New restaurant at the waterfront

I am not sure we can call the area "waterfront" - It is not big and happening like in other countries (not yet, but maybe one day...) but it is improving and they have done a great job so far. The area is nicely paved and very clean. We had a little look around before we went into this new Japanese restaurant - Kaizen Sushi (it is the third branch). It was much much bigger than I expected. Here is Caroline walking through the Japanese garden (?)



Very authentic...



They have this counter table which is in front of the kitchen where you can see the chefs cooking teppanyaki meals etc. And there was another sushi counter bar next to it. (We might try that when we go without kids... one day...)



We were seated at this Japanese style booth. The menu was huge and the 4 of us ordered so much food. Unfortunately when the meal arrived both boys started to play up - OF COURSE! so I didn't get to take any photos of the delicious food we had : (



If you book a table by the window you can see a great view of Kampung Ayer (nicely lit up right now for the Sultan's birthday celebrations). I think we will be going there a lot and for sure we will take our next visitors from NZ there too!

Shoes & Mangos

This is what Caroline had on her to do list in Brunei.
Going shoe shopping with me and enjoying sweet tropical mangos!



Managed to find a funky pair in Vincci



We got some mangos from a stall on Jalan Muara. These local kids were so cute! Best customer service I had in Brunei. And they were sooooo yummy. We had them as mango strudel, mango smoothies and by themselves! I went back to get some more today but they were all gone. I hope they will be back on the road tomorrow.

Where is Luca?

Can you see him?



Very well hidden ha?



He loves the fresh air - Fast asleep while the others enjoyed their swim.

Yeah! Finally back in the water

Can you believe it? Living in Brunei and not being in the water for over 3 months? Oliver had not enrolled in his swimming lessons last term as I was heavily pregnant with Luca and we were away a fair bit of it. Somehow we haven't taken Oliver to the RBRC nor the yacht club for a long long time.

Since his wound got better we finally managed to take him for a swim! Yes the pool renovation is completed plus we had the whole pool to ourselves - wonderful!



Oliver was a bit scared... but had so much fun with daddy!



Aunty Caroline took Oliver down to the beach too.



He spent so long chasing the waves : ) Do you like his new togs? I think he looks great in blue.

Bedtime story

Caroline and Richard arrived safely this evening. Oliver was very lucky to have Aunty Caroline read him a bedtime story - Oliver who was small but mighty.

So cute!

This afternoon Oliver's friends came around for a playdate. When they arrived Oliver was still having his afternoon nap and they could only see Luca.

Natasha found Luca (she hasn't met him before, this was her first time to see him) lying in the little portable bed and was shocked... She looked at me very seriously and said "What happened to Oliver...?" No, Natasha Oliver hasn't shrunk this is Oliver's little brother Luca... So cute!

Toilet training - Day 1

We tried to toilet train Oliver a month or so ago but he didn't really get the idea fully. This photo was taken then. He certainly thought it was very funny...



Today we stayed a whole day at home in front of the TV with lots of juice, milk and water with some chips etc. He certainly had to go so many times.

Results? Well... he succeeded twice - he held on till he got to the potty and took his pants off.
Yeah, it's a start but I think we still have a long way to go.

Stitches are out!

To get the stitches removed we took Oliver to the hospital A&E as advised by the Dr in HK
He didn't really comprehend we were at the hospital and he needed to be held down again until the last moment. Poor Oliver must have been traumatised from the experience in HK, he was screaming so much : (

But our brave boy looks much better now. Hope it will heal very quickly.

Best photos ever!

Iphones have a great function. There is a forward facing camera so that you can take photos of yourself. Oliver has mastered the function very well and got so excited taking photos of himself - over 60 shots in few minutes!







I should sit down and photoshop these images - Can you tell he was giggling so much?

Our little All Blacks

There was the first All Blacks game on TV this afternoon. We were planning to watch it with our friends but ended up watching it at home just the four of us.

Here are my All Blacks - Aren't they gorgeous!?



My three boys...



Oliver - he looks so big don't you think??



Luca



There will be lots of games on from now on! Go All Blacks!!

Simpang Chef (Boel, you are missing out!)

Our neighbour Jeremy is a great chef. They got this nice wooden kitchen island made (by the carpenter who also built Oliver's house) and last night was the first night for Jeremy to show off his pasta making talent. A few of us were invited for a lovely three course dinner.



Here is Jeremy making ravioli from scratch!





The first course - ricotta, ham, salami ravioli.



They were just divine. The main course was his famous roast beef and veges. I dug in and forgot to take a photo... And beautiful chocolate mousse for dessert.





Here are the hosts - Jeremy, Nicole with Gemma:



We all enjoyed the fab food and nice wines and wonderful company. By the time we got home it was already 12:30! Luckily Luca was behaving so well and he slept till 7:40 this morning!!!!

He is an expert now

Oliver was invited to his friend Muhammad's place for a playdate and pizza making! He has done a bit of pizza making by now and is becoming very good at it.

Here is Oliver and Muhammad painting? the pizza base:



Very serious business.



Great chefs always taste what they are making : )



Smile & Say "Pizza!"



Taddaaa! Muhammad's pizza looked great!



Oliver loves looking at pictures of himself cooking. We will be doing more cooking and baking in the coming weeks!

What a weekend we had

On Saturday last week we were at Brunei airport with my parents. We decided to take them to Hong Kong and spend a night there with them. I wasn't sure if I would get to go with them as we didn't have Luca's passport until two days before but the very efficient Japanese embassy issued his just in time for us :)

Our plan was to stay in a nice hotel and travel into the city in the evening to get on the peak tram to the top of Victoria Peak to see the night lights and enjoy some Chinese dinner together and lots of shopping the next day.

Got to the hotel and enjoyed afternoon tea.



Oliver was so thrilled to see cars, buses, trains, planes, cable cars and boats all from this window!



Well it didn't really go as we planned. When we checked in to the hotel the weather was marginal and by the time we packed our bags and got on the train into the city it started to rain. We should have changed our plan then but we were determined that the weather will get better - well it certainly didn't...

Instead we got stuck in the long long queue in the drizzle and muggyness of HK weather and when we got onto the tram it was too dark to enjoy the view going up. If the weather was good this is what our tram ride should look like:


(Photo borrowed from http://www.justtheticket.co.uk)

By the time we got to the top of The Peak all of us were so tired and the boys were ready to go home :( and extreme fog and mist came in. I couldn't even see a 1 meter away from me! We felt so bad to dragging the little and old (my parents).

The only photo I took on that night was this: from the bottom of the hill -Hong Kong's night lights (can you see the fog?).



We were all tired but got up early enough to enjoy our last breakfast together at the hotel. When we finished our breakfast it was still 9, so we thought we would check out the little park/playground beside the hotel before dragging the kids into the shopping mall. We wondered around for a bit and headed back to the room but Matthew and Oliver decided to stay a wee bit longer... then a terrible accident happened. Oliver tripped over and cut his eyebrow quite deep and wide. An ambulance took us into the government hospital and we were told he needed stitches!! Poor little Oliver was so brave but hurt and confused... we waited a long 4 hours in the freezing waiting room. And poor my parents were stuck in the hotel with little Luca, waiting for us.

Because we spent so long in the hospital, my parents missed out on shopping and we missed our flight back to Brunei (sigh). When we saw them off at the airport all of us were just exhausted (They got back to Japan ok tho).

It was supposed be one of the fun weekends we will remember forever but turned out to be a terrible experience for all of us :(
At least Oliver was cheerful by the time we checked out of the hotel the next day - our precious brave boy!

6 weeks today

Our little boy is growing so fast - Luca is already 6 weeks old, I cannot believe it!

Sultan's 65th birthday parade

I am glad my parents came over this week - in addition to all the sightseeing and lovely walks, we could offer them the chance to participate in the Sultan's 65th birthday parade.

Well... we weren't too sure about what will be happening and when. We bought yesterday's and today's newspaper to find out about it but we couldn't find any information except "the parade will be in the morning, downtown". So we got ready and jumped in the car this morning. When we got there we found lots people starting to leave the Padang...

I thought we missed it and I was very disappointed... but suddenly we heard big bangs and lots of smoke appeared.





We could only see from outside the Padang but with my camera, Matthew managed to take shots of what was going on.











Formation flying with coloured smoke - Oliver liked this!!





We were lucky to be where we were as the Sultan and other members of the royal family came out the gate where we were!

Here is Oliver patiently waiting:



And here is the Sultan coming out waving:



We always said we should go and see these events and we haven't so I am glad we went and didn't miss the important bits. My father was extra happy and told me it was one of the highlights of this trip!