Salam Aidil Adha

Here's wishing all my families, friends and colleagues, and all Muslims Salam Aidil Adha... May Allah bless our lives and accept the sacrifices we make, the solat we performed and the du'a we offered.

Kindycare Graduation: Muhammad and Iman's farewell

Last Saturday, the kids' school held their final year performance, including the convocation for the kindergarten class graduation into Year 1.  Both our kids joined the dancing performances for their classes, and Iman also graduated to Year 1.  Enjoy the pics below, and as usual for more pics, please visit my facebook album.

Iman with her scroll.... umm, frame.

Aaeeshah can make friends easily. I hope there won't be a problem when she starts her kindergarten next year.

Iman part of the kindergarten classes welcoming song

Muhammad dancing with his best friend, and on the right as a sailor on Nakhoda Manis' ship. Nakhoda Manis is a local legend, in the same line as Malin Kundang in Indonesia and Si Tanggang of Malaysia.

Here Muhammad is doing the shuffle dance with his crew

As the school doesn't have any male teachers, they had invited me (Deputy Chairman of Parent Teacher Association) to accompany the special guests to give away the prizes.... the special guest is on the right, now I think I must be overdressed for the occasion!

This boy is brilliant. He can speak fluent English and not afraid to stand in front of the big crowd. And he's got a twin and throughout the two years in kindergarten he and the brother shared the top two spots in the class.

Al the students and the kids and their teachers sang the final song, Heal the World.

We're proud of you, son!

Our son, Muhammad Abdurrahman did us proud by getting no 3 in his final year primary 1 ugama exam. More importantly his total average increase from 86% in Mid Year to 91%.

Certainly his efforts (and ours too!) paid off. Didoakan Allah sentiasa memberikan kasih sayang, perlindungan rahmatNya kepada Muhammad Abdurrahman & adik-adik, semoga berjaya dalam pelajaran dan menempuh arus  kehidupan. Amin

Family Outing at Labi @ 7th November 2009

Last weekend, I brought my family for a unique outing, local fruit picking in Labi. It was a fruit orchard, about 2 acres in Kampung Labi, owned by my wife's brother in law's grandma. The place is quiet,  calm and the air was very clean.

The experience was an eye opener for me, my wife and especially our kids, as only then we got to know how durian and membangan trees look like, and how beautiful the durian flowers are.

We set out from home at quarter past 6, arriving in Labi at half seven. Labi is located 43km inland from Kampung Sungai Liang, itself about 40km from our hometown Kuala Belait.

The drive to Sungai Liang is quite fast, a combination of flat and straight single and dual carriageways, however the drive from Sungai Liang to Labi involve lots of twisty roads overlooking steep slopes! It was personally a nostalgic drive though, as I used to frequent this route when I was young up to my early teens, as my grandad whom I grew up with, frequently drove up to meet up with his brother in Rampayoh, not far from Labi.

I do hope you enjoy the pics here, and for more photos, you can visit my facebook album.

Labi is 43km from Sungai Liang, and 11km further down the road would have led us to the Bukit Teraja, one of the highest points in Brunei

We first stop at a Rambutan orchard owned by my mother in law's friend.

This is what the locals would call tibadak or in standard Malay, cempedak. I didn't know the fruits grow like this, on the tree trunks

Tibadak fruits on the left. On the right is my wife's brother in law and his mom hugging the tibadak tree. The orchard belongs to her mom, who kindly let us pick the fruits there for free.

On the left is the durian flowers, and on the right is the durian right after it dropped from the tree. All we have to do is stand away from the tree and wait for the 'thud' sound.

the durian flower up close.... nice isn't it. On the right, my wife with our first durian hehe

the durians and the flowers

This is duku fruit, the size is larger than lime but smaller than mandarin oranges. Apparently it is the same family as langsat

Speaking of which, my maid on the left pic climbing up the langsat tree to pick the langsat. She climbed quite high, as she can't even be seen on the photo on the right.

Those rare occasion yours truly stands in front of the lens.

Kids really loving it, picking up the langsat plucked by my maid, and on the right is my makeshift basket

langsat up close

Now this is tampoi

This here is membangan, some say a family of mango. The flesh is so fibrous and sour.

Taking a break, picnic with the kids at the back of my dad's pick up. It is convenient, and has enough storage for our takings... some of which are shown below

On the drive home, we drove slowly enjoying the kampong view.

The house here was built with the assistance of Pusat Dakwah Islamiyah (Islamic Congregation Centre)

This house belongs to the son of the orchard owner whom we visited earlier. He was the former Commander of Royal Brunei Armed Forces, a very powerful position but yet a very quiet and humble person

And this is his fruit stall.

On the left is a multi purpose hall and the right is the fire station

A nice scenery... pity there wasn't enough space on the road shoulder, else I could have taken more pictures (this was taken by my wife whilst I drove)

Two of the few sawmills along the road to Labi

On the left is a landslide on the hill side, whilst the right photo shows the winding road

One of the many fruit stalls along the road, and on the right, damaged road and eeriely looking down a cliff

One of the places I'd like to bring my family to again, the Luagan Lalak or Lalak lake.