Yayasan SHHB

Yesterday was the 4th Friday in a row I have played golf on the nearby Golf Club. It was a bit upmarket as I played with the Chairman of the Club and the other two colleagues of mine were almost professional players. The one thing I realised is that the more I played, the worse I get. Must be pure psychology or something. I think it's the more things I know phenomena. You can't help it. Beginners are always given free advices by the more experienced players. And these advices piled up. I think that's what happened today, too many advices - my brain got confused. And that's the other thing about golfers. Blame everything else but the golfer's skills.

I don't want to talk too much about golf. What happened was in the afternoon, I went with my 6 year old son to Yayasan in Bandar. It has been a while since we last went there. During the last month we were practically barricaded indoors at home what with the bird flu scare and the hand foot and mouth diseases. Mingling with the crowd was a no-no. Though yesterday's scene at Yayasan would not have done much to spreading any kind of pandemic. There was hardly anyone there compared to the Yayasan weekends that I used to see. A number of shops are closed and does not look as if anyone is coming in just yet. What's going on?

Part of the explanation I gather is that there are too many other malls or shopping areas which people go to. I guess that's right, we had the Mall in Gadong and the HH Mall in Jalan Muara. One huge HH mall is coming up in Sengkurong as well sometime end of the year. This is also related to catchment areas. The Yayasan's catchment area is the Kampung Air which is the area surrounding it. I don't have access to demographic studies but I would presume the more affluent catchment area is not there. Secondly it is not the sale season. People according to some do not shop during the non-sale season. And I guess this is also what Bruneians' termed as 'bulan karing' literally dried month - end of month, so money is a bit stretched.

What I am afraid of is the third reason. Too many people are paying off their unpaid electricity bills all this while. I blogged about the workshops being empty and I guess if it affects workshops, the same should happen to department stores and malls as well. Yesterday's news about the Water Department who will be as equally tough on their customers have scared people into not going to departmental stores. I sure hope that these are temporary phenomenas and that people once they have paid their electricity and water bills and have changed their pattern of consumption should by then be able to come out and enjoy themselves once more. Otherwise our department stores and malls will become white elephants.