Meetings with MOE officers

As I mentioned earlier, we had a dinner tonight with the Deputy Minister of MOE, SUT MOE, High Comm & also Pg Ayub at the Royal on the Park Hotel's at the city.. It was a gathering for all Bruneians living and studying in brisbane.. This is one of the first main activity conducted this year, and I am so happy to see there's still lots of Bruneians staying In Brisbane altho' I barely know half of it =) will get other chances to know them better insya allah..

Anyways, I had my pbl at 11 this morning which ended up at 130pm.. but I had to stay over at herston for CCS which is a communicaltion skills tutorial involving Breaking Bad News.. Arrghh one of the things I hate to do actually.. I dun see why we have to do it now hehe but yeah, if not practice now, then it wud be too late later.. sooner or later we had to be good jua in breaking bad news altho' it wud be the hardest thing to do, realising the news wud impact the patient morally and also physically.. We had a good practice just now.. altho' I am still not good in delivering the news in the sense that I wasnt prepared with the info of the disease so i had to make up some of the info.. hehe my bad actually.. duh!! wrong info to real patient, I'll be dead!!! One of the difficulties I think is the way to react appropriately to the patient's emotions and responds to the news.. Well, most patient would take it as a big shocking news, some may cry, anger and blame are also common agenda.. and I noe with tym, we shud be able to address the issue appropriately and i think experience will teach us to be a better person..

I finished my ccs at 430, so i had to rush home coz i need to get ready for the dinner.. We arrived at 7pm.. by the tym we arrived, most ppl were already there.. we had a 'mingling' sessions at one of the rooms while being served with 'finger foods' and also cocktails.. of course, there's no martini or vodka.. there's just lemonade, coke and orange juices.. I heard the food was $80 per person!! Insane.. I noe that's super expensive!! So after about an hour of standing, we were told to go to the other room where dinner would be served.. Before dinner, we had a mini press conference sessions.. hehe where students were given opportunity to ask if there's any enquiries or problems to be shared.. Most of the scholarship students here have the same enquiries which is about the increments of the allowance.. being a student for 3 years here, I honestly say that the living expenses here is so demanding!! and every year, its increasing!! Just imagine the rent, it has been increasing from $340 per week to $390 per week!! That's $50 a week.. The same goes to food and transportation..

I am no in the situation to push the authorities to increase the allowance.. I can understand that they have done their best to make an effort to make sure that we are given the best choice.. So far, despite the limited funds monthly, I still appreciate their kind and thanked them for paying my school bills and giving me my monthly allowance coz afterall, without the support, I dun think I would be able to be here today.. Well, i guess we have no choice but to wait for the increments, if it will happen at our time hehe.. if not pun, i guess its just not our 'rezeki'.. As usual, money management comes in hand now.. "Shop within your budget!!" which in malay we say "Ukur baju di badan sendiri - berbelanja berpada2.. mengikut kemampuan sendiri"

The dinner was OK!! Not really that delicious but still edible.. We left the function at 10pm.. It has been a tiring day and I am energy - deprived!! The weather is killing me.. and I cudnt concentrate in a hot weather.. Anyways, its tym to go to sleep.. will upload pics tmrw insya allah..