I love BJ

I mean which normal man doesn't? Well with exception to those that unfortunately their *that* doesnt rise. Duh. Common sense yeah.

4 papers down, another 5 more papers! Sheesh. Revision's getting mundane. So I had to find a way to chill my possibly chaota brain of mine.

God..

.

Music.. boring..

.

Youtube... nah...


.

Games.. too addictive (might rack up too much valuable time) ..


.

Hmm..



So that was it. I decided to have my first ever BJ!


Just like what they say "Was so good..."


.


.


.


Was so good till I thought I had to announce it on my Facebook.


What's wrong with Hadri?! Disturbing? Err.. I don't see anything wrong.


Ah well besides Facebooking it, it was so good that I need to take a pic of it.


Oh well, what are the harms of even sharing it! So..


Here



*



is




*




the





*




moment



*




of





*




TRUTH! :

My 1ST EVER BJ!

Ben & Jerry's are sold over here in Glasgow. Thought I should have a try. No regretting. Yummy! DQ move aside please. Its not too sweet unlike Swensens. I hadn't had a go at the freshly made BJs yet.

I remembered asking Uncle Huat when we once came across a BJ store at the mall,

Me: "Huat you wanna try BJ ma?".
Huat: *eyebrow raised*. "Wah, betang la Bern. Say till like that".
Me: *Walao eh* "Brunei betang try man. Got chance must try liao!".
Huat: *'Ya hor, my laopei always at home' thoughts. "Betang la Bern. Hai~"

Hahahaha..

That was Huat and Hadri. So..

Err what were
you (Yes you the one who's reading it)
thinking while reading this??!!!!!

Oh,

PS : The *that* above refers to "insulin" if you haven't figured it out. If insulin level don't rise, you are DIABETIC. Thus, diabetic = No icecream aka NO BJ!

Food food!

Warning: Viewer discretion advised on some of the images that'll be shown. Haha.. Especially on the middle 3

Ive never done any real cooking before going abroad. All I knew back then was the must-know & should-know skill of any young Bruneian out there.. Cooking instant noodles!

But one wouldn't survive on that alone for 9 mths! You'll be sick of it even after a few days of instant noodles! Which means time to get the pans, n cooking utensils and learn to cook!! Like it or not.. hahaha..

A very historic moment indeed.. My first ever fried egg here..

Well.. to make cooking much simpler.. You could just rely on ready-made sauces..

Black pepper chicken courtesy of Lee Kum Kee ready-made Black Pepper sauce.
God bless Lee Kum Kee. Just makes cooking way simpler.

One of Lawrence Street's cooking crew's creations..

As cooking is like art.. One could unleash their creativity into it..


And


This is just what we did..


Introducing one of the kind, never to be seen dishes..


such as..

Chinese Fried Spaghetti!!


and the outrageous.. did-one-time-n-dun-think-gonna-try-in-d-near-future dish of


Crispy Lasagna!! HAHAHA

and possibly the first ever ..

Buttermilk Haddock! LOL



In an attempt to not spoil the food reputation of Glasgow, here is some of the stuffs we had tried around town..

Tunnock's Caramel Wafer Biscuits.. Maybe the most popular Scottish wafers

Scotch pies..

German hotdog buns. Look how long they are! haha..

Willow tea rooms.. A Mackintosh designed famous Scottish eatery which sold..

Abroath smokie fish ( A Scottish dish)

Salmon dish (Another Scottish dish)

-----




Murtabak.. I meant crepe from 'Crepe A Croissant'. It seriously tasted like murtabak with pizza fillings.. This one was with Hawaiian Ham filling. I think it was because it was due to the 20 mins journey home that made the crepe lose its crispiness..

Last but not least..

A dish that I am contemplating on whether to try or not!

Scotland's national dish of

Haggis! link

Some say its really really bad. Some say otherwise. But its Scotland's national dish!
The ingredients are gross thou'. Its made of sheep's internals such as lungs, kidneys, heart enclosed in sheep stomach lining. Definitely don't sound too enticing eh!

A taste of home!

Yeap! What is it??

Easyway's PMT! Pearl Milk Tea..

Yippie!

Glasgow's Easyway Menu
[Notice the PMT is double the cost of Brunei's!]

Well, before that, lunch in a Chinese restaurant called SeeWoo Restaurant before seriously exploring See Woo. See Woo is describes themselves as the largest superstore in Glasgow. What's even better? It sells oriental products/food. GOOoodd.. Well, we actually wanted to go there last week, however, we were sort of lost halfway and decided to turn back. Not today thou'. Walking time is around 20 -25 mins from Buchanan SPT Station. The place is as big as Brunei's Jaya Hypermart. Lots of oriental products (But no ba gua that I was hoping to buy =( ). However, I find that the prices there a wee bit higher compared to Chung Ying's [Another store selling oriental products, which is only maybe 10 mins walk from Buchanan]. In terms of stores selling oriental stuff, Glasgow doesn't fare that bad actually. As far as I know there are 4 of these kinds here. Only problem is, they are located quite a distance away.

This was what I had.
To be exact:

-Vegetarian soup for starter
- Roast Duck, BBQ Pork and Crispy Belly Pork

A glimpse of the inside

So-called 'House Special Cheong Fun

The main dish

Co-incidently my date had the same dish as me as well.
Wow, what chemistry huh? Rare find ^^

My verdict of the place:
- Large large Chinese restaurant. Maybe the largest in Glasgow. There's even a stage and VIP rooms
- Not-very-friendly waitresses. Damn they should learn how to smile =)
-Slow service.
- My so-called 'House Special' cheong fun, came after the main dish arrived, which was around 20 mins after we ordered. And what's inside the 'House Special' cheong fun? Abalone? Man man deng. NOTHING!! It was just plain cheong fun. Ni nao hia. Took so long, n no meat. I think they regard the 2 sauces(Plum n peanut sauce!) that accompanied the dish to be the uniqueness of that dish. MY GAWD!
- The vegetable soup should be renamed Ajinomoto soup.
- The main dish, was eww.. Super oily. I was literally forcing em in. I was given lots of duck skin, lil meat. The char siew was hard, not very nice. The crispy pork belly, haha. I thought it was smth special. Yenlai, its what we call Sau Rou back home. Smth that I do not enjoy eating, whether here or back home.
- Dessert? After finishing the main meal, we decided to ask for the dessert. You know what the waitress answered? Dessert available only for night dining. WAT! The brochure clearly says 'LUNCH'. Walao.. Anyways we were too full to continue eating anything at that instance, thus, not much of a big deal.
- Oh, the fried rice did not taste like fried rice at all. My lousy cooking skills can produce something miles better. It was just like eating brown coloured boiled rice. LOL
- The chinese tea sucked too. For me it tasted like tea dipped with a mothball! HAHHAHA

Oh, I went to the so-called CNY celebrations in Kelvingrove museum, which I mentioned in a previous post. LOL. Seriously disappointed la. There were no lion dances or whatever. Just 2 stalls! Face painting + calligraphy stall. Another stall just consisted of a table with lion-dance equipment. Heh.. Oh well..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And for bball fans.. Watch this..

F*king insane! video

There are seriously a few out-of-this-world dunks already this season. This one's one of the best so far. How often do you see Jermaine O'Neal floored like that? OMG.. Tyrus's definitely a BEAST.

Breakfast ideas anyone?

Its currently 1.37 pm over here.

Lunch break is usually from 1-2 pm.

Saying of lunch, what's up for lunch??

We have lots of choices..

From the more complex dishes like Buttermilk chicken, Fresh Beehoon, Pork Chop rice, to the simpler dishes such as Kolomee, or Jap Food such as sushis and those Jap food terms. Else fast food..

NOT!!!

To be honest, my lunch here has just been BREAD BREAD and BREAD! I happen to do a lil bloghopping a while ago, and came across the foodhungry website.. Ahh dammnnn... All the great Brunei food.. Anyways shudn't miss it too much else it'll only make my stay here miserable. Im appreciating the art of eating Western food? Eh no.. art of eating Bread? hahaha

Anyways, the bread here is yummy.. I dunno why.. Smells damn good.. Lots of bread, pastry choices here as you would expect. As you would also expect, the price is super high as well!!

Ohh, did I mention, my breakfast is bread bread too? LOL..

I know it sounds like Im suffering in terms of eating over here. Haha.. Nah.. Im not. Somehow ever since I arrived, I realised I have a great affinity for bread. ( I Know I Know.. the eat-till-sien symptom will arise not long ), thus I feel Im in need of more breakfast ideas. Hmm.. maybe something besides bread??

I've tried the cereal alternative, but I don't really like it, as it takes way long to eat plus somehow I don't get really full. I dun wan a half-empty stomach to school..

Class is about to start. Practical work about to come.. muahaha..

So.. be sure to add breakfast ideas into the CBox if you have em aight!

Btw, Selamat Hari Raya to all Muslim peeps!! Have a blast!

blog please bern

"OI blog blog.. lama tak blog sudah "
Haha that is what my brain keeps telling me..

Status updates from the last post,
Throat infection: I've won the last war against those damn throat germs!
PC Virus infection: I've decided that reformatting is the best solution. Yep, my PC acts like a brand new one now!

Health update:
Walao right after the throat infection, I was hit by the some food poisoning. It started with a super painful head in the morning. Giddiness too. My first attempt at breakfast went out of my stomach in the form of vomit. My 2nd and 3rd attempts went out too. The passages en route to the toilet bowl included my nose too. Ewww.. I know. I did it on purpose hahahaaha...

Something aint right. Off to the doctor. Could not even drive at that time. Super dizzy and painful.

(source)

Doctor suspected 'food poisoning'. Even had an injection just to stop the vomiting.

Vomiting halted after that. But was still experiencing throbbing pain in the head.

Went home. Slept slept slept.

Luckily was fine the next day. It was the longest ever duration slept in a day. Mind you, I don't really like sleep. Hahaha.. I'd always be rather doing something.


Hmm.. what else? ahh.. food of course.
I've tried the "Mee Rebus" from D'Other Office (mentioned in the previous previous post). Damn delicious.. nah.. cannot use damn.. I've never tried Mee Rebus from wherever yet. Although it was delicious, the portion was so little! It makes it a great tea-time meal kua.. definitely not a good dinner/lunch choice.

yummy Mee Rebus(source)

I had the "Coconut Fresh Beehoon" for 4 days in a row! Nuts eh? Not really la.. Its damn delicious! Portion also not that much, though definitely more satisfying than that Mee Rebus portion-wise. If ur a big eater, u must must must go "Coconut Beehoon tambah ah"


Emm.. visit updates?

My dad brought me to the mini-temple situated somewhere around Muara. Im sure everyone knows the Bandar temple.
Don't know why, I decided to snap a few pics.

The entrance. Temple's up the hill

Walk up from the parking area to head to the temple.
Lazy ppl can just drive directly up and park back of the temple kua.

Welcome to the Muara temple

What do we do in a temple?
I hope it don't sound silly. But I was sure dumbfounded when I once brought my so-called Buddhist friend to a temple, and he was so lost. He didn't know what to do at all. Walao!
So the steps below for the Muara temple.

Jossticks, papers to be burned and candles.

Right after getting the proper no. of jossticks, usually 3 sticks each altar,
find a candle, light em up

First altar usually to start off.
I bet it will look and feel super to be here during early mornings.

The deities inside. 3 altars altogether. Can start from anywhere I guess.
Middle is the more common one. The red pads are for you to kneel on.
(PS: I dare not take closeup pics of those deities for fear of offending them)

Notice the red pagoda thing.
This is where we burn those papers(from the above pic) inside.


Yeap done. End of temple adventure.

Took these pics when I woke up early on one of those rare days.

Thick fog

Hmm.. a mesh-all-into-one post. Haha..

It stops here anyways.

Good day ppl!

Btw, congrats to Chun on the arrival of junior Chun!! All the best man. God bless.

I can't talk!

I can't talk!!!

Yep, I've lost my voice for 2 days already.. I think to be exact, 2 and a half days since Wednesday night!

Being quiet as most of you know for most of the time, now I'm starting to appreciate the ability to talk.. haha

I went around wanting to look for a CMOS battery with this 'wonderful' condition of mine.. At one shop,

Me : Hi, do you sell CMOS battery here?
Saleslady : Huh, Small Mouse??
Me : -_-""

I was faced with lots of 'huh's, 'what's that's.. I think there are some sarcastic smiles as well due to my weird voice now .. @#$@!

I chose to go the 'Chinese medicine' route for cure instead of the English medicine route which will most likely end with antibiotics given to you and more costly! (I hope its a wise choice.. lol)

I wonder what is the cause.. haha..

Should be:

Too much late nights (source)

+

Lamb chop! (Had it on wednesday.. thus should be 1 of d factors)

Why lamb chop when u ain't feeling well?? (Ooh.. btw, muttons are known for their heatiness)
Its coz' of the 50% discount on that day. Haha.. From $18++ -> $9++. Why not?

It was at d'Other Office Restaurant. There were celebrating their 1 yr promo thus 50% off for the day on all food items. Its at Delima Satu. Its along the same block as HSBC Serusop.

To be honest, I was expecting more.

My views:

The bad
- That was a salty lamb chop.

- The dish was supposed to come with 'The dessert of the day'. But then somehow, the dessert came before the main dish! Not only that, the dessert was 2 slices of bread with butter nia! HAH!

- Besides that, the stuff there were freaking expensive! One small cup of teh tarik costs $2.50 and it didn't taste good some more! Nasi Ayam = $5.50!

- Their menu choice is very limited.

- To be not served when you enter a restaurant is very disappointing. We sat there for a while wondering whether it was a self-service restaurant or not, coz the menu never came and no waiters/ress noticed!

The good
- Nice ambience, its like being in a Western house?

- The boss is friendly.

- Opens at 7am!

- Should be popular with their Singaporean food? Everyone was ordering "Mee Rebus"( A popular Singaporean dish)

Saying of Singapore food, Anyone knows where I can get authentic Singaporean food in Brunei?? Dishes like Mee Siam, Mee Rebus.. ? List em down in the tagbox aight, and wish me well too lah.. hahaha

-end-

How to Holiday?

Help! I can barely breathe. I just downed two approx. 10-cm-in-diameter murtabak/roti prata. Wonderful decision eh. What a time now to do that. Plus you can feel the burning going on in ur stomach due to the curry.

Late night cravings for food is nothing special to me. Might maybe be a surprise thou' to some due to my lean frame. Ask my close bunch, they'll tell you otherwise.

Anyways ..

As of today, i.e. 5th of July, it means less than a month to the start of the new sem!

OH NO!

Orientation week starts maybe a week before that, which further means roughly 3 weeks left if I happen to do volunteering for the week.

SUI ah!

May God bless my remaining 3 weeks with fulfilling, productive activities & proper brain+spirit rejuvenation that'll make me go "Bring it new sem!"

Suddenly I wondered...

Why fulfilling activities? What if not fulfilling leh?
Will the holiday experience affect/influence a person's motivation for the new sem?
If yes, what will be those activities?
If no, why?

After a short while, from the questions above, I decided to come out with the conclusion below:

"Less fulfilling hols activities give less-great motivation
Fulfilling hols activites give great motivation"

And tried to prove it as shown below.

For LESS FULFILLING activities:


Try doing nothing, or the same thing over&over again during the holidays.

Scenario 1:
Most likely ur brain will start to send the "Walao so sien eh.. ". It might do it consecutively for days n days until the "Arrgh! I've had enough!" signal appears. By then, Im sure you'd be looking forward to classes! True leh?

<-- Great motivation -->

But then..

Scenario 2:
On the other hand, sometimes the "walao so sien eh.." signal might lead to somewhere else. I feel they might also lead to depression. Who knows, they might feel sad they didnt have their proper holidays. They start the fresh new sem with lousy moods which in turn produce down spirits, thus leads to no motivation to study. No motivation = Lack of attention in class, skipping class, along with the "I dun give a sh*t" attitude.

<-- No motivation -->

Bern's statement is going down the hill!

Ok lor, how bout garnishing your hols with FULFILLING activities then.


You go off to a nice nice place for vacation. Take lots of nice pics. You meet great people, you had great food and visited/going to visit wonderful places. You just love the place so much!

Scenario 1:
You wish that your vacation can extend for a lil bit more longer.. "I dun wanna come back eh!" But then reality sets in, ur ticket's already book.. You gotta leave. Arrive back home, but still in la-la mood.. Who wants to listen to boring lectures during that mood oh?

<-- No motivation -->

Aish..

"Rubbish lah, then all the ticketing agencies + tour agencies boleh tutup lah.. How can true??"

Wait bah.. Read on first!

On the other hand,

Scenario 2:
The trip experience might give you such joy and fulfillment that make you go "Yesh! A wonderful trip! A wonderful holiday indeed!". The accomplishment of a great holiday, gives you the positivity and bright spirit. "Life's great!" spirit. Everything's great! "Ahh.. I cant wait for what is in store for me during the new sem!!! Start faster , faster start Ah!"

<-- Great motivation -->

Conclusion: Prove tak betul lah.. Statement ku tak 100% valid!

Anyways, all these are just a thought.. a random opinion. They'll be tons of possibilities lah.. Endless scenarios of hols and the effect it'll have on the new sem. Maybe they'll be no effect at all! You think too much Bern

"Cut the sh*t!"

Ehh wait, who doesn't like holidays oh, dumb ass? Holidays anang/andang beneficial one!
Ehh ehh wait wait! remember the "I felt bored after the 3rd day of hols" statement you made bo? Hahaha..

Anyways, this post is being done around 3am, thus there might be some missing links here n there. It might be a whole load of crap. Dun bash me too hard yah.. =)

Why not some input people.. Tell me what you think.. I hope there'll be a proper conclusion to this post. LOL

----------------------------Sh*t officially cut here --------------------------

Incoming:

I just remembered the 'fresh beehoon' pic I recommended last month in one of the posts. Here's the pic I promised:

Damn it looks so yummy!
(effective only for those who've tasted I suppose)

Nitey ppl! :)

Bernard discovers that...

Throughout this past week,

Bernard Discovered That:

• He cannot join the NBT Treasure Hunt cause his car is ineligible due to lack of servicing at NBT. Lucky leh!

• He has not seen morning light due to his 5 am to 1 pm sleep schedule
  
  
• His results are out!
  
  
• The exam SMS service doesn't like him (As sudah 2 semesters he didnt receive results from em, even thou' he subscribed on time)
  
  
• He is starting to like Counter-strike (He's anti-CS throughout all these years)
  
  
• Pirated games have stupid bugs which is really frustrating
  
  
• The latest software release may not bring you any good - Firefox ver. 3 (downloaded it yet?)
  
  
• Computer shops tend to have the lousiest service among the different business fields. You'll most likely get served by ego, i-know-more-than-you + ur-not-the-only-customer attitude. Sheesh.. Nvm maybe its only me lah.
  

• He ain't running as much in bball games as he used to! Psst.. don't think coach will come across this blog eh
  
  
• You should go earlier or spot-on at 11? if you are going to Dynasty's Dim Sum midnight buffet cause they refill their food way too slow and stop refilling way early
  
  
• If you go eating with J.Seng, you'll end up with more air than food in your tummy due to excessive laughing from the "J.Seng Effect"
  
  
• There is a "Dreamcones" unit in front of the ATMs at the Mall, Gadong. YummY!
  
  
• "Mango + Sago" dessert at i-sweet (at Giant) is refreshing! Maybe a lil bit costly? Costs $2.50 and its just a small bowl
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The recent Britain Got Talent show was won by a street dancer. Name is George Sampson, 14 yrs of age. Youtube him and tell me whether he's a worthy winner or not. Honestly, I feel there are far more better street dancers compared to him, thou' I don't know a lot bout dancing. Haha.. yea yea.. gotta consider that he is only 14 too!
  
  

End of discoveries.. hahaha

Nice day ppl!

hungry hungry!

Its around midight now, and as usual my 'not-so-meaty' stomach is growling.. "grrrpp grpppp". As usual when that happens, a normal person would start to think about food.. then this food popped up.. fried beehoon!
nah.. not your typical fried beehoon ah.. where you gotta add lots of chilli sauce to make it yummy, or those beehoon dishes in which the beehon is super dry and texture a lil' rough.. I was thinking about the 'Coconut Grove BeeHoon'.[It's non-halal btw!~] I guess its called that way. Ugghh.. unfortunately I can't upload the pics to my PC :( I'll post em up once I get those PC problems solved.
















A typical beehoon dish
in case you some of you dunno what's beehoon! hahaha


So what's different?
- The beehoon used ain't the those packed ones which you find on shelves in supermarkets. My mom so calls it 'fresh beehoon'. Heard that it is only available at Hua Ho stores only.
- Smells super good
- You don't add chilli sauce to this dish, cause it'll end up tasting worse. It already tastes good without chilli sauce
- Ohh, price is more expensive. A normal dish with egg, taugeh, and a number of thinly sliced char siew(which also tastes good, not too much fat which is YUCK!) costs $3.50 ah!
- You can't find it in other places in Brunei? This is the first restaurant I heard that serves fresh beehoon. Do tell me if there are other places selling it!


So which restaurant and where?

Here's is a noobish map. It's called Coconut Grove. This restaurant is not that big. There are around emm.. 7 tables i guess. Usually packed during those usual makan-times. Ambience is kopitiam style but aircon's available.



Some recommendable dishes there are:

KB KuayTeow.
(They actually got popular for this dish). The KuayTeow ain't that oily, and its actual Kuay Teow from KB! There is a slight difference in its taste. You can find out.

Buttermilk Chicken!!
I'm a buttermilk chicken crazy person. Unbelievable leh when taking into consideration my body frame. Hmm.. this dish here should be 4 out of 5 stars lah. Ohh.. Remember to tell the waitress “Not too much chili padi ah!”, if you are not a handal chili eater. I end up like I just came out of a light shower during my first try of this dish. The sauce given is also sikit. Close to nothing. The portion given, to be honest, not enough for me. But the taste is good! Comparable to other better buttermilk chicken veterans like Nyonya's.

Crispy Mee.
Yeap! It's one of my favourites too! “Wah lao eh.. The stuff he eats is super oily la.. Boh koh leng, still thin!” Hahaha.. The crispy mee served here also 4 out of 5 stars. Not too salty. No gali carrots or corns <-- uggh I hate those stuff.

Ohh btw, Im don't get money from em for all this postings. I just wanna share with you ppl one of the many good places for makan!

Till then!