Today is a good day

Today is a good day!



Not only are we celebrating TWO birthdays in the house today - but baby Ida decided to make her entrance into the world this morning!! Big congratulations to our friends Anne & Frederik, and Malthe and Daniel - on the new addition to the family! She sure picked a good day to have a birthday!

And - Happy Birthday to Dorte and Cecilie back home in DK too! Today is a popular day!
Today is a very good day.

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Lion Dancing

We are approaching Chinese New Year (26 January) very fast, and since Brunei is full of Chinese people, it's celebrated widely here, as it's the longest and most important celebration for the Chinese people.
The kids will dress up for school, and learn about special Chinese traditions in the coming weeks; they have time off for the Chinese New Year itself and will also have a Chinese party before their break.

Today we went to the Kids Hash, and it was the Chinese New Year themed one. After the run and the usual hot dog, we were treated to a fantastic Lion Dance performance.



I have never seen any of these 'live', so I didn't really know what to expect. But I thought it was absolutely amazing! At first the kids were a bit wary, but both of them came around. Linnea only stayed close to give the lion her little red envelope, but Lucas got more and more brave, and was really curious about these lions.



"What's under there?"



They had a little kid who was in control of the drums, he was so good. It was almost a bit hypnotizing to stand there and listen to the beat.



The lions danced and jumped around, Lucas got swiped at one stage when one of them came a bit close:





Most of the kids thought it was super exciting too, but I can understand the ones being a bit afraid, cause the lions were big and looked rather intimidating, and really had lots of energy and moved about a lot.
All the kids got little red envelopes handed to them beforehand, and we were supposed to put a dollar in them, for the kids to "feed" them to the lions - to bring good luck.



One of the lions also "ate" some oranges, actually quite a lot of oranges, several piles of them, and in the end he used each segment of those oranges to make out a number - the lucky number of today.
That lion also danced around all the cars, again to bless them and bring good luck, and we all got oranges to eat for luck.









I will write more about the Chinese New Year in future posts. I am really happy to have seen this Lion Dance though - it was really spectacular and really, really cool! We had a great afternoon today at the hash!

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Today's photo is a self portrait.
Yes it is - you can spot me in black, to the left in the little mirror on the lion's head! Gong Xi Fai!

Varrrförrr?

Ever since our Swedish friends were here, we have got another "why-child" in the house. (I've been told they get this from their father who apparently was a "why-child" extraordinaire in his youth...).
Lucas normally is the one with all the questions, but lately we have heard an endless stream of "varrrförrr" (=why) from Linnea too.

Not only do we get this question nearly after every statement we make - you have to imagine it being said with a very, very thick "skånish" (=from southern Sweden) accent... with the 'r' being pronounced almost all the way down in the throat - "varrrförrr"...

I hope it's just a phase.

How to provoke homesickness

I have many "home": I travel "home" to Sweden (which of course will always be home-home, wherever I'll live; that's where I grew up!) and I travel "home" to Brunei - this is where I live, this is my home.
I also travel "home" to Denmark, which is where I lived in my own apartment for the first time and where I have lived the longest during my adult life. It's also where I have most of my friends, where I met Nathan and simply a place very close to my heart.

Not so often anymore, but it still does happen, that I feel more Danish than Swedish! Or at least, I often feel a very strong bond with the Danes.
Here in Brunei, there are only two Danish families, and we see a lot of one of them, the Dehlis.



Yesterday we were invited over for 'flæskesteg, brune kartofler og hjemmelavet rødkål' (pork, brown potatoes and homemade red cabbage). It was absolutely delicious! Frederik had brought the pork home from NZ, and really made an effort in preparing it to perfection. I ate so much I was still full when I woke up this morning. Yum!

It doesn't take much for homesickness to creep up on you. This fantastic meal made me get a Danish craving - and I long for Stryhn's Grovhakkede leverpastej, Spejepølse, en risted med det hele, Kung Fu-is etc... It's hard to have many "home" - there are so many things to miss..!

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This picture illustrates a little piece of my childhood. I haven't seen these things in a long time, but I remember we used to play with this when I was a kid, spraying "string" all over each other, great fun!
Lucas got this in the goodiebag at today's birthday party, and it was finished in about 5 minutes..!

Bye-bye best friends!

We have been talking about it for what feels like forever, that it's time to get Linnea off her dummies. Mostly because it's been hard work to restrict them to only sleeping; she has been giving us a hard time about wanting them all the time, and more often than not, she has won - and we have given in and let her have them, cause we haven't been able to stand listening to her...

It never seemed like there was a perfect time though. We thought about it before Xmas, but then we were going travelling and didn't want to have her upset or risk disturbing the trip; then it was Xmas and we thought it would be unfair if she would have to give up her dummies in order to get pressies from Santa, but Lucas would get some anyway. Then we had visitors, and didn't want them to have unsettled nights if she would be upset etc...

Now, it's soon Lucas birthday, so yesterday we took the opportunity and decided that this was it! Now or never!
Linnea and I spent some time together yesterday wrapping all her dummies up in a beautiful parcel (after having had one last little smooch...), to leave outside for the fairies. We even wrote a little note, and made sure it was in plain sight, easy for the fairies to find.



She was awake quite a few times in the night, and of course, being Linnea - she wasn't sad she couldn't find her dummy, she was highly p****d off! :D
She could get calmed down though, and was ok with me just sitting there for a while, and slept all night without them! Big girl!



And could you believe it! This morning the fairies had been, taken the dummies and left three (!) parcels for Linnea! There was a little note saying that they were going to give the dummies to their babies, and they were very grateful for them - and happy that Linnea is now such a big girl!



Linnea of course was super excited - and she was very pleased to find some hairbands, a poster and a dog in a bag in her packages! She thought the fairies were sooo nice!
Let's just hope tonight she still remembers that there are no more dummies...

The grand prize

While driving around this morning I listened to the radio, something I rarely do because the radio here in Brunei ain't much to be excited about.

Anyway, this morning they had some kind of competition going on. You were encouraged to ring in to the radio station and tell about the silliest name for a pet you had ever heard about, and the big prize if you won would be: a refill for a nitrogen gas bottle!

Oaw - ain't that just something you have always wanted?! :)

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The theme for today's photo is 'variation'.
Linnea's newest school mate, the little prince, arrives to school in a different car every day, it seems. Today it was a shiny, red Ferrari. Wonder what it will be next week?

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Sushi for lunch today. Linnea's favourite is the 'Salmon Uzukuri' and the 'Edamame' (the grean beans in the photo). Sushi is really cheap here, and really fresh and lovely. We have it a few times a week, usually for lunch with Linnea, while we are waiting to pick Lucas up.
It always makes you so comfortably full.

Funny weather

The weather is very strange at the moment. You wake up in the morning to the sound of the rain hammering down on the roof; you look outside and see the trees almost bend over in the wind and the grey rainy fog laying like a thick cover over your garden.
You shrug and get the feeling you should dress in something knitted and warm.

Then you go outside for the school run, and realize that it's still over 25 degrees - at 07.05 in the morning...

Today we saw a glimpse of the sun, for the first time in three days. The rainy season can be quite boring, when you are used to living outside all the time. No swimming, no boating, no playing in the garden, no sun... I hope it's over soon.

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The photo today is from tonight's hash. This is the view from one of my favourite sites at Kota Batu. I didn't go all the way around tonight though, as it was extremely muddy due to all the rain - but still had a very good night.

For the kids

A couple of weeks ago I finally found the kind of mirror I had been looking for for a while, for the kids. Right look, right size and right prize!
Today the carpenter came to mount it, on the little wall outside the kids rooms. It turned out great!
Us grown-ups can't use it for anything, since it's mounted on perfect height for the little ones, but Linnea was delighted and has spent an eternity playing in front of it all afternoon.

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Rainy season is here. It's very wet everywhere. Not cold, but quite boring anyway with rain, rain every day.

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The next Idol?

Wellanders visit

Here are a few snapshots from our past ten days with the Wellanders from Sweden:

Thanks guys for coming all the way out here to see us! It was a great week, and I hope you got some nice memories to bring back home!
Thanks for all the yummy Swedish food, and the mountain of Swedish magazines - mmm!

Ulu Temburong

Last Wednesday, we went up to the Ulu Temburong National Park together with our guests. We hadn't done this trip before, so we were all very excited as we set off down to the jetty early in the morning.

First we took a covered water taxi from Bandar to Bangar, through the mangrove forests. It took about 45 minutes and was a very nice trip.
In Bangar we were met by our guide, and taken to a little café to have some morning tea, it was all local food, rice rolls, kaya toast and different fruits.
From there we were driven in a mini bus up to the river, since the National Park can only be reached by boat. We boarded a longboat to travel up to the National Park. The longboat fit the eight of us, but we had to sit one by one after each other as they are very narrow.
This was my favourite part of the trip, the jungle was so beautiful and the water so clean. We heard a lot of animal noises and saw colourful birds fly by. Sometimes if tide is low, you can be asked to get out of the boat and push it over the shallow parts, but we were lucky and could just sit and take it all in.

We got off the boat and started our climb up the hill. It was rather steep and very muddy so it was a bit of a challenge. They had recently built some stairs for one part of it, but a huge part was still very "jungly". The kids all did really well - all of them climbed on their own all the way to the top! It was a bit like doing the hash, we all ended up sweaty and dirty!
Once we got up, we were at the bottom of the canopy walk, the highlight of the trip. Emma didn't want to go up, so I offered to stay with her while the others did the walk. (As it turned out, it didn't take them long so I went up too afterwards.)
The walk consist of climbing one big tower and then walking over a suspension brigde to another one, and another one - five in total. Each time you also climb a little bit higher to finally be on top of the rainforest. This steel construction is the highest canopy walk in the world!
You are walking over the tree tops and if you can get over the altitude, you have an amazing view! But it is quite scary too! I sure held on really tight!

After we had done this highlight, it was time for lunch, which was served up on the river bank. Really nice lunch, how come food always tastes best outside? Everybody ate huge portions, even the kids!
Then we walked about 10 minutes along the riverbank to a waterfall where we could swim. It was a bit cold, but very nice at this stage, to wash off all the mud and cool down a bit. The water was full of fish that nibbled on our feet - who needs an expensive spa treatment when you can come here and get them to take care of your dead skin? :)

Then it was time to go back home again. Now we were sailing downstream which didn't take long at all, and then back in the mini bus and the jet boat. Everyone were really tired but happy with their day, it was a fantastic experience - and I'm already looking forward to the next time I will take guests out there again!

Some photos:

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Last day with our friends.

I'll be back

If you are wondering if it will continue to be only the {365}-posts here in the blog, the answer is no, I will continue blogging as usual - probably next week.
It's just that we are having visitors at the moment (who just extended their visit with another day, yay!) and we have been really, really busy. No time to blog.

But, I'll be back. Just be patient.