10 posts tagged “birmingham”

i had an awesome time at bbss bbq last wednesday.

last minute work wont result in an excellent outcome. i planned out my easter game plan for bbss bbq two days before, totally ignore it the night before because i was busy preparing popia for the bbq. then i did the final plan hours before the game started (with the help of ka yun, eena and jajan - which i just told them on the day about it). I was actually thought twice about doing it because i didnt think it would be as fun as what i did last year. but by the end of the day seeing everyone got so hyped about it and playing along, im so glad.

the weather was a bit gloomy, cloudy all day. at 7am, there were lightning and heavy thunderstorms but it stopped by midday. By afternoon, the bbq feast started. Chicken wings, prawns, sausages and chocolate fountain, we were all stuffed with foods and high in sugar.After the eating feast, it's time to announce the election result of new bbss committee 09/10. Congratulations to those who got voted, do your best for next semester. Then the party started with Limbo challenge. After few challengers, there's one who stood out - Abu the King of Limbo, the guy who chanted the limbo song by himself eheheeee.The Easter game started afterwards - i divided them into 3 groups of 6/7 people and 6 game stages. Each stage winner is given easter eggs and by the end of the game, whoever has the highest no of eggs wins.

- design a miniposter
- superlative game
- who am i charade
- balloon tag
- pentagon blind game
- write us a new song

i told them i had 7 games but i crossed out 1 game at the last minute due to time constraints. Each stage brought us laughter and craziness among the Bibers. Once again, I enjoyed being the game organizer watching their competitiveness and their own way to win the game. and i intentionally made them worked under pressure by limiting the time given. One group made it to the top when they won us all by their creative song and finally won the entire games. Congratulations Kicap song, definitely the best song ever! the videos are on my fb. thanks for the great time Bibers. I simply <3 Birmingham because of you guys and girls.

last two weekends: watching Yonex All England Badminton 2009 really fired up my desire to play badminton better and participate more. cheering up for my favourite players was fun, although most of my favourite lost. but watching world top badminton players competing against each other was awesome. what a rally, what an awesome smash and shots. 3 days of watching badminton match really worth the money, plus we had the chance to stalk the badminton players. I have new idols - Fu Haifeng and Anastasia Russkikh.Men's Singles Final: Lin Dan VS Lee Chong Wei
Men's Doubles Final: Cai Yun/Hu Haifeng VS Han Sang Hoon/Hwang Ji Mankami bubut ia dpn pintu exit hahahaa. with Tine Rasmu ssenWorld #1 and this year all england silver medalist (gold medalistnya lari takut kami stalking :s)

i was unwell the week after the event, but thinking that i have a badminton tourney on the next weekend, i was seriously hoping i wont get sick and affected my practice. but i did and the practices i had were disappointing.

last friday: we the bibers had maulud nabi gathering, the zikir was fun, the food were great and the company was awesome. its been a long time since all of us hang out together on a weekend night, its been a very busy months lately.

last saturday: we participated in Asian Games organized by malaysian society, birmingham university. In mixed doubles, me and Syful was in the same group with Mallie and Diyana so we were beaten by them. We didnt get through the semi finals as we lost our chance to another team from hong kong with the score 21-19.

brunei team <3it was a fun day despite my lost, watching the others competing with other societies while cheering for them was always an exciting time for me. big congratulations to my fellow bruneians, for gold in womens singles and dominating most of the mixed doubles (silver and bronze), unlucky for mens doubles - their competitors were simply too powerful. i have no news about mens singles yet as the final game was postponed to later date, but its either gold or silver (goodluck!).

im not fully recovered yet - my bad because im not taking any medicine T__T

Brumanch talentime was held last two weekends and it was quite disappointing missing out the show but i wouldnt give up my chance to watch the All England final as well. Congrats Kash for giving an awesome performance, i really wish i was there bahhh (but you know how frustrated i would be if im gonna miss Lin Dan winning his match, in which he did, hehehee). And Kash pemalas pasal inda mau upload videonya arah youtube :p but the one performance that captured most of us be it live or just by watching it on a video is this performance by Zaem and Arif.

Happy belated birthday to Eena! Wish you all the happiness and success <3 this song is for you, from me and the boys. lols

11 days to Praha :) 

MadPaintball is over :( i want moreeeeeeee. This year, once again our Birmingham teams face each other but this time, to win a third place. The Brum Supremacy vs The Brum Ultimatum. An improvement to previous years, this year both Brum teams had done well by getting 2nd place in each of their division. and because of that, we met each other in our final game to win a third trophy.

Our last game took place at a killing field, once the game started both teams ran to their cover but Ultimatum took the lead by getting the flag first. Unfortunately, both left players of the Ultimatum had a faulty gun and constantly asking for a guncheck. Due to that fact, the Supremacy took the advantage to move forward and wiped out the entire left flank of the Ultimatum thus leaving most of the area unshielded. The Supremacy's one by one eliminated most of the Ultimatum's but after eliminated the Ultimatum's snake, they had no idea where the flag was hidden! just before the game was over, they finally managed to find it which led them to victory. So The Brum Supremacy won. Congrats you guys!

but i need to say something here: it a was technical error!!!!! im still frustrated by the fact that my tippman was faulty during the last game ( it was an important game lagi tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu). by the time i kept on adjusting the error, the enemies kept on marching forward. sasak ku!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*exhales*

no hard feelings. you know we love the trash talking :p

hahahhaaa. congrats to Brum Supremacy again. To Brum Ultimatum, we did well :)

divison 1 resultdivision 2 resultMDP 2k9 Result the Brum derby -- The Battle of The Brumsthe prizecongrats to the winners:

1st place: Kaizoku2nd place: Sheffield Seige3rd place: The Brum SupremacyThe Brum Ultimatum (4th place)To my Ultimatum: Mallie, Abu, Iman, Hanis, Syful, Naili, Lisyah, Diyana, Tony, Mamduh, Hakimin, Hudz, and Zaim  ---- we know we're awesome :) i love you guys :)

i got eliminated from 2 out of 5 games i played. but i eliminated lots of enemies too. heheee.  i didnt join the massive paintbrawl due to keabisan paint. i have 6 bruises im proud of :) awesome eh paintball ani. simply the best!

BiBers, we did it again! rock on xDTo all Bruneians, Happy 25th Silver Jubilee National Day!

i just misspelled ultimatum as ultimatim on the email i sent to all brum paintballers. hahaha.

its that time of the year~ In conjunction with Brunei National Day, MadPaintball tournament is back~

i cant wait for paintball this saturday :) this is gonna be my 4th year playing this awesome game --- its the excitement. its the adrenaline. its the victory. mwahahaahaahahaa :p

walking down the memory lane....

MadPaintball 2k6 - my first time playing paintball. first time at sup air field. My team: Kent ChipmunksMadPaintball 2k7: my first time playing paintball at forest field. This time, with our very own Birmingham team: The BiBers.MadPaintball 2k8: my 3rd paintball tournament. For the first time, Birmingham sent two teams: The Brumingham and MD All Stars. The most memorable ever because in one of the game, i was the last man standing (i swear it was the slowest 3 mins of my life. it was in slow motion when my heart beats so fast while searching for the flag in fear of the time limit and disappointed my team). but i did found the flag, ran it to the enemy's base and won the match. its unbelievable~ hehee. and yeah of course the awesome Birmingham derby. one of our match: Brumingham vs BruStu. I volunteered to take the video (actually, i dont want to participate in a match against my brustuers league. hehehee). Syful won the match by getting the flag and ran it to the enemy's base.

NisaZ,
The Brum Ultimatum.

yesterday, i woke up and something beautiful happened.heavy white, fluffy snow :)

I had the most awesome yet tiring weekend.

It started off with Friday. I was working in the lab the whole afternoon. Who knows, identifying different species of river bugs can be so exhausting. Mlmnya, we had ice breaking session where i get to meet newcomers and mingle around. The foods were great as usual and we met two cute little girls, the daughter of a postgrad here. Child-deprived banar kami atu, abis the girls kami surrounded. We played get-to-know game and continuing their legendary tradition, the 688 guys introduced their new bagi-mental game again but i managed to crack it after few patterns.

Saturday follows with 2hrs badminton game at 10am. We watched the BiB guys played football against indonesians after that. Then, Naili and me went to the city with Rad and Hanis for a shopping spree. We were so hungry by the time we went to the first shop so we ate at Yum Yum Chicken. This new food chain at Martineau Place, good menus, reasonable price and great seating place. After we're done we went back to Pallasades, me and Naili went to Home2Home while the other two went to Evolution to buy Fatin's gifts. By the time we finished, both our hands were full with shopping bags. We went to Tesco waiting for the other two to finish their shopping. Something happened while we're waiting outside Tesco, just imagine us two with lots of shopping bags and this crazy guy kept on looking and talking to us sometimes to himself. Luckily, Abu and Azrul were there so i managed to seek their help, jadi bodyguard. hehe. Then we girls balik pakai taxi. On the same night, me and Naili went to Dawlish Road to help the girls preparing for their open house.

Then came Sunday,i woke up way too early than usual cos i was confused of the time. It's the end of summertime and now the clock goes back one hr. The reason for the waking up early was to help the Dawlish girls preparing the foods. We finished at almost 2pm just when the guest started to come. It was a great open house, kudos to Hazimah Hanis, i can see she's really putting her effort into it. And to her housemates as well for being a great hostess. For the end of the night story, let's just say that i almost wet my pants because i was laughing so hard. Happy belated birthday to Fatin, seriously sumo melayu in action is the best birthday gift ever!

Overall, a very exhausting awesome weekend. I havent fully rest from it. I had class trip today to Winterbourne Garden. I havent really get enough sleep so i was kinda off while on the site. It was hailing lagi tu, so after surveying the woodlands for one hr and a half, i went back home.

Im tired but i cant seem to rest.

after badminton (credits to Diyana)my housematesNisa square (credits to Diyana)Dawlish raya open housewith the birthday girlus in raya modeim loving my new snow globe collection :)))) click to play

i knew my heart is out there somewhere....

hehe. unknowingly i captured this out of randomness from yesterday visit to Botanical Gardens & Glasshouses. click below pic to see more.

Birmingham Botanical Gardens & Glasshouses

nice.

i just spent the entire night editing the BBQ vid. so here it is:

here's another review from another Aston undergrad (for related posts, click here). I asked from her permission sudah to copy and paste her post because she refused to be linked. hehehe malu ia! To BiBs, guess who wrote this:

in brief, there are only two cities i like to visit, london and birmingham. london because its a city and u never feel lonely there and birmingham is just right cos its still a city, u never feel lonely (well i dont) but u can still be alone if u choose to be. and.... the best thing is.. its a LOT cheaper! transport and food and accommodation and entertainment is cheaper!!!! and, birmingham to london (ie if u come from heathrow also) is cheap! and birmingham is central to all cities (i learned this frm studying the rrailway maps when im bored on the train) and everything always passes thru birmingham! it helps that its a very multi racial city and that we have many tesco, asda,(other cities, or kampung or village or town wherever else ur considering only have one if theyre lucky) fast food places (many still havent discovered but theres enough for us already) and bowling and many green grass/park.. hehe..

when i was looking for a uni i wanted to know

1.... is my uni buruk? bida? intimidating? i dont want it to be so historical etc bla bla

Aston uni is in the city and has enough facilities for me. its soooo not scary hehe. its quite small (compared to birmingham uni) but then u dont get so tired walking around campus! theres places to eat (always) around it only abt 3 min walk and theres always the city which is also abt 5 min walk. and the city has bullring and selfridges and huge borders if u just wanna read kill time.

Birmingham Uni i dont have to promote but its like gilmore girls and harry potter and think they have everything there.

2.. is my allowance enough???

yessss it isssssss. u can save up or spend it whatever all ur expenses shud be covered and have some leftover to play with.. nadawah hehe but i remember i kept on worrying abt this

3.. how are the ppl like in birmingham??

other than very friendly bruneians who like to help (not kidding!) and like to meet up a lot at each others houses... everyone minds their own business and there are police everywhere if ur scared of what or what. i remember when i first came i had the worst experience ever but im not gna share it cos takut put off.. hehehehe

4... how far am i from my uni

if u live in pershore road, a bus ride away (30 mins if banyak stops or peak hours) to Aston Uni, and 30 min WALK to bham uni. if u live elsewhere.... kan sama also

good one =)

Right now im still in Cardiff for the weekend, yesterday was Dirgahayu Darussalam and today im just hang out. Less than 48 hours im here and I already miss Birmingham...aish cana ni?

** part 1 was done by Razan. link given at the end of the post **

Birmingham is a big city located in the west midlands region of UK. It is considered as the second city of UK or known as the Muslim capital of Britain due to its large numbers of Muslim population. Birmingham has one of the best shopping areas in the UK and being in the midlands it is very accessible and cheaper to travel to other parts of UK: Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, London, Cardiff, where there are large Bruneian student population. They are approximately 2 to 3 hours away both by coach(bus) and train. Birmingham also has its very own Birmingham International Airport which offers over 1000 direct and indirect flights.
Within the city itself, there are 3 train stations: Birmingham New Street, Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill. Once you arrives in Birmingham at any of these 3 stations, you will find yourselves already in the city centre so it is very convenient to travel to Birmingham even for a day trip because you can actually stop by Birmingham, do your shopping and take a train to another place.

You can say that Birmingham is a shopping heaven because the Bullring Shopping Centre is one of Europe's largest city centre shopping centres and UK's busiest shopping centre. Halal food and meats are easy to find in Birmingham, there's many halal takeaways, restaurants and butchers around. We have Chinatown where there is oriental shop selling oriental foods like Indomee, ABC soy sauce, Maggi Sauce,etc. Rag markets, Indoor and Outdoor markets are available if you need to buy fresh fruits and veggies, fresh seafoods and halal meats can be found at the indoor markets. Watching movies at cinema is cheaper at £3.70 per person with student discounts. More student discounts are available at most shops provided that you show your student ID. Also, with coupons printed from studentbeans.com, you can get more student discount deals. Being a student is heaven =)

Birmingham is a cheaper version of London.

** click on picture folder for more pictures **

Birmingham City Shops

Birmingham City Buildings and Statues

Im gonna talk about University of Birmingham and Aston University only because im not familiar with the other universities and currently both universities are in one of the top 50 list in MoE scholarship requirements.

I am currently a student in my 3rd year at the University of Birmingham (UB). It's a very old established university and has a very huge campus and beautiful building achitecture. It is 8 mins by train or 20 mins by bus away from the city centre. Being slightly far away from the city centre, clearly the surrounding residential areas are mostly occupied by students giving the university a very nice and safe environment to study. You can find most of your needs here without having to go to the city to shop. In the university centre, we have our own stationery shop, bookshop (a 3-floor Waterstone's), two convenience shops, bank branches (Hsbc, Natwest, Barclays and Lloyds tsb) so if you wish to deal with bank it's easy to do it from uni, airline branch (you can book plane ticket from here), money exchange, optical shop, hairdresser, bar, computer shop, post office, cards and gift shop, insurance branch, souvenir shop and few cafe and one halal section in our food court.

In terms of university facilities, there is a huge main library and other primary libraries, prayer's room, student guild where you can seek advice and representation centre and meet the student body, computer facilities, sports centre (gym, courts, swimming pool, sauna, numerous football pitches).

As you walk outside the university gate, you'll find numerous halal fast food chains and other shops. Student halls are within short walking distance from the uni. Most houses outside the university are rented by university students making it a safe student area. It is advisable to stay in rented house because the Birmingham University accomodation halls are expensive. There's numerous house agents available outside the university if you're having difficulty finding a house. House rent is approximately £50-£70 per week.

Currently there are 13 Bruneians studying in Birmingham University

University of Birmingham

There are few Bruneians studying at Birmingham City University and University College Birmingham as well.

Although we Bruneians study at different uni, most of us live close to each other at Pershore Road which is 15-20 minutes away by bus to the city centre. It's a very peaceful environment and we look out for each other. Every thursday night, we have Isya' jemaah and a small sort of dinner gathering among us. We also have sports activity almost every weekend. We called ourselves the BiB (Bruneians in Birmingham), although we're not an official society yet, but we are trying to promote more Bruneians coming here because it's not only the best place to study, it's also the best place to be. I love my time in Birmingham =)

Any qns do email me at nisazaini46@hotmail.com or visit BruneiStudent.com and post your questions under Student Canteen & RestRoom forum or visit our BiB Forum to interact with us Bibers. It doesnt have to be about Birmingham, you can ask about student life in general. Otherwise, please leave your comments in the chatterbox :)

related posts:

BruMingham Official Website

Birmingham..where it's home (part 1)

Fadz Personal Opinion

BiB Facebook Group