Cheque Presentation @ Pusat Ehsan

This afternoon, the committee members of Brunei Association of Hotels (BAH) lead by its President, Ms. Cynthia Bong presented a cheque of B$10,000 to Tuan Hj. Ahmad, Chairman of Pusat Ehsan Al-Ameerah Al-Hajjah Maryam at the latter's premises in Kg. Bengkurong Masin. This amount was raised from BAH's 2nd Charity Gala Dinner held at the Empire Theatre on 7th November 2009. A big "thank you" to Ms. Cynthia Bong and her team of volunteers for their tireless effort and commitment to help the needy and less fortunate.

Gabriel & Rachel's Wedding

Last night was Gabriel Lim and Rachel Tan's wedding held at the Phongmun Restaurant in Bandar Seri Begawan; incidentally, Phongmun Restaurant is owned by Gabriel's father, Mr. Lim Chai Huat who is an old friend as both of us hailed from West Malaysia and both of us have stayed in Brunei for more than 28 years. I can see that the dishes on this occasion were specially prepared and were delicious. I managed to snap 3 photos before my camera battery went flat! The photo of the newly weds were taken on my Nokia E71 which is why the quality is not so good! Anyone with better quality photos, please e-mail to me; thanks... Update: Managed to get a copy of Gabriel & Rachel's photo from Richie's Facebook profile....

Kok Wei & Siew Yen's Wedding

Yesterday, I received a wedding invitation, together with a photo of the new couple, through the mail from an old classmate (Mr. Lee G. K. from Secondary School and no, my classmate is not getting married!) and his son, Kok Wei, is getting married next month. I've met Kok Wei a couple of times during my trips to Johor and he was chubbier then; he seems to have slim down and looks great now. The wedding dinner will be held on 12th December 2009 at the Maedo Restaurant & Lounge @ Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Skudai, Johor and I'm afraid I would not be able to attend due to my work commitment. Another classmate and mutual friend will be attending on my behalf. My apologies and congratulations to the lucky couple!

3rd Borneo Games in Brunei

The 3rd Borneo Games will be held in Brunei Darussalam from 29th November to 6th December 2009. Nine sports will be contested this year, ie. badminton, lawn bowling, athletics, pencak silat, sepak takraw, cue sport, gasing, hockey and tennis. Football has been dropped following Labuan's withdrawal and without the mandatory three teams participating (Brunei and Kalimantan were the other two teams), the football event was therefore excluded from the Games. Sabah and Sarawak were the other two teams which declined participation although the Borneo Games has no affiliation with FIFA or the AFC (could their decisions not to participate be due to the case of Brunei Amateur Football Association (BAFA) being suspended by FIFA?). Brunei will be hosting participants from Sabah, Sarawak, Labuan, Kalimantan and Malacca later this month so let's welcome them with our Bruneian hospitality!

Farewell, Hubert!

Tomorrow will be Hubert's last day at Patisserie Cake Shop after slightly more than a year there. He will be furthering his studies in Kuala Lumpur and we wish him all the best in his new endeavour (do study hard and don't fool around, hehe). Hubert is a happy-go-lucky guy and we will certainly miss him. Good Luck and Farewell, My Friend....

Wedding Expo @ The Mall

Patisserie Cake Shop is participating in the Wedding Expo held at The Mall from 11th to 15th November 2009. Above are some wedding cake samples; these are "dummy cakes" which are for display only. Assorted cookies and cakes are also sold at the Wedding Expo. Source: Patisserie Cake Shop

Patisserie's Unique Creations

I was deliberating on whether to post the above photos for a while and finally relented as I believe such beautiful works of art should be shared. The above cakes were ordered by a VVIP last week (hence my hesitation) and it is exclusively available at "you know where". Source: Patisserie Cake Shop.

BAH 2nd Charity Gala Dinner 7th Nov 2009

BAH's 2nd Charity Gala Dinner took off smoothly last night at The Empire Theatre. A $10,000 donation was handed over to Pusat Ehsan Al-Ameerah Al-Hajjah Maryam as part of BAH's social responsibility to help the less priviledged. This event would not have been possible without the support of various organisations, namely, The Empire Hotel & Country Club (who sponsored the fantastic premises and staff), CityNeon Advertising, Brunei Press, Kristal FM, Superwater Marketing (sponsor of RainFresh "oxygenated water" for the event) to name just a few and not forgetting all the volunteers from BAH's Sports & Social Club. Many thanks to all the guests who took the time to attend this function and for their generosity. BAH has pull it off once again! Congratulations!

BIBD's Customer's Appreciation Day

Yesterday, Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) held its "Customer's Appreciation Day" at The Jerudong Park Polo Club. The event was from 2.00pm to 5.00pm and guests were treated to high tea and there was also a lucky draw with some fantastic prizes such as laptop, iPod, LCD TV, etc. given away to some lucky customers. As usual, I do not have any luck with this lucky draw!

AMEX Charter Member Card

Finally, my AMEX Gold Charter Member card has arrived! AMEX has changed my account numbers so I will have to update my PayPal account, my Network Solutions account, RBA's card verification waiver and others which I can't think of right now. The other difference in the card is the words "Charter Member" on the front of the card. For security reasons, I've erased and substituted all the numbers with "threes" (for good luck! initially, I replaced the numbers with "zeros"), so nobody can use it for online purchases! The 4 digit security numbers has been erased as well. I make sure that the new card works by swiping it at my workplace's card terminal before destroying the old card. I will probably have to destroy a few more Malaysian-issued cards before the RM50 service charge per card kicks in next year!

Indu's Birthday

Last night, we celebrated Indu's birthday at the "Happy Union Restaurant" together with her parents. Indu is Salina's classmate at Seri Mulia Saujana International School (ex-PDS International School). She is from Kerala, South India and when her father, Prakash, mentioned Kerala; my mind flashed back to an "Onam" Festival which I attended years ago with some Indian friends from Galfar. "Onam" is the harvest festival in Kerala which usually falls on August or September each year (wonder when I would be invited to the next one?). Anyway, Happy Birthday, Indu!

Boustead Family Day

Boustead Sdn Bhd held a family day at its Beribi showroom today from 9.00am to 9.00pm. Various stalls were set up and the highlights of the day were two separate Lucky Draws for Nissan and Suzuki customers who purchased their vehicles between 21/8/2009 to 31/10/2009. I almost got a consolation prize when the winning number was called, it's 2275 and my number is 2274! I never had any luck with lucky draws anyway. Nevetheless, congratulations to the winners of the grand prizes! (B$20,000-00 for Nissan lucky draw and B$10,000-00 for Suzuki lucky draw).