B&O PLAY continues to drive the market for lifestyle audio products with the launch of B&O PLAY H9 – a beautifully designed wireless, over-ear headphone that combines craftsmanship and supreme comfort with flagship noise cancelling performance (ANC) that cocoons travellers from the roars of the city and immerses them completely in the music experience.

B&O PLAY H9 comes with a wireless, over-ear wearing style for a more expressive look, and is crafted in luxurious, lightweight and true materials. The headband is built up around a solid and lightweight aluminium frame covered with stitched cowhide leather, and underneath the soft lambskin coated ear cushion is adaptive memory foam that adapts to the shape and curve of the ear for supreme comfort and breathability.

Other than making the headphones comfortable for hours on end, the ear cushions act as an isolating element, which naturally leaves out many of the high frequency sounds. In combination with the ANC it gives travellers worldwide a beautiful listening experience, where you can hear every detail in noisy environments without compromising the sound.

Explore the sound. Feel the Silence.
On the side of the right ear cup is an intuitive touch interface in anodized aluminium that captures the latest acoustic innovations from B&O PLAY. With this interface, you can – with just a single touch or swipe – activate the noise cancelling function, change songs, answer calls and control the volume. Made for travellers in all weather conditions, the interface works under humid conditions and with gloves on.

B&O PLAY H9 features hybrid Active Noise Cancellation technology. Multiple microphones placed on the outside of the ear cushion as well as inside capture the noise before it reaches the ear and produce a reverse signal effectively cancelling out unwanted elements. This leaves the unique Bang & Olufsen Signature Sound intact – a well-rounded, authentic and clean sound performance, designed to bring you music the way the artist intended it.

Up to 14 hours of noise cancelling music
B&O PLAY H9 comes with up to 14 hours of noise cancelling music performance with just a three-hour charge. You can swap the battery in a snap, and if you run out on it just attach an audio cord to keep listening to your music. If you forgot to turn your headphones off the intelligent battery-saving function will automatically kick in.

Unboxing the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H9

Adjust the sound profile with Beoplay App
B&O PLAY H9 is compatible with Beoplay App for Android, iPhone and Apple Watch, which gives you a variety of options for personalizing your listening experience:

•  Bang & Olufsen sound engineers have created a variety of sound profiles specifically for B&O PLAY H9: Commute, Clear, Workout and Podcast.

•  Users can adjust the tonality and sound staging themselves with the playful and intuitive B&O PLAY ToneTouch. The interface lets users feel their way through different sound settings and find the one that best suits the situation. Once adjusted, B&O PLAY H9 saves the setting on the product itself until you adjust it again.

• Connected to B&O PLAY H9, the Beoplay App makes it easy to monitor the battery status of the headphone.

•  Users can control the music (play, pause, forward, back), turn on or off the ANC and they can personalize the headphones in the app by giving it a specific color and name.

•  By connecting B&O PLAY H9 to Beoplay App, users also receive software updates over the air – a new functionality made available for B&O PLAY H9.

So if you want to check out the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H9 at their showroom at Sejalin Living at Kiarong.

To commemorate the National Day, the Belait Cycling Club and Sentral Shopping Centre (KBSentral) are co-organizing the National Day Night Ride this coming Friday.

Previously running or jogging have been the trend in Brunei Darussalam but guess what… so is cycling as of late. Bandarku Ceria event has also help to create more interest in cycling in Brunei and it’s good to see this hobby/sport raising in popularity. Even His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei and members of the Royal Family have been involved in cycling every now and then.

So now we will have some cycling activity in Kuala Belait and it will be a night ride 🚴🚴🚴

Date: 3rd March 2017, Friday
Time: 8:00PM
Venue: Sentral Shopping Centre, Kuala Belait

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REGISTRATION is open from now until 3rd March 2017 latest by 7:30PM! and for more inquiry, please call 3339889.

One of the scenes in town during Bandarku Ceria last week

I had my cycling moments during my trip at Hua Hin, Thailand last week 😀

Window shopping at Market Village, Hua Hin and I came across this

Emma Stone’s interview after the Oscars

Too bad I wasn’t able to catch the Oscars completely. I only managed to catch the first hour. Hence, I missed all the commotion where the presenters for Best Picture made a boo-boo and everyone thought it was a done deal with producers of La La Land grabbing the biggest honour, Best Picture. Oh well, this reminded me of the Miss Universe incident last year.

La La Land had 14 Oscars nomination and left with 6 awards. Moonlight grabbed three Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor in a Supporting Role. So it wasn’t a dominant win for La La Land and well balanced for both movies.

For me, I’m happy that La La Land won both for Music Score and Original Song. Well deserved, indeed 😀

I was impressed with Jimmy Kimmel as the host for the Oscars. He didn’t make the audience feel awkward and his jokes and humourous puns were politically driven and the audience didn’t mind that at all. He was definitely better than Ellen DeGeneres as a host.

Below are the lists of winners from today’s Oscars.

What a mess with the presenters when Faye Dunaway announced the wrong winner for Best Picture, calling it out producers of La La Land instead of Moonlight’s. Congratulations to the Moonlight and though I wanted La La Land to win the big award, you can’t have them all.

Emma Stone was a clear winner for her role as Mia in La La Land. She also grabbed awards in the same category in Golden Globe and SAG awards

A well deserved win for Damien Chazelle for Directing in “La La Land”. He was also nominated for his Directing role in Whiplash. He is also the youngest director to win an Oscar. Awesome!!

Mahershala Ali won Actor in a Supporting Role for “Moonlight”

Justin Timberlake opened the show with belting a number “Can’t Stop The Feeling” from Trolls

B&O PLAY today introduced a new member to its family of wireless speakers for the home that brings people a beautiful and simple way to live with music. Designed by award-winning Cecilie Manz as a standalone speaker with multiroom audio capability, B&O PLAY M5 gives people a seamless way to connect to music they love, disperses the highly-acclaimed Bang & Olufsen Signature Sound evenly in all directions, and is clad in a premium wool-blend fabric that adds beauty and warmth to any interior arrangement.

“B&O PLAY M5 delivers perfectly on our vision of speakers for the home that play beautiful music and look wonderful doing so. For people who dream of a home where music flows through every room and speakers double as design objects that are controlled from the comfort of your smartphone or tablet, B&O PLAY M5 marks the perfect beginning to that journey”, says Jens Jermiin, Head of Global Marketing at B&O PLAY.

Sound that matches your interior

With its visually stunning appearance, the design of B&O PLAY M5 is inspired by the idea of using sound as part of your interior decoration. B&O PLAY M5 builds on the design language of B&O PLAY A6 and B&O PLAY A9, and drawing inspiration from this family B&O PLAY M5 is covered in a premium and acoustically transparent wool- blend fabric from Danish high-end manufacturer Kvadrat. The wool-cover can easily be replaced to fit your interior decorations, and using delicate multi-coloured threads the fabric provides acoustic transparency while maintaining the aesthetics in nuances that complements the speaker.

Dedication to superior craftsmanship

The speaker top is a disc made from crafted aluminium, which has been pearl blasted and anodized to create a matt and luxurious appearance. The disc provides a mesmerizing viscosity-based tactile functionality toned down to the essential, and with a 15 percent movement in each direction the disc will adjust the volume and calmly rotate itself to its neutral position – not too quickly and not too slowly as a testament to the beauty of functional design. Pressing the disc gently downwards will play or pause the speaker, and using the same gesture with an inactive B&O PLAY M5 will make it join other music experiences going on in your home.

“The design of B&O PLAY M5 is inspired by the way people use sound in their everyday lives – as a natural focal point for the family. The shape signals that sound is projected from all angles and visually, it can blend in or stand out in your home depending on personal preferences”, says the award-winning Danish industrial designer Cecilie Manz.

B&O PLAY M5 now available at Bang & Olufsen store at Sejalin Living

B&O PLAY M5 now available at Bang & Olufsen store at Sejalin Living

Fill your room with True360 degree Bang & Olufsen Signature Sound

Underneath the aluminium disc is a body manufactured from rigid polymer to house a large acoustic chamber that delivers the Bang & Olufsen Signature Sound optimized for the home.

• B&O PLAY M5 comes with True360 degree omnidirectional sound that lets you enjoy equally perfect sound no matter where you are placed. Three evenly distributed tweeters, a full range capable front facing midrange driver and a powerful 5” neodymium powered long stroke woofer that fires all its energy down towards a carefully designed dispenser, provide a uniform dispersion of well-balanced Bang & Olufsen Signature Sound all around.

• Three pre-set sound modes optimise the acoustic performance of the player depending on its position in the room. People can choose free standing, corner or wall position in Beoplay App.

• To optimize B&O PLAY M5 as a standalone speaker, B&O PLAY uses a proprietary Ambient Technology solution to create a true stereo sound experience from one single speaker. B&O PLAY creates this stereo like sound by psycho-acoustic knowhow and DSP capability to boost signal queues minimized by the physical size of B&O PLAY M5.

• The unique acoustic setup in B&O PLAY M5 is capable of beam direction and beam width control – a simpler version of the technology that Bang & Olufsen use in the prestigious BeoLab 90 speaker and the Bang & Olufsen patented reflected audio technology.

Connecting spaces with Chromecast built-in

B&O PLAY M5 comes with Chromecast built-in1, so the entire family can stream millions of songs from more than 100 music streaming services up to 96KHz/24bit lossless such as Spotify, Google Play Music and Pandora. Chromecast built-in is powered by the cloud, so you can connect more than one device to your speakers at a time and keep on using your phone while you stream your music. Answer a phone call, play a game or send a text with no sounds or ringtones to interrupt the music experience.

With B&O PLAY M5 you can easily connect to any Chromecast-enabled speaker to create a multi-room experience that lets music flow seamlessly through every room in your home. This includes the B&O PLAY speakers B&O PLAY A6 and B&O PLAY A9, which both come with Chromecast built-in and is a perfect solution for extending the Bang & Olufsen Signature Sound and beautiful design throughout your home. B&O PLAY M5 also supports Beolink Multiroom, Spotify Connect and QPlay 2.02 and at the same time embraces Bluetooth and Apple Airplay.

Now the B&O PLAY M5 is available at Bang & Olufsen store at Sejalin Living, Kiarong. Do drop by to check it out.

BeoPlay M5 Wireless 360 Speaker review. Check it out!!

Baiduri Bank recently concluded a debit card promotion where customers who signed up for a new Baiduri UnionPay debit card or paid for their purchases in selected Asian destinations using their card were automatically entered into a draw to win travel packages to selected destinations in Asia.

At a prize presentation event held at the Banking Hall of their Kiarong Branch today, eight lucky customers went home with travel packages and other travel accessories after they were selected as winners in Baiduri’s “Travel and Get Rewarded with UnionPay” promotion which ran from 1st November until 31st December 2016.

Nurul Nazurah Binti Alias won a 4D3N family vacation to Disneyland Hong Kong, while Awang Haji Metusin Bin Haji Abdul Rahman walked home with a relaxing 3D2N getaway to Bali for 2 and Siti Nurul Amalina Binti Haji Mohamad will be enjoying an exciting 4D2N trip to shopping city Kuala Lumpur with a stopover in cultural city of Malacca. 5 consolation prize winners namely, Sheena Winifred Hendry, Hajah Rokiah Binti Haji Abdul Ghani, Siti Noorazean Binti Haji Jamil, Chan Ban Chang and Chia Suk Ling received a Samsonite Aerial Spinner Luggage each.

Ms Winnie Ang, Manager of Consumer Financing in Baiduri Bank was on hand to present the prizes to the winners. Elaborating on the promotion, she said, “Aside from providing users with cashless convenience and PIN based security, customers who signed up or use their Baiduri UnionPay Debit Card during the promotion period stood a chance to win amazing travel packages.”

Ms Winnie Ang, Manager of Consumer Financing in Baiduri Bank, giving away the prizes to all the winners

Customers also enjoyed a fabulous 5% cashback on all their transactions made on their Baiduri UnionPay Debit Card in any of the selected countries, applicable for cumulative spending of up to BND3,000 during the promotion period.

The Baiduri UnionPay Debit Card is accepted at over 2,000 local merchants and more than 26 million UnionPay merchants in over 150 countries. The card also allows cash withdrawals at all Baiduri ATMs and over 1.9 million ATMs worldwide.

It requires a personalized identification number (PIN) to be keyed in by the cardholder for any transactions to be approved, thus, giving cardholders a high level of protection from fraud or misuse of the card. The Baiduri UnionPay debit card is the only PIN based card currently available in Brunei.

For more information on Baiduri Bank’s current promotions and events, the public can also follow Baiduri Bank Group on Facebook or @baiduribank on Instagram and Twitter.

Times Square Shopping Centre ended its Japanese Language and Culture Week yesterday on Sunday, 19th February 2017. The event took place on 17th February, Friday until 19th February, Sunday at 10:00am till 10:00pm. The event was organized by Embassy of Japan in Brunei Darussalam, Times Square Shopping Centre and Japan Foundation. The supporters comprised of Japan Brunei Friendship Association (JBFA), The Japanese Association Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Association of Japan Alumni (BAJA), Hibikiya Pte Ltd, Ms.Reiko Siu Lai Hung, BJFA-UBD chapters, Language Centre of University Brunei Darussalam, Community Education & training Division (IBTE-CET), BERSATU/SSEAYP Alumni, JUNE, Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), JENESYS Alumni, Miyazaki Prefecture, Niigata City, Brunei Kendo Alliance, Soul Industry and Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO).

The last day of Japanese Language & Culture Week was filled with exciting activities including kite making workshop for kids that took place at 11am to 12pm yesterday. Other activities that took place in the afternoon were Taiko Japanese Drum performance by HIBIKIYA, Yoyo & Kendama performance by JENESYS Alumni, Japanese Cooking demonstration by Chef Usuki, Study in Japan sharing session by Brunei Association of Japan Alumni, as well as other singing and dancing performances by BJFA-UBD Chapter, SSEAYP Alumni, Soul Industry and Brunei Cosplayers.

Throughout the event, there was a lucky draw by Times Square and the prize presentation took place yesterday at 8pm. Ten prizes were given away last night and the presentation was done by the marketing manager of Times Square as well as the general manager, Mrs Amal Majidah Hj Suhaili. Prizes for the lucky draw comprised of hotel stay vouchers from Times Hotel, Ba’diah Hotel, Starlogde Hotel, Parkview Hotel and Jubilee Hotel as well as restaurant vouchers from Excapade Restaurant and Shinobu Sushi Restaurant. About 100 participants registered for the lucky draw during the three days event. The grand prize winner Taufiq Al Hakim bin Mohamad Jais brought home Canon Camera Ixus 175.

There was also a prize presentation for the Manga colouring competition last night. Present to give away the prizes was Lim Yee Liang, marketing manager of Times Square. The Manga colouring competition, which took place on the first day of the event was held by Best Eastern. First place went to Elysia Lim Pei Ying bringing home goodie bag whereas Tang Ann Yii and Chia Xuan Lei won second and third place respectively, bringing home goodie bag as prizes. The event ended with dance performances by Soul Industry and the Brunei Cosplay community. More pictures on their Facebook Page.

Moreover, Times Square Shopping Centre will be having a 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament on 24th until 26th February 2017 as well as a National Chess Tournament on the same dates. For further information, please call 2338208 or 2338006 during office hours.

The official launch with the ribbon cutting with the master franchise and the guest of honour, the Malaysia High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam last weekend

I dined in twice at Manhattan FISH MARKET and I quite like it. I’m familiar with the franchise after my first try in Singapore a few years ago. It was just a matter of time before it made to Brunei market, considering the number of franchises that have been popping up in Brunei Darussalam.

Last week on 15th February, the Manhattan FISH MARKET finally had their official launch. For the record, it is an award-winning casual dining restaurant specializes in American style seafood, offering a wide variety of lip-smacking products ranging from Manhattan Fish n’ Chips to Garlic Herb Mussels and not forgetting their signature dish the legendary Manhattan Flaming Seafood Platter, an ideal dish for seafood lovers.

Manhattan FISH MARKET (Brunei) is managed by Nutrafood Resources Sdn Bhd which owns the franchise rights for Brunei market and they are confident of the brand’s success and hinted that there will be two more outlets in the Sultanate.

Haslinda bin Mohd Fauzi, the master franchisee for Manhattan FISH MARKET (Brunei) delivering her welcoming remarks

George Ang, CEO of Revenue Valley Group, a holding company that operates The Manhattan Fish Market.

A token of appreciation to the guest of honour, Datuk Ghulam Jelani bin Khanizaman, HIgh Commissioner of Malaysia to Brunei Darussalam

George Ang receiving memento from Haslinda

Garlic Herb Mussels

Salmon anyone? 😀 Yummm

Grilled flaming lobster platter

Fishy Chicky Bang Bang. It’s fish and chicken served in cheesy sauce. This is a popular dish among patrons in Brunei.

Ice cream served with friend oreos.. Interesting combo 😀

Manhattan FISH MARKET’s concept for fresh and flavourful seafood goes back over 180 years ago, with its inspiration drawn from the famous Fulton Fish Market located in Manhattan, USA. Patrons who step into the warmth restaurant are pleasantly greeted by its décor evoking a deeply rooted sense of the historical market and original inspiration with a contemporary touch.

I was privileged to be invited for the launch of Manhattan FISH MARKET last week and we were treated to a gastronomical feast in a 5 course meal. Yummy!!!

I’m honestly impressed with the quality of the dishes and I hope they can remain consistent in this competitive market (in the F&B industry).

Haslinda demo-ing the flaming action

The representatives from the respective schools receiving donation from Pierre Imhof, CEO of Baiduri Bank, during the CNY Open House hosted by Baiduri Bank Group at The Empire Hotel & Country Club

Chinese New Year might be over but the celebration in terms of Open Houses are still around. Few days ago, I attended a few and one of them is Baiduri Bank Group which was hosted at The Empire Hotel & Country Club in conjunction with the Year of the Rooster.

Present was Pierre Imhof, sporting a traditional chinese attire for the CNY Open House. The Chung Hwa Middle School performed another stunning drum performance.

It was a cheerful moment when the under privileged students received donations from Baiduri Bank Group. The recipients were from CHMS, Chung Hwa Kidding, St. Andrew’s School and St. George’s school.

Thank you once again, Baiduri, for the invitation.

Stand a chance to win this book

Enrich your life with #VorsprungdurchTechnik and tag a friend in the comments from @audibrunei post (based on the video below) for a chance to win The Book of Challenges! It’s 45 pages of Audi innovation that packs in even more than what you see in this video. 7 winners will be randomly selected by lucky draw when the giveaway ends next Thursday (23rd February 2017). #quattroThursdays

Tag and comment on the IG post and stand a chance to win a 45 page book of Audi innovation