Beverly Hills Copper

Testing a Beverly Hills police bike.

Halloween @ Micheltorena

This year my daughter opted to design her own costume and she chose to be a chocolate bar carrying the brand of Willy Wonka. She even had a golden ticket stuck on her back. Many of the other kids bought their costume and were quite nice . I must say there were a lot of princesses this year

Around Long Beach Pier

Pacific Aquarium, Long Beach California

Last Sunday I brought my family and a couple of my daughter's classmate to Pacific Aquarium of Long Beach CA. Its approx 30min drive from our house in Los Angeles. Entry fee was $45/person. The coolest part of the visit is that visitors were allowed to pet stingrays and sharks. In all it was really fun and educational experience for the kids.

VAL Revisited

Its been a while since i last left Victorville Aerospace, the first company i worked for since arriving in US. Now i'm with a division of Lufthansa Technik and we're here to assist the mechanics in installing a B757 nose gear.

Pick Your Own Apple

After so many Sundays without a family outing we finally managed to plan something. We decided to drive out to an apple farm located in the Mojave desert approximately 100 miles from LA.The drive took us almost 2 hrs.Mengalih jua ehh walapun dalam kerita ganya.Along the way we passed upon wind generators erected on the hills. The outside air temp was 100 deg F approx 38 deg C in the desert. I was skeptical on how an apple farm could exist out in a desert. The apple farm was ran by a family on a 1 acre land. The apple trees were the most 5 to 6 ft high.There were green and red apples of various sizes. They were sweet and we ate some while picking them. It cost $20 to fill a 5 gallon bucket with apples.

Middle School Culmination

My son attended his school Thomas Star King MS culmination ceremony today. It was held at Benjamin Franklin High School in Pasadena. This marks the end of Middle school term for him and the beginning of freshman high. Like his elder sister Yasmine, Muaz will be attending John Marshall High School, the SAS school. This school has successfully ran an academic program for highly gifted students who completed middle school . SAS stands for School for Advanced Studies. Upon completion of this program students will get to go to prestigous universities of their choice throughout America.

Both my kids Yasmine and Muaz upon coming to America had to graduate twice. Yasmine was in Form 2D at STPRI and when she continued schooling here, she was enrolled in Grade 7 which is eqivalent to Form 1 back in Brunei. Muaz had just finished PSR exams at Riverside School,Kampong Pelambayan in Brunei .When we came here he was enrolled again in Grade 6 at Luther Burbank Middle School,Burbank, which is equivalent to Pr 6 in Brunei.

Had it not been for my childrens' wish to come here to study, i guess i won't be here. The pace of life is really fast and demanding for a cosmopolitant city like LA. Not much fun for a Bruneian like me who's used to the slow paced of life in Brunei.

Day Out With My Friends from Brunei

My ex colleagues from RBA were in California for a one week seminar. Its almost been 3 yrs since we last saw each other.They haven't changed much except for receding hairlines just like me...

Sky Ads...

The skyline view from the front of my house was being transformed into a billbord on new year's day. T'was cool....