Welcoming the new year

Goodbye 2008 and welcome 2009!

This the first post of the year and firstly I'd like to say something about last year, 2008,a good year for me and a year of mixed feelings around the world.

In 2008,

Natural disasters struck Mynmar and China, causing an tarrible loss of life and generating many stories of hope, bravery and perseverance.

The tragic earthquake in Sichuan hit China amidst preparations for the Olympics and Pro-Tibet protests

Malaysia's ruling party faced it's worst election loss, the effects of which are set to shake the political climate of that country to it's foundations.

Anwar Ibrahim, leader of the Opposition Pakatan rakyat

China hosted a memorable Olympics in Beijing, a mark of the nation's rise as global power.

The opening ceremony, which was hailed as a tremendous success

Power transitions in Russia and Pakistan.

Russia's Vladimir Putin handed over the presidency to his protege, Dmitry Medvedev (left)

Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari

America moved out of it's segregationist past and chose Barack Hussein Obama as their first African-American president.

Congratulations, Mr. President!

The global credit Tsunami (a term coined by Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the U.S Federal Reserve) is holding the world's economy hostage.

The 2008 economic crisis is said to be the most devstating since the Great Depression of the 1930s

Though we start 2009 on a sombre note,

Gaza, through the eyes of an Israeli F-16 fighter-bomber

We do have things to look forward to this new year....

Brunei will celebrate it's 25th National Day, marking a quarter of a century of Independance

The new Obama Administration

So I say, welcome 2009, may mankind move forward productively and through the trials and I hope that through the trials and tribulations the world will still do what's best for the greater good. May Allah S.W.T bless all our the efforts and initiatives that we will undertake this year and may he bless us greater success and happiness.

Something lighter..

The last post was my opinion on several things i discussed seriously with a few people over the past week or so. about. The topics were numerous but those two issues struck a personal cord, which was why I decided to blog about it.

Anyway, I've felt like writing something lighter this time, something not so serious. . . .maybe what have I been up to this week..

Been gathering reference material on the internet for my next scale modelling project. Thanks to certain websites, I can now fully enjoy the wonders of file sharing by downloading as many e-books on model making and reference material on the various type of aircraft which I'm considering to build. Though I originally planned to build a Sukhoi Su-27, on a trip to nanyang I stumbled across a 1/72nd scale Thunderbirds F-84G Thunderjet, which is of considerably greater quality, so that plan may be scrapped. Besides i already have the references for the Thunderjet.

An overview of the model kit: http://www.hyperscale.com/2008/galleries/f84g72aj_1.htm

I'm also scavenging for materials, tools and the such: cheap alternatives to specialist modelling products (which would cost me an arm and leg!).

My temporary workbench: an old computer desk with rollers. My tools, glues etc are piled up in those drawers. Haven't started collecting paint yet; the cutting board is just the base of an old calendar/planner; gathered some gud cockpit pics and old technical diagrams on the F-84.

The desired outcome

Apart from that, I'm still reading Simon Singh's 'Big Bang', an exciting look on the theory of how the universe was created. I'm now in week 5 of my exercise program, based a guide book published by the Singapore Armed Forces on preparing for their physical proficiency tests and I have to say that they're standards are quite stringent (really!!). Anyway, it feels good to finally get my heart pumping harder after months of idleness and having the fresh air clear my head.

Well, that's all for now then, good night and have a great weekend!

Self Realisation...

To my dear friends, with regards to our discussion, I've given those topics some thought, and think that some of the conclusions I've drawn out, especially on the topic of relationships, maybe worthy of being blogged about.

I realised an important lesson when thinking about the various issues you brought up to me. . . like some of you, I did beat myself up badly over relationship matters and it struck to me that if I let such issues affect me longer than what should have been, I would've been on the path to self-destruction. I've seen people, who were like me, freshmen when it comes to this issue; like me they made the foolish mistake of giving it a 110% with no guarantees of success, ignoring signs of problems and rift....they never got out of the downward spiral. I know now of how lucky I was to get that self-realisation and I learnt of the importance of not being too attached until 100% sure. Whatever the case, I still pray that I have a clear head when faced with similar situations in the future and be able to deal with them with more maturity.

Speaking of which, on the second issue, I don't think I'm fit to comment on religion as my knowledge of it is quite basic, but from my personal experience though prayer does give strength and ease when handling adverse situations and I thank Allah for all the blessings he has given me so far and I pray that he make the journey ahead for me smoother.

That's all I have to say, if anyone wishes to comment about this, you're more than welcome to use my C.Box.

Until the next post, bye.

Scale Modelling

I know what some of you are thinking, when the word Modelling pops up you automatically assume it has something to do with Tyra Bank's hit show. Well think again, this is what I meant by SCALE modelling:

A scale model of an F-14B Tomcat, VF-103 'Jolly Rogers'

Apparently this is a hobby not many people here are familiar with:

*****: don't you have any hobbies, anything to do for fun?
Me: yeah, I make models
*****: ohh dats great man, brunei cud use more local models!

Firstly, model making has NOTHING TO DO WITH America's Next Top Model.

It's a hobby in which we create scale replicas of real life/fictional objects either from scratch (anyone in the architecture business knows what I'm talking about) or from commercially available Model Kits:

Some of my unfinished Model Kits

Model making to me, is a challenging hobby in a sense that it takes up time, concentration, creativity and inginuity. One spends time concentrating on prefect construction methods and improvising solutions to problems like poorly fitting parts, damaged details and so on. I'm no professional in this hobby and I'm still learning new skills to improve my model making, but with the completion of every project, I can still feel a sense of satisfaction in seeing the finished product. The hours of construction, fine-tuning and painting the model all pays off when the modeller reviews his creation.

An Italeri F-100 Super Sabre of the French Air Force: my first weathering attempt (watercolour wash, light drybrushing and pastels). Other modellers may note the clouding on the canopy, caused by cyanoacrylate (super glue). Paints used were a mixture of Tamiya Enamels and Gunze-Sangyo Acrylics.

That photo was taken a few years back, and due to my schooling commitments I haven't been able to do justice to this hobby. So, after a two year hiatus I'm picking up the glue and brush again, re-learning old skills and trying to apply new techniques I picked up online.

I'll post some pics of my new project, a PLAAF (Chinese Air Force) Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker when I've made significant progress on it.

Until then, good bye.

Random jottings...

Greetings,

I'm now finally recovering from a bout of food poisoning. It took a full week for the toxins to take effect, and embarassingly, the symptoms decided to start showing themselves in a violent display in the middle of a family reunion. . . . bacteria really do have a good sense of timing!

The culprit, soon to be eliminated by penicillin:

After being issued the standard course of antibiotics and rehydration salts and being lectured on food hygene, I was told to take a couple of days off from my usual commitments....maybe I'll finally complete that tank model which is collecting dust on the shelf...maybe I'll blog more.... maybe I'll start legal proceedings against that odd-smelling restaurant....

I can't make a decision yet, I guess I'll have to sleep over it.

I met an old friend at the clinic yesterday evening and during the long wait we had this interesting discussion on what's been going on in KB (yes, I admit, I don't go down there frequently anymore). Apparently the variety of camps available for us post-O-level students has increased: OGDC organised one (a really fun one I was told, anything involving M-16s and ammunition must be good!!) and so did a few other government bodies (the Anti Narcotics Bureau, religious organisations etc). Also, the Rubik's Cube craze is still going strong. It occured to me that many relics from the 80s are making a comeback, the cube, techno music and so on. It's fascinating to see a toy from my mother's days at school being tinkered by kids today. Retro IS the way to go I guess, but I find the cube simply too frustrating.....

The 6 second solution to the Rubik's Cube

Well that's all I want to write so far, until my next post, take care, keep healthy and remember, avoid eating at places with unflushed toilets.

An Update...Finally!!!

It's been a while since my last post, and now, for the sake of updating my stagnating blog and fending off insomnia, I think that I should write something.

So, in the past two months:

1) We had our O-Levels:
I've given it my best and I pray for a desirable outcome. Enough said about that!

2) We had our class party:
I hope everyone had a good time, sorry for the food poisoning.

3) The holidays started:
I've finally got the time to do some reading, get serious on exercising (the top priority for these holidays) and enjoy some leisure activities.

I'll try to put up more posts this time (honestly, I will) and until then,

Goodnight.

Raya is here again...

Selamat Hari Raya...

It's that time of year again, when songs like 'Dendang Perantau' and 'Satu Hari Di Hari Raya' bring back feelings of nostalgia to distant relatives and friends, every house is putting on it's best face and hordes of young children 'attack' homes to retrieve the sacred green packet. The month auspacious month of Ramadhan is behind us and Aidilfitri, bulan kemenangan, the month of victory and joy is here.

My Hari Raya ritual has been the same since I was a child. It starts with the morning prayers followed by a special breakfast. The latter was a tradition of my grandmother's family in Indonesia and when my mum moved to Brunei twenty years ago she carried on the practice. The menu hasn't changed since my mum's Jakarta days with the only difference being the drinks served.

Other than that, the other activity I look forward to is entertaining the many little pirates who take advantage of this time to fill their pockets with cash. 2007 being my first year celebrating Raya in Lumut, seeing these kids gave me a good idea of how enterprising the youngsters here are. When I was living in KB, most of the green packets were still intact at the end of raya.....but last year, all ran out by week two!

The unit, resting in uniform

The night atmosphere is very lively in every sense of the word. Firecrackers will go off until twelve and I normally have fun watching hundreds of dollars go up in a spectacular display of colours and smoke. In contrast, low quality homemade 'bedils' have a tendency to blow up with unexpected results:

The remnants of a home made bedil

Anyway, I'll see if I can post more articles during this time and until then Selamat Hari Raya/ Eid Mubarak.