Review of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation featuring Del Goh and Nee Khern

 

There are many things that I would love to share here on my blog. The Brunei-Singapore relationship for the past 54 years (Wow) or my first visit to greet His Majesty the Sultan and the members of the Royal Family. Well, just have to find the time to focus on those areas and just type away. I guess it’s easy for me to slack off the keyboard since I’m my own boss. My discipline level can easily waned and it will be tough to get back the groove. I’m climbing back up and I just can’t wait for my iMac to be fixed. Apparently my HDD has a bad sector and it became a hardware problem.

I recently caught Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and I quite enjoyed it. It’s on par with MI: Ghost Protocol and I would highly recommend you to catch it. I shall have a full review of it soon on my blog and of course, on my sound cloud (The Popcorn Panel). I’ve been loving the summer movies so far and next up will be a reboot of the Fantastic Four 😀

Next month will be a busy month indeed. Two big weddings that will steal the show for me and I will be back and forth to help out both my sister’s wedding and also my good buddies Nisaa Suresh and Azeez Jaafar. I even had to forgo my Denmark trip which will be sometime in August.

Anyway, have a great weekend and I’m happy that my family is back so the house won’t feel that quiet 😀

I’ve been catching a bit of the Mum’s Bakery Basketball Competition and I can’t help but admire the mattresses used as a cushion to prevent the players from banging to the wall. The mattress have been there for many years.

Well done to our Brunei athlete of getting bronze medal in the 200m run in the Special Olympics at Los Angeles

I introduced this game to my friends and they were hooked. The Werewolf game is awesome!!

The Heng Tai boys dressing up for the occasion last weekend 😀

My visit to the Tourism Malaysian Open House yesterday. Thanks for the hospitality.

It’s good to be back at the court but my level of fitness needs more work

Have you tried the Tumpi at Tati’s cafe at Jalan Babu Raja? Yummy when crispy

With Ak Danny of JPMC at DST Open House yesterday. Thanks Norliha Din for featuring us in The Brunei Times.

I’m going to the Toy Fair at Hua Ho Manggis. Image courtesy of Stephen Chiam

 

My second periscope live feed and it was a quick review of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. Download Periscope app on your smartphone and add me username Ranoadidas and replay my latest video feed 😀

I was checking out the office furniture at Loft and Co the other day

It has been around for a few weeks or so. A new furniture shop in town and it’s picking up pace despite the recent decline in consumer spending. Perhaps it was a timely manner when I ran an Instagram competition where the lucky winner will be walking away with a coffee table worth BND 380 from Loft and Co and their sales picked up just before Hari Raya. Even my future bro-in-law bought some items there 🙂

If you are hunting for home modern-high quality furniture, Loft and Co has it all and they will be bringing in more stock and new batches of furniture. I will talk more in details in my future post on their furniture.

You can check them out at Unit 6 to 9, Ground Floor, Little Soho at Batu Bersurat (the building after Shabulicious up the hill). You can also contact or whatsapp them at 8908778 and even follow them on instagram @loftandcobsb

From dining area to bed space at Loft and Co

Some of the customers that dropped by and bought some furniture at Loft and Co

Modern looking feel sofa for your home

This was taken a few weeks’ ago where I drew the lucky winner with Nicole from Loft and Co for the coffee table prize

And the winner was @el.23 and congratulations

Another winner from @thanislim competition with a voucher worth BND 150

Happening this Saturday until Wednesday next week at Times Square Shopping Centre

Times Square Shopping Centre will be hosting a Korean Food and Art Festival this Saturday, 1st August 2015 until Wednesday, 5th August 2015. The festival which will be held at Times Square’s atrium is organized by Times Square Shopping Centre and co-organized by Embassy of Republic Korea, Korea Argo Fisheries and Food Trade Corp, Korean Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs and Gallery DM.

The Korean Food and Art Festival will feature fun activities for the public including; Cooking Demonstration, Eating Competition, Learning Traditional Mask Painting, Face Painting by Korean Artist, Guess the ingredient, Learning Korean Fan Calligraphy, Learning Traditional Wrapping cloth (bojagi), Dress-Up & Photo Booth and activities by ITB KCC.

Times Square Shopping Centre also has several upcoming events which include “Times Square 3rd Lucky Draw Campaign” which will take place on Sunday, 9th August 2015. Moreover, on Tuesday 11th August 2015, Times Square will be holding an Open House for the public to celebrate Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. There will be fun activities and games from Dress-Up Competition to Lip Sync Battle during the annual Open House. Registrations are free and forms can be obtained at the lucky draw counter. Let’s have an unforgettable experience at Times Square Shopping Centre; a place for everyone.

For further information, please call 2338208 or 2338006 during office hours.

Food demonstration from Silla Restaurant

 

A slow rays. I have mentioned this before that Hari Raya hasn’t been all that this year. I didn’t hear any fireworks since the beginning of Raya. So things have been mellow indeed. Another surprise factor is that many Bruneians opted to fly away during the Hari Raya season. It reminds me of Chinese New Year where my Chinese friends would also choose to travel abroad. I won’t be surprised if this will be the new trend for upcoming Hari Raya seasons.

My raya marathons are over. Friends have been asking me how many houses I have been to and thinking that I would be soaring with high numbers of house visits. Well, I have remained consistent for the past few years – an average total of 10-15 houses total. That’s excluding the corporate Hari Raya open houses. Back in my younger days, I could clock at least 12-15 houses a day and my highest is still 102 visits. Those days, there weren’t even the term selfies and all the pictures I took was with my SLR *lol*

I managed to get my butt off my bed and make my rounds to most of the invites. Yes, it’s tough to get back to the groove when I’m already set in my comfort zone in my room, carrying on from the fasting period. Even my blog has been affected in terms of my updates (sorry, readers) but I feel my mojo is returning and I shall be blogging and updating from time to time.

If any of you want me to pose Hari Raya photos (especially those overseas), you can email me at ranoadidas gmail.com And for fun facts, I find this rather amusing posted on brublahblah post (refer image below) with regards to our Brunei behaviour during Hari Raya. Classic!!

Taken from brublablah.com

 

I have to salute Daryl for the commanding job as a “brother”. Now I wonder where my Liverpool bag sack is? *lol*

Yay!! I was one of the brothers for Terence Tahir Han and Melati Yussof’s second reception. Thank you, guys, for the honour and it’s my second experience as a “Heng Tai” and it’s always a pleasure to be part of wedding celebration. So Terence and Mel, you guys rocked and it looked like well smooth wedding dinner. Their first wedding reception was back in December 2014.

I knew Melati way before Terence. She was still studying in Jerudong International School and my first impression when I saw her for the first time at Coffee Zone Gadong was “Woww, she has a resemblance of Janet Jackson”. *lol* And you still do 😀 It was only whenI became familiar with her cousins (Alai and Peah) that I knew more about Melati as a person. She’s like a friend that I could text randomly and she would always reply with a positive energy. What she’s good at is empowering people and she has been quite successful in applying that in the company she’s working with. By the way, your fascination of the “chips” story still leaves a lasting impression on me. Keep on rocking, Mel.

As for Terence, I didn’t really get to know of him until our first encounter in CV a few years ago. I remember he bought my auction item back then and he was always known as “Ken’s brother” because he only entered the “Brunei Market” a few years ago after his working days in Singapore and Hong Kong. My dream one day is to get a game of him in tennis and now would be the best time since he’s recovering from a shoulder injury. He has been a great addition to the team in our project. The only difference about us is that he fell in love with the Gunners. All the best to both of you and I’m grateful for being given this opportunity to be part of your wedding memories.

The ladies did a splendid job despite a few tricks up the brothers’ sleeves

The final task for Terence

Melati with her sisters

It was fun to have little kids in the mixture

The couple with the Hans

Getting ready for dinner

With Sophia Mopiko Siu and Seng Yee Ciara

Even Gary has a nick name

Some of the guests from last Saturday

The brothers in red tie

Terence and Melati

The happy parents of the couple

We kicked off the entrance

Followed by Cheelin and Mike

Best friends of Terence – Ryan and Calvin from Hong Kong. Awesome and sporting lads too. Hope to see you in HK one day.

They have got some grooves as well

Awwwww aren’t they such sweet together?

The entertainers – Del Goh and Leo Kasim

The ASEAN handshake (Missing Siew and Daryl)

The Bersanding dinner of Terence and Melati in December 2014

 

I’m back.. That took a week!!! I’m still sorting out my computer at home. It’s difficult that my main computer the iMac 2013 is acting up. The damn “beachball” keeps appearing and it’s hard to do my work. I even reset the memory ram of my iMac.. 16 gig worth of ram to be exact and I even run a diagnosis with an MRI approach and it still didn’t work. So now most of my work is done on my Macbook Air but of course, I prefer my main desktop for convenient purposes. At this moment, I have no choice but to back up my iMac and sent it for repair.

On a brighter note, I’m back again and I would like to wish you Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Batin. I know this sounds silly but a few years ago, I put inserted the word “minta” before Maaf Zahir Batin. That doesn’t sound right at all and someone did point that out a few years ago when I posted that on my website. Thank you for that.

I won’t be blogging much again until I get my computer fixed. You can stalk my social media platforms instagram twitter Snapchat at @ranaodidas and I’m quite up to date with that because almost everything is mobile now. Sometimes I gained more traction on my IG than my blog in a very short span of time.

The highlight of my Hari Raya so far is my visit to the Istana Nurul Iman to greet His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei and members of the Royal Family. My family hasn’t been around for the past few Hari Raya so it has been a mellow one for me. Invites have been dry too and quite a handful of Bruneians travel abroad too. Let’s not discount that spending hasn’t been on the high side either which means lesser open houses or smaller scale. A big thanks to my good friend Aaron Goh who was more than willing to accompany me to the Palace for the Royal greet. It was a great experience and even Aaron said that the logistics was way better than his last visit (more than 15 years ago).

Aaron and I visited Istana Nurul Iman on the fourth day of Hari Raya. More stories on that soon.

It has been a slow paced Hari Raya celebration for me

Finally I get to shed off some fats by playing tennis and powering up with my favourite drink Mr. Brown

 

Review of Ant-Man featuring Del Goh and Nee Khern

Our take on the trailer of Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice featuring Del Goh and Nee Khern

Review of Awang Semaun: Rise of the Warrior. Click play to listen to podcast review

 

Daulat Kebawah Duli Tuan Patik. Happy 69th Birthday to His Majesty the Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. A special holiday has been declared on 15th August to celebrate His Majesty’s birthday. Image courtesy of Dean Kassim.

Liverpool FC Foundation, the club’s official charity, with Standard Chartered Thailand and the students from the Bangkok School for the Blind in a group photo session yesterday. Image courtesy of Liverpool FC.

It was a very interesting moment to see how a football clinic was conducted especially for the blinds. We all paid a visit to Bangkok School for the Blind and it was quite an eye opener for me. Apparently the particular school is a long-term partner of Standard Chartered in terms of their local employee volunteering programme. So far they have 193 students in the school and the school provides free education, training and materials to the visually impaired. The school is also under the Royal Patronage of Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand.

So the intention for the visit was the football clinic. As you know Standard Chartered Thailand partners with Liverpool FC Foundation in organizing a simple football session with the students and for Standard Chartered Thailand, this is considered as a football clinic-cum-Financial Education workshop. For Standard Chartered, this is another way to create a meaningful life skills session where the children can at a young age and potentially prepare for the future. Hence it’s important for students at the young age to learn what they are potentially good at and that can unlock their dreams and future.

Standard Chartered has also been active in the volunteering programme where 40 of their staff from Bangkok showed up for the football clinic to dedicate their time to help the visually impaired children. Awesome!! As you know, this is part of Bank’s commitment to be “Here for Good” and sustaining the impact in the local community.

It was also the first time I was introduced to Lyn Kok, the CEO and President of Standard Chartered of Thailand and the Greater Mekong (Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Yunnan Province, China). She’s a very nice lady and she is very passionate about her vision for the Bank’s value especially in financial education and other SCR projects such as educating on AIDS awareness and Seeing is Believing. She shared how the level of awareness for “Seeing is Believing” has been very encouraging and it has been around for 10 years. They have raised as much as USD 70 million worldwide and they are not far away from their target. I was also impressed that Lyn was able to know all the terms for sight deficiency and how it can be prevented. Thank you for your time and I admire your leadership in the Bank and continuing the values that Standard Chartered believes in.

Now for the juicy part. The Liverpool FC Foundation visited the Bangkok School for the Blind and conducted a football clinic for the children. The Liverpool youth coaches came by and ran a few sessions such as shooting and dribbling. It was priceless to see the kids celebrating after scoring a goal and I’m pretty sure the coaches enjoyed the clinic too. Also present were Liverpool Legends – Ian Rush and Dietmar “Didi” Hamann.

I was a bit cheeky that I asked Didi Hamann on Raheem Sterling’s departure but a Liverpool staff was quick to shut him out from talking. I’m not sure what’s wrong with the question since Channel News Asia was able to get a quote from another Liverpool FC Legend Robbie Fowler. Nonetheless it was great to see Liverpool FC getting involved in such clinics and also for Standard Chartered for continuing their objectives on the financial education side of things.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for me was withstanding the hot weather especially since it’s Ramadhan. It was my first morning sweat of Ramadhan but I survived 😀

Bangkok School for the Blind

With Didi Hamann.. An attempted selfie 😀

Students in the group photo with Liverpool FC Foundation and Standard Chartered Thailand

A photo opportunity with Lyn Kok, the CEO and President of Standard Chartered of Thailand and the Greater Mekong

Standard Chartered employee volunteering to help the children during the football clinic

Did you know that the balls have bells inside for the benefit of the blind?

Spot the Mighty Red mascot

The coaches giving away caps to the children

Ian Rush being mobbed by fans. Image courtesy of Liverpool FC.

Spot me? Image courtesy of Liverpool FC

Luis Garcia, a Liverpool Legend indeed, during the press conference with the media yesterday

A moment with Luis Garcia. We had a special press conference organised by Standard Chartered where a small group of media has a special chance to interview a Liverpool Legend Luis Garcia. I would have to say that he still looks in great shape despite being 37 years old. He is currently joining the Liverpool FC tour in the capacity as a Liverpool ambassador and it is wonderful to see that him taking that role.

When I asked him if Liverpool is good enough for a top two finish, Luis Garcia reckons that it won’t be easy because Liverpool have many new young players – hungry of games, hungry of showing things in the Premier League. This is because he felt that in the 2005-2006 season when he was still young. He believed that Jordan Ibe will be one of the promising stars for Liverpool after watching him play last season.

He was put in the spotlight on who would he picked as his first eleven and he chose the following – Didi Hamann, Stevie G, the Brazilian Ronaldo, Messi, Maldini, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Zidane, Romario, Puyol. The only one he forgotten was the goal keeper but his choice of his 11 will definitely be invincible in the Football Manager 2015 game 😀

There is just something about Luis Garcia that I like about. He’s calm and welcoming which made it easier for the media to bombard him with questions. Liverpool FC surely chose an almost perfect ambassador and I do hope that this will be an annual thing because he can create a first good impression that will last.

On the funnier side of things, David McMahon of The Straits Times, asked Luis Garcia if the “goal” was indeed a goal (referring to the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea in 2005 where Liverpool were eventual champions). He laughed it off and answered “yes” and it was his frequently asked questions by the fans.

Definitely a great short session with Luis Garcia but of high quality. Thank you once again to Standard Chartered for organizing this special press conference. We are indeed privileged and honoured.

Q&A with Luis Garcia

Chun and I were honoured to have a picture with Luis Garcia. A very humble and down to earth person.

I got them signed 😀

 

Members of the regional media with regional Head of Corporate Affairs of Standard Chartered before heading to catch Liverpool FC match

Chun smiling outside the stadium

Some games for the public to play

First time I would come across at 7-Eleven tent

Didn’t know Honda was the one of the sponsors

Promoting SCB Cashcard

The Standard Chartered Booth

Just look at the crowd. Total of roughly 35,000 fans watched the match. Image courtesy of Liverpool FC.

Entering the media centre

The most sought for items were wifi password and water

Danny Ings had an alright friendly debut. Image courtesy of Liverpool FC.

Chun at work. Don’t play play.

It rained in the second half.

Rained quite heavily

Yay!! Liverpool won 4-0. Image courtesy of Liverpool FC.

The guys behind Liverpool FC so internet is a must 😀

The press conference area

Our late supper after the match. Thank you Standard Chartered for this rare opportunity. Much blessed.

 

Review of Awang Semaun: Rise of the Warrior. Click play to listen to podcast review

Listen to my latest podcast on Minions with special guest Terence Han

Listen to my latest podcast on Jurassic World with special guest Jessie Tey

 

Flying off with Yee Chung Leong, sports writer from The Brunei Times and Marilyn Greame, Head of Corporate Affairs, Standard Chartered (Brunei) to Bangkok for the Liverpool FC Asia Tour

Brought me where? Bangkok 😀 I’m currently in Bangkok from a special invitation from Standard Chartered (Brunei) for the upcoming Liverpool FC Asia Tour. Their first leg will be in Bangkok before heading down to Australia and the final leg will be in Kuala Lumpur.

I flew off with Marilyn Greame, Head of Corporate Affairs, Standard Chartered (Brunei) and Yee Chung Leong, sports writer from The Brunei Times to Bangkok yesterday (and thank you Royal Brunei for taking us there too).

My previous Liverpool FC treat was back in 2012 where I also sent by Standard Chartered to Kuala Lumpur. That was fun too because I get to be up close and personal with the Liverpool FC players. I remember taking photos with Andy Carroll then.

So what privilege do both Liverpool supporters (Chun and I) have? We have our specula media passes; we had the opportunity yesterday to attend the press conference with Brendan Rodgers and Lucas Leiva; we will attending a football clinic at the Bangkok School for the Blind; we will have a special session with a former Liverpool player Luis Garcia and to cap it off, the friendly match between Liverpool FC and Thailand’s True All-Star Team. For your info, True is one of the leading telcos in Thailand.

It’s good to know that Standard Chartered continue their sponsorship with Liverpool FC as it helps them to engage with the community and especially their clients. This is a win-win situation for the Standard Chartered customers and Liverpool Football Club fans.

Woohoo.. We have a special ride from the airport transfer to Novotel Siam

Checking in.. Thank you, Standard Chartered, for accommodating us

The Liverpool fans waiting for the players

I wonder if they managed to get anything signed

Yesterday afternoon, it was a mellow down press conference for Brendan Rodgers, manager of Liverpool FC, who knew he was gonna be bombarded with questions of the Sterling saga. All he said was he wants to focus with the players that are in Thailand but he did acknowledged that Sterling had made negotiations with another club and it’s time for Liverpool to move forward. Initially Raheem Sterling was listed in the 30-man squad for the Asia tour but pulled out due to offers from Manchester City. It is reported that Sterling will be heading to Manchester City for 49 million pounds.

Now the saga is over, Liverpool FC can focus on the tour but Brendan is tight lipped on who will be the next players to sign up for Liverpool FC. It will be interesting to see who will replace Sterling but I believe Sterling is not up there with the likes of Alonso or Torres or even Suarez because he is still 20 years old and haven’t reached his world class status like the rest.

So tonight is the night. We will get to witness the first pre-season match of Liverpool against Thai True All-Stars team at Rajamangala Stadium. Woohoo.. Thank you once again Standard Chartered for this special opportunity.

For more updates, do follow me on Instagram and Snapchat @ranoadidas

TrueVisions head of commercial and business development Birathon Kasemsri Na Ayutthaya, Liverpool manager Brendan Rogers, Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva and Sports Authority of Thailand representative Sumet Akarapong during a press conference yesterday at the Athenee Tower in Bangkok

Brendan Rodgers and Lucas Levia poses before the press conference

Question from the local Thai press

One important Liverpool staff trying to upload a picture for their website

The Gala dinner that we didn’t make it at all

This is a priceless moment. Thank you, Standard Chartered.

 

I came across this advertisement on Standard Chartered recently and what caught my eye is the difference in repayments for your loans. This is interesting indeed. How can that be possible to lower the repayment amount by as much as BND400 on a monthly basis? This was from the illustration of the poster that I saw on their website recently.

So imagine that you have a few loans that you have such as personal loans, credit card payments or your other loans. You will pay the normal dues respectively to the bank as part of your commitment. The thing that struck me me was the savings that you can enjoy when you consolidate all the loan commitments into one and enjoy a lower repayment scheme as a whole.

In other words, if I were to pay individually for the loans that I have even from other banks and the total loan amounts to a total of BND 75,000, every month I would have to fork out BND 1,093. Now with Standard Chartered’s new financial package, you would only pay BND 653 as a whole. That’s like a savings of BND 400ish. Now that’s a great deal.

Better still, you only pay a flat interest rate of 3.79% (6.5% effective) per annum for 15 years tenor.

I don’t have a personal loan or car loan from a bank but this may be relevant to those who have existing multiple bank loans. I understand however, there are qualifying criteria so not everyone is eligible. If you are keen to find out more, you can reach them at 265 8000 or click on the link.