Last lunch in Brunei

We had to go and have sushi lunch with the Watsons before we left Brunei. I don't know how many times we went there together during our time in Brunei. We really enjoyed the company and of course the food as always!
Thank you Watson family :)



Linnea and Oliver:

Farewell dinner

I've attended friends' farewell dinners a number of times in the past. It felt very awkward this time as it was for us. We went to Li Gong restaurant at the Empire (we were there to say farewell to our friends the Shillinglaws a month ago). I should have felt sad but instead I was very excited to see my wonderful friends together. And felt very relieved that finally all the hectic time was over.









I love all you can eat as you order style but we always end up eating way too much. But we had to try this dessert - white chocolate passionfruit cheesecake! It was divine!!! (You can order this yummy cake from the Empire cafe deli) I ordered this especially to surprise my friends at the dinner but it ended up everyone laughing at the cake. It wasn't my English, I asked for "Thank you for being wonderful friends"



Here are the simpang ladies Nicole,Boel and I together for the last time!



And of course the funny face version:



It was such a great night. Thank you very much for spending special moments with us. I still cannot register that we are actually leaving Brunei.

Private pool

I was very disappointed when I found out the hotel pool was still under construction at the Empire (On the phone they told me it was completed...). Only one part of the lagoon pool and the kiddy pool was open. The most annoying part was the kids water slide was still not working :(

Maybe it's the reason nobody else was in the pool and we got it all to ourselves.



We enjoyed great Brunei sun and nice little breeze.

I can run around!

Luca was a little bit stressed while we were moving too. He couldn't find a place to crawl around but finally...

I can run around!!









Feels sooo good!

Daddy is back!

We had a few busy days packing up the house so Oliver didn't get to spend much time with Matthew. But finally we escaped from the house and moved into the Empire Hotel. Oliver was so cute asking us "Is this my new house?" "Big house!"

A big smile from our little boy :)





So nice to have daddy back!

Farewell - Craft morning

Our packing company came one day later than we expected which made my last few days of Brunei busier. On Tuesday I was planning to attend my last craft morning, but in the end I had to sneak out of the house in the middle of packing :(

But what was waiting for me was this! An awesome farewell cake made by Beenal!



I feel so lucky to have had the chance to meet these wonderful ladies and to spend a morning together every week for the last year or so. We have already talked about having a craft session in Singapore once we settle.

Thank you so much ladies, you are wonderful!

Packing done

Once the boxes were packed and moved our house no longer looked like our house anymore :( Oliver was so emotional and so sad all "his things" disappeared from "his house".











I hope this big move will bring lots of good luck and happiness.

Good bye "Oliver house"

We had a very sad time saying good bye to "Oliver house". Actually Oliver was fine with it but for us parents it was his special birthday present and we had so many nice memories playing in the house...

It was quite tricky moving it tho, the carpenter in the end came to this idea of using a big crane! and pulled it into a big truck.





Great entertainment for the afternoon:





Finally on the truck:



My friend kindly took over "Oliver house" for us. I hope it will be used and loved for a long time.

Brunei airport upgrade

To pack up our Brunei house Matthew flew over from Singapore to help us. Oliver and I went to the airport to pick him up and found lots of changes at the airport.

There has been lots of construction everywhere in Brunei, for example, more shophouses are being built, our road Jln Muara has been expanded to a 4 lane road, the supermarket complex has a toy shop and car dealership etc etc.

The airport is not an exception, they are expanding the car park area and other areas of the airport will be upgraded too.

When we got to the arrival area we found this! In other international airports, this would be nothing but having an old style airport for a long while, for Brunei this is very smart and impressive I thought.



Here is Oliver in front of the mosque:



We are looking forward to visiting Brunei again in a few years time to see what else has been upgraded.

Welcome to the world

This is my brand new niece who was born late this afternoon on her daddy's birthday. Only 8 months ago for us but you forget how small newborn babies are... Soooo tiny and soooo sweet!

Hello baby Rua! We cannot wait to meet you in Japan this weekend :) Be ready, the Brunei Roses are coming!!

Luca can wave?

Lucas told me the other day after they came back from school with so much excitement (!) "Misuzu, this morning when we were leaving for school Luca waved to us! (he was outside in the stroller with my amah enjoying the morning breeze).

I didn't really believe him until he did this!



You are right Lucas, Luca can wave! (this was exactly how Lucas showed me how he waved in the morning).





We are in love ♥

Brand new teeth

After a long few weeks of dribbling and crying, both top and bottom teeth came through (one bottom one is almost through).
Do you like my new look?

Special breakfast

When Linnea came for a sleepover the other day she requested a "special breakfast" in the morning. This started when she came and stayed over last time, I called the wide selection of cereals we had as a "very special breakfast".

I really needed to make something special but different this time. I just love things I get from Japan:

Taddaaaa Hello Kitty Pancakes! Yes, they were both very impressed : )

Fireworks

I am still catching up with my blogging, with all the packing taking up my time. But I am almost there!

We were invited to Oliver's friend little Lucas's house to celebrate the end of Chinese New Year (this was before we went to Singapore).

We had a beautiful dinner and these special fireworks outside their house. Oliver was scared of the sound until he saw them in the sky a couple weeks ago, so he was happy to go outside and enjoyed it with the others.

I didn't think I could capture it with my camera but it turned out nicely:

Valentine's dinner

Matthew is away in Singapore so our Valentine's Day wasn't too special. But I wanted to do something for Oliver, something...

Good thing I looked in my kitchen cupboard and found this "make your own Mickey Mouse rice topping" from Japan.



Made him a one happy little boy!



Happy Valentines my boys!