Fun time in the kitchen

For the last few days Oliver is finding eating time not too exciting. He is a fantastic eater but he cannot just sit in his high chair and wait for the food to be put in his mouth. When he has had enough of sitting (well... after 2 minutes of food) he starts to stare.

Solution? = Kitchen items.








You can see from those photos how much fun he is having in the kitchen!
He is gorgeous.

Hatsu zekku

May the 5th is a public holiday in Japan. It is called Tango no Sekku / Child day and is a day set aside to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness (especially boys as we have a separate celebration day for girls on March the third).

Sekku means a season's festival (there are five sekku per year) and when your child experiences the first sekku it is called Hatsu zekku. I couldn't prepare any special food such as Kashiwa mochi (just like regular mochi, but is also filled with red bean jam) and Chimaki (a kind of "sweet rice paste," wrapped in an iris or bamboo leaf) for Oliver.

But I managed to put up Koinobori (carp streamer) for him and dressed him in Japanese Jinbei.

Back in Japan

This evening I got a text message from Yumiko saying they got back to Japan without any problems. After what happened on the way to Brunei we were very worried about them transiting in HK.

This time we got special stickers for them saying "We need assistance", gave them a little note saying "We don't speak English so please help us transit". We should have organised those little things when they came over...

Yumiko and Chie told me they had a fabulous time with us even with so much hassle and huge extra cost. I am so lucky to have such positive minded friends.

We are looking forward to having you back again!!

Gadong night market

Chie was very keen to visit the night market after being to the ones in Hong Kong. I had to warn her that the Gadong one is nothing like the ones in Hong Kong. To be honest I knew they would be very disappointed. Matthew and I have been there only once when we had Matthew's parents visiting us two years or so ago. At that time it was very small and had no real atmosphere of a market.

We got there around 5pm and it was the perfect time. The sun was still up but it was much cooler and we could actually see what's going on. There were 4 or 5 shops selling hats and some toys. Most of the market was full with fresh veges and cooked local delicacies.



Friendly couple selling local fruits



Oliver and Matthew

We explored the market individually to find some dinner. When we gathered back together we had some Roti John (Malay style hotdog), fried noodles, soup noodles, chicken rice, BBQ chicken and some local sweets. They were actually all very yummy (and cheap of course). Usually the local people come here to buy things to take home so there were no places to eat for us. So we decided to just sit in a corner of the car park and eat.



Little bit smokey...

It is nice to experience something new and different (we often find this when we have visitors).

High tea at the Empire

This afternoon I took our visitors to the Empire. We walked around the hotel then sat down for a very nice high tea.

They had good selection of food, fried noodles (of course you need those for high tea right!?), samosas, sandwiches, fruits, and lots of different kinds of little cakes.



Yuji loved the sandwiches, he cleaned up almost an entire plate! Us girls enjoyed the little cakes and coffee. They were very very yummy!! It was a fantastic deal - only $28 for two people, $10 for a kid (with a pot of coffee or tea each). I am sure I will be going back there with my friends soon.



Chie looking very lady-like

Ulu Temburong National Park

Our visitors finally arrived on Thursday evening (in the end they had to purchase whole new tickets...). As soon as they got here we took them to Jerudong Park. It was a beautiful night and the boys loved the bumper car rides and go carts. We didn't stay up late that night as we were planning to get up early to visit Temburong.

Matthew stayed home with Oliver so that I can go on the tour with my friends. I had never been to Temburong so it was very exciting for me too (sorry Matthew...).
We took the jet boat to the center of Temburong where our guide Mr. Nasir picked us up. He told me the population of Temburong is only 10,000. Very small town.

The tour started with a nice breakfast at the local restaurant. We all tried Roti with chicken curry.



Having a nice warm feeling in our tummy we got into a van and went 20 minutes or so into the forest.
A long boat was waiting for us. It was such a beautiful sunny day!



Shota and Yuji getting on the long boat.



Chie and Yumiko

Unfortunately the previous night it rained quite heavily so the river water was quite muddy. Other than that it was just so peaceful and beautiful.

When we got to the National Park we had to sign in the visitor book before we could go up the famous canopy walk.



I found this yellow flower - The national flower of Brunei called Simpor (you can see it on the one dollar bill, you can rub it into the cuts to help them heal).



We walked up the mountain for 20 minutes or so. I haven't done much exercise so my heart was pumping very fast...



We were told only 5 people on each tower at one time and when we go across the bridge only 2 people at a time. And when we reach the highest tower only 2 people are allowed. The highest point on the canopy was 60m above ground level.





After the walk Mr. Nasir took us to a little waterfall where we could cool down from the walk. We found lots of Dr.fish. These fish swim around your toes eating the dead skin off you and cleaning your feet!







Instead of boating back down the river Yumiko, Chie and the boys decided to float down the river in tubes. Thanks to the heavy rain they had a rapid current. They had so much fun!



To finish up the tour we were taken to a Mini Zoo where they keep some animals captured around the area. I felt a little bad they were in the cages.



This is a black and white hornbill.

We were all so sunburned and exhausted when we got home but it was worth it.

Stuck in HK

My friends are supposed to be here with me tonight, but they are still in HK. They left Japan this morning and transited in HK but because the flight from Japan was delayed plus the check-in closed 4 minutes before they got to the counter they missed the RBA flight to Brunei. Yes 4 minutes!!!

I feel really bad now that I didn't give them better advice (I use the same flight when I come back from Japan but when I travel they are usually early...).

Hopefully they get on tomorrow's flight. As you know Japanese workers do not get holidays too often or long enough to travel, my friends are using Golden Week. Even with this big holiday they are only here for 6 days (including two days traveling, well, they missed a day so they have only 3 full days to spend in Brunei...) I really hope nothing goes wrong tomorrow. Fingers crossed...

ANZAC day Hash

I have been away for the last 4 weeks and I missed hashing... Tonight one was a special ANZAC run. It was held a few simpangs down from ours so Boel and I walked over. It was a lovely night with a bit of a cool breeze plus the run was laid just at the back of our section (we knew exactly where we were going).

As usual the on-on was great with yummy Kiwi & Aussie food (they even had a very nice pavlova!) I ate far too much though...



And we got given this cool T-shirt!



I have done 17 runs so far. Hopefully not too long before I make my 50 runs.

New computer

Our laptops are getting to the point we need replacements. We have talked about getting a very thin portable one for Matthew (so that he can take it with him on his flights) and one Mac for me (just because we have iphones and some of the things might be extra convenient having a Mac).

Well, out of blue yesterday my lovely husband came home with this!!



A brand new Mac Pro (just came onto the market)

Before he got his own he got one for me. I am so lucky to have such a generous husband!!

I will be doing lots of photo editing and blogging on this for sure!

More teeth came through

While we were in Japan Oliver's top two teeth came through. Now he has 4 beautiful tiny teeth!!



He is developing so much recently. He seems to be understanding what we tell him more and more. He can do itadakimasu before each meal. He can give things to us and when he does he claps his hands.

His vocals are developing too. He is sort of talking to himself when he is playing and sometimes sounds like he is singing away.

And he can stand up by himself for more than 10sec now, it won't be too far away before he can walk (looking at how fast he can crawl I am not looking forward to chasing him once he can walk and run...)

He loves making eye contact, he is a real social baby. When we were on the train in Japan he was looking around over my shoulder and the next thing I noticed there were many ladies waving and chatting to him. Same thing on the plane coming back from Japan. He just looks at people until they smile back to him. Such a charming baby!

I don't know how the last 11 months went by but it was just so fast. Our next door neighbour Lucas always asks when he comes and plays with Oliver - Is Oliver still zero years old?? - well it won't be too long - he will turn one next month!

New look

Oliver's room didn't have proper curtains so I bought these ones in Japan. They are 99.99% black out curtains (not sure what happens to the .01%).
Nice ha?

Farewell parties

Our good Japanese friends, the Miyazaki family, is leaving Brunei for good in early May. We were invited to join their farewell parties this week. One on Friday and one today. Reina (their younger daughter) had her party at Jungle Gym (only indoor playground in Brunei). The place is designed for kids bit older than Oliver, so Oliver didn't really get a chance to explore the whole complex but he was still brave enough to go into the ball pool. He was in such a good mood for the whole 2 hours we were there.



I found it very funny the reception lady asked me when we walked in what sort of food Oliver would like to have when it's time to sit down. The choices were: fried chicken or hotdogs or pizza, yeah... they are just so polite sometimes.

And today we were invited to Yui (their older daughter's) birthday & farewell party. It was held at the Riverview hotel swimming pool(we never knew they had a swimming pool there).



Unfortunately the rain started halfway through the party but all the kids were already in their swimmers and looked more excited with the extra water falling from the sky. Oliver still has a funny runny nose so I kept him away from the water. But he seemed to enjoy watching all the other kids and making eye contact with other mothers. I also had a wonderful time catching up with my friends.



Oliver enjoying being with daddy



Huge Barbie birthday cake for Yui

We will miss you Miyazaki family... Hopefully we can see each other in Japan one day!!

Anniversary

We got married 6 years ago today in Barbados.
Happy Anniversary honey!

Back in Brunei

Oliver and I traveled all day yesterday. We left our Japanese home at 7:30am then got back to Brunei at 6:00pm. Matthew collected us at the airport. Oliver seemed very happy to have his daddy back.

When we drove in we had a warm welcome back from our neighbor's kids. They haven't seen Oliver for almost a month (otherwise they see him almost everyday) so they were trying to get cuddles with Oliver.

It's always a nice feeling to be back home.

I don't think we will be going away for a while. I need to stay in one place for a while. But anyone who wants to visit us, you are welcome! We love having visitors.

Very popular baby

The temperature dropped again this afternoon (and I was feeling quite sick) so we spent all day at home. Rui and Runa got back from school and played with their friends in the backyard for a while.

I heard "wow" "cute baby" "he is smiling at me" etc etc and saw this popular baby waving to the girls through the window.



He has such a cute smile. He can almost stand up by himself, I am holding him back until we get back to Brunei so that Matthew and I can both witness his development.