Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Old Habits Die Harder

This morning the missus called me while I was at a meeting at exactly 11 in the morning, informing me that she is going out from her office to do some shopping for Hari Raya goods! I was caught by surprise at first but when she explain that she is doing this just to proof a point, I hesitantly allowed her to do so.


You see, for the past few days since the month of Ramadan, her colleagues have been MIA from the office just as soon as they arrived in the morning. My wife was always the person who have to "Jaga Kadai" while they went out, such as getting their hair done or busy looking for goodies for the coming Hari Raya. Complaints to the higher authority fell on deaf ears as the head honchos of her department are also involved in this act of stupidity, hence she can't do anything about it.

I guess today my wife was so fed up with her being the scapegoat all the time, finally snap and do an MIA of her own! The story of this irresponsible act is not new as this have been going on since she was assigned to her new department. As her office is located in a what use to be an apartment, every afternoon, and after doing minimal work in the morning, her colleagues would cook some fried foods for their afternoon tea and finish it of by watching movies in the makeshift living room having the time of their live while my wife busy doing her work in her office. And not to mention their working hours are shortened an hour or two every day! And don't make me start of telling you their ingenious way of punching their individual Punch Card everyday which my wife have to follow as this was "democratically" decided upon collectively by her colleagues and her big boss!

It make me wonder if they really deserve their full salary at the end of the month, Hmmm.......

Friday, September 21, 2007

Ramadhan

It is more than a week, we as a Muslim celebrate the Holy Month of Ramadan and I guess it is not to late for me to say Selamat Berpuasa to all Muslims out there in our beloved country Brunei Darussalam. This year is the same as any other year, I pray to Allah SWT to give me strength and health to fulfill my obligation as a muslim to fast throughout the month of Ramadhan without missing a beat(which never fail as far as I can recalled).

As I said earlier, no sooner we were only on the early days of Ramadan do you guys ever noticed that some or maybe all shopping complex out there is already playing Hari Raya song on their music box. For crying out loud, baru jua kan panas injin kali ah bepuasa ah. I know that it is not wrong to prepare early for the big occasion but could they at least wait until Nuzul Al-Quran holidays kah or after Pay Day kah to do that which I believe the time where we can truly feel the real buzz of the coming Hari Raya festivites.

Anyway, to all my friends out there I like to wish you guys Selamat Melakukan Ibadah Puasa and hopely this time around our annual "Sungkai beramai-ramai" will be a success unlike the last time which was very disappointing he he he.....

Friday, August 24, 2007

Major Hiatus

Today's post is exactly 38 days after my last post in mid July! A lot of things happened while I'm gone which I can write about such as the Brunei own Hurricane, Harry Potter latest book, the start of English Premier League, Asyraf's first birthday party and not to mention all those hot stories that happened in my office. I know a lot of people do come and visit my blog site and I'm sure they are not happy when there are no new updates in the site, and believe me I know how they feel. I'm on leave now for two weeks since last Monday, and I'm going to KL next week for 5 days hope I have something to write about when I'm back in Brunei on Saturday. Chow.....

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Yearly Bonuses and Credit Cards

Public Servant should be thankful that finally their prayers of getting their annual bonuses in December rather than in January had been answered. His Majesty happily consented and inform his subjects through his 61st B'day's Titah last Sunday. I am truly in favor of this decision and I understand the predicament that the public servant face every year. Parents are the most grateful of the lot as they now have that extra cash to buy their children's school books and stuff before the new term begins. Before this it is sad to hear that some parents have to use their children's "Duit Raya" to buy those things that I mention above.

But do you know that the scenario of not having money at the right time, although you know that money will come in buckets load in the following month, is a good reason why you have to own a credit card. This is where the beauty of having this so called plastic cash kicks in. A wise thing to do when buying school books in December (prior to the sultan's titah) is to charge everything with our credit card and taking the advantage of the 40 days of no interest charge on our purchase, by doing so and with the right timing, we will definitely can settle our debts in January as soon as the yearly bonuses are being paid.

Sadly, owning a credit card nowadays is badly interpreted as having an imaginary cash that can be paid by installment plus whatever interest imposed. One should remember that to tap the wonders and flexibility of a credit card one should always realise that whatever amount charge to the credit card must be backed by real cash either from the next month's salary or from their personal savings. Anyway, from this year onwards, December will be a "happening" month and since it coincide with the school holidays we can just imagine how huge the traffic jams will be at the Shopping Malls, Fancy Restaurants, Car Accessories Shops, and off course, the infamous Kuala Lurah and Sungai Tujuh.

Friday, July 6, 2007

All Hail Fernando Torres

Finally my prayer had been answered, a quality striker for Liverpool at last. I hope this will be the missing link to make them click and win the Premier League this coming season. I have high hope for this young lad although I have never seen him play, but base on what the tabloids and what my friends have told me, he should come good.


Well that is typical of me, I consider myself a Liverpool and England Fan and not a Football Fan. What it means here is that I only watch football games that involve those two teams and I never watch any other team play even though it is a Champions League Final or even a World Cup Final! So since Liverpool never play Atletico Madrid for the past few years, Torres is a stranger to me. (But maybe youtube can help me here)

On a sadder note, Liverpool have confirmed that they have renewed their partnership with Carlsberg as their official club sponsor for a further three years!!!! Ironically, Liverpool did not win the league as soon as Carlsberg sponsor them in 1992. The Liverpool Board should have realise by now that this intoxicating drink is bringing them bad luck and not to mention of depriving me the previlage of having their new jersey for the past 14 years. Tantu pulang Hua Ho kali mensponsor! Sia-sia pun, tepaksa tah nunggu tiga tahun lagi.....

Monday, July 2, 2007

Autobots Rules

Last Saturday night me and the guys watched the most awesome movie ever made by far. I guess by now you all have heard that the Transformers movie receive rave reviews as soon it was premiered in our local cinema last Thursday night. The CGI was excellent and near perfection.

That is the beauty of today's technology, I wonder how will Star Wars last three episode, which was filmed and produce in the 70's, look like if it was filmed and made in this decade? The Transformers movie will now set the standard on how will other Sci-Fi movies should be made in the coming years, so expect more of the same or even better next summer.

The Transformers was originally a Toy made by a Japanese company by the name of Hasbro and Takara in 1984. Due to its popularity in Japan, a animated television series was later created and reach our shoreline not long after that. That is why most of the fans nowadays are those in the late twenties and early thirties.

From my point of view, most of the animated television series during the eighties and early nineties are far more better than what is shown to kids today. I can still remember The Centurions, Thunder Cats, He-man, Mask, Inspector Gadget, Justice League, Flintstones, Silver Hawk and much-much more. All of this will certainly be a box-office movie if it was bring over to the silver screen.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

"Kesalingbolehtukaran"


Funny word eh, I only knew that this word do exist in the Malay Dictionary days ago when my friend show me his appointment letter as a Security Committee for todays event held at Istana Nurul Iman. I think this is the longest Malay word out there unless there is other words that I'm not aware of. What it's basically mean in English is "Interchangeability"

Today marks the 40th Anniversary of the Interchangeability Agreement between Brunei and Singapore Currency. It was way back in 1967 that the decision to peg both currencies was initiated. Although the agreement was done nearly half a century ago, not many people, especially from Singapore, are aware of the parity of both currencies. I find it really annoying when the cashiers at most of the shopping establishment in Singapore have to look closely at our money and sometimes refer to their superiors/managers before accepting it at the payment counter. This issue never happen in our country as we are all aware of this parity stuff and we never question the retailer when they give out change which comprise of Singapore Dollar, unless it is crinkle or old like what happen recently.

I'm a bit surprise that only now and after today's event the MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) will take several actions to educate retailers in Singapore to accept Brunei Currency. Hopefully after this, my Brunei 20 cents will never again be rejected at Burger King like what happened during my trip to Singapore recently!

Monday, June 25, 2007

The Republic of Kazakhstan

Last Saturday my organization was visited by a couple of delegates from one of the bank in Kazakhstan. As a fan of Discovery Travel Channel, I've heard a lot of this country but never met a Kazakh in person. From my observation, as far as appearance is concern, the Kazakh are not like the typical Russian that we usually associated with. The Kazakh are more of a mixture of Mongolian and a little bit of Chinese.


I was with them from early morning till lunch time and also during dinner. Having watched their country only through the tele, I have a couple of question to ask them just to know more about their country coz it is not that often we can meet and talk to a Kazakh in our lifetime. However it was not an easy matter as none of them can speak English! We communicate via an interpreter who is a Russian studying in KL. Since I have to relay all my question to her before I can get an answer from one of the Kazakh, it is like having a commercial break in between so I kept most of the question to myself and hope someday I will meet an English speaking Kazakh like Borat! Ha Ha Ha.

Do you know that Kazakhstan was the ninth largest country in the world. Although they are huge in size, their population of around 15 million people are consider tiny if it is measure in number of people per square kilometer. To get the idea of how big this country is, I was informed that they have three international time line, they are equivalent of the size of the whole country in Western Europe, they can consider themselves as Asian or Europeans, and a picnic trip to the beach of the Caspian Sea, which is located west of the county, is like traveling from Brunei to Singapore and back, four times! No wonder most of the delegates wish to see Muara beach as soon as they land in Brunei last Friday.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Job Responsibility

In my organistion when a successful candidates was recruited, he or she will be given a offer letter which need to be responded by them before there were taken aboard to work with our organisation. I think the same format was use for those who were recruited by the goverment since my organisation is a statutory body within the Ministry. The letter clearly stated the post offered, salary cap, information on TAP regarding how many percent need to deducted every month, the need for a medical check up and lastly there is one clause which I like to ellaborate more in my blog today.

The clause or requirement rather, sounded like this "Bersedia berkhidmat di mana-mana cawangan di semua daerah". This is more of a notification or an instruction for the successful candidates that they may be transfered or assign to any branch in any of the four district of Brunei Darussalam at any given time. However, this one requirement is usually taken for granted by the new employee. I guess they were so excited to read the letter that they stop reading it as soon as they see the amount of salary that they going to received every month hence the last clause were never taken into consideration seriously.

This is what happen to me today when I instructed one of my staff to replace her friend at another branch of ours as she is about to take her annual leave next week. As soon as I told her of my intention, she hastily refuses along with a bombardment of 1001 reason. Although some of her reason are pretty legitimate but the question here is, what happen with the clause that I mention earlier, it is not just for show and when the time comes he or she must abide with what was clearly stated in their offer letter. My friend once told me that I should never ask someone during an interview if she is willing to work extra hours or able to commute daily to different branch or district because we will definitely get a straight YES from them, but when the time do come for them to do just that, their promises vanishes in thin air like magic! Funny eh.......

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Getting Married

Tomorrow one of my close friend will have his "Bersanding" ceremony after having done his Solemnisation or "Akad Nikah" yesterday. Since he is a close friend of mine, I did manage to hear all the things that he did prior to his wedding day in terms of the preparation and all. I guess he had done his homework to insure he will have a grand day tomorrow.

I'm sure organizing a big event such as this is not an easy task but I can't give furthur comment on this as when I got hitched a couple of years ago, I only had my "Nikah" ceremony which was held at SOAS Mosque. I'm sure my experience was not that bad as to compare with what my friend has endure for the past few months. I never had the stress of thinking of what "hantaran" need to be purchase, the number of guest that needs to be invited, what kind of souvenirs to give, how many wedding "tent" need to be set up and much-much more. Me and the missus use to say how fortunate other people are, to have a nice huge wedding but after a while we realised that we were actually far better off for not having all those as to compare to the stress and hassle of having one.

On top of the preparation, one thing that is also important to think of is the amount of money that is going to be spent for the whole thing. The question here is how much is the average amount need to be allocated? I believe no matter how simple you plan to have your wedding you still have to fork out thousand of dollars. Most of my friends agreed that if it is not because of their parents request of having a grand wedding day, they will definitely opted for the "Nikah" ceremony only as they think they can use the extra money for other things.

Anyway, I'm not against all this, if you have the money why not, however the future of our culture and heritage does not look good. If the majority of the newly weds think that their big wedding is just a formality to satisfy their elders, than I will not be surprised that they will not object to the decision of their future sons or daughters having a small but nice and meaningful wedding.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

All Quiet At The Liverpool Front

It is in the middle of June and we yet to hear any news regarding Liverpool new signing. I heard the new owner have dump a lot of money in front of Rafa Benitez to look for new players but until now we heard nothing. Cuti kali masih si Rafa ani? Sibuk sal anaknya kan kawin jua kali? he he he.

Seriously we really do need a good striker, David Villa, Eto'o, Torres and even Diego Forlan (Yuck, Ex Man U kali ah!) have all been link with a lucrative move to Anfield. I did mention in my last blog way back in March that I have my reservation of the two new American owners. Hello guys! I'm still waiting for you guys to proof me wrong. We definitely have to win the Premier League next season, Man U is catching up for the number of League wins where Liverpool is still holding the title of most wins for 18 times.

Other than Strikers I also think that we need to have a solid Defender to support Carragher, but so far no one was link with Liverpool except for a winger and the latest is a Central Midfielder by the name of Yossi Benayoun from West Ham, I admit he is good but Man U fans will certainly have a new thing to say and add to their usual banter if we do sign him up, his an Israeli for crying out loud, abis tah ni semua Liverpool Fans kana ucap penyokong Yahudi!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The Royal Wedding

I guess tonight is the last event for the Royal Wedding Ceremonies. After The "Muleh Tiga Hari" ceremony the royal couple will finally have their time of their own and off course their deserving Honey Moon! I bet for weeks their life was pretty hectic with all the "Adat Istiadat" thingy and stuff.

This time I was not involved whatsoever in all the wedding ceremonies even though I was invited for the "Bersanding" ceremony last Sunday, and base on what I heard it was a long wait for all the invited guest prior to the arrival of the groom and subsequently the couple's procession around BSB, so there is nothing to be miss there.

This was not the first time I passed the opportunities to be at Palace and sooner or later I believe my name will no longer be in the "VIP" list and will be cancel by the Adat Istiadat People because of my no show. It is not that I don't want to go but I feel that I don't deserve it in the first place. The only reason I was invited is because my mum is one of those people who are under the category of "Pengiran-Pengiran Peranakan" and since she married my dad who is not a Pengiran, the royal blood line thus ended. Anyway I wish the Royal Couple the best of luck and hope they live happily ever after (Macam ending cerita fairy tale tah pulang ha ha ha....)

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Temburong

I went to Temburong this afternoon with two of my senior managers. For me a visit to this district is part of my job because as a manager of a department which have branches all over the country I have to visit my branch manager there at least once a month just to make sure everything is in order.

If we ask our family or our close friend whether they have visited the district or not, chances are that most of them admit that they have not done so. They can proudly say that they have visited the likes of Singapore, KL or far places such us the UK and the US but they never ever been to Temburong, even my other half have never been to Temburong and if it is not because of the nature of my job, I may be joining her and most of the Bruneians out there.

We were unlucky that Limbang was forced or should I say tricked into surrendering it to the British by the Rajah of Sarawak a few hundred years ago. If not, all four district will be connected by land, and Temburong is no longer be an isolated place for most of us Bruneians. I'm interested to know what will happen with Temburong in 20 years time. At this moment I see it as a quiet place, lacking the progress that the other three district had been receiving throughout the years.

During my time at ITB I did made this idea of linking Temburong with Brunei Muara district via a series of long bridges as a first option or an underground tunnel, such as the one linking England and France, as my presentation paper during one of my English class. Since that time we were graded on our english language and not on accuracy, I did not made a thorough research on it whether it is feasible or not. However with the current advancement in technologies and modern machinery nothing is impossible as long as we have the money and resources. I guess we have to use all the 4 billion dollars that had been allocated by the government to be use in the financial year 2007/2008 but then how about other projects? No wonder we can't afford it! Are there any sponsors out there?

Sunday, May 20, 2007

My New Toy

It finally arrived! After days of anxiety and confusion, my brand new Dell Dimension 9200 arrived on Thursday morning, one day late from the estimate arrival time predicted by Dell Singapore. My gems was delivered directly to my house and although I have to fork out additional one measly dollar to pay for the import duty for the speaker which come separately, I was satisfied.

This was the first purchased that I made online, thanks to the assurance of my friends that Dell really do able to meet our expectations promptly and efficiently. By doing my own ordering process I had saved $100 as this is the price charged by one computer store in Brunei to allow them to purchase the order online on my behalf! Purely daylight robbery, a hundred bucks for just keying some numbers and letters at Dell website which only took around 5 minutes of their time! Moreover, the new PC are delivered to the store and the "customer" have to come and collect it themselves!

Dell only make me wait for exactly one week before I can lay my hands on my new PC, although it cost me a fortune but it was worthed. I bought my old PC five years ago and it is about time I change to this new beast, a beast that comes in with 2GB of memory, Intel core 2 Duo Processor, 320GB Hard Disk, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600, Vista Premium, Bluetooth Keyboard and mouse, and the icing of the cake is the 22 inch wide LCD monitor.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Luxury Vs Necessity

Behold the new Mazda CX-7, a sporty looking car and an SUV at the same time with a price tag of around $50,000 big ones. It sure give Honda a run of their money with their own Honda CRV which cost around 40K. At the moment I have to say Honda have the edge as it is more "cheaper" and economical, well I'm biased here as my freind are about to drive one sometime this week.


Both car really able to turn ones head but the question is do we really need it? Buying this car will force the buyer to fork out around $600 to $700 every month. The wife and I also have our own set of wheels and we also pay around that range, and sometime we wonder why dont we just bought a cheaper car that make us pay half of what we usually pay or even lower so we can have more cash a.k.a purchasing power every month, Ka ching$$$$.

Well that's life, it is very difficult to establish what is luxury and what is necessity, as each of us got their own reason and as long as we think it thoroughly and take into consideration of the pros and cons, as my friend did, we should be alright. Mau jua kan begaya sekali sekala kali ah! As for my freind who is about to drive his brand new Red Honda CRV this week or the week after, one piece of advice: Kalau sudah ada keta baru ani pun kau inda begirlfriend baik tah kau mandi bunga 7 kali he he he.......

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Brunei National Scout Association

I'm proud to say that I was once involved in the Scout Movement during my elementary school and in the secondaries. I've worked my way from just a small Cub Scout into being a Boy Scout and finally becoming Scount Venture. I sure had fond memories of my experience and doing shopping at Supasave Gadong always remind me of the good times as that place and the surrounding area use to be covered by jungle and swamps and where scouting activities such as "Jamboree" and annual camping event was held.

However, today's blog is not about my experience of being a Scout but the one thing I like to highlight here is how fortunate the present scouts are in term of buying camping gear! During lunch time today, me and the guys when to one of the shop at Kiulap which sell all sort of gears and equipments for outdoor activities. The shop have a complete collection of stuff that any outdoor buffs can think of. How I wish the shop exist during my time, so I can buy those "Rambo" knife which was quite rare at that time rather that equipping myself with my dad's 2 feet long Parang!.

I was fascinated by the various types of tents and sleeping bags available nowdays as to compare it during my time. Since tent was not easily available, we were force to built our own living quarters which was made of bamboo and we even manage to built it two storey high. It certainly look cool spending a night at this man made "house" but at the same time we were exposing ourselves to Dengue fever and Malaria ha ha ha!!!

However, when I looked back and recalled my whole experience, I guess that is what we suppose to be doing in the first place. Scouting teach me to be self reliant, and to make good of what ever we have at that time. I suppose, with the introduction of this new gadgets and stuff do help to simplify things, but at the same time it also reduce the amount of challange that need to be endure by a true scout.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Hiatus

It is almost three weeks since my last entry. And a lot of things happened while I'm away. First off is of course the trip to Singapore which was memorable partly due to the fact that for the first time ever I did not use the MRT while I was there. Asyraf was his usual self, refuse to sit in his stroller and opted for his Umi to carry him around. At least the stroller do come in handy as a make shift shopping trolley ha ha ha.

When we came back home, I found my internet service was not working hence I cannot update my blog. I could only get access to the internet last friday, however I was prety tide up for the whole week as I have to do some housekeeping particularly with my work that was only PARTLY done by my collegue who was acting on my behalf while I was on leave.

This week alone was also pretty tiring, but it was in a healthy way as my office annual badminton tournument kick off last Saturday and ended last Wednesday where my team won. Congratulation guys.........

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Singapura

I'm off to Singapore tomorrow guys and I'm going back to Brunei on Thursday afternoon. Thank god our travel agent were able to book us to a hotel as there are some sort of convention going on there next week. This time around me and the missus decide to ditch out Orchard Road and stay at Pan Pacific Hotel somewhere in the Marina Bay area. The closest shopping center is the Marina Square, Suntec City, Raffles Plaza , City link and off course my favorite of all, Funan IT Mall which is, by Singaporean standard, only a walking distance from our hotel. (Note: In Brunei context, Singaporean will consider a journey from SOAS Mosque to Plaza Athirah as a walking distance!)

Believe it or not, I seldom took a taxi to go anywhere in Singapore as I prefer the MRT and walking while I was there. If the hotel that I'm staying in is located strategically next or "above" an MRT station I will definitely used the MRT from the airport like what I did when I stayed in Swissotel and Royal Plaza, this is only applicable when I'm traveling alone especially when attending short courses as my wife does not like the idea of wheeling our luggage around.

However, tomorrows trip will be a very different ball game as for the first time in our life, my wife and I will bring a small cute baby by the name of Mohd. Asyraf throughout the four day trip. Using the ever crowded MRT while pushing a baby stroller may not be recommended so I guess we need to use the taxi this time. Hope Asyraf will behave and less of his tantrums so that his Umi and Ayah will have a nice trip and do some shopping in peace and quiet. (Command & Conquer 3 here I come). Bon Voyage.......

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Ngalih Ku Hari Ani

Went to KB this morning as part of my "On-call" duties throughout my deserving vacation. Today all the big-guns of our ministry made a working visit to all it's department's branch office in KB and Tutong. I did mention in my previous blog that the second week of my annual leave will be very busy as I have to commit to these "On-call" status that was highlighted by my senior manager when I applied for my three week long leave. Everything went well today especially during the visit to my agency branch in KB, the only setback is that I had to drove my own car to KB today! My car was schedule to have a service appointment today at NBT but I have to cancel it due to todays event, the second cancellation in a week!

On a sadder note, The Daily Brunei Resources are no longer exist as Mr. BR plan to concentrate more on his work and his writing in the daily newspaper. His post on the 15 of April was his last and he will certainly be miss by all of his avid fans including me. I admit it was a big shock to me as there was no indication or hint from him in his previous blog saying that he is about to end his blogsite. I was with him all day today and if only I had the courage to say something I surely ask him to forget about his intention and continue educating us with his interesting blog.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Books & Magazines

Today is another tiring day for me and the missus as we were busy packing things at our soon to be ex-house. The heavy stuff will be cleared by this Saturday using a pick-up which I hope will only take two trips as one trip will cost me $50. I think the process of packing stuff is easy compare to unpacking it as my parents house is already full of things and junk staking up in the store room. Today we spent most of the day packing all our old books and magazine and believe me with the amount of books and magazines that me and the missus have, we can already set up a book store and sell it for a profit.

The dilemma of having too much books and magazines have bother me for quiet sometime. I have the tendency to keep all the books and magazines that I bought since I was a teenager. The amount of books and magazine increases when I married my other half more than ten years ago as she also like to "waste" our money on this hobbies of ours. To name a few of the books and magazines that we like and kept is Gila-Gila, Batu Api, Ujang, Match, Womens Day, Cleo, URTV, FHM, Stuff Magazine, Pa & Ma, PSM, EGM, and not to mention my precious Archie comics.

The easy way to save space and money is to stop buying them or to throw it away as soon as I finish reading it but it is easy said than done. Although I've grown out of from some of them and I even have stop buying books such as Gila-Gila and Match, new releases and edition kept on coming that attract me and the missus to buy them from the newsstand. Nowadays magazine that got to do with gadgets and computers is my favourite while the missus are more on those babies stuff. I can't see us stopping buying books and magazine in the near future especially when Asyraf start to read and only gods knows what kind of book that his Umi and Ayah are going to buy for him.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

PC Game

We in Brunei always knew that the "Pirates" have manage to do quiet well in supplying us with the latest movies from the silver screen, unfortunately nothing can be said with the pirated PC games. As a gamer I find it very frustrating to wait for our local supplier to come good and sell those recent and newest PC game in the market. In Brunei, as far as I know there are only two computer shop which can supply me with this hobby of mine. However the selection are very limited and most of them are not what you call up to date. Moreover pirated PC games is not as easy as buying pirated dvd as we have virusus to worry about and in some cases some of this game will not work as some of the files are either missing or corrupted.


PC games in Brunei is not really picking up that well, I guess a lot of Brunei gamers here are only interested in those shooting games (Counter Strike) and Football Management (Championship Manager). I got friends who also play PC games but they are only interested in this two genre. I guess not many Bruneians out there who like those point and click adventure games (Siberia, Broken Sword,Myst), strategy games (Command & Conquer, Warcraft, Age of Empires), simulation (The Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Sim City) and many more like I do.

I remember this one computer shop who specialised in origional PC games by the name of "Torc" situated somewhere in Menglait way back in the nineties. I believe the owner of the shop is a true gamer so that's why a lot of new and good quality games came to our shore back then and not to mention that it had also created a big hole in my wallet. Nowdays Hua HO is the only sole supplier of origional PC games in Brunei but again the choices are still not that good. So until they broden their imagination on the selection of games, I can only keep my finger cross everytime I make my visit to "Kadai Kominis" hoping that they will sell the games that I really want and that actually work at the sametime.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Cuti Mandatori

It has been a while since my last blog last Thursday. I was pretty busy all weekend finishing my work as I officially got my leave starting yesterday. However I still went to the office on Monday morning to hand over all my pending work to the person who are going to cover me until the end of this month.

After a lot of speculation and deliberation, my MD finally approve my application. My last leave was in August last year and boy do I really need it this time. However there was a catch this time, although my leave was approved, my Senior Manager did not fail to insert the word "On Call" on my leave application, so I guess I can't leave my mobile phone off sight from now on till the 28th of April.

Well I can't complain, it is better than nothing, I guess this is just the "perk" of being a Manager (yeah right). This morning alone I had receive two phone calls from the office asking for clarification on something and one caller even persuade me to come to the office to discuss on an issue as my so called "Acting Manager" is nowhere in sight!

As for the things that I plan to do during my leave, I honestly can't say that I'm going to have some peace and quiet. One thing for sure is I will be going to the office somwhere during the second week of my leave as all Head of Section in my organisation is required to attend a week long workshop! This week alone, me and the missus will be very busy as we finally decide to move out from my wife goverment house and back to my parents house, so expect hard work and sweat during this week.

As for the final week of April, I really wish I can just switch off my mobile phone coz I plan to have my vacation all to myself, the missus and offcourse Aysraf without any intteruptions, amin.........

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Night of Frustration

Watched DPMM FC match against Selangor last night, they won two goals to the good but they can get more. Shahrazen as usual busy menacing the opponents defence line and obviously was the man of the match, although he misses two sitter in the match. Selangor who was and may still be consider the Liverpool or Manchester United of the Malaysian League was outplayed most of the time. Rene Kumar lead the defence well, but nothing can be said with the other two imports. Tobar was nearly non-existant in centre of midfield and Caceres left his shooting boot at home. It was no surprise that both of them was subtituted by local players which play better than them. I can't believe Ranko still retain them in the squad, it is either they did well during training or both of them is Ranko's favourite nephew!

Even my cousin is ashamed of our two 'special' imports

The Fans before


The Fans after

On a lighter note, as predicted by a lot of people, Liverpool whip PSV three nil Wednesday morning. Only a miracle can stop them advancing into the semis where I hope they will play Chelsea and not Valencia.


Monday, April 2, 2007

Sweet Revenge

DPMM FC 4 Perak 3, how cool was that! It must be a fascinating game although Ranoadidas said it was frustrating at the same time. How I wish I was there last night. Sweet revenge it is as stated in the BB today, Perak beat us at their own turf and now it is our chance to kick their a**. But the scoreline did not do justice as DPMM FC let in three goals in the win, maybe the abscene of Pg Sallehuddin got something to do with it.

Now how about this result? Liverpool 4 Arsenal 1, sweet revenge you say? I don't think so. Yeah they did great and congrats to Crouch with his hattrick, but I dont think we got our revenge last Saturday. Liverpool met Arsenal 4 times altogether this season and we only won once. The damage had been done, Liverpool humiliated Arsenal only once but Arsenal humiliated Liverpool three times! However if this latest result will cause Arsenal to lose point and drop down to fifth place and out of the European Cup spot, then we will call it even and we finally got our Sweet Revenge.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Maulidur Rasul

Today mark our Prophet Muhammad's SAW birthday. As usual there was a Maulud celebration at the Taman for all walks of live. I was also in the thick of it all, joining thousand of my fellow muslims basking in the morning heat and walked all the way through the designated route. I leave you guys with some pictures that I took of my whole experience today.


Our "Base Camp"

Planning on which short cut to be taken

A glimpse of His Majesty

Our Agency team number and it's 'Jelitawan"

Just after the starting point at the Syariah Court Building

Nearly half way now, Tasek Lama area

Not far now, Kianggeh area

The Final Stretch

Finally the Finish Line

The Aftermath
(Kudos to the 'Bandaran' people who did a good job in cleaning the area)


Thursday, March 29, 2007

Comic Books

I did mention in my previous blog regarding the dvd movies that I bought collecting dust at home, but there is one more interest of mine which is also being neglected for quite sometime. Actually I did not neglect it but it seems that I don't have enough time for it anymore. The interest that I am talking about is reading comic books! I don't mean those superheros comic books but I'm more interested with ARCHIE comic books. I started reading this comic books when I was still at sixth form. It started with one book that I borrowed from a freind of mine and I was hook from that day onwards. As of this date I have a collection of more than 600 comic books comprising of Archie Digest and Double Digest and not to mention his other spin off such as Betty & Veronica, Jughead, Pals & Gals, Little Archie and many more.

I never miss buying all of their issues and believe me, it really cost me are fortune to buy them all. I just can't stop buying it, buying this comic books is no longer for fun or buying it when I got that extra cash or something, but for me now it is a necessity, I MUST buy it regardless whether I have time or not for it, it have become a habit of mine now. At the moment there are exactly 43 unread comic books lying beside my bed and it is increasing every month, how in the world will I be able to finish reading all of it is only god knows.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The Three Lions

Typed this blog while watching the replay game between England and Israel. Ronney is out of form, Gerrard and Lampard is busy showing the world who is the better captain of the team, while the defenders are injury prone. I pity Mclaren who have to lead a medicore team at the moment, no wonder he is not doing well with the result.

I wonder what will happen if Gus Hiddink or Scholari was given the chance to manage the team. It is very frustrating for the fans, including myself, to see England failed to beat minnows like Israel. It is the right time for England to win something in football since the FA premier league are consider the best league in world. The only silverware they won was way back in 1966 ,if you don't count the Le Tourney Tournument prior to France 98 where Roberto Carlos scored THAT amazing free kick, remember?

I was surprised just like the rest of the world when England was robbed for hosting the world cup in 2014. I think they deserve it more than Germany, but I guess their hooligans may have shifted the vote in favour of their bitter rivals. For the next two major tournument, I fail to forsee England winning, especially with the pool of player that they have at the moment. But noboby gave Greece a chance when they won the European cup so maybe, just maybe, we the England fans will have something to cheer about in 2008.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Promotion

Being promoted up a notch at work should be fun and at the same time challenging. After all, the person may have waited for, let say 7 years, before he was given the chance to take over a postion to manage a section in his organisation. The stage are set , the players are at ready, and the only thing left is this "lucky person" to navigate and conduct the play. Everything should be easy like taking a candy from a baby coz he had gathered experience by giving the best 7 years of his career to the organisation doing what he do best by being a committed,trustworthy, hard working and reliable employee.

Now imagine this, promotion have not give him fun but misery and headaches. The stage here are scattered all over the country that create havoc as far as communication and monitoring is concern. The players are mostly veterans of more than 10 years in the field who thought they deserve a far better deal than being second fiddle to this newly promoted chap and two of those players are even earning more than him! This is all an ingredients for a recipe that can change this "lucky person" into being the "Unlucky victim"!

Moreover, he realised and agreed that he is better off doing what he use to do before the promotion and he already anticipate this problem when he was offered the job! But why do he accept the offer you might ask? Well what will you do if you were given the chance of a lifetime on a silver platter right in front of you? A chance which may not be given again in the future.

What will happen to this chap is only god knows. What he can do at the moment is to try his very best and pray to Allah to give him guidance. Not even the experience of 7 years can help him here as this is a whole new ball game for him. It make him think whether he really deserve this post in the first place, he even have this naughty thought of just burst into the Big boss office and gave it all up, and he even admit that he is not a good leader and someone should take over.

But at the end of the day, he realised that this is all a test for him because nothing is easy in this world. As long as he is still the manager of this wicked section, or until the management say otherwise, he knew that he have gave his best effort and nobody can take that away from him.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Pirated DVD's

Stayed at home today and watched X-Men 3, I've bought the movie a long time ago and only today that I have the mood to watched it. The dvd cover had been gathering dust for the past few months! As of today I still have around eight or more DVD movies that I need to see. Ironically when I went shopping with the missus we tend to look for new releases although we know that there are a couple of them at home waiting to be seen.


All of this proof how fortunate we are, pirated DVD are abundance here in the abode of peace. It cost a mere $5 or less for a single movie, and sometime we can even have a maximum of four movies in one DVD. If you are patient enough, new releases with clear pictures and sound is available within a month after it is being released to the movie buffs. But for those who don't, they can just buy the mother of all pirated movies, the one that is secretly filmed inside a cinema.

I guess there is three types of pirated DVD out there. First is the one that had been captured secretly inside the cinema, the price for each movie is usually $3. Secondly is what the pirates call the DTS copy, prices for this decent quality movie is usally around $5, and lastly is of course the one that they call DVD 9, price is within the range of $8 to $10.

The same goes to Playstation 2 games. I'm an avid gamer myself and I'm always buying the newest release everytime. The copy games are so cheap at $5 a pop that I've always encountered problems of not being able to finished a single game, coz as I was about to get the hang of it, I bought a new game and I will certainly forget about the older games as I'm engulf in hype with the new one. Sometimes I will only played it once coz I found the game to be too boring.

If we are in other countries, origional DVD's are considered a collection item, it cost a lot and they even gave it as birthday presents and christmas gifts. Playstation 2 games is also very expensive, if I don't have the previlege of buying copy games and have to fork out $100 per game, I'll definetely going to squeeze all the fun out of the games and play it repeatedly so that I can get satisfaction for paying big bucks for one meazly game. Playstation 3 is already available in Brunei and I'm still keeping my finger cross for the avaibility of copy games for that console before I buy one.

© free template 3 columns