Note to self: Financial Planning!

I did more walking yesterday. This time to the other two districts. One of the housing project affecting some 1,000 houses was delayed due to the contractor not being able to start work and had been asking for extension. We have a choice of either extending him in the interest of helping local contractors at the cost of having 1,000 families not having their houses on time or not helping him and

The Giant in Rimba

In my new job, I am just beginning to discover new things. One, I did not realise that there will have to be lots and lots of walking. Two, my predecessors talk about bringing work home and I was thinking over the last 2 days, there is more than ample time to complete everyday's work. It was today I realised that the second thing, because I will be doing lots and lots of walking, there ain't

Early Brunei Papers

People asked me where I get my materials from. I said the same places where everyone get theirs - through reading journals, articles and whatever I can get hold of - and believe it or not, I also read history textbooks both primary and secondary and I have them in my bookshelves.Articles about Brunei have been written during the Chinese Dynasties and that goes some 1,500 years ago. The more

Kampong Tanjung Nangka - Treasury Trove

[note: The article below was printed in last Sunday's Brunei Times under the usual Golden Legacy article. I arrived back on Thursday from Qatar and only had a couple of days to do this. The article is a merger of two blog pieces I wrote in 2006, so it did not take that long. For the photographs, I had to drive into the Kampung and take them. The one with the wooden house was interesting. I took

Old Photos

I posted this postcard at the beginning of the month asking where anyone knew where this was. I guessed Jalan Sultan. Nobody was able to confirm that. Someone told me it is not even Brunei.Yesterday, one Minister said that this is Jalan Sultan in the 1930s. And it is confirmed by our national historian that this indeed was Jalan Sultan. These very Westernised looking buildings were unfortunately

Brunei Break-ins

Yesterday was a most eventful day. Despite my new job title, I still had to carry out the inspection of the customs officers parade for the International Customs Day celebration 2008 as I had already agreed to do it months before. I have never inspected a parade before and it was quite fun really as the officers did put up a show. Theoretically I could stop and literally inspect an officer's

Thank you

For those in the know, you heard the announcements last night. It was a surprise announcement. So I will use this entry to thank everyone that I have worked with at the Ministry of Finance. I enjoyed working with you all and I will miss the familiar surroundings but now it's time to face new challenges. It's going to be sad leaving friends and colleagues. Thank you to you all and I hope that we

Brunei - The Next 30 Years

I was glad to hear that the Economic Planning and Development Department finally announcing the publication of the long awaited Brunei's Long Term Development Plan when I was away. I was even more glad to see the hard bound copies of the plan in my in-tray when I returned back to work yesterday afternoon.The plan contained the government's vision of what Brunei should be in 2035 - Wawasan Brunei

International Agreements Made Simple

[Note: This entry will serve for both today (Wednesday) and tomorrow (Thursday) as I am flying later this afternoon back to Brunei and will only arrive in Brunei in the latter half of Thursday.]I thought I will share this photograph of me and the other head of delegation after completing our negotiations. We had to turn around as the lady officers wanted to take a photograph of us away from

Official Dinner

Last year whenever I attended dinner at the Palace, I tried to capture the essence of the food and atmosphere there and shared them in this blogsite. There are always two reactions - critics and condemnation by those who are taken aback by the opulence of it and adulations and salutations by those in the trade and especially those who worked hard creating it and appreciated that someone out there

Family Relationship Monikers in Brunei

[Note: This article of mine was published yesterday in the Sunday Edition of The Brunei Times (20th January 2008). This is actually rewritten from two earlier blog entries which I wrote sometime 2006. That is also why the language of the article was more informal than the normal articles I write for Brunei Times. I thought I will share them once again with the new readers of The Daily BR. The

The Huge Jamrah at Mina

My uncle and my sister were two of a number of Bruneians who performed the haj and came back last month. What surprised me is the number of photographs that they were able to take almost anywhere even including at the Masjidil Haram. I remembered when I went for my haj in the late 1990s, my wife and I could not even bring a camera into the masjidil haram area. Our photos are limited to outside

Away

For those suddenly addicted to the Daily BR and find it not updated and wondering why - I am currently away to a Middle East country (starts with a Q) on government business and will try to update this blog whenever I have the time. The last time - that was way back in April last year - I become a travel blog, someone wrote that I should not be showing photographs of places I have been because

Another View of Jembatan Rangas

Over the years, I have purchased and collected many old Brunei postcards as an extension of my paper money and stamp collections. This not only makes me a numismatist and a philatelist but also a deltiologist! Deltiology is the study of postcards. Anyway, when I saw this postcard on ebay, I was quite surprised. I had to have it and this postcard arrived yesterday. This view of the Jembatan Rangas

Textiles and Identity in Brunei Darussalam

I saw the news of this book when it was launched at UBD while reading BT. I thought that looks like an interesting book to have and I immediately made arrangements to have two copies of the book, then not realising the book costs some $55+ each. However, this book is worth every single penny of that $55+ which I paid for the book.So, what do you get for $55? First of all, you get a book written

Brunei-Bahrain Agreements

(From MENAFN - Bahrain Tribune) The Ministry of Finance (MOF) yesterday (14th January 2008) inked two agreements with the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments and the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and on capital.The signing ceremony was held at the Ministry of Finance premises by

Sungai Kianggeh 1960s

You know in the 1960s, the Sungai Kianggeh was still wide enough that not only small boats can go in, even the big tongkang can go in. Before that it was even wider. The government ask anyone who wants to help in with the widening of the Jalan Kianggeh by coming up with some earth and get paid for it. People started bringing in earth by the boatfull and dumping it to the side of Sungai Kianggeh

Foreign Postage Stamps in Brunei

People ask me what I did from April to December when I didn't do daily entries to the Daily BR. I did a lot of things - work obviously is no 1. I managed to get my official golf handicap too during that time. But it also allowed me to catch up on my hobbies. One of them is catching up with my stamps, paper money and coins collection. You can read about my entries on them here on my other blogsite

HSBC 60th Year in Brunei

HSBC is celebrating its 60th Anniversary in Brunei this year. Many people remember HSBC as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank because it was the first bank set up here in Brunei soon after the War in 1947. In that year, HSBC set up its offices in Bandar, Belait and Seria but Tutong did not get its own office until 1975. Since then, they have opened up a number of branches throughout the country.

Bandar Seri Begawan's New Icon

I took the above photo last year during His Majesty's birthday celebrations in Bandar Seri Begawan. This was part of the exhibition of the new Bandar Seri Begawan.This particular icon was part of the presentation. It is designed by a very good architect friend of mine who worked for the JKR. It is supposedly designed for the 100th anniversary commemoration of the formation of Bandar Seri Begawan

Clifford Bridge, Brunei

One faithful reader of this blog is one who used to be my Chairman and is indeeed a respected member of the Cabinet, told me the other day is that my entry on a Brunei road scene is not one of Brunei roads. Honestly speaking I have no idea either except that the photo does come from a book about Brunei's postal history. He promised to ask someone to confim it.For today, another old photograph.

Awal Muharram 1429

Today is the 1st of Muharram 1429 Hijriah. And yet most of us may know the month, eat our bubur and not really know much about it. On CNN, in the next 10 days, they most definitely will show the clash between the Shias and the Sunnis as they celebrated the asshura. What's all this? I have taken this article written by Mufti Tafi Usmani. Perhaps we all can learn from it:By Mufti Tari UsmaiMuharram

Origin of Kampung Bukit Udal

Most regular readers of this blogsite in April know that I stopped my daily blogs last April because of the difficulty of juggling my official work and then I just started my weekly column on The Brunei Times called The Golden Legacy. It's only now that I have been able to handle the time more efficiently - I don't know how long this equilibrium stage will last though.Anyway, for this Sunday's

Workbooks and Stationery

Even in our land of plenty, there are still groups of people who needed assistance. The other day, our head honcho of the Investment agency mentioned that his agency's staff provides a collection to needy students. This year he already had a phone call from a Principal if they could help pay for 15 students' books and stationery requirements. Kudos to the agency's staff for making such generous

Information Department Calendar 2008

I never thought I will be talking about a calendar. But the new wall calendar issued by the Information Department caught my eye when it landed in my in-tray last Saturday afternoon. So okay it's 5 days after the New Year but I forgive this one.The Information Department used 'imbasan' - looking into the past - as their theme for this calendar. Every month, there are 2 or 3 old photographs of

Wanderer in Malaysian Borneo

It's Sunday. So, what do we do on Sundays other than attend weddings? Right! Off to Miri. Most people go to Miri because it is so near what with the bridge in Rasau and the bridge bypassing Baram. Most have forgotten the time when going to Miri was as bad as going to KK. There used to be a ferry at Kuala Belait and I remembered when I stayed at my grandfather's house along Jalan Singa Menteri,

Looking at Brunei's Past

At my age, I realised that many young bloggers or blog readers do not appreciate a number of Brunei books which are sold on the market. When I was much younger too, I did not appreciate these books that much. It was much later when I discovered the hidden treasures that are in them that I realised just how much I have missed all this while.This book by Haji Ahmad Arshad is one of them. Haji Ahmad

Brunei Road Scene 1930s

I was doing a bit of research on Brunei stamps and Brunei postal services by reading a book entitled 'The Postal History of British Borneo'. It's quite a useful book if you are interested in the history of the postal services.There were a number of photographs in that book. However one intrigued me. It is a scene of Brunei in 1930s but I cannot quite place this particular scene. My best guess

Brunei's Most Expensive Stamps

Sometime last week, someone bought an American 24 cent stamp which had an inverted plane for around US$825,000.00! Imagine that. But surprisingly that is still not the most expensive stamps ever. The most expensive is a Swedish 3 skilling stamp which was the wrong colour. That sold for around $2.5 million about 10 years ago. A number of other stamps could beat that if only they come onto the

Customs Import Duties & Excise Duties

The authorities announced a good news and a bad news (see article from Brunei Times below). The good news was that import duties are being abolished for cars. The bad news was that this will be replaced by an excise duty with exactly the same rate. Impact - none to you and me. Slight administration adjustment to importers but otherwise absolutely no impact.Why do this? It's the government's