Pampering

Before it'll be time to go back home for Mormor, Linnea and I took her to get pampered at our favourite nail place today.





Us girls had a lovely morning getting our nails done, both hands and feet; and Linnea got a foot bath and massage too, that she missed out on last time - so she was very content.





Linnea got flower stickers and bling-bling on hers, Mormor and I were happy just with nail polish.

Halfway

We are now in Week 6 of the 12WBT challenge, halfway mark.
How is it going so far..?
Well...

I'm not really following the exercises set out (they are optional anyway), but I'm trying to keep my program as much as I can to what the 12WBT is saying: Cardio (= always Zumba for me with the added extra of hashing, dog walks and the occasional Bukit Shabandar) on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, and then I try to do some weights sessions (=BodyPump) Tuesdays and more weights (=CrossFit) Thursdays.

I guess my biggest challenge is and will continue to be, to vary myself and challenge my body. It's getting used to working out exactly the same week after week, so I'm looking for new things to try.
The CrossFit is new for me, and it's really good. I also like the Super Saturday Sessions, since we tend to do lots of different things, and things I would never ever do on my own. I enjoy getting together and spurring each other on, get a bit of a pep talk on the Saturday mornings from my fellow 12WBTers!

Food wise, I'm in control yes, but I'm not as restrictive as I should be. I do keep to the calories set out - most days... I eat the same breakfast every day (porridge), I wing the lunches but cook every dinner from the program.

I am loosing centimeters and I am loosing kilos.
From the beginning of the program five weeks ago, I'm down 3.5kg (and from the beginning of the year, which is from when I started eating healthily, I'm down a total of 7.6kg) - so the "transformation" is slow, but happening!
It sure has been a very long time since I tucked any shirt into any kind of trousers! :)



Of course I'm happy that I'm getting results, and I know I will reach my goal weight, soon. BUT I'm still hearing that little voice in my head saying "Then what?!", "How will you keep it off?!". I haven't reached that point yet, where I'm actually convinced I will keep it off... I have lost before, and put it back on again! I need it to be different this time.
I'm still hoping that the mindset lessons of the program will get me into the right state of mind somehow in the weeks that we have left on the challenge. Six more weeks, it'll happen.

Sometimes

Sometimes they can be so cute together..! :)

Bruneian road trip

There are not that many places we can road trip to here in Brunei, it's quite a small country after all! If we do drive anywhere further away than the normal 30-40 minutes, it's normally down the coast and into Malaysia, to Miri.

Today we went sort of halfway down that way though, to Seria, a town I hadn't stopped to visit before. We went to the Oil and Gas Discovery Center. I had purposely saved the visit there until we had visitors to take along, and today was the day.



If I didn't know that my parents do enjoy driving around and watching the scenery, it would have been a bit of a long drive just to go to this place. It was a nice visit, but it wasn't very big.
There was an exhibit about the history of oil here in Brunei, and also more general around the world. There was also lots of experiments to take part in, brain games, science projects etc.











Testing the brain activity, the goal to make the ball move was to r-e-l-a-x...



Trying hard!





Lucas trying a bit more zen-like approach:





Creating a tsunami wave:



Experiencing a tornado:

















We did have a good time here, it's well worth a visit (maybe on the way to or from Miri?) and as a bonus Nathan did get to go to the Seria bike shop on the way home!

Royal Regalia Building

Yesterday we went for a lush lunch at the Tasek Brasserie at the Radisson. Something Nathan and I have been planning to do for quite a while and which was long overdue. We all had nice food, and when the kids were done they could play in the pool while the rest of us finished off with coffee, and dessert...s...



Then we went across the parking lot to the Royal Regalia Building for a re-visit. Mormor and Morfar went there last time too, but wanted to have another look. It's quite an amazing collection of Royal gifts, and the whole display that commemorates the Silver Jubilee Celebrations is rather impressive too.
Also last time we thought cameras were prohibited all over, we didn't know we were actually allowed to take photos in the foyer - so this time we didn't miss any Kodak moments!

It's all very golden and glitzy. This f.e is the Royal Chariot that was used during the coronation of the current Sultan, in 1968:

Last KK pics

After the visit at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park on Tuesday we went back into KK again. We had promised the kids a favourite of theirs for lunch and had to follow through - so KFC next..!





After lunch, it was time for another little spot of shopping in the mall closest to the hotel, Sutera Mall (?). Linnea found a shop called "Girls":



A coffee break (with donuts for some) later and we had gathered enough energy to go out to the airport to go back home to Brunei again.

Unfortunately for us, not only were we really early getting out there, but there was nowhere to eat anything once we had gone through to airside... Bad planning.
Only option was Starbucks for dinner, which probably wasn't the most healthy dinner we've ever had... :/ But at least they have good coffee, and there was internet access.

We ended up staying at Starbucks until they closed, because the food issue wasn't the end of our bad luck - our flight also got delayed about 1 1/2 hours (a bummer considering the flight itself was only 25 minutes)... Lucky I had that iPad with movies on it for the kids, although in the end they fell asleep on the airport benches, bless them...



It was freezing in the airport too, we had to keep moving about to keep warm, and Linnea and I got this great idea to go and warm up under the hand dryer in the ladies room..! :) Well, it did the trick!





It was nice to get home to our own, warm beds last night for sure!

Lok Kawi Wildlife Park

On our second day in KK we took a taxi out to a place we had got recommended called the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park.



It was a really nice little zoo, and it even had a tram we took a ride on around the park!





We saw loads of different animals. Crocodiles:



Turtles:



Strange type of buffalos:



Funny blue bird..:



Proboscis monkeys (even though we have them in the jungle at home, it was nice to see them up close!). Bless them, they are really not pretty with their big noses and huge bellys!





Capuchin monkeys. Maybe it was Herr Nilsson (=Pippi Longstocking's monkey, or rather a distant cousin!)?



More orang utans:







Mini horses? Not so exotic, for us at least.



A very sleepy tiger:



Borneo Pygmy elephants, the world's smallest elephant species. Lucas liked these small elephants, he took most of the following photos himself:







This one decided to go for a bath as we were standing there. He got in deeper and deeper in the water.





Stealth elephant!



Even I got caught on camera by Lucas!



Part of the park is a "Botanical Garden". It's a paved trail through the jungle that is about 1.4 kilometers long. However, Mormor and Morfar only walked part of it - they turned around when they got to this:



The garden showcases different ginger plants, pitcher plants, therapeutic plants and many other.





Also, the park offered a very nice Animal Show which was run by a great team.



We all really enjoyed it, and both kids participated in it too!
Lucas got chosen to compete against Mowgli, the orang utan - in getting a piece of sweet potato out of a box, with just a stick:







Lucas won, and then Mowgli cheated and lifted the lid - to take out his piece! :D Cheeky monkey!



We also got to meet some clever macaws who could do all sorts of tricks, like raising the Malaysian flag, playing basket ball and cleaning up recycling!





They had a tame civet called Kit-Kat (remember the coffee in this post? It's "made" by this animal):



And later in the show they took out a big snake. The guy needed a volunteer to come and touch it and he had hardly finished his plea before Linnea was standing up next to him!





She got to touch the snake, and since she wasn't scared - she also got to hold it! She didn't even flinch!