THE IN-LAWS CAME TO TOWN

Yesterday was a big National Road Safety Traffic Game Competition weekend at the Oil & Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC) where HRH Princess Hjh Masna and an entourage of ministerial representatives, palace protocols and media who came to the oil town for the prize presentation. HRH Princess Hjh Masna is also the patron of the Brunei Darussalam National Road Safety Council with Brunei Shell Petroleum Sdn Bhd a significant proponent of the national road safety campaign.

Among the guests at the OGDC were my in-laws who had come from Bandar Seri Begawan for a day visit so some of their Belait itinerary were left to my discretion. By the time we arrived, HRH Princess Hjh Masna was on her way out but I was able to meet some of the people from the palace whom I had privileged of knowing while serving as personal photog to Pehin Dato Kapitan China Lau Ah Kok. It was also great to meet fellow photographers from the Information Department. See below, lowering of the Royal flag at the OGDC.

A glimpse of the painting of the OGDC and Traffic Game theme that was presented to Her Royal Highness.

The day was glaringly hot and the semi-working state of my car’s central air conditioner did not help. Incidentally the car, given its size, has two separate A/C with two compressors and also two expansion valve. I had the front unit replaced last year not knowing that the central unit had another expansion valve that was on its way out. So instead of cool air, it was spewing warm air on a hot day!

Naturally, the cold A/C inside the OGDC’s Science Centre provided the much desired creature comforts. One of a number of interesting attractions is THE HUMAN GYROSCOPE seen below (not a recommended activity right after a meal).

THREAD THE NEEDLE is one of many mentally stimulating items visitors were checking out. Another popular (I’ll go as far as to say addictive) MIND BALL is perhaps the most popular with the kids where the objective is not how aggressive or competitive you are but rather how relaxed your mind is.

OGDC added two Optical Illusion attractions recently that appeared in the papers. The first one is rather straight forward while the second one requires some acting skills to truly take advantage of the bottomless lift illusion. Newbies like me with no acting skills completely suck at this—nothing INSPIRING there!

Photo coutresy of Pau Lin (Canon IXUS 80 IS)

It’s become a tradition that when in-laws come to town, it’s usually a day of indulgence. It’s hard not to find anything to eat considering Seria and Kuala Belait are home of local delicacies such as rojak, laksa, kolomee, kway teow, rice dumplings, paus, ….. and SHOPPING! I married into a family that redefines shopping. I’ll bet if air could be bottled and had a price tag, it’d be bought!

So we’re at the Kuala Belait tamu (open market) that’s lit by the stong afternoon sun. My wife and I usually shop at the Seria tamu right after we drop the kids off school on Saturday mornings. I had my 5D/70-200mm with me and since there were plenty of hands around, I started taking pictures to the delight of stall keepers. This time, no one thought I was a press photography so the urge to voice a complaint wasn’t evident. A good thing of course. At any tamu you’d find a healty mix of locally grown and imported produce ….

The tamu is public domain and you can expect to see just about anyone who needs to eat. More evident at the time were foreign workers in coveralls making a significant presence in the crowd. The gentleman in the wheelchair seemed to enjoy the early evening crowd and may even be a regular.

All that shopping had to go somewhere. My car maxed out with 8 adults, 2 kids and bags of fruits and veggies on our way to my home before their transit to another vehicle home to BSB. Thank goodness it’s not durian season—the smell alone would greatly depreciate whatever’s left of the car’s resale value!

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6 thoughts on “THE IN-LAWS CAME TO TOWN”

Serdar ÇALIŞKAN says:

June 29, 2008 at 3:02 pm

good

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Jasmine says:

June 30, 2008 at 8:22 am

I like to eat the pink fruit (pic above) though I don’t know the proper name for it. It tastes like avocado and its seasonal.

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Vern says:

June 30, 2008 at 9:21 am

lol nice pictures, i hear Durian has a really terrible smell. but overall it looks like the day was fun.

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Pau says:

June 30, 2008 at 6:58 pm

LOL…adults having fun at OGDC!!

I think Jaime has better acting skills though..

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MT says:

July 4, 2008 at 3:38 am

wow.. haven’t seen one of those ‘paku’ veggie for a long time.. miss it!!

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Jan Shim says:

July 4, 2008 at 12:47 pm

The ‘paku’ veg is one of my daughter’s favourite and she doesn’t seem to grow tired of it even if it’s just a small serving she would be excited. I’m imagining exotic ways of cooking it using ‘sambal belacan’ and the entire kitchen would reek of this dominating flavour.

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