Archive for 27/10/2012

Oct

CTL

Written by Rano Iskandar. Posted in RA News

bFIT participants on a roll

This morning bFIT participants buying grocery at Supa Save and they have a time limit, calories limit as well as spending limit as part of the criteria. The elimination is tonight. I’m kinda nervous. Stay tune for updates.

This is the crucial day for all bFIT contestants. Out of the 50, ten participants will get the boot from the programme and it will be the first time such elimination is carried out for the inaugural bFIT challenge brought to you by b•mobile and the past weeks have been interesting, fun and of course, emotional.

This morning half of the contestants were grocery shopping at Supa Save as they are buying ingredients and items for cooking later at Hers Kitchen as part of the bFIT programme. There were given a 30 minute time limit to complete the task and it was also important that they choose the right items in terms of calories content. So who will be eliminated tonight? I can feel the tension already.. All the best, guys!!!

A participant thinking what to purchase for the cooking later on

At the cold section

Durian galore. Aziz Idris trying to “rugby pass” to Muiz

Double checking the items in the trolley

The videographers are in full force from Magic

Choosing is always the difficult part

Today is no plastic day so it’s ideal to carry a recycle bag

Checking the weight of the items bought

Judges checking the calories of the items bought

Melacca Portuguese Food Promotion

The Chefs (sisters) from Malacca were being interviewed at Seasons Restaurant as they will be in Brunei for 10 days for the Melacca Portuguese Food Promotion.

Cool food promotion.. Or I must a hot, spicy affair.. I didn’t know much about Portuguese food but you will be surprised that their food can be spicy too. The chefs – Chef Joan and Chef Halen Danker – are from Malacca with Portuguese blood and both of them are currently working at a hotel in Malacca. So they are flown to Brunei especially for Seasons Restaurant food promotion.

For your information, they bring in fusion of east and west cuisine from the World Heritage Site endorsed by UNESCO. There are a few dishes to try such as the Chicken Debal Curry, Assam Prawn, Portuguese chilli crab, Lisboa Seafood Paella and they also introduced their dessert Quesidos de Sintro (Honey Cinnamon Cake) and Portuguese egg tart.

Lunch buffet price is $19.90 for adult and $10 for children. Dinner buffet price is $25.90 and $15 for children. 10% discount is applicable to those with RBC Dining Privilege Card. Call 242 2991/2 for reservations. You can also visit them on Facebook for updates.

Beef Ambila

Lisboa Seafood Paella

Chicken Debal Curry – me like this 😀

My dish for tonight

The Roasted Peppered Lamb

Bendi Colek

Portuguese Baked Fish

Mulau – Portuguese Egg Plant

Chef Halen Danker and Chef Joan from the Portuguese Settlement Village in Melacca

Quesidos de Sintro (Honey Cinnamon Cake)

Ok, this is not a Portuguese dish but you happened to go to Seasons, then try the Bubur Pulut Hitam with Vanilla Ice-Cream… Two thumbs up!!! And they are both part of the buffet too 😀

Recap: 36th Panaga Triathlon

It was my first coverage of the Panaga Triathlon and I thought it was a well organized event. It was good to see a lot of participants and familiar faces joining the competition and it’s the 36th edition to date. According to their Facebook page, there are 94 entries compromising of 124 triathletes and it was the biggest number to date too.

I was quite impressed with Panaga Club itself (sakai mode) as it was my first visit there. Anyway below are some pictures of the event and some of them are taken from Panaga Triathlon facebook page. Well done to all the participants.

The results of the team triathlon category

The results of the women’s triathlon category

The results of the men’s triathlon category

Participants of the triathlon. Taken from Panaga Triathlon Facebook page.

The first leg is swimming

Fadzil in action in the pool

Team Rev It Up

Wana preparing for her swim

After swimming, it’s the cycling category

Go Juls of Rev It Up. Taken from Panaga Triathlon Facebook page.

Classic shot. Taken from Panaga Triathlon Facebook page.

Taken from Panaga Triathlon Facebook page.

Go Nadz.. He finished Top 20 in the men’s category.

Hadi Samid joined the triathlon, dedicating this to his late brother JJ Samid

Running on the beach is not easy feat

The run is at least 5 km

Taken from Panaga Triathlon Facebook page

The winner of the Men’s category – Bjorn de Mönnink

The finishers of the triathlon. Well done

Team Chatworthy took 2nd place in team category. Well done, guys!!

Recap: THiNK BIG Innovate 2012

Lo Sheng, Co-Founder & CEO of Muvee Technologies, Singapore, Kim Davidson, Founder of SideEffects Global, Canada, Keeran Janin, founder of MeSixty and Jenny Malai Ali of KFM who moderated the final session of THiNK Big Innovate 2012

Danial Norjidi of Borneo Bulletin doing this work on the spot and surrounded by the ladies

I have always looked forward THiNK BIG events and thank you to Asia Inc Forum and iCentre for the invitation once again. A few good line ups and there is still room for improvements. Sorry, I forgot to fill in the feedback form the other day. A few more track sessions would have been nicer and perhaps but time allowed for international speakers to present their background or profile for the knowledge of the audience. The highlight for me is Ash Singh, founder and CEO of Interactive Sg and Founder & CEO of Angel’s Gate, an entrepreneurship TV show.

Ash Singh’s presentation lighten up the crowd especially it was after lunch and I love his tips for start-ups and he presented 50 quick tips. I thought some of the tips were interesting especially where one he stated avoid business plans.

Here are some of tips given by Ash Singh for start-ups

1) Pick founders carefully
2) Invest in culture
3) Write a blog
4) Decide with date
5) Delay raising capital
6) Improve product daily
7) Reward early adopters
8) Accept imperfect data
9) Recruit with zest
10) Say “No” often
11) Sell something today
12) Cancel unnecessary meetings
13) Keep it fun

Well here are some of the tips for entrepreneurs to take note especially for start-ups.. Oh by the way, Ash Singh is also the man behind the Turbanizer a popular app for Android and IOS. I love his story on how he promoted his app through friends and strangers and now he has a massive following for his app and all he did was asking people, “Have you seen yourself in a turban?” And I think most of us in the room downloaded the app and just had fun with it. Thanks for the interesting presentation, Ash, and I didn’t know Steve Lai are friends with him too.

Mr. Ash Singh himself and he was entertaining too

Ahh.. I was playing around with the app Turbanizer

Anyway, most of the topics discussed were related to Digital Multimedia, Social Media, ICT and entrepreneurship. It was good to see Stanley Han of Koobits back in Brunei and also my social media friend Aulia Halimatussadiah (Ollie @salsabeela), CTO of Nulisbuku.com as our international speakers. I’m particularly impressed with Ollie who has a lot on her plate – an IT player, a blogger, a publisher, a fashion designer, an entrepreneur – and she has many brilliant ideas too. I met her two years ago during ASEAN Bloggers Meet in KL and it was great of Asia Inc Forum to invite her to Brunei.

Another friend of mine Azhani Daniel @emmagoodegg was one of the panelists among the likes of Ollie and Stanley and the session was moderated by toastmaster Del Goh. Azhani is a strong believer in social media and Royal Brunei Airlines is pretty active in this field. She felt it was the best way to interact with customers and from there, they are able to obtain useful information.

I hope to see more international speakers that are as interesting as Ash Singh himself. I felt the audience was a bit shy though to come up to the mic and ask questions. I believe they would be more interactive behind doors but it was good to see some took the courage to ask. Well done to Asia Inc Forum and Icentre on the event and keep up the good work!