New addition to the house

A month or so ago I got a text message from my little sister in Japan. "Your niece brought this little kitten home and she thinks she will freeze to death if we don't help. So can we please keep her until we find a home for her..."
What can I say, I personally don't mind pets at all but I would like to keep our house (my sister's family has been living in our Japanese house since we moved to Brunei) clean and tidy.

So our deal was they will keep Sasuke (the kitten) on the balcony. The only way she can see the outside world is like this.





I hope we can find her a home soon so that she gets to see more of the world...

The first few days

We spent the first few days at home, just chilling out (literally...) and relaxing in the kotatsu which is a great winter heating tool. It is a coffee table with a heater built in and you put some blankets over to keep the warm air in. Even though the whole room is not heated your body warms up from your feet. The only problem is that you need to sit on the floor and I haven't done this for a while so my legs are having trouble, but I am sure I will get used to it very soon. Oliver finds it great in the morning to have his breakfast too. He does have some Japanese DNA built in!

Arrived safely in Freezing Osaka

Last night Oliver and I got to Osaka safely. I have been following the weather forcasts and thought they were having a fairly warm winter. Until yesterday!!

It suddenly dropped to 5 degrees!! Living in the tropics and toasted on 30 degrees above everyday it felt soooooo cold!

I have to make sure we stay all warm and not get sick.

Besides the cold weather I am very happy to be home : )

Christmas village at the Empire hotel

Friends of ours told us about the Christmas fiesta at the Empire Hotel the other day. We thought we must make an effort to get there before we head out to Japan. So on Tuesday we got in the car hoping Oliver won't fall asleep on the way in, as we wanted to be there at 8 o'clock for the special moment.

We weren't sure how great it will be. Or I was getting myself ready so that I won't get disappointed (as sometimes happens in Brunei...) Well... the first expression when we walked into the hotel was - great!

Look at this gorgeous Christmas tree! Made with hundreds of probiscus monkeys.







We kept on going downstairs to visit the Christmas village - it was just fantastic!!









Katie and Gemma

Oliver missed out on those first bits as he was pretty tired and asleep... Matthew is not strangling him, he was just so asleep.



But soon he woke up and saw all the excited people around him (especially Matthew and I!)



Having lots of people around us made it extra special, you know sometimes you go to these things in Brunei and there are not many people... the Christmas cakes and drinks were priced very reasonably which helped lots of people stick around I think. We had a piece of gingerbread cake each, it was very moist and tasty.



Katie and Gemma tried gingerbread man and house making. I am so impressed the hotel went to all this effort to make it special for kids.





And precisely at 8pm it started to SNOW!!



It kept on snowing for 15min and look how much snow got on Oliver's head!



And before we left the hotel Oliver met another Santa, he is still not sure about him...



There was no part we were disappointed with. We felt so festive and warm after leaving the hotel. I hope they will do the same sort of thing next year again!

Christmas present from mini Santa?

Because Oliver and I are off to Japan on Wednesday we decided to give Oliver his Christmas present early. But delivered by mini Santa - Oliver himself. He was pretty happy being a Santa and of course very pleased with his new toy!



Ho ho ho! Santa Oliver came on his truck!



Is it really for me!?





Merry Christmas to me!

Christmas Crafts 2010

Since Oliver was born I decided to do some Christmas Craft every year - making this year my second.
Last year I hand stitched this Christmas decoration.



And this year I had to think of something simple to make and something Oliver can pay attention to. I thought of his play chair covers - I think they were great hits! He was very happy when I put them on. Touching and pushing the chair around the lounge.



He had to sit and check out both the chairs and see they were both nice and comfortable with the Xmas cover : )



I now call this small Christmas tree Oliver tree as he is so facinated by it. Ever since the day we put it up he just won't let it go. He takes the decorations off then on and off and on...



concentrating very hard to put the pieces on.



Next year I will try Christmas stockings! Better start looking for nice fabric : )

Kids Christmas party

On Monday I invited some of my Japanese friends and their kids over for a Christmas party. I just love feeling festive and seeing kids excited about Christmas (Yes, you are right, its mostly for me!)

We started with a sit down Christmas lunch. Japanese meat patties with vegetables with rice shaped in a star for kids. Once the kids were fed and full us adults enjoyed some roasted chicken and vegetables.





Rina



Oliver



Jo

Then some sweet treats for the kids - Christmas tree shortbread! This was a great hit : )



And some Christmas activity in the kitchen - gingerbread cookie making. By this time Oliver was too tired and went to bed for a nap so missed out on this fun time but I think he wouldn't have got the idea anyway, maybe next year.



There were so many cookie cutters to choose from.





Mummies are smiling for the camera : )

To finished up the party we all enjoyed (especially me!) some home made pavlova and some fruits. I am getting so good at making my own pavs now : )





Only 12 days till Christmas!

Cinderella party

On Saturday last week there was another birthday party. This is the last one in Brunei for the year (we have a few more birthday celebrations once we get to Japan).

It was a Cinderella birthday party. Yoshimi, Rina's mum did a magic trick and turned her into a princess!!



Cinderella and her friend Hiyo looking for the glass shoes to wear.

Some free play time. Oliver loved the slide and went up and down so many times.



Here is Hana and Maya playing with the Cinderella castle.



It was time for the birthday cake - Yoshimi baked this beautiful cake herself, amazing!!





Make a wish!



Children enjoyed special sweet treats.



In the evening, Yoshimi prepared a fab dinner for adults. It was just delicious!

Steamroller this time

As I mentioned before our simpang is getting a new driveway. It has already been one month but they think it will take another few weeks to complete : ( Anyway Oliver is having a great time watching big trucks and concrete mixers coming and going everyday (he says CAR to all those big machines). Matthew takes him out in the morning and in the evening when it's bit cooler to see the progress on the work. Every now and then he gets lucky like this, and like this to ride on the cool machines.

Today there was a new machine - Steamroller was there, first he was very scared but didn't take him long to master the machine.



Ready to go!



How can I start this ??



Must be this stick...



See the big roller at the front : )

We will see what other cool machines will be there in the next few weeks (oops we will be in Japan...)

You look younger

You often get a comment from friends when you have a hair cut - "You look much younger". Oliver too got that comment today. "He looks younger with his hair cut" Even he is only 18months old - still looks younger!

Special birthday celebration

Tonight Matthew and I were invited to a very special dinner party - to celebrate the Japanese Emperor's 77th Birthday. It was held in the International Convention Center. The party started with the Japanese ambassador's speech.



It was nice to hear the Japanese national anthem and feel proud of being Japanese once again (I somehow feel more Japanese when I live in overseas).



Danna san and Me

The greatest part of the function was the food, they had 4 different Japanese restaurants in Brunei plus the ambassador's personal chef preparing very fresh Japanese food.





Not to mention, I ate too much...

They had a display of 3D TVs (as you get in parties?), here is my friend Yoshimi and Hyeyoung trying it out (Don't they look cool in their Kimono and 3D glasses!)



And them without the glasses - front and back beautiful Kimono!





It was great to catch up with some Japanese friends I don't get to see often. Certainly a very good night for us : )