My first attempt

I might be crazy but I need to complete an outfit in a few days for Lucas's birthday party (our neighbour who is turning 7). I left it too late to take it to our tailor who usually makes Oliver's dress-up clothes : (
I have never made clothes before... Well we will see how it will turn out (I really should have started last week...)

Splashback - completed

Some of you might remember that I was working on my second mosaic project before the holidays. It was completed just before I left to Japan and is now proudly enjoying its spot in our kitchen. I still need to clean up a little bit (been really busy since we got back!), but looks great ha? (To be honest it was very hard, harder than the mosaic ball, because you need to keep all the pieces straight all the way... I think I like the random one I don't have to think much!)



Thank you Paula for letting me complete it while you were very busy packing up to move back to the UK. I still haven't found the stand for my mosaic ball so when I do I will put up a photo, I promise!

Kiwiana in Brunei?

Look what I found in a Brunei baby shop!



Pukeko, Silver fern and Sheep!!!

Two more weeks...

..until the Chinese New Year celebrations. The shops are getting ready, it is quite a hassle to shop around this time of the year, as they play super loud music over and over again! Well... I cannot spend long in the shops so maybe it's a good thing : )

Happy Birthday Boel!

It is our neighbour Boel's birthday today. We were invited to have some peach danishes and lovely coffee to celebrate her birthday morning.

Yesterday when I saw her, her voice was a little bit funny (as in she has a cold or something) but today the poor birthday girl almost lost her voice. Luckily no other real flu symptoms she said. We will be going out for her birthday dinner tonight - I hope she will get her voice back by then!



Happy Birthday Boel!

Gumboots

I got a pair of gumboots for Oliver while we were in Japan. Since we are having so much rain recently it is a perfect time for him to try them out!

He wasn't too sure about them at first but once he decided he loved them, there was no stopping him!





Unfortunately there weren't many puddles he can go in at school. We walked through lots of them around our house, next time I will have my camera ready so I can get his gorgeous smile!

Do you need a doggy?

This evening I finally moved my butt and went for a walk with Boel, Yvonne, Nicole and her three kids PLUS 3 doggies. We used to go to the empty section down the road but it is now under development so we started to walk just at the back of our simpang until they started to work on the road. But now the work is over and the road is nicely sealed with very few cars.

Unfortunately at the first part of the walk where we have to go through a little bit of bush/jungly part my shoes  got muddy and wet : (  but the rest was great.

I haven't done proper exercise for a long time - over a month! So I found it bit difficult to catch up with the fit friends with excited dogs.

Hence I got quite a bit behind (you can see in the photo). They kept looking back and asking me "Do you need a dog?" My answer - No!!



But it was a lovely evening and I thoroughly enjoyed it, thanks girls!

Arabic lunch

Today Matthew took me out for a lovely Arabic lunch. It is strange to find such a great restaurant which I have not yet tried after being here for almost 3 years. Matthew has been there before with friends and knew what to order, they were all so yummy!
To my surprise Oliver ate quite bit of the food. He tried lamb shawarma, tabouleh salad (which was more like parsley salad to me), falafel and daddy's mango lassi.





I really enjoyed the food and the fact that we were not in the aircon but weren't sweating at all. I am sure we will be going back there soon : )

While in the car

Our boy is so busy, on the way to Geckos (toddler group) in the car he needs to read some books and call his mummy on his cell phone. He doesn't look too impressed in the photo but he really enjoys calling me!

Shopping carts

Oliver's into pushing the shopping cart. He tried to hijack someone else's the other day at Supasave.
He casually approached the target by smiling away and chatting to them. Then when they were looking at the products, he pushed the shopping cart and walked away. Luckily people thought he was very cute : )

The other day when we went to Hua Ho, Oliver discovered they have these cool little kiddy ones - And there was nothing that can stop him going around the supermarket.





Of course by the time we get to the check out the shopping cart has a few strange items!

Saturday Dim Sum

Since we came back from Japan we have been to Saturday Dim Sum two weeks in a row.
It is fairly quiet compared to Sundays as most people are working on Saturdays here in Brunei.
We don't eat a lot but we love spending time in the restaurant just relaxing and talking.



Oliver loves the food which helps us to eat peacefully. His current favourites are spring roll skins dipped in a bit of mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce (he definitely has Matthew's DNA!) and chicken buns.





Yummmmmm!

One more! No more!

This is what we hear in the kitchen while Oliver eats at the moment.
When he wants more, he doesn't just say "more" he says "One more!", and when he finishes he lifts the empty plate and says "No more!" Both come with great body movements too.

It is amazing to witness how a child develops from a baby to a proper human.
We can now have a conversation with him. He seems to be much happier now that he can communicate what he wants.

Looking forward to the next few months with more of his new words.

Bumblebee jackets

I wanted to put this post up for my sisters who kindly looked after the bumblebee jackets for Oliver for almost a decade.

As you can see in my kani trip post, and here Oliver and Yuzuki had matching bumblebee jackets on .





They were extra special ones as these little ones wore them when we went on the last family Kani trip in 2003.



Oliver's cousin Rui and Runa with me! (2003)



Rui and Hinata with Yosuke and dad (2003)

My older sister Mako specially looked after so many baby/toddler things (including the suitcase Oliver used for the trip) for Oliver. Thank you Mako!

Extreme

Some of you might know that Japanese have a strange obsession with little dogs. Mainly because there are lots of lonely elders and young singles with lots of money to spare. They often go extreme.

I went into a shop on the last day of my stay in Japan and found these. They are all for little doggies - amazing ha?



They even sell buggies so that they don't get tired nor cold while you shop. Of course you can choose either forward facing or facing towards you.



Matthew and I just laughed!

More Japanese words

In the last week of our Japanese holiday Oliver mastered more Japanese words.
Oishi for yummy, Yatta for yeeeeeah.
Nata! for Hinata, he is Oliver's favourite cousin at the moment. He is still walking around the house looking for him.
Uzuki for Yuzuki and Ui and Una for Rui and Runa.

I am glad he is becoming bilingual already : ) It was certainly a good holiday for his language development.