Birthday Greetings!

Happy Birthday to .....

Karl!

and

Dude!

Moga panjang umur dan murah rezeki.........

Bizarre.....

WTH?

Working on a Saturday morning.....

For the first time in a long time, I did something really productive on a Saturday morning.

One government department was trying to get its lab ISO-17025 accredited (ISO-17025 is the Quality Management System for Laboratory). One of the things that the department needed doing was an internal audit. I was contacted almost two months ago if I could conduct an internal audit on their system. Our lab is ISO-17025 certified. I am a qualified ISO-9001 internal auditor and I also attended the ISO-17025 internal audit training, so I readily accepted. I was also keen to practise what I had learnt and I also saw it an opportunity to do something outside the company.

The lab that I was audited on Saturday morning had an initial assessment by the SAC-SINGLAS (Singapore Accreditation Council - Singapore Laboratory Accreditation Scheme) and it made my job much easier. I did not have to dig too deep into the system as the initial assesors would have been thorough doing their job. I spent two hours auditing the sytem part, and also witnessed two tests that the lab had applied to be accredited. I enjoyed my first experience auditing an external lab. I got to learn new things and got to share what we practised in our own lab.

It felt really good to be able to help another lab in its aspiration to be ISO-17025 accredited. I wish all the best to the lab and its staff and I do hope to hear the news of your accreditation soon.

The biggest game of the season so far.....

So which red side will come out as winners tonight?

vs

9.00 pm Brunei Time, Anfield

Hopefully, I get the bragging rights!

S-word on Fire

This Kings of Leon's song was heavily censored when it was played on Kristal FM a while ago. The chorus, which contained the title of the song, was totally missing from the song. Yes, it might have contained the S-word, but it had to be taken in the appropriate context. I did not think anything inappropriate with leaving the S-word in the song and playing in on national radio station.

Ain't life a beach(ball)?

I thought I might share video.......

Wonder how the boy was doing in school today?

Slower-than-snail Mail

There's one government department that I would love to see it privatised. It would be the Postal Services Department.

Since the start of Raya, which was almost a month ago, I realised that we had not been getting any snail mail at all. I am expecting a letter for the past two weeks but I have seen no signs of it. A quick quick round the house confirmed that no mails were received for the past few weeks. So I called the Post Office and was passed to, I presumed, a postman. After telling him the reasons for the call, he explained to me that he had only just returned to work after his holiday and was sorting the mail when I called.

Was there only one postman at the KB Post Office branch? So if he goes on holiday, does it mean the whole of KB would not get their mails? Should not there be more postmen around? This is not the only problem that we have with the Postal Services. There were times when our office became a local sorting office; we would get mails for our neighbours. One time, our mail was left in the rain and they got soaked wet. And the problem with late delivery of mails is not a new problem. Imagine if one was expecting a letter for a job interview or a letter for a job offer. Could we held the Postal Services liable for such delays?

I really hope that for a such of customer-oriented service, the Government would consider privatising the Postal Services.

Festival of Light.....

Here's wishing all my Hindu friends, colleagues and acquaintances a very Happy, Bright and Peaceful Deepavali

Was that appropriate?

I was listening to Kristal FM this morning when one listener sms'ed and said that one of his relatives had died in the recent earthqake at Padang, Indonesia. He also requested a song, which I could not remember what, and apparently the deejay could not find it in her song collection. So she played an alternative song, entitled..... Buried Alive. Was that appropriate? Wasn't that a bit too insensitive of the deejay to play that song?

The deejay also asked the listeners to sms her on their odd habits to beat germs. She confessed to using her foot to flush the toilet. Yes, it might be alright for you, but please spare some thoughts to people who actually use their hands to flush. There are other ways to avoid touching the flush lever; I would use a piece of tissue paper to press the flush lever. But just don't use your germ-infested shoes!

B'day Boy!

Here's a birthday greeting to a nephew, whose birthday falls today.

Happy Birthday Nephew.

Moga panjang umur dan murah rezeki.

Results of Brunei Shell Badminton Tournament Semi-finals Matches.....

Just a quick update.....

Brunei LNG Abadi Team lost its semi-finals match to JO/SKS/MOC team by a 3-4 scoreline. In another semi-finals match, Well On Saja beat OS Aeroblade.

The finals of the Brunei Shell Badminton Tournament will be contested between JO/SKS/MOC and Well On Saja on Friday 16 October at Brunei Shell Recreation Club, from 5.30pm.

The challenge is over.....

Our (BLNG Bubuk team) challenge in the Brunei Shell Badminton Tournament has finally come to an end. We lost our quarter finals match against OS Aeroblade 5-2.

We were not given much hope at the start of the tournament. We lost the first match quite badly and we were labelled as the team to beat. We made amends in the next two matches and secured a berth in the quarter finals. I am glad that we went as far as we did. The teamwork and the giving-all attitude were commandable. I am sure with more practice, the team could go further in future tournaments. Thanks to all the players for making it this far.

BLNG Abadi team is through to the semi-finals, after beating East Shuttlers. The team will meet JO/SKS/MOC team, the favourite to win the tournament. I will probably turn up on Wednesday to give my support to the BLNG Abadi team.

Old Photos....

I found these two photos while ging through some old albums. These two photos are becoming cherished treasures that I would safekeep myself.

This was circa 1984. If it was correct, I would have been 8 years old then.

This was 1990. I would have been 14 years old then. And please ignore that Steve Urkell glasses!

Babu, you're always remembered...... Al-Fatihah.....

We are through....!

Just a quick update.....

We won our match tonight and secured the second spot in our group in thre Brunei Shell Badminton Tournament. We almost had a perfect score, but Fiqi and I lost our game. I redeemed myself later when I won my friendly management game.

As a reward, we will play either BLNG A team or the OS Aeroblade in the Quarter final on Monday. Time to think about strategy and line-up then!

About the current badminton tourney....

The past few evenings have been such busy evenings for me. At the moment, there is a Brunei Shell Inter Asset Units / Service Units / Contractors Badminton Tournament taking place at the Brunei Shell Recreation Club. I am playing in BLNG Team Bubuk (basically Team B la...!).

We are grouped together with East Shuttlers, Petrokon Utama and DM/PM Team B. In the first match, we were beaten soundly by the East Shuttlers by a 6-1 scoreline. I was quite deflated with the result. However, the result against Petrokon Utama tonight lifted everyone's spirit. We trashed them 7-0. Granted that Petrokon Utama is the punching bag for our group, but the scoreline was enough to bring our confidence back for our final match tomorrow against DM/PM Team B. As it stands at the moment, East Shuttlers are the sure winners; while we and DM/PM Team B have to battle it out for the second spot. The runners-up from each group will also qualify for the quarter finals.

BLNG Team A was grouped together with OS Aeroblades, Damit Worley Parsons and DM/PM Team A. BLNG Team A have played all their matches; two wins and one loss. If OS Aeroblades win their last match, they would top their group. If they lose, BLNG Team A could sneak in and top their group. Interestingly, if we win the second spot of our group and BLNG Team A win their group, both BLNG teams would meet each other in the quarter finals!

I think our match tomorrow against DM/PM Team B will be a tough one to call. We both have equal chance to proceed to the next round. It would take a right-on-the-spot strategy to get winning combinations tomorrow. I am sure some people who get dropped tomorrow will not be too happy. But we play to win, so they would have to accept their fate tomorrow.

Yo Bro...... ! ...part II

Happy Birthday to another brother who celebrates his birthday today.

Moga panjang umur dan murah rezeki........

Yo Bro......!

....... Happy Birthday to you! Moga panjang umur dan murah rezeki!

Have an enjoyable birthday.

A painting speaks a thousand words.....

I recently moved my office to a much smaller room. I vacated the old room, so that it could be converted to a staff common room. With the common room, my staff would be able to do their work away from the lab area and work in a much cleaner and safer environment. My current office is, as called by some colleagues, cosy, nice and tiny. I thought I might put up some pictures on the wall, as it was bare.

Lo and behold, I recently got hold this nice painting, which is now hanging proudly on my wall. It is an original oil painting of a rice field, with 9 rice planters working on it.

Nice or not??

Thanks T for getting it for me!

Black-outs....

It was not a pleasant evening for many people in Brunei two evenings ago, when a problem occured at the Gadong Power Plant, which resulted in black-outs in many parts of Brunei-Muara, Belait and Tutong districts. It was even worse for some places when the black-outs occurred again in the next two evenings, though I was not too sure if they were related or not.

It would be very easy to point our fingers to the Department of Electrical Services. It would be very easy to blame the department for the black-outs that we had to endure. But as with anything mechanical, failures could happen and they did. Working in a place where machinery was an integral part of our operation taught me that no matter how much we prepared and how much maintenance we did, machines could fail. And they had the knack of failing at the most inconvenient of times.

Rather than blaming the Department of Eletrical Services for the black-outs, spare some moments to think about the burdens we are putting on our power plants. Brunei was named as one of the biggest users of electricity, but it was not a country which heavily depended on mega industries. Yet, we were consuming energy as much as those industrialised country such as Japan and China. We are putting extra strain on the system, especially during the Raya period.

Think also about the amount of gas that we unnecessary use to generate electricity to power those air-con units in the other rooms that are unoccupied, those hot water boilers in the bathrooms that are switched on all day long, those computers that lie idle in the rooms or those tv sets that remain unwatched. Gas will eventually be gone. And do not put too much hope on solar power. According to the big boss of Shell, solar power will only account to a tiny percentage of energy supply in the future.

So please save energy. Think Earth, think the future.