Low Fat Aidilfitri

We are into the second week of hari raya, I am pleased to say that I survived it. I am not saying that I don't enjoy hari raya, celebrating it in Brunei is much much better than overseas. It is just that there are just too much food and too many houses to visit that serve these food. As I have said before, I am trying to lose weight and ultimately maintain this weight.

Alhamdulillah, food in Brunei is plentiful. It's just that we are not eating the right kind of food. How many times have we thought about how much oil are we putting in our cooking or how much sugar are we consuming? I assume that most of my readers are from Brunei and I know that today alone, I am sure almost all of us would have eaten something fried and drank something sweet. It is already our lifestyle.

I have tried hard to change my eating habits, including my family members. It is not easy. I used to eat cucur almost every sungkai, but I only had one cucur pisang this year. I had 2 open houses in the evening yesterday - both were in the medical field and both had healthy options, even by chosing the healthy options. Which one did I choose? Had a bit of both actually, time for my run...

I tend to wander off a bit, although cucur pisang is not the normal dish for hari raya, there are enough unhealthy food to go around, from cakes to rolls, from satay to rendangs and many others. It is impolite to refuse such offerings but even if we were to only take a small serving, after 6-8 houses per day, the amount tends to build up. My usual way of getting through this is to take healthy options, like fruits, take less gravy, no peanut sauce and just plain rice.

On the flip side, there is some improvement in our diet and we are more aware of healthy food. Some houses do serve plain water, fruits, vegetables during hari raya. It is up to us to make the right choices.

Selamat Hari Raya

I guess it's not to late to wish my readers Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir dan Batin

Losing weight

I saw an article in BB on 18th Oct. I don't have the article with me at the moment. It was about this weight loss clinic which has just opened with some of the latest technologies which will help it's customers lose weight. It even showed a picture of a slim young lady and claimed that a customer even lost 10.5kg. I had to laugh when I read all the fancy words they used to explain what the treatment is and it's effects on the body. Seems like it came out from star trek. I am no mocking the technology, as with all new treatments, we must have the scientific evidence to prove it, and this was too unbelievable.

This is another gimmick in a long line of weight loss fancy gimmicks in Brunei. Still remember the fat loss spray? And recenly the gadgets from Osim? Bussiness in the weight loss industry in Brunei must be big bucks. First of allm there are a lot of overweight people in Brunei because of our diet and lifestyle. Secondly there is pressure from many sources to keep ourselves thin including health reasons and appearance sake.

I will not say that these weight clinics are scams. Some of them will give results. But, most will only give short term results. Main reason for failure is that there is usually no change in lifestyle and diet.

As I said before, our diet and lifestyle is the major reason for so many Bruneians to be overweight or even obese. In general, our diet is full of fried food, oily stir-frys or excessively sweet food and beverage. Our lifestyle is also quite sedentary. We drive everywhere, try to park as close as possible to our destination, we don't use stairs as often as we should and our lives are so busy nowadays that there is no time for exercise. No point in blaming your genes, because they only play a small role. This is just touching the surface of the problem and I hope some readers will see this in their lives and try to change.

Ever since coming back from overseas, my weight kept increasing, and my clothes became smaller and smaller. I only started to really change my eating habits and lifestyle recently and alhamdulillah my weight is moving in the right direction. No fancy stomach trimmer gadget or saddles. And no gimmicks like Atkins or fancy creams and treatments. Honestly... It's all proper diet and exercise and it works!!

Therefore in order to lose excessive weight or maintain your weight is to change your lifestyle and diet. I will try to share some of the changes I have made and feel free to leave your comments.

Visit to gerai ramadhan

I went to visit gerai ramadhan yesterday. Just thought I'd see what's on offer as I have not been there for some time. From previous years, the crowd tends to diminish towards the end of ramadhan but today it seems to be as crowded as it has been over the past 3 weeks. I think that is good for our stall owners as this is one constructive way to boost one's income.

The food was about the same though - fried everything, oily mee goreng, sweet kuehs. I did my mandatory round of the stalls and found out that there are more rolls and cakes on sale. All sorts of shapes, sizes and colors are offered as well as creative names for each one. Didn't buy any though. There were also biscuits on sale.

The juvenile me wanted to get some fireworks... but managed to remember cuboiart's cartoon - check it out on this link. We're basically burning money heh heh but I think for parents with small children, it would be one of those things that you have to get. I remembered my childhood years when we would look for illegally smuggled firecrackers sold by some brave souls. Aaahhh those were the days.

So what did I get in the end? Some grilled chicken and pulut panggang.

It is almost Hari raya Aidilfitri, a day of celeberation for all muslims. As with other years, shops in Brunei are always full of people, trying to get themselves ready to celebrate Hari Raya. Shops have reported been crowded with people and the roads leading to the shops congested with cars.

It came as surprise to me that during the past two nights, the shops have suddenly become less busy, almost back to normal season. I thought everybody have finished their hari raya shopping, Then I realised something. Its middle of the month and most people probably are a bit short of cash, not everybody mind you.

This phenomenon is normal in Brunei. Shops tend to be busy around 28th (depends on when government servants get their wages) up till probably 1st week of the next month. Then slowly, less and less people go shopping and shops are almost empty after 20th of the month. I thought that this month will be different since hari raya shopping is important and people need certain items badly. But if you take into account other expenses like clothes, cakes, biscuits and other items which need to be ordered in advance, then you can see why shops are not as busy now.

This month the wages will come out on 21st October, almost a week earlier than usual. Banks have put up notices that they will be open longer than usual to cater for this. If the moon is to be sighted on Sunday,22nd October, then that Saturday will be the only time for us to visit the banks, apart from maybe a few branches which open on Sundays. After raya, shops will be empty again, since it's going to be around 5 weeks in between wages.

Personally, I like to go to the shops at the end of the month. That's when I most of my shopping and I will just stay away from shopping areas on the first few days after wages. And I will make sure I have enough cash so that I do not have to queue up at ATM machines during this time.

Lastly remember to spend wisely and enjoy yourselves during this festive season.

Another long gap

Well, it has been a while since I have actually posted something. I have a few drafts of entries but I feel that they were not good enough to be posted heheh a bit of quality control. Thanks for those of you who has stopped by.

We're on the last week of Ramadhan now and I think I have been too busy with work to take full advantage of this month to improve myself. I was planning to take at least the last 10 days off but I was not able to because of last minute change of scheduling by the boss. To me, fasting is Alhamdulillah not as tiring this year. I just feel sleepy at times, which borders on embaressment because I tend to yawn too much or doze off at my desk. I guess being online at this time of the night doesn't help matters.

Guess it's time to sleep now. Good night all. Don't forget to baca niat puasa.

Updated Blogger

Wow, I didn't realise that I could update to the beta version of Blogger so soon. I am not really sure what the updates were but I definitely like the labels for posts. I miss the categories in wordpress whereby I could just browse through the categories of postings rather than scroll through each post month by month to look for a specific topic.

It's been a while since I have posted anything, I think I will have more time this week to put some of my thoughts down.

Help for smokers

Sorry for the long absence. It is not as easy to update a blog as I thought. My hats off to those who can find the time and drive to do thiss regularly. I didn't realise that I would get a lot of visitors to my blog. Thanks for taking the time to read my entries and leaving your comments.

I think somebody asked me about the location of the smoking cessation clinic or Klinik Berhenti Merokok. And I read about a comment on smoking and religion in another blogger's comment page. People in Brunei know about what the smoking cessation clinic in Brunei. These leaflets are in malay, will find out if they have such leaflets in English.

There are actually four smoking cessation clinics being run by the Ministry of Health. They are located at

1. Berakas A Health Centre in Anggerek Desa
2. Jubli Perak Health Centre in Sengkurong
3. Pekan Seria Health Centre in Seria (Obviously)
4. Pekan Tutong Health Centre in Tutong (Surprise, surprise)

The clinics are open to the public without appointment. It provides a well-structured program to assist smokers to quit smoking. This includes counselling, tips, nicotine replacement and follow-up.

This is good news for those who wants some extra help to stop smoking. It is easy to tell somebody to stop smoking but there are a lot of factors that hinder someone to stop this habit. Some of the factors include addiction to nicotine, habitual and pressure from "friends" who continue to smoke. i have written "friends" because if they really care about your health, these so-called friends should actually support you in your efforts to get rid of this habit.

Hopefully with the help of these clinics, more smokers will stop smoking and lead a healthier life. This will indirectly improve the health of others. So please if you are a smoker or know of someone who smokes, pass on the info, who knows you may have done your good deed for today.

Pre-wedding nights

It is almost wedding season again in Brunei. Seems like there is always an increase in the number of weddings in Brunei during school holidays and a month before fasting month. The reason I feel that there seems to be more weddings this past fortnight is the number of wedding invitations I received is increasing.

Traditionally this is the night for the berinai or henna is being applied to the fingers, palms, toes and feet of the bride and groom as part of tradition. It is usually informal and only close relatives and friends are invited. Nowadays, this night is also the time for preparing for the wedding day. Camps and chairs are being laid out. Last minute decorations are being put up. In order to entertain the guests and to keep everybody jovial, many events are also held, like the karaoke.

There is also another way of noticing the number of impending weddings. This is the number of disturbed weekends I get due to the noise from my neighbours karaoke at night. I know that karaoke is now synonymous with wedding nights, especially the night before the big day but I do not understand why some people need to do it with the volume at the maximum and disturbing their neighbours about a kilometre away!! At the moment I think there are two karaoke sessions going on in my area, and it's not even saturday.

There has some letters printed in the opinion page of the local newspaper but there is not much anyone can do really. Sometimes I feel like informing the police when the singing continues beyond midnight, but I dont really want to go that far. I also do not want to disturb their enjoyment, after all it is a happy day for them as well, I just wish they would consider their neighbours feelings as well. I just hope we remember that we are Bruneians and some of our good qualities include being considerate to our neighbours. So if the next time you go to your relatives wedding, please bear in mind your neighbours' rights to a peaceful night as well.

Will try to sleep through the noise.

Parking at the Airport

I was waiting for my sister to arrive from Kuala Lumpur on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately there were also 3 other flights arriving within 15 minutes of each other. You can just picture how congested the airport parking area would be at that time. While waiting for my sister, I heard a car horn. It was a driver frustrated by a being blocked by another car waiting for a parking space to be vacated by an empire limousine.

This is typical parking ethics of Brunei Drivers. That driver wanted to park as close as possible to the arrivals hall. He blocked up the traffic for nearly 5 minutes. Just imagine how inconsiderate this guy was to the cars behind him, one of which was a taxi carrying a visitor to the country. The wife of the offending car even got out, went to check the arrivals screen, then came back to the car and took her daughter out of the car to wait within the arrivals hall. All of this happened while the car was still waiting for the parking space to be vacant. I do not think the driver minded as he was in a comfortable black lexus GS300. Eventually the driver of the limousine came back with the paid ticket and vacated the parking area.

Within the confines of the aiport, I could see a few bad parking ethics of Brunei drivers. I am so sorry to say that this is the mental state of some our drivers in the country and I have to emphasis that not all Bruneians are like this. To relieve my boredem, I decided to note down some of the poor practices that I saw on that day.

1. Park as near as possible to where you want to go. In this case it was the arrivals hall, specifically close to the ramp for the baggage trolleys. One should ignore other empty spaces. In other cases it can also be shop entrances or ATM machines.
2. Ignore obvious signs, either painted on the road or posted nearby. After the commotion, I managed to capture a photo of an MPV trying to park in the disabled spot. I think the driver saw me take a photo and decided to move away. Classic signs that are also ignore include "No Waiting", "VIP parking", "No Parking" and "Tow away warnings". The clamping sign is usually followed but I think some drivers confuse this with "Waiting area"
3. I can park anywhere as long as I am not blocking traffic. I think this is self explainatory. This was evident at the airport especially next to where the cars are parked diagonally. This creates slower traffic and can even be dangerous to other road users and pedestrians.
   
4. Always wait for cars to vacate their slots. Especially if the slot is close to the destination. No matter how long it takes for the person to put all the shopping in the car. Sometimes it is quite hard to fault these drivers, but some drivers block the whole way, even if there is enough space for another car to fit through. Some drivers even drive around parking areas slowly, following people with baggage trolleys to their cars.
   

I think I might have written quite a bit of the negative side of parking etiquette. There were also a few f=good points on parking that I saw on Sunday.

1. Enough parking space for everyone. Eventhough the area looked congested, there were still enough parking spaces for everyone, probably because people kept leaving the parking area.
2. Cheap/Affordable parking. the rate for parking at the airport is on par with the other paid parking in the country. 50cents per half hour is still quite good. Other airports would have charged more. There is also the premium area, but unfortunately on that afternoon it was blocked by the car waiting for that parking.
3. No excessive honking. I have to say, I only heard one car horn on that day. No other drivers lost their temper. I think this is a good mannerism of our drivers as compared to other countries.

In short, we should obey basic parking rules and use our common sense to park our cars. If we have no choice but to park at a distance, look at it as an oppurtunity to exercise and walk that extra distance to where we want to go.

Sigup

Sigup means rokok. Initially I thought this word was only used in Brunei but it seems like it is also used in Sabah and Sarawak.

Well, looks like tobacco is front page news again. It was in this weeks Friday Prayers Sermon. This is one of the best sermons on smoking yet. I particularly like the way verse from the Holy Quran was used to denounce the habit. Smoking is dangerous for the smoker as well as those around the smoker, also known as passive smoking. This includes families and loved ones. Smoking is also named as a wasteful habit, imagine how much money is wasted by smokers.

The sermon also pointed out that this years theme for World No Tobacco Day celebrations is "Tobacco: Deadly in any form or disguise". Form means any mothod of delivery of this deadly substance. Most common is cigarettes, death in a small package. Others include cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco and shisha.

In Brunei, shisha seems to be a trend amongst youngsters especially in certain restaurants I will try not to name. I have even seen young teenagers sharing the deadly smoke in the premises. Eventhough smoke would pass through water first, the deadly chemicals and carcinogens (cancer causing agents). The addiction will start from this point and a lifelong destructive habit will also begin.

Tobacco can also be disguised. To individuals who do not smoke this may sound absurd, how can something so obvious be disguised to trick smokers to continue smoking and would-be smokers be trapped into the habit. There are many ways to disguise the dangers of smoking. They are marketed as low tar, mild, slim and some even have flavoring such as apple, fruity. There are even fancy packaging, I have even seen some boxes in duty free shops resembling perfume boxes.

The sermon also mentioned the Tobacco Act 2005. This is a huge step in the control of tobacco in Brunei. I have seen the FAQ, will try to post it in the next few days so more people will know about it.

Lastly, help is available for smokers who are willing to stop smoking. There are Smoking Cessation Clinics in every district now.

This is just a brief view of the problem and I hope the authorities will be able to get the support from the public to reduce the problem of smoking in the country. Please give me your thoughts.

Sore throats

Well, I am recovering from my sore throat but I am still away from work. I was informed of a few meetings that I was supposed to go to but unfortunately I will not be able to make it there.

I had a comment in my first post regarding remedies for sore throat.

Sore throat?

Drink warm water, add some Manuka honey (di supasave ada) and few slices of lemon.

To relieve my boredom, I decided to do a bit of researching on sore throats. By definition, it is an infection of throat. There are many structures in the human throat, including that thing hanging down in the middle (called uvula). Bruneians tend to say sore throats as sakit leher but many use the term tonsil. I think they say tonsil because most of us associate sore throat with tonsillitis, inflammation of the tonsils. More than 90% of all sore throats are caused by virus rather than bacteria.

Treatment of sorethroats are usually symptomatic, therefore the commentor's advice on drinking warm water with honey and lemon are quite correct. This helps to soothe the throat. Salt water is also adviced but I tend to choke on it. My personal preference is hot sweet tea and lemon which reminds me of lemsip without the paracetamol inside. Lozenges are also quite good. Antibiotics are not needed in most cases.

I'm glad that my throat is improving, after a few days stuck at home is enough for me. The problem with having a sick leave is that you have to rest at home and recover.

Second time lucky

I have decided to move back to blogspot and write my blogs here. I wanted use wordpress because it used to be quite hard to register there. I do not want to add to the debate on which is better, blogspot or wordpress. I guess it comes down to your personal needs and preference.

I am quite impressed with the overall look of wordpress themes and the sidebars available for bloggers. The only problem is that I felt quite limited by how much code I can edit in wordpress. I want to put a tagboard on the blog as well. I also want to categorise my posts so that it will be easy for me to see what I have written on certain topics, but I am sure there must be a way to do this on blogspot. So I guess I will stay with blogspot/blogger.

Nothing much happening today as I stayed home most of time as I still have a bit of a cold.

My first thoughts

Howdy,

Well, this is my first post. I have to be honest, this is probably my fifth or tenth blog which I have started in the past 12 months. I don’t actually remember how many blogs I have but I do know that all of them have not been updated over the past few weeks. I guess I just don’t have the time lately.
It’s a quiet night for my actually. I have not been feeling well. I managed to get some time off work due to a sore throat. I think I will take this time to recurperate, physically as well as mentally from my busy life. Eventhough I feel tired, feverish and uncomfortable with this infection, I kinda feel that I will be a better person when I get back to work.

I have been reading a few blogs from fellow Bruneians and it seems like blogs are more organised now. Not all blogs are bad I realise. Some are quite informative and constructive. I particularly like the blogs on the daily life of the country.

So once again, welcome to another blog from a Bruneian. I do hope I can maintain this blog