16 months and 2 days

Until Oliver got a scratch right in the middle of his face
- On his nose...
He looks like Rudolf the reindeer. Poor baby...



During the birthday party at Monte's he was pulling a little doggy toy. The doggy was doing well coming down the steps but our boy lost his balance and fell down on his FACE : (
Damn gravity!

And crafty evening

I continued on my crafty mode from this afternoon and went to the mosaic class. I usually attend Thursday daytime classes but since our teacher Paula is leaving Brunei in 9 weeks I wanted to get serious and complete my mosaic ball.

This was my third session and I am getting better slightly cutting the pieces and putting them onto the ball. You can see how I started here.

This is after 6 hours + a glass of wine!



And this is how much more I need to work on...



Boel was also there enjoying gluing the bits onto her bowl - with her glass of wine of course!



I really really enjoy the classes. Hopefully I can finish putting the pieces on in the next session and move to the next step.
Paula, maybe you can consider delaying your departure date for all the poor students who love coming to your studio?

Playdate for kids and sewing for mums

We had another great afternoon with lovely friends. Oliver was invited to a playdate with his kiwi friend Hannah and I was invited to another crafty session. And they were held at the same place!

I was so looking forward to do some more sewing today with friends. But guess what? When I got there I discovered I left all my lovely fabric at home - duh. Instead I looked through some books for further inspirations. I found some new craft projects and patterns (I won't tell you what until I complete those that I have in mind).



Crafty mummies (you can see where I was sitting with those books)

Oliver had a great time too. He is a bit too clingy at the moment, so I was happy he went away and played with his friends - I could actually enjoy my coffee and yummy lemon tart!

Can you guess what the kids are looking at?



Hannah's chickens!!



This one came very close!



Looks like he is checking out Oliver instead of Oliver looking at them right?



Two little kiwis...



Next time I will make sure I pack things I need for sewing - like fabric!!

Bouncy Castle

Our neighbour's daughter Aafreen had her birthday party on Saturday. They combined it with an open house for Hari Raya so there were lots of people! They had two great big bouncy castles (they are very popular for parties here in Brunei) for the kids to play, not to mention very yummy food plus three fab looking cakes. Oliver was lucky to be invited but unfortunately he was too sleepy to enjoy the party. I had to take him home for a nap.

We were supposed to go back later that night but Oliver didn't wake up until the next morning! So Aafreen's mother kindly invited Oliver to come and have a play on the bouncy castle on Sunday morning.




He wasn't sure about the noise (the compressor) but gradually got into walking/crawling around (not bouncing around) it.


Oliver growling.

Chopsticks fun

When we were having lunch, I used a pair of chopsticks to feed Oliver.
Of course he wants to feed himself with them and demanded his own so I gave him a kiddy pair we had in the cupboard ( I have a special training pair for him to use but his fingers are still too little for them).

Anyway this is Oliver's first attempt at mastering chopsticks.



Pretty happy getting his own to play with.



Really want to poke this piece of carrot...



Kungfu Oliver!!! Whoooooaaa~~~



He even used them to drink his milk out of his cup!

He enjoyed feeding himself or poking his food I should say. He ate everything on his plate : )

Tea ceremony

Traditional tea ceremony performed by Oliver Rose.

Finally in store

We purchased an RBA Airbus model plane a few years ago from the RBA office at the airport which was the last one they had. This afternoon we went to Hua Ho Manggis and found these!!



Like other famous airlines, RBA planes are now on the shelf. They had Airbus and Boeing 777 models if anyone is interested.

Early birthday presents

When Merryn and Dennis visited us, they arrived with my birthday presents!! My birthday is still a month and few days away but I got to open the presents early.

Some more tools for sewing and a pandora bead! - Thank you M&D. They have been very useful for my current felt crown project for Geckos.



And special NZ fabrics from Kylie! I must start a new project : )

You dress like me!

At one of the captain's open house Oliver was very happy seeing other boys dressed the same as he was!





Hi where did you get your songkok? Looks like mine.

And even older people are dressed in the same way!

Fully dressed

We celebrated Hari Raya at Geckos this morning. This time I added an extra piece to Oliver's outfit - Songkok.

Here is Oliver with Diego



I am glad we have a few occasions to dress up in Baju this year :) One more open house visit this afternoon! Hope Oliver will keep his songkok on!

Ambidextrous

Our son is very good at eating, especially the last few months, he almost eats more than I do!



I love eating!

Maybe because he can use both hands to eat!?



With his right hand...



and with his left!

Putting the pieces together

What a mission! I went to a mosaic class run by my friend Paula this morning. It was a very lovely setting, 6 of us sat in the studio with cups of coffee, chatting away, working on each ones project. I once enrolled in a different mosaic class but the course got cancelled and I never got to try it until today. I was so excited!!

First I had to decide on what project I wanted to start with. Many of the ladies in the class started with coasters, and gradually move into more complicated projects. But seeing Paula's wonderful work I went for a mosaic ball straight away! Some called me a brave girl - yeah it's me!

Here is the artist - my mosaic teacher Paula;



As I am into blue this summer, I wanted to make something with blue. The second part of the project - picking the color of the tiles was easy peasy!
Paula kindly let us use all her tools. I had to learn how to cut these glass tiles.



And the battle began. Here is my first piece!



2 hours later...



I am so looking forward to going back next week : ) It is so nice to have time to try different things here in Brunei. I am so spoiled!

Seafood Bazaar

After a long drive into Bandar (Just because I missed a turn and went somewhere totally different - Brunei is so small + being here for over 2 years and still managed to get lost!!) I finally got to Yayasan Mall.

We had a fantastic lunch with Keira, D’mirna, Vladimir and Diego. I think I have been to this restaurant "Mei Wee" when I first visited Matthew while I was still working in Japan, but the meals we had then were nothing like this!
A whole fish in mango sauce and a huge lobster cooked in chilli...mmm!!!



Unfortunately Matthew and Mike were both working today but that meant extra servings for each of us!





Hey Oliver, look at my tummy!

The restaurant had fresh seafood kept in the tanks. The boys had a great time watching different sea creatures. Oliver was for sure into lobsters! He didn't let poor Vladimir go anywhere but where the lobsters were (Thanks Vladimir for looking after the boys so us mummies could chat chat chat!)





I can still taste the yummy yummy food we had... We will be going back there for sure!

Empty house

This morning Oliver and I took Merryn and Dennis to the airport. It has been wonderful to have them stay with us. We didn't do much touristy stuff but lots of everyday stuff. They came along to Geckos with us, watched Oliver take his swimming lessons, walked at Muara beach and spent a morning at the yacht club, watched rugby etc etc.

Without them and with Matthew away in Perth, plus Rosie (our amah) having a day off, our house is so empty. I keep talking to the one year old who doesn't really talk back to me.

Cultural afternoon

Oliver was exposed to more cultural stuff this afternoon. After visiting Maria's Open House (which was so lovely), Oliver took his baju off and put on an awesome Maori piu piu that Kylie (Matthew's older sister) made for Oliver. I made sure to fill him up with a reasonably big lunch so that his puku (Maori word for belly) was nice and round.

Here is our boy - Maori version;



Looks like he is performing a haka ?

We all had fun taking photos of each other;





There will be an international day celebration at school (and children from Geckos will be attending) in few months time. No doubt he will be representing NZ in a very cultural way!

Thank you so much Kylie!! We always love your lovely crafty work : )