The showroom at Bobby Electrical Company located at Unit 9, Ground floor, Block B, Abdul Razak Complex.

Some of the wall lights available at the showroom

Now that’s a milestone to know of a local company that has existed for more than 30 years. If you are looking for electricity appliances especially bulbs, switches or fans, then head yourself to Bobby Electrical Company showroom based in Gadong. To be more specific, they sell electrical engineering products, from industrial cables and accessories to even LED bulbs.

The in-thing now is the LED bulb and I own a few to myself because it’s very economical and environmental friendly since it uses less energy than normal bulbs.

It was the first time to visit the showroom at Gadong and they actually revamped the showroom back in March to showcase to their customers on the benefits of the bulbs (GE, Meagan and others) and switches the company supplies. I’m quite sold with one bulb from “Meagan” where it has bluetooth capabilities as the one I’m currently using requires WiFi or wireless connection.

You may not think of it but hey, switches are quite important too. Bobby Electrical have brought in different variety of switches for your home or office. They have the Legrand “Arteor” range of switches or if you prefer the “Mallia” range from the same brand, a much more affordable brand. You can view the products from Legrand here.

So if you are looking for a minor refurbishment for your home before Hari Raya, Bobby Electrical Company can tailor to your needs and wants.

Apart from switches and bulbs, the company also sell electrical fans (mounted on ceiling) and also water heaters. So do check them out 😀

Perhaps you want something efficient for your home, Bobby Electrical Company also bring in this awesome product Fibaro Home Centre, which can support up to 200 devices especially if you have a big home. This means you can preset the environment of the particular rooms to “dining mode” or “movie mode” or “working mode” and by just a press of button, that all can be achieved.

Since it’s payday, why not allocate a budget aside and beauty your space before the Hari Raya season. Bobby Electrical Showroom is located at Unit 9, Ground Floor, Abdul Razak Complex (not far from Escape Square).

The down lights for your ceiling

The switches from Legrand.

Another range from Legrand, a higher end.

The in-thing now for LED lights because the shape allows to be fitted in most socket

Testing out the lights

More range of switches that are available

My favourite Bluetooth ready bulb from Megaman

Something for Hari Raya and quite lasting too

Water heater for your bathroom

Electrical fans too

 

Almost the half way mark. It’s been a while since I actually blog, blog.. If you know what I mean. I’m still recovering from fever but the medication has been treating me well. So how have my year 2016 been so far? I would say it’s been amazing on many levels. A few ups and downs but mostly on the rise. Now let’s see how to categorize this in a simple manner.

Travels. It has been a slow period for my travels as compared to previous years. Surprisingly Singapore only once so far (or what is it twice?) I can’t remember but I did remember it was for the recent Volkswagen Sportsvan trip and a short one as well. I traveled to Taiwan (missed this city and it was raining cold then), Ho Chi Minh, Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Jakarta (too much traffic) as well.

I was more intrigued with my Ho Chi Minh trip because it has been 10 years since I visited the city. Back then, I was skeptical about my trip to Vietnam due to the passport issues that most Brunei Permanent Residents will face. It was known that the brown look-a-like passport known as Certificate of Identity (CI) has been an ongoing issue in other countries (not regional) but I was surprised that Vietnam made it difficult for CI holders. The best trick is to bring an official letter from the Vietnam Embassy in Brunei and show it to the immigration officer to make our CI document legit to enter their cities.

Other than that, I love Ho Chi Minh and how they have diversified as well as becoming more developed. Even the cinemas were up to scale like those in Singapore and Thailand. Even a 4Dx experience. Interesting indeed. The food are great as usual and they have choices of halal restaurant (mostly run by Malaysians) but some of the food are a hit or a miss in these halal establishments. I love their coffee too. A must try if you happened to fly to Vietnam. Oh thank you to Fitflop for flying me to Ho Chi Minh City last February.

My next trips could be to Manila (supposed to fly with the boys last weekend) and KK (mid July) and if all goes as planned, Singapore 😀 So I would rate my travel trip so far a 7/10.

My second trip to Ho Chi Minh City.

I did my shopping at Mustafa Centre, Singapore to donate to the orphanage back in May. Thanks Volkswagen Brunei for the opportunity.

Shawn buying a few cartons of the Mi Goreng crackers called Chitato. I have to say it’s nice but quite salty.

The much hyped indo-mee cafe was such a disappointment in one of the malls at Jakarta

Friendship. Ah, Rano is heading onto a personal road now. It has definitely shifted over the years and I realised that has been my pattern. If I look back since I came back to Brunei after my studies, I have at least 5 cycles that I went through and I believe that’s part of life. I still rank friendship as the highest form of love and I’m blessed that all the cycles I have been through, they are still my buddies to date. It’s just that we have parted to different directions but still respect each other as friends.

Now my circle of friends are mostly from tennis and toastmaters as they are the bunch of people I interact with the most. That’s for the simple reason that I’m quite involved in these said activities. Of course, they are still a small bunch (outside those circles) that I catch up with now and then. But of all the “cliqs” that I went through, it was both my “awesome foursome” gang (2009) and RA6 (2003) that I missed a lot.

I would want to talked about relationship but it has no relevance for now since I’m not dating anyone. After a mutual break-up late last year, the transition took a little while. Well, that’s the case for most post-relationship scenarios, right? One thing that I would to share is that I’m blessed that we can still be friends and catch up with no expectations at all. Now, won’t that be an excellent approach in any relationship? … which is very hard in any case to give unconditional love and care.

Right now, I just focus on my mission to empower people to the best I can and be the light for others. Relationship is secondary and age is just a number 😀

The impromptu reunion of the RA6

The awesome foursome. Shot taken at Hua Hin, Thailand back in 2010.

BU2562. Now what is the significance of this number? It’s my plate car number and it belongs to my 13 year old Hyundai Santa Fe. Now I bring this up is because I finally have to give in, the fact that my car has already exhausted all the possibilities to be safe on the road. Now with a faulty transmission (hard-to-find spare part), it’s almost impossible to not be worried while driving on the road. Twice the car suddenly turned off its engine while I was turning in and locked my steering wheel. I was fortunate that there weren’t any cars heading my direction.

My almost defunct Santa Fe is still in the workshop, waiting for its parts to be replaced. It was tough to let go as it has so much sentimental value to me. It was my form of transportation to secure deals with clients and meeting friends. In other words, it was also a mark of my independence as I wanted to be less dependant on my family. Even through my hardship (financially), I won back the car twice from the HSBC Car Yard. That’s how much I value my nameless car. But for now, I’m driving my brother’s secondary car as my means of transport. Well, it’s better than nothing. But at the same time, I’m also hunting for a good deal on cars.

A small parody on my car classic car

Clienteles. This year, I must say, it’s quite challenging. Due to the drop in oil prices, it indirectly affect my blog in terms of advertisement. In the end of the day, it’s about how you climb out of that rut because this is also a test of your resilience. Back in the early years, I had a lot of homework in finding clients, meaning that I was trying to close sales for my blog. Yes, it was fun back then and it has been a while since I actually do that. I have to pull my socks up and be more active.

For this year’s sungkai, I saw a huge drop in clienteles but it was necessary for my case because I was aiming for quality in recreating a different avenue for my clients. For that, I have to thank Filterworks Production (do check out their videos) for providing that extra edge in our Sungkai coverage and the responses have been very encouraging. This also has opened new doors and opportunities due to our collaboration and now we already secured a few jobs.

A big thank you to all my clients (past and present) for utilizing my services and trusting how it can be impactful in getting the messages across. The remaining 2016 will be an interesting one indeed.

Our latest project with Filterworks at The Potters

Filterworks on the set at Pepperlunch two weeks ago

Toastmasters. How can I not mention of this topic. My friends kept saying that my Snapchat has tons of tennis and toastmasters. It does show how passionate I am in giving back what I learn to the community. There are plenty of reasons why I’m passionate about toastmasters. It’s not just only about public speaking but also on your leadership track where it tests my patience, my discipline and my responsibility. It totally has changed my perspective as an individual as I used to be quite defensive and judgmental when I get evaluated by my peers. Now I’m much calmer and able to listen on constructive feedback for my own good.

Speaking of toastmasters, I will be chairing a mega toastmasters event this October to be held at Rizqun International Hotel. Excited and nervous? Hell yes!!! It’s just four months away and our team has been very busy preparing for the convention. We have three international speakers, two of each are former World Champion of Public Speaking – Dananjaya and Willie Jones. It’s open to all of you and of course, there will be a fee involved which is BND 200 for a three day event. If you are interested, you can reach me ranoadidas gmail.com. I can assure you that this convention will be a great eye opener and I highly recommend for you to sign up for the convention 😀

The moment I pretended to be Dwayne Johnson in one of my speeches

Click image to enter our official website

Movies. Another passion of mine after toastmasters and tennis. Those who know me well know that I’m a movie buff but not necessarily that I will watch all movies. There are a handful of blockbuster ones that I choose to miss – Ride Along 2, TMNT 2, Divergent and a few more. Overall, I’m quite content with the 2016 releases for the first half of the year. I have to say though that the summer movies haven’t been all that and it fizzled after the release of Captain America: Civil War in early May. But thank god movies like The Conjuring 2, Central Intelligence and Finding Dory gave me some hope for summer movies.

The best movie this year so far have been Captain America: Civil War and Zootopia. I would also like to highlight Deadpool and it’s one of the best comic adaptation. It actually made more money than X-Men: Apocalypse (not to my liking).

Summer movies so far have been mediocre. TMNT2 (judging from Rottentomatoes), Independence Day (bleurgh), Now You See Me 2 (super ridiculous), Warcraft and even X-Men: Apacolypse are all subpar at best. Last year’s were better with movies such as Inside Out, Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Mad Max: Fury Road (my no.1 movie of 2015). Well, the summer releases this year are not complete just yet but I’m not hoping for much though.

One of the best movies of 2016. I can’t wait for my blu-ray to arrive from the States

Totally disappointed. It feels like a combo of Independence Day with Transformer 4 and Transporter

The era of Snapchat? Only in 2016, I have been heavily invested in using my snapchat more than my Insta. Well, I still scroll on my IG feeds and catch up on my friends’ feeds too. However, Snapchat has a more personal touch. So what if the posts get deleted after 24 hours. That’s the point and the fact that no one can comment or like that particular post makes it less intrusive in a way. Snapchat surprisingly is still new to some and not all are inclined to install Snapchat as they are more comfortable with their current social media accounts.

I would say that Snapchat will slowly grow in numbers and many corporate companies will see the benefit by using Snapchat as part of a marketing tool. Right now, the demographics of Snapchat users are relatively young. For my feeds, since I follow too many people on my list, I have to honestly say that I didn’t go through all their “stories” and surprise, surprise (or no surprise at all) is that Snapchat eats a lot of your data… mmmmmm. To let you know, I’m not so much into the filters inside Snapchat as most of my peers are.

So if you want to follow my snaps, just add me @ranoadidas and catch the personal side of me.

Have you snapchatted? 😀 Is there any such word though?

 

KBSentral Management with one of the recipients

KBSentral Shopping Centre in Kuala Belait contributed donations to six recipients today who are underprivileged, in an event organized by staff from the KBSentral Property Management.

Presenting the donations was the KBSentral’s Marketing & Event Manager Anwar Rosly, who explained that the donation was aimed to alleviate the recipients’ families’ burden during the month of Ramadhan.

The charity effort which is called The Limpahan Kasih Donation Drive is one of KBSentrals Corporate Social Responsibility project on lending a helping hand towards the underprivileged families.

The contributions were also intended to assist the families in preparing for the upcoming Hari Raya celebrations.

Among the donations given were kitchen goods worth $150.00 from KBSentral itself as well as donations handed to KBSentral which were sponsored by Jaya Hypermart such as Pensonic Toaster Oven, cartons cans of Pepsi and Sunny Soya Bean, Mee Goreng Sedap and Soto Sedap, packets of Beras Wangi and tins of Jacob Creamy Crackers.

One of the recipients, expressed gratitude to KBSentral and the Management staff for the assistance extended to those who are in need of help.

The event included a group photo together as well as mingling with the recipients’ families, getting to know them and understanding their plight as well as well-being.

For further information, please call 3339889 or email to kbsentralmarketing@gmail.com

Anwar Rosly, KBSentral’s Marketing & Event Manager, handing over Beras Wangi to one of the recipients

Norazizah Awang Damit, KBSentral’s Marketing & Event Assistant handing over a donationa to one of the recipients

 

Nabilah Hamid as Belle. Yes, Brunei has got talent 😀

Kevin Lo pulling off the Gaston’s character to full effect

Cheeky, cheeky Gaston

Belle Preview: I have to admit that Relentless Entertainment have upped their game after two successful musical play production of The Enchanted Forest and Poppins. This year, they stepped up their game with better stage setting and props for their musical adaptation play taken from “Beauty and the Beast” entitled Belle.

It was also the first time I saw Nabilah Hamid performed on the big stage and her performance took me by surprise. She plays the role of Belle. Great job, Nabilah. As for Gaston role, Kevin Lo pulled it off smoothly, showing the cheekiness side of him too.

Overall, I’m entertained and proud of what was being delivered. For such limited resources, Relentless Entertainment was able to pull off more than what was expected. This is definitely money worth spending and sadly, the shows are pretty limited too. There’s still shows for tonight (Saturday) 7:45pm and Sunday 3rd April at 1:30pm. Tickets are available at the door at Jerudong International School’s Arts Centre. You can also whatsapp or text at 824 3222

You can also view more pictures from Faiq Airudin’s blog.

Comments from peers:

Pranika: It was an overall good performance. I enjoyed Gaston’s performance (Kevin Lo) but not as buff as Gaston’s supposed to be.

Gary Goh: Well done, guys! I’m quite impressed especially that Zainal and Kevin can sing.

Caroline: I went with no expectations and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed Belle the musical. Loved the voices, the dancing, the props and costumes.

Let’s not forget the amazing dancers and other role players that made the performance more colourful

Now Gaston reminds me of Robin (from Batman)

 

The speakers for Volume 7 with the organisers and volunteers of Pechakucha Brunei

The host of the night – Farhan Jaafar Ali

What a wonderful session of Volume 7 of Brunei’s Pechakucha! I still remember the first one back in 2014 at Tru Synergy’s office. Now it seems the organisers have found a better venue at The Energy Kitchen and I feel the ambience suits the theme for Pechakucha.

Last Saturday, it featured eight presenters and all them have interesting stories to share. I was amazed by my new discoveries of my mutual friends, thinking that I know so much about them but no, I don’t.

Sophia Siu revealed of her new project app on events which should be released in mid year. Good job, mate 😀 Another one was Wina Hafiza who share about her passion on custom bikes and wow, that was some girl power sharing, mate. Perhaps the most inspiring among the lot.

Teah Abdullah, the final speaker, encourages everyone to share their story through writing or blogs because it defines who you are. She’s also the Editor-in-Chief of Songket Alliance and there are tons of stories from different writers there. Check it out!!

I was intrigued by Zainidi’s small box that was as interesting as Zainal Bostaman’s peanut butter sandwich. Both Zs were quite entertaining too but I have to admit that Zainal has brushed up his delivery from previous ones. Salutes..

Rasyidah Samah is a strong advocate in helping individuals in areas of mental health, community, empowerment and youth empowerment. We do need people like her indeed. For coffee lovers, we were in for a treat and discover Desmond Tan’s taste in coffee. It made me feel that coffee is also an art.

One of the main draw for Volume 7 is a very knowledgeable historian no other than Rozan Yunos, a civil servant and I am always amazed with his deep knowledge about the Brunei. Yes, I would label him the Google of Brunei. He shared the collections of antiques that he brought and its origin. It makes me feel that how one item can tell so much history.

Thank you, Pechakucha, on another fabulous session.

Desmond Tan

Sophia Siu

Rasyidah Samah

Abdul Zainidi

Zainal Bostaman

Wina Hafiza

Rozan Yunos

Teah Abdullah

Sophia Siu with her friends

Yvonne, Sophia and Adella

Rozan and Zainidi

Sandy loves historical things

Posing for the camera

 

BIBD held a prize presentation ceremony today for its monthly “Top Up Tia” campaign winners recently.

The prize ceremony was held at the BIBD Rimba Branch. On hand to give away the prizes was Jeffri Ahmad Said, Head of Transaction & Support Services from BIBD’s Corporate Banking Group.

All the respective winners were in an ecstatic mood as they all were presented with their respective prizes ranging from the latest Apple gadgets such as iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus or iPad Pro. The monthly promotional campaign will be running until the 30th of April 2016.

The winners of the BIBD Top Up Tia campaign

The BIBD Top Up Tia campaign encourages its customers to use either the BIBD Mobile or BIBD Online channels to perform ‘top-ups’ on their DES electricity, DST’s Easi or GO!broadband and Progresif Cellular’s mobile and broadband. The service provides the perfect solution of having speed and convenience for the top-up of these utilities mentioned. Users of the service do not need to make any extra effort to purchase physical top up cards at vendors as they can just log on to BIBD Mobile or BIBD Online and top up all these utilities directly. These conveniences become extra useful in times of need, during off business hours or shortages of physical top-up cards in, especially the denominations you want.

For more information on any BIBD services, products and promotions, please follow the BIBD Instagram account at @BIBDBRUNEI; Facebook page at www.facebook.com/bibdbrunei; get in touch with BIBD Contact Centre at 2238181 or visit the nearest BIBD Branch. Also, don’t forget to download the popular BIBD Mobile App to get the latest BIBD offers and promotions under “What’s New” feature.

 

The winners of Baiduri and Hua Ho’s ‘The Big Shopping Win’ promotion were awarded their prizes in a ceremony held at the department store held at Hua Ho Kiulap on Sunday.

Mah Wai Keun was delighted as she opened her envelope and realised that she had won the Mitsubishi Lancer 1.6 Auto grand prize. Headillah Zainuddin and his happy family took home the second prize of a Mitsubishi Attrage 1.2 Auto while Md Norizam Hj Md Zain won a $1,000 shopping voucher from Hua Ho.

Director of Hua Ho, Lau Soon Lin and Manager of Card Brand Relationship & Business Banking Support, Baiduri Michelle Lo together with Manager of Business Banking, Baiduri Davern Lim presented the keys to the grand winners.

Mah Wai Keun (left), the winner of the Mitsubishi Lancer 1.6 Auto grand prize with Michelle Lo, Manager of Card Brand Relationship & Business Banking Support and Lau Soon Lin, Director of Hua Ho

The second prize winner of the Mitsubishi Attrage 1.2 Auto

Md Norizam Hj Md Zain won a $1,000 shopping voucher from Hua Ho

During the final draw

The names of the 10 finalists were drawn last Friday, and the winners were determined through a number of rounds using envelopes – containing information that indicate whether they were able to pass to the next round or not – which were given randomly.

During the final round, the three finalists were asked to pick from a set of envelopes containing information on the order in which they get to pick the final set of envelopes, which contained the grand prizes of the day.

The other seven finalists received consolation prizes in the form of $300 and $500 Hua Ho shopping vouchers, presented by Branch Manager of Hua Ho Mulaut Alex Lim and Manager of Hua Ho Kiulap respectively.

 

Click image to book your tickets

It’s happening soon. The 7th edition of the PechaKucha series from Brunei Darussalam. I’m excited because of the line up of speakers especially Hj Rozan Yunos and my good friend Sophia Siu. I have attended a few sessions and they have been awesome because I learnt more about individuals and their ideas where some I could relate to.

Similar to a TEDx concept on sharing your thoughts, the only difference is that the presentation of ideas and thoughts are delivered through public speaking with 20 slides where it changes every 20 seconds.

So far the presentations have been successful and wonderful to learn at the same time. I just booked my tickets for the event and I highly recommend you to catch at least one PechaKucha and this edition is not the one to be missed. You can visit their website to book your attendance and do refer to the poster for more details.

Hj Rozan Yunos, a role model for me, is one of the listed speakers for PechaKucha next weekend. I can’t wait.

Finally she is one of the speakers for PechaKucha. Good luck, Sophia aka @lilmopiko

Abdul Zainidi, another local talent, who made his name internationally. Image from his Facebook.

A comedian, an actor, a public speaker, ah the list goes on.. I admire his journey to pursue his dreams. There’s only one Zainal Bostaman. Good luck next week.

The 6th edition of PechaKucha last December at Energy Kitchen. It will be the same venue again.

I was inspired by Josephine’s journey as an entrepreneur. I had the fire feeling inside when I saw her presentation at PechaKucha last December. Now reflecting back, I should have taken advantage of that fire in me. Click image to listen to Josephine’s story.

Amir Noor shared his passion on long board in the 6th edition of PechaKucha and how it has been gaining popularity in Brunei.