Saturday 27 April 2013

A man of few words

I bought a new handbag when we were in Hong Kong but unfortunately the handle broke only the second time I used it and it's been laying around since then waiting for me to get it fixed. It was an easy fix though, it had just sort of let go in the seam that held it to the bag. Finally this week I got around to taking it to the shoe/bag repair man, and managed to get a park right outside his shop.
He must have seen me arrive, bag in hand, because before I even got to say good morning, the following conversation happened:

- Can.
- Ehm... ok, you can fix this...
- Yes.
- Great! Can you also...
- Can also.
- ... ehm, I mean... enforce the other ha...
- Yes. Can!
- Ok then...
- Today?
- Well yes, that would be great.
- Today. Can.
- Thank you.

Ha ha, only in Brunei! The cost of him fixing the handle and enforcing the other three seams too?
$3, which is about €1,80, 16SEK or £1.60! Bargain

Thursday 25 April 2013

Kiss and drop

We had to set our alarms a little bit earlier this morning, since the 22nd ASEAN Summit is currently happening in Brunei, and there was going to be some rather extensive road closures this morning, right around normal drop-off time.
So the school kindly opened their gates earlier, and had all their staff coming in earlier too. All to make it possible for us parents to get in to drop the kids, and get out before the road closures started at 7.15am.

Since I didn't know how chaotic it was going to be at school (turns out, there was no chaos at all, no drama, no traffic jams, no nothing! Kudos to school for facilitating our morning!) - I had talked to the kids about maybe doing a "kiss-and-drop" this morning; which means, just drop them off at the gate for them to walk themselves the rest of the way into school.
They got super excited about that!

So even though there was really no need to stress, we did the kiss-and-drop, and I waved off two very excited and happy kids who seemed to have grown overnight with this added responsibility!
You can't really see them in this photo I snapped, but they are there, walking off in the far, side by side, while I'm in the car mourning this yet another sign my babies are growing up far too fast...

Monday 22 April 2013

Surprise Baby Shower

Today I hosted a Baby Shower for one of my friends. We had disguised it as just a lunch get-together for all us girls training CrossFit together at the Box, so she had no idea! It was lovely getting to surprise her!
I had great fun decorating the house with little blue baby clothes I had borrowed, blue ribbons and blue balloons:


Kim had made the diaper cake, it looked gorgeous, and we had all put together for a voucher at Mothercare as a gift for the Mum-to-be.


Everybody brought something to eat, but I cheated and got Beenal to make us some cute baby themed cupcakes. Another pretty batch of cupcakes, nearly too pretty eat!


So much delicious food!! Silly me forgot to take a picture later with the covers off... *duh*, but we had quiches and salads and tabbuleh and chicken and beef burgers and fresh bread and... Mmmm!



No Baby Shower without games, right? We did a few Nursery Rhymes games that were rather easy, the game proving to be most difficult was the "Match the celebrity baby"-one... Guess who won that one - the one only of us without kids! :D


Here's the lovely Tamsin, with a little bit more than a week to go until due date. She's still coming to CrossFit, and she's still putting us all to shame at the Box, she's one strong woman!


Sunday 21 April 2013

The Big Egg Toss

We made it back to the Kids Hash this afternoon after missing it last month when it unfortunately clashed with the JIS Showcase Concert. Finally, I must add, because Linnea was due her next potty by now! She has completed 36 runs!

So she got this lovely pewter mug this time:


The girl to the left had done 18 runs and the boy to the right 50 runs - which is why they were all receiving different sized potties.


-"1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10... ON YOUR HEAAAAAAAD!"


All the kids also got some Easter chocolate, and this cool cap today too, since it was the Easter Run.


The two pretty Easter Bunnies who are running the Kids Hash:




After the shout-up it was time for the Easter Egg Toss. All the kids lined up in pairs, supposedly to try and throw an egg to each other back and forth, as many times as possible.


But when it was all go, go, go...  and nobody even tried to throw and catch the eggs - it was ALL about crashing the eggs onto each other, hard! These kids have been to too many of these Easter hashes to know what the deal is - it's all just one huge egg TOSS!


It was all about getting messy, and boy were they having fun!


Linnea managed to get Ben on his back!


Then it got completely crazy, eggs were flying left and right and all the kids were running around trying to sneak up on each other. Good thing egg is supposed to be good for your hair!


When the last tray of eggs came out of hiding, it was soon all over and we could take two exhausted, messy and egg-smelling kids home...

Sporty weekend

We are having the Turner kids over this weekend as their parents are away celebrating their wedding anniversary. Kids all were super pepp for a double sleepover, and so far they've all been behaving beautifully and had a lot of fun.
Yesterday morning it was time for CrossFit Kids for our two, so the Turners had to tag along.




They all had a great time, and now they want to come back too! (Sorry Tash...)
Warming up with some walking lunges:



And some push-ups into planks:


As a skill they got to try out the rowing machines:


And also learn the technique for overhead squats:

 

The WOD was another 2 rounds of a pretty tiring circle training: 45 seconds pull-ups, 45 seconds lateral jumps, 45 seconds squats and 45 seconds of push-ups:



Nice and sweaty after a good workout!


Then Linnea had dancing as usual on a Saturday, and today it's Kids Hash! A great active weekend!

Saturday 20 April 2013

The 80s party - the photos


What a fee-eeling!

Last night we were invited to yet another fancy dress party, they sure are popular here in Brunei! My dress-up wardrobe is bigger than the kids one!
This time it was an 80s themed one - so fairly easy to get props for..! Not only have the 80s been having a revival lately, all over the world, with lots of neon etc. But Brunei is also really stuck in the 80s, so all you had to do was to go into any of the normal shops in the Mall, and you would find perfect outfits!

A few of us gathered for some pre-drinks before we headed off to the party. The girls got busy in the salon, here's Sam getting "teased" by Pip, proper height to the hair, very important!

 

And "I" had a haircut!


Freddie Mercury and Rambo:


Björn Borg (I got him to swop his top for a white one later before we left, to look even more authentic!):


An 80s rocker and Chucky:


Rambo and Anna, who had (worryingly) found her whole outfit in the depths of her own wardrobe..!


I tried to go a bit Flashdance-inspired, with leg warmers, an oversized top and a lycra leotard. I couldn't find a grey top, nor pink leg warmers - so this is as close as I could get. (I didn't wear any heels though, so I look like a midget in this shot!)


Morris:


Scotts:


Masons:


Gilsenans:


Us:


Nathan had some issues with his mustache, so once again we went to the salon to try and use some hot wax to "glue" it to his upper lip...

 
 

But unfortunately the wax trick didn't really work, so in the end we had to trace around the original mustache...


... and then paint one on with some mascara!


That worked brilliantly! Off to the party we went! Pictures to follow...