FIRST solo adventure

[UPDATED: 14 December 2012]

I am now sitting in a cosy corner of Coffee Bean at Wisma Merdeka which is in the city centre of KK, writing out this post and watching the city get more busy, with increasing population and cars on the road as people commute to work. It so happen that I wanted to go out to sightsee and do a little shopping, but my aunts are all working so, I'm left to wander around on my own. Since most of the shops are only open by 10AM, I'm taking my sweet time at Coffee Bean having a Smoked Salmon Norwegian Sandwich with a cup of Hot Double Chocolate for my breakfast. I'm now too full to even have my lunch on time. 

I was woken up early by my aunt to get ready so that we can leave together. Well, since her workplace is in the city centre also, might as well. Anyway, today would be the very first time that I'm going around in a foreign country alone (even if KK is my hometown - my birth place and my dad's home, I grew up all my life in Brunei. So, I can consider KK as a foreign country?). There's always a first for everything right? 

The last couple of days, since I arrived in KK has been great. The moment I got out of the airport, my aunt brought me to eat my favourite dumplings at this coffeeshop at Hilltop. I have also met up with my other aunt and cousins over a Korean dinner at City Mall yesterday night. 

I'm going to walk around the nearby shopping malls a little later to see if I can grab any good shopping deals and enjoy the solitude. My first solo adventure begins now. :)

All by myself,

Hannah

p.s. I shall upload pictures of my trip a little later when I have the time :) 

One more week

I'm now running the last leg of my A Level exams. The past few weeks have been exhausting and mentally straining. Boy, am I glad that it's ending next week!! It seems that my posts have been rather few these weeks.. because I totally have no idea what to actually blog about as my life for those weeks have been all about exams, studies, revisions, exams, studies, revision. Quite a bore to read them every time ain't it? Even I get bored of writing all about exams, studies and revisions. Haha!!

So, I took an "off" day today. I took my youngest brother to the Times Cineplex today. The Times Cineplex was opened a week (or 2 or 3? I forgot ><) ago. I saw pictures and heard positive as well as a few negative reviews. The Times Cineplex is situated at the 4th floor of Times Square in Berakas. They don't have any newspaper listing of their screening movies, so I had to go there and check since I don't have their number as well. 

Times Cineplex had a standing banner at the lifts with it's phone number. I found the number rather easy to remember, 234 1122. It's a nice number. Anyway, I wanted to watch Skyfall but my brother wanted to watch Frankenweenie. Being the nice sister I am, I watched Frankenweenie or maybe because I've heard too many bad reviews of Skyfall. Frankenweenie was okay for me, I didn't really like it because it was a little too kiddy. I would have liked it if I were a few years younger. Haha.. and it was all black-and-white. However, I enjoyed the wide, comfortable leg space and the comfy chair. :)

For once in a long time, I got to do something interesting. Hehe.. I just can't wait for all my exams to be over and done with so I can have my freedom back!!

Counting down 7 more days,

Hannah

10 things about me

I just wanted to share 10 things that MOST people don't know about me.

1) I am an introvert. Many of my friends would question this fact but it's the truth. I'm only talkative and more active around the people whom I know for a long time already. If not, you'll be finding me trying to camouflage myself in the surroundings. Not wanting any extra attention than what I'm given already.

2) I'm an awkward person.. or rather I feel awkward many a times. Due to me being an introvert, I don't really fit well in many social functions. I get really awkward and embarrassed altogether sometimes and will hope that everything will end soon before things get worse.

3) I'm a bathroom singer (not literally in the bathroom, but just a term where I don't sing out in public). I love to sing.. when nobody's watching me. Which means I sing while I shower or in my bedroom. My not wanting any extra attention would be one of the reason of me being a bathroom singer. Not that I sing well anyway, I sing just for fun. :)

4) I love to read. Some might be like, what?! Seriously?! You're such a bookworm! Yup, I love reading during my free time. I have many books of different genre. I don't have a particular genre that I like best but I don't like reading science-fiction, unless it's really, really, really good. One of these days, perhaps after my exams, I would like to have a day where I can sleep in through the day, waking up with a cup of warm tea and a good book in hand. That would be bliss for me. :D

5) I like learning languages. It's on my bucket-list. Learn as many languages as possible in my lifetime. I might not be very good at it but at least I know some basics of it. So far, I can speak fluent English, fluent Mandarin (Chinese dialect), average Standard Malay, average Hokkien (Chinese dialect), manageable Cantonese (Chinese dialect), basic Korean (enough to maybe strike a short conversation) and also Hakka (Chinese dialect) which I can only listen and understand but not speak. I'm a half-Hakka and half-Hokkien, so shame on me. Other than these languages, I can say the basic greetings like, Hello, Bye, Thank You, in German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Thai and Tagalog. There's more I would like to learn if time permits.

6) I hate mint. I cannot tolerate mint in any of my food and drinks. If I taste any mint flavours in my food or drinks, I would gag. This is a problem since I was very young. It took me a really long time to change from kiddie non-mint toothpaste to the normal mint-flavoured toothpaste which I used only when I was 7 years old. Even know, if I'm brushing my teeth and the toothpaste gets too far in, I would totally regurgitate it all out. If I were at the dental clinic , I would usually request for my dentist to give me plain water for mouth washing after the dentist is done with my teeth because they usually provide mint water. ><

7) I don't really like eating sweets except for chocolate candies. I love chocolate! I like gummy bears too. I can eat them candies but just not too much in liking them. Weird, I am. Haha! Usually when friends or somebody offers me candies, I would usually politely reject them but I do accept them sometimes. :)

8) I like to cook.. but I'm too lazy to clean up after my own mess. Which means, I don't cook a lot due to my laziness. I would cook if the situation really needs me to, otherwise it would always be dad who's cooking for the family. I like baking too, but I don't have a working oven. I do cook sometimes, like pasta or making sushi or something else, but only if I "feel" like it. So, yeah, it explains why I don't normally cook or bake. :P

9) I'm more of a city girl who's used to concrete jungles than a nature girl. I can be in the nature jungle, exploring and such but I wouldn't be feeling comfortable. Maybe it's a bad thing but I do still go out there some times. It's just that I prefer to be living in the city or the suburbs at most. Maybe I will go to the country for a vacation but not for long-term living.

10) I don't make new friends easily due to my awkward and introvert nature. However, I do have a nice set of friends around me. I made some new friends in my current school but it took me more than a year to actually talk and make friends with them. So, don't be afraid to chat me up because I will normally shy away when somebody approaches me. It will take a longer time to get to know each other when compared to normal people. Bad habit.

So, that's 10 things about me. Just felt like doing one.. Maybe I'll do another one next time. All these re just random facts about myself. Whatever that pops into my head while writing this post goes here. That's all for now ;)

It's all about me!

Hannah

Holiday, how I miss thee...

School has only started 2 days ago and I'm already missing and yearning for more holidays to come.Is it just happening to me or am I just weird? During the semester break, I've seen some who posted statuses saying that "Holiday is so boring.." or even "I'm so bored during this holiday.. I miss school". Wow! I sometimes just wonder what did they spend their time on to make them say that.. Most of them who posted these are the younger ones. No worries, you'll learn to appreciate holidays more when you're much older. Trust me. ;)

I appreciate all the holidays. As a matter of fact, I LOVE HOLIDAYS!! It's like the best thing ever. I get to do and accomplish so many things that I wouldn't have been able to do during school days. Man.. I'm so dreading school right now.. Tests, homework, class assignments.. Oh gosh! A Level is really different from O Level or in secondary school. No doubt that in Brunei, we do half the subjects of what we have for O's which would be like doing 4 or 5 subjects in our A's, however, the workload is double of what you're going to get while in secondary school.

When my aunt told me those "words of wisdom" before I started my A Level, I thought she was actually just joking around or making me feel pressured or scared but it's no joke. Sometimes, there's just so many assignments to do that I'll only get a few hours of sleep just before going to school. For A Level in my school, we use the block system where we see our teachers every single day (except for English where it's just 4/5 lessons out of a school week) and they will just give and dump a wholesome of work unto us and expect us to submit whatever work that they have assigned to us the next day. This is really bad especially for Mathematics and Accounting. Hohoho... non-stop assignments and wall-banging moments. I kid you not.

Moving along from my rant, I had a spontaneous outing with my nom nom bestie. We went to have lunch and then off to Cheezbox to have some dessert while doing our homework. My nom nom bestie introduced me to her friend from another school. Yay! Made a new friend today. He's pretty funny. Haha!! Overall, I had fun today + school was a big help in boosting up my mood for the day as I had a rather light load of classes and assignments for today. :)

Oh, bums went back to Singapore today. Had a short outing with her yesterday for the last time before she leaves. We went to the Time Square area because going to Gadong is just overrated. We walked into Citis Square and voila, Gloria Jean's Coffee is finally opened in Brunei. They had a soft opening on Monday but yesterday was really the official working day. So, the two of us went to try it out. Not bad I would say. A few cents cheaper than Coffee Bean for some drinks. Not sure about the number of varieties but I would say that Gloria Jean's Coffee offers some food and beverages that other places won't offer. Something for a change. :) Coincidentally, Gloria Jean's Coffee Brunei was having their Ladies' Day (happens every Tuesday), so us ladies get 30% off. What a good deal eh? ;D

A good news for me too! My aunt just came back today from UK for her summer holiday. Weee~~ another outing buddy. Gifts and souvenirs I love! Haha!! It's been so long that I miss her so much! Great to have her back. Can't wait ;) 

Missing my holiday,

Hannah