My Celebrity Look Alikes (I was bored!)

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

Mall Outing!

So, today at 3:00 I met up with Badi, Edwin, Nurul, Wendy, Amanda, Chung, and Lin Li at the mall. We first went to watch The Spiderwick Chronicles, which I thought was actually a pretty well done movie, considering it was an adaptation of a book (no, I have not read the book, YET). The feeling was actually presented very well, and the graphics were quite funny. Lin Li claims he didn't enjoy it, though he was laughing the whole time. =D

After the movie we went to Swenson's for ice cream. Lin Li was being a naughty boy, as usual, and....um...poisoned?...Badi's water with salt while he wasn't looking. We all saw though, and told Badi not to drink it. Was I crazy to try it instead? Actually, you couldn't even taste the salt. Then Chung smoothly switched Badi and Nurul's water glasses with only one witness. Nurul didn't drink it ;-P Lin Li started messing up the salt shaker (so beware whenever you go to Swenson's), and then poured like half the shaker (the rice to prevent sticking included) into the water, as well as some pepper. I was then dared to try it, and....it tasted like sea water almost, though not quite as salty. Then I left at 6:30 and that was it.

I must say, I wish I could have stayed a little longer though, as I could have had more time to chat with Edwin (who came all the way from Mancester!) and the others. And more time to tease Chung ;-P

Oh and did I mention? Bringing me to the mall was the last trip our car was successfully able to complete! Apparantly, the engine started smoking and the car broke down right before our street!

Warning-This Means You!

On the front cover of the Borneo Bulletin this morning, as you may or may not have seen, was an article stating that Brunei had been put on a watchlist for pirated DVDs and CDs. As 99% of music and 90-95% of movies currently sold in Brunei are illegal copies, this is going to be extremely hard for certain members of the audience to break the habit.

Why should you care? Well, how would you feel if people took your work that you spend time, effort, and lots of money on and didn't pay or let you know somehow they had it? And then sold YOUR WORK WITHOUT YOU KNOWING for their personal benefit? You'd be pretty mad, wouldn't you?

When you discover a new website that lets you download songs or software for free, you jump at the chance, don't you? I mean, why should you pay if you can get it for free, right? WRONG. Hey, I may sound like I'm repeating myself, but this is seriously important! There are severe penalties for piracy in the US and other countries. And, now, guess what? The US is intervening! Hm...I wonder what that means....

Brunei is on this watchlist, and it is a seriously high criminal priority to be watched. You want fortune? Find some other way besides piracy. You want songs? Buy them from a legal source.

Remeber, put yourself in the artists' shoes before you load another free song.

My New Waitressing Career

So, my parents had a dinner party. My amah, Dona, and I were cooking and waitressing (well, SHE was cooking....but I helped arrange! ;-P)

So, setting up originally went well. But then everyone sat down and I had to serve rolls, and...let's just say it didn't go quite so well....

So, the rule is "serve from the right, take from the left" right? So I served that way, to the bread plate on the right. Except when I got to the end of the table, I found out the bread plate was on the left.....To embarass myself further...:

When asked which type of rolls we had, I replied: "whole grain and not whole grain"

When asked for which type of roll I would recommend: "personally, I prefer white, but if you would like to be more correct, I would take whole grain."

And then I missed the plate with my tongs and dropped a roll on the table.

Run to the kitchen.

When it came time to take away the salad plates, I came out too early.

When taking away the plates, I nearly dropped a knife.

Soup, fortunately, I didn't spill.

The main course came along smoothly (except for nearly tossing beef stir fry over the side of the plate when arranging...), except I abandoned all waitressing ettiquete and served left and right.

Clearing after the main course, I barely managed not to spill. And nearly ended up forgetting the bread plates.

The deserts came out alright.

Clearing after deserts was fine too.

Then came the coffee and tea round, when I actually started sounding kindof proffesional, except...well....let's just say I forgot the coffee cups? But then serving went fairly well, except the guests were teasing me a lot, but I'm a big girl, right? ;-P

All in all, I think it was a good experience though. Wasn't nearly as easy as knowingly drinking salt, pepper, and rice water earlier today though ;-D

China Trip - Part 10

The view from our plane (Singapore to Brunei)
Ahaha revenge is sweet!!!!! Ke Lau Shi got pics of all of us sleeping (and refused to show them to us) so, it's only fitting....

Imagine my surprise when I arrived home and saw my dad had grown a beard!

Guess those days of "jungle trekking" in Sandakan did something for you, eh, Dad?

Now, I will admit, I got home at about noon, fell asleep at 3 in the afternoon, and didn't wake up again till 9 the next morning! And that was a "nap"

My brother was sure happy to see me....

Now, was my sister happy to see me or just happy that I bought her a stuffed panda?

Note: for some strange reason, we were looking at my photos in the closet, so I've got a....um...interesting video of my brother after which... (to be posted later)

Though it was a seriously amazing trip, and I would highly recommend you go next year or some other time, it was really nice just to be home. ;-)

China Trip - Part 9

Our last day in China, and Vanna's enjoying the extra few minutes of sleep. It's going to be a long day...
This morning we went to the Tian An Men Square, also known as the Temple of Heavenly Peace.
This was our tourguide, Michelle.

A Senior Citizen using a water brush to do calligraphy. This is a popular activity, as paper and ink can be quite expensive.

There was a stone at the center of this platform that, when stood on, your voice would sound louder to you than the people around you. Pretty cool architechture, eh?

Next we visited the Echo Wall in the same area. If one person stood at one end and said something, another person at the other end would hear what they said! We tried it, and it seriously worked!

Some cool-looking spouts

Vanna, you're supposed to kick it with your foot! Not wear it on your head! ;-P

We saw these seniors kicking around these feathered things, like a game of hackysack. We bought some and tried it out, and it was so much fun! Wish we had more time there...

Awww aren't they cute? Even Lily (my little sis for those who don't know) immediately said upon seeing this pic: "are they in love or something?"

Balancing a ball on a racket thing while doing Tai Chi

She was so graceful!

And then they started doing it syncronised, which involved tossing the balls to eachother!

We played more of that hackysack feather game thing in this area

On the way to lunch, we passed "Sophie's Bakery". How ironic is that?

There was a spare seat, so Jonny (Lim) had the waitress pour an extra glass of Sprite for Mr.Gobbles the Turkey-Monkey!

Preparing the Peking Duck.....

It was absolutely delicious!

Then, we went to the Silk Road Shopping Mall. It was originally a traditional open air market type place, but they moved all the stalls into a 7 floor building.

Jonny completed one side of his Rubik's Cube!

The other Jonny bought new shoes, and 5 different colors of laces!
He also bought new earphones which you could change the casing color of (also 5 colors).

So, he changed his laces and earphones so they matched! ;-P

Hey, that's MY scarf! ;-)
Vanna, Julia and I bought these 100% silk scarves for only BND 16! (original price was about BND 70 I think). Vanna is seriously agressive when she bargains....

Do I need a caption? I hate to embarass these two furthur, but hey, neither knows my blog address ;-) (shhh)

Then we went to this super-awsome acrobatics show! I decided not to attempt to take pictures; the people were moving too fast!

After the show, we went to dinner.

Then we went to the airport. We arrived at around 8:00 pm, and had to wait till....oh...10:00 before they opened the check-in counter? Our flight left for Singapore at 12:05 (that's 5 mins after midnight).

We arrived in Singapore at about...6:00 am. Allowing me only...4 hours of sleep!

Our flight to Brunei departed at....9:00 am I think....

The Hour Of The Earth

Close your eyes and take a minute to think: what would life be like without electric light bulbs? How would my evening change?

Now, I want you to picture a world without electric lights. What would a satelite picture taken on a Saturday evening look like?

For one hour, this Saturday evening at 8 o' clock (March 29) just turn off all your lights. Untill 9:00. Just to try to help decrease Global Warming.

Imagine the Difference.

For more information, visit http://www.earthhour.org/ .

China Trip - Part 8

Welcome to the Forbidden City! I'm not exactly sure how big, but I do know there are.....999 1/2 rooms. As the Emperor was considered the Son of Heaven, and Heaven was believed to have 1000 rooms, it was only seen fitting that he had 1/2 room less, so as not to anger the Gods.
Entering the Forbidden City

The Guardians of the Roof (actually, they were nails!)

Later to come, you will see a video of Jonny Kuan's crib, giving you maybe more info than you needed ;-P

It was nice and chilly outside, so Vanna got a pink nose! (I DID tell her to zip up the jacket...)

Um....ransom?

Edmund was sure excited about seeing the pandas next!

The Thinker
"Hm...what should I do to please my audience next?"

"You are getting sleepy...."

Hey, it worked! Julia sleeping with her panda Qing Ling

Some people sleep in the most uncomfortable positions...

This picture of Jonny sleeping didn't turn out as great as the ones I got of him the first night (which he deleted...) ;-(

Vanna the red-nosed human!

^^^Only one of the various tricks we played with our new Laser/UV pens! Others included:

shining them at the locals, therefore:

causing them to start wacking themselves with their jackets

run and hide behind trees

get angry

start smiling and waving

etc...

After dinner, we poured Sprite into our teacups and had a jugging contest ;-)


Tonight was our last in China (and in real beds for a while)

Note: small update to China Trip - Part 1

China Trip - Part 7

What's this? Mountains....
O! O! Could it be......yes, it is!
That's right! The big day : we visited the Great Wall of China. How cool is that?

"Pretty cool. The temperature is only 7 degrees!"

Feeling chilly, guys?

I seriously couldn't believe I was actually standing on the Great Wall. It was absolutely incredible! Ontop of a mountain (well, many mountains), this...thing just stretched on for miles and miles. And it was misty. Absolutely breath-taking....

More of the wall...

Fortunately, we were on a section that wasn't nearly as crowded as this one. (those dark spots are human bodies)

The lazy people who gave up after only half of the length we climbed.

Actually, only Michelle (in year 12), our teachers, and I climbed further ;-)

On the bus back, Jonny borrowed my camera again

At lunch, somebody had fun with the oranges ;-P

We then went shopping at this place which made porcelain and other handycrafts

Sorry, Julia, I know you hate this photo but it's so funny! Jonny got this shot of her about to eat a piece of cucumber =D

And this one of Vicky eating watermelon ;-P

That night we stayed in the Best Western Hotel, which was actually a four star this time ;-P
And, funnily enough, there happened to be a Starbucks right next to it =D