Lust for Linguine

So today is yet another family day outing, but this time with my cousin tagging along as well... We headed out of the house early morning and went straight for the Mall. We roamed around a bit while waiting for Fratini’s to open to have our brunch. Finally when Fratini’s had opened, we sat down and ordered our food. As usual, my mom got the Linguine Fratini for herself, my cousin and my sister Alyssa while Angela and I ordered our own dishes; Linguine Salmone for her and Linguine ai fruitti de mare for me! *delicious*

Anyway, after our brunch at Fratini’s we headed on over to Kanojyo’s again because my cousin wanted to buy some stuff to bring home to the Philippines - she leaves next Sunday, September 5th and will only be coming back to Brunei in November.

After Kanojyo’s it was pouring rain, and we could cross the road to the Mall to do our grocery shopping; and our car was parked at the basement under the Mall. So we stood just outside Kanojyo’s for about half and hour to wait for the rain to subside a little. After a while, my mom got fed up of waiting and show she decided to go into a store and purchase 3 umbrellas just so that we could cross the street to get to the Mall. Funny story actually when my mom was purchasing the umbrellas, they costed $6.00 each and my mom tried to get them for $5.00 but they wouldn’t allow it. I told my cousin that maybe on a sunny day they would’ve given my mom a discount but because it was raining and we really needed it - no discount. So okay my mom just got them anyway at $6.00 each and off we were across the road and into the Mall to do our grocery shopping.

After doing the groceries we dropped off my two sisters at church for their weekly Sunday Religious Classes. My mom, my cousin and myself then headed to Annabelle’s (my niece from my cousin Joy) house. My mom and cousin chit-chatted with my Aunt while I played with Annabelle in her room - we played restaurant and doctor’s and then finally opened up her sticker book and stuck stickers into the appropriate pages... My it feels weird to be a kid again, but nevertheless it was definitely fun playing with Annabelle!

After about an hour at their place, we headed back to the house and here I am, about to give the puppies a bath and play with them later outside in the garage so tootles!

Ms. Nabooby Armani's Bday Celebration

As seen from the picture above, only 3 out of the 15 invited managed to make it to Nabilah’s birthday celebration! But oh well, Nabilah was happy anyway that she was still able to celebrate with a few friends...

So I arrived first since my mom and my sisters had to be at church before 6PM (which is the arranged meeting time at Capers). When Nabilah came, I gave her the present I bought for her and asked her to open it. She did and she told me her newly found obsession with mugs - spot on I said to myself and told her that she’d really LOVE this mug because of its unique trait. So I told her that I had to demonstrate how the mug is used. So I asked the waiter for a glass of hot water and Nabilah was all excited as if I was going to perform some kind of magic trick. I faced the mug towards her and poured the water in and she was amazed by the change in colour of the picture on the mug as well as the appearance of the wordings just under the little cupcakes. I was glad that she really liked my gift; and it was so sweet of her to get me a gift too from Singapore - cornflake tidbits! I heart you booby (my nickname for her because of our trademark hug called “the boob press”).

Anyway, after a while Cheryl and Sharon came just in time as we were to start the buffet. A piece of advice, DO NOT go to Capers for their buffet - it sucked so bad! 4 types of pasta and what a lousy refill system they had... I only managed to eat 2 out of the 4 and I didn’t even like one of them! Well, we wanted to order from their menu but because we touched the buffet, we had to pay $14.80 for such a lousy meal -_- oh well, first time experience so we can’t really do anything about it! So we talked and talked up to the point we were reviving the cartoons that we barely see on Cartoon Network such as Popeye, Little Lulu Show, Johnny Bravo, etc. Yes, I know, what freaks right? Whatever! HAHA! Anyway, when 8PM neared, we got up and went to the counter to pay our bill; I have no idea why but for some reason we were given a free gift from Capers, which were lights? Bil and I thought they were candy of some sort; I wanted to pick one up and eat it until I realised they were something like Christmas lights shaped like roses. So Bil and I ran out of the restaurant and left Cheryl and Sharon to shove it at each other on who would carry the box of lights out, LOL! After that, we all headed back home one-by-one.

Saturday day out

So yes, today I asked my mom if we could go out to buy Nabilah a present for her birthday since she’s going to celebrate her birthday tonight. So we headed out early morning to the Mall for me to shop for her present, and well, for my mom and my sisters to roam around and... Shop?

Okay, so I bought Nabilah a mug - don’t cringe just yet! It’s unique type of “birthday” mug okay? I’ll explain to you how it works... The pattern on the opposite side of the handle on the mug is coloured brown, but when you pour hot water into the mug, the brown colour changes into different colours that shape out cupcakes and reveal the words “Happy Birthday to You!” Awesome right? Well it doesn’t really sound all that awesome here, but if you see it for yourself, you’d be wide-eyed like me! If only I had a before and after picture, but I just thought that it wouldn’t be right to take a picture of a gift that’s not mine! Maybe if you want to see it for yourself, you can ask Nabilah to show it to you or got to Xplorer at the Mall and ask for it :)

Anyway, after shopping for Nabilah’s present, we decided to go on our own little shopping spree - the mom, the sisters and myself. As you can see from the display picture above, we each bought new sneaks at 8th Avenue - buy 2 free 1 promotion. We then headed across the road to Kanojyo’s, a store that sells all Japanese products from household items to beauty products and many more! My mom’s a member at the place and so she received a text message from them advertising their 1-week promotion sale - which is 50% off on ALL products. Even an item that costs $2.00 is discounted at 50%... After that, I bought myself some boxer shorts! *wide eyes* Don’t judge me! They’re very comfortable to wear around the house - with underwear underneath of course!

When I got home, gave Freedo a bath while my other sister Angela gave Speedo a bath. I webcamed with  Freedo and played with the brothers out in the garage before getting ready for Nabilah’s Sunkgai Buffet outing later:

Freedo & I

Driving Test pt. 2

Well, yes the picture above may be TOTALLY inappropriate to the title of the post but please do let me explain in 3 simple words before you all pull on a face...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NABILAH!

Yeap! It’s my dear, darling’s birthday today! Love you babe! <3

Okay, now back to the serious part! My rescheduled driving test (if you haven’t read about how my first driving test went, look through my archives for the post titled “Mixed Emotions” and read the appropriate section that links to this post. Anyway, I had my second driving test today after having completely failed, but given a second chance to reschedule another test - yes, such a nice examiner that I got; but apparently according to my driving teacher, the examiner that I got was VERY strict. Anyway, I had the same examiner today, and when I met up with him again, he was like “How are you? Can you do the course today?” I replied by saying, “Yes. I’m confident that I can do it today,” and he gave me a smile. How can he be a strict examiner?! Anyway, so I did the slope in a jiff’, and after having completed that, I felt so good about myself! After completing the inside course, I went on the road and finally back inside to park the car. The examiner then looked at me and told me that I passed with a smile on this face. I thanked him loads for giving me a second chance, and asked him how many points did I lose. He replied by saying that on the inside course I got 10 demerit points, and on the road I got less than 15 - I guess he didn’t calculate yet how many points I lost on the road. But who cares right? I’m just so freaking HAPPY that I passed my driving test! Oh well, I can’t legally drive on the road yet since I will only get my driver’s licence probably on Monday...

The Adventures of Freedo & Speedo

So I came home one day after work from school my mom told me to go to the backyard and look at the pots. I was looking at the wrong set of pots so she told me to look in the other direction, and there I saw two cute little puppies!!!

My uncle Bernard brought them to our house at around 11 in the morning - we’ve been asking him to find two puppies at the site that he works at (for personal reasons). To cut long story short, a guy came into our backyard and was masturbating in front of my cousins room by the window. My cousin forgot to close her curtains that night and when she turned around, she saw the guy. She was so scared that she went out of her room to grab a knife, but by the time she returned, the guy ran off. So basically ever since that night (which was about 2 months ago), my mom had been searching for dogs to keep at our house just in case that guy intended to return. So today, my uncle came to the house with two puppies - puppies so at least when they grow up, they’ll be used to us and know our scent as they grow...They’re so adorable! *chinky eyes* The black puppy is Freedo and the brown puppy is Speedo. Freedo was inspired by my sister; there was a time she wanted to say freak and weirdo at the same time, and the word Freedo came out. We had such a laugh! Kind of like in the movie Mean Girls starring Lindsay Lohan, how she had the word cool and great in her mind and the word grool came out... Don’t judge me! It’s one of my all time favourite chick-flick movies! Anyway, and Speedo just came to mind because it rhymed with Freedo ;)

Be sure to tune in if you want more adventures of Freedo & Speedo!

Angela's Sweet 16

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAR SWEET LITTLE SISTER ANGELA

Well, today is her REAL birthday, but the photo that’s displayed above was actually taken on the 21st of August - we had a pre-celebration after we attended the sunset Mass. Well, we headed to Fratini’s because of their 50% off promotion on all pastas and pizzas. To our surprise, the promotion is actually only until 7pm daily (until the end of Ramadhan) and we were there at around 8pm? Yeah sucks, but what to do? We only figured that out when we asked for the bill and it was still at full price... We had the JUMBO pizza and the famous Linguine Fratini *delicious!*

On the REAL day (which is today, 23rd August), we headed to the Buffalo Steakhouse where the old Sugarbun used to be in Gadong. Well, there was a Sungkai Buffet special, so we went for that and MAN; food everywhere...

There were like what? About 20 different types of food... And don’t get me started on the chicken - 5 types of dishes! Fried chicken, grilled chicken, BBQ chicken, sweet and sour chicken and chicken curry, I mean, how much chicken do they need in a buffet?! I was seriously so full that night; it was like I walked into the restaurant happy and single then suddenly I come out pregnant - food rape! HAHAHA! Yes, IB has definitely messed with my brain! So ignore the lame, dirty jokes that I reveal throughout my posts - that’s just me being ME!

*BURP!* and the picture below is part of the dessert table... :O

First day of work!

Well yes, after the whole fiasco that I had with trying to obtain my study permit to Canada, I decided to make use of my holiday by heading back to ISB lending my knowledge to the IB Visual Arts Class. I also thought that this would give me a great opportunity to work on my portfolio for my application La Salle and at the same time I get to help out Ms. J with her IB (and maybe IGCSE) Art class since I got such an awesome grade for Art! Ms. J told me that I actually got a 7 for my investigation work and a 6 for my studio which sucked because it brought my overall grade down to a 6.

For those of you out there who have NO CLUE at all about what IB is all about, well, tune in! Or not, I’m too lazy to write it all out so just Goggle “International Baccalaureate” (OMG I actually spelt Baccalaureate without needing the spell check! How awesome am I?) and you’ll get how the grading system works and how gruelling the program can be...

Work was good... You’ll probably be hearing more about work when I get my first pay check (or that is, if we do even get paid)!

Back in the abode of peace

Picture: Boracay, Philippines - not exactly Brunei, but I find this picture very peaceful

Yes, I’m back in the abode of peace once again. Well, I arrived late last night at about 11:30PM and the first thing my mom decided to blabber on about was my Interview with the Canadian High Comm. Yeah, we talked until about 1AM - tiring, but what to do? I’ve gotten over the whole fiasco already but obviously she’d want to bring it up.

Later on the day I headed to the Mall to meet up with Cheryl and her sister - well, it was supposed to be a last minute all-girl hang out, but only Cheryl and I were able to make it. We just chilled at the Mall; OH! We wanted to get a blizzard at Dairy Queen right, and then the lady tells us that they had no ice cream - seriously? A ice cream shop with no ice cream? -_- what a bummer, so we headed to McDonalds instead. I had apple pie *faints* Then we started this really lame game that we’d punch each other on the shoulder if we saw a Caucasian around. Well, we did this because during that time there were A LOT roaming around the Mall... Lame, I know, but Sharon and I were pretty good at getting Cheryl all the time - only because we plotted it together and walked behind Cheryl most of the time.

After that, went home and had a lazy night...

Friday the 13th indeed

You guys out there would’ve probably already guessed how the interview went down... Yes, I was denied my study permit to Canada. I admit, I was on the verge of crying inside that interview/interrogation-like room; but I held my tears in for I thought it’d make me look desperate in front of the Visa Officer. I managed to keep ALL my emotions bottled up, until only when afternoon came and I talked to my other cousin/roommate for the week about it; I couldn’t control my tears having kept it all bottled up from noon to 6 in the evening. WhenI went out of the interview room, I told my aunt (who was there waiting outside to support me) that I was denied my permit, and she gave me a shocked, wide-eyed look... She couldn’t believe it either. I woke up extra early to reach the High Comm. on time from my scheduled appointment at 9am. So I was there an hour earlier, and guess what time they called me in for my interview? 10:45am... All that waiting for a 25-minute interview with disappointing results, FML.

I’m seriously not in the mood to describe everything word from word, but what I wrote below is an email that I had sent to my Dad explaining to him how the situation went; so read it as if you were my Dad:

Dad, the link below is what I went through before my interview just to get an idea of the sort of questions that they will ask me to prepare myself:

http://studycanada.learnhub.com/lesson/13890-canada-student-visa-tips-for-your-visa-interview

The very first question they asked me is when did you and mommy come to Brunei, so I said 1984/1985. Then after that they immediately pointed out that you have been in Brunei for 20+ years and not residing in Philippines during that time.

They also asked me when and if you (as in mommy, Angela and Alyssa as well) intend to go back to Philippines.

After that she asked me why I want to study in Canada and why University of Alberta. Then she asked me what is the ranking for their Arts program, and I said 101. She replied by saying that it's not even in the top 50 so why do I want to study there. I told her that back in January 2010, there was a Canadian fair in where a representative from University of Alberta gave a talk and I was inspired to apply into the University.

After that, she asked me why didn't I apply to a University in my home country, or even in the US (because I think she saw my passport I had a US visa as a prospective student and asked if I had relatives there).

I can't remember the order of the questions, but basically, the only questions she asked about my studies is why Canada and why Alberta. After that I found that the questions she asked me were totally irrelevant to me wanting to go to Canada for studies.

She looked at your bank statements that we submitted together with my application and asked why there is a lot of money in your bank account (or something like that; I don't remember the exact question). She then asked what your monthly income was, but following these questions, she never asked about how we are going to fund my University or whether I am applicable for any scholarships offered by the University itself.

After that, everything turned around to my "ties" with Brunei and Philippines. She asked me if you and mommy were permanent residents in Brunei and I said no. She asked if I was a permanent resident in Brunei, and of course I said no as well. Then she continued on saying that our "ties" to Brunei are very weak, stating that you have been there for over 20 years but still are not permanent residents in Brunei. I wanted to tell her that not everyone can apply for PR, but even she was the one who said it, saying that she knows that Brunei may have regulations about applying for permanent resident. So to me, if she is already aware of it, why did she have to say it?

So okay, because we don't have strong "ties" in Brunei, she asked me to demonstrate my ties with Philippines. I told her that we have a property there and even a house where my grandmother is currently residing, but she said that having a property there is not a tie. She even said to me "it's like saying I have properties in Hong Kong" implying that by having a property in that place doesn't mean anything. So I asked her what she meant by "ties" because she always used that word. She told me "ties" meaning you and mommy residing in Philippines. The reason was, because you and mommy haven't been residing in Philippines for over 20 years, she is not convinced that we have "strong ties" with our home country.

After resolving the matters about all these "ties" that she was talking about, she told me that based on this, they cannot grant my permit. She even said to me that she does not recommend that I apply again unless there are significant changes to my application. So I asked her what kind of changes, and she said, "like for example, if the government of Brunei or the Philippines sponsor you to study in Canada under scholarship." I didn't mention this to her because at that time I was already upset that they won't be granting me my permit, but when you look at it, how can I request for a scholarship from the government of the Philippines when I did not study there, and of course Brunei only give out scholarships to Bruneian Citizens.

At the end before I left, she also mentioned your application to immigrate to Canada. I had nothing more to say to the Visa Officer so I just said, "I just want to let you know that my parents applying for immigration did not affect my decision to want to study in Canada. My parents did not force me to study in Canada; it was my own personal decision." She mentioned something about me being dependant on you (as chopped on my passport) but I can't remember what made her say that.

After 25 minutes, I went out of the interview room and waited for them to give me my passport back and she said "as of now, your permit is a no go."

Up to you what you want to do with this information, as of now, I am going to look into other Universities (other than Canada) to apply to.

Allison.

So far, all my friends and relatives in Canada that I’ve told this too all think that it is plain BULLSHIT. I’ll copy down some reactions and leave their names as anonymous:

13 August at 22:43

hahah if it's not meant to be then so be it :) HAHAH already thinking abt prince charming XP yeah I'm sure if Canada aint green lights then Singapore or Australia would have something :P you go look & tell me.. I've heard that they've got some potential candidates in Australia but nyehhh Uni is first priority, prince charmin is further down the list or probably second or third XD ♥

14 August at 03:57

my god! i hate it when visa officers get all snotty and stuff! it's really unfair that they didn't give you a visa, and the reasons they're giving you are kind of crappy! but I do know that lots of people are having trouble getting their student permits... it sucks, it really does - I died a bit when you told me you didn't get yours, so I hope that your dad's friend can make a difference, I really, REALLY do hope so!

best of luck with everything and I hope to meet you soon!

I'll be sending you all of my good vibes ~~~~ (:

14 August at 10:23

that's total bullshit apply again. regardless of whether or not you are a PR in brunei you are a citizen of the Philippines your family holds property which you do live in during your annual visits to the Philippines where you spend time with your relatives. The only reason you're not studying in the Philippines is because you want to go to an international school ... what the hell dude that's bullshit honestly go again.... can't you get sponsored by a relative that lives there?

14 August at 11:53

You're gonna be fine, i know it in my heart =).....but if you ever suddenly have urges to hurt some Canadian representatives like the guy/lady in SG, gimme a call and i'll bring over my dads' nail gun and small sized chainsaw for you! (we can color it pink before you use it)

15 August at 19:07

Hey Ally! Sorry to hear abt your study permit :( but hey, you bought lots of Summer clothes from SG, and I guess they can be pretty useful now :) I hope things r better now! See you!

16 August at 04:10

I'm very sorry to hear about the news...THE BIBLE SAYS IN PROVERBS 20:24 "A MAN'S STEPS ARE DIRECTED BY THE LORD, HOW THEN CAN ANYONE UNDERSTAND HIS OWN WAY?" When 1 door closes, another opens says God. Be blessed, Jesus is with you.

Lesson learned?

Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. You never know if one day Canada gets into loads of political trouble with Immigrants and so forth that something bad (as in casualty/deathly bad) happens and I’ll be in Singapore watching the news and saying to myself, “Thank God I’m there.” *Knocks on wood*

Anyway, to counteract my depression, my aunt brought me around to see the La Salle College of the Arts campus after we had our lunch. I must say, that I actually did plan on applying to La Salle, but by the time I decided to apply, I was already late for the application. Apparently when I went to met with the lady, she said that the semester had started two weeks ago... So even if I did apply for the August 2010 intake, I wouldn’t have made it. Unfortunately they only have 1 intake per year so which means that I’m probably gonna have to go on a year gap if I plan to go to La Salle.

Something to keep in mind?

When one door closes, another door opens...

Just gotta have a little faith.

Singapore (again)...

August 12th! Kok Sherman’s birthday - just nice that I’ll be in Singapore as well so I can see him and celebrate!

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY KOKO!

Anyway, today is also the commencement of Ramadhan (where Muslims all over the world fast for a month leading up to the celebration of Hari Raya). Muslims are not allowed to eat, drink or smoke during the day and if seen doing these things in public, a fine up to $500 will be imposed on the first offence, $750 on the second and $1,000 on the third offence (well, in Brunei that is, I’m not sure if this is applicable elsewhere). They take this very seriously... So yes, why am I mentioning this? I was so shy to be eating lunch on the plane when there were a number of Malay’s on board.

Once I touched down back in Singapore, my aunt was there to pick me up. We then took the bus back all the way to Causeway Point at Woodlands to have our late lunch after which we headed back home and waited everyone to come home before going out to celebrate my cousin’s birthday. When everyone was back, we spent our first night out at Causeway Point to eat out at Ichiban for my cousin’s birthday. After that we headed home and it was time for me to prepare myself both mentally and physically for the Interview tomorrow. It’s definitely a nerve-wrecking night for me! I have high hopes that I’ll get my study permit to U of Alberta!

Goodnight!

Mixed Emotions

So today a whole load of events took place, some good and some not so good at all.

The first thing that happened today was that my mom and I headed for the Canadian Embassy here in Brunei to talk to Peter Chen about my interview with the Canadian Visa Office in Singapore that is scheduled on the 18th. After our talk, I found out that my Interview with the Canadian Visa Office regarding my study permit had been moved to the 13th instead of the 18th.

After the whole study permit issue, it was time for my driving test! I was SO nervous, my heart literally pumped so hard as if wanting to escape my oesophagus! But, I tried to stay calm; all was going well until I hit my first obstacle, the dreaded slope! My engine stalled halfway up, and after that there was either something wrong with me, or with the car. I did everything that I was supposed to do, but the car still kept on rolling backwards. I checked my gear to see if it was on neutral, and I checked my handbrake to see if it was properly pulled up. By this time, I was in a panic mode; I literally could not figure out what I did wrong for it still kept rolling backwards. So I asked the examiner what is it that I was doing wrong, and he said that I did not pull my handbrake up properly... Finally (probably after 10 minutes), I was able to go over the slope and it was there that the examiner explained to me that I was already on the boarder line of failing my exam. So instead of failing me, he gave me one more chance, to go back and take more lessons, and come back when I’m ready. This way, I won’t have to wait 2 months before I can take my exam again and I wouldn’t have to pay $200 again. I was really happy that my examiner was this nice to me, but it was my driving teacher who really made me feel like a failure. She was scolding me in front of all the other driving teachers and I even heard from my mom that she was cussing about me, telling all the other teachers that I had miserably failed my exam; but when I told her that the examiner had given me another chance, she was embarrassed in front of the other teachers - good for her!

After a miserable driving exam day, I headed straight to the Mall to meet up with Adib, Val and Wana. I haven’t seen Adib nor Wana in a LONG time so it was really nice seeing them again!We chilled out at Secret Recipe, drinking tea and eating cheesecakes as well as talking about Uni life, my terrible driving test, and generally cussing about other people as well (none in specific), or more or like a bunch of people with the same personalities and attitudes, you know, stereotyping? After that we walked around the Mall and Centerpoint as well. At about 6pm we all headed our different ways - yeah, short but sweet :)

When I got home, I was still a bit miffed about what happened in my driving test today. I can’t believe that my driving teacher made me feel like such a BIG failure! To be honest, I cried myself to sleep at night just thinking about it... FML. But to be honest, this is definitely something that I will keep in mind; a lesson learned from today:

Everyone deserves a second chance.

Enough said.