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.......

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.......

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.....

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.....

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.

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.....

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.

"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!

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.

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.......