Barbarian from the west

Haisy… kekadang aku geram betol dgn omputih yang dok dekat Asia nih.  Apa ko ingat ko dtg sini, ko cam bagus sangat? Hmmph!  Hari ni aku pegi supermarket, pastu nak queue balik tuh, sorg minah omputih ni beratur sket nye jauhlah dari line.  Being a civilized person, aku tanyelah dia “Are you in the line?”  Tak jawab.  Aku tanya lagi… Lepas pause beberapa sgt, dia jawab “Yea…” dengan nada yang tak convincing.  Apakah?  Aku malas nak carik gadoh, aku bratur je blakang dia.  Agaknya die terkejut ngan English aku yang bagus kot?  Wahahahaha….

Satu lagi instance, aku naik AirAsia.  Hah, bab-bab beratur nih mmg semua orglah kiasu.  Aku ni kan ke civilized, so as usual aku malas nak beratur, aku dok jelaa tunggu ngan member2 aku.  Pastu turns out line yang sume org dok beratur tu salah, bila bukak pintu, pintu lain plak yang terbukak.  So org2 yang pemalas mcm aku dan rakan2 pon beratur laa kat pintu yang bukak tuh.  Org2 kiasu yang salah beratur tu terus rush masuk line kitorg.  It so happens yang aku sampai agak depan juga, tetiba omputih ngan awek/bini dia (yg obviously dtg dr Asia dgn gaya dumb blonde) terus menyelit masuk depan aku.  Dgn selambanya, aku cuit mamat tu (dahlaa tinggi nak mampos), bila die turn blakang aku tunjuk die soh gi blakang tanpa berkata2 (yelaa kata dr west kan, patut pahamlaa).

Pastu mamat ni boleh cakap kat aku “I was queuing in a different line.” Aku reply “Well that’s too bad, you queued in the wrong line, so I think you should go to the back.”  Tapi mamat ni kan Barbarian from the west (dia rasa bagus sgt laa nak buat perangai kat negara aku), so dia buat taktau jek.  Ok fine lah, I’ve made my point, so kalau ko tanak pindah blakang, you can go ahead with your Barbarian attitude.  Sampai2 atas plane (sbb nak tunjuk sgt dia tak salah), dia boleh turn blakang ckp kat aku “Why are you so worried about, there’s so much seats left, aren’t there?” Aku dengan selambanya menjawab, “Well, that’s not the point, I’m just being civilized.”  Terdiam mamat tu, dan aku pon puas hati…

Ok, aku tak emo sebenarnya.  Biasa je tapi aku mmg dah lama nyampah ngan omputih2 yang rasa kite ni mcm baru je hidup dlm civilization, so they treat us like **** (letak laa apa2 perkataan yg korg berkenan).

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To boycott or not to boycott

I remember reading a statement from Selangor’s MB – boycotting US products will only kill local businesses.  He’s right – a lot of local people are holding the franchise, and if they cannot sell, they lose more than the bigger companies.  We can opt to boycott the bigger business like banks, financial institutions and all that jazz.  Anyway, I don’t have any need to boycott any company.  Living here, most of the time the option I have is local businesses – so I’m good.

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Brangelina is OVERRATED!  I used to be a fan of Brad & Jen because they seemed to be a couple that complement each other, but when Brad is with Angelina, it looks to me as if Angelina is controlling the household.  It seems like Angelina is now parading her life with many kids – sort of exploiting her own children.  Honestly, I prefer celebrities like Oprah or Mariah Carey who donated a camp or school to support a bigger pool of orphans or poor kids.  But that’s just me – and my opinion doesn’t matter.

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I am pissed with the supermarket near my house.  On Wednesday, I went there to buy tangerines that cost me $2.20 per kg, but I just went today and now they cost $3.80 per kg for the same kind.  What kind of business are you running dude?  So I opt for bananas instead.

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I’m a sucker for American Idol – I think I grew up with talent shows.  Remember Asia Bagus, Sinaran Passport Kegemilangan (albeit the horrible stand-up comedies)?  I’m glad season 8 is back.  And I like the new judge, Kara!

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Tina Fey is a genius!  I’ve been a fan since she does the SNL news with Jimmy Fallon.  Mean Girls is a work of a genius… And 30 Rock – need I say more?

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Missing Chi-town…

An old friend IMed me and asked me if I ever miss the states… I do, when I think about it, or whenever I see or hear something that reminds me of my life there.  I often look at the facebook profiles of my friends back in college days – I miss them, I really do.  But the truth is, life goes on… and I think I’m at a better place now.

I had been exchanging emails with one of my college friend.  The most interesting thing is she’s still living in the same apartment since senior year – she’s already there for over 4 years.  And she just got married to her then roommate (of that apartment).  I thought everyone has moved on, apparently some people hasn’t.  The thing is she thinks that her life sucks – maybe cause she’s seen her friends moved on here and there, and she’s still stuck in her old apartment and living in the ever familiar environment since 2001.  Catching up with her gave a big relief to me, at least a lot has happened to my life for the past 4 years!

Sometimes changes are good.  And maybe, my life isn’t as fun as walking down the magnificent mile, playing around the bean and enjoying the Lake Michigan view at museum campus.  But my life is my life and at least I’m going somewhere.  Life may not take you where you want to, but I’m sure there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

Everybody move on… We all should… Let’s get on with our lives.

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I’m not good with words…

I don’t feel well lately – but it’s nothing like what our brothers and sisters are going through in Palestine.  Sometimes, I feel iman aku ni sangat lah lemah!  I can’t bear watching the news or listen about the war in Palestine anymore…  Anyhoo, I won’t dwell much on it, suffice to say that let us all pray to Allah for them.  And if you have some extra cash, you can donate at: http://www.map-uk.org or http://www.islamic-relief.com – it’s the least that we can do.

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Moving on is difficult.  It took me almost a year to accept that I finally moved to Brunei – and now I am considering of staying on another year as an option.  But the probability is still low – we’ll see what’s gonna happen.  Going to KK was a big relief – at least I can see civilization in the same island!!!

Another option is taking the ferry Bandar-Labuan-KK.  It’s a bit of a hassle, but at least it is an option.  Brunei government is working on a ferry from Bandar to Labuan that will be able to carry vehicle – it’ll be a sweet option… but I still can’t imagine the congestion during festive seasons.

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I LOVE airline tickets bargains.  I love randomly searching for airline tickets to plan for trips or holiday.  Unfortunately, I can’t really fly with my condition.  Still, I managed to get deals for other people.  I managed to get a RM206 KL-Miri ticket on MAS (round trip!) for my brother to come visit.  And a deal around RM250 for a round trip ticket KL-Jakarta on MAS for my parents.  So the trick is, whenever they start the promotion, start your search!!!  I hope in another year or so, Duan and myself can start traveling together with the little one, it’ll be fun to start searching for deals for myself!

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I am not coming home for CNY – I can’t.  Plus, I’ll only get Monday off, Tuesday isn’t a public holiday in Brunei.   So what to do during CNY weekend?  We’ll see… But we want to get some good seafood… Yum!

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Borneo Trail – Seria to Kota Kinabalu

When I say that Duan and I will be driving to KK, it sounds like an insane idea to some people.  The truth is, people here do it all the time.  They even drive all the way to Kuching, which takes approximately 13 hours from what I heard.  Distance between my house and downtown KK is possibly 400++ km, and the drive from here (Seria) to Bandar Seri Begawan is a straight highway so it can roughly take between 45 mins to 1 hour.  The rest of the journey is slowed down by the immigration stops…

1.  Kuala Lurah (Brunei) – Tedungan (Sarawak):  to enter Limbang, Sarawak from Bandar Seri Begawan
2.  Pandaruan (Sarawak) – Puni (Brunei):  to enter Temburong, Brunei from Limbang, Sarawak
3.  Labu (Brunei) – Mengkalap (Sarawak):  to enter Lawas, Sarawak from Temburong
4.  Merapok (Sarawak) – Sindumin (Sabah):  to enter Sabah from Lawas, Sarawak

The thing about driving in Peninsular is there is no such thing as immigration stop, so a 400 km journey may take you 4 to 5 hours tops… But immigration really forces you to stop, queue up and wait.  This doesn’t include meal breaks and nature calls… So your journey ended up between 6 to 7 hours instead.  Our journey though, took unbelievably long, 12 hours each leg if I’m not mistaken or 1 or 2 hours longer.  Reason being – immigration queue!!!

Holiday season is probably the worst time to drive to KK, and we have at least experienced it now that next time, it’s gonna be annual leave and not on any public holidays!  We have at least attempted to keep track of our journey to KK, but the journey back to Seria had longer queues and much more tiring that we couldn’t care less to keep track on how long we’ve been waiting….

Anyhoo, it was a good experience overall.  KK itself is a nice place, and the view throughout the journey is quite nice.   It can be an enjoyable drive…

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Shallow Gal…

I saw Shallow Hal briefly on Starmovies, was it yesterday?  That movie was hilarious and Jack Black is certainly one funny guy.  School of Rock is one of my faves.  He sounded great on Kung Fu Panda, can’t believe the overrated Angelina Jolie is voicing Tiger though…

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What do you do if you know someone (say X) through another friend (say Y)?  Are you not allowed to hang out with X without Y’s presence?  How’s that possible?  Y doesn’t own you, so you’re pretty much can do whatever you want, isn’t it?  What if Y threatens you, if you do so?  What’s your reaction?  Isn’t it a bit childish of Y?  As an adult, I believe in making my own decision, and if someone tells me what to do, or I try to tell someone what to do, that’s a little over the top isn’t it?

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I want a karaoke session to sing to all Mariah Carey’s 90s hits… They’re all evergreen!  Vision of Love, Hero, Can’t Let Go, I Don’t Wanna Cry, Honey, Emotions, Fantasy, Whenever You Call, My All, and many more to sing to lah!  Can’t wait for my brother to come visit, so that we can do singstar on PS2.  Hopefully, I can find a cool game to sing along with.

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I miss Ijat.  I really do.  I get to see her briefly during my trip back two weeks ago, and I know she’s getting skinnier by the day.  Dude, if you’re reading this, aku tau ko tak habis cite lagi!!! Aku rasa best nak dgr gossip2 ofis ko… Ofis aku bosan n mandom…

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Ok takde cite dah… Meh sambung tgk tv.  Aku nak makan mangga udang yang kitorang bli kat KK ari tuh.

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