My favourite place at the moment

After yummy high tea at the Empire we drove up to Pantai Muara - my favourite place at the moment. I love the walk, I love the playground. And it was extra fun today as we had the London Roses and Hinata with us.

The boys had a ball racing on the ride-on cars/bike. Nice temperature with some breeze.





We tried to go down to the beach a few times in the past but it always has been too windy or Oliver wan't keen on the sand.
This time we all went so he had to come down - and what a great surprise! He loved it!!!

You can see we had some clothes on to start with but it didn't take too long...







Oscar and Gus didn't stop running, they just ran and ran!





We had such a great time chasing the waves and throwing the coconut husk.





Who do you think has been walking on the sand?!



Beautiful sunset again... I love having this park/beach very close to our place.

A Rose in a Japanese Rose dress

Talia tried this new Japanese jinbei for the first time. Perfect fit and perfect weather for it!



She is just gorgeous!!

High tea

This afternoon we took the visitors to the Empire for high tea. I have done this a few times and it seems to get better each time I go now. I was very confident everyone will enjoy it, and we all did!!



Beautiful, tasty mini cakes.



They even had sushi for Hinata, he ate so many of them!





Oliver and daddy.



Saskia and Talia.

Very serious business deciding which cake to have...



Paying attention to how much cream they will get...



Most of us sat nicely and enjoyed the live piano music and the luxurious surroundings.



A wonderful way to cope with the jet lag!

London Roses are here!

This morning we got up early and went to the airport to pick up our exciting guests from London! (Hinata has been to the airport quite few times now, it is the most visited site in Brunei for him ). It took a while for them to come out as lots of flights arrived at the same time but they had a good flight and arrived safely.

When we got home we had a very lovely breakfast together.



To stretch the legs and adjust to the jet lag, we had a little play on our patio.



They are here only until tomorrow morning (then they will stay with us for a couple of days on the way back from NZ) but I am sure we can fit in quite a bit in our itinerary!

Do I look older?

Hinata took this awesome photo of Oliver. I think he looks much older than his age, our boy is growing too fast!

Jerudong Park visit - take 3

Hinata was lucky to have another great night at Jerudong Park. This time with some friends.

He got to try the kiddy bumper cars and the new attraction - bumper boats which we couldn't really do without friends the other night.







Gemma, Katy, Hinata and Oliver

It was just such a perfect night, the sunset was gorgeous!





More great memories for Hinata : )

Playdate for Hinata

What can you offer to visitors to Brunei? - answer - extreme hot weather and cooling water. This morning I had an appointment at JPMC so we decided to pack swimming costumes - to get the boys into the swimming pool at the Jerudong Park Polo Club. I have heard of this pool before but never been there myself so I was very curious as to what it would be like.

It turned out to be a fantastic pool, not many people, cover over the pool and most of all it cost us only $3 per person! Fantastic!! I asked my friend Shirubi and her kids to come along so that Hinata meets more people of his age.

Hinata was very excited to meet his new friend Zen (7), firstly he is like Oliver, having Japanese mummy and kiwi daddy. Plus Zen can speak Japanese to him! He said he just has no idea what people are talking about. He told me the other day his tactics in talking in English is to reply  "No" so he doesn't accept anything he shouldn't be (He is very funny). They got along very well and had a fab time diving and swimming together.





Oliver is very confident in the water now and does his funny doggy paddle for quite a while.



He is so good the girls cannot take their eyes off him!



Shirubi with her girls.



In the afternoon Zen came around to our place for a playdate with Hinata. They had a great time playing wii together. I am glad Hinata made a new friend in Brunei : )

Fun day at the beach

Matthew had a whole day off today - yeah! I thought it's time for Hinata to have a break from Oliver calling "Nata, Nata!" and dragging him around everywhere.

So Matthew took Hinata to the Berekas Forestry Reserve and I took Oliver to a playdate at his friend's place. I also thought them spending time alone would be good for Matthew's Japanese and Hinata's English.

Here are some photos from the boys excursion this morning.





Hinata told me he was just checking out the waves but the wave got him pretty badly. He was soaked!!



Later we met up at the yacht club for lunch and enjoyed some more beach activities. Hinata wanted to try kayaking.

Here is Matthew giving him a quick lesson on how to row.



Getting the kayak in the water.



It was a very hot day but the sea was very calm and perfect for kayaking - Off they went!



While the big boys were at sea, Oliver enjoyed his afternoon nap in a fresh sea breeze - Bless him!



They went quite far out.



Our little boy woke up and wanted to go for a swim - Lucky I had a sun hat for him today, it was just so hot!!



Swimming with Hinata and daddy.



Hinata was kind enough to make a sand castle for Oliver but his fear of having sand on his feet came back again and he didn't want to stay on the beach...



Instead he had a dip in a temporary kiddy pool (Unfortunately the yacht club pool is still under construction) he had a wonderful time : ) I love it so much that he can now entertain himself for quite a while and I don't have to stay right beside him all the time.



Hinata has reached halfway through his Brunei excursion, we are planning to do some more swimming and a visit to a mosque tomorrow. On Sunday the English Roses are arriving so our house will be full!! And we are planning a surprise for Hinata at the very end of his holiday!! I think he has been so great with Oliver, he deserves a special treat : )

Finally we made it!

Tonight was a perfect night for us to go to Jerudong Park. We picked Matthew up from the airport (poor Matthew, after 5 and a half hours of flying from Perth he had to join us for a night park excursion) as we went straight to the park.
Hinata was very happy the sky was so clear!

In front of the huge diamond ring.



At the entrance:



We were told there were some NEW rides in the park so we were silly enough to get our hopes up. But as usual, the ticketing people weren't really sure what they were doing and just confused us so much. They made the ticketing system complicated enough to confuse themselves...
There were 8 new rides introduced but 4 weren't open, or not ready if you know what I mean. We thought we were getting tickets to the cool new rides but all the ones we wanted to try weren't open anyway.

Even though us adults were disappointed the boys had a great time.



Oliver with his favourite cousin.



My favourite - Beautiful merry-go-round.

Matthew and Hinata tried one of the new rides - electric bike:







Oliver was pretty excited seeing them coming around on strange bikes.

Hinata's favourite was this double seater go cart:
Here they are getting ready for the race!



They went around so fast - Hinata later told me he felt the G-forces!



I wanted to get Oliver on this train - we could see it going around the park but couldn't find where we could get on it. I guess leaving some things for next time is always a good thing.