Running from today until 10th July is the BLNG & Refinery Inter-function Badminton Tournament. The tournament was officially opened this afternoon by the Managing Director, Hj Salleh Bostamam. This is the third of such tournament, being organised by the Technical Function. This year the organising committee is led by Kicks. My team played today against the Engineering team, where we lost with a score of 17-11. I (just barely) lost my mens’ double match, where we lost in the third set. It was really frustrating to lose the match, after playing well in the second set where we rallied to win the set after trailing during much of the set. The TM Rider team will play the RM Spartan on Wednesday; coincidentally RM Spartan beat the OM All Stars team by the same margin. Follow the tournament here.
The 12th NBT Treasure Hunt will take place this Sunday (6th July). This is the forth time that I am taking part in the Treasure Hunt. This year, the team consists of three members from last year and another from two years ago. My team is looking to better our third position which we won for the past two years. The final round of the HSBC-organised Tri-Extreme Challenge will also happen on the same day and I know a friend who won the second place last year will be participating in the final round of the Tri-Extreme, so it would be one competition less 🙂
I was away from work last week and as a result, the pending work pile in my office is getting higher by the day. I really need to pull my socks up and start to reduce the height of the pile. It is also the mid-year point, where review of task and target with the staff needs to be done. I am also scheduled to conduct an internal audit, which would be my first one ever. And the department that I am in is also going to be audited soon, so preparation work need to start soon.
And in a couple of days’ time, there is a small matter of something happening that I need to worry about…!
Why do idiots still insist on going to the cinema and spoiling it for people around them?
I was at the cinema last night watching Get Smart and sat next to this particularly large-sized man. As soon as I sat, there was this strong smell of hair gel that came through from this guy. So I thought I would have to sit through this. Anyway, as the movie started, he started to narrate the movie for the benefit of people around him, which included, whom I presumed, his friends. He must have probably watched this movie. He even remembered some lines in the movie, especially the funny ones. At one point during the movie, I could hear him snoring quite loudly. When eventually he woke up, he proceeded to tell his friends about his snoozing and he seemed to be quite proud about it. He also accepted some phone calls and spoke loudly. At the half-point mark, he left the cinema. It was peaceful and quiet until he came back towards the end of the movie, to continue talking to his friends and on the phone. The man’s behaviour totally spoilt the cinematic experience for me. People like this should be forever banned from cinemas.
Anyway, Get Smart was based on the 60’s series of the same name. The movie is about this secret government agent, called CONTROL (thought it was capitalised, CONTROL was not an acronym and did not stand for anything), which was looking at any incredible terror threats to the United States. Max Smart was an analyst who aspired to become a field agent. After the revelation that the identities of all field agents had been compromised, Smart was thrusted to the limelight, where he partnered another agent for an assignment to capture an arms trader. Steve Carell was as straight forward as he could get and Anne Hathaway could not be any hotter; but sadly, the same cannot be said about their chemistry. Do you know that the Rock used his real name in the credit of the movie? The movie’s humour was mostly slapstick and can be quite dry at times. It was a good movie to watch if you need to wind down after a tiring and stressful week at work. It does not require much of the brain’s grey matter to think.
There were some funny bits, but they lost their humour as they had been shown in the trailers. Why do movie distributors put all the funny bits into the trailers?
So I got most of my predictions wrong (well, at least one of them is still in)…..
Spain would love to shake off that underachiver title and end a forty-year wait for a major title. Having last won a major title (the European Cup) in 1964, Spain has been a consistent under-performer in subsequent World Cups and European Cups, having to bow out in the tournaments usually in the earlier rounds. Spain is one of the three nations that won all three group matches (the other being Croatia and the Netherlands). In the Quarter final, Spain met the old horses of Italian football whom they struggled to beat, having to rely on their keeper to save two Italian penalties and Fabregas to score the decisive penalty kick. They met the much-fancied Russian team in the semi-final, the only repeat of a group stage match where the Spanish beat the Russians with a convincing 4-1. Many thought that Russia would provide a much sterner and more difficult opposition, but Spain steam-rolled past the tired Russian players. Spain will heavily rely on their English Premier League contingent to deliver the goods. The likes of Torres, Fabregas and Alonso will play the main roles in the Spanish side. Casillas will remain their tower of strength at the back. Spain will definitely miss their top scorer, David Villa, who is almost sure to miss the final through an injury.
Germany turned out to be the surprise package in this tournament. Being unfancied even before the tournament started, Germany ended the group stages below Croatia to meet Portugal in the quarter final. It was a match many predicted to be an easy ride for the Portuguese, but experience mattered at the end of the match when Germany beat Portugal 3-2. In the semi-final against Turkey, many neutral fans rooted for Turkey and the match turned out to be the match of the tournament. Three goals in the final quarter of the match finally gave Germany the berth in the Final of Euro 2008. Germany will depend heavily on its attacking front, led by their talisman, Ballack, who seems to be doing rather well playing for his country than for his club. Germany would need to bolster up its defence and if Lehmann plays, lets just hope that he does not make any mistakes!
I think Spain will win Euro 2008, but it will not be easy for the Spanish. The match will probably be the match of the tournament, where the young ambitious Spanish team will tear the older, but wiser and more experienced German team apart in the end. But expect blood to be spilled and perhaps one or two red cards shown…..
This episode of Friends was one of the favourite episodes for many fans of Friends. This was when Rachel found out that Ross had fancied her since high school.
A while ago, I watched The Happening, the latest offering from Indian-born director M. Night Shyamalan. M. Night Shyamalan was the same director that brought us Signs, Unbreakable, The Village, Sixth Sense and the less-memorable Lady In The Water.
The movie tells the story of the outbreak of a pandemic where humans would commit suicide upon contact with a mysterious substance. The pandemic first broke out in New York City and it slowly spread across the North East Coast of the US of America. The main character, played by Mark Wahlberg, led a group that consisted of his estranged wife, a best friend and his daughter to escape New York City. And what’s next…. go see the movie yourself….
So what did I think of the movie? It, being a product of M Night Shyamalan, was enough to make me want to see the movie. It was quite rather disappointed with the movie. I thought the story was weak at some points. The momentum, which was slow to gather at the start of the movie, was suddenly lost towards the end. There were no nail-biting moments, no sitting on the seat’s edge moments. I thought the end did not tell the story completely. Towards the end of the movie I kept hoping that the movie would not end there without any twist that M Night Shyamalan was famous for. Unfortunately, it ended quite abruptly.
After the dismal display of his last film, Lady In The Water, one could not fail to think that probably M Night Shyamalan might have lost his touch. His golden touch that synonymous with compelling storylines and high quality direction.
Will I watch his future films? I don’t know. I would probably check film critics’ reviews before watching them. The reviews for The Happening are mostly negative. The following paragraph was extracted from the Wikipedia page of The Happening.
“Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter said the film lacked “cinematic intrigue and nail-biting tension” and that “the central menace … does not pan out as any kind of Friday night entertainment. Variety’s Justin Chang thought the story “… covers territory already over-tilled by countless disaster epics and zombie movies, offering little in the way of suspense, visceral kicks or narrative vitality to warrant the retread.” Mick LaSelle at San Francisco Chronicle felt the film was entertaining but not scary. He commented on Shyamalan’s writing, saying “… instead of letting his idea breathe and develop and see where it might go, he jumps all over it and prematurely shapes it into a story.” Time’s Richard Corliss saw the film as “dispiriting indication that writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has lost the touch” Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips thought the film had workable premise, but found the characters “gasbags or forgetful” Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal said the film was “woeful clunker of a paranoid thriller” and described it as “befuddling infelicities, insistent banalities, shambling pace and pervasive ineptitude”.
M. Night Shyamalan has this habit of appearing in his own film. If you watched this already, in which scene did he appear? I did not see him anywhere, but my guess was probably when the train got stopped in the small town.
I am currently away for a holiday with almost half of my family.
I am not sure if I will be able to blog, so expect some interruptions with blog posting. However, I have pre-written some posts which will be published at pre-determined time and date.
The group stage of Euro 2008 was completed and the eight teams that qualify to the Quarter Finals are (winner and runner-up respectively) Portugal and Turkey from Group A, Croatia and Germany from Group B, Netherlands and Italy from Group C, and Spain and Russia from Group D.
The Quarter FInals will be played over the next four days and will feature: Quarter Final 1: Portugal vs Germany – Portugal will probably win this. Quarter FInal 2: Croatia vs Turkey – Croatia will win probably win this, but Turkey may be the Greece of Euro 2008. Quarter Final 3: Netherlands vs Russia – Netherlands will win this. Quarter Final 4: Spain vs Italy – Italy may spring a surprise this time, but Spain will probably win this.
I know that I am not that good at predicting. I wrongly predicted that Czech Republic and Romania would be in the Quarter Finals. Lets hope my predictions are correct this time.
Wouldn’t it be nice to see Portugal play Croatia in the Semi Final? Wouldn’t it be mouthwatering to see Spain and Netherlands vying for the other Euro 2008 Final berth?
I wrote two posts (here and here) on the recent enforcement of the 2005 Tobacco Act, which meant, among other things, smoking in public places are now prohibited. Both posts attracted comments which basically could not agree with my opinions, as well the government’s move to ban smoking. On top of that, there have been numerous letters to the newspapers on this subject, again disagreeing with the smoking ban.
One person left a comment that the rules were made by people who earned more and thus would not feel the pinch from slowing of business as smokers shy away from restaurants. Another commented that as one gets more educated, the narrower his/her mind gets. It was probably directed to the many professionals who were involved to enforce this Tobacco Act.
I find it incredulous that these comments and letters were wrote ‘in support’ of smokers, who felt that their apparent ‘rights’ to smoke had been violated. I shook my head in disbelief as I read the comments and letters, as I felt that the gravity of smoking to smokers and no-smokers alike were not fully understood. It goes beyond economic matter. One’s health is not something that can be measured by money. The government is enforcing the Tobacco Act not to ‘kill’ businesses in Brunei; rather it was trying not to kill its citizen. Yes, there are other causes of death in Brunei; other diseases and traffic accident kill. But the government is doing its best to reduce death caused by non-smoking related causes.
According to the Health Information Booklet 2006, issued by Brunei’s Ministry of Health, cancer, heart-related diseases, bronchitis and asthma are among the top six causes of death in Brunei in 2006. Trachea, bronchus and lung cancers were the most common cause of death among the cancer patients. The diseases mentioned are known to be caused by smoking. According to the statistics from the Ministry of Health, more than 40,000 out of Brunei’s population of almost 400,000 (in 2006) are smokers. That is a staggering 10 percent of Brunei’s population! An unbelivable 17.5 percent of Brunei’s 15 year-old and above are smokers.
In today’s newspaper, the author of the letter pointed out that non-smokers were also paying customers at restaurants and they need to be paid more attention as there were more non-smokers than smokers. They would rather see the restaurants to improve the quality of food and its services. I could not agree more.
If you’re still not convinced, go here for the effects of smoking to our health.
It has been reported that from 19th June 2008, the price of petrol being sold for foreign-registered cars would be different to that sold to Bruneian cars. For foreign-registered cards, the price of a litre of Premium 97 would be B$1.18 (BND0.53 for locally-registered cars) and B$1.13 for a litre of diesel (B$0.31 for locally-registered cars). This move was made to ease the Government’s burden on fuel subsidy which reached the record B$202 million mark last year. The prices for Premium 97 and diesel for foreign-registered are said to be ‘the commercial rates’, i.e. their price if subsidy was not paid for by the government. Purchase of petrol can only be made from some appointed filling stations.
Almost two weeks ago, Malaysia reduced the fuel subsidy, thus increasing the price of petrol. As a result of this, the foreign outflow from fuel sales has steeply increased. Diesel sales to foreign-registered cars increased by as much as 66%, while that for Premium 97 increased by 36%.
Apart from the increase in the purchase of subsidised fuel to foreign cars, an increase in the attempt to smuggle of fuel was also observed.
Lately, most vehicles used for smuggling fuel across the borders are Brunei-registered vehicles. Hopefully the relevant authorities are taking appropriate actions to reduce the smuggling attempt by these Brunei-registered vehicles, as they are not subjected to these fuel purchase restrictions.
Someone pointed out that Father and Son, sung by Yusof Islam, in my last post is not exactly a song that a son would dedicate to a father. He might be right.
So here’s one song that became my ring tone……
Do you know that it’s really difficult to find a song for fathers?
Bulgemeister 