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.