Wednesday, April 21, 2010
200410 marks the most horrible day that i've ever experience so far in Brunei. I shall not elaborate more so let's just say it was my first time getting a scolding from the camp commander and it wasn't pleasant at all. What i conclude from the incident is that I've learnt my lesson. Because of this now our work will be even more tougher & Im pretty worried about my team as this new implementation that they came out with it will definetly affect their rest time. How i wish sometimes i could do more to improve the situation but it's hard. I just hope that everyone including other branch will cooperate and work together as the main problem is due to lack of teamwork & cooperation. Well Im not blaming anyone as afterall it was everyone mistake including mine and i hope that after this incident, everyone learnt from it and hopefully it will not repeat ever again. Hopefully this will be the first & the last time.
One thing about here is that bad news travel really fast. Not even 5 minutes after the incident and everyone already knew about it. They kept asking me and some of them were nice as they gave me advice and try to calm me down. It's easier said than done because they are not there to experience it themselves on how hard it is. They do not know the problems we face daily. They only see the good side & to be honest i feel that we don't get enough credit. Bad news really travel fast but all the good work that we do the news doesn't travel at all. It's always like that in the working world. Well what ever it is I'm gonna do my very best but haiz i feel that im such a lousy guard commander. Not even a month here and this have to happen.
After the incident it was nice of the Captain's here & the SM to comfort me and help me out with the situation. Even the people from the other branch came to apologise about it. I also have to thank my team for cracking up jokes and all the laughing made me feel better. In the evening during dinner, the camp commander call me to seat on his table and he was being nice to me. I guess he have forgiven me but he said something that was pretty hurtful to me. Maybe I was too sensitive and took it a little too seriously as he could have just meant it as a joke. Okay they were having a happy hour function in the evening and he said that "Okay as a punishment for your poor performance i want you to dance later at the function". Hearing that poor performace really brought me down as I been working really hard as most of the time I only sleep 1 to 2 hours whenever im on duty. I will do my best to ensure that everything was running smoothly and I try my very best to make everyone in my team happy so that they will be more motivated to work. I guess it wasn't good enough & i really need to improve and be even better. I just hope that I will still remain strong, positive & no more screw up please. Come on Faris you can do it!
Sometimes i wish that i could just run away......
Monday, April 19, 2010
Finally i have time to blog today. Soon it will be my 1 month stay in Brunei. Thankfully now i have finally adapt to the life here well almost to be honest. I definetly learned something which is to never take things for granted and appreciate all the little stuff in my life for example the clean water coming out from the tap. We Singaporean's may take this for granted but we should be proud that Singapore is really well built and how great our technology is. Now i will never ever complain about Singapore again haha. I really miss the night life in Singapore too so guys don't ever complain that our country is boring but at least one thing good is that they ordered all the Singapore newspapers so at least i won't miss out on the latest happenings. Though i met some great friends here but i do feel lonely at times as i guess i don't really have someone to talk to as in someone im able to share my problems with or someone i feel comfortable hanging out or just chilling with. I guess what I need is a best friend haha but sadly all are in Singapore but so far the people here especially my team has been great and treating me well so i will not ask for more. One thing i hate about my job is that it's affecting my sleeping hours. I really have irregular sleeping time and it's really screw up now. I don't really have a choice as we have to work 24 hours and I don't really get to sleep properly as being a guard commander is never easy as people will be calling me and stuff. Not only that, im also facing problems as it's never easy being in charge but no matter what i have to be positive and stay strong infront of my men as afterall as i must set an example and not easily admit defeat. But it's just hard sometimes. People may think im a happy go lucky person but they do not know how i feel behind the fake smiles. The things that they do here and sometimes really stupid and weird. Anyway moving on enough of my emo side~
As for today it will be an easy day. I plan to just chill, hit the gym later followed by attending the healthy lifestyle running event & going to shop for some groceries and try this food call nasi todak which im currently in love with as the chilli is power haha! It's about time i burn some fats as i been eating alot here. The people here are really generous to the guardroom as they keep buying nice but super fattening food. I was planning my home leave yesterday and most likely i won't be able to celebrate Hari Raya with my family this year and the earliest i could get is around october. Crap i gonna miss my mom's Hari Raya delicacies especially the Rendang and her home made cookies. Oh well i guess it will be a new experience for me celebrating it here in Brunei haha but i will definetly ask my mum to cook all those delicacies when i get back haha. Can't wait for that! Hopefully next month i will start to bhe more thrifty as i've been spending a lot. I can't believe i actually spent $500+ this month. All thanks to the food, shopping, transport and DVD's! I better try to reduce or else it will defeat my purpose of coming to Brunei in the first place which is to learn to save up. I guess bad habits die hard haha not to mention my cliques here are big spenders too so that's why it's hard to save haha.
Okay well i shall end my random post here for now. I will leave you guys with some photos of Gadong a common area we go to shop and 2 ugly pics of me for you guys to see on how im doing and looking right now haha! So far i only been to Aman, Manggis & Gadong. There are still lots of places to go so i will definetly make an attempt to visit them when i have the time and opportunity. I will definetly share it with you guys:).
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Thursday, April 01, 2010
Here is my first blog post from Brunei. I have been here for 4 days now and so far all i can is that life here is definetly different. Well let me begin with the first day when we arrive. On the plane to Brunei was scary as the plane was flying through thunder clouds and out of sudden the plane drop and all of us felt that we were flying and hitting the roof. I swear everyone started saying prayers and it really felt like we were about to crash or something and it was definetly one won't forget. Now this is making me think twice of working as a Air Steward in the future. For the first day there was a change of plan as instead of 2 guys going to Jalan Aman Camp & 8 to Lakiun now instead 6 will remain in Jalan Aman Camp while the rest will be posted to Lakiun Camp. Out of the 10 guys there was only 2 sergeant's which was me and my fren and sadly we had to be separated. Haiz there goes my only friend that i know but oh well we didn't had a choice. Also they will be rotating us so about 3 or 6 months the 6 in Jalan Aman Camp will go to Lakiun and those over there will go to Jalan Aman as they want us to experience working in both camps.
Currently im in Jalan Aman Camp and the place is pretty alright but it's rather quiet as there are not much people here even though the camp is huge. The people here are alright and friendly but there are some weird and lazy ones but oh well it's like that everywhere. The canteen here is great as they have wifi, computers and they sell really good food especially prata's. The mess room is great too especially our building as there are video games, the tv has lots of channels and also wifi. The other good thing about here is i guess it's near the city so at least we can shop for stuff and buy good food. We went out on Tuesday to The Mall to shop and look around. The things are pretty similar to Singapore and i was glad that there was a Mcdonald, Pizza Hut and some other restaurants that you can find in Singapore. We went to Mcdonald's as i wanted to try how it taste like as i was told by a friend that it sucks but to my surprise it was pretty much taste the same as Singapore. I bought triple double cheeseburger which was super awesome and i believe double cheeseburger fan's like me will definetly love it. Singapore should have that too. After eating we went to get a prepaid card but sadly everywhere is out of stock so i guess we have to wait. Next we went to the supermarket and it's like Singapore Giant's. Bought some snacks and drinks for my bunk. Oh ya speaking of bunk the one thing great about here for Sergeant's and above is that we get our very own bunk. 1 person per bunk and it's air conditioned as well:). But everywhere here is air conditioned like the bunks, mess & guard room's. Okay after grocery shopping we went to look around for some nice clothes shop as one of them wanted to get a gift for a friend. I came across a nice looking skull hoodie and as usual i couldn't resist so i bought it and the price was reasonable as the quality is good and it cost $40. Good buy indeed.
After that we went for a haircut at this Indian barber and the place is awesome as they cut really good and it comes with massage! Damn nice and it's only $4. Im so loving it haha. Next we went to a shop selling DVD's. It's so damn cheap and they have a lot of latest movies and not to mention a wide range of shows to choose from. There were complete season's of tv shows, movies we don't see in Singapore and many more. The price range and from 5-15 dollars. Damn it's amazing how they are able to open a shop selling pirated cd's haha. Wish we could get that in Singapore. Too bad i couldn't buy them yet as my Laptop cd-rom area is not working and i didn't had time to fix it in Singapore. Hopefully i can get it fix over here a.s.a.p.
Lastly we went to the night market to look around and get some food. They have so much varieties over here. Hopefully i will get to try everything before i have to be posted to Lakiun haha. Me and a friend of mine kinda got cheated haha well actually it was our blurness lol. Ok we saw this shop selling round chicken meat and it look so tempting so we decided to get it and also it's cheap only $1. So when we got back we ate it and after eating 4 pieces i suddenly felt like this is not what we thought it would be as it was fatty and there were small bones. I look at it properly and to my surprise it was CHICKEN BACKSIDE LOL! I didn't tell my friend yet till he was finish as i didn't want to ruin his appetite haha. After he was done i told him and both of us kept laughing and it was our first time eating it as i don't dare to eat it as afterall shit came out from there haha so i guess that will be the first and the last time we will be eating that haha but it taste good though so those chicken backside lovers should try it.
There are still more for us to explore but that will be next outing when we have the time and if my team are willing to bring us again. Right now my job here is a guard commander. We work on alternate days. 1 day mount 1 day dismount and it's pretty tiring working for 24 hours and the guard room here is busy and not to mention the shortage of manpower. There are so few MP's & RP's here so that's why they have to work longer hours. Well it can't be helped and hopefully i will learn fast as there are much to know. They are also very particular about your fitness here as well especially our BMI & IPPT so that's why they have run's on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully i won't grow fat as the people here are generous to the guard room especially went they go out as they would buy for us food and snacks. That's generous of them. Well i guess i will stop here for now as i need to get some shut eye as today is my dismount day and i haven't slept yet. Good night peepz~
Haiz i definetly will miss my Home Singapore, Family & friends.....
