Tropical storm brewing...

Looks like we'll be having a really wet new year countdown tonight...
To all of you who are going out tonight, drive safe, keep dry, and play nice.
See you all next year!

Prayer for the Pilgrims...

anakbrunei.org wishes all readers Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha and may Allah continue to bless us with happiness, peace, and good health. Amin.

Selamat Belayar Cu...

Let your chi flow...

Went to Tasek Lama again this morning determined to get a better shot of the waterfall. Quite a challenge trying to photograph the mighty torrent as opposed to yesterday's little trickle. There was the usual Qigong crowd in front of the waterfall, and I ended up shooting more people than waterfall heheh...

For those who haven't been to tasek lama, I would highly recommend it, and if you go on the weekends, you can join in the free Qigong lessons. The Qigong master is really ROCK! He shares and shares his knowledge on how to practice Qigong for lifelong health so we don't end up "lembik" in our later years.

Makes sense, but easier said than done. We get so tied up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life that we forget to take care of our bodies...

Smooth as silk...

My maiden attempt at shooting flowing water. This could easily turn into an obsession... Wasai Labi is calling...

Incidentally, I finally took possession of my Canon 50mm 1.8 II today after a month and a half waiting. It seems there is trouble brewing in the ranks of digitalworld and I almost didn't get my lens as the price had suddenly shot up to almost three times what was quoted in the website!

Anyway, after a brief argument, the boss(?) reluctantly honoured the price stated on the website but not without grumbling that it was below cost (yeah... I believe you) and then stating that at this price the lens was WITHOUT warranty.

I think this is absolute bollocks, and have a good mind to mention this lousy trading practice to RTB consumer affairs(?) I think if the tables were turned, the gentleman I was dealing with would be jumping up and down throwing a big fuss cos he looks the type.

Personally, I don't think its very nice to be dissing the person who made the mistake on pricing in front of the customer. I mean, I don't wanna know about it dude. All I know is I ordered it at this price and a deal is a deal. Innit?

A cloudy afternoon in Bandar Seri Begawan....

Look at it another way...

Fellow photoblogger Bruneian has kindly offered this one time exclusive offer for buyers of the anakbrunei.org charity calendar. For every 50th buyer of the calendar, he will give away one of his professionally pressed EXCLUSIVE 4R prints of the buyer's choice! I have seen these prints and they are really exquisite.

Thats not all! If I meet my target of 1,000 calendars, he will give the lucky 1,000th buyer a professionally pressed EXCLUSIVE 8R print of the buyer's choice! There's one heck of an incentive for you! So what are you waiting for? Click here to order!

How TUFF are YOU?

Just a random thought for the day:

Winston Churchill said, "Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all other qualities." Everything else emanates from your willingness to face adversity head-on. Someone once defined courage as "fear that has said its prayers." Ernest Hemmingway defined courage as "grace under pressure."

Tough timers always see a way out of difficulty. Creativity is fundamental to resilience and persistence. To become more creative you must learn how to think out of the box. Approach the problem differently. Trust your creativity. Encourage your creativity.

Tough timers persist until they win. They know nothing great was ever accomplished by a quitter. They know, at a gut-level, there is a time limit on tough times. Every downturn in our economy was followed by a period of expansion. Every missed sale is followed by a sale that you make at some point. Knowing that misery will not last fuels tough timers with the hope they need to get up another day and fight the battle.

Humor is one of the best anecdotes for being down in the dumps. In addition to the obvious benefit of laughter, there is a physiological advantage when your brain releases endorphins during laughter. Humor allows you to see another side of adversity. Plato wrote, "Even the gods love jokes."

Percussion...

Christmas comes early - Part 2

Yuletide Greetings

May the Light of Happiness adorn your Days
May the Light of Abundance accompany your Ways
May the Light of Love inspire your Heart
May the Light of the New Year ignite a Brilliant Start

Gambus Caliente!

What an exhilarating night! I haven't been to a gambus party for such a long time. It was great listening to the wonderful toe-tapping rhythms and beats of the boys from Kumpulan Gambus Kunci Batu. They are so ROCK!

Thank you Don Diego for inviting me over to cover the event AND to the Montoyas for supporting the anakbrunei.org charity calendar project by buying nearly FIFTY calendars in total!

Terima kasih banyak2 to Bizzie Lizzie as well for featuring the calendar project in today's BB. It has been so great to receive heart-warming offers of help on this project. Suddenly my target of 1000 pieces doesn't seem so impossible after all...

I just hope my trusty Canon printer holds up :)

Can we come back?

I've always been fascinated by the sketching effects possible in Adobe Photoshop and other programs like Corel Painter. Its a lot of work but seeing the results from the pros makes me want to master it. Above is my first attempt. Long way to go...

Incidentally, Taiwan has decided to re-open its representative office in Brunei March 1, 2007 after it closed the facility last March 17 to save on diplomatic resources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced yesterday.

Interesting that they want to re-open since there has been no change to our One China policy. Given this, a Brunei office would still be a "useless facility". I'll leave the political rhetoric to other more qualified bloggers.

I have nothing against Taiwan but I wonder what their objectives are this time around? I am sure our MOFATeers will be querying this exhaustively.

God's Crayon Box...

Just finished printing and packing the current batch of orders for the calendar. I will be sending them to BIT Computer in Kiulap tomorrow morning. So for those of you who've ordered, pls pick your orders up from there tomorrow afternoon onwards! Lizzie, have yet to receive your email addy so if you're reading this, email me ah? :D

Smart Kids On The Move

A Poem by A Father
SMARTER Brunei President's Poem during
the 3rd National Conference on Autism

When I held him 6 years ago,
Little did I know,
How much our lives would change and grow
As he did so

Our lives were full of nagging worries
Full of little catastrophes
But then somehow,
Instead of caving,
We pulled together,
Strived to save him,
Little did we know that he,
Did all the saving – for him and me

Though he can't speak,
He makes meanings clearer,
For patience, indeed he is the best teacher,
He taught us what it meant to be
A truly happy family

Working together,
Supporting each other,
Bit by bit,
Things got better,

Sure there are ups and there are downs,
There are days when we just frown,
But we dug real deep and then we found,
That communication without words is all around,

It's in his laugh, his walk, his face,
He taught it all with autistic grace,
To help each other, we learnt to see,
The way things were in his little feet.

He showed us what it meant to cry
But …
He also showed us the true meaning of a smile,
His smile can light up any room
More radiant than the shiny moon.

Life is better,
We are stronger,
Hand in hand we work together,

Farid you have made us see,
The joy in every little deed,
We cherish every moment spent,
Even with all the little dents.

So now let us play, let us cuddle with joy,
For now life is complete with our darling little boy.

North Borneo Toyota Christmas Wonderland...

Thought I'd share this email I received from Dads and Daughters.

We learn in the childhood nursery rhyme that little girls are made of “Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice.” How does a “sweet and nice” little girl become a police officer, a stock broker, or an astrophysicist? The prism through which we view the world is placed over our eyes from our youngest days, and it creates gender bias and unrealistic expectations for both girls and boys. Perhaps the so-called “fairer gender” would simply prefer a world that is fair, fair to them as people.

The currency of the modern workplace is knowledge. This is not gender-specific. Both men and women are needed in the knowledge workforce. Yet women are still under-represented in the sciences, mathematics and engineering. Have our earliest perceptions about girls and women caused this? Do the stories we read and watch in earliest childhood condition us to steer girls away from certain types of educational pursuits and career objectives?

We believe that the aspirations of a young girl should be valued and nurtured. Fathers are crucial to this process as they can help demolish the barriers that society relentlessly raises when it comes to girls.

Guess who??

My talented friend AmyHeidi's thoughts on language, culture, and tradition struck a chord with me. Being a product of mixed parentage, I could relate to her comments on how she never learnt the dusun dialect from her grandmother.

Its so sad isnt it when a tradition or language just fades away over time because its not passed down between generations... I'm equally guilty of this.

I am fortunate enough to be fluent in some dialects of chinese, partly due to my propensity for absorbing languages rather quickly, but largely due to the fact that my maternal grandma lived with us throughout my childhood and she only spoke chinese.

Much as I would love to pass down my chinese heritage to my children, it feels like an uphill battle and the way I'm going, I doubt I will succeed.

It saddens me to think that my chinese heritage will end with me...

He ain't heavy, he's my dangdut brother...

Dear Friends,

This week US President George Bush became almost the last man on earth to support a failed Middle East strategy. The conservative-leaning “Iraq Study Group” - including top figures from Bush's own Republican Party - has just released its long awaited recommendations and condemned virtually every aspect of America’s current approach to the Middle East.

The report is not perfect, but it echoes almost every call to action the Ceasefire Campaign has made since we began in August: it calls for Bush and other leaders to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to talk to Iran, and switch to a diplomatic strategy for stabilizing Iraq that includes the withdrawal of US troops.

The global pressure on Bush to change course is now intense, but he is still holding out. Click below to add your voice to the chorus calling for Bush to adopt the report's key recommendations for change:

www.CeasefireCampaign.org

Our last petition on Iraq, signed by almost 80,000 Ceasefire Campaigners, was covered by US media in key outlets, and our ad was published in papers in London and Washington. A major response from people around the world at this critical moment is likely to get press attention in the US, and up the pressure on President Bush.

With the release of Iraq Study Group report, every sensible voice from across the political spectrum is now pleading with Bush to change course. Please add your voice here:

www.CeasefireCampaign.org

There are enormous dangers and challenges in Middle East, but there is also great opportunity. A strong diplomatic effort can reverse the cycle of conflict, and Bush is the last man on earth left to convince.

With hope,

Ricken, Galit, Rachel, Tom, Amparo and the rest of the Ceasefire Campaign Team.

Production Begins...

I've started printing the calendars and some people have already taken delivery of their copies. Thank you very much for your support and honoring your pledges!

For those who have ordered, I will make sure that your orders will be ready for collection at BIT Computer in Kiulap by next week. Stay tuned for more updates on the right column.

For those who haven't ordered, please click here to do the right thing. If the order form doesn't work, don't worry, you can always email me by clicking here with your name, hp no, email address, and how many you would like.

Connecting Canadians Part Deux...

Related pictures

Speed...

I just love this summary done by Bahapakitani on my calendar project. Kalau exam membuat summary ah, dapat kelulusan cemerlang dah ni heheh:

Exclusively done by: AnakBrunei

Price: $5 each

Support Charity: Half of the profits from each sale will be donated to SMARTER (Society for The Management of Autism Related Issues in Training Education & Resources)

About the Calendar:

• Original Photographic works done by AnakBrunei
• Printed on photographic quality paper
• Comes in A4 Size only
• Can personalize with a line of text of your choosing (e.g. names, special messages etc)
• Available for those in Brunei & outside Brunei

For more information: visit anakbrunei.blogspot.com or email anakberunai@gmail.com

Faces - Part 5

Faces - Part 4

Muchas gracias to Bruneian for letting me use his 50mm 1.4 USM lens which I am absolutely in love with! It's going on my xmas wishlist! :)

Christmas comes early...

Going once... going twice....SOLD

Taken at an auction held at the Empire Hotel using Bruneian's 50mm 1.4 lens. Mostly computers and office equipment. We scored five PCs at about 300 bucks each. Sweet... Besok lagi menyambung heheh!

Ucapan takziah: Deepest condolences from anakbrunei.org to the family of the late Dato Paduka Hj Sulaiman Hj Ismail, a strong advocate and leader in Brunei's e-government initiative, who passed away this afternoon. Al-faatihah. Semoga rohnya dicucuri rahmat oleh Allah SWT dan ditempatkan bersama orang-orang yang beriman.

Faces - Part 3

Thank you all for such an over-whelming response to the calendar project. Thanks to fellow bloggers Jewelle, Kantalensa, amieheidi, roses, Nonnie, Zadm, Bahapakitani, and R&al who mentioned it in their blogs. Hopefully more will do the same for this worthwhile cause. I am aiming to sell 1,000 pieces of this calendar and still have a long way to go. Need all the help I can get!

I am currently working on the pickup/payment points for the calendars. It may be at the SMARTER centers in Sengkurong and KB but that's yet to be confirmed.

For those who have ordered, thank you so much, kalau boleh tambah lagi heheh! Yang alum atu, jan malu2... I think you can do without a latte for a day, or two, or ten! Heheheh!

Click here to order! Hey! Be a man! Do the right thing!

AnakBrunei Charity Calendar 2007

Couple of days ago, fellow poklen and rabid blogger Ziq mentioned that he would be placing his order for my calendar. Well Ziq, its time to put your money where your mouth is!

Presenting the inaugural, exclusive anakbrunei.org Calendar 2007! It features some of my favorite works from this year. Obviously having to choose only 12 photos out of hundreds means some of my other favorites get left behind...

This glossy calendar is printed on photographic quality paper and comes in A4 size ONLY. It's printed individually so you can personalize it with a line of text of your choosing (e.g. names, special message etc) at the bottom.

How much is it you ask? Well, it's gonna cost you B$5.00 for each of these babies... WAIT! Before you start thinking its a ripoff, think about this... for every calendar sold, HALF will be donated to SMARTER Brunei - Society for the Management of Autism Related issues in Training, Education and Resources.

Pretty good value considering you will be buying an exclusive calendar (sure beats one of those half-assed free calendars that everyone will have lying around!) with twelve ORIGINAL photographic works by yours truly, AND you'd be doing your good deed for the day by donating to SMARTER Brunei.

All this for the price of a cafe latte? Nuff sed... click here to order and I will be in touch to arrange payment and delivery... even for you folks outside Brunei, we will arrange something. Anything for charity...

Note: While this is a small-scale personal project of mine, I am also looking at a larger scale, commercially printed charity calendar with the works of all the ultra talented Bruneian photobloggers out there. So all you Bruneian photobloggers, if you think this is a project you'd like to contribute to, click here to let me know!

Faces - Part 2

Faces - Part 1

This is the first of a series called "Faces". I've always been fascinated with the human face. The lines, the curves, the shadows, the blemishes, the hair, the colours, the scars... truly intriguing. I think of all things that I photograph, the human face is definitely my favorite subject... More to come.

Whisper: You know that new radio station which is supposed to start soon? On a dare, I submitted my CV. Heck I even submitted a demo.

Go on, have a giggle... on the house :)

10 stars, 5 love stories, 1 movie...

Tonight the missus and I went to catch the new Malaysian movie hit, "Cinta". There was quite a crowd at the cinema. I'm thinking its a guy thing, cos none of the guys I met wanted to admit they were watching "Cinta" opting instead to just smile sheepishly.

Noticeably, most of the audience were couples, and it wasn't just tonight, even Pablo took his bunny along last week. But then I guess no guy in their right mind would go watch this movie alone, and the ladies of course will drag their significant other to go watch it.

Anyway, the movie turned out to be brilliant! Both visually and substantively. The cinematography was very impressive. Some breathtaking scenes of KL and its surrounding areas. I must say, it was filled with lots of eye-candy from start to finish.

10 stars, 5 love stories, 1 movie. Thats the whole idea behind the movie. Call me cheap but I think its good value for money heheh! Not new by any means, but rather following in the genre of Love Actually, and Four Weddings and a Funeral and thats ok cos it works.

The movie takes you through a rollercoaster of emotions from happiness, to sadness, to anger, to sorrow, and then back to happiness only to repeat the ride all over again. Every sequence was crafted to push a particular button and push the button it did! It was both an exhilirating and cleansing experience.

This is definitely one of THE malaysian movies of the year in my book, and I'd imagine, many others' books as well. I give it five stars! If you haven't, go watch it with a loved one. Money well spent! FIVE stories in ONE movie wat!

Check out my other reviews:

Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Brunei...

Finally made the switch to blogger beta. Turns out the customizations weren't as difficult as I thought they would be. Kinda looks the same... probably a bit better?

Highlights

• Can add page elements easily without going into the HTML template. This is probably the biggest improvement. Final result is lebih kemas dan rapi...
  
• Can control the fonts and colors from one interface (can pop-up some more heheh). There's also a useful function called shuffle colors which is good for color coordination challenged folks.
• Labels. This is an overdue feature which does wonders for organizing one's posts.

Lowlights

• Some scripts don't seem to work.
• No 3 column templates to start with
• Performance still hit-and-miss

Overall though, there's a lot to like about this new blogger and the short-comings, well they can only be fixed can't they?

Piring sini mari...

Sometimes, I only look at the advertisements in BB because stuff like this gets printed. I'll let LSM peel THAT onion thank you very much.

Sunset in the air...

How I wish we had one of these when I was in uni and living in a house with a bunch of mates. It'd have made it so much easier to settle quite a few heated VB fueled discussions I can tell ya!

Rajoo & the Jing Chew Crew...

Friday mornings are normally reserved for teh-c peng and roti panas-panas or roti kuning kawin bakar (oh and zeema kway teow! Tks for the reminder AneeSa heheh) at Jing Chew, an institution for breakfast among Bandarians... Hi Allen, long time no see buddy! :)

Loading up the barge...

Sebuah cerita seram sesuai untuk malam Jumaat ani...

Some years back, there was this BSP offshore guy who ordered a Toyota Supra from NBT. At the time, the Supra was the japanese equivalent to KITT from Knight Rider and this guy special ordered it in midnight black etc to match KITT.

Needless to say he was very excited when he was called one Thursday morning and told that the car had arrived. Since it happened to be his week off, he decided to hitch a ride to Bandar and work on the car registration.

After all the registration was settled, he of course drove around bandar lah, at the time Yaohan was THE place to lepak. He met some friends there and they basically lepak until late night.

At 11pm+ this guy looks at his watch and decided its time to head back to Seria. So he bids his friends goodbye and goes on his way. While driving along the old road to tutong (alum ada highway masa atu), he realizes its malam Jumaat. Kambang cia bulunya... Suddenly the road ahead turns foggy... He tries to think of other things and turns up the stereo.

Just past Tutong town, kambang lagi bulunya... and he senses something in the rear view mirror and he takes a look... Ada this lembaga putih and its tailing his car from behind!! The guy got so shit scared he floors the pedal and just absolutely guns it! He begins to lose this "makhluk" and sees that its no longer in his rear view mirror. He heaves a sigh of relief...

Just as he is about to cross the telisai bridge, the car engine stalls and dies on him... The windows roll down by themselves... By this time, the guy is shittin his pants and baca2 sudah... Before he knows it, the "apparition" is outside his window looking straight at him...

"ADA TISSUE WANG??", screams the apparition. Horrified, this guy immediately hands over the tissue box he had bought earlier that day at Yaohan. The apparition grabs a few sheets and begins to wipe down his sweat. "LAJU kerita mu ani wang eh! Kerita apa kian ni??", questions the apparition. "Sssssupra", said the guy to which the apparition replied....

"LAJU BANAR EH KERITA ANI! BIASANYA KALAU KU MENGUYONG MUTUKA ANI AH, MANA SAMPAI KE JAMBATAN ANI!!"

Glossary (Sorry ah Jewelle hehehe!):

• Mutuka - Vehicle/Car
• Menguyong - To chase
• Makhluk - Being/Creature/Apparition/Spirit
• Lembaga - As above

Bagaikan lilin yang pajah...

Very interesting to note that a former top civil servant is now a regular contributor to The Brunei Times opinions column. His musings on Brunei affairs was a good read and I found myself nodding in agreement. It was not qute in the style of my friend Pat, but still, reasonably frank and direct. Unfortunately I only caught part 4. If anyone knows where I can get the rest of them online, pls give us a shout thanks.

Anyway, back to the musings, I do agree that within the civil service there is a lack of a sense of urgency. I am under no illusion that this trait is exclusive to our country's civil service. Just check out Yulius Nurendra Efendi's piece on getting a passport done in Indonesia, and you'll be thankful that in Brunei, its not as bad (does that make it better?)

On JTB's transition into TelBru, I agree that the corporatization has forced a sense of urgency into the workforce, but then again, in a relatively captive market, where you're ensured of stable income, I'm not sure if that sense of urgency is sufficient to ensure competitiveness.

Try competing in a market where at least 90 companies regularly bid for the same projects and there are very few projects to go around, plus you have to factor in long decision turnaround times. In this scenario, you had better be service oriented and fast because if you're not, someone else is gonna be.

Pehin's point on supporting and nurturing SME's is also one I agreed with. In any size economy, the keys to success for a business are the same, but the difficulty increases the smaller an economy gets, particularly if you are dependent on domestic (government driven) market. I am slowly coming to the painful realization that, "it takes years for successful SMEs, if ever, to grow, mature and bear fruits of job creation and income generation."

Pehin's final statement about strangling the geese which lay the economic golden eggs hits the nail on the head cos some of the geese are just about fully asphyxiated...

Update: Tracked down part 1, part 2, and part 3 of the series. All equally good reads and fodder for future posts I'm sure.

Yamaha YDP-625 Portable Keyboard...

It was April and the Aboriginals in a remote part of northern Australia asked their new elder if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was an elder in a modern community he had never been taught the old secrets.

When he looked at the sky he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the tribe should collect firewood to be prepared.

He was troubled by this and after several days he had an idea. He walked out to the telephone booth on the highway, called the Bureau of Meteorology and asked, "Is the coming winter in this area going to be cold?" The meteorologist responded, "It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold." So the elder went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.

A week later he called the Bureau of Meteorology again. "Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?" The meteorologist again replied, "Yes, it's going to be a very cold winter." The elder again went back to his community and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.

Two weeks later the elder called the Bureau again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" he asked. "Absolutely," the man replied. "It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters ever."

"How can you be so sure?" the elder asked. The weatherman replied, "There are reports that the Aboriginals are collecting firewood like crazy, and that's always a sure sign."

JIS Football Funday Pt II

And while we're on the subject of sports, below are some of the best double entendres in sport which never fail to make me smile:

Ken Brown commentating on golfer Nick Faldo and his caddie Fanny Sunneson lining-up shots at the Scottish Open: "Some weeks Nick likes to use Fanny, other weeks he prefers to do it by himself."

MIKE Hallett discussing missed snooker shots on Sky Sports: "Stephen Hendry jumps on Steve Davis's misses every chance he gets."

JACK Burnicle was talking about Colin Edwards' tyre choice on World Superbike racing: "Colin had a hard on in practice earlier, and I bet he wished he had a hard on now."

WINNING Post's Stewart Machin commentating on jockey Tony McCoy's formidable lead: "Tony has a quick look between his legs and likes what he sees."

ROSS King discussing relays with champion runner Phil Redmond: "Well Phil, tell us about your amazing third leg."

CLAIR Frisby talking about a jumbo hot dog on Look North said: "There's nothing like a big hot sausage inside you on a cold night like this."

JAMES Allen interviewing Ralf Schumacher at a Grand Prix, asked: "What does it feel like being rammed up the backside by Barrichello?"

STEVE Ryder covering the US Masters: "Ballesteros felt much better today after a 69."

US PGA Commentator - "One of the reasons Arnie (Arnold Palmer) is playing so well is that, before each tee shot, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them .... Oh my god!!!!! What have I just said?!!!!"

Ted Walsh- Horse Racing Commentator - "This is really a lovely horse. I once rode her mother."

New Zealand Rugby Commentator - "Andrew Mehrtens loves it when Daryl Gibson comes inside of him."

Pat Glenn- Weightlifting commentator - "And this is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning and it was amazing!"

And not forgetting Cricket - "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey"

Golden Smile...

I think by now, just about every Bruneian around the world who's got access to the internet has read the article in the Daily Telegraph. Nevermind the contents of the article (lets leave that to the lawyers and the law), the pictures were awesome! I must say, HRH has aged very well indeed. When I saw the pictures, one word came to mind, "Regal". Tell ya what... if ever there was a need for a poster boy for "royalty", HRH would be a prime candidate...

Voting has closed for JPG Magazine Issue 8. My thanks to those who took the time to actually sign up to JPG Mag in order to vote for my pic. Terima kasih daun kesum.

Incidentally, I got an email saying I've been listed in VFXY Photos, the prestigious photoblog syndication community. VFXY stands for quality in visual arts. To that end, VFXY tries to syndicate photoblogs that meet a certain quality standard. To be VFXY approved means to have already reached a high level of quality. For this reason, very few blogs (of the thousands available) make it into the participants’ list.

As you can imagine, I'm well chuffed!

Extract of the email:

Hi Muhammad,

Thanks for your submission to VFXY Photos.

Sorry for the delay. We have a lot of applications and to ensure quality of listed photoblogs we manually check them one by one.

Thanks for support and linking to us!

I've proudly added your photoblog. Thank you. Great photos!!!

If you have any question please feel free to contact me.

Lev Kolobov
Team VFXY
http://photos.vfxy.com
http://movie.leova.com

End note: I did a search on VFXY and sadly no other Bruneian photoblogs are listed yet. I assume no one's submitted yet, so c'mon G'Ferro, Mizi, Zadm, Kantalensa, Bruneian, Bald, Pixels-n-Grains, Puzian, Cat Eye, Sifu, and I'm sure there are others, submit your awesome sites lah and lets put Bruneian photobloggers on the map!

Showering Visit?

Mandi Belawat merupakan majlis yang diadakan bagi menyambut kelahiran anak sulung. Ia biasanya disambut dikalangan orang Melayu Brunei. Anyone care to expand on this?

Selamat Pengantin Baru...

On Sundays we attend weddings... nuff sed.

A Toda Cuba le Gusta!

Ahhh, what a night... Excellent crowd with a great mix of people.

Great Indian food from our friends at Popular Restaurant and lovely kebabs from me old mate Radwan of Sugar & Spice.

Latin Jazz and Salsa was provided by a trio of terribly talented gentlemen who call themselves Son2noS. Awesome latin music which got everyone gyrating and grooving.

Sweet... tks for having me D and A!

FYI: Asif and his Son2noS buddies Imi and James do corporate & private functions, tropical latin parties, and salsa dance tuition among other things. He can be contacted at 8812973 or son2nos@gmail.com tell him I sent ya heheh!

Aside: Muchas gracias to Emma for mentioning the org in her egg-sellent article on BlogSpeak @ Brunei Times.

Your ride or mine?

Pembeli: "Mas, telornya berapa sekilo?"
Penjual: "Telor ayam atau telor bebek?"
Pembeli: "Telor ayam."
Penjual: "Telor ayam biasa atau ayam kampung?"
Pembeli: "Ayam biasa."
Penjual: "Yang lokal atau yang import?"
Pembeli: "Yang lokal aja."
Penjual: "Yang lokalnya mau yang dari Jakarta , Bogor atau Depok?"
Pembeli: "Yang Jakarta deh..." (Sambil terlihat kesal).
Penjual: " Mau yang Jakarta Pusat, Barat, Timur, Utara, atau Selatan?"
Pembeli: "Mas ini jual telor atau mau jalan-jalan?"
Penjual: "Maaf Bu, saya penjual mie ayam di sebelah! Kebetulan yang jual telor lagi ke belakang. Saya disuruh ngobrol dulu sama pembeli sampe dia dateng."

'Tis the season to eat brownies....

Hohoho! Following the tremendous response throughout hari raya to our Superlicious ® Home-Baked Brownie Cookies (as served at Taurean Cafés nation-wide), we've decided to continue offering these delectable delights to you (regardless of whether you celebrate xmas or not heheh).

This batch of cocoa flavored pleasures will of course be packaged in a xmas theme (cos its xmas and all heheh). As usual, the price is B$15.00 for a jar of 100pcs. Special xmas offer, B$40.00 if you buy 3 jars :)

You want? Call or SMS 8775530 to order! (For orders to be delivered before xmas morning, please place your order before 20th December)