hello there...

well well...

Brunei was fun... that's about all i can say so far...
as performers for the Sultan's birthday celebrations, we were treated like VIP wherever we went...
that means police escort everywhere we go...
including to the shopping malls...

so there's this one day where we have a roadshow.. like a parade round the streets in a place called Kuala Belait...

the bus ride there's more than an hour.. so i just settle down on the bus and doze off...

and mind you there are 3 countries involved in this particular show in this particular district... and so there's us, and delegates from Indonesia and Jordan...
and that's a grand total of about (i can't remember exactly) 5 trucks, 6 coaches, 3 minivans, 2 cars and 4 police motorcycle escorts...

so.
halfway i get up and i have to pee real bad...
so what do i do...?

i stop the coach and find a place to relieve myself...

and the whole entourage of (i think) 5 trucks, 6 coaches, 3 minivans, 2 cars and 4 police motorcycle escorts...

stops too.

i like to think i was doing us all a favour because when the whole chain of vehicles stopped, everyone unloaded (albeit not as harriedly as me).

well that's a bus ride to remember.

well moving on to other things...

the fireworks used were Japanese Hanabi fireworks...
exceptionally beautiful, not like the stuff you see normally...

apparrently, the stuff that we see here every year may be choreographed and designed by French or goodness-knows-where-else artists, but the gunpowder used all comes form China...

these fireworks, on the other hand, come from Japan...

and they are drop-dead gorgeous...

see here.

there's a lot more... but i think i'll wait for next time...

before leaving for Brunei i picked up something to read while i was there...

"... Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved then the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much."
- Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton

it's really quite good writing...

next next...

these few days at home have been spent watching Carnivale, a miniseries from HBO...

it's about the two stories of a young man with a gift for healing picked up by a travelling circus and a priest with a dark power as he falls away from his faith...
the first season alone details their stories as they come to realize their individual potential and sets the stage for a cosmic battle between good and evil...

the battle between good and evil part isn't all that new... but the show, with it's plot, all the quirky freakshow characters, layered images, is something really well done...

we'll see if i can get season 2...

well that's about all for this very compressed and strung together glimpse of my life in the past half-a-month or so...