Nature Boy

An sms came in.

It awoke me from my slumber.

“Oii bangun! No reply from you in the next 5 mins, then I’m so gonna bug you, hahaha” – Homo Wong Kuan Lee.

I groaned and replied his sms with an expletive.
I then went back to sleep 🙂

* * *

Got up about 20 minutes later.

Looked at the time.

Cursed.

Sat down, had breakfast 🙂

Checked the time again.

Cursed.

Sms-ed Met, told him I’d be a bit late and that I was on the way.

Got in the shower 🙂

* * *

Yes, I can be impossible like that sometimes.

Whenever I’m super-slow like that, my mum would look at me and slowly shake her head while saying, “La Hawlawala Quwata Illa Billa Hil’aliyill’athim”.

She always told me that she wouldn’t be surprised if I was late for my own wedding and you know what? I wouldn’t be either, hehe.

Met Met (sounds weird don’t it?) Bon and the Az-man and we finally got to the wedding.

I don’t normally attend Brunei weddings…in fact, I generally don’t attend many weddings.

The wedding was well organized (from my point of view anyway) and I learned alot!

I learned that the marriage customs in Brunei differ from district to district.

Learned that in KB the husband has to walk around in circles 3 times in front of the bride’s house.

Well, I suppose it’s much simpler than the camel races they have in the Middle East! Yes, they have camel races as part of the wedding celebrations.

But not the Yemenis 🙂

Anyway, yeah, back to the wedding.

Siti and Arsul looked so nice together and it was a very nice thing to see the couple united like that.

.

*Husband & Wife*

Doesn’t Siti look like a doll? 🙂

An absolute doll, she stunned everyone with her bridal image.

As they exited the house, there was a rush of people (see pic above) and a communal raising of phones and cameras into the air greeted the couple.

“OMG, Siti is a bride! OMG!”, squealed a girl beside me.

I wasn’t exactly sure what she was expecting to see at Siti’s Wedding, but yeah.

Once all the hubbub died down, we were allowed to check out the other wedding customs between the newly-weds, which was an eye-opener for me, the Foreign-Know-It-All-Who-Doesn’t-Know-It-All.

“I’ll feed you if you’ll feed me” 🙂

The girls very happily briefed me on the wedding customs, so thank you very much for that. It all seemed so…different to what I’m used to seeing.

In Singapore, weddings are different…well…slightly.

See, customs (as apparent in Brunei as well) have crossed over, so even though it’s an Arab wedding, there’d be ‘traces’ of other customs and cultures as well?

If/When I get married INSHA ALLAH, I want it to be unique, a different experience for not just myself and my lovely, but my guests as well.

But that’s another story for another time 🙂

I love finding out the reasons/logic behind customs and traditions, you know? They stand for something, they mean something.

But I suppose the BEST thing would be to SEE the tradition/custom being acted out in front of you, and I got alot of that today 🙂

Yay 🙂

After the wedding, Bon dropped the Az-man and myself off to the mosque to quickly pray Zohor (thanks Bonster!) and then we went to WYWY for a drink (and some murtabak).

And CHECK THIS OUT.

They actually serve Gong-Gong at WYWY:

*Would you like some cheese sauce with your Gong-Gong?*

Needless to say, I was laughing so hard at the restaurant. Not only do they name their deserts after cartoon characters (imagine an ABC dish…named ‘Ninja Turtles’) but now they have Gong-Gong, which is the most ambiguous name you could give for a dish.

And it comes with cheese sauce.

Even Met and Bon had no idea what it was.

So, wanna know what it is?

Check this out:

*Sea Snails!*

We studied that last year 🙂

Minus the cheese sauce.

After WYWY, we all went for some ARCHERY and I have to say, it’s one of the most AWESOME things I’ve done in a while.

*The Range*

I couldn’t help but feel transported back to my Police training days. But of course we used guns instead of bows and arrows.

The sight of a paper target at the end of the wall was something I thought I’d never see again.

And I’m so happy I was wrong 🙂

Whilst I was a Marksman with a gun, it’s a completely different ball game with the bow & arrow. It’s SO awesome.

As I pulled the bow-string to my chin and I aimed down the sight, I couldn’t help but be transported (again!) to the times of the ancient Islamic wars that I studied about so long ago.

Archery has its roots in Islam as well. Back during the Prophet’s time, it was considered and promoted as a hobby and skill.

I felt so Arab 🙂

Though I reckon the Arabs back then would do a heck of alot better than my sorry self:

*Yay!*

I have to admit, the sound of the ‘thunk‘ of the arrow into the board is one of the most satisfying sounds I’ve heard in a while.

Met did the best I reckon, got like 2cm shy of the bulls-eye. Good job bro! Wong Dynasty yeah?!

Kutz kindly shot my target for me too…twice 🙂

Bon was the BEST though, as he considered the pillar as a target and shot that instead.

Nice one Bon.

You sure showed that pillar who’s boss 😉

After all that fun, we prayed ‘Asr and then Bon and Met showed me around Seria!

Wow!

A whole new world!

It’s really an eye-opener (seeing as how I have 2 eyes, Alhamdulillah, I’m allowed to use the word ‘eye-opener’ twice in one post).

The landscape and sky was very different from Bandar.

But the smell of processed oil was inescapable.

Went to the beach behind OGDC, killer view during sunset.

*What’d I tell ya? Killer view.*

After that we all called it a day (or night as it were) and headed back to good old Bandar.

* * *

A fun day, Alhamdulillah.

.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Siti for taking the time to invite me to her wedding; without which I wouldn’t have discovered the beauty of Seria.

I pray that you and Arsul will always be happy Insha Allah, and that rezki will come your way with no problems Insha Allah. Will pray that your children will, Insha Allah, be of the best Muslims and that they will make you proud Insha Allah.

May you have a wonderful and beautiful ‘happily ever after’.

Ameen.

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return.”

.

And I shall be patient Insha Allah,
Until it is my time to learn.

.

Stay safe everybody!

And always eat your Gong-Gongs!

Aman