards I'll pull myself up. I really have to.

Aside from that, University life has been great so far. I've been busy hanging out with my friends. Meeting them, chilling, their company has been divine, a little treat to the soul. I've been out much, and I think I have to cut down on that cause its draining my pockets dry. All I do is eat and I think I should do that activity a little less.

Just a bit update, I have pictures which I'm lazy to resize and upload. Sometime in the distant future alrighty peeps.


xx

highschool reunion

I had a reunion on Saturday with my high-school friends. Its been a few years since I last met them and I was invited to the reunion dinner at one of my ex-classmates place. It was pot-luck and that meant everyone had to bring something to eat. I just brought myself. It was more than enough isn't it. Besides I didn't know what to bring anyways. And luckily I didn't cause at the end of the night there was too much leftovers, everyone was arranging what to bring home for their midnight snack.

The reunion went fine and I followed a friend there.

We all didn't know who would actually come cause some people didn't actually confirmed their attendance but it was cool when we saw one person coming after another. Almost everyone was driving already and the carpark was full. Its kinda weird to see how everyone is growing up compared to when we all first met. Adolescences to grown-up adults. We were 12 when we all knew each other in the classroom but now this room consisted of a range of 20ish individuals. How time passes goes beyond me.

There were so many cameras there, ranging from a few dslr's to digital cameras. Almost everyone had their own photographic machines to capture moments for the night. It was spectacular and yeah that's what we spent the whole night doing. Taking pictures.

me

Form 3A of 2002

Ok this is a proper shot

we had cake

and a cake cutting session

the girls

me and Zee

Pictures are stolen from facebook cause I could'nt bothered playing cameraman cause everyone was doing that already. It was cool to see how everyone changed from the few years apart and to see who had major transformation since high-school.

I was in my own bubble cause I didn't sleep much the night before so I was kinda anti-social but anyways it was great to see everyone again after so long.

my home lies within your heart

Amidst my days I decided to be pay my bestie a visit. She has been preoccupied by her house renovations and I think its the fact that she's back for the holidays she's spending more time with her family. Since I called and she was free I took the opportunity to come and spend time with her.

Going to her house was just like paying the past a visit. There were memories of the place where she calls home. I frequented the place during our high-school and college times. He family knows me and has seen me grow up year after year. Her house changed but she's still the person I adore and heart.

I came over in the morning. We talked, chatted and took loads of pictures on my new camera. She was rushing around the house cause she had chores to do here and there but we did spend a great deal of time just reminiscing and talking. And when she was doing her daily chores I had the internet to myself. She even made breakfast for me :)

Most of the day was spent at her house, but she did come over to my place for a while where we took pictures. And put my new gadget to use

We headed to the beach nearby in the drizzling rain after just to feel the wind. We were a teeny bit scared that we would be the only ones there crazy enough to venture out to the beach where sunlight was not around but when we saw people around we were courageous enough to walk a bit in the sand. The weather was cool and refreshing, quite inviting if not for the rain that got heavier and forced us to come another day.

Our last stop was ice-cream at DQ even though the weather was cold and we were shivering from the ice-cream. Mainly it was because I felt like having a cold treat that melts inside your mouth and she was fine with the idea.

We ended the night with big hugs and a bid to pay the beach another time.


♥

act and play

I've been of the web space for a while. Well the blog sphere that is. I've been writing somewhere more personal and privatised instead. Contemplated in removing this site but then the ultimatum kicked in and here I am jotting down the past few weeks of my life. I've talked to the bestie and decided to still be here and she agreed that I should keep it because this is where parts of my growing up stages were held.

Here's an update on my life.

This was two weeks into my break. Sweet memories created.

Derek and Xavy asked me to meet them at gadong to hang-out a few weeks back

We went to snow ice for well the name says its all. I never tried it since its opening a few months back. Even though there were constant raves from other bloggers in Brunei but I never really bothered. The picture doesn't represent the taste. It doesn't look so yummy but it was! The bowl was huge in size and I can't believe I finished it one spoon after another. We had to choose our own flavours for the ice and also choose the separate toppings which was confusing because I don't like making decisions.

In the end I had the strawberry ice flavour with strawberry topping. It was too sweet for my liking me so I added peanut butter. I had a bit of Derek's peanut butter topping and liked that one better which was why I added the peanut butter into mine. Weird combination but the outcome was great. It was sweet not to the extreme and cold to a certain extent. Me like!

I was also introduced to Haylie which was so talkative in a friendly manner and also so cute and sweet. Nice meeting you!

Haylie, Derek and me

We sat talked and chit-chatted about random stories about how everyone met each other. And also what was happening in each others lives. The stories were really different from the norm, but quite interesting in its own manner. That filled up some time before we decided to leave.

Xavy

Tried to take a random shot at a random pose

We went to a friends house after the ice session. They were practicing for a drama for this talent time their having over at their church sometime this week and invited me to come and watch. I had nothing to do so I agreed and tagged along. Besides I knew most of the people that was going so I was like why not.

me, Jo and Jasmine

I was also introduced to Jo and I think she's a great girl with great stories of how to become a young adult. We took pictures because that's the most basic thing to do. Everyone takes pictures and cam-whore here there. Besides its something like cementing your memory of that moment. And also cause I'm rarely in Brunei I'm taking my moments one by one.

me

me and Xavy

Basically they weren't rehearsing like I thought. They had to take a video of their drama and show it during the talent time. Their drama consisted of a restaurant scene and they did this in the carpark where a barbecue, tables and chair were set up. I really like how they created the setting. Me and a few others who weren't in the play were co-actors. We were just supposed to be just in the scene. The sound was going to be dubbed in which was fine cause we just sat, talked and ate loads of satays. Which was yummy. The night was fine and I met some new friends and it was quite cool.

The day after that Shaf came over to see me. He just came back to Brunei. He was in Miri for a few days before to attend a function with his family. He had to leave for KL the day after I was telling him 'your only seeing me the day before you leave?'. So he made it up by spending the whole day with me and skipping his suppose family dinner at night. We went to pick Arnie randomly after and it felt like the old times again just talking about random things non-stop. So out of the blue, so comfortable.

me and Shaf

me and Satan Superstar (read:shirt)

Arnie and me

We didn't know what to do and I decided Iwanted to play pool. I thought I got better after the time we were apart and wanted to show of my skills. Shaf brought to this place somewhere in Kiulap. It was new but it costed a bomb. Imagine $6 for 30 minutes but the place was great. The place was quite big and there were mostly middle aged people and airconditioning and you could smoke inside. And I reckon the reason for the pricing was cause they were the target consumer. But like normal I totally sucked at the game so after a while all I did was taking pictures.

The table was bigger than the one I was accustomed to and also the balls were really small. Or maybe its just me. I didn't manage to score so Shaf tried to foul every opportunity he got so that I got the balls in. In the end we were tied cause it was a handicapped game. At least I had fun.

me and Shaf

Had lunch at Cheezbox after and OMG the chocolate paradise is to die for. I went again a few days later with my siblings just for the drink. It wasn't so chocolaty and there was a hit of coffee which was just nice.

me

We went out with some of Shaf's friends after the drinks and went to the arcade for games and karaoke before parting ways with big big hugs.

And introducing my new baby. Yes in this colour. Happy little girl has a new toy.

live high

Yesterday I was suppose to meet a few friends for coffee. I was a little early, they were late. So I decided to head to the salon and get a rock-star look. Must be all the alternative rock I've been listening to so much lately but yeah.. one decision to start moving on. A bit random, but it was a decision to change my perspective of life.

I finished and headed of to coffee bean after cause my friends finally reached and my hairstylist said he's done with his creation.

This is Pui Lim

A great friend.

And that's Jasmine with the bright lights from the big bright windows as our background

Friends I haven't meet in so long. And I'm grateful we hangout and they remember me even if the intervals are a few months to a few months.

And that's me with my current look.

Much shorter, and I don't regret getting it to that level, but then I don't think I like how its that short now. I was looking for a change instead of living with the present, I wanted to move forward and deal with it based on my current perspectives of life and whats best by changing your hair-style. Everyone said it took courage, but I think I'll just let it be for now. Maybe cause I'm still not use to my new me. There was no regrets, cause it signified my need to alter something in myself cause I wanted a change. A fresh start.

We hanged-out, talked and afterwards it was of to prepare for the cell-group in the evening. It was at Derek's and he invited me to it and since I haven't been in so long, I decided to give it another try. The youth group decided cell-groups are going to be held at his house for the month.

and that's the host for the day

Cellgroup is where you talk about the current issues plaguing the world we live in, worship god and talk about issues affecting your personal life and what your gona do to change that. That's my what I think of it. It was great and I do miss the times when I went for my youth group in the past. Its a great start to a better life. And I don't understand why I've been running away from going for so long.

I had a great time, the company, the music, the making lyrics, the making new friends and meeting the old ones that I haven't in so long and also all that talking even though I was sarcastic here and there. And especially realising I'm not so tone death in the end. I laughed for the first time, to my heart's content for I don't know since when.

It was a bit weird when Derek made me listen to a new song he just made, he took the melody from Jason Mraz's live high, a song that made me in love with the album and the bitter sweet memories attached. It was weird when he showed me the melody to another song which story he told while strumming the chords. The story revolved around the past month of my life, concerning my thoughts and feelings in that month. And also how I lived with depression, sadness, anger and also hatred. All the negative emotions attached.

All those hints showed me that I've been dwelling onto a past, holding it so tightly in my hand, telling myself I'm unable to let go, when the truth is I don't want to let go at all. It made me realise, life is more beautiful when you're not caught up with the past. And since I made the decision to move on with life within the past few days, and with the little hints I received, I should embrace that life is a learning process. The key is acceptance and patience. There's still hope in the end, so just wait. Though there is sadness but in time you'll be healed. There's no point in dwelling in the past because memories are memories, but embracing the present will make you happier in the end.

Thank you for today, and making me release the past, and move on to the future. You don't know how much I'm grateful for the coffee, the guitar sessions and also that hug because it made me at piece with my mind and also myself. Thank you very much.

♥