Hj Azhar Hj Yahya, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Upstream) at the Energy Department, Prime Minister’s Office, spoke during the press conference relating to the upcoming Job Fair. Image courtesy of The Brunei Times

Over 50 booths tomorrow will take part in the Oil & Gas Service Sector Job Fair and this could open up doors to 100 job opportunities. The objective of the job fair is to bolster the oil & gas industry with 35,000 jobs by 2030.

During the press conference last week, Hj Azhar Hj Yahya, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Upstream) at the Energy Department, Prime Minister’s Office, said that the job fair is a “reality call” for everyone to make steep improvements and be innovative to resolve unemployment issues in Brunei Darussalam.

The ambitious figure of 35,000 is a tall order but this is very much possible in a long term. The figures are also accounted with foreign and local talents taking up the jobs in the upstream, downstream and service sector industries.

So guys, just drop by Bridex Exhibition Hall from 13th to 17th December and do check up on the poster below for the programs listed during the job fair. For more of the story, you can click here. Source: Al-Haadi of The Brunei Times.

It’s happening tomorrow

So peeps.. How has been lately? Sorry for the lack of updates as I’m not in town.. I missed the happenings back in Brunei 1) Brunei’s Edutainment World (Riverview car park area) 2) Times Square Carnival 3) B.mobile roadshow featuring Who’s Got Talent 3 finale 4) DST Year end Carnival 5) Come Together by NeoMusic School at Citis Square 5) Total dinner 6) Anugerah Pelangi and a few more others that I could have covered.

I’m currently enjoying time off from work and I shall be back on my RA duties come 19th December. There will be one minor event that FES Retro and I have created and this is for all the FIFA fans out there. As one of the FES Retro activities, there will be a mini-FIFA tournament which will be held between 23rd to 25th December. More details be given out on this matter and I’m sure there will be lots of interest for this tournament.

I’m still bummed that I can’t fly to Vietnam this December but my recent trip has made up for it and I can’t wait for the KL trip as I’ve been invited to Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards 2011 and I will finally get to meet blog superstars @xiaxue and @kennysia who are both nominated once again. I’m kinda excited to be among the 500 guest list for the prestigious event and if I’m not mistaken, I’m the first Bruneian to be part of this event. So definitely another milestone to be proud of 😀 Thank you, Nuffnang, and it will be a pleasure to meet the guys behind Nuffnang too.

Recently I attended Zoukout 2011 and it was my first time to such an event. I’ve heard so many stories of ZO over the years. Last year was one of the best gigs as it featured DJ Tiesto and David Guetta. This year, despite no big names, this event was still a crowd puller. It was bigger than last year though the capacity was at its max (28,000) and it lasted till 8am. Quite a number of Bruneians also attended the yearly gig and I’m pretty sure 2012 will be a big bang!!! Too bad I missed Armin’s spinning.. He apparently showed up at 5am *lol* As he quoted, “ZoukOut is like playing a match in the Champions League or Superbowl. It doesn’t get much bigger than this”.

Oh yeah, you might call me crazy but I ended up buying two compact camera. One is the S100 Canon and the other is the X10 Fujifilm. I was torn between two cameras while reading the reviews online. Both have their pros and cons but more of the positive comments of course. So in the end, I purchased two of them in a space of an hour *lol* (There goes my holiday budget for the mean time).

Canon Powershot S100. So what’s good about this powerful compact camera? It’s a good upgrade from the S95.. It has a wide aperture of f/2.0 which creates a nice bouquet on some of my shots lately. It produce hi speed movies (240 fps) and the wide angle lens is very useful for my coverage. Though it shoots well in RAW, I’m not a big fan of photo processing (time consuming). The GPS function is pretty cool though I have yet to make full use of the camera. This is a light, compact camera which can do wonders and this will give me a good reason to leave my 5D back at home on certain events.

The S100 is one super handy compact camera. Easily fits in your pocket and ready to go and powerful too!!! I love this camera already

Fujifilm X10. The aperture is also f/2.0 when it’s fully wide. This is another powerful camera which I have yet to fully utilized. I did a quick comparison and this camera has its minor flaws compared to the S100. However, the X10 works well in low lighting and the resolution is superb too. I have yet to try the “rapid fire” mode (10 fps) but I know this will come handy on my outdoor coverage. This camera is more expensive than the S100. I thought this would be a more than $1,000 but I ended up paying lesser than that which prompted me to buy the 2nd camera.

The X10 does wonders in low lighting and has a bigger censor than the S100. Surprisingly I love the S10 more than the X10 but the latter can perform shots that the S100 can’t.

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Hundreds of local music lovers throughout the country turned out in full force at the Jerudong Park Ampitheatre last night, as they cheered for some of Brunei’s popular music practitioners at the 2010 – 2011 Pelangi Awards, which was hosted by Pelangi FM, Radio Brunei.

What was feted as a night of musical promise, the event kicked off with live performances by award nominees who contended against each other across six categories – Chosen Male Vocal, Chosen Female Vocal, Chosen Duo/Group Vocal, Chosen Newcomer, Chosen Newcomer Duo/Group and Chosen Song – short-listed via criteria that included airplay, request and public voting.

The guest of honour was the Deputy Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, Dato Paduka Awang Hj Abdul Wahab bin Juned.

Zul Faden once again won the heart of the judges as he was announced the Chosen Male Vocal winner, followed by Qeez Idrus who dominated the Chosen Female Vocal category. As for the Chosen Song for 2010/2011, “I Stalk Your Profile” proved to be the most popular hit on record, composed by Jazz Hayat and Fakhrul Razi.

A Band Once also managed to make the cut this year in the Chosen Duo/Group Vocal category, followed by Dinshe, who debuted with “Kau Yang Terhebat” and received a victory in the Chosen Newcomer Duo/Group category.

Newcomer, AJ, who climbed to the top of the Brunei chart with his songs played by local radio stations was rewarded for his work when he was presented the Chosen Newcomer award.

Last night marked the fourth time that the music awards have been held, as it continues to be one of RTB’s events held in support of nurturing local artistes, but more importantly, to recognise them for their hard work and efforts in growing a fledgling music industry in the Sultanate. Text by Azim Karim (Borneo Bulletin), images by Dean Kassim (Borneo Bulletin)

The Guest of honor and the VIPs during the Pelangi Awards

Aziz Harun is so talented. I hope he grows bigger as an artist next year. Keep it up!!

Congrats to Dinshe for winning the Chosen Newcomer Duo/Group category

Jazz Hayat won Chosen Song 2010/2011 for “I Stalk Your Profile” written by himself and Fakhrul Razi

A Band Once made it twice in a row for winning the chosen Duo/Group Vocal category