Happy Chinese New Year

YESTERDAY was the most auspicious occasion for the Chinese community in Brunei and more than 1.3 billion Chinese around the world — the Chinese New Year.Chinese New Year celebrations are marked by new-year visits to kin, relatives and friends. Everyone will be wearing new clothes to signify a new year and most in various shades of red. To the Chinese, red is the emblem of joy, and symbolises

St Valentine's Day

[Photo from Google Earth - Lovers' Island - formerly known by the less romantic name of Galesnjak, off the coast of Croatia - It is just 130,000 square yards and is uninhabited, making it an intriguing location for a romantic Valentine's Day getaway.]In most parts of the world, today is Valentine's Day. It has been estimated that throughout the world, approximately one billion valentine cards are

Luminox Watches

I was out in Gadong and Kiulap the other day window shopping Luminox watches. I have only heard of Luminox watches over the last 2 months. Apparently His Majesty wears one. The craze caught on at MOD and almost everyone I met wore one. So I thought I will have a look at what this watch is all about.There are apparently three shops in Brunei which sell these watches, one in Kiulap (same block as

Floods

I have had this cough for quite a while. The medical advice is if your cough persists for more than a week see a doctor. I thought my antibodies are strong enough but the night before, I could not sleep. So first thing today was to drop into the old Borneo Clinic in Sengkurong, now renamed something else, and see my doctor. I was glad it was the same doctor and I came out $50 poorer. Somenone

A new ramble

One of my close friends asked today at the mosque how long is my hiatus. Hahaha... When my computer broke down, I thought it would be nice to take a break until a new computer arrived and my espeed reconnected. Well, a new computer has not arrived, but I am making do with my tiny notebook and I have to admit Telbru was really fast in getting my espeed up and running. I dropped into Telbru's

Which New Year?

[I wrote the following piece for Brunei Times for the New Year 2008. I thought it is still valid for the New Year 2010. Happy Reading.]TODAY is the first day of 2008 AD or, to be all-inclusive 2007 CE ("Common Era") since AD stands for the Latin expression Anno Domini — "in the year of our Lord", in reference to Jesus Christ. As the Oxford Dictionary pointed out, "AD" refers strictly to "the

On hiatus

Apologies to regular visitors. My PC has died on me (suspected motherboard problem), so I can't update from home. And I don't have time and I should not update during office hours. Besides all my photos and notes are on that PC, so I don't have much reference material. So, I am going on forced hiatus until I can sort something out. In the meantime keep on checking, maybe by then my PC would have