Birthday, Blogshop, Bruneian

I’m actually at loss on what to blog. There hasn’t been a lot of things happening that are worth blogging about except it was Leon‘s birthday on Monday. We went out for lunch at our favourite Fish ‘n’ Chips eatery. 🙂 And I got him this:

I’ve also worked on a blogshop template for use on Blogger platform. I’ve integrated a shopping cart into it so selling/buying should be made easier. The overall design is quite simple and I think I’m going to sell it if anyone’s interested in using it. And I might build one for WordPress as well.

Fasting month for the Muslims is just around the corner, I’ve got to get ready!

Here’s something for you: below is listed some of the characteristics of a Bruneian. (I got this from a blog owned by a fellow Bruneian blogger.) Don’t take it all too seriously though, after all, stereotyping something will prevent one from seeing the whole picture. Understand that the following list does not sum up, or even accurately describe all Bruneians. Anyways, have fun reading (it’s rather long, I know). 🙂

1. People ask where you’re from and the easiest explanation is saying that it’s next to Singapore.
2. People are still clueless about where Brunei is and then you mention how the Sultan of Brunei was once the richest man in the world and everyone instantly remembers.
3. You either hang out in Coffee Zone or Coffee Bean or have children that do.
4. Your closet is full of designer gear but all you wear is the same old t-shirt, shorts and ‘selipar jepun’/flip flops that cost $2 from the ‘kedai kaling’[1. Retail shops run/managed by Indians.] next door.
5. You don’t wear Versace because only the older Datins[2. Datin is a honorific title for ladies, equivalent to damehood. Click this link for more info on this matter.] & high society people wear it & because you have the suspicious feeling that it was made in Brunei.
6. You travel all the way to Miri (a city in Sarawak, Malaysia) just to get bargain priced goods but spend twice as much there as you would back at the shops in Brunei.
7. Your family has at least 4 cars, almost always including a large car like a ‘Land Cruiser’ (for stocking up at Miri).
8. You don’t drive second hand cars.
9. You don’t drive a car that is less than $40,000 because it is just unheard of.
10. You complain like hell when the food is slow at a restaurant, but when you are at a ‘pasar malam’/night market you can wait hours for your gourmet satay from that Mamak stall.
11. McDonalds is halal[3. Halal is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law.] & you can order a ‘Bubur McD’[4. We have McD Chicken/Fish Porridge over here.].
12. You don’t take public transport because it’s for workers.
13. You are used to the wolf whistles of deprived men when you walk past them – even when you’re with your parents.
14. You are used to seeing large crowds of Indian, Indonesian, Filipino & Bangladeshi workers hang out at shopping malls, especially on Sundays.
15. You have called someone a ‘poklen’[5. It’s hard to describe this but basically, in fashion sense, poklen people are minorities who are culture deprived who thinks this and that are cool while majorities disagree. It’s akin to chavs but not quite the same thing.] or have been called one before.
16. You buy mee-goreng/fried noodles by the boxes.
17. You are obsessed with imported food from England.
18. You fly to Singapore to go to the hospital because you don’t trust RIPAS Hospital[6. The local hospital; stands for Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha Hospital.].
19. You go to Singapore to have a good time.
20. You go on holiday ANYWHERE with 2 empty luggage’s and come back with at least 10 full ones.
21. You go to Singapore or Malaysia at least 4 times a year.
22. You own an enormous private collection of pirated VCD’s, DVD’s & CD’s.
23. You have a few specialised number plates for your cars.
24. You go to the pasar malam/night market with tatty clothes & slippers but a LV/Gucci bag.
25. You actually believe the roads have no speed limits.
26. When singing the national anthem, you mumble parts of it because you can’t quite remember/understand what some of the words are.
27. You believe in bomohs[7. A Malay shaman.] & pontianaks[8. A type of female vampire.].
28. You have Astro satellite.
29. You don’t feel bad living in your mansion across from a kampong or even in a kampong itself.
30. You change your mobile whenever a new one comes out.
31.You know that the beach is the place to go to conduct illegal activity such as drinking & fornication although you swear you’ve never done it yourself.
32. You know all the places that sell illegal alcohol.
33. You must send your kids overseas or else they will have no future.
34. You fly out at least 10 times a year to many different places.
35. At least one member of your family lives in England, Australia or the US.
36. You have the cash to pay for a $100K Car.
37. You complain when something goes up in price even if it is only $0.20 & try to haggle over the price even at a department store.
38. You have to wake up early to go for Sunday breakfast with your family (all 40 of them) & most probably it’s Dim-Sum.
39. You know all the swear words in Malay, Tagalog & Chinese.
40. Have bad Bahasa Melayu/Malay language even though you have been studying it for your whole life.
41. You buy your monthly groceries on or around the 26th of each month.
42. You avoid supermarkets on or around the 26th or each month.
43. You think a 7 year loan repayment plan is a reasonable way to own a car.
44. You have 5.3 kids.
45. Your younger children go out in their pyjamas with a bottle of Milo clenched between their teeth.
46. Your younger children wear massive gold chains.
47. You PAWN your children’s massive gold chains in order to finance the upcoming Hari Raya[9. Literally means ‘Day of Celebration’. It is an Islamic festival celebrated at the end of the fasting month.].
48. You wear black trousers, a multicoloured blouse and a tudong everywhere. Younger females, just swop the black pants for jeans.
49. If you are over 40 and female, more often than not, you are overweight and ‘phone box shaped’.
50. You think nothing of carrying your new born baby complete with quilted plastick-y pastel changing bag, while dangling a LIT cigarette between your lips (men).
51. You think 5 cars in front of you anywhere on the road is a traffic jam.
52. You think $0.03 for an SMS is still expensive!
53. You earn only $500 a month but can still buy a new car somehow and are willing to pay up to 10 years for it for those who do not apply to point #39 & who exceed point #46.
54. You complain that a $1 hike in cigarettes is way too much when it still comes up to only $4 max a pack.
55. You know you can get away with buying only $2 worth of gas cos your car modifications used up all your loan money from point #56.
56. You will pile your 5.3 kids in the car and brave the more than 5 car jam to the Istana/Palace for some religious ceremony in order to get $5 per kid.
57. You consider taking out a maximum loan to extend your house (leaving no space for drains on your land) just because the neighbours are renovating too.
58. You will spend thousands on car modifications but will hang around curbs/ roadsides with friends cos got no money to pay for coffee at Coffee Zone or Coffee Bean.
59. You ride a Harley with a bunch of friends & park in front of Coffee Zone/Coffee Bean but only order water or Coke & think its still macho.
60. The 26th of each month is the only time you dare to buy more than $2 worth of gas because you need to go cruising aimlessly around Gadong (a major hang-out place for Bruneians) after grocery shopping.
61. Cruising aimlessly is defined as driving round the Centrepoint & Mall (located in Gadong) strip a minimum of 4 times while revving your engine loudly for all to hear.
62. The typical male wears only Premier League team t-shirts, jeans, baseball caps & slippers as passable casual wear to pick up tudong-ed chicks in.
63. You slow down to 10km/hr whenever a car breaks down is being towedaway / has an accident just to see if you know who the driver is & to get the number of the car to buy 4D later.
64. You take out a business loan to start a business but buy a brand new Lexus immediately (refer to point #36 on cash) with the loan & then start the sloppy business with the remainder of the money.
65. You do not know or have never spoken to 80% of the people you’ve invited to your wedding and who take the liberty to bring their 5.3 kids.
66. 4 generations stay in one house & there is 1.5 cars per person in the household who have a driving license.
67. You think leaving work at 5:30pm is ridiculously late.
68. You don’t bat en eyelid in any yoga class even though the instructor is referring directly from a book.
69. The local newspaper is still readable even though the front page always has some sort of story about illegal immigrants being caught for overstaying or soliciting as in point #31.