Family time

As I have previously mentioned, Nathan missed the fabulous boat trip last weekend, since he went to Singapore instead to meet up with his brother-in-law.



Kieran (who's normally based in Aberdeen, Scotland) had been traveling around Asia on business for a few weeks. He ended up in Singapore for the last few days of his trip and luckily it was perfectly timed with Nathan's off days, so he could go and see him.



I've been told they had a great time, what a treat to be able to catch up with family only a few hours away, somewhere where you can get both beer and ribs..! :)

Bugs & Bubbles

Saturday was my friend Anna's birthday and she had invited for a "Grown-up boozy lunch at Labuan"! Nathan unfortunately wasn't here (he was living it up with brother-in-law Kieran in Singapore!), but I really wanted to go because believe it or not, I hadn't yet been to Labuan so it was about time!

Labuan is a Malaysian island about 45 minutes away with boat away from Brunei (Muara):



It's actually a federal territory and best known for being an offshore support hub for deep-water oil and gas activities in the region. It's also a destination for people traveling through Sabah, scuba divers - and people from Brunei needing to stock up. The boys regularly take the boat over there for a day out, but as I said, so far I hadn't been.

We had smooth sailing on the way over, luckily. I tend to get sea sick if it rolls too much but there was no problems at all.







Arriving in Labuan:



The view from the restaurant:





The party crew:











We had such a fantastic lunch at this seafood place, yum, yum!
Food was amazing, fresh and tasty, and dirt cheap too! For the 10 of us, numerous beers included, it only came to 550 MYR (= 1200SEK, 140EUR, 225BDN)!!!



We had two whole, steamed fish...



... a huge plate of garlic kai lan, another huge plate of some other vegetable I didn't catch the name of, rice, a huge plate of "bugs" (some kind of small land lobster?)..:



... and also two plates of chili-garlic squid and a plate of chili-garlic chicken. Plus finally, and the best thing if you ask me, two huge plates of tiger prawns that them too were humungous! Mmm! They went so fast I didn't even get time to take a photo of them! :)

Anna and Pippa also enjoyed another... delicacy? They both ate a fish EYE! Why? I'm not quite sure...









After lunch, it was time to go shopping! What made me really happy in the shop was the selection of chocolates! It was huge!
I couldn't help but get some of the Marabou and Dumle chocolate they had, for the kids, of course... ;)

On the way back from Labuan, we anchored at the island of Koruman most of the afternoon, to do some swimming and enjoy some more "bubbles" - it was a birthday celebration after all!
What a hard life!

Choccie heaven

If Swedish visitors normally bring Daim, Marabou and Ahlgrens Bilar - NZ visitors are always asked to bring us Whittaker Chocolate, particularly Peanut Slabs.
Now there's no more need for that because check out what they have in SupaSave now, almost the whole range of Whittaker choccies!!



Nathan is in heaven!

Move over Rocky!

Yesterday it was time for a special Super Saturday Session. One of the girls had organized a friend of hers, an ex-boxer called Omar, to take us through two hours of boxercise training.



It was so much fun, really good exercise but man, my arms are hurting today!





I thoroughly enjoyed this session though, and I choose to believe I did extra well with the punching exercises because I had done it before... ha ha!





I really enjoy these Super Saturday Sessions! It's nice training together in a group, yesterday there was 10 of us. It's nice training outside early in the morning and believe it or not - it's nice getting up and getting going even on a "day off", starting my day with exercise makes me feel so good for the rest of the day.

The pizza king

Our pizza nights are currently reaching new heights. As the pizza maker himself is flying tonight we decided to do pizza on Friday this week instead and all I can say is yum, yum, YUM!



Jeremy really rocks the pizza making, now having purchased all the necessary proper equipment to make the best pizzas (because it's all about the gear and the gadgets of course, even in a kitchen!) - and the pizzas came out perfection. Mmm!

A 1948 Memento

We are getting closer and closer to the 2012 London Olympics, something that is causing a buzz even way out here in South-East Asia!

The other day both my boys had a near encounter with a very special memento from the last time London hosted the Olympic Games - a 1948 Olympic Torch!
The relay back then was called a "Relay of Peace" and started from Greece, and went through Italy, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Belgium on it's way to England - quite a wide scope through Europe.

This time around, the 2012 Olympic Torch will cover only the UK in a 70-day extravaganza, with over 8,000 torchbearers carrying the Olympic flame around the country.

I'm not sure how or why this important memorabilia was at JIS on Wednesday, I just got this photo sent to me by a friend (thank you Maria!):



I'm even less sure about why it also later that day came made an appearance at the Men's Hash..! By hey, quite cool that Nathan got to hold it too on the same day!



I found this interesting article though on the BBC webpage, where you can read more about the Olympic Torch and it's history.

Cultural school excursion

Linnea and her class mates went on yet another school excursion this week. (Unfortunately they always seem to be scheduled on Mondays, so I can't come along since I take my Zumba class then.)
This time they went to the Chinese Temple in Bandar because of the Chinese New Year, and also to the "Big Mosque" - Jame´`Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque in Kiulap.

I heard from the accompanying parents and teachers it had been a really nice and educational visit; such a shame I missed it.
They had been treated to a Lion Dance at the temple, with fireworks and everything! They also got to do some Chinese drawings - and even received Ang Paos!
At the mosque they had gone on a guided tour to see the libraries, the book collections and the impressive prayer rooms.

Here's the newspaper clipping:

Scandinavian Care Package 101

My friends came bearing gifts from home, jubi!
This - is what I call a perfect Care Package, yum!

Drive-by sightseeing

A few weeks back I got a FB message from an old colleague telling me that he and a few other old colleagues of mine were planning a trip to Borneo - would I be home to meet up if they came through Brunei?
Well, it's not exactly like our schedule is fully booked with visitors here, of course I would be able to meet up!

So yesterday they came into Bandar with a bus from Miri, but due to the party we weren't able to meet up until quite late in the evening, only to make plans for today. Today we have spent most of the day together and it's been so nice to have friends here to show around!

I must say, in 48 hours they've managed to cover nearly all of the most important sights of Brunei though!
Yesterday they did the "monkey boat" trip into the mangroves and saw the Proboscis Monkeys, went into the city mosque, had dinner at the water village, walked around town and visited the Regalia Building - all in one day.

Today we went for sushi lunch:



After that we did some drive-by sightseeing. Yep, just driving around big parts of Brunei showing them around from the car window!
They also got to browse the big (...) Mall for a couple of hours while I was busy doing Zumbatomic at ISB, they came along to the "Monkey Supasave" (=the supermarket that has the monkeys in the car park), and we took them to Jerudong Park and around the Polo Club. Finally we saw the sunset from the Empire Hotel, very beautiful.

Tonight I took them home for a home cooked meal, which they seemed to enjoy after all their "traveling food". It was also nice to catch up on all the happenings back in the "Verdensfirmaet", my old airline, in Denmark.



Nice to see you guys, I hope you enjoyed your bullet-visit to Brunei!

A day in the Magic Kingdom

Today we were so lucky to get to spend the afternoon at the Istana, at the little Princess' 4th birthday party.

It was a Disney Princess-themed party, and they had transformed the whole Royal Sports Complex into a magical fairground with life-sized exotic animals, huge butterflies, pretty balloons, bubbles and other glittery decorations. It looked so pretty!
There was a huge play area, a Beauty Tent, lots of games to play, a tent with an Exotic Pet Exhibition and also a big scene where they had several performances throughout the afternoon - all in the Disney Princess-theme.

We all left the party so happy, feeling like we had been to a magical wonderland, what a fabulous day!
Here are some of the photos I took:

Gong Xi Fai Chai!

During the first 15 days of the new year, most Chinese will invite their family and friends home to their "Open House". We've had a few invites this year which is really nice, it's such a special thing to be invited to take part in all these different celebrations.
On Friday we went to the Open House of one of Lucas' class mates. It's pretty much the same as a Hari Raya Open House - you come, you eat, you go..!



Yes, of course you are supposed to chat and catch up etc, but considering there are so many people coming through at the same time, you are not supposed to take up the space at the table for too long, nor hog the host too long either! :)

At this Open House they wanted to do a quick photo shoot with all the children. They had their own photo studio set up in their garage, very cool!
I managed to snap some "behind-the-scenes-shots"! I just love these - check out Lucas and the girls!

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

Linnea & Luca:

Storytime

Lucas sharing a story with Oliver the other day.
Oh how we are going to miss them when they leave (for good)... Only a few more weeks now until moving date, and we kind of just pretend still it's not happening. We'll wait and be sad once they are gone, for now we enjoy their company as much as we can.

Back to routine

We've had a long four day weekend thanks to Chinese New Year. It's been lovely, especially after last weeks frantic birthday party planning.
Not only did Lucas have his birthday party on Friday, I also had a little Girls Night gathering on Saturday to celebrate me! I got so spoiled, my beautiful friends brought me all sorts of lovely gifts - and these amazing lilies!
(I must buy flowers more often - it really brightens up the house!)



So it was nice to get a couple of extra days to relax, catch up with things around the house, and breathe.
Now, back to routine. And I love it.

Shufflin'

Here's Lucas, doing his best impression of the LFMAO Robot man!



The original:


(Picture borrowed from tumblr.com)

The Year of the Dragon

Today we enter the Year of the Dragon. The Dragon is the biggest symbol of good fortune in Chinese astrology and according to tradition the Dragon brings in the four blessings of the East: wealth, virtue, harmony and longevity.

The Dragon is considered the most special of the 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac, as it is a mystical being rather than an earthly animal. In this context that means we can expect grand things this year. Bigger than life is very much a Dragon thing.
How exciting!

Happy New Year!

Zumbaaa!

Birthday family photo

Here's the Lego family, ready for Lego party!
It's not my t-shirt since I don't have a Lego one unfortunately (Thomas...?!). I had to borrow one of Nathan's big ones.
It was Lucas' idea that the birthday people should wear the same one! :)