Jewelle Tan Personally

It’s 4 more days before the voting for Simpur’s Best Bruneian Blog is over.

I thought I’d give those of you who are not in Brunei some info on what this is all about and share what I think about each of them.

One of the first Brunei blog I know was AnakBrunei (Best Photoblog), owned by arguably the most famous big guy in Brunei. I enjoy his people shots and it’s fun to try and spot familiar faces. Although we move in very different society, there have been some faces captured by him which I recognized - which means either one; Brunei population is really that small or he have really photographed that many people!

RanoAdidas (WildCard Blog) was the next finalist which I read since my early days of blogging. Whenever you feel like there is nothing happening in Brunei, you just head over to his place for the many public and private events and functions in the country - and the burning question for us at home for us is, does-he or does-he-not have assistants to cover all those events!

Kurapak (Best Local Content Blog) is the place where I’ve picked up a few Brunei Malay lingo - excellent place to polish or corrupt your Malay (depending on if you’re a beginner or a native speaker…) There are few pictures here but his posts are outrageously funny and original - they’re classic.

I came to know of the ArabFamilies (Best Specialty Blog) when he sponsored the first Belait district Blogger’s Meet in 2008 which I missed but from what I read, had the very intriguing session of dancing to gambus music! As his blogname indicates, he shares the many happenings in his very large and lively family.

Besides photography, yoga and scrapbooking - which I find are some of the common subjects blogged by Bruneians - fishing is also another popular activity and when it comes to a fishing blog, BruneiFishing (Best Lifestyle Blog) seems to be the most popular. I’m not a fishing fan but it’s a good place to see what kind of fish there are in our water.

Now the final blog which I want to share with you is the Spiritual Garden (Best Personal Blog).

I cannot remember when and how I found one of Brunei’s most creative and funniest teacher but I was hooked from the very first post that I read. She talks about relationship and do a lot of arts & craft and I have been inspired to try some yet it’s hard as I have none of her patience and creativity.

But it’s her ability to write very funny postings that I love about her. I like the way she sprinkles some Malay and Hokkien expressions and make her posts very very natural and hilarious.

So which is my personal choice for the Best Bruneian Blog?

I am a fan of many of these blogs and I frequent these on a daily basis. All of them are really worthy winners in their category and it is hard for me to pick ONLY ONE - the blog that has done a lot for the community or the blog that makes me laugh or the blog that taught me things?

Why don’t you (especially non-Bruneian) check out these popular Bruneian blogs and cast your votes too?

Eu has been going to school for more than 4 months now.

It has been interesting for us at home to hear her adventures of learning new things from school - from new words to many new songs which Qi picks up instantly. Let’s just put it this way, there are that much singing at home courtesy of the songs that Eu learnt from school that even their Ah Mah (grandmother) can sing some of their songs.

Her Mandarin has improved tremendously too and although I can understand some basic everyday Mandarin, there has been one occasion when she said something to me and I had to ask her to translate. My husband’s warning that I will soon be lost when my kids start speaking more Mandarin is fast coming true.

But I am in a way luckier than some of the other parents who have nil Chinese background and knows not a word of Mandarin and yet have their kids in a school where Chinese language is dominant.

At least for me, I learn a new word every few months or years judging from my how much I understand Mandarin and I’m sure I will never be that clueless. Unless Eu and Qi learn to converse in poetic Mandarin in which case even their father would be lost, I’m sure!

And 4 months along, I noticed that these few kids still shy away from the rest of the Chinese speaking students including Eu and I wonder what is it like in class for them.

I wondered because I have a cousin who comes from a non-Mandarin speaking household and his first few years in a Chinese school was a funny family story - he would regularly run out from his class. He now speaks passable Mandarin and my aunt is having second thought about having all her kids in a Chinese school as they have began to talk in Mandarin around her.

And I have another cousin who has not an ounce of Chinese blood and yet has mastered the language so well that she won an award as the best speaker in a statewide debate competition in Mandarin some time ago.

So I will not be surprised if these few students who now communicate with Eu with a combination of body languages and face expressions, might even speak the language better than her in a few years.

This will be an interesting thing to watch.

JPPMom led me to Mumsgather and I thought I’ll share my opinion on what I expect from a pre-school, to help an undergraduate student who is doing a research on this.

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I was told of an amusing story today.

Because our district is very small and roads are fews, we tend to drive past the same cars often, learn to recognize a person from their cars and if you are extra observant, you’d even know a household’s changes or latest additions.

This was how I, or rather my husband, noticed that a certain household in my neighbourhood recently sported a swanky new car in their garage.

When I commented on this to my family, I was told that this car was acquired to give the owner a more respectable standing.

Apparently, because he drove a modest car before this, he had trouble convincing certain people that he belongs to a very important committee - which is perhaps because most of the other committees came in with not only expensive cars but were probably chauffeured.

It doesn’t matter that he has the documents to prove his membership because his very ordinary and relatively cheap car obviously tell these group of people that he could not be someone in such important position.

In short, cheap car = no money = NOBODY!

Lucky for this man, he was able to get himself a car that equates his standing and command the respect that he deserves.

But isn’t it sad that some of us would quickly judge a person’s social standing based on his material possessions - his car, clothes, watches and etc.

Don’t they know that some of those who drive prestigious cars like BMWs have more red than black in their accounts and some that drive simple cars like Madzas have very long numbers in their accounts?