Win Cash Reward$. “B-Mobile’s Loyalty program is organising a new ‘Flash & win Cash’ Campaign from this 1st March -31st May 2010. This campaign is aimed at creating more awareness of B-Mobile’s Loyalty Program in which B-Mobile customers (both postpaid & prepaid) can enjoy great savings when they spend at over 70 of B-Mobile’s participating merchants. Each month for 3 months, B-Mobile will be giving away BND$500 cash for those who purchase & dine by using the Loyalty Club Card or flashing the SMS Rewards (type ‘Rewards’ and send it to 38383 for prepaid user). Some of the merchants in conjunction with this ‘Flash & Win Cash’ Campaign are also coming up with better offers/promos than the usual offer for the next 3 months.
There are QAF Eurokars, LJ Tuition School, Sin Hup Huat & Max Centre, Rizqun International Hotel, Laniege, The Centrepoint Hotel, Century Travel, Abdul Razak Apartment, Underten, Shopilicious Zone, Ideal Cafe & Grill, Baklasia, MS Titanstar: Aussino, Paloma, Pick & Mix Chocolate Paradise, Dewi Martha Tilaar, Cheezbox, Gripps Cafe, QQestore, QQ Mobile Shop, Eyewear Optical Co., Twinkles Jewellery, Rainforest Gallery, J.L Jewellery, Deseo , Classic Touch House ware and Gifts and Pro Auto K.
For a full list of the other merchants (click here). Any b.club member that spends at any of the listed merchants will be given a voucher in which they have to fill in and attach with their receipt of spending and that will be pulled into a draw for the cash prize. Winners will only be announced in June 2010. For more info visit www.b.mobile.com.bn/rewardclub or call B-Mobile’s call centre177.”
Visit the Malaysia Showcase tomorrow. Where? At the ICC.. You've seen the Consumer Fair before and imagine this expo but on a smaller scale, exhibiting Malaysian products and services. There will be around 80-90 booths participating in the first ever Malaysia Showcase. What can you expect? Well, definitely Tourism Malaysia (lots and lots of prizes and special promotion especially for the F!1), investments and health care (which is a growing industry in Malaysia).
Yesterday a press conference was held at the Malaysian Hi-Com hosted by the Malasian High Commissioner Dato Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari. He highlighted that Malaysian SMEs have participated in a lot of exhibition before but the great thing about the upcoming Malaysia Showcase is that it's very focused because it's all about Malaysian products and services.
He sees a strong relationship between Brunei and Malaysia and this is one valid reason why the showcase will be a success. He did raise a good point that sometimes both parties take each other for granted without realising the potential benefits in business and consumerism. Who knows we will see more Malaysian companies venturing into Brunei and contribute to the local economy.
William Ng, the Managing Director of Eventneka, believes the showcase will be a success and he hopes to bring the exhibition to Jakarta and other regional places. He chose Brunei as the first stop because Brunei has been very supportive to Malaysia and the track record of tourists to Malaysia speaks for itself.
So guys, the dates for the Malaysia Showcase is 5th to 7th March at the ICC. Do check out the exhibition. And those traveling to Malaysia, do visit Tourism Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines as they are having great fares and prizes to be won as well.
Give Navara a try. Why? Because it's damn rugged. The media had a test drive a couple of weeks ago at Tungku Link Beach and this machine has got what it takes on different terrains. Two weeks ago, the Nissan Navara was launched at Boustead Showroom in Beribi and it was officially launched by Boustead MD Dato Paduka Lim Beng Thai.
To give more blessing for the ceremony, they had a lion dance performance by the Chung Hwa Middle School. Anyway, do drop by the Boustead Showroom and you'll be amazed by the price which is at BN 36,000. This is a big contender to the current Hilux that you have seen on the road. Expect the Nissan Navara to make an impact in Brunei Darussalam.
The Lion dance performance. Ah, I missed this event at P'Fection Beauty at Kiulap. Thanks Joyce for the pictures and stay tune for more updates of P'Fection Beauty at Kiulap.
Torrance, Woosnam, Lyle favourites. The Aberdeen Brunei Senior Masters is about to kick off tomorrow and we have top names like Sam Torrance, Ian Woosman and Sandy Lyle playing in the tournament but for Torrance, he has been in Brunei a few times already and perhaps he has an advantage. He loves the golf course and the Empire Hotel too. He hopes to win the tournament this weekend. When asked on the Tiger Woods' situation, he declined to comment. Good luck, Sam.
As for Woosman, it was his first time playing at the par 71 Jack Nicklaus designed course. He couldn't say much about the course just yet and he was still acclimatising to the our humid weather. But he is wary of his opponents such as Sam and Sandy. Woosman will be competing in the pro-am this morning as a practice round for the big event. We shall see how they fair on the first round which kicks off tomorrow.
Yesterday Torrance and Woosnam were invited to play blindfolded to raise awareness for the International Blind Golf Association and it was organised by one of the event sponsors, International Sports Promotion Society. According to Torrance, "It's fantastic that blind people can play golf and they need a lot of trust in their wife or caddy."
Rano says I'm feeling stressed, restless yet hyper... I guess it's the coffee and I have a few deadlines to meet.. Furthermore, my 7th year anniversary is just around the corner.. I've nothing plan as yet so far.. I'll see how it goes but I won't be celebrating it like I did last year.
On Friday, there will be a big event hosted by Event Neka which is the first ever Malaysia Showcase 2010 at the International Convention Centre and the official opening will be in the morning. So the exhibition is open to the public and do expect products and services from Malaysia to be exhibited during the event. I shall share more details after the press conference later this evening..
I think I've decided to join my SuperFriends (SF) buddy for our annual KK trip this March and that's something I'm looking forward to as it has been a while since I traveled with my buddies.. Last year was fun and it also coincided with Breeze Mag's 1st Year Anniversary.. This year, I won't be able to attend which will fall on the 26th March. So it looks like KK will be first international trip unless I accept a one night trip to KL to cover an appreciation dinner event.
Ok guys for the bonus question... it's coming up tomorrow but only to be revealed on Kristal FM at 1:30pm Thurs, 4th March 2010.. I won't tweet the bonus question but of course, you have to answer in by mentioning @ranoadidas and your answer.. And the bonus question is worth 20 points (equal to 20 lucky draw vouchers).. So I will be on air with @JennyMalaiAli on @kristalFM to promote my Twitter competition as well as revealing the 20 point bonus question.. And as the saying goes from me, "Spread the Love".
Oh yeah since it's @JennyMalaiAli's birthday today, let me do a little plug for you for your tasty Tortilla (nice with the salsa) which has been selling like hot cakes and it will be available tomorrow but u need to make your orders today and the pick up point will be at D' Anggrek Hotel from 10am onwards with Kitchen of Jasmine's Bake Sale. For more info and orders, you can SMS 8723 809. Spread the love...
Twitter is the new FB? Nah... Probably not in a few months' time LOL.. So is that where I think Twitter is heading to right now? Remember the "has-been" Friendster? Who uses that now? I'm sure it's still around and it has lost its steam already since Facebook came into the picture.
Now we have Twitter which is less complicated than FB yet addictive in a way. Do you know that I'm more active in Twitter than FB? And it's something that I can't really explain why and hence, it brought me to the idea of running it as one of the "Question of the Day?" (QOTD) to see if we are more addicted to Twitter or FB.
Perhaps it could be a bias outcome because I'm running the poll on Twitter but I'm sure that 95% of Tweeps have Facebook accounts too. So the winner after 324 votes is Twitter with 71.3% which is a landslide victory over Facebook. The feedbacks have been interesting as well. Most Twitter users are fed up with the application and some even said it's gone messier than before. I noticed that we like it simple and straightforward and even if Twitter only allow 140 characters to type, we still find it as a useful tool to update status and share information.
So the saying goes... will Twitter eventually overtake Facebook one day? It can happen but I doubt that it will topple Facebook as the leading social networking website in the WWW. If you ask me, I prefer Twitter because it's easy, straightforward and I get my information pretty fast on my iPhone. Very, very powerful tool if you know to use it.
Results of Twitter vs Facebook
Twitter - 71.3%
Facebook - 18.5%
Both - 10.2%
So don't forget to tune in to @KristalFM 1:30pm Thursday and catch @ranoadidas on air with @JennyMalaiAli (who celebrates her birthday today.. and when's yours, Paula? LOL) and the bonus question will revealed then and it's worth 20 points. So do play by ear ;)
Our sporting icons. Let me acknowledge some of our local sporting icons in Brunei. Football is still our main sports in the Sultanate but sadly the trouble with FIFA has disrupted DPMM FC's journey in the S.League and now with the DST Premier League season done and over with, there's not much going on in the football scene.
But as of late, Brunei has been some sporting icons that has made it big. Our marathon hero runner Sefli Ahar has recently won the Hong Kong Marathon which is a big international feat and he surely has put Brunei on the world map. He grabbed gold in the Master-1 division of the half-marathon event at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon last Sunday.
It was also his personal best with a time of 1 hr 5 mins 9 secs. His previous record was 1 hr 12 mins which he set at the Arafura Games back in 2005. Congrats dude and make our country proud.
Another sporting icon is our young and potential swimmer, Amanda Liew, daughter of my friend, Mr. Johnny of Olive Tree Company. The 16 year old swimmer recently competed in the Japan Open 2010 at the Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Centre. She missed the finals but she managed to break her personal record in the 50 metres freestyle with a timing of 28.85 seconds. This is Amanda's third national record in the event.
This is a great exposure and experience for the young swimmer and hopefully she can make the finals one day at the rate that she's going. Expect Amanda to make headlines in the near future.
|
|
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
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).
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
NCB playing a big role for PF2. For two years, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) missed the boat to part of Pasport to Fame (P2F) and this year, it's good to see that NCB is spreading their awareness through P2F 2010. Yesterday, the 18 contestants of this season's P2F paid a visit to NCB headquarters in Gadong.
Osmawi Hj Osman, the Assistant Director Prevention Drug Education Division of NCB, presented a talk on the awareness on the bad implications of drugs. He highlighted that as a role model to the youth, drug related activities are a no-no in our society. Osmawi also brought up a common problem that has been creeping up in the Internet world where the drug trafficking syndicate would lure Internet chatters especially on social networking websites such as Facebook, Friendster, Tagged and so on and they would befriend them and shower them with gifts in order to trap the victims.
After the talk, Osmawi presented NCB t-shirts to all the contestants and the t-shirts carried a slogan which read "Music is my anti-drug". According to the Osmawi, using P2F as a channel of awareness can make a difference to our young generation and NCB has been very active in having talks from schools to schools to spread the anti-drug messages to the young kids.
Two representatives from "Rakan Harmoni" delivered their talks to the P2F delegates and they shared their experiences on the danger of drugs. The visit ended with all the contestants undergoing urine test to show that all of them are "clean". The NCB also reminded the public to report whatever information that are related to the misused of drug by calling 244 8877 during office hours or call the hotline 8777 444 after office hours.
J.L. Jewellery. Thinking of buying some jewellery? You can have them specially designed by Julia from J.L. Jewellery located at Yayasan Complex at Bandar. It's opened daily from 11am to 8:30pm. For more info, you can call/fax at 223 9168. Below are pictures of the current trend that are popular among the youth.
For the young ones, perhaps the eternity rings might catch your interest and they have different coloured gemstones to choose from. You can talk to Julia who runs the shop and she has very deep knowledge and she will be able to cater to your needs and budget.
|
|
Rano says it's the final day of February and tomorrow is March 2010. Wow!! Two months went past sailing just like that and four months, we have the World Cup which I'm looking forward to. Traveling to SA is still not confirmed and I'm not too sure on how to go about that just yet. My HK trip is still pending and I hope it will be a YES *ahem* because I simply love that place.
But this year, I made my decision to take up the Germany trip which will be sometime in May. It will be a week's trip but I have to get my application approved to get the green light and this interesting part is that it will be a blogging workshop in Berlin. Now that's awesomeeeeee.... I've never been to Germany so that's definitely one of the places to visit this year.
Today is Chap Goh Mei which marks the end of CNY celebration. Wow, 14 days really have gone past quickly and it's sad that I didn't see that many lion dances this year as compared to last year. I can say that even the CNY celebration has toned down and I've only visited a lowly record of six houses. That's a very low scorecard for my standards *LOL* and I managed to get $20 along the way.
Yesterday I attended the introduction to Asah Mata Workshop organised by Ahim Rani and facilitated by Saiful Nang of Candid Syndrome. The workshop lasted to for two days and basically Saiful gave some great pointers on how not to be just a professional photographer but also an entrepreneurial photographer. You'll be amazed how Saiful Nang started his journey with just RM 90 and he built his company which now has over 40 staff under Candid Syndrome.
i wasn't able to be a participant in the workshop and there were around 60 who attended the Asah Mata Workshop. The participants were split into groups and they were given special assignment for the photography outing at specific areas. Saiful Nang then will do some assessment on the shots taken by the participants (critic session) and all the participants will be given a certificate which will be presented by Sheikh Jamaluddin.
It's great to see Saiful Nang again in Brunei and his classes will raise some good awareness and also give good pointers for our potential semi-pro and professional photographers. I believe most of them have potential but don't forget to create your branding :)
Looking for 2nd hand cars? I remember how Tamu Trader was known for its 2nd hand car business. Now we have a new uprising 2nd hand car portal Bruneiusedcar.com which has been getting great responses from the public since it was launched last year.
What stands out from the rest is their service to the customer. They will be able to handle the process of the transfer especially those who are continuing with the bank. For those who are interested to sell their cars, you can post your car at the said website with a charge fee of BND 15 per unit.
They also do accept trade-in with the cars they find on Bruneiusedcar.com. So there are some options for you to choose from actually. For any inquiries, you can email admin@bruneiusedcar.com or enquiry@bruneiusedcar.com.
