Back home :)

Been home for about six weeks now and it has taken me that long to get use to life here. It was madness coming home! I wanted to be home for the first day of raya and my dissertation was due the day before our flight home. It was a race of packing for stuff in the flat to be shipped home, stuff to stay in London and stuff to bring home onthe plane. We also had to buy loads of gifts to bring home and I had a couple of thousand words to finish on my dissertation.  We also needed to give the flat a thorough clean for the next tenant to move in…All this to be done in the our last few days in the UK!

Pete packing frantically while I typed my last paragraph of my dissertation

I still don’t know how we managed it but we did! Our flight home was pretty uneventful but when we got to Brunei airport, we found that our biggest bag (the one with ALL our clothes and toiletries in it has gone missing!!) We made a report at the RBA desk who said it might take a few weeks to locate the bag.. I was quite dissapointed because I lost a bit of weight while I was away and I knew all my clothes in Brunei would be a tad too big right now.

Coming out of the arrival gate was brilliant! My whole family were waiting for me. As I mentioned before, last year my brother in law and my little sister were also studying to do their MA/MBA in Hong Kong and Japan while my eldest sister was working in New York for a few months.. Last year must have been a lonely Hari Raya for my mum and dad.. But this year, everyone is here and I was the last one to come home! Loads of hugs and kisses, dad was waiting in my purple car parked infront of the departure gate and after I hugged him, I quickly hugged my car too!!

My little nephew was only a few months old when I left and I was so surprised to see how much he has grown in the year I was gone. He is now beyond adorable and it only took me a few days to teach him how to say Ngangah ( this means second aunt in Malay).

Adam now

Adam when I left in Sept 2008

See how big he has grown!! He has learnt how to walk as well as dance and is incredibly bright (says the proud aunt!)

After spending a few hours with my family, we were quite keen to go home to our little flat to see the cats. Murphy and Midnight greeted us at the door and wouldnt leave us alone but Bubbles and Toulouse completely ignored us for a few hours. That night we had all four cats on the bed purring away!

Hari Raya was the next day, Pete and I got up at an ungodly hour of 6am because of horrible jetlag. It felt a tad surreal to think that just a few days ago we were living in London.. as we were putting on our traditional Malay clothes, it suddenly felt like we never left. I The first day of hari raya is a very relaxed affair, a whole day spent at my parents house talking, eating and entertaining family that has come to visit. As the day progressed, the number of guests would rise and at around 9pm, it was a full house, my parents living room filled with chatter and laughter. Before we went home around midnight, it is a custom to ask for forgiveness from both parents by kissing their hands. Strangely enough, that precise moment when I kissed and hugged my mother, I knew that I was home

Five of us back together

My babu

The next day was the usual trip to Keriam Tutong, the small village where my mum and her sisters grew up. We had about seven houses to visit and it was going to be a terribly LONG day.. Dont have much to say about it, just enjoy the pictures!

Us, second day

Kelupis

The rest of the week was spent sorting things out at home and at work. I had to go to the Ministry to find out which school I was stationed at and the flat and car needed some TLC too. Pete and I were very aware that we were soon to be apart for close to nine months as he needed to go back to the UK to finish his Msc and I have to stay in Brunei . When it was time for Pete to fly back, I have to say I felt very emotional and couldnt hold back the tears at the airport.. Pete is my best friend, my husband and everything to me.. not having him close by makes me feel quite lost.

To get my mind off Pete not being here, I decided to take up baking again. I knew I was going to end up with a whole lot of food so I decided to throw a small tea party to catch up with friends I havent seen for the longest time. It was two weeks of fun planning, loads of trips to the supermarket and hours of baking fun. Here are some of the things that I made..

Tiramisu

beginnings of the pineapple upside down cake

Pineapple upside down cake

While I was happily baking for the party, my sister called and placed a cupcake order for a little girl’s sixth birthday… Double the fun!! Since this order was my first since I’ve been back, I decided to make this order a bit special. I also wanted to play around with a new recipe I found on the net.. Oreo cuppies!!

The oreo cupcakes have a special surprise in them.. yums!!

Oh my! I just realised how long this post was… will stop now as not to bore you.

It’s nice to be back

Cupcake Queen Brunei

Almost at the end

Our last night in High Street Kensington. Pete is rushing around packing and I am making the last few changes to my dissertation before handing it in tomorrow. I can’t believe my year of study is almost over,  the year practically flew by!

Wish  I could have ended this year on a happier note but last week, my dissertation tutor suddenly passed away due to kidney failure. I am still trying to get over the shock and I think it has affected all of my friends too. Dr Eckerth was a well loved lecturer in Kings, very knowledgeable and a wonderful teacher. As a tutor, he was amazingly giving and supportive, sending me long emails with always a word of encouragement at the end.

We went to his funeral on Sunday. It is quite hard to finish the dissertation as I am quoting him constantly. Dedicating the dissertation to his memory.

THis picture was taken by Sun Ju on our MA farewell party in June

Dr Johannes Eckerth

May he rest in peace

Happy Birthday and Happy Graduation

I’ve been getting a few emails from readers asking why I am not updating my blog. I do apologize as at the moment, I am in the midst of working on my dissertation and there is nothing exciting at all happening in my life especially cupcake wise! Will update as soon I get this nasty dissertation over and done with!

Anyway, short post right now for two very special people.

First of all, a very happy birthday to the strongest shining light in my life, my father.

He is the most wonderful man who is at the moment also the bravest. I have been thinking about him all day today, trying to get through to his phone on Skype but no answer! Will try again on Sunday.. Since I’ve been here, there has been days when his phone calls, very often at 3 or 4am in the morning are always welcome as he always sounds so happy on the phone, so pleased that he got through to me..

He was a very kind father growing up. I remember many early morning trips to school and the warm chats in the car. Many happy trips to KB and Miri, singing along to Bonnie M and David Bowie. I remember how I loved  holding his hands, how he would meticulously iron his police uniform everynight. How I loved touching the many shiny buttons on his uniform, the colourful strips of ribbons, the shiny cane and the amazing police hat which my sister and I used for playing dress up. He loves animals and he nurtured this in his children. We had many many pets growing up, numerous rabbits, birds, fishes, a monkey called Mc Gyver and two goats. He gave me my best friend growing up, a beautiful persian cat called Jojo joined the family when I was four and I loved that cat until the day he died whan I was sixteen. I have loved having animals especially cats because of my parents. For this, I thank them profusely.

Now that I am older and he seems so frail, I appreciate him and my mother so much more. I cherish every moment I get to sit next to him, hold his hand and laugh. I cant wait to be next to him next month and tell him again how much I love him. Happy Birthday Abah, I love you very very very much.

Happy Birthday Abah!

Oh dear, that was suppose to just be a short greeting.. pfft…

Anyway, the other greeting is for my little sister Audrey who graduated with her MBA in Japan today! Well done babe!!

Abang Peter and Ka Adik are so very very PROUD OF YOU!!!!

We cant wait to see you in Brunei very very soon!

Okay.. thats it for now.. Will blog again when nasty dissertation is done..

In Dissertation Hell

So sorry for lack of updates.

Have 15000 words to write.

4 lessons to transcribe.

50 questionnaires to analyse.

30 books and articles to read.

No time for anything else.

Not even sanity.

Will come back when more sane in one months time.

If still breathing…

Quote of the day

If all you have to do today is find peace of mind,

Come round, you can take a piece of mine

Cerys Matthews, Catatatonia – Road Rage

Sugarcraft Animals

My second cake decorating lesson and had loads of fun. It was a welcome break as I am in the midst of writing two essays then moving on to the scary dissertation!I learnt loads of interesting techniques and cant wait to practise them at home.

We made a panda first and he was to be the biggest of all our four animals. He was fairly easy to make though I drew one of his eyebrow far too low, it gave him a ‘THE ROCK’ eyebrow lift…

Panda Bear

Then we moved on to the lion. His mane was so much fun to make, making little spaghetti strands of different shades and positioning them on his tiny little head. I think the lion was my favourite!

Adorable Lion

Next,  we moved on to making an elephant. I called her Ellie the elephant as she looks a lot like the elephant character in Pocoyo. The fun bit was when we get to put a little bit of pink sparkle on to her cheeks – she has blusher on!!

Ellie the elephant

Last of all, we made a monkey and he was the most interesting! We even made up a little story for his surprised expression. He is happily eating his banana and a coconut fell on his head! Hence, the surprised mouth and the closed eyes! hehehehe

A coconut fell on my head!

We then made little tufts of grass,some pebbles,  a banana for the monkey, a bamboo shoot for the panda and a little pond in the middle of the cake board. I even made a little splatter right infront of Ellie the elephant and here they are all together in their happy home.

My little animal friends

It was such a fun and relaxing day! My sister is already planning a safari themed birthday party for my little nephew next year so I can start making the little animals now!! Hehehehe

My Tutor

My first cake decorating class!

Yesterday, as a treat I went to a cake decorating class in Putney. The class was on how to decorate with chocolate!!

It was such a fun experience, we were in a small room at the back of a bakery with everything we needed right in front of us. I learnt everything from covering a cake with white chocolate paste to making beautiful beading and yummy dark chocolate roses!!

The teacher was excellent! She was very clear in her explanations and helped me when I struggled. Working with chocolate paste is far trickier than working with sugar or modelling paste, it can’t be worked too much as the heat from our hands made it melt far too quickly and apparently, I have very HOT HANDS!!

Everything on my cake was chocolate.. and it was BELGIAN CHOCOLATE!! The roses, the beads, the fans, the cake… all glorious chocolate!!

Here is the final product!!

My Chocolate cake with dark chocolate roses and leaves, strawberry, orange and white chocolate fans and covered in white chocolate paste.

The back of the cake with more chocolate roses

Side view

With Erica, the teacher with her much better looking cake

I was a bit nervous carrying the cake home as I had to go on a 20 minute train ride home during rush hour! I was practically hugging my cake all the way home and it got home fine!! The only casualty was the top of one of my chocolate shards broke off but that was fine!!

With my precious cake safely home!

I didn’t have the heart to slice my cake last night because I spent the whole day working on it. I just stared at it lovingly as it sat on the coffee table until bedtime.

Today however was a different story. After swimming 20 laps at the gym, I was FAMISHED and the cake was far too delicious to ignore any longer. I did emit a little scream when I made the first cut though!!

Sliced open!

The first bite was heavenly! The chocolate cake had three layers of sponge and inbetween each layer was the yummiest filling. All feelings of regret about cutting up my beautiful cake was gone!! It was just far too scrumptious!!

I will definitely make this cake.. again and again and again and again!

Happy Father’s Day

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Happy Father’s Day to my very special Dad in Brunei. Once in a while he calls at 3am and laughs, I shoot out of bed then sleepily have a conversation about London and cats. I always go back to sleep.. Happy.

It’s his way of saying he loves and misses me.

I love and misses my abah too.

Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Birthday Mayin!

Another birthday shout out to my youngest sister, Ammar Rina who has just turned seventeen! Hope you have a wonderful day sweety with loads and loads and loads of presents and good food! We do miss you! Love Ka Adik and Bg Peter

Happy Birthday Amar!!

Happy Birthday to my little brother Amar who has just turned  a not so little twenty one!

Hope you have a wonderful birthday with loads of great presents, cake and loads of laughter!

Missing you dreadfully too!

xoxoxoxoxox