It's happening 5th to 7th March 2010 *click image to find out more*

SCB's Ang-Pow Lucky Dip *click image to find out more*

Rano says it's gonna be a slightly busy week ahead.. After a dry spell on the weekend, it's back to work.. Sorry guys that my updates have been slightly less than usual.. To tell you frankly, there are a few outdated posts pending LOL.. I need to pull up my socks a bit and watch less DVD if possible.

Oh yea, my cousin @mallyabs played a nasty prank on me yesterday :p She grabbed by phone and used my Twitter account and posted "I think I'm gay" HAHAHA.. Evil, evil, evil... In less than two minutes, I've already received tons of mentions from my followers but those who know me well, you know my orientation right ;) So guys, yes, I'm HAPPY and yes I'm definitely, purely "straight" *wink* So to @mallyabs, I knew why you had the cheeky grin when you were playing with my phone. See you in court later... badminton that is :p

Yesteday, I handed in my CV and portofilio to the German Embassy for the selection process for the upcoming "blogging workshop" in Berlin. I'm not too sure what the requirements are but I do hope I get selected for the one-week programme. And speaking of blogging, I'm just a few months away for turning 7 years for blogging.. I still can't remember how my old blog look like but I did remember Bambi was helping me out then (The HTML era *lol*). How time has fly by so fast is amazing and I never knew it's coming on my 7th year.

The past few days have been mediocre.. Not much coverage to start off with and I spent more time in my room, catching some sleep and "DVD-ing".. I guess it's not dull for Red Devils fans because Man Utd won their first silverware of the season and it was a good final too. But the Chelsea-Man City match was something. It's good to see the Blues home record been broken this season and now it's a three-way horse race for the Premiership. It could have been a five-way if there are 30 more odd games to play for ;)

As for my proof reader, I've emailed some of you back. I realised that it will be slightly difficult if you were to be overseas for this position because of the time difference. I do hope to finalise my selection by next week as I'm still going through the selection. I've a few offers from my mutual friends too and I thank you for your application. Now that hardest part is picking one that will suit my needs and my budget as well.

Let's kick off my blog by posting my overdue pictures of Ak Johan and Sazalina's Bersanding which was taken two Sundays ago. I wish you both the best in your married life.. Don't worry about me.. You'll definitely get an invitation ;)

Local students warming up. This is usually practised every year before the start of the ISB Borneo Global Issues Conference (BGIC) which will kick off next week at the ICC. Once again HSBC is the main sponsor of the event managed by students and this year's ISB BGIC VIII is supported by the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources (MIPR) and Brunei BLNG.

The theme for this year is "The Rights of Children" in conjunction with the United Nation's 20th Anniversary of The Convention on the Rights of the Child. Over 300 secondary students will take participate, coming from 16 local schools and 6 overseas schools (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Qatar).

Forum 1 Secretary-General Phua Sue Kim said, “The online forum is very much like Facebook; it is very user-friendly and enables participants to discuss parliamentary procedure as well as asking questions. Teenagers are all IT-savvy and they can download relevant documents and read helpful blogs.”

“Another important advantage is that we are all making contact online; we are looking forward to meeting each other face-to-face during the training sessions and the actual conference itself. With over 300 students participating in this conference, we want to help everyone make the most of their ISB BGIC experience by encouraging them to actively and confidently represent their allocated countries during committee debate sessions,” said Forum 2 Secretary-General Nur Hafizah Ahmad.

For more information, please visit the school website www.isb.edu.bn or you can contact the organiser alingwong@isb.edu.bn

11 cars, an accident record. According to the police statement, this is the first accident case that has involved 11 cars at one given time. It happened just two hours ago on the highway from the airport to Gadong area, near the golf course. One of my friends aka Godmother (one of our Superfriends) was one of the pile-up victims which caused a huge jam on the road.

Thanks to Twitter, I was able to get some lead into the story and thanks @quanzye for the updates man.. You rock!! But what's more important is that everyone's not injured from the said accident. Apparently, a beemer was trying to save by quickly changing lane to right which caused the car on the right lane to break abruptly.

My friend's car (the green one) was the 2nd car of the other pile and her car was quite a distance from the Ford Ranger who was in front of the green car. Ok, are you guys confused yet? LOL.. So how did the green car managed to kiss the back corner of the Ford Ranger as shown in the picture?? Because about 5 or 6 cars behind the green car smashed each other and pushed the green car towards the Ford Ranger.. If I was not mistaken, the green car had a distance of one and a half car lenght before impact..

The police report was not straight forward either. It's hard to blame the drivers in this scenario because it's difficult to avoid the impact given the scenario and furthermore, according to the law, a car that hits another car is at fault. But I'm sure there is some ground where this can be an exception. My friend who was still at a shock state during the telephone conversation said that the last car of the lot had the biggest damage of all.

so guys, be careful on the road... and guys, please subscribe on Twitter and follow me... News travel faster than you think ;) Images below courtesy of @quanzye

The Ford Ranger was the 1st car of the lot

The impact from the cars behind

The 3rd car of the pile of the accident

Ok, this one happened at Kg Kiarong this afternoon.. Scary. Image by @hilmanjoe

Time to choose the $1 million winner. Ok, guys.. this is the biggest stage of them all... Brunei Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) has nominated the finalists for the BIBD Wish Campaign. Now it boils down to the public to determine who will get the BND 1,000,000 in April 2010? That's a lot, a lot, a lot of money at stake.. I can't imagine the day itself when the winner will be announced.

Firstly, let's touch on BIBD's objective for this Wish Campaign. The aim is to cultivate a culture of savings among Bruneians in a sustainable manner by encouraging account holders to increase savings every month. So far, there has been an entry of 8,000 since the campaign started and there has been a total of 93 awardees.

It's also the bank's initiative to be social responsible and show a great example to our community to save rather than spending.

So how does the final piece work? The public will have a hand in selecting the Grand Awardee of up to BND 1,000,000 as their nomination will make up of the overall scored. Thirty percent (30%) of the scores of the 12 wish awardees who have reached the last round of the Wish Campaign will be determined by public nomination, while an esteemed panel of judges will contribute the remaining seventy percent (70%). The nominee with the highest score will be named as the Grand Awardee and will get the Wish Campaign Grand Award of up to BND 1,000,000.

Each person can submit their selection only once, through online (www.bibdwish.com) or SMS. Additional nominations will not be counted but will still be charged. Proceeds from the SMS charges will be donated to a charity that BIBD selects.

Public nomination will officially open on 2 March and ends on 1st April 2010, and nominees' full stories can be read on the BIBD Wish website (www.bibdwish.com).

The 12 nominees for the $1,000,000 *click image to see their stories*

Announcing that the nominees

Some of the nominees of the BIBD Wish Campaign

The guys behind the BIBD Wish Campaign

DST supports 2010 Aberdeen Brunei Senior Masters. The Aberdeen Brunei Senior Masters presented by the Stapleford Forum is pleased to once again announce DST Group as the Official Telecoms Provider for a 2nd consecutive year in 2010.  The tournament will once again take place at the Empire Hotel and Country Club from 5th – 7th March 2010.

DST Group is a diverse Group providing core mobile services to ICT business solutions in Brunei Darussalam. DST Group will be supporting the event by leveraging on its media and channels to promote the event including its Kristal FM and having access to its subscriber base.   DST Group has been actively supporting the development of sports in the country at national level and through various sponsorship tournaments including its major title sponsorship to date, DST Group Brunei Premier League (football) to its own, DST Group Masters Golf.

Commenting on DST Group involvement in the tournament, Awang Abdul Latiff bin POKSS DP Haji Md Yusuf, member of the Board, DST Group said “it’s a privilege for DST Group to be in partnership with The Aberdeen Brunei Senior Masters, a prestigious event which can boost golf sports further in Brunei Darusssalam”. 

The event will also involve DST Group customers participating in various surrounding event including invitation of over 500 of its subscribers daily, access to the tournament hospitality and golf clinics and also participating in the Pro-Am for its customers.

The course at the Empire Hotel and Country Club is a Jack Nicklaus designed course which has hosted the Brunei Open on the Asian Tour since 2006 and first made its mark by being voted ‘Asia’s Leading Golf Resort’ in the World Travel Awards.  Already confirmed players making this a monumental occasion include top names in golf as Sandy Lyle, Mike Cunning and Costantino Rocca. Text and images by WSM

Desmond Acheson (General Manager, Empire Hotel & Country Club) * Shuif Hussain (CEO, Stapleford Forum) * Awang Abdul Latiff bin POKSS DP Haji Md Yusuf (Board Member, DST Group) * Harry Owen (Events Director, WSM Sponsorship) * Sheikh Jamaluddin bin Sheikh Mohamed (CEO, Brunei Tourism) * Keith Blott (Director of Sales and Marketing, The Empire Hotel & Country Club.)