2020 and covid19

I know no one reads my post, so the reason why I am moved to write here today is because I need a medium to write whatever is happening in my life also known as "mizah is bored, she needs to channel her energy somewhere".

Hi, it has been more than 2 years since I last written anything in this good old blog. If it wasn't for covid19, I wouldn't even be moved to come back here. I have been working from home since mid March, it is definitely a challenge because as a person I feed on the energy of people around me and working from home means I got no one to feed on and I'm hungry for that.

But lets not move away from traditions of this blog..lets reflect on what has happened in the past 2 years.

 Life is still good in Brunei, this year marks the 10th year back in Brunei after Australia. I didn't expect that I'll stay this long here but I managed. Traveled quite decently for the last 2 years, went back to Sydney twice last year, celebrated the 2019 new year in New York,  ate loads of good food there, went to EMP for dinner and then visited Miami - fell in love with the street arts and Orlando for Universal Park and of course Houston cos my good friend Fina was there. Also did a good round of Turkey for my birthday last year  and ended up in Amsterdam for King's Day! If I decide to continue blogging, I think I have enough material to talk about few destinations.

Moving on to health and fitness, my mission on becoming healthy and fit has been there since university times. Every year my resolution has always been to get slimmer and all those unrealistic goals and I knew at the back of my head..my targets are realistic but I won't be able to reach them because I can't be bothered with being disciplined enough to reach that. So I have stopped wishing that I am going to lose weight, instead I choose to listen to my body, eat healthily, exercise at least 3x weekly, limit alcohol intake and most importantly stretch and practice mindfulness. The result = controlled weight +/- 3kg which I am not too bothered.

Work updates: Moved to another asset, so I have practically done 4 out of 5 subsurface departments. So now I sort of know where my next move is going to be, but lets not discuss it here cos uncertainty is so large in the field that I'm in.

That is it for now, I need to do the home quarantine exercise name challenge. Its crazy but I'll manage!

Weekend escape - food diary

Last weekend, I went to Singapore to watch Cirque Du Soleil Totem. At the same time we were lucky enough that the 4xfour pop-up was at White Rabbit. You can read more about it in their website 4xfour.sg

Anyways, our chef was Davide Scabin, a 2 Michelin star chef from Restaurant Combal Zero, Italy. This is not my first michelin star cousine but all in all this is as what I expected!

When we landed, we went to Jin Fine Dining in Amoy Hotel. Good food, fresh ingredients! Highly recommended. Good customer service by the lady named Viola, not sure if she's the owner but she is very friendly and she really knows her Japanese food. She even treated us Shirako(cod sperm sac) tempura and the rice that was prepared for 5 hours with japanese chestnut.

 

Wagyu chirashi (Saga Beef)

Sashimi (Otoro cut in squares because its nicer to eat in squares, yellowfin, snapper, scallop, prawn and salmon)

Otoro chirashi - if you know me enough you would have known that I am crazy with otoro to the moon and back :-)

My trip would not be complete without....

Oyster omelette from wisma atria foodcourt

And their kuey tiaw

Clinton St Baking Company

Before flying back, tried this cafe..good breakfast but come before 9am, we were lucky that we came right on time, 10 minutes later we saw the queue outside the restaurant.

Salmon benedict

Blueberries pancake

I dont know what is this called but it has beans, guacamole under the eggs

Ok i think that is all my food diary that I want to log haha

x,

R

Oman and...

Mountains, beaches, wadis and desert.

Oman is....beautiful. I've never been to a place that has the mountains, blue beaches and desert dunes in one place. I think it has so much potential for luxury tourism. The whole country is just getting ready for it, they're building a new airport, the roads are in tip top condition with a scenery view and the location of Shangri-La is just ahhmazing! Even the wild dolphins are friendly compared to the ones I saw in Nelson's Bay.

Let me show you guys some photos...

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque- impressive interiors

Fourth Largest Yacht in the world, Al-Said

Wadi Bani Khalid- freshwater, super deep 

Camels resting, Desert Nights Camp, Wahiba Sands. The dunes at the back are around 4-6storeys high!

Shuwa - slow cooked lamb over basmati rice! They cooked the lamb for 2 days buried in the sand..NYUMSSS

One of the inlets by Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah.

Till next time!

R

P.s. Due to some circumstances had to cancel Melbourne trip. Sorry Leen!! Next trip will be Singapore in 2 weeks time and Manila/Siargao for new years!

Raya, Summer, fasting, taiwan, macau...

Its been a while...tomorrow is eid or better known as Raya here..so this will be my 5th raya in Brunei after spending the previous 4 Eids in Sydney. Man it has been 9 (hijrah) years! How time flies..

Obviously before raya, we practice 30 days of fasting which I am terrible at..started my fast only at the third week of Ramadhan due to *ahem* travels and the inevitable period. So technicaly I only fasted 2 weeks this year(not proud)

So what am I gonna do this Eid? Basically work and work. Going to morning meetings tomorrow, to the rig on the 2nd day, pumping job expected from 10pm to 5am..then the next 2 days some well commisoning yadadidadidada...

And with summer.. I plan to go Sydney in November! Dont know the details yet..so not gonna travel now till then, need to save money..probably KK in October for my friend's belated birthday treat.

Taiwan and Macau, was the reason for not fasting...well that include singapore too hehe Had dinner in Osteria Mozza so that was good. Went to meet Lib and  Hazel at wine connection cheese bar, that was awesome too! Went to Bar stories well that sucked, we had a rude waiter...my drinks were good though but not the waiter..

Highlights of my Taiwan trip was bubble teas hehe nyumssss! We also went to din tai fung at Taipei 101..well my imagination of Taipei 101 is totally different from what it looks like in real life so it was worth the trip for me. We also went to south of taiwan called kaohsiung, practically the same like taipei but I think Kaohsiung has its own charm like pineapple cake and also street of wedding studios, so I think we were at wedding city of Taiwan haha! One particular moment I shall remember is when we had foot massage where my masseuse said my 'circulation' is bad and my friend misinterpret as my bowel movement is bad and I told my friend to tell her that I poo everyday and she snapped and said I meant she rarely sweats! She meant my "blood" circulation is bad...oh well, maybe she is right -_- I am not the healthiest person in the world.

For Macau, hmmm let me just say if the people are more polite and less stressed probably it would be a better experience for me...the city itself is beautiful, it has a soul.. the portuguese side of Macau not the casino areas..i also like their portuguese tart. The only highlight worth mentioning is probably the spa services in Sofitel So Spa...really good, I got sucked into buying the massage oil..but its so calming and who knows it might improve my blood circulation hehe

Had breakfast in the mansion, how posh! 

Anyways, I think this is long enough to be a blog post. Selamat Hari Raya all, hope all your prayers have been answered.

P.s. Let me talk about work on the next post! My next big step.

Xoxo

R

El Nido, Palawan

The most beautiful place I have been to is El Nido in the Palawan. Spent 4 days 3 nights in the Pangulasian Island and fell in love with it instantly.. The beach, the view, the activities, the hospitality, all top notch! I would love to come again, in fact yearly! I do not want to blab around what activities we did, you can always google it. But let me just show you the photo I took from the top of the island after a 30min hike and waking up at 5:30am to catch the sun rise(but cloudy day), so worth the pain on the  calves hehe

R

Gosh I hate waiting!

So I decided that I need a countdown app for my Palawan trip! Lets skip my birthday and go straight to Palawan pleaseeeeeee.....the app says 17 days 22 hours 43mins and 33 seconds

ARGHHHHHH CANT WAIT! I need my beach fix..but first lemme take a selfie

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I kid! Hehe

x
R

Penang and its food!

So last Monday, over brekkie the ILYAs decided to go Penang over the weekend to celebrate Fadul's birthday. I got sucked in because on that  Monday we were supposed to watch Captain America but it got cancelled because they said we gonna watch it in Penang, so here I go again on Tuesday asked for Friday leave from my boss, got it bought ticket straight away. On Wednesday and Thursday, went for field trips to bandar and miri and on top of that suffered a fever(shivers and high temp). In an attempt to stop my fever, I went for massage and dry cupping, drank liang tea, put kool fever on my head and other parts and ate panadol. Gotta catch a flight at 9am and I needed to wake up at 530 and get ready by 615. Was feeling slightly better by Friday morning. Now airasia flies direct to Penang from Miri which is a 2.5hrs flight..very doable over a long weekend. In fact, I just landed 6hours ago and now I'm already home since 3hours ago..

In Penang, we stayed at e&o hotel at Georgetown, quite central we could walk to Line Clear Nasi Kandar restaurant and thirty two by the mansion..the only downside is the heat, its so hot and since I was still unwell I was particularly feeling stress under the heat(mind you i had field trips 2 days in a row so including the weekend, i had been outside since wednesday!!). We also tried the Gurney Market, I had penang laksa, bbq squid, cendol and fresh coconut alllll by myself!!  So happppppppyyy! The others had prawn noodles, cheong fun, wonton noodle and fried oyster omelette! Omg Penang food is so good and everyone just loves food over there.

Anyways, enough talking about food. I can feel that I'm getting fat already..so starting tomorrow im gonna eat clean.

Xoxo
bish

I must be high on something..

Was reading my previous posts..looks like I owed myself Bali pictures...sigh, I lost all my pictures in my iphone since April 2012 till late December 2013, yup all of them around 5000 photos...here is a photo from my instagram.. The awesomeness of the resort I stayed in.

R