29th Anniversary of My Stay in Brunei!

The year of birth has been pixelated to hide my true age!

Immigration arrival stamp - 29 March 1981.

29th March 2010 will be a very significant date in my life as it marks the 29th Anniversary of my stay in Brunei! I arrived in Brunei on 29th March 1981 from Singapore after successfully applying for a job as a receptionist at Angs Hotel (now known as Terrace Hotel). I couldn't refrained myself from laughing after looking at that passport photo of mine which was taken thirty one years ago! The strange thing is that one of my colleagues actually couldn't recognize "yours truly" in this photo! The long hair (hippie culture was popular then) and the over-sized spectacles were really funny (back then it must have been trendy) but today I would never sport long hair or wear those glasses for a thousand bucks; a million bucks, maybe (for a day or two)! Must be a sign of old age.... LOL.

Brunei Association of Hotels' AGM

From left: Rashidah, Ho, Shamsul, Pg Dato, Hjh Hadijah, SL and Desmond.

From left; Shamsul, Ho & Conrad.

The new President and Vice President.

Roy, Sharifah, Bambi, Jack and Yen.

The Brunei Association of Hotels (BAH) elected new office bearers for 2010/2011 at the Members' Lounge of the Empire Hotel's Country Club this afternoon. The new officer bearers are Shamsul Ahmad (President from Orchid Garden Hotel), Pg Dato Jaluddin (Vice President from Nazira Guesthouse), Ho Guan Hui (Honorary Secretary from Brunei Hotel), Simon Leong (Honorary Treasurer from Traders Inn) with Desmond Archeson (Empire Hotel), Rashidah Hassan (Rizqun Hotel), Hjh Hadijah (Halim Plaza Hotel) and Peter Feran (Radison Hotel formerly known as Sheraton-Utama Hotel) as Executive Committee Members. The three new faces in the Executive Committee are Rashidah, Ho Guan Hui and Peter Feran but let's not forget to thank Cynthia Bong (outgoing President), Alex Riva and Jeffrey Tan (outgoing Executive Committee Members) for their outstanding support and contributions to BAH. 

Traders Inn's New Uniform

The staff of Traders Inn have moved from the norm and are now dressed more casually in T-shirts; creating a more friendly and relax environment for its guests. By using T-shirts, it is also more economical to replenish once stocks are low and there are no worries about staff resigning and not returning their uniforms (we used to have tailor-made uniforms which were expensive to replace). Anyway, the staff (especially the bell boys) look neat now with the new T-shirts as there are no more roll-up sleeves and missing bow-ties! The T-shirts were supplied by Aewon Garment & Embroidery Sdn Bhd, a company that started in 2002 and is now one of the biggest player in the garment industry in Brunei. The thing I like about this company is that they will accept any orders big or small. Besides T-shirts, they also supply ties, aprons, caps, souvenirs, bags, etc....

Brunei Basketball Association's CNY Celebration

The swearing in ceremony.

The VIP Table.

The "excellent" students.

Last night I attended the Brunei Basketball Association's "Chinese New Year Celebration" at the Caesar Grand Hall of Orchid Garden Hotel which was attended by about 300 guests. The new committee for 2010/2011 was sworned in; in a ceremony lead by Dato Lim Beng Thai. This was followed by a presentation of certificates and "ang pows" to 32 students who achieved academic excellence last year. Of course, there were the ever popular Lucky Draw and karaoke sessions in which the guests showed off their singing talents! 

Dell's Superb After-Sales Service!

The problem!

The motherboard.

The graphic card.

I have been using and recommending Dell laptops since 2005 with my first Inspiron 700M and along the way, I've purchased more than 14 units for myself, my kids and friends and the most recent purchases were two mini 10v's. Before switching to Dell, I've been using a Compaq laptop. Besides being very reliable, the other two reasons why I love Dell are their superb after-sales service and their international warranties for laptops. My Dell Inspiron 1420 (which I purchased in November 2007) failed me late last Saturday so I shot off an e-mail to Mr. Darius Lim of Dell Malaysia (I've dealt with Darius a couple of times) and received a reply from him on Monday that he will forward my complaint to the Inspiron team. The Inspiron team (a Mr. Chong) called me on Tuesday and a Dell technician was at my office on Wednesday morning (that's today) and the problem was solved in less than an hour. By the way, my Dell 1420 comes with a three years' warranty so the repair was free! They have to change the whole motherboard as the faulty graphic card was intergrated into the motherboard. Thanks, Paul (the technician) and the entire Dell team for their professionalism and prompt response to my predicament. Guys, I really appreciate it!

Wu Chun @ Traders Cafe!

Leila with Wu Chun.

SanSan with Wu Chun.

Henny with Wu Chun.

Wu Chun was spotted at Traders Cafe last night! Yes, at the cafe located at the far end (near the main road) of Traders Inn. Our three colleagues were lucky enough to take pictures with him and the pictures were posted on Facebook in double quick time! No wonder they were showing the "victory" signs (or "peace" signs?).

Staff Reunion @ Berakas Recreational Park

Existing and ex-Front Office staff of Traders Inn gathered for a reunion & BBQ at Berakas Recreational Park (Taman Rekreasi Hutan Berakas) yesterday evening. The park is located along the Jerudong Highway near a beach (quite easy to find as there are giant replicas of "insect eating plants" at the entrance near the road) and was specially built for family or friends outings as there are a few BBQ pits and shelters around the park. Quite a number of ex-staff turned up (I saw the invitation posted on Facebook!). Kudos to Marissa and Chloe for arranging this reunion at such short notice!

Kimchi Restaurant @ Regent Square

The appetizers.

Korean BBQ.

Korean Egg Rolls.

Ginseng Chicken Soup.

Last night was the second time I dined at Kimchi Restaurant since it opened in March last year. It occupies two floors at a shophouse at Regent Square (in Kiulap) and I must say the interior designer did a great job as the ambience and atmosphere were fantastic. We had BBQ (we ordered two portions of beef, chicken and lamb) but the BBQ portions were slightly small as the meat were thinly sliced (except for the "Ginseng Chicken Soup" which was big) and if not for the small bowl of plain rice I had; I couldn't have last through the night! As for the food; I cannot comment since I'm not a huge fan of Korean food but I'm sure Korean cuisine aficionados out there would definitely love the food here! Nevertheless, the staff were friendly and the service was great!

Hot Point Cafe & Restaurant

Almost ate the bone as well! LOL..

Braised Lamb Shank, yummy!

Teriyaki Chicken Chop.

This afternoon, I had lunch with Jacob at Hot Point Cafe & Restaurant as we heard that this place is not bad. It's located on the first floor of the Mall, opened sometime last month and used to be a Japanese Restaurant which didn't worked out. Jacob ordered the Braised Lamb Shank (noticed quite a number of restaurants serving Lamb Shanks these days!) and I took the Teriyaki Chicken Chop. I sampled a bit of the Lamb and it was delicious. My Chicken Chop was also good except that it was slightly cold when it was served (maybe it was left in the kitchen for a while). When we left at about 1.20pm, there were still quite a number of customers there. Price-wise, it's also quite reasonable considering the rental at the Mall is not cheap!