Houdini

This is Jay, the bigger one of our two dogs. We should've called him 'Houdini' instead though, because he is a true master in breaking out of our yard, the little sh*t.



We have covered up I don't know how many holes to date, but still he keeps getting out. Sometimes he finds a week point in the fence but most of the time he just digs new holes under it.
He doesn't go far, mostly over to the neighbours to say hello to their dogs or does a walkabout and to sniff around a bit; sometimes he goes to eat the cat food next door. He always comes back quite quickly, but still, it's annoying. Mocha, our other dog, doesn't follow him funnily enough. He stays put - and "tells Jay off" (=barks a lot at him) when he gets back in, as to say "Don't do that! You'll get us in trouble!".

We are so sick of it though. Every time he goes out, he gets chained up by this tree for the rest of that day, but he doesn't seem to get the message. Anyone got tips on what to do?

More mangoes!

We actually have our own mango tree in our garden! It's bearing fruit at the moment, but I have no idea when they will be ripe enough to pick..? They are still rock hard.




So instead, Nathan brought back a box of mangoes from Surabaya this morning, mmm!! Love the mangoes!

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday afternoon we took the kids to a Halloween Party in town. They enjoyed dressing up, Linnea was a scary witch...



... and Lucas was Darth Vader. (He was supposed to be the Devil, but will save that for the Halloween birthday party he is going to this afternoon.)



Even the Mummy made a little bit of an effort!



At the venue, there were scary decorations and spooky music:



Cutest pumpkin ever, Oliver:





Linnea and Ruby, the skeleton:



Linnea getting face paint, of course:




Time to bash the piñata!

Cross Country 2009

This morning the kids had their Cross Country races at school. We stayed and cheered on.
The Year 1 classes ran one lap around the football field, and Lucas came 4th in his year group! Not bad at all, although he broke down in tears afterward because he wanted to win... bless...

The Kindy kids ran a special route around the playground (quite long though!), but Linnea didn't run it all by herself. She set off in high spirit and full power, but halfway through apparently she got pissed off and just stopped. I didn't see it, but Jeremy had to pick her up, and she had told him "Everybody just keeps passing me!". Then her and I ran the last bit together.

They all got little ribbons upon completing, and very proudly set off back to their classrooms for some Halloween celebrations.

Some snapshots:

Bad, bad timing

Anna and I are off to Singapore for the day on Monday. She needs to renew her passport, and I'm coming along to keep her company! We are starting off by paying a visit to the Embassy, but that should only take about half an hour - then the rest of the day is ours to just enjoy, yay! I love Singapore.

We will be following our usual schedule; strolling down Orchard Road shopping, browsing, having Starbucks, enjoying lunch with wine (just because we can!) and this time we will go and see the new huge shopping mall 'ION Orchard' that has just opened. They have a Pandora shop there... aaahh.

We will be finishing off the day, of course, at IKEA. Only thing is, I just surfed in on their home page and got met by this:



Now that's bad timing!! We have to go over there on Monday, because of the passport situation - so our only hope now is that they have started to display their Christmas stuff early...
Cross your fingers!

My next challenge

My exercise have gone so-so since the mountain climb to be honest. It was really good back then to have a proper goal to work towards, not just a "I-would-like-to-loose-some-weight"-kind of goal, but an actual "I-need-to-be-fit-enough-to-be-able-to-get-up-that-f***ing-mountain"-goal!

Now I have a new one! I've just signed up for this:



The 10k run at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon in February!
I've convinced my friend Vicky (who actually lives in Hong Kong) to sign up with me. She is a bit hesitant, but it'll be great! I'm sooo excited!

It's exactly 4 months away today, which leaves us 122 days to train in - it'll go fabulously!

Who are you?

I might have wondered this before, but certainly without any great respons, which is quite normal. Most people read blogs without leaving comments, I must admit so do I but I try to get better. It's always nice to see someone has left a little greeting, so I will try again:
Who are you all who read my blog??

I can see in my visitors statistics that you are quite a big group every day, and from all over the place. There are readers in countries I definitely don't know anyone personally, such different places as Alaska, Japan and Equador etc.
It's really fascinating!

Who are you all..?

Making conversation

Most people here in Brunei do speak English at some level, but many of them not so much or not very good. They are still keen to chitchat though all the time, everybody from the pizza delivery man to the post office employees - with the result of very funny conversations from time to time.

The other day I went to have my hair done for a party, together with a couple of friends (who shall remain unnamed...), and the girls in the salon asked one of my friends (who is the same age as me) if I was her daughter...

Let's just say it made my day.
Not so much hers.
;)

Just making conversation.

Wii fun

Our neighbours have brought back a new Wii game from Japan, that is not on sale here in Brunei. It's called Wii Resort, and in one of the games you are supposed to fight each other with sticks (?) - just the right game to burn off some aggressions!
The kids got right into it the other day, check out their style:

Mango mania

Mangoes are in season at the moment out here in Asia. We can get different kinds at our supermarket, but they are all generally quite small.
At least if you compare with the ones the boys bring home when they do a Surabaya-flight! There they can buy a polystyrene box with about 25-30 mangoes, for about $12!



This week I've been having mango about twice a day - and they are incredibly juicy and yummy! Mmmm...

Pest control

Nathan came home and was all happy the other day, he had found (and bought of course) a new gadget: a fogging machine!
We are rather plagued by mosquitos where we are, especially Linnea, but also the rest of us. We always need to put out the burning coils if we are going to sit outside, and spray ourselves with tons of repellent. So, it was probably a good buy.

Today he tested it for the first time, and let's just say - at least it fogs! (We will notice the next few days if it actually killed the mosquitos too I guess!)

Here he is, getting it going:



Need to be protected accordingly:



It's starting up - yup, it fogs! Oaw, and quickly it fogged even more...



... and even more...



... and more! It didn't take long to get it going at full blow!



Then I had to go inside because the smoke took over the whole outside!

Road trip to Malaysia

Yesterday I packed my kids, and my neighbour, two of her kids plus a guest, a few bags and toys into the car - and off we went on a road trip to Miri in Malaysia. It's only a few hours away and we were only gone for one night, but still nice to get out of Brunei for a little bit!

We stopped in at their Yacht Club and had lunch which was really nice. I hadn't been there before, and it was beautifully located along a long, sandy beach:



It also had a great playground where the kids amused themselves after the long car trip.





Then we checked into the hotel and met up with our other neighbours who had come down in their car:



Spent a few hours by the pool, before going to the restaurant to have a nice buffet dinner. Linnea kept asking when her birthday was coming, and in the end I understood she ment her birthday cake..! Luckily I had arranged for the restaurant staff to bring one out for us for dessert! Then she was happy!





Staying in a hotel was exciting and fun, even though it was just for one night. This morning the kids and I had a little sleep-in, and enjoyed the luxury of watching tv in bed.





After yummy breakfast we had another long stay at the pool, including lunch and birthday cake for Misuzu (!) - before driving back to Brunei again.

Happy Birthday Linnea!!

Today we are celebrating our little girl, who finally have turned four! She has waited and waited, and today is the day! Although she is a bit confused as to what today is really about, since we did have her party already - which of course is the most important part of your birthday.

We had the traditional opening of the presents in bed this morning (and opening of some more downstairs), then Daddy shot off to work, and the rest of us are going to Miri for a mini getaway.
It'll be a good day!