anakbrunei.org: new media and photography for the WIRED bruneian: Page 6

Checking out the Bullring

By Reedz on January 24, 2010

Pics from a day trip to Birmingham yesterday with some friends. Checked out the Bullring and the Chinatown. From wikipedia:

The Bull Ring is a major commercial area of Birmingham, England. It has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held. It has been developed into a shopping centre twice; first in the 1960s, and then in the 2000s.

The current shopping centre is the busiest in the United Kingdom with 36.5 million visitors in 2004, and is also the twelfth largest. It houses one of only four Selfridges department stores and the largest Debenhams outside of London. Consequently, the centre has been a huge success, attracting custom from all over the world, including New York.

The Chinese Quarter of Birmingham is an area with a predominantly Chinese influence as a result of a concentration of Chinese owned businesses, organisations and social clubs. The area now covers a neighbourhood that includes Hurst Street, Ladywell Walk and Pershore Street.

Many of the buildings in the area have Chinese architectural features and art including Chinese style roofs and wall murals in the Arcadian Centre depicting historical scenes typical of the Silk Road.

Waiting for the 1149 to Birmingham New Street

Passing through Coleshill Parkway

Walking towards the Bullring

The Bull in Bullring

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Posted in Featured, UK | Leave a response

Banyak2 kayu, kayu apa yang dapat dimakan?

By Reedz on January 22, 2010

This came in the mail today

From my buddy Aidy in Surrey

Aidy is an entrepreneur. He sells kayupuk by mail in UK. How cool is that?

Continue reading “Banyak2 kayu, kayu apa yang dapat dimakan?”

Posted in Food, Promotions, Reviews, UK | Leave a response

Let’s start with Financial Literacy

By Reedz on January 20, 2010

After the big hooha over raising credit card minimum payments and curbing of credit card issuance by the banks, and the subsequent suggestions to set up a credit bureau, this is a fresh approach by BIBD which I’m in full favour of. Bak kata pepatah, “Meluntur buluh biar dari rebungnya.”

Have you ever asked yourself…

Why didn’t anyone teach me about saving and investing when I was young?

Why don’t I understand the financial page of the paper?

Why is it some people have money and others don’t? What am I missing?

BIBD has gotten off to a good start, but what would be even more awesome would be FINANCIAL LITERACY programs for kids such as the ones run by Moneytree or Creative Wealth International. Now these would definitely go a very long way to ensuring we will have a new generation of money savvy Bruneians who will know how to manage their finances well!

Congratulations to BIBD on the good start, but lets take it up a notch!

Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam Berhad (BIBD) today held a workshop on Financial Planning for the students at Sultan Sharif Ali Secondary School in Kg Salambigar.

Some 220 students from Year 7 (Form 1) attended the workshop presented by Chartered Financial Consultant, Dayang Nurul Jafriah binti Abdullah.

The purpose of the workshop was to instill the culture of savings while teaching the students the importance of it. It was also to encourage students to begin saving as early as possible.

Nurul Jafriah during her presentation talked to the students on how to differentiate between a needs and wants. She also did a demonstration on how to accumulate savings.

According to Nurul Jafriah, an early introduction to financial planning would help these students to associate the term “financial planning’ as they develop in life. She hopes the students will be able to increase their awareness on the importance of planning for their future, begin saving as soon as possible and spend wisely.

To make the presentation interesting, activities relating to financial planning were carried out. This was to ensure that the presentation is relevant to their level of understanding.

Pics courtesy of Ak Herman Pg Duraman

Posted in Brunei Darussalam, Corporate Events, Featured | 2 Responses

Buying a car? Used or New?

By Reedz on January 19, 2010

Good news peeps!

WHO’s Got Talent Season 2 is BACK! The competition is open to the whole of Borneo and to all ages. Bring in your talents, upload your videos and get voted! For more info and to join the competition, just log in to www.gayabmobile.com.bn. Bigger, Better Prizes awaits!

We Dare YOU!

Fancy a new car but don’t want to spend a bomb? How about a used car then? If you’ve never considered it, then now is probably a good time to take a good look at it as a serious alternative. Here’s a snippet of a recent article from BT:

USED cars have steadily become a force in the domestic automobile market with some dealerships of brand-new vehicles acknowledging their growth over the past year.

An executive of NBT (B) Sdn Bhd, sole distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles sees the domestic automobile market becoming more competitive because of the anticipated entry of more used cars.

"As long as there are used cars in the market, there will be competition, and other distributors will also offer some sort of competition," said Ninan Chacko, NBT managing director. "But the new player in market are the used cars." Asked how fierce the competition would be with used cars for the upcoming year, Chacko said: "I think that they are quite strong, especially with the yen as high as it is, the used cars provide an alternative for people who want to buy cars.

[…]

At the beginning of the year, sales of used cars surged mainly due to the recent increase in the prices of brand-new Japanese cars. A salesperson at a used car dealership said, “Usually we sell an average of five cars or fewer, but last month we sold about 20 cars and my boss has brought in more stock from Singapore because we see that we will continue (to see) this trend for this year.”

On my last trip home, I noticed the number of used car dealers was growing and car yards, a common sight here in UK, were mushrooming. The range of vehicles available was also growing with some of the more exotic cars being made available alongside the everyday commuters.

I spoke to a photog buddy of mine who recently got into the used car business with Bruneiusedcar.com and he confirmed the upward trend in used car sales last year and continuing this year. I asked him what type of cars were currently in demand and he said there were basically 3 types which were most in demand, the MPV, the budget saloon car, and the sporty two door coupes. All pics courtesy of Bruneiusedcar.com.

Toyota Picnic