103~ Our Tweentieth Monthsary

: A HarmonyUs Sovereigns Love Day Out :

Honestly, this time we had both forgotten about this month’s monthsary. We were so caught up with our uni work; worrying about assignment deadlines and tests that eventually took a toll on our memory. Fortunately, NorMala had recently celebrated her 26th birthday in the same month and was uploading some photos when she came across some of the pervious monthsary pictures. It immediately had struck that we had not celebrated this month’s one and what’s’ worse was that it was actually her turn to organize it. So we’re just more than delighted to have remembered to celebrate our Love again this month.

To appreciate the opportunity, NorMala thought it would be a great idea to release some tension from work by spending a day out doors. After attending our friend Yassin’s wedding, we prepared to set off to a carnival that was held in the city. We have never been to a carnival together and this was one of our first-togethers. We met up with some pals and scoured around to explore what was in store. Equipped with our Hot Chicken Rods, Hot Coffee Bun and Dreamy Extra Choc Ice Cream, we kept entertained and still at watching the performances for a few hours. Near sunset, NorMala then invited SyazWan to enjoy the set of the day with her at The Empire. With no object, Syazwan agreed and we then made our way there.

On arriving, we headed to the pier and sat by the sea shores that waved our welcome. It had been while since we had enjoyed the sunset beach side together, and we deeply missed how it really soothed our souls. The sun set on the far left side this time, reminding us that would have to always come back to enjoy the sun set from every side. Familiarly, rain started to drizzle after the orange day faded and we then headed off to meet up with our friends at the golfing range, further continuing our exploration of the day.

Golfing at the range was indeed another first- together which we thoroughly did enjoy, almost to a point that it would prove a potential addiction. It was great! And we would perhaps very much likely go again. Swing after swing, our golf balls would fly as expected and mostly unexpectedly, skills definitely commanding much practice to improve on. After an hour, we continued foot printing our day out enjoying some local delicacies on a stick- which actually seems to be the main theme of the day we thought- receiving things on a stick, no pun intended. LOL. Good satay is always nice- Beef, Chicken and Ostich please! And later that evening, after sending off some take away home, we ended the day by going to the movies for a light comedy show to tickle our tumms.

Although it had perhaps taken some time to celebrate our Love this month, it certainly lived up to its events to make up for the lost time making it quite the unique one- a surprise we are glad to have stumbled upon.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!!

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri Maaf Dzahir & Batin to all friends and family out there. We are very grateful to celebrate this day again with all of you. We we would like to apologize to each and everyone of you for all the mistakes that we have said or done (or both) to all of you. Hope we are forgiven. Enjoy your Aidilfitri celebration with your families and friends too. Enjoy all the food that are going to be serve, enjoy each moments you will have and hopefully this years celebration still going to be a very eventful one and left a very beautiful memories. Last but not least, "minta ang pao ih" =p

Once again,

SELAMAT HARI RAYA MAAF DZAHIR & BATIN

103~ Our Seventeenth Monthsary

: Our Romantic Picnic at The Beach :

The car engine stopped and whaddaya’ know- Pantai Muara! NorMala’s guess was right. SyazWan had planned a secret mini beach getaway to celebrate Our 17th monthsary. It has always been one of those things that us HarmonyUs’ look forward to every month. Since it was SyazWan’s round to plan this months’ monthsary celebration which he had so thoughtfully and carefully maneuvered with great success, NorMala easily displaced it into her subconscious mind. Being swamped with her work and busy dealing with her transition into Uni, there were plenty that occupied her. Hence, there isn’t a wonder why she had completely forgotten about the monthsary until the greeting text msg she got from SyazWan that midnight. Thankfully, SyazWan was absolutely generous to have forgiven her. The next day, SyazWan returned from his inter dept. football tournament that morning to prepare the amenities for the celebration. On his way to fetch his already eager and excited fiancé, he made a short pit stop to the florist. When he arrived (with his perfect gentleman behavior), he lead her to the car and opened the door for her. NorMala could only smile away and played along. His first question was if she wanted cakes, which took her quite a while to answer but eventually resulted a yes-of course! We drove to fluer d’lys and picked out our Favs. We then started making our way to the surprise getaway where NorMala never stopped guessing and looking for clues. SyazWan would feed her false info to leave her to her curiosity and forbid her everytime from looking into the backseats where he had placed all the preparations. But as soon as we got nearer and nearer to the destination, it obviously revealed itself. It was the beach! Be it any beach or perhaps just a strip of land with water horizon scenery- you’ll be sure to catch NorMala’s breath. She absolutely loves them. So you can imagine her delight to finding that the surprise was this. She smiled at SyazWan and thanked him for being so sweet. We unloaded our stuff and chose a shady spot by the beach coast. SyazWan then laid all the things in place while NorMala helped. He came well prepared, complete with the rug, his guitar, food and a bottle of bubble for us to have a wonderful romantic getaway at the beach. And it certainly was. With all the stress happening, the beach view and breeze was altogether therapeutic and romantic, especially when you’re with your fiancé. It was a great idea and totally what we needed to kick back and relax. When we were about to take out the food, SyazWan surprised NorMala again with a red rose which he had hidden in one of the containers. She awed with sweetness and thanked SyazWan again. We then cracked open the bottle of sparkling grape and cheered on to celebrate our 17th Month of Living, Laughing and Loving together. We took short clips of us soaking in the sun and kept each other busy for the rest of the day.

103~ Our Sixteenth Monthsary

: Sizzling BBQ Hot Lovers Day :

It’s Our 16th HarmonyUs Monthsary and being NorMala’s turn to treat, she gave Syazwan two options of either treating him to throw a bbq or a weekend hotel sleepover with friends. Syazwan didn’t take a minute to pause and immediately admitted to wanting the bbq. It was the perfect time to throw one since many of his friends had just come back from UK and the semester holidays had just fallen through after their exams. Unfortunately, it was only a great convenience up until we had to move it up to Friday afternoon, 9th of July, from the Thursday night actual plan, because of Our weekly Thursday night Tahlil at his grandma’s house. It would’ve been great to have it at night to avoid the hot weather and clashes with wedding functions. We also decided that it would be nice to collaborate it with his siblings to share the moment with us since we decided to have the bbq at his place.

So, with everything in plan, we took to the supermarket and got our groceries a day before the bbq. It was never really directly displayed as our 16th Monthsary bbq party or said as such in the invitation texts but really only mentioned when guests asked why we decided to have one. Wearing our matching lover shirts that we bought on our holiday to KL, we welcomed the guests with our smiles and worked together at spending time with our friends. The menu that day was of course bbq chicken, sausages, and crab sticks together with some seafood balls. Special in the house was the chef help who so nicely offered his service to bbq them for us and also create the juicy lamb chops which were absolutely crazy delicious! Besides that we had fried noodles, sandwiches, brownies and fun donuts. As entertainment, we had board games, playstation, karaoke and good company to offer which we all had great fun with along the day. There were guests coming at every hour on the hour which actually lasted up until midnight with SyazWan’s friends. Although we had completely exhausted ourselves throughout the day, we were happy just being able to spend the Monthsary together and celebrate it by throwing the bbq. It was a pleasure to have spent the celebration with our friends and Fam for the first time and we look forward to having some more in the future.

103~ Our Fifteenth Monthsary

: Lovely Lunching :

HarmonyUs Sovereigns 15th Monthsary at Matadoe

“So will we be celebrating tomorrow?”, Normala asked Syazwan while sticking her head out of the sliding doors. “We’ll see”, replied Syazwan. And that was the last of Our plans for our 15th Monthsary celebration which was actually nothing at all infact. This week is right smack in the middle of Syazwan’s semester exams and as predicted from our last episode, Syazwan is too busy and occupied revising to plan anything for our Monthsary hence not expecting any real celebration was a given thing. But thankfully, Syazwan found some time to bring Normala out for lunch at Our Fav place Matadoe. He only texted her that morning saying that they would meet up after work for a simple Lunch Celebration. Normala was happy to just have the chance to celebrate. On our way there, Syazwan apologized for being too busy to organize anything and admitted that the lunch was not going to be anything great. Normala assured him that she was totally alright with it and she couldn’t be more pleased and thankful to him for just finding the time for it.

So as we arrived, being the usual gentleman he is, Syazwan opened the doors for Normala and lead her towards the restaurant. The waiter opened the door and we made our way to Our Fav spot in next room where there were some sofas and enough seclusion. We were the only ones in that seating area. Since we had already known what Our Fav dishes were, it didn’t take any time for us to go through their tangy coloured menus. We ordered the Baked Macaroni with chicken and olives for Normala while Syazwan had its delicious Beef Lasagna. We personally think Matadoe serves the best Lasagna in Brunei. Absolutely and with no doubt! And as for drinks; we had the Tea Tarik Float and Blueberry Fizz; perhaps you can guess who had which drink.hehe.

While waiting for our orders, Normala got busy to adjusting good angles for her camera and Syazwan replied his never ending text msgs. Luckily, we were both done with them in time when the food arrived. In between bites, we shared stories of the morning’s agenda and not long after were up to one of Our normal doings of cracking jokes and minor flirting heee~ Like always we had a good, fun time there and like always we left with a take away box in our hands. We always have a hard time finishing our meals there as these gourmet dishes are always extra filling. As a tasty treat for our eyes while settling our tums, we spent some time visiting the Haus Interior Designs shop just next door and fiddled around with their sleek cushions and albums. After that, we left for home and Syazwan headed off to his Study Group to continue his revision.

The Monthsary celebration this month was wonderfully appropriate and simple yet very pleasing. We both agree that we could have celebrated it better but taken the circumstances that have arisen this week; we are very mutually content with it. Especially since we know we’re in for a great 1 week together for Our June Vacation abroad, excitement and fun is what we’re already definitely going to endure soon hence something simple is perhaps perfectly called for now. We can’t wait! =)

~ Good luck to Syazwan for his semester exams and hope you do well! Amin~

103~ Our Forteenth Monthsary

: A Night of Lovers :

Our very dear BFF Fariha and her fiance, Shahrin, is getting married this 16th and incoronation; NorMala and some friends held a pre-wedding party for them. It actually started as a plan to throw her a bachelorette soiree but with her decision, she agreed to just have the party instead. Without much choice; it just so happens that it had to fall on the same date as Our 14th Monthsary. It was NorMala's turn to plan something for this months' monthsary but with all the bussiness happenening around her, she could'nt plan much. She talked it over with Syazwan days before and asked for opinions on what he would like to do, but even though he was determined not to contribute any of his ideas, he was thankfully forgiving for her lack of time and preparation for the Monthsary. And with enough sweet talk and love candy NorMala successfully bribed Syazwan to allow her a pass. So, we eventually decided that we would just celebrate our 14th Monthsary alongside with the pre-wedding celebration, thus it was literally going to be a night for the loved ones.

On the morning of the day, NorMala was worried and checked up with Syazwan again to reassure everything again. In the midst of the morning rush hour, she explained herself to him in the car on the way to work. It started with the Monthsary greet and later to how sorry she was for not being able to prepare anything great. There was a plan to surprise him in the morning- since it was the only part of the day We had time for eachother, but since she hadn’t enough time to prepare the day before, there was no way that the plan could’ve worked. Syazwan just smiled away and told her that there was no need to fret at all since he didn’t mind and understood everything very clearly. He praised NorMala for thinking of such a sweet gesture to surprise him in the morning and added that it would’ve been really great if it had fallen through. But even though it didn’t, things are still just as great just being able to meet up. He also mentioned that it would be exam time next month for him so perhaps the same fate would later ensue him too.

It was a packed day and though we could only catch seconds together, We were quick to make up for the quality time lost. Believe it or not, We celebrated by bonding through Our IM’s throughout the day were We concentrated on the important values of Our love together and got down to the core of defining the moment. An instant dose of refreshing yet romantic and lovely boost of greatness for Us both We think :) Then later that evening, We only met up again that night in time for the party. The party was held in the Damuan Room, at the Aneka Rasa Restaurant in Kiulap, which was a nice comfortable space especially reserved for private functions that accommodated up to 50 guests. The floor ran through indoors and outdoors of which the veranda had served as the buffet area, the tables were decorated with floral arrangements and a karaoke bar service was also included. It was a perfect homely comfort getaway for a moderate pre-wedding party with friends, just enough to thread out tension/stress the bride and groom had before their big day.

Since NorMala and her BFF's were having a sleepover/mini bachelorette party at the Palms Garden Hotel that night, we prepared there before the party and met up with Syazwan at its Lobby. Shahrin was caught in work bussiness and had to join us later. So, a few minutes before eight, we left the hotel and made our way to the restaurant where we were welcomed by the Sheff Girls. Fariha was also welcomed with a tiara for her title as the queen of the moment and ex-housemate, Hawa handed her a lovely flower bunch made by herself to match it. Much of the organising was thankfully arranged by Hawa, and we all extend our greatest thanks to her. As soon as we sat at our seats, NorMala and BFF Zanna smiled in excitement seeing their masterpiece banner already put up on the wall. It was a joint project/gift for the bride-to-be that took half a day to complete and a list of mixed ingredients of laughter, glitz and smoke! haha (I'm sure Zanna would assure). We had lots of fun doing it and it certainly was'nt a waste of our effort. It looked gooooD! We've yet another project to accomplish for our wonderful babe on her special day- Can't wait!

So as the crowd mingled on, the event processed along to reading the Doa for praise to God. Then Fariha clinked her goblet and gave a speech, thanking everyone and feeling very touched by the efforts made. We love you too Far! Hehe. Later, she was asked to play the game of finding her gifts which was firstly found behind some large speakers and secondly under a table of flowers. Everyone enjoyed the thrill of watching her hunt out for them, shortly after, we finally dined. By now, Shahrin had returned to Far and the king and queen of the moment were then reunited. The menu included delicious corn soup, fried rice, beef curry, sweet and sour fish, honey chicken, steamed mixed vege and beancurd stir. And also traditional malay cakes, fresh fruits as well as coffee and tea as refreshments. They were all very yummy to the tummy, and as entertainment we had karaoke performances from the queen of the moment herself to yummy our ears. She sung love songs for her fiancé and also to her beloved guests which continued to cheer her on throughout the night. Some others also had a go at the karaoke bar, including Us; HarmonyUs Sovereigns. We attempted unfamiliar duets and thankfully got out of them alive hehe and later some solos alone and with others too for fun. We Love karaoke hehe!
Not long after, a surprise cake-cutting session took place. Hawa brought out a lit up choc cake from the back and the crowd sung Allah Peliharakan Kamu to the bride and groom-to-be. Afterwards, everyone continued taking turns at the karaoke bar and many laughs were shared at the joke of making the day rain.

And as the party dwindled down to the strike of eleven, we packed up our stuff and before leaving took pictures for memories then bid our goodbyes to everyone. NorMala and her babes made their way back to the hotel and as Fariha and Zanna went to the room, NorMala bid her Monthsary goodbye with Syazwan to end Our day and stayed to see him off. For the sleepover, we stayed up chatting and laughing it up in the room while watching a love dvd and continued the mini soiree of three with breakfast and a brief company of the bride-to-be to her wedding fitting the next day.

As a reminder of Our 14TH Monthsary, We share a text from Our IMs sent between us:

My dearest fiancé, your apology accepted, I also want to apologise to you for every mistake that I’ve done and for sometimes not being the man of your dreams. But I will never give up to be a better man than the one in your dreams. And with how there’s things that you control me of, I’m greatful to you and Allah for turning me into a better man. I appreciate that you never gave up on me and made me the happiest man alive; you are the most special gift to me ever! I will love you for eternity xoxo- Syazwan, 10th May 2008.

PS. We would like to wish Our very dear BFF Fariha and Shahrin the very best of luck for their special day and our sincere congratulations for tying the knot and thanks for their invitations and true friendship. Lots of love, eternal happiness and babies hehe- We toast to the bride and groom!

103~ Our Thirteenth Monthsary

: Newly Engaged In Romance :

Thursday, 10th of April, 2008; marked our 1st Monthsary together as fiances', it is Syazwan's turn to organise the days celebration and there had been no surprise to what his plans were. He had suggested that we just have some luxury dining at the beach or seaside to enjoy its wholesome scenes but he also wanted to try out the Red Canopy; a place he managed to scoop out from his BruStu's. NorMala had always heard of the restaurant but never got to try it out since she thought that it was a Chinese restaurant, but in actual it is'nt. NorMala left the decision to Syazwan to choose the location because she was ready to be surprised with anything.

That night Syazwan picked NorMala up from her BFF gather and after staying for a while, we bid our goodbyes and drove of to the cinema to pick up our movie tickets. Syazwan had surprised NorMala with that, she had no idea that they were going to watch a movie yet alone what it was they were going to watch. But she rather just played her cool and sat back. Once we got them, we then made our way to the Red Canopy. Again NorMala had no idea what was to be expected except a restaurant with small curtains; a detail hint that Syazwan had told her before.

When we reached there, we went in and walked in to find a waitress already waiting to lead us to our table. It was the furtherst one there, NorMala already excited after noticing the special treatment and curtained partitions bound for each table; she was even more surprised to see the table. Syazwan had actually been up to planning a romantic candle light dinner for them. There set up a lit up candle, specially folded napkins and at the end a rose bouquet. A delightful surprise indeed, especially for the deep romantic such as NorMala, her face glowed and her eyes twinkled! hehe. NorMala thanked Syazwan right away and praised him for his perfect effort. He confessed that he had went to buy the rose bouquet and checked out the restaurant first before he booked the table to be set all special which was all done in secret during NorMala's tuition class. Syazwan also stressed that he knew how NorMala just loves the idea of seclusion for a special, private and intimate meal for two so the curtains were a wonderful touch. The serves were well and the company the best! Thus we had a great time there. We left for the movie and watched 'Street Kings', a solid movie we thought. Being late, we headed home and said our goodnight. The next day came and we were happy to remind each other again of the great time we had last night, we just kept on smiling non stop hehe.