ROYCE' Chocolate

A new shop has opened in the Mabohai/Monkey supermarket. ROYCE' chocolate from Japan is here.



Their nama (raw) Chocolate and chocolate potato chips are my favourites. They are a little bit pricey (I think $15 each) but worth a try! or a nice gift for some special occasions. And make sure you take your cool bag with you so they don't melt while you drive back home : )

Well done boys!

On Saturday afternoon we had some kiwi friends over to watch All Blacks vs Wallabies. Having friends to watch the game together made it so much more exciting - needless to say we thrashed the Wallabies!



The little ones were into it too! Luca was so content sitting in his bouncy chair for the entire game - very impressed!



Maybe a future All Black? (I know, he is so solid ha?)

Relieved...

Some of you might have noticed I haven't updated my blog for a few days. This is the reason why.
On Friday last week I decided to bring out a baby gym for Luca which I had packed away. I thought Luca is so alert that he will enjoy looking at animals and stretching out on it.

It was packed nicely in the bag it came in with two long spring tubes which you attach to make arches to hang animals. Well... when I open the bag and tried to get them out - they came out with so much force and smacked me right under my left eye. If you have been following my blog for over a year you might remember I had this operation done on my eyes. It hit my left eye so hard I thought it must have done some damage to my retina again...

My vision was clear but I could see some floating things in my left eye and it felt like it got worse and worse. So this morning Matthew took me to RIPAS to get it checked out. I was so nervous thinking they will tell me I have to have another operation straight away. When we got there the car park was full and cars were everywhere so we thought we will be there all day but to our surprise they saw me straight away. And the nurse who checked my eye vision remembered me from last year and got my file organised straight away!

I was examined by three different optometrists including the specialist surgeon who operated on my eyes last year. They were very thorough and told me everything looks very healthy! Phewwww I was so scared lying there.

It turned out that what I am seeing was some of the jelly components inside the eyeball which liquidate as you get older - in my case because I am so super short sighted it is happening much earlier and just coincided with the incident I had.

So all is good - now I can be back on my computer blogging away!

Boys' bookshelf

I got this bookshelf made by Alfie the carpenter who built Oliver's house back in May. I wanted a big one in the upstairs play area so that the boys can share all the books.



I didn't notice until I put all the books in that they (mostly Oliver) have so many books! It won't be too long before this will be full.

Quiet playground

We are in the month of Ramadan here in Brunei. It doesn't really affect us non-muslems but we certainly see the difference in our surroundings. For example the supermarket is so full after 4pm as people are getting food to break the fast, or rush hour is slightly different timing, or a very very quiet playground after 5pm.

We took the boys for an evening play the other day to give them some fresh air and ended up having the whole playground almost to ourselves. There was only one other family there while we were there.



Oliver and Matthew had a lovely time chasing each other while Luca and I enjoyed the nice cool breeze on the grass.



We stayed until the sun set. By the time we were leaving more and more people arrived with some dinner.





Oliver just loved biking and sliding down the footpath and as you can imagine it was very hard to convince him it was time to go home...

A taste of real life

Last weekend Matthew was in Australia so I was left with our two boys for three days. Plus our amah (maid) is away in the Philippines for two weeks (we have to send her back every two years). So I got to experience what it is like to be a mother of two in a real life context. To be honest I still didn't complete some of the tasks normal mums would do - like watering the plants, ironing husband's shirts etc etc. But at least I did clean the house a little bit, did the washing, did the dishes, cooked three meals a day and looked after my gorgeous two boys all by myself (I can imagine you are laughing at me already!).

After the weekend I really felt I am spoiled to get lots of help from our amah and husband being at home lots.

I am sure I can survive in a real life situation but it is nice to be in this bubble for the time being...

So clever

Oliver's listening skills are improving amazingly. He can pick up most English sounds and a lot of Japanese sounds. He knows what to say in the right context now too.

Yesterday when I was on my iphone he came to me and said - "Mummy, share! It's my turn!" (This is what I say when Oliver's friends come around and convince him to share his toys... he certainly understands what I mean ha?!)

Learning ABC

Luca and Oliver had a nice time on the bed. They had lots of cuddles and giggles together.  Luca still cannot control his arms, so they go up and down - basically all over the show. Oliver thinks Luca is dancing and he is very cool : )



Oliver is into counting, both English and Japanese. He was showing Luca how to count his fingers:



Then both of them spend some time learning Oliver's New Zealand ABC quilt (it is hung on the wall by Oliver's bed - thank you Merryn!)





I already have a feeling that they will be best friends!

Luca with his Golly

Luca received a special Gollywog from Aunty Brenda. We will certainly use it to measure his growth like we have done with Oliver's. Thank you very much Aunty Brenda! (Oliver loved the little truck and the car too!)

Oliver wanted to join the photo session!

A morning photo session

Happy morning!

Wooow really?!?!

In the normal world this is not too exciting, but to those who live in Brunei this is a big deal!

Toysrus is coming to Brunei!



There has been big construction going on forever to renovate our local supermarket (we call it monkey supasave). We have been wondering what sort of shops will be open on top of the supermarket. Very clever I thought. The supermarket is the place people must go and putting the toy shop on top of it!? Especially when there are so many birthday parties every weekend.

I wonder how long it will take for Oliver to figure out it is where all the cool toys are coming from. Our shopping might take much longer once they open...

I can smile and coo now

Luca Matthew Gordon Rose - 7 weeks old

Bare feet walk

We packed coffee, banana pancakes and fresh mangos in our car and went to Pantai Muara for breakfast and a little walk this morning. We were a bit late to enjoy the cool beach walk so instead this is what we did.







Check out Caroline's new DNA pattern backpack. So cool! You are so good Merryn! (I saw the computer bag and little mini bag too. Very styley : )



Of course Luca had a bumpy ride in his buggy too : )

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.