Fulfill your tastebuds with Brunei traditional delicacies

27th February 2010

Introducing my mother-in-law or as my children call her, Nini Green's blog. It's especially made to offer interested customers with a variety of Brunei traditional Malay kuihs for purchase. Please feel free to drop by the [website]. Orders can be placed via phone.

Thank you and we look forward to serving you

Maulidur Rasul 1431H

26th February 2010
12th Rabiul Awal 1430H

Especially to all Muslims, let's celebrate together the birthday of our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW.

Allahumma Salli 'Ala Sayyidina Muhammad

Brunei's 26th National Day

23rd February 2010

A huge congratulatory message to the people of Brunei in conjunction with Brunei's 26th National Day celebration today. We should be thankful for the peace and harmony that we enjoy day by day!

This year's theme is

"Negaraku Brunei Darussalam"
(My country, Brunei Darussalam)

Proud to be Bruneians
www.syafisafiya.blogspot.com
www.syafisafiya-house.blogspot.com

An unwanted visitor

19th February 2010

I remember reading from a good friend's [blog] about how unwanted visitors sometimes drop by. We now have that experience too. As today was Friday and it was my wife's alone time at home (with myself working and the kids at school), she took the opportunity to clean up around the home.

To her surprise, she found a strange thing lying on the floor of our main living room. Believe it or not, it was a dead frog! Having lizards or ants is usual, but a frog? My wife was thankful though that it was already dead, because if it was hopping around, it would have created a chaos... hehehe...

Well, there's a first time for everything. We couldn't figure out how and when it got in, but at least we finally found the culprit behind the sudden trigger of our home security alarm during midnight recently, perhaps!

Our first blog award

18th February 2010

We received a notification via email informing that our blog is featured on a [website] and has received an award. It's glad to know that our humble blog has caught some attention. Thank you to garden planters.com for the honour.

Addicted to gardening

17th February 2010

Ever since our planters were filled, I noticed a gradual change in myself as well as my wife. Apparently gardening can be addictive because once you start, the interest and passion grows even more. After finishing one area, the mind will automatically shift attention towards another area. We even find ourselves thinking during Sunday or public holiday mornings of going to the plants market to hunt for new plants to buy.

On the positive side, this interest means that our time is put to a better use (rather than laying down lazily in front of the television), and it also helps us burn some calories from all that sweating and hard work. Even my heavily pregnant wife still finds the strength to help me out with the gardening works although her involvement is quite limited due to health and safety reasons.

Already, we have planned for some more gardening works due this weekend or probably during the public holidays next week. Go green!

The kids also love to get their hands dirty. Pictures taken when we were planting around our new flag pole.

The base of the flag pole as it is now

I finally planted at the two voids near our two twin columns

Plants of my wife's choice, decorating our front foyer

An overall view of our home from the front

And this picture is especially dedicated to my sister in law who gave us this orchid plant when we first moved in. She initially complained when it almost died during the days when we left the watering to our maid. Now that we have developed "green hands", the orchids bloom beautifully.

Our new flag pole

12th February 2010

Finally, we are now proud to have a permanent flag pole installed. It was quite an investment since it costed me more than a thousand Brunei dollars, but it's definitely worth the wait. The supplier took around four days to finally put up the stainless steel structure. The first day, they cemented the base and after three days of hardening under the sun, a huge truck came by and unloaded the pole with a crane. The installation itself took only around 15 minutes.

Once I arrived home from work yesterday afternoon, I didn't waste anymore time and had a small flag hoisting "ceremony" with the help of my two adorable children. We waited for that gush of wind to see the flag move, but luck was not on our side.

Fortunately, today was windy and my wife managed to snap two photos of the hoisted flag. It was a pretty sight!

The base on the first day

On the fourth day... flag pole installed on the hardened concrete base

The flag pole viewed from the front road and another angle from the side of our home

Pictures that my wife took at noon today