Football Madness

Today is indeed the darkest hour for Bruneian Football, if what was said about Brunei being banned by FIFA are true. This mean that Brunei and its club will not be able to compete in any international competitions. At first I was a neutral in this stupid fiasco but now I'm so piss off when I realised that FIFA was not happy with the interference of Brunei Government with the affairs of a football club which was recognised by AFC and it's parent association (FIFA).

Since when do an organisation have a say in how a country govern their rules and regulations. Whatever decision made by our government should be respected no matter how stupid it looks to other countries or to an organisation in this case. No matter how much I want to see this thing to be resolve immediately, I still hope that our government will stick to it's decision and not to be easily pressured by this decision. Our nation is an independent country and we should never easily be weakened or bullied by outside interference. So to all local football lovers, be patient and brace yourselves as this can be a nasty rollercoaster ride.

Aidifitri 2009

For the umpteen time, the moon to determine the first day of Syawal was not sighted. This mean that we will not be celebrating the first day of Hari Raya with our neigbouring country. This is a never ending issue and everyone has their own theory, like the incapability of the people in charge of doing the "Rukyah", less efficient equipments to a more sinister reason which I could not elaborate here.

The State Judiciary Department wrote a nearly one page explaination in yesterday's Borneo Bulletin opinion page which debunk most of the theories. As for me, I'm not really concern that wether we should celebrate first day Raya with our fellow muslims from other country or not, but I'm more dissapointed of only celebrating Hari Raya for two days before we go back to work on Wednesday.

However, as a muslim we should be happy that we are still in the month of Ramadhan which gives us an extra day to do good deeds and gat as much "pahala" as we can. Allah s.w.t had said that if only all muslims can see and understand the rewards that the month of Ramadhan can give to a person, surely all of us will want Ramadhan to be celebrated for the whole year.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA
AIDILFITRI
MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN

Stupidity Vs Diplomacy

Have you guys read the paper lately regarding the issue of cultural "theft" accusation by Indonesia towards Malaysia. It was actually a mistake by Discovery Channel when they insert a clip of Indonesian cultural dance called the "pendet", in one of their programme promo about Malaysia. The mistake was admitted by the said channel and it was remove immediatley soon after. However, although this issue was ratified promptly, some Indonesian still blame Malaysia of insulting the Indonesian people.

I find this really disturbing, people now are ignoring facts and reasons, and just stand by whatever they thought is right. I guess this is just the reason that some Indonesian need to stir conflicts with Malaysia. This two countries are at each other throat since the issue of tortured maids and illegal immigrants. Cries of war was also heared in this latest issue where the Malaysian embassy and flags was "attacked". Aren't these people have other important things to do and worry about....

German 8ton Semi Track Sd.kfz.7/1

Start Date : 14 August 2009
End Date : 05 September 2009
Specification : Scale 1/35, Tamiya Japan

German's World War II 8-ton armoured "half-track" tractor truck, fitted with a quadruple barreled Flakvierling 38 anti-aircraft gun. Orininally designed for use against enemy aircraft, this innovative and distinctive looking vehicle/gun combo was also highly effective against ground based targets and personnel.

Congratulations

Thanks to Allah Al-Mighty, my littler brother had successfully passed his June A-Level exams with flying colours. With that results, he is now able to enroll as a Medical student and ditched Biomedical at the Institute of Medicine, University Brunei Darussalam, and with God willing, in 6 years time my little brother will be a doctor, a profession which we never expected in our small family.

It is ironic but yet it is not suprisingly either, for him to choose medicine as his career. All his life, especially during his infant years, he had made good friends with doctors and nurses in Brunei and Singapore, and even made the First Ward at RIPAS Hospital as his secondary bome for nearly 3 years. For your information, my brother was diagnosed with Tracheal Stenosis, which basiically means the narrowing of his windpipes that can cause difficulties in breathing. Being an infant and also ashmatic, it was really a life-threatening situation during his early years in this world. Our life, especially my mom was very difficult during that time as she has to make sure that my brother is always in good health and able to live his life normally. Fortunately, as he grows older, his windpipe seems to grow also but he still has the side effects until this day.

I dedicate this blog to him, to show just how happy I am of his achievement. I know that it is still a long way to go, but whatever happens I still salute his determinations and the level of hard work that he did before his examinations, and it was something that my sister and I could not do during our school life. Good luck Md Ali, do your your best and hope you can be a successful doctor someday and the whole family are really proud of you.

First Game Jitters

Liverpool was awful last night. They were beaten 2 - 1 by spurs at White Hart Lane. Gerrard was unfit, Torres did not manage to take a shot on target, Lucas is not the next Alonso and the worst player I think was Babel! He was sloppy and loses the ball everytime. Their pre-season form is still haunting them and they really need a good midfielder pronto, especially if Benitez wish to transform Gerrard into a striker just like he did last night. The only positive thing last night was Glen Johnson settling in well at right back. Good luck to all Liverpoolians, this may be a frustrating season all over again.

Unsportmanship Behaviour

It's official, three of DPMM players were handed long suspensions after they manhandled the referee during their home game against Home United a few weeks ago. I'm not a bit shock with this news as I already expected this thing to happen as soon as the game was momentarily stop that night. I saw the whole incident that day as me my friend was sitting right in front of the incident when it happened.

One of my friend wrote on his facebook that Pg Sallehuddin should not be strip of his captaincy as he is only doing what a captain should do which is an inspiration to others especially on the pitch. I for one does not agree with this statement. Firstly, a new captain should be appointed as he will be suspended for 12 months, and secondly, whatever he did on that night was far from being inspirational. What he did was wrong and no matter how stupid the referee was. Moreover, he had endure a far more worse decision in his career especially during our time in the Malaysian League and being a veteran he should know better.

I have doubt if he will play again for DPMM as he is in his mid thirties now and a lengthy ban will surely give other players to settle down in the vacant position. As for Rene Kumar, he was slap with a ban for 15 months as he was accused of punching the refreee, which I think he did. As for Yussof Salleh, a ban of 6 months is best for him to reflect on what he did that night and try not to repeat it ever again.

I still not sure whether the DPMM management will appeal the S-league decision but the damage had been done and this is certainly a bad chapter in Bruneian football.

Scale Modelling

Early this year I restarted my hobby of making and collecting scale models. A hobby which goes way back in my teens. The only difference back then was I don't have the money to buy those things and also the assistant and guides to built a nearly perfect models. Today. information regarding scale modelling is easily available thanks to the internet and not to mention ebays for the convenience of online shoppings as Tamiya models are very hard to come by in our country.

Currently I had finished around 12 models altogether and each one is equipped with it's own diorama for display purposes. In case you all wonder what diorama is, it is a scene that captures a moment in time. It can be almost anything as long as it captures a moment in time and displays some type of scene with multiple objects. As an example, since I'm doing tanks at the moment, the diorama can be a scene during world war 2 or a muddy terrain.

Scale modelling hobby is fun, satisfying and sometimes can get a bit expensivee, but it can also teach us to be patient and creative at the same time.

Flash Mob

I don't know whether you all have heard the term "Flash Mob" or not. Also I'm not sure if you were aware that the craze had reach our shore sometime this year at The Mall, Gadong. For your information "Flash Mob" is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place and perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. It can be anything such as a pillow fights, a dance routine or like what the locals did, frozen in time.

The flash Mob that happened at the mall a few months ago involved around 178 people that froze for exactly 5 mins at the same time. And recently the same group of people also did what they called the "High Five Escalator", also at the mall. This is where a person stand on top of an escalator and some of his friends spread out along the adjacent stairs or at the bottom of the stairs, holding signs that prepared anyone ascending the escalator for the upcoming high five fun at the top of the stairs. This can be hilarious as it is not easy to give a high five to a complete stranger.

Recently my brother informed me that they are about to have another Flashmob next Sunday at the mall at exactly 3pm. This time around I can gurantee that people will be amaze on what they plan to do but if only all of the "Flash Mobers" successfully do what they suppose to do. As a hint of what they plan to do next Sunday, I leave you all with this video that happened in Sweden not so long ago.

Adios Xabi Alonso

"It will be hard for them to match last season, let alone improve on it. Other teams will know more about them, so it has to be Chelsea as the main threat." That is the exact word coming out from Sir Alex "Know it all" Ferguson's mouth recently. He has written off Liverpool chances of winning the title even before the league started.

To be honest, and no matter how harsh it may be, I kind of agree if the current pre-season form and transfer market activities is an indication. The loss of Xabi Alonso is a major blow and although he was immediately replace with Alberto Aquilani from Roma, he is yet to proof his quality and hope not to be another "Dossenna".

Pre-seson friendlies result is not that good and the defeat by Espanyol with all full team in the squad is alarming. Liverpool still rely heavily on Torres and Gerrard for the third year running but as Ferguson said other teams will know more about their partnership style of play and it may be difficult for them to excel. Hope they can proof me wrong.

I'm Back!!!! (I Hope.......)

Wow, it is nearly 2 years since my last post way back in 2007, ironically my last entry was during the fasting month and here I am trying to rejuvinate my blog just before Ramadhan. A lot of things happened during the nearly two years of abscene and the big difference is that Asyraf is nearing 3 years old now. I actually don't have any reason why I stop blogging although I actually have the space do devote a few minutes of my time to do my writing on daily basis but I guess I'm just preoccupied with other things which is reading other people's blogs!!!!

During my abscene, a lot of thing happened which played an intergal part in my life. Being a father to Asyraf is one of it but life at work and dealings with office politics has also make me a better person. I hope this time around I will be able to actively blog and my target is a least once every week. I still consider blogging as a way for me to reach out my inner feeling (beside talking to my other half) so I'll try to blog as much as I can from now onwards. Chow.......