Front page news

Linnea's teacher Ms Jo and Linnea's class mate is on the front page of today's newspaper.



Inside there is a short story, and a photo where all of us take part.
You can maybe spot me and Linnea in the top corner? (Very hard to see though.)





Apparently we were on the evening news yesterday too, but I didn't see it unfortunately. Hopefully someone recorded it!

{365:37} Water issues

Water issues.
We are without water supply at the moment. While there is sure enough water coming from above, there is none in our pipes as they are busy fixing a burst pipe along Jln Muara somewhere - since Wednesday... They have been with a big tank truck to fill up our tank outside, and also given us 5 gallons of water in blue drums - but, we are still coordinating our toilet visits and have showers very sparingly...

{365:36} Feast

Feast.
That's what we had today. Erika was kind enough to bring the 'goods' from Sweden to make semlor (=typical Swedish pastry originally eaten on Shrove Tuesday, as the last festive food before Lent); the kardemumma bullar (=cardamom buns) and mandelmassa (=almond paste). So we made some (strange looking) semlor and invited my fellow Swedes. They may have looked funny, but they tasted fantastic... mmm!

Some schooltrip!

This morning Linnea had her first school trip. Since they have been talking about travel, mostly air travel, the last few weeks, the trip went to the Sultan's Hangars.

The school has done this trip several times before, but I guess it has it's perks to be school mate with one of the Princes, because we were actually allowed to visit not just the hangars, but the inside of the three Royal aircrafts too!

We had a couple of hours there, walked around the offices and surroundings, saw a short slide show and then we were escorted down to visit the airplanes and the two helicopters that had been brought over just for us.
Even though we were 6 teachers and 8 parent helpers (on less than 20 children) it was a bit like trying to manage a puddle of water - they are so small and so fast! They were everywhere!

We even got to board the 'big mama', the 747. It was very... golden!
There was an impressive amount of people escorting us, all upholding different functions. They were all very helpful and friendly and took good care of their little visitors. Most of the Lufthansa pilots were there as well, and we bumped into our friend Fredrik, which was extra nice of course!

After the tour, we were invited to have a bite to eat. They had prepared a lovely buffet table for us, and all the kids (and helpers!) dug in to yummy noodles, spring rolls, pasta and other delicacies.
Then it was time to get on the bus and drive back to school again after such a very special morning that we all will remember for a long time!

Severe weather

I feel really sorry for Erika. She is only here until next Friday (11 days in total), and the weather is really atrocious, day in and day out.
Last night there was a 'severe weather warning' issued and it got sent out via sms to everybody with a mobile phone.
The rain doesn't seem to stop more than 5 minutes at a time and the rest of the time it's raining so heavily, you f.e have to drive super slow, because you see nothing!

We did do the Hash on Tuesday anyway, in the pouring rain. You could only kind of get wet, and once you were soaked through, it wasn't that bad...

But so far she hasn't got any use out of her bikinis unfortunately, and I fear that she will probably not get to unpack them at all...

This is the worst weather situation ever, they say in the newspapers, today they are expecting flash floods again, and a tide over 2.5. Well, she won't experience these tropical weather conditions anywhere else at least!

{365:35} OTT

OTT.
Took Erika on a cultural tour this morning. We visited the Brunei Museum, the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque and the Regalia Building.
Same things my parents were interested in. Only today we realized that we were allowed to take photos, in the big hall of the Regalia Building! Yay!

{365:34} Making friends

Making friends.
It's taken a while, but now at least Linnea is really into the puppies and wants to play with them and cuddle them all the time. Lucas, still not so much... but it will come.

{365:33} Pretty

Pretty.
My friend Erika is getting beautified. Her first day here, and we already have done our nails and have had her eyebrows groomed. Tomorrow it's time for massage!

{365:32} Australian Open

Australian Open.
This afternoon has been all about the tennis in Australia. We were a small group of people who had pizza and watched the game together, on a big screen of course.

{365:31} Homework time

Homework time.
Doing it outside, really nice.

Bippidi boppidi boo!

I had two fairies visiting today - a Pippi-fairy and a Spiderman-fairy. They were very cute!



But soon they weren't that friendly with each other, and the Pippi-fairy tried to enchant the Spiderman-fairy...



... who was having none of it. :)

Swimming Gala 09

Today it was time for another eagerly anticipated annual event at school: the Swimming Gala. All the kids in school take part in swimming competitions in the morning, all according to their ability of course. Linnea's class just splashed around, Lucas class did races - but everyone got a medal!

Linnea and her class mates were split in two groups, and came over to the shallow pool:





I was impressed to see that she actually swam for about 2-3 meters under water, all by herself!



Daniel:



Lucas and his year group were also split up in different groups, and they did four different heats. First normal swimming:





Then "back kicking":



Supporting the friends:



Linnea receiving her medal:



Noodle riding heat (Lucas is in the black and yellow swimsuit):



Waiting for their turn (the school has a really nice swimming pool):



Ringo heat:



It was a nice morning and I really think the kids appreciate that we are there to support them. I certainly am happy that I have the opportunity to take part in all these activities they do!

Schadenfreude

There are special times every year, when my home sickness accelerates. Usually it's over the holidays, like for example at Midsommar (=Midsummer), and even skolavslutningen (=end of school celebrations) and it definitely peaks at Advent (=the 24 days in December before Christmas).

Especially around Advent it's really hard, and I don't enjoy my blog roll as much as usual because I get so jealous of everybody decorating for Christmas, enjoying candle light lit evenings and cosy nights in with lussekatter and glögg.

But hey, now it's my turn to enjoy! At the moment it's just grey, cold and boring back home. The stories on the blogs are full of wet winter overalls, chilly weather, heavy skies, soggy footpaths et. Everybody seems to be waiting eagerly for spring (which is still far away in their corner of the world) and being tired of the dark days. It's a bit gloomy on the blogs to say the least - and I can revel in living in constant sunshine! :)

Chinese New Year in Kindy

Today it was Linnea's turn to celebrate Chinese New Year in school. All the kids came to school dressed in Chinese clothes, and all the Kindy classes had organized a lovely parade for us parents to come and watch.
They got separated into three groups, Linnea was in the music instrument group, who was supposed to play music really loud (to scare away the dragon!), there was one group who banged on pots and pans to make even louder noise, and the last group was making out the dragon itself.



They had also made special hats which they wore, and mini-dragons they were waving around:



Here is the amazing dragon they had made:



Leaving the classroom, first the dragon...



... then the noise-makers...



... and Linnea:



They were absolutely adorable, paraded around the whole school.



Some of the audience on their way:



Here they are passing by the Reception classes, all the big kids were outside their classrooms watching the parade and applauding them. Lucas said to Nathan later when he came to pick him up: "I saw Linnea, I loved her doing that!".



The dragon's body was made out of hand- and footprints by the kids, very decorative:



Afterward they had a Chinese party, with loads of food - and they also made some more Chinese decorations, and each got a candy-orange and an Ang Pao (red envelope) with them home. Another great happening at school!

{365:29}

I'm a number freak. I like nice number combinations, like this one. (It still annoys me that Linnea wasn't born a day earlier, 201005 (or 051020) would have been such a cool birthday combination!)

{365:28}

Lucas and his class mates enjoyed some Chinese fortune cookies at school today. This was the prediction he came home with. Could it be any more to the point? :)

Sharing the love

I asked Linnea the other day if she liked her new class mate. She answered "yes, he's my best friend!" (which basically means she likes him). Then she added with a troubled look on her face: "... but he doesn't like the hugs and kisses!".

Our poor little affectionate girl, trying to spread the love! Ah well, all we can say is keep trying girl, keep trying! :)

{365:27}

We took the dogs to the vet today. First visit. (Even for me, when we had our pet rabbits when I was young, I never came to the vet.) They behaved very well, they got their claws trimmed and got wormed, and in two weeks time we are going back for vaccinations.

A totally non eventful day - aaahhh...

After having had crazy full schedules since the beginning of the year really, and now looking forward to another couple of full-on weeks ahead; this was a very much welcomed long weekend off. Today for the first time since I-don't-know-when... we had nothing on the program.

We have just been at home. Done nothing. Driven nowhere. We have relaxed and taken it easy, watched some movies, had naps, eaten together outside, played and caught up with different little projects just for fun.

What a lovely day, just what I needed. Time to breathe and unwind.

{365:26}

Have crafted something today, that someone is soon going to see more of. Secrets, secrets. Good to have some mojo, it had been a while.