Hash night

Tonight was my hash night (Matthew hashes when he can on Wednesdays but not often. He gets lots of Tuesday evenings off instead of Wednesdays Lucky me!) and it was my first beach hash. The site was at Pantai Tungku (M&D it is the beach we went to see the sunset near the Empire). We normally run in the jungle so it was rather nice to feel the nice sea breeze and enjoy the view.





It was the Australia Day run but to be honest with you I didn't know what it was about until I looked up in Wikipedia .

I love running around in Brunei jungle but I have to say tonight was one of my favourite runs.

Happy Australia Day!

(✈ Brunei - Bangkok - Brunei)

Girls road trip to Miri

As you all noticed by now (I hope!) my braces are off. They came off just before Christmas and I was so thrilled to have them removed. I really enjoyed talking and eating without them for three hours (only) until my orthodontist gave me retainers (very disappointed...) He told me they are just temporary ones until my proper ones are ready in a months time. They were clear and molded to my teeth shape. The good thing about those ones was you could not see them, bad thing was you cannot eat with them, so while I had them on I could not snack nor taste a bit of what I was cooking etc.

Well today was the day the new retainers were ready, so of course I went all the way to Malaysia (Miri) to collect them. For the last year and a half Matthew always drove me down there but for the first time I drove. (He was on standby from 3pm so I left my boys in Brunei) Instead one of my friend came along to keep me company. We made very good time getting there and had plenty of time for shopping after my orthodontist treatment (even though shopping in Malaysia is still very limited). I managed to find a new top (yeah!!) and we enjoyed real coffee from Starbucks!

Well... the new retainers have wires on them so you can tell that I have them on (gggggrrrrrrrr...) I need to have them on for the next 6 months.
So far not too comfortable but I am sure I will get used to them soon!

(✈ Standby)

Playing school

When I came back from Miri today, Linnea came around to play with Oliver. Oliver loves being with other kids (especially our neighbors). Today three of us decided to play "school".

Linnea was Mrs Wang (I think that's what she was calling herself) and we had her reading and music classes. It was a rather big class as you can see from the photo. Even though there were lots of other kids (?) Oliver paid attention to what Mrs Wang said and really enjoyed his classes. Thanks Linnea!!

Keeping the records

It is just so amazing how quickly your child grows and develops all sorts of skills. I have a baby booklet that I was given by the Japanese government to record milestones of child development. This booklet is called boshi techo (The mother and child health handbook). It is a small booklet that will chronicle your pregnancy, your well-being, the birth, the well-being of the child and the immunization record of the child up to and including the age of six. Every child in Japan has one and Oliver's one looks like this.




Inside the booklet there is also information about breast feeding, teeth development, weaning etc.



I am keeping records of his weight and height every month, special dates such as when he can support his own neck, when he rolled over, when he started solids etc etc. Within the last month or so I am busy turning the pages over as he is developing so fast. He can sit up by himself, crawl, pick up small things on the floor (he was chasing an ant the other day!!).

It is very good to pencil in those things but I also love documenting Oliver's development using the latest technology. Today I managed to take a video clip of Oliver using his arms and legs (and his mouth) to pull himself up.



(✈ Brunei - Perth - Brunei)

Superheros Birthday Party

Oliver received this cool invitation to Lucas's 6th birthday party.
Here in Brunei birthday parties are big events and parents put lots of effort to make them special for their children every year. Oliver was asked to come as a superhero so last week I went out to find something that would fit him. But all the superhero costumes they had in the shops were way too big for him.

After giving up on finding baby size costumes I decided to buy a 5 year old costume and get it made smaller to fit Oliver. The tailor did a fantastic job of altering his outfit (it only took them 3 days!). I was so pleased about what they have done.
Matthew and I were so excited going to the party this afternoon.

This is our little superbaby!!



Oliver was so excited as his daddy keep flying him around. You can view more of Oliver the superbaby on Boel's blog, she has put lots of nice photos on her slide show.

There was a big water slide for the older kids and lots of yummy food (yes you are right Oliver cannot eat those finger foods yet). Thank you Boel, Nathan for a lovely afternoon.



Anyone wants to come here to have a birthday party?? How about you, Corin? Rory? Devon? Oscar? Gus? Talia?

(✈ Restday)

Gecko début

Today was Oliver's first day at school. Well... it is a toddler class at Jerudong International School where he will be attending when he turns two years old. The class is called Geckos and they are open to young children from birth to 3 years old. They have lots and lots of toys, books and fun activities. Some of the activities may be a bit early for Oliver but on Monday they visit the library, Wednesday they have swimming and art and on Friday they have sandpit time and singing. It is open from 8am till 11am and only costs us $4 for the family each time we visit. I knew about this since Oliver was born but thought he was a bit too young to enjoy all the exciting stuff they offer.

By the time we got there around 9:30, the other children were walking back from the sandpit and returning to the classroom. When we entered, Oliver's eyes went wide open! He was so excited!! He loved crawling and climbing up the slide gym. His legs are so strong now that he can push himself up and stand for a while (of course he needs to hold onto something but this is such an amazing development to witness).



ohhh this is cool!!



Yeah! top of the slide



Help me daddy... I am sliding down....

He also enjoyed playing on the car track where he can hold onto the side of the table and chew lots of different cars and animals. I think after we come back from NZ I am going to order one of these tables for him to play & practice standing up.






On the texture wall I found a Pukeko!

As much as Oliver enjoyed the environment Matthew and I also enjoyed meeting with new parents. I found out that it is not always the mummies who bring the children in sometimes daddies do so when mummies have other things on, so depending on Matthew's schedule we can go together or just one of us can take him in.

(✈ standby)

New discovery

This evening I decided to go for run following my 5km run training. But when I got to the track I discovered that I didn't bring my watch... silly me (no no this is not my new discovery!)

According to the training program Matthew found for me, today I was supposed to run for 15min, walk for 2min, run for another 15 min. But because I couldn't time myself I decided to run for 5km (thanks to Matthew's GPS watch I know how many km if I run one lap of the track).

I was lucky as it was already quite cool when I started running. While I was running I enjoyed the great sunset too. I am not sure how long my run was but I did run 5km without stopping!!! Yeah!!! I discovered something new about me today. I am a good runner :) I am very looking forward to running in New Zealand, trying out the Run Auckland race route next week.

(✈ Off)

Happy Birthday Boel !!

Today was Boel and Lucas (our neighbor and her son)'s birthday. I have met lots of people who's family members were born in the same month but not on the exact same day, it is so unique! When I was pregnant with Oliver I really wanted Oliver to be born on the 22nd of the month as my birthday is on the 22nd and our wedding anniversary is also on the 22nd but as you know it didn't work out that way... oh well never mind.

We were invited to Boel's birthday cake & coffee morning. (Lucas is having his superhero birthday party this Friday and Oliver has got an invitation! I will make sure I will take lots of photos and put them up on the blog) The birthday cake and fresh fruit salad were fab!! Plus their coffee maker makes one of the best coffees in Brunei!

Ladies (and Oliver) sat at the table and chatted while boys talked in the kitchen. I haven't been to a coffee morning in a while so it was very nice to catch up with friends and relax. We feel so lucky to have such a relaxing lifestyle here in Brunei.



Boel has updated her blog, you can see more photos of Oliver and us!

(✈ Off)

Magic Sheep

One of Matthew's friends gave him this magic sheep for his birthday last year. It was sitting in our office book shelve for a while but finally he decided we needed a pet sheep so opened the box.
He looked bit sad to start with...



Our amah Rosie thought we were turning into a weird family telling her that we are growing sheep. "Please do not touch him until he has fully grown his wool!!" This is how he looks like after 12 hours.



(✈ Off)

Oliver can stand up !?

Yes this is my third post of the day but I have to write about this! Just very exciting. Showing off our boy standing up (although he needs to hold onto something plus he cannot always pull himself up, I think he is very clever).



Very proud of himself (he loves standing up!)



He can even do one hand stand!



But when he gets too confident and lets go both hands...

(✈ Brunei - Hong Kong - Brunei)

Bag Fetish

Recently Oliver is attracted to my bags. My casual bag, my go out bag, or even my camera bag, he is just chasing them and playing with them (keeps him busy more than some of the toys). When I want Oliver to practice his crawling I use either my iphone or one of my bags now. He is so excited and gets one end of the mat to the other super fast. One of the reasons he like them is there are always shiny bits on the bags. Maybe one day he will be into fashion and buy me nice bags. (you know you have to start those things when they are young!)









even taking it with him when he goes around the floor...

Super morning

This morning I went out with Boel to get ourselves pampered. Boel booked us for manicure and pedicure at Nail Art. I have never been there before so I was curious where she was taking me. It was very clean and nice setting with great big comfortable leather chairs to sit while getting the treatments done. (Yes this was not Zen, Merryn, Saskia and Caroline. I can take you to this new place if you like when you visit us next time!) Even though I don't do much during the day except for looking after Oliver, I somehow don't have enough time to put cream on regularly or file my nails etc. Oh well its just so nice to have someone to do them for you.

After being sick for two days and looking after an ill child it was just what I needed!! What a nice way to start a fresh new week ha!?



Boel and I enjoying the relaxing time



My nails are nice and shiny again!

After the treatment we went to have some quick sushi lunch. It was just what I felt like. I was quite hungry, I usually have one or two plates of sushi but today I had 4 plates! Mmmmmm yummy yummy.

Quick recovery

This morning Oliver woke up at 6:30am nice and cheerful.(he woke up for extra milk at 4am but went straight back to sleep) When Matthew went to Oliver's bedroom he was very happy and cooing.

I also felt good having a solid sleep from 11pm till 4am without any interruption. We mush share the same DNA that gave both us a quick recovery.

I was not sure if Oliver could eat but he ate all of his favorite banana custard and carrot rice I fed him this morning. He is such a good baby!!(or scared of mummy...) Anyway he is not sick any more. I hope we will stay healthy for the next few weeks so that we can enjoy our trip to New Zealand.

Yeah! The rain has finally stopped this afternoon, we can even see sunshine!!



(✈ Brunei - Jakarta - Brunei)

Two Roses down

Few days ago when I got up in the morning my throat was sore. I tried to not think about it too much and hoped it will go away soon but it stayed there and gave me a proper flu. I am not sure how I did it but I picked the busiest time for Matthew's schedule to be sick. He was away for two full days to Perth. So last two days has been long...

When we got home last night from the New Year reception Oliver was already asleep. (we left him with Rosie the amah, she told me that Oliver just fell asleep on the carpet downstairs. Not even cried once) I thought it was bit unusual but he seemed asleep so we left him in his cot.

When he woke up around 2 am (as he has been for the last 2 weeks or so) I touched him and found out he was super HOT...
I had to wake Matthew up to give him some medicine to break the fever. Thankfully he did managed to sleep 1 or 2 hours each time until this morning. (one stage we were so asleep we didn't hear Matthew drive out to work)

I felt much better today but Oliver struggled most of the day. But he was still alert and smiley so even though he had a slightly high temperature I was sure that he would get better soon.

Now his temperature is gone (for the time being) Just keeping our fingers crossed.

This is the first time for us to experience our own child being sick. It's just unbearable...

(✈ Brunei - Singapore - Brunei - Kuching - Brunei)

New Year's reception

Tonight we were invited to the Japanese ambassador's house for the New Year's reception. It was exactly how I remembered the function last year. It was raining heavily and everyone there was talking about this constant rain.

Even though the ambassador's house is huge there were only 30 or so of us so felt a bit empty.(I was told there are about 120 Japanese residents here in Brunei / including kids)

The function stated off with ambassador's greetings and after some more formal greetings we were asked to help ourselves to special New Year Japanese food !!



Sushi and sashimi! and more yummy food...

It was a shame that I couldn't get my third plate as I was feeling little bit fluey.

(✈ Perth - Brunei)