First Football Funday

Yesterday was a big event at JIS - the yearly 'Football Funday', the biggest football tournament in Brunei.

Where as I was actually at last years Football Funday at JIS, we hadn't yet taken the kids to one, for the simple reason that none of them have ever been properly participating. (Lucas was actually offered to be part of one of the teams JIS put in this year, but decided not to.)
But this year they had promoted it really well in school, plus a few of my very good friends has been working really hard at organizing it so we thought we'd go, for support!

The 'Football Funday' is actually a great day!
Apart from all the football matches going on on the fields outside, there was also a ton of activities in the big sports hall - everything from airbrush face painting, henna painting, a kids' fun zone and lots of food stalls to lots of different sale stalls selling books, jewelery, model airplanes, sock puppets etc etc.
It can easily be a very expensive day though, because everything costs money of course - a couple of dollars here and a couple of dollars there later...
We bought a few books, a foam plane, some snacks and Linnea got a henna painting done on her hand:

Hashing with friends

As most of the family prioritized the TV and the very important RWC semi-final this afternoon (which we won, yay!), Linnea still wanted to go to the Kids Halloween Hash.
Luckily one of my new friends, who has a little girl in Linnea's class, offered to take her along. So she went "on her own", and had a fab afternoon!

Mallory & Linnea, before they went in the jungle, on the long run this time!



As it was Halloween run, of course they wore costumes, played lots of games and won prizes. Fun, fun, fun!

Cool present

Nathan got his birthday present from the Whites today, this book by 'The Stig' (from 'Top Gear').



But it wasn't just any copy, it was a signed one, with a very special and personal greeting from the man itself!
Cool!

Smurftastic!

In the wake of the new 'Smurf'-movie, Linnea was invited to a Smurfy birthday party today by one of her little friends.
I didn't stay, but Linnea came home full of stories and told us all about it. How they had got their faces painted blue, how they had made their own Smurf-hats and made Smurfs out of blue play-doh and how the food had been blue (!).



She also had some fantastic Smurf-cookies with her in her party bag - sounds like a great party!
Next week it's time for her birthday, and we better get on with the party planning!

Mouthwatering marbled meat

Our favourite sushi restaurant Excapade has got a new dish on their menu - Wagyū Beef. We tried it the other night for the first time, and again today for lunch. I'm officially hooked, yum!
They serve it with a little "hot plate" so you cook it yourself on the table, just to your tasting.



The Wagyū beef is known for it's marbling characteristics and has a very high market value, it's by many seen as the finest beef in the world.
Different breeding and feeding techniques are used on the animals, such as massaging them or adding beer, wine or sake to their feeding regimen.
Well, all I know is that it's very tasty!

The dark side

I've gone over to the dark side.



It was time for a change.
I like it. (Nathan not so much...) Do you?

It goes both ways

No, I have no high hopes I'll actually get Nathan to a Zumba class anytime soon (he hardly even dances when he's drunk!) - but I thought he still needed some cool Zumba gear, in case he'll come and support on another Zumba event or something!

So, I can give presents too!

There somewhere

Most mornings when I go in to wake Lucas up, I find his bed like this, or very similar - with the duvet all piled up in one corner.



The first few times I thought he had already gone downstairs for breakfast, but then I realized - no he's still under there somewhere!
He apparently likes to curl up and sleep under this whole mountain of duvet, it looks very funny!

Zumba on the beach

Yes, another post about Zumba! It's been a lot of Zumba going on this week, but I guess it's a bit special when a ZES comes by! Plus, as you know, not that much happen in Brunei ordinarily, so you better jump on every possibility to do something different - and have fun!

Tonight we had a special Zumba session down at the beach, during the sunset. It was great, what better setting can you have?

Vania and me:



Enrique, the ZES, and me:



There was some slight technical issues that delayed the start a bit...



But nobody stressed much about that, we just relaxed and took in the wonderful view!



Then we started, I think we were over 100 people who had gathered to Zumba into the sunset.













Misuzu:



In the beautiful sunset:







And then the sun set... and it became all dark... :)





I feel all "exercised out" after this week! I took 3 (!) Zumba classes on Monday, hashed Tuesday, took a Zumba class Wednesday, did Bukit Shabandar Thursday, Master Class yesterday and this today!
Tomorrow - REST...

Let's have a real good time!

On stage with Enrique Salomao during the Master Class!

1st Zumba Brunei Master Class

I have woken up full of energy and happy feelings today! Oaaaahhh!

Last night I spent with about 300 other Zumba crazy people at the first ever Masterclass (=a class that is maybe extra long, taken by a ZES (=Zumba Education Specialist), or for a special cause - in our case we ticked all three!) here in Brunei.





It was organized for the charity Pusat Ehsan and taken by one of the ZES from Australia, Enrique Salomao, who's originally from Brazil. It was 90 mins of cool music, wide smiles and great Zumba routines! So inspirational!
It was a whole evening event, we got goodie-bags, left our hand prints, mingled, did the class and even got food afterward; what a fab night!

The evening was MC'd by our favourite radio DJ here in Brunei, DJ Izan. Here she is with Susan before it all kicks off:



Can you see the Swedish flag I drew?



I was asked up on stage to do some of the warmup together with some of the other people from the Studio, and it was so cool to look out over the sea of people - all with big smiles on!
Here's Arlene and I getting our groove on:





A little break in between the warm-up and the main event:



I was also up on stage with the main man himself a few times during the Master Class! He pulled people up out of the crowd, it was very cool!



Here's some of my friends groovin' it, Benaal, Nicole, Misuzu and - can you spot Anna?



The Zumba crowd, so much energy! People had come from all over the place, from KB, Seria etc etc. So many Zumba crazy peeps!


(Photo: Jonathan Yap Soon Lee)

We did a cool "battle" all over the hall!


(Photo: Jonathan Yap Soon Lee)

The ZES, Enrique:


(Photo: Jonathan Yap Soon Lee)

DJ Izan and me afterwards:



It's really not often events of this proportion gets organized here in Brunei as it's a whole lot of work involved, and lots of admin (...) too. I'm so happy to have been part of this event, it was a super-duper evening and it was great to see how big Zumba is getting here in our small country!

I've made so many new friends thanks to Zumba, and I feel better than I've done in a long time. All thanks to Zumba! Zumba love!

New & Old

Yesterday Misuzu and I went for breakfast at this new place in "Little Gadong" we had heard about called 'The Old Cottage'. Well, we thought it was new, turned out it has been there for nearly a year! (Or so the waitress told us anyway...). A year!! How have we missed this!?

It was great, decorated totally and 100% in the same style throughout, old country cottage. Very English to me, but with some American little details too. Patchwork on the walls, wooden ornaments, very cute.

They had great (and cheap!) breakfast too! I had all this, for only $5!



We will be back many more times, that's for sure! Now that we know it's there. Nice with a new place to go to, and since it's the closest one to school, it'll be a given on days when you need somewhere to hang for a while before you go to school, for Assembly or such. Thumbs up!

Lucas' Y3 Assembly

Yesterday we went to our first Assembly this year (probably out of many!).
It was actually Lucas' class, class 3W, who were the hosts of the first class Assembly of 2011!
They did a fab Assembly about Tutankhamun, the boy pharaoh, and how his tomb was made for him. Really cool! (They also danced to "Walked like an Egyptian, totally cool!)

Lucas was a doctor who explained to Tutankhamun how he was going to take his brains out through his nostrils with a big hook, after his death of course... Eeuw...



Here's Lucas and his mates Daniel and Gilbert, after the performance:



Well done Lucas! Great Assembly!

Auf Wiedersehen

Today another good friend of mine left Brunei, for good. It was my German friend Claudia; her daughter has been in Linnea's class while they've been here; whose time was now up.
It's always so sad to say goodbye... My least favourite thing about the constant exchange of people here.
On Wednesday a few of us school mums had a farewell lunch for her at one of the new Italian restaurants in town. It was really, really lovely!





We had all got together and got her a card (that she couldn't read cause it got all the water work going..!) and a beautiful pair of very sleak, just-her-style, white gold earrings. Only thing was, it had been a while since she's used earrings so they were a bit hard to put on!



Claudia - I will miss you. Take care, good luck with the next chapter of your life and stay in touch!

Our Animal Rescue Center

The other day when I got home I discovered this little fella' in our laundry room:



I thought he had got in by mistake and called on Nathan to take him out, but he said no, it was the Amah who had rescued him since he had fallen out of a tree (?) and couldn't fly... Our Amah apparently has a big heart for animals.
The little bird was inside for two days being looked after until he showed he was ready to fly, and he got released out in the garden.

The 2011 Pink Run

As October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, we do a special run at the Hash every year at this time, that we call "The Pink Run".

The run this Tuesday was just this. Not only a fab run in one of my favourite locations (Jalan Dadap) but also a very nice on-on with every thing pink, of course.
The tent was decorated in pink; we got pink drinks, everyone had been asked to wear something pink and the hares were especially stunning in pink wigs, pink tutus and pink glasses.
We also got all boobie-shaped food (...), which consisted of Chinese baos and pink cupcakes looking like nipples..! :D Ha ha, humour!

I didn't take any photos last night unfortunately, but you can see some from our 2009 run here.

It's that time of year

It didn't slip pass Linnea that October started on Saturday.
So of course we had to start producing the birthday party invitations Saturday afternoon.
And of course, we had to distribute them today, as they were now done.

It's that time of year again, birthday time!



This year we are going rainbow!

October

It's October. (I know! It kind of crept up on all of us I think.)

October is autumn.
October is Halloween.
October is everyday life chugging along.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I'm turning the blog pink again for this month of October. I'm wearing my pink bracelet, and my pink ribbon. I'm running the "Pink Run" tomorrow at the Hash and I'm going to donate money to Breast Cancer research as it's a cause that is close to my heart, in more ways than one.

Think pink you too.