Back to work....

Wow! After nearly a week in Brunei, I found myself feeling quite refreshed and almost looking forward to work today! Could be becos I went for an additional day's leave yesterday and treated myself to a invigorating body massage...it definitely helped to erase away all the fatigue accumulated during the trip....and oh yes! thanks Oscar and Teddy, for the encouraging comments!! Appreciate it!!

BRUNEI...hmmm...how shall I describe this place?? Its like KL (that's what most of choir mates exclaimed...though I cannot say much, as I've not been to KL b4), but the shopping is not so good and traffic, not so congested? Frankly speaking, there wasn't much in Brunei which left a very deep impression on me (except mabbe for the canned tins of camel meat we found in the local supermarket). The shopping centres were quite grand looking, as compared to the streets outside, but the stuffs they sell all look so Singapore! I could almost feel I was back at Centrepoint (coincidentally, they do have a shopping centre called Centrepoint too!). Prices were almost the same too, so there was absolutely no reason for me to purchase anything at all! Most of us spent our money on the keropok (both raw and fried ones), which was reputed to be very sedap! But we did get a short 1 day tour to look at places such as their Museum (where it contained the Royal Jewels), a handicraft workshop and their Police Academy (it was the Royal Brunei Police which invited us there after all). Wow! You should see their PA! I thought ours was big, but theirs is like ENORMOUS!! Its like the size of the entire NTU campus! But the entire PA still looked rather spartan to me. If we had such good land here, I'm sure our govt would have spent no time building more structures on it!

We also had the good fortune to tour the Singapore High Commission over there.....its quite a cool place! All the staff reside in expensive looking semi-D houses, and their member's club is situated in a posh bungalow! I wished I worked there boy! And the High Commissioner was a really nice guy too! He and his wife entertained us in their residence (which was a even more majestic bungalow) and brought us around their place. Very nice people!

Performance wise....well.....it went ok. Except for some hiccups here and there (the worst one being the choir having their mikes off for the first number....the sound people actually forgot to switch them on....and I also forgot to play some notes..as usual...), I would say I'm quite proud of my choir! And though I was terribly jittery b4 the perf, I'm so relieved that I was able to keep my calm and play my pieces as best as I could! Our performing ground is actually quite a grand place, something like the convention centre at Suntec City, except that its really much much more bigger and impressive!! We were all so struck dumb when we first stepped into the place! Our hotel was ok too....but the food, well.....I really loved it! Even when I had their sweet and sour fish everyday....I still yearned for it now! And their char mee and beehoon...is GOOD!!!! Never thought I would be so impressed by their food quality...I was so afraid they would make us eat nasi lemak and bryani everyday!

But, as what I've mentioned b4, the one thing which I felt I enjoyed the most, and which also put the greatest impression on me, was all the fun times I spent with my choir mates in Brunei. Being with them throughout the trip helped us know one another so much better, and I tell you, I've never laughed so much during a trip overseas! They were such hilarious people!!! We poked fun at each other wherever we went, but we were also there for each other whenever anyone needs help. Though it was just a 5-days trip, to me, it felt like a few months! I really couldn't bear to say goodbye to them when we landed in Singapore on wed (even though we will see one another again next week for our choir practice...) We really had lots of fun during our spare time there...shopping, playing mahjong in our room, waiting for fireworks (the time we were there, it happened to be the Sultan's 58th birthday celebration), taking the bus, just chit-chatting, going around the town taking photos...etc etc. Miss them now already! I must say I am really thankful for knowing this bunch of great great people!!!!