Ambuyat for lunch at Beverly Hills of Kuala Belait...

7th November 2008 (Miscellaneous Post)

Five days ago, my colleague Mdm Hajah Hamidah invited a hand full us at the office for an "Ambuyat" lunch at her house. The house was situated at one of the most exclusive area in the Belait district, Pandan 7 as it was once known as the Beverly Hills of Kuala Belait due to the elegance and beautiful design and huge houses built in these area. I still remember years ago when this area was under development and some of the houses were under construction, we would cruise in this area for hours to look for inspiration and idea for the house design.

The P.I family's mansion...stunning view...

An impressive high ceiling deco with a balcony from the Master bedroom looking down in the living room

The living room from another angle

The menu for lunch. Everything that we could ask for were well served on the dining table from chicken curry to "pucuk ubi" or tapioca shoot eaten with sambal, varieties of seafood, etc and most importantly "Ambuyat"

The gents were sitting on a separate table from the ladies in the dining room

Thank you to Mdm Hajah Hamidah and husband (P.I) for your hospitality and for the delicious lunch.

Ceiling work progress

7th November 2008 (Part II)

These are the random pictures of the progress of the ceiling work taken yesterday.

The informal living

The air curtain will be hidden in the rectangular box above the ceiling

The tiles in the wet kitchen

The entrance to the shower and toilet in the Master bathroom with border to prevent water from flowing to the main floor

The PVC cover of the air con pipes which will be painted with the wall paint

The other side

The ceiling in the Maid's bathroom

The ceiling in the Maid's bedroom

The ceiling in the guest's bedroom

The ceiling in the guest's bathroom which will be open soon as the air duct for the exhaust fan was not yet install

The flexible air duct for the exhaust fan which has to be installed in the powder room, ablution area and guest's bathroom placed temporarily in the ablution area

The 1st Cornices installed

7th November 2008 (Part I)

It has been quite a while since I update the blog. Well, quite a number of progress had been done for the past 6 days and the most obvious progress would definitely be the ceiling installation and also the side walk concrete. Since the tiles for the ground floor was decided to be installed after the ceiling work are done, hence the tile's workers had left the site this morning to another house and will return back to the site once the ceiling had been fully installed and the walls had been painted in 1 month time.

The wall outside

Syafi's bedroom, the 1st room to be installed with cornices

The square drop in Syafi's bedroom

Syafi's walk in closet

The ceiling in the playroom

The side walk and drain at the left side of the house

The back car porch

The right side of the house with the round hole for the uplight

Trying out one of the uplight

The ceiling frame in the informal living with curve design

The dining hall ceiling

The controversial air con position which is too high and need to be adjusted. I'll be meeting with the air con man sometimes tomorrow.

The other 2 air con in the formal living which also need to be adjusted

Rainbow above House of Syafi and Safiya

1st November 2008 (Part II)

As I went back to visit the site in the late afternoon before ending my chores for the day, I was astonished to be greeted by a rainbow above the house. To me, this is a perfect gift from nature to end my busy birthday. Alhamdullillah...

Breathtaking...

The whole overview. Notice the wall lamp that we bought from Brisbane had been installed at the poles.

By this afternoon, the water heater had been installed in all of the bathrooms in the 1st floor. This is the one in the Master bathroom.

Water heaters for Safiya and the kid's bathroom

Water heater for Syafi's bathroom

This is at the playroom's bathroom. As I took this picture, I quickly noticed that the wall tiles in this bathroom were mixed up.. some tiles are darker than the rest.

I immediately asked them to remove the tiles as the cement was still wet.. fortunately! We'll do the damage control by tomorrow.

Busy day on my birthday...

1st November 2008 (Part I)

After the well wishes for my birthday this morning from Syafi and Safiya and also from my wife via the MSN video conference, I went to the site at 8 am to deliver the water heater and also to meet my electrician to discuss about electrical application, lighting fixtures and speaker points. Just before noon I went back home for a quick lunch and also getting some important documents for the home electrical application. I spent the whole afternoon searching for down lights in Gadong and Batu Bersurat.

Half of the items that I managed to squeeze into the car

Peter the electrician was already at the site as I arrived at the very early morning

Installation of the aluminium ceiling frame at the dining hall

Discussing important matters (I guess) while installing the wall lamp at the front pole

The wall outline at the ground level. My wife insisted that we paint the outline in a darker tone.. and it looks great.

Close up view of the wall

The whole overview

As a final note, thank you very much to all of you who had sent me birthday wishes...
"Happy Birthday to me!".
"Semoga panjang umur dan murah rezki"

Water village on land?

1st November 2008 (Miscellaneous Post Part II)

I meant to post this last week but I didn't have the chance to do so. Well, its now or never. These pictures were taken after the heavy rain fall last weekend (which lasted for two days!). Unfortunately some part of the village in the inland area were still affected by flood. It's really a pity to see the suffering endured by some of the people, depriving them from getting a flood free environment everytime it rains. Unless swift actions are taken to improve this condition either by improving the monsoon drain and widening of the river etc, this condition will worsen, especially that the December monsoon season is just around the corner.

Parents sending the children to school by foot as their road access was flooded

Half of the road was flooded so badly that the drain next to the road was not even in sight

Water was almost at car's bumper deep

I believe this house was only built recently and the surrounding area was already filled with water

Hari Raya at my office...

1st November 2008 (Miscellaneous Post Part I)

To mark the end of the month of Syawal, my office had organized a
"Hari Raya makan" last Friday (31st October 2008). A wide varieties of the menu were available from 'Kolo mee' to chicken and beef satay, 'Nasi lemak', 'Mee laksa' and grilled lamb. In all, we had a blast and ironically, other departments in my office also had a special "Hari Raya makan" that same day.

My American Japanese colleague, Mr. James Ushiyama cutting the grilled lamb for all our guests