As the year comes to an end, Mothercare and Bebeland will run a 3-day only Late Night Sale starting tomorrow, 28th December until 30 December from 9pm to 12 midnight.

Additional benefits and discounts will be given to the public throughout the sale period.

At Mothercare, the best deals on 12 products with the most number of online fan votes will be highlighted.

Bebeland will offer bargain deals on departments of toys, stationery, fashion, furnishing, and sports.

While Mothercare will offer special discount on display sets and additional mark down on fashion, home and travel, etc.

The sale will be held at Mothercare Kiulap and its other branch at Delima; while Bebeland at its Kiulap and Delima stores as well.

Check out the E-Class models at Jati Transport

Experimenting the Mercedes-Benz E200 with the auto pilot parallel parking and it was a success. Without playing with the gear and the brakes. Such a useful feature especially when you don’t have the confidence to do parallel parking within a limited time.

Previously I have driven the Mercedes-Benz E300 and then recently I had the privilege to drive the E200 which has an updated feature in the system. Both are equally good rides and E200 has lesser power of course but a more affordable ride than the E300.

The E200 is simply a nice ride. Elegant, I must say and as always, smooth like butter. I have preference of driving the C-Class because it suits my personality. Now I can see how the E-Class has evolved in terms of its vehicle design. It has a more modern and edgy look compared to the previous E-Class design. It also looks sporty feel to it.

I also love the Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive especially the fully automated parking. You simply just have to press the button while looking for a parking space – be it parallel or reverse parking – and just trust the E200 to be on auto pilot to park the vehicle on its designated spot. This means you don’t really even have to change gears (forward or reverse) or press on the brakes. Just let the E200 do the parking for you. It’s scary at first but the E200 is intelligent enough to detect its surroundings and park to almost perfection.

The interior has a great finish and again, an uplift, modern look for both the driver and passenger. It’s quite spacious as well which is a plus point for me.

Features are great such as the moonlighting and also the E200 has an already enabled Mercedes-Benz apps at your disposal. You can be fully connected to the system when you connect it to Wifi. I even tried surfing my blog on the display panel and it works fine. It’s just the tediousness to type the url on the address bar as there is no proper keyboard.

Once you are connected to the internet, you can also asked for navigation and maybe most of you will prefer to use the Internet Radio which is already pre-installed as part of the Mercedes-Benz apps.

There’s many to like about the E200 and it’s available for test drive too. You can contact Jati Transport or visit their showroom Autohaus at Beribi. If you ask me, the E200 would be my second preference after the C-Class (the C43 mmmmmm).

Love the moonlighting of the interior of the E200

Yes, you can even surf the net on the E200

There’s the Internet Radio once you are connected to the internet

Two days of driving the E200. I’m hungry for more.

Do drop by the showroom and check out the E-Class and also other models.

The #SocialMediaPurge that I have accepted for the next 12 days as my next challenge. You can still reach me on SMS, email and you can surely be updated through my blog.

DAY 1. Now it hasn’t been 24 hours yet and I’m already feeling weird and restless when I’m awake. My sleeping pattern totally changed. I’m still awake and it’s 4:15am. Maybe because I had a super long nap in the late afternoon that lasted 4 hours maybe (not a good way to nap and not recommended).

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it took a long hard decision to accept this challenge – #socialmediapurge – something I thought won’t be possible because half of my social media content relates with work. It is still possible if you can compromise and work your way around and the most important is to be mentally prepared.

The Maggi Purge was already a tough challenge where I have been addicted to Maggi Curry for more than 30 years and I treated it as my staple food. To simply cut the addiction wasn’t an easy task but I’m super glad I made the journey this far. It has been more than a year and I’m proud of it.

Now I have upped the game by challenging myself to a social media detox for 12 days which started from 12:00pm on 25th December 2018. Hence, I will be documenting my daily journey without social media and see what changes (internal and external) that I will go through.

A big thanks also to my friends who are also joining the #socialmediapurge for 3 days in supporting my cause. You can also give it a try and see how you feel about yourself. I’m sure you can do it. You just have to be mentally prepared.

Have you wondered how much time you spend on your phone? Just look at my stats which was a summary of my usage last week. Instagram has been part of my social media life and the stats shows how addicted I am.

I have shifted all my social media apps in a specific folder. The unread messages have been average. I shall only view them after the purge is over on 6th January 2019.

I did some shopping yesterday for my family friends’ children for the festive season. I also ended up receiving gifts from my friends too. Thanks Reuben, Allen, Fen, Ruey and Pranika for the gesture and the gifts. Thanks also to Nana for the lunch invitation. Love the food 😀

Awwwww… Thanks Pranika for this wonderful gift. Fitting to my current challenge indeed 😉

I spent too much time napping. Maybe I was tired from the night before or maybe I wasn’t use to not being able to access my social media, knowing that I still have access to my phone and wifi. Then again, I felt good after a good nap but I hope next time, it won’t be a long one as one of my aims of this purge is to make sure that I increase my productivity.

I spent time lazing in bed and caught some series and movies on Netflix. By the way, I caught Bird Box, Netflix original film, and I give it a 7. It had potential to be one of my Top 10 movies or even my honourable mentions. But it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Ah yes, I lazed too much in bed that I missed my dinner time. I had soto around 10:30pm and I kept munching here and there. Maybe it helped me to ease my withdrawals of this current purge and it has only been less than 12 hours.

Yay!! A good news though is that my friend is on the way back to Brunei. At least something to look forward in distracting my withdrawals. See you soon 😀

One of my friends joined the #socialmediapurge and this was her SMS tonight. Keep it up, my friend, and thanks for the support. It means a lot 😀

This was the state of my room at 1:00am and I was thinking to do something productive. I decided to clean up my room and I already had a long nap earlier in the day. So, why not? I purposely darkened the image so it won’t be an eye sore to you all :p

Yars!!! 50% done and I hope to continue tomorrow again. Shot taken at 4:10am today. Alright folks!! Time to head to bed..

Happy birthday, Alice (left) with Vincent Pao, General Manager of Concepts Computer with the new Iconia tablet

You can get for this price if you trade-in your old IT equipments

It’s been while since I’ve been playing with a tablet. Only sometimes I do and I’m not sure what the trends are now when it comes to tablets. But now with a competitive pricing, many brands are looking to make tablets more affordable than before.

Acer has recently introduced their latest Iconia model – Iconia One 7” and it’s only priced at BN 98. Yes, you heard that right. A tablet that costs less than BND 100. The only catch is that you can trade-in your old IT stuff or equipment to get this value. The trade-in items even include broken desktops, CPUs, printers and so on. The regular price of this tablet is BND 168. This is really ideal gift for a festive season and now it’s available from Concepts Computer.

The new Acer Iconia One 7 B1-790 tablet, a new and sleek 7-inch slate running Android, is targeted at young or new users or families looking for an affordable tablet for their household. This is also ideal for kids and children as entry level too and ideal for browsing, reading and watching videos or netflixing.

The Specs.
High-resolution display of 720 by 1290 dpi and IPS LCD Panel
Quad Core 1.3 Hz processor
16GB flash storage
Dual cameras
1GB memory ram
Battery life up to 7 hours on a single charge
250 grams, pretty light
Wifi connectivity

Vincent Pao, General Manager of Concepts Computer, said that their company will always listen to the needs of their consumers and hence why the affordable Iconia is now available in the local market. He believes the Acer Iconia One 7 B1-790 tablet will be a hit among consumers.

For more information regarding the Acer Iconia One Tablet or any other trade-in promotion, you ca visit Concepts Computer showroom or call 223 3551/2/3.

The trade-in offer is back again 😀

You can benefit good pricing for trade-in

You can bring in your old, broken IT equipments and enjoy the trade-in offer from Concepts Computer on selected items

Founder of Mahakarya Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Anak Hajah Nurul Amal Munjiatul Athirah binti Pengiran Sura Negara Pengiran Anak Haji Muhammad Bey Muntassir in a group photo with Deputy Permanent Secretary (Tourism) at the MPRT Wardi bin Haji Mohammad Ali, Charge D’Affaires from the Philippines Embassy in Brunei Darussalam Consul Pete Raymond V Delfin, Brunei’s first international female director Siti Kamaluddin, Kita-Kita film director Sigrid Bernardo, member of Filipino Film Critic Dr Roland Tolentino

A memento from the Embassy of the Philippines to Sit Kamaluddin

I’m such a movie fan!! Yesterday, I caught three movies and two of them are Filipino movies – Sonata and Kita-Kita, made possible by Mahakarya Institute of Arts and the Philippines Embassy in Brunei Darussalam. Ok, the other movie was Bumblebee but I shall focus on the Filipino movies since it’s the Brunei Film Blitz season. This is coming to the second week of @bruneifilmblitz and it has simply been amazing from the beginning.

Yesterday was the showcase of Filipino movies at Film Blitz. The audience had the privilege to watch three movies produced from the Philippines – Kakabakaba Ka Ba?, Sonata and Kita-Kita. My favourite was Kita-Kita though I have not caught Kakabakaba Ka Ba?

Yesterday the Embassy of the Philippines in Brunei Darussalam marked the 100 years of Philippine cinema in conjunction with the second edition of the Brunei Film Blitz 2018.

Attending the event were Founder of Mahakayra Institute of Arts, Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Anak Hajah Nurul Amal Munjiatul Athirah binti Pengiran Sura Negara Pengiran Anak Haji Muhammad Bey Muntassir, , Deputy Permanent Secretary (Tourism) at the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism, Wardi bin Haji Mohammad Ali, Charge D’Affaires from the Philippines Embassy in Brunei Darussalam Consul Pete Raymond V Delfin, Brunei’s first international female director Siti Kamaluddin, Kita-Kita film director Sigrid Bernardo, member of Filipino Film Critic Dr Roland Tolentino and Entertainment Editor of the Philippine Daily Enquirer Rito Asilo.

According to Consul Pete Raymond, the Philippine movie industry is one of the most influential phenomena in the Philippines as it provides not just commercial value but also employment and milestones.

It was nice to see the director of Kita-Kita Sigrid Bernado in Brunei who will also helped with the masterclasses as part of the Film Blitz workshop. She will share bits and pieces of her independent movie that became a multimillion box office success and talk on her special director’s cut of Kita-Kita and why she had two versions of Kita-Kita, where the other was a commercial release.

For more information for the scheduling of the workshops and power up classes, you can click here for bookings. Each of the workshop costs BND 20 and you will learn things such as Director DNA, Talking Pictures, Sonic Cinemascapes, Filming on a Budget, Directing Actors for the Screen and lastly, the 96 Hour Film Blitz Survival Class.

Sigrid Bernardo the director and Maria the film editor of Kita-Kita

Hjh Nurul Akmar Hj Md Jaafar, Head of Retail Banking, BIBD, showcasing a sneak peek of BIBD NEXGEN Wallet (NFC) which will kick off in January 2019

As part of BIBD’s efforts to support the de-cashing of the economy (meaning less reliance on real cash in hand), BIBD has already introduced digital conveniences such as BIBD Quickypay for QR code payments (introduced a few months ago), BIBD vCard or Virtual MasterCard, its MasterCard Contactless and Visa payWave under its BIBD NEXGEN platform.

There is still room for growth in this department and BIBD will soon up their game by using NFC (Near Field Communication) where all you need is tapping your smartphone only. This is quite common in the US and UK and even in China. This is where BIBD will come in as a pioneer by introducing BIBD NEXGEN Wallet.

This will be made possible once their next BIBD app version will be available in January 2019. It will be synced from the user’s debit or virtual cards to the NEXGEN Wallet which means you don’t have to fork out your debit cards and simply tap your smartphone on the payment terminal.

Hjh Nurul Akmar Hj Md Jaafar, Head of Retail Banking, BIBD, said that all the customers have to do is place or tap your smartphone on the terminal and it will automatically open the BIBD app and it will prompt you for a pin number. After being verified, the transaction will be complete. The cool thing about the BIBD NEXGEN Wallet is that it can function without internet, for purchases up to BND 100.

This is something many will be looking forward to and furthermore, BIBD is well prepared as most of their existing merchants have card terminals which are able to receive NFC payment. Awesome!! The only thing is that the NFC service will only be available for Android users. As for IOS users (Apple), BIBD will be in talks with Apple in hoping that NFC can be readied for BIBD users on IOS.

This is the way of the future indeed and I hope the traction will be higher once NFC become available in Brunei and thank you to BIBD for pioneering this technological move.

The next update of the BIBD App will have the NFC option

The crowd trickling in to check out the Mercedes-Benz models over the weekend. Yes, Jati Transport Autohaus showroom is open on weekends for customer viewing with refreshments included.

Mercedes-Benz is cruising toward the holiday season with great deals on selected car and SUV in its lineup including the C-Class, SLC, GLC, GLA, etc.

These models come with features including Apple CarPlay™ and Android Auto which allow the media system to display selected apps stored in your handphone, including navigation.

From now until end of the year, Merceds-Benz Autohaus has extended the showroom opening hours over the weekend, 10am to 4pm. The extended opening hours are aimed at providing an added luxury by being able to visit at a time of their preference.

The test drive will be available for most the latest Mercedes-Benz models including A-Class, one of the best sellers of 2018. I have test driven the car and it’s one of the best rides of 2018. Trust me 😀

Nabil Abd Kadir and I gave Aquaman a thumbs up

Aquaman review.

So have DC Extended Universe redeemed themselves for the lackluster product (Justice League, Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad)? Many would say that Aquaman could potentially be the deal breaker for DCEU in terms of its success and also the reception it will receive from movie-goers. I’m for one wasn’t all that thrilled when I watched all the trailers of Aquaman. I just happened to love movies so it was a no-brainer that I will eventually watch Aquaman.

Out went Zack Synder whom I really loved with his previous works such as Watchmen and 300. His influence on the DCEU have been so mediocre and I’m glad the studio decide to bring a fresher director and now we have James Wan who is well known for movies like the Conjuring 1 and 2 and let’s not forget, he directed his biggest movie to date in terms of box office revenue – Fast and the Furious 7. So to have him on board for Aquaman brings a fresher look on things and did he deliver on all fronts?

The Good. This, I have to agree, that having James Wan to direct an already troubled studio for DCEU, was a bold move but a better decision. The movie delivered higher than my expectations as I had reservations from their trailers. This is one of the those movies where you can excuse some of its cheesiness (many layers too) and also its silliness (aplenty). Other than that, I had a blast with Nabil who also gave an encouraging feedback because we both shared the same sentiments when it comes to the DCEU.

The half-Atlantean Arthur Curry aka Aquaman was played by Jason Momoa whom we all are familiar with from the Game of Thrones series. There were times his physique was purposely used to woo the female audience which I thought weren’t necessary. He was a much better representation of a superhero character and something that Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill lacked in this department.

I was also drawn by Mera, a princess from Atlantis played by Amber Heard (hottie) but I felt the movie tends to sexualize her presence on screen though it’s a PG rated film. It must have been all those subtle curves that raced the blood to our hearts :p I was surprised to see Nicole Kidman on screen and there was too much CGI on her to make her look youthful.

As for the storyline and action sequences, it was commendable. Perhaps, many would talked about the final act of the movie which was a huge improvement from an already well-received DCEU movie, Wonder Woman. Yes, this one I would agree and I would give an extra point for this.

And lastly, for the Good part, is the CGI effects on Aquaman. It wasn’t as messy and eye sore like that in Dawn of Justice and Man of Steel especially in the battle scenes. Even the portrayal of Atlantis was visually ambitious and stunning. Yea, yea, there were times when the CGI can be problematic and reminded me of our hit local movie, Bodyman. Kidding, kidding, but I was just saying how it wasn’t up to a blockbuster kind of CGI.

The Bad. Well, it’s a DCEU movie, right? Many could have gone wrong but it didn’t. James Wan managed to fix those broken pieces in DCEU but I can still feel the cheesiness and cringeworthy moments in Aquaman. It was almost at borderline but I was glad it didn’t go to Twilight level.

The silly moments were tolerable but I wasn’t totally affected by it. Definitely no “Martha” kind of materials in Aquaman. If you were to analyze this movie as much as I did, you will probably know what I am referring to on those silly moments. I guess the screen writers (Will Beall, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick) could have work better on this and I wouldn’t mind increasing my rating for this movie.

Like I said before, Aquaman has its silly moment, campy at times but it was a ridiculous fun ride.

The Ugly. I have no comments on this because I truly enjoyed this film from beginning to the end.

Final verdict: A movie that all of you should dived in to :p because it’s gonna be a great swim till the end. Rano’s score: 8/10 Nabil Abdul Kadir: 8.5/10

Aquaman on Rotten Tomatoes so far