3/22 the banquet

the banquet which is not your favorite thing to attend but set aside the food and the ritual, it's a family bonding time.  you're setting on one table and for the rest of the evening you either sample some of the dishes or chatted away with your family, niece and nephews.
and before you know the banquet has come to an end!

3/22 the ceremony::the holy matrimony

mid autumn festival and the wedding. double happiness! the special day for your nephew and your eldest sister and family.  that's the reason for your trip, a call to celebrate love and a reunion with your siblings and extended family.  many of you have flew thousands miles to be here.

 the wedding car decorated with cute bears

and the bride and groom finally arrived the house for tea ceremony.  honestly speaking this is your first experience being served in the tea ceremony....

 and not long after you proceed to the church for the more important part of the ritual, the holy matrimony where the bride and groom are ordained as husband and wife and blessed by the Lord.

truly, this is a joyous occasion that you haven't experience for some years. a time of bonding with your siblings and your (grand) nieces and nephews.  a time to treasure and a time to remember!

2/22 sultan omar ali saifuddin mosque

 across the bridge, a short walk from kampong ayer, you arrived at the sultan omar ali saifddin mosque.

 you're not sure if this is the biggest or the famous one but from what you have seen and experienced, this is probably the most pristine and modern mosque.

the surrounding area is quiet and clean due to the time of the day.  you're almost rejected for admission but after a few words between your nephew and the guide, you're allow to enter...

 simple is beautiful, less is more. the space is so airly and light almost a perfect place for meditation and prayer. the area where you can walk inside is really confined to a small square so you didn't stay too long inside

 and by the time you walk out the mosque, the sky is almost set, the light is lite up.

 a short walk across the mosque you're at a commercial center where you rested for awhile and pick up a drink.  the fountain and the mosque is symmetrically build to allow the view of the mosque from the fountain.

as you walk towards your car at kampong ayer, the pillar lite up like a diamond

so as view of the rock boat is now totally transformed by the green light and the reflection in the water.
never had you appreciate mosque as much as this one. clean, minimalist and pure!

2/22 kampong ayer

you aren't going to visit brunei without sightseeing, so you get your nephew to bring you around the city. as most people probably already know, bandar seri begawan is not really a popular tourist destination, so the sights are limited to kampong ayer and the mosque.on your nephew's suggestion,

 the parking area for the residents of kampong ayer and the path that leading to the water village

 you're told that these people live here by choice and not because of poverty. he brought you to the other side of kampong ayer where there is a adjourning bridge that link to the mosque.

 the sky unfortunately was extremely hazy due to the rain forest fire in indonesia that affecting the neighboring countries. the orchid brightens up the gloomy hazy sky

and beyond the kampong ayer, there's this famous sultan omar ali saifuddin mosque.

2/22 cowboy town

brunei has a very strict rule that no restaurant nor eateries shall open on friday between 12 noon to 2pm.  as such this law put the non muslim to desparation in the call for food (lunch).

hence, a troop of more than 40 people, in about 6 mpv journey from the capital of brunei to kuala lurah, located just over the border of malaysia.  this place is called cowboy town as while everything is restricted in brunei, the troop of 40 got seated in no time.  it's been warm and so you had a bottle of heineken beer for a change...

 the food was good, the portion may not necessary be big enough to feed the other table, but it's just fine for your table...

 the highlight for you is the steamed crab with the roe, oh cholesterol!

outside the restaurant, there are many stalls selling grilled meat and an open air market going on at the same time, but the troop return to brunei right after lunch.

1/22 the journey

 you started your journey in the evening, first fueling yourself up at the airport lounge before boarding your flight bound for kuala lumpur

 10 plus hours later, you arrived at your homeland and evidently confirmed by the picture above

 while transiting to your next destination (6 hours overlay) you booked yourself to the transit hotel so that you could have a decent rest and a good shower, he arrived at the airport to join you for the next journey so you hopped out for a bowl of curry noodles before going back to your room to kill more time

despite some delays, you finally made it to brunei international airport just past midnight and greeted by your sister and bil. it's been a long and tiring journey!

going.nuts

the perfect description of yourself today.  everything happening at the same time....
that being said, these are delicious nuts that you saw in milan.  hazelnt, walnut, almond and pistachio.
nutty delicious, for your eyes only...

::ballet::

you chanced in to this group of ballet dancers warming up themselves at milan central station.  it looks like they are going to perform in any minute but you wonder where is the stage and how it would be perform.  too bad you're not there to witness the actual performance.

::green::

from the weekend where you're at your friend's place to churn out more mooncake biscuits.  this is a lovely park just next to her place and you just loved the stroll around the park.

::spicy::

tom yum fried rice. extra spicy!

baking.fun

 you had a fun and productive saturday with your friends in creating more flavors of mooncake biscuits. as such more fish shape mooncake biscuts.

 you prepared the dough in advance, so that the dough is well rested and developed.  and you prepared the japanese inspired flavors green tea and sakura.

 when they're done, you place the bamboo charcoal version for comparison

along with the baking, your host also served you the delicious fried kway teow and curry chicken.  you're pampered for sure.

now you have in your collection, classic, bamboo charcoal, green tea, sakura mooncake biscuits.  that being said, baking is off for now.

fig.day

fig, you favorite fruit in the autumn is now in season.  you haven't seen any of this in the lowland. definitely not in the supermarket and you haven't been to weekly market for awhile. so what you had was the ones you hauled from milan. they're big and not particularly sweet but with the right firmness just give enough texture.  you like your fig this way and you served it with oatmeal (buried under the fruits).
autumn is here...

cozy.cafe

cafe scenes have been quite happening lately in the lowland.  sipping your coffee here is not by choice but by an incident.
he was supposed to drop you the car on your arrival so that you could drive home. but the tyre went flat and to cut the long story short, you have to go home with public transportation.  taking a train is not a problem but it's time consuming and troublesome especially when you don't have your ov-chipkaart at hand and neither you're dressed for the occasion aka rainy and windy lowland.
thankfully you manage to make arrangement with your sil to pick you up from the main train station of your city instead of you taking the light rail home (which really requires an ov-chipkaart).  as such you more or less force yourself to go in to this cafe, ordered yourself a flat white and a cinnamon bun to kill some time since your sil can only pick you up after certain time.
that being said, this is actually a very cozy cafe, spacious and may be not serving up the best cup of coffee nor cakes but it's a nice meeting point you could imagine for most people commuting by train.

::happiness::

 work hasn't been easy on you, you're stressed and feeling low. you suspect it's more a mood swing due to the day of the month but you're pretty low when you leave your client site for milan.  you always allow yourself to 2 eggs whenever you have a overnight layover. the morning as such is usally a bit free since you only have a flight to catch and no client meeting.  when your sunny side eggs were served along with the chicken frankfurters, you finally smile! as you have been praying the night before due to the stress and low spirit, you're glad that God enlightening you through your breakfast.  you really feel so as the night before you had a dream or a vision that you almost have the peek of Jesus smiling to you.  you cried out really hard of course that but by the time you go for your breakfast you're determine that happiness is a choice.

and you're being served with a special piece of freshly made waffle. the choice of freshly made waffles were not there before but you like it being bright and cheerful.

psalm 28:7 the joy of the Lord is my strength.

humble.trattoria

 you walked by this restaurant so many times, but it never occurs to you to pay for a visit. you got hold of a list of recommended restaurants by your customer so you decided to check some of them out and this was the very first.

 dining alone and yet it gives you the feeling of going home for mama's food.  you  decided to sit out because it's just a fine evening and along with you, they're another 3 or 4 solo diners.  each of you occupied one table, the waiter serves at a leisure pace and making you feeling very at home.  the menu is not finesse but that's what home food are after all.  you're refraining from carbs in the evening so a starter that consists of scallops and lardo, along with a ciabatta that served on the house.  the ciabatta was so good that even you couldn't help but savor quite a bit of it.

you skipped the primi and go for the secondi which is just an omelette of zucchini flowers and mozzarella. it isn't impressive but taste wise is just superb! unbelievable good.
such a gem in the city! you'll be back again with your colleagues next time!

::outlet::

another week, another trip.  this time you timed it with a visit to a outlet mall that is strictly speaking just 20 min drive away from your work location.  so instead of heading to your usual location, you took a stop train that stops at fidenza.

 from the train station, it's just a short walk to the free shuttle that bring you to the mall on hourly basis.

 the village is not huge but not too petite either. probably just fine for an afternoon stroll... you don't have anything specific in mind but you must admit it is rather pleasant to spend the afternoon this way, not too busy and not too quiet either.  just about the right space for browsing and trying....

you swap your lunch with a lindt gelato. it's still ice cream weather after all.
you'll be back again, it's too near to give it a miss.