iCentre will turn 5 soon and they will be celebrating it this Friday 15th March. Open for public too.

 

Twice daily to Kuala Lumpur starting May 22nd

 

Her Royal Highness Princess Hajah Masna, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was the Guest of Honour last night

ASEAN-Korea Centre hosted the ‘2013 ASEAN-Korea Festival’ in Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam from March 8-13, 2013.

The festival celebrates the two important events of the 40th year of diplomatic relations between Korea and Indonesia, also termed the ‘Korea-Indonesia Friendship Year’, and Brunei’s chairmanship to ASEAN. For this special occasion, the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts in Busan, will exhibit Korea’s traditional beauty through chamber music (Korean Drama OST, Korean and local folk music), court music and dance, folk music and dance, as well as a neo-traditional dance.

They recently finished their show at Jakarta and Surabaya and last night they performed at the JIS Art Centre, Brunei Darussalam. His Excellency Mr. Hyong O Kim, former Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, headed the delegation. The guest of honour last night was Her Royal Highness Princess Hajah Masna, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

One of the reasons for cultural show initiated by the ASEAN-Korea Centre was to celebrate the ASEAN Chairmanship of Brunei Darussalam as highlighted by H.E. Mr. Hyong O Kim. The event was split into two – Chamber Music and Korean traditional dance.

From the Chamber Music, the musicians performed music from Korean Drama Original Soundtrack such as The Great Jang Geum and Winter Sonata and they played some traditional Korean number such as “Spirit of Go-ru-ryeo” and “Sin-pu-ri” and furthermore, they performed two Brunei folk songs, “Dang Mengalai” and “Alus Jua Dindang”.

For the Korean traditional performance, they had five performances – Pungryuakjimu, Gyeong-gi-minyo, Chun-aeng-jeon, Cheong-seong-ja-jin=han-ip and Bu-Cha-Chum (Fan Dance).

A big thanks to the Embassy of Republic of Korea to Brunei Darussalam for the invitation. I also become aware of the existence of ASEAN-Korea Centre which is an international organisation established since 2009 where its aim is to increase trade, accelerate investment flow, invigorate tourism and enrich cultural exchanges between ASEAN Member States and Korea. I look forward to engage with our local representative from ASEAN-Korea Centre for possible opportunities.

The official poster of ASEAN-Korea Festival 2013

The Korean performers

At the reception

His Excellency Mr. Hyong O Kim who headed the delegation for ASEAN-Korea Centre

Kim was the emcee for the night. You did well. Love the pacing 😀

One of the songs they performed was the theme from Winter Sonata

This percussionist was awesome

The lady played the Haeguem, a two-stringed fiddle, that has no finger board and is played vertically on the left knee with a bow scraped against two silk strings. I kinda love her solo performance.

The Sanjo Ajaeng instrument which is a horizontal zither and it produces melancholy tones

The soloists who sang some numbers and even our own folk songs

My buddy loves the JIS Art Centre and she doesn’t mind sleeping there *lol*

The Pungryuakjimu, a folk dance from Korea. It is a combination of the Tong-yeong Gyo-bang Jin-chum which is a dance based on the graceful feminine figure and the Dong-nae Hallyang-chum, a dance which shows mirthful spirit and leisurely poise through the fluttering dress of the dancer

The Chun-Aeng Jeon, a Court Dance. The dance depicts a nightingle singing on the branch of a willow tree on a spring day. The movements of the dancer are patterned to a tiny flower which also depicts the elegant movements of a nightingle.

The Bu-chae-chum, the Fan Dance performance that has been choreographed in modern times. I kinda love the performance

The lady behind the scenes

Group photo with the guest of honour

 

The last day of submission is 25th March

Hey peeps.. The competition is back yet again for the 3rd time running. The competition is organised by 1stopbrunei.com and they have been garnering a few local memes in the past few months.

As you may have know, there have been a huge rise in meme (not related to the competition) due to the controversial incident that took place in Tutong at the convenient store. It was a confrontation between the youth and an Indian man, the shopkeeper of the convenient store. The 7 plus minute video went viral and soon after, the local community created memes of their own to poke fun at the youth.

Below are some of the memes that have been posted on social media and it’s the in-thing now and I predict that this is likely to fade away. The photos and images posted are in a way offensive to some as it’s also poking fun at the other race and sometimes the questions remain if the intention behind the meme is to condemn the doings of the youth or vice-versa.

There are even pre-orders for the t-shirts hmmmm

 

Check out their next Fun Bee School Holiday Camp which will be more into baking – fun, fun, fun

Recently Fun Bee Park held their own Fun Bee School Holiday Camp 2013 for kids where they will explore different medium of crafts from traditional, modern, scrapbooking to upcycled crafts. They also made a visit to the Brunei Arts and Handicraft Centre too.

Next week, it will conduct Bee a Lil Baker which will be from March 18 to 21 from 8:30am to 1:30pm. Over the four day period, the kids will bake and frost a two layer cake cookies and bread. All ingredients and recepies will be provided. So this will be a fun activity definitely for kids.

And for those who want to join this camp, they are still open for Registration today 🙂 To register, just text or call us 2457729 or 7178232 at Fun Bee Park.

The activities that was held for the craft session

The activities that was held for the craft session

The activities that was held for the craft session

It’s happening next week – baking camp and this is the kitchen area of Fun Bee Park

Great range of books to read from

Kids having fun at Fun Bee Park

Cecilia Lee the founder of Fun Bee Park gave me some souvenir from Indonesia and she even gave me some chocolate from Patchi 😀 Thanks a lot. Appreciate your kind gesture.

iCentre will turn 5 soon and they will be celebrating it this Friday 15th March. Open for public too.

School holiday promotion from Concepts Computer

Twice daily to Kuala Lumpur starting May 22nd

 

Ah.. sorry for the late post. I’m supposed to post this up a few days – the most talked about wedding of GD and Maurina who are currently enjoying their honeymoon. Anyway, why it is the most talked about wedding was because of its uniqueness and venue of the Bersanding which took place by the beach area near Tarindak at Jerudong.

Now this is a very rare occasion especially when it comes to beach weddings in Brunei and furthermore, it’s a Malay wedding where the “Pelamin” is normally indoors. So I thought it was very courageous of the newly weds to have their Bersanding by the beach side and it happened quite early in the morning (around 9:30am). It was also a blessed morning as the weather was good though it was getting pretty hot after 10ish am. Good thing that it didn’t rain at all.

Maurina disclosed that her wedding didn’t cost much to set up especially at the beach area. The money spent was estimate in the region of BND 10,000 to BND 12,000 and I thought that is a pretty good deal indeed. Normally indoor weddings especially at rented halls will cost a fortune due to the number of pax of people and a lot of props and design also add up to the cost.

The wedding celebration was one unique occasion and I won’t be surprise that many will follow suit. I’m still surprised on the expenses spent on their wedding. So Maurina, you can be my wedding consultant when the time comes *lol* Enjoy the honeymoon and Happy Birthday to you my friend.

 

Hello Music Lovers! ^_^ The tickets for Global Beats in Local Steps: You, Me & Music Concert are up for grabs now for only $2!! Local Bruneian Artists as well as UBD talents will be performing! 😀

Please kindly come visit their booth to make your purchase!

Date: Tuesday (12th March 2013) 1pm – 4pm & Wednesday (13th March 2013) 10:30am – 4pm.

Venue: Student Centre, UBD.

We’ll also be accepting early bookings to avoid disappointment so you can just contact these numbers via Text Message or Whatsapp! Zaimah – 8820113 Nisa – 8997077

 

It’s all just a rumour

Yesterday on 12th March, calls were flooding in to KFC’s outlets and office asking about free food that were to be given away in conjunction with their 60th Anniversary as they have received the news via Whatsapp.

The management of KFC would like to inform the public that the news is a false rumour. KFC has only just celebrated their 20th Anniversary last year and have yet to reach 60 years. The management further encourages their customers to follow KFC Brunei on facebook and also to download KFC Brunei’s mobile phone apps (available on both iPhone and Android mobile phones) to follow up on their latest news and promotions so that they can verify any information that they have heard.

KFC would also like to take this opportunity to inform their customers that their new website http://www.kfcbrunei.com, is currently under construction and will be available soon. The old website, http://www.kfc.com.bn, has been discontinued and will no longer be updated.

Ok based on this statement, I would have assumed that it was actually a joke where the image of live chicken in a bucket supposed to appear right after the forwarded message on Whatsapp. I believe this is the same incident that happened when people were spreading about the big fight in Bandar where a picture of Ultraman and a monster were photoshop-ed at Bandar. So I presume that the messages of the KFC prank or joke weren’t completed and hence people start spreading just the text or the content of the forwarded message without the image.

Drive thru coming soon

Now this is something that many have been waiting for. This story of a drive thru was back dated to 2009 and finally it’s gonna happen soon. Del Goh, who was the Marketing Manager then in 2009, wished for the possibility of a drive-thru outlet but I believe it’s not as easy as it seems as they required a whole building to make this possible and of course, the location as well.

The location of the new KFC Drive-Thru is at Sengkurong and some of you will be able to view the physical existence of KFC new outlet which has yet to be opened. This will be the first fast food out that allows a drive-thru service in Brunei. So peeps, stay tune for updates on this.

The tournament is back!!! The first leg will run from March 22-31 and a cybergame competition will be held parallel to the main event.

This is another collaboration with KFC and Fitness for the 3-on-3 Streetball Challenge. There will be three categories – Open, Student and Women. Entry fee is set at $240 for the open category while the student and ladies categories are only required to pay $200. There will be also one-on-one challenge, slam dunk competition and three-point shootout and another skill challenge which has yet to be set. Registration is still open but the deadline is soon though 😀

Both Good Game Event Management & Advertising and Trinity Advertising & Event Management are managing the tournament. More information can be obtained from KFC Fitness Zone 3-on-3 Streetball Challenge’s Facebook page or by calling Jacky at 7182907 or Winnie at 8833831.

The KFC Fitness Zone 3 On 3 Streetball Challenge set to happen from 22nd – 31st March 2013 at the Airport Mall will see other activities beside the main basketball tournament taking places with prizes over B$50,000 to be won. Organized by Good Game Management & Advertising and Trinity Advertising & Event Management, the 10 days event will see sales fair, and there will be a sub activity called the Ultimate Gaming Competition, set to feature popular games at Airport Mall, Berakas happening on March 22 and 24. 

Working with Integ Technology System (ITS) as the official gaming partner, the Ultimate Gaming Competition will feature 2 categories, FIFA13 on PS3 and League of Legends (LOL) on PC. Director Muhammad Zulhilmi of ITS is an experience Gaming event organizer and his team is behind the recently successful TelBru HSBB Gaming event that took place in February. Teaming up with ITS is Box Nation to facilitate the PS3 tournament. The Ultimate Gaming Competition will see prizes worth over B$2,000 to be won.

For more information about the Ultimate Gaming Competition and registration forms, please visit their Facebook page, ‘Integ Technology System’. For more information on the KFC Fitness Zone 3 on 3 Streetball Challenge’, please visit the facebook, KFC Fitness Zone 3 On 3 Streetball Challenge.

More great news comes from the KFC FZ 3-on-3 Streetball Challenge; another retired PBA player will be coming to Brunei.

This time will see Vincente Paul Martin Hizon, also known as Vince “The Prince” Hizon, being in Brunei from March 29 til March 31. Last year’s 3-on-3 tournament brought in retired Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) players Mark Telan and Chris Calaguio who both received warm welcome from the public and the organisers expect similar result with Vince’s upcoming visit. At one time, he became the most popular player in the PBA as well as the most popular sports figure in the Philippines according to the AC Nielsen Asian Rim Survey in 1998.

Vince Hizon, with a pro career of 11 years (1993 – 2004), played mostly with Ginebra and was known for his clutch three-point shooting and his slashing drives to the basket. In 2004, he became the first Filipino player to play professionally in the United States, then coached by retired NBA player Darryl Dawkins, a.k.a “Chocolate Thunder”. His upcoming visit to Brunei will see him playing in an exhibition game with the winners of the student and open category and also help out in the “Hopes In The Hoops” basketball clinic.

“Vince Hizon is a buddy of mine and he’s really good. We hope that by bringing him here to Brunei, basketball enthusiasts will grab this opportunity to learn from him,” said Erwin Velez, KFC manager and retired PBA player.

As part of the “Hopes In The Hoop” initiative, basketball clinic will be held from March 29 til March 31 at The Airport Mall from 2pm until 3.30pm daily led by Brunei’s Basketball National Team Coach Kevin Reece and retired PBA player Erwin Velez.

Registration is $5 per person and all revenue collected will be donated for a good cause. Schools that send teams to join the 3-on-3 March tournament will receive free jerseys and also have the registration fees for the basketball clinic waived for their players. On Friday, March 29, Vince Hizon will also be involved with the basketball clinic. For more information on the “Hopes In The Hoop” Basketball Clinic, check out KFC Fitness Zone 3 On 3 Streetball Challenge on Facebook.