Do listen.

One thing that struck me after living in Bandar Seri Begawan for a few months was – how few cars there are in the Belait district.

Whenever we are back in Lumut or went down to Seria / Kuala Belait, many a times along certain main roads, mine could be the only car – that my kids learn to wonder where everybody had gone to!

Still, I am thankful that despite having cars that are so much more than Seria-Kuala Belait-Lumut combined, my adopted city is nowhere near the crazy traffic jams and volume of cars (and lack of parking spots) that my hometown experienced every single day.

When I set up my other active wordpress blog a few years ago, my domain host helped me a lot.

Other than that,  I did practically everything else myself – which I would not attempt to if I did not do loads of background reading first. A few years on, I am amazed that I managed to do those things then – as at this time, with my current knowledge (which time has conveniently erased everything I learnt then), I would be stuck before long.

I am glad that I found an excellent and reliable web host even though I did not get it from any of the reviewed companies in this popular site, Web Hosting Geeks.

But if you’re looking for some reviews on all kinds of web hosting services such as the Best Blog Web Hosting or Best ECommerce Web Hosting, then you should check out this informative site that is easy to read and navigate.

And anyone looking for a web host must read this particular article : How To Choose The Best Web Hosting Service first and foremost and understand about these criterias – Web Space, FTP Access, Reliability & Speed, Dependence & Support, Pricing Plans and Bandwidth.

Good luck!

Now that my second daughter is starting her extra curricular activity on Friday, I plan to use that time to send my eldest daughter for some music lessons too.

That means, we need to actively start looking for musical instrument for her to do her practice at home.

In Brunei, there are several music stores but we have yet to really check out their range of instruments and prices. The problem is, these places are all well apart from one another and although traffic jam is not much of an issue here, with my normal routine, it will still take a few days to be able to check out each of these stores.

Now if I am in the UK, I could easily check out instruments or anything else that I fancy from not 1 or 10 or even 1000 but a staggering 30,000 stores!

Imagine the range of instruments like trumpets, clarinets or even big bulky items like electric keyboards that a customer can choose from.

You can be sure of savings or quality when you can compare the prices and services from that many stores!

One of my favorite American artist, Sheryl Crow is performing in a concert right at now in New York.

If only New York is a short flight away, I would definitely consider flying over for her show as I enjoyed many of her songs. “My favorite mistake”, “First cut is the deepest”, “All I wanna do” are just a few of her songs that I can enjoy over and over again.

She is performing in a place that is 12,000 sq feet which had hosted many other big names such as  Kanye West, Iron Maiden and Kelly Clarkson. Being in Manhattan, this would seemed like a place where tickets are hard to get. But with professional ticket broker like the ACheapSeat.com, buying Hammerstein Ballroom Tickets is a cinch.

From their site information, ACheapSeat.com is an online ticket brokers which seemed reliable and whose prices are competitive. I may not know it for sure but judging from their prices and the variety of events that they covered – sporting events, musical shows and stand-up comedy – one can pretty much depend on them for any tickets. Planning to watch a hockey game? The Chicago Blackhawk Tickets is easily available here. A stage show? Then get the Jeff Dunham tickets.

With online broker like this, getting shows tickets is the least of the problem. For outstation concert goers, finding the right accommodation will probably be a bit more trickier.

As we drove around the capitol city earlier today, we noticed how nicely made-up was the Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien for tomorrow’s event : Brunei National Day.

Later on the day, while processing our documents,  a government officer cheerfully shared  his hopes that tomorrow’s newspaper will bring the most anticipated and wished-for royal message : pay raise.

As for me and my family, we wished that Brunei will continue to be the wonderful country that it is : small but peaceful.

How can anyone not love the fact that stressful traffic jams, scary crime rates and annoying ants-like crowds are practically none existent?

We are completely cool that there is no Singapore-like casino, Shenzhen-like malls or Manila-like partying circuits because we value different things in life now.

And we get most of them in Brunei.

Thanks to AirAsia – our favorite budget airline – we got to know Kota Kinabalu International Airport (Terminal 2) quite well.

Imagine being able to travel at a low price direct to destinations such as (so far) Jakarta (Indonesia), Szenchen (China), Singapore, Clarks Manila (Philippines) and etc.

On our recent trip via this airport, my husband pointed out one particular coconut carving at a souvenir shop inside the departure hall. Had he not told me, I would never have thought of giving this carving a second look because it is …. ugly.

While an orangutan may be considered cute and cuddly, it is never a pretty animal – in real life and in carving, no matter how well the carving work was. Here is an example of how a coconut carving looks like.

But the most jawdropping fact about this particular orangutan coconut carving found at this particular shop is its PRICE.

Check it out yourself whenever you are here. It is placed on the top shelf that faces the entrance covered in clingwrap – you won’t miss it.

Just don’t drop it after you see how much it cost.

I could not figure out how to embed youtube video here anymore – so until I do, there won’t be anymore featured song on Saturdays.

But that does not mean that I have not been reading up on music industry news.

One which tickled me today was this : Black Eyed Pea’s concert ban for Malaysian Muslims. The reason is because the major sponsor is an alcoholic drink company.

Personally, even I will not be too thrilled to have my girls attend concerts by such performers. Sure, they have some really fine songs. Really entertaining to listen to.

But I don’t really fancy their image, dressing style and some of their video clips. How great if music clips never existed.

And we do not have to be of a certain religion to have a certain mindset when it comes to modesty and decency.

Have you ever noticed how in certain music genre like hip hop, music video clips directors can only manage to produce the sexiest and most provocative? Skimpy clothings, acting out all sorts of behaviour fit only for adults in the privacy of their room.

But have you also noticed how certain genres such as country music, we are often treated to not only beautiful singing but meaningful music clips?

I guess country singers need not cheapened themselves to sell well. They have genuine talents!

Speaking of talented singers, the Country Music Award 2009 will take place this November 11 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee. If you are planning to be in the area then, why not make attend this relatively more wholesome and packed with real talents event.

You can easily get your Country Music Award tickets as the ACheapSeat site sells seat tickets for every budget. But if the opera or theatre is your kind of entertainment, then make sure you check out the show listings and get your Boston Opera House tickets or Beacon Theatre Tickets or any other major venues or events from this comprehensive and professional online booking agent.

Just the other day, I was asked to buy a “traditional necktie”.

Not being too familiar with men’s fashion, I was a bit unsure on what a traditional necktie is supposed to look like but I thought it would not be too hard. Besides, I am sure it meant a design with muted colours with no funky patterns.

But when I checked the selection at the stores, all those that I thought fits the “traditional look” criteria were dull. Needless to say, it was not easy to decide.

Then I was told that traditional ties meant stripes – and I didn’t even know that!

Perhaps I should have read the men style guide on this particular men’s clothing shopping site before I ventured out. If only the need for the tie was not immediate, I could have just saved myself the traipse to town by browsing their shirts and ties styles – not from one or two stores but tens of thousands of international stores. Imagine the choices!

Never again will I be stumped for ideas and at least, I now know that stripey ties are the traditional look.