Practice run 1

Yesterday Matthew and I followed the exact route for the Run Auckland race we are intending to participate in March. The route started off in the reserve and took us onto the road. After 10min or so we were on a very nice quite street, BUT it was very very steep hill!!! I really need to learn how to run up and down the hills without making too much change to my heart rate.

This is what we covered. Hopefully we can do a few more runs on this route before we head back to Brunei.

Old MacDonald had a ... ♪♪♪

Kindy!!!! We visited Merryn and Dennis's kindy today. What makes it Old MacDonald Kindy?? They have a farm next to the kindy with sheep, pigs, horses, emus etc etc. The kindy kids get to visit the farm and feed the animals as one of their kindy activities. Oliver was too small to go on the farm (hopefully next time) but had a good look around the kindy. Unfortunately I didn't take any good photos of the kindy itself (silly me) but you can visit the website to find out more about it!



After the kindy visit we went to the cafe next to the kindy and met Rory and Lindsay. I just felt soooo good relaxing in the cafe, it was such a beautiful day with a bit of breeze. Felt so New Zealand !! Rory and I took this photo together, Rory said "I really like this photo Misuzu," in Rory tone :)



I like this one, Oliver and Rory talking

Coffee & Muffin Harbour Cruise

Today we were invited to have morning coffee and muffins on a ship. It was an hour and half cruise from Auckland Harbour. Oliver put on his yellow polo and matching brand new shoes.



Check this out!! My first shoes!!

The weather was bit dull to start with but by the time we got to Rangitoto Island the sky was as blue as it can be and the temperature picked up. We got off the ship and had a quick (10min) walk on the island.



The Brunei Roses + Rory on Rangitoto Island

After leaving Rangitoto Island, we were served nice muffins and yummy coffee on board as the cruise took us under the Auckland Harbour Bridge and to the Westhaven marina and the Viaduct. We could see so many niiiiiiceeeee boats parked at the marina (we saw a few more boats than we could see at the Serasa yacht club). We had a very good view of the Skytower and the CBD.



Rory and Devon with their muffins (yuuuuummmmyyyyyyy)



Corin enjoying looking at the nice boats.

We had such a lovely morning, thank you Kylie & Lindsay for a wonderful treat!!

Feeling good

This evening Matthew and I went out for a run with our brand new sports gear. There is a very nice nature reserve with running/walking track called Waiatarua Reserve across the road from Merryn and Dennis's place. So off we went. With the help of Matthew's Garmin I run for 35 min and completed almost 5.3km !!! Feeling Good !!

Shopaholic !!

Today was the day I have been waiting for for a long time - shopping at DRESSSMART. It is a big outlet shopping mall about 10min drive from Merryn and Dennis's place. The last few times I visited Auckland I did most of my shopping there, they have all the shops you need and things are so cheap!!!

Our main purpose today was to get our running gear sorted so that we can run around in Auckland. We were so lucky to have Merryn coming along with us as she looked after Oliver most of the time while we shopped (we were there for 4 hours + sorry Merryn...).

This is what I got so far.



One pair of running shoes, two pairs of running pants, two running tops, one casual top and a pair of shorts!! Pretty good ha?!

It was very nice to have so many places we could shop at but at the same time I found myself overwhelmed by so many choices. Not like shopping in Brunei, I had to make decisions!! (No, no more lah...)

Yes I am going back one more time before we head home next week.

We are off running this evening so I will let you know fast I can run with all this new gear!

Santa Claus is coming to town♪

Uncle Richard with the boys

Christmas is here again!
Today we had our family Christmas (we miss you English Roses...). Of course Oliver dressed as Santa's little helper (it was very close to Oliver's bed time so he looks very sleepy in the photos).



Santa Oliver with aunty Caroline giving a present to Devon

We are so spoiled, Oliver got a very nice NZ notice board to put photos of his cousins, more special New Zealand books, Matthew got a nice hand knitted woolly hat and I got a subscription to NZ House and Garden magazine, cool Maori Tiki bags. Thank you everyone!

Oliver's present to the Fenwick Roses were training chopsticks from Japan and boy! they loved them! They had a practice run with a bowl of chips and by dinner time they were so good at using them!!





As usual we had a wonderful summer dinner in the courtyard and enjoyed yummy NZ wine and Dennis's special ginger logs :)

Swimming lesson

The day we left Brunei, Oliver had his second swimming lesson. Lots of Oliver's baby friends who were born in the same year as Oliver are already members of the swimming club. I wanted to wait until this term to enroll him as he was not be able to sit up by himself yet. But now that he is crawling and much stronger he is ready for his adventure!! It is a 30 minute group lesson. We were asked to change from Monday class to Thursday class as Oliver is still a bit younger than other babies in Monday class. I wasn't very keen on Thursday class as it is on at 4pm instead of 8:30am but now we are happy he is in the afternoon class as the water is much warmer.

He is learning how to splash water, going under the water, how to float on his back, in his tube, jumping off the edge of the pool etc. Here are some pictures of Oliver enjoying his lesson.



Here is Oliver getting ready for his lesson. Very determined.



Mummy I am ready!!



Learning to sit and crawl on a floating mat (he is very good at it!)



Learning how to float on his back but... he fell asleep....



This baby tube is very good for him to learn how to balance and float by himself.

I hope after getting used to being in the water, he will love swimming and appreciate what we have in Brunei - the lovely hot weather and yacht club etc. We will miss next week's lesson in Brunei but Oliver will be swimming in Merryn and Dennis's swimming pool!!

Takapuna Market

Unfortunately it was raining when we got up this morning but the good thing was the rain wasn't as heavy as what we experience in Brunei. So we decided to go ahead with our plan for the day - Takapuna visit. It is located in the North Shore part of Auckland and it is one of my favorite locations here in Auckland.

On Sundays they have a market, people selling plants, fruits and veges, freshly baked breads and some unique NZ goodies.
Even though we have a very good vege market near our place in Brunei, I was just so excited to see all that fresh food!! We bought lots of nice apricots, strawberries, avocados, peppers etc.



We put Oliver in the baby bjorn for the first time (since it is too hot for Oliver in Brunei) and he loved it!! Lots of people were surprised to see superbaby in the market.





After the market we had very yummy fresh breads from the market for lunch at the Fenwick Rose's place. By the time we finished having lunch the sun came out so our superbaby had to transform into Mexican Superbaby!!

Mahurangi Regatta

Today after a good sleep in and nice coffee we went out with the Fenwick Roses to Mahurangi Regatta. Dennis (Oliver's grandpa) drove us to Mahurangi Regional Park. As always I really enjoyed the beautiful scenery of New Zealand (I tried to take photos of cows today but couldn't see any black and white ones).



When we got there I was very surprised by the number of cars and sail boats there. Our first mission was to find the Fenwick Roses in this crowd of people.



Oliver was very thrilled to meet his aunty Kylie, uncle Lindsay and cousins - Corin, Rory and Devon. Corin's first word to Oliver was "Oh he is really cute!"
Kylie and Lindsay had reserved us a shady spot under a big Puhutakawa tree with a nice sea breeze.



Merryn and Dennis



Corin looking very cool in his snorkeling gear



Rory checking out the sailing boats



Devon has grown since we saw him last

After the yummy lunch we went out on a rowboat with Corin and Rory to see many interesting boats. There was a pirate boat with a bar and a BBQ deck on the top, Corin was very concerned about the evil looking pirate flag but Rory wanted to join the BBQ!

Oliver loves the wonderful weather here in Auckland and enjoying the time with his NZ family.






It was just a picture perfect day!! I love New Zealand!!

On our way to NZ

Our countdown finally came to the end. We arrived in Auckland NZ safely yesterday. This is Oliver's first trip to NZ.
We had no problems checking in because of Oliver's great help. (whenever he smiles things gets done very smoothly)



We went into the lounge before we got on the plane. Matthew and I enjoyed the food and coffee there and Oliver had a good relaxing time. Oliver put on his pajamas and got ready for his 9 hour flight!!



During the flight Oliver slept for the first 5 hours or so until we went through quite bad turbulence. One stage it got very rough so we had to take Oliver out of the bassinet and tie him onto my seat belt. (It was soooo bumpy!!!)
But overall the flight was much better than we expected, Oliver behaved very well and we got a reasonable amount of sleep (normally those business class seats are too big for me and I cannot get comfortable).



We will have nice 12 days ahead of us, we will be busy spending time with families and friends, practice runs for our Auckland Run, AND SHOPPING for me!!!

Broccoli and tofu spread

Oliver has been on solids for almost three months now. He loves rice, veges, fruits, anything we feed him. He is just a fantastic eater. I try to feed him one Japanese and one Western meal a day.

Tonight's menu was broccoli and tofu cooked in fish soup with some rice porridge + apple. He usually sits very nicely at his high chair but this evening he was not in the mood to eat properly. He kept pushing the spoon away and banging on the table with his hands.
As a result this happened. Broccoli and tofu spread...



(✈ Brunei - Surabaya - Brunei)

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)