Little things that make me happy

For my birthday in January a friend send me a gorgeous arrangement of flowers, and I kept the card to try and find that flower shop again when I'd have an occasion to buy some more flowers.
Yesterday I wanted a table decoration for the lunch I was hosting, and set out to try and find the shop. It wasn't easy as it was very small but after some direction from my friend, I got there.
All I can say is - OAW!

It was such an amazing florist! They had so many different kinds of exotic, beautiful flowers that I was totally taken back! I got this arrangement for my table, isn't it pretty?

I think I'm going to start buying fresh flowers a lot more often, it really makes me so happy!

Hazardous haze

This is how the sun looked this morning at the school run - slightly hazy here at the moment!

They predict that this haze may persist for several days, and I do feel for those with asthma issues etc.

The reason for this haze over Brunei, is apparently trans boundary haze from local burning in West Kalimantan and parts of Sarawak. The PSI (=Pollutant Standard Index) reading in Brunei is a lot higher than normal, today it's at 51, which is considered moderate. The conditions over Singapore and southern Malaysia is way more alarming though, Singapore had an all-time high of 371 the other day!

More goodbyes...

You would think that after having been here now for six years, and having said goodbye to numerous friends leaving the Abode, I would be used to the farewells by now. But no, that's not quite how it works... it's always sad. It's an especially sad time now in June, because the school breaking up is a natural time for many to leave. Sure, new people will arrive, the dynamics will change and life will go on but it'll all takes some time getting used to; and some people leave a bigger hole than others.

It's extra tough to say goodbye to really good friends who have been big parts of my everyday life, like Kim, my Canadian friend. She's off to new adventures in Denver, Colorado next month, and I'll greatly miss her here.

We are making sure we are seeing her off properly though - both with a hugely entertaining girls dinner out the other night...

... and with a really lush lunch with her closest friends, at my house today. Everybody had brought a plate to share, and we had so much yummy food! It was one of those lunches that lasted long into the afternoon, with lots of chatting and giggles, and even a few tears!

Beenal (Greet & Treats) had made a cake for Kim, that showcased some of the things she has loved the most about Brunei - the CrossFit, Bukit Shabandar, Zumba and the Hash of course (see those little bits of paper along the trail?). It was gorgeous!

We gave her a pewter photo frame from Royal Selangor, to display together with her and her kids' hash potties, which are also pewter. I had put a photo in it from her last jungle run at the Hash on Tuesday, when she had to wear the leaving bells.

Anne had written her a very touching poem, that made us all a bit teary when she read it out.

I will be taking Kim and the family to the airport though, so it's not goodbye for us just yet. Not that I'm really looking forward to that... I'm not very good at goodbyes... :(

The Care Club coma

Quite a while back now, I guess when the kids' started to have longer school days and getting more homework, we made the decision to have a "no-TV" rule during school nights. As they got their iPads, that got extended to a "no-TV-no-games/electronics" rule. This means, they are only allowed to watch TV and play on their gadgets Friday afternoon, and on the weekends and holidays.
It has worked perfectly for us. It's really so "black and white" that the kids never question it, and to be honest, there isn't much time left in the day anyway once they some days get home well after 4pm, do their homework and have dinner etc...

But, every now and then after school, they get to go to the After School Care Club, usually when the other has an ASA or occasionally if I have to be late picking them up. They love it, because at Care Club they are allowed to watch TV..! :)

To be honest, most days when I pick them up, they are actually outside in the playground running around with their friends. Although I do understand it's nice to relax inside sometimes too; watch TV and chill with a snack, in the air-conditioned room.

Handy Manny

They make really cool and useful stuff in school sometimes. Lucas made this iPhone cover recently in DT  (Design & Technology), all by himself. Nice and padded.

He initially gave it to Nathan, but as Nathan has a cover on his phone already it didn't fit into this - so I got to use it, lucky me!
I was actually just in need of a new cover, as my other one was getting pretty grotty, so good timing! I love that Lucas has made it, it's one of a kind, really unique and cool!

Touch tournament

Lucas took part in his first touch rugby tournament last Thursday at school. Lucas and his friends have only been playing touch as an ASA this last term at school. Three different schools participates with two teams each, and Lucas' team came 2nd overall!

Nathan went to watch, and was mighty impressed by Lucas' moves! Apparently he's got some good rugby skills! Sure has some Kiwi in him our boy!

The 36th

Today was Kids Hash, at a new site for everybody. There was three runs, the boys took the long one...

... and Linnea and I did the short one, together with the Morris', who were at their first Kids Hash.

It was a very muddy run!

Lucas had now finally got to his 36th hash, and earned his second cup. There was a lot of awards being given today. For 36 runs you get a pewter mug, with a nice inscription:

- "I have done 36 runs!"

- "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN - ON YOUR HEAAAD!!!"

For a big group of children, Linnea's friend Mallory being one of them, today was their last hash before leaving Brunei. Boo. They all got a down-down and a certificate.

First of many farewells

The other night I went to a farewell dinner for a friend whose time in Brunei is up next month. It's that time of the year again, time for people to leave.

Of course it's always a bit sad to say goodbye but I try to be grateful that our paths did cross and that these friends were in my daily life, if even for only a few years. And at least from now on, we can resort to emails and Facebook, thanks to modern technology!

We had commissioned a painting from a NZ artist residing here in Brunei. She specializes in personalized paintings with Bruneian motives. This is the Omar Ali Saifuddin mosque, and in the boat going through the Water Village, is Claire's whole family!

We will miss you in Brunei Claire, best of luck for the next exciting chapter of your life!

Making conversation

This is Linnea's latest piece of work from school that is currently displayed outside the Year 2 rooms. Apparently they have been working on creating dialogues, and worked in couples for this exercise.
Linnea was working together with Ben, who apparently has a lot more of a vivid imagination..! :) Linnea wrote the bubbles on the left, and Ben the ones to the right:

 

Clarification:
Mum: - Are you comfortable boys?
Dad: - I'm not comfortable, there is twigs poking my bottom.
Younger son: - Yes thank you Mum.
Older son: - I will not eat worms I rather die.

:D :D :D

Coffee is always a good idea

Just before the kids and I went to Sweden in March, our coffee machine starting behaving strangely; it repeatedly made a very loud noise and finally it stopped working all together.
Luckily there is a place here where you can service these Jura machines but when they told us it was going to take at least two weeks, Nathan almost bought a spare coffee machine to see him through that time! We have been thinking about one of those small and nifty pod machines, but the pods are horrendously expensive, and that's not just here I believe.

Our Jura luckily came back rather quickly, all cleaned and working perfectly again, with a new brewer installed. We have had it for over seven years and never really had it professionally serviced, so I guess it wasn't that surprising that it needed a bit of TLC.

Out of curiousity we wanted to see how long one of our 1kg coffee bean bags would last us, and compare what we pay per cup with the prices for those pods. So last month when it was time to open a new one, we set the coffee machine to count the cups.

In just about a month - and bare in mind we were away for 10 days of that... - we've made 86 cups of coffee! (Which means that we pay about $0,60 per cup). All together our machine has made about 7700 cups of coffee!

That's a lot of coffee!

Work in progress

I realized after coming home that for some reason when I blogged from my iPad this time, the photos didn't upload in normal size. When you look at the blog from a computer they come out all pixelated and blurry.
I'm fixing it. Slowly but surely post by post.

So if you are keen on seeing the photos in better quality, stand by, I'll slowly be replacing all the photos in all the Bali posts.

Edit: It took me all afternoon, but now it's done! And I've even added a few new photos here and there! Enjoy!

The Swedish quiz - Answers!

1. What’s the capital of Sweden?
A. Helsinki (Finland)
B. Oslo (Norway)
C. Stockholm


2. What is the currency of Sweden?
A. Krona
B. Euro (Most of the rest of the European Union)
C. Mark (Finland)


3. Which are typical Swedish animals?
A. Bear, beaver, moose
B. Polar bear, moose, lynx (No... we don't have polar bears...)
C. Wolf, bear, polar bear


4. Which companies are originally Swedish?
A. Volvo, IKEA, Statoil, Tetra Pac
B. Saab, Electrolux, Ericsson, IKEA
C. Ericsson, H&M, Carlsberg, Alfa Laval


5. Which invention made Alfred Nobel world famous?
A. Gunpowder
B. Nitroglycerin
C. Dynamite


6. Which one of the members of ABBA was actually not Swedish?
A. Agnetha
B. Björn
C. Benny
D. Frida (She came from Norway)


7. Swedish is an official language in another country than Sweden, which one?
A. Denmark
B. Norway
C. Finland





8. In Sweden the only place you can buy beer, wine or spirits is in special shops, owned by the government. What is this shop called?
A. Vinbolaget
B. Alkoholbolaget
C. Systembolaget


9. Which one of these is a Swedish music group?
A. Aqua (Danish)
B. Cardigans
C. Michael learns to rock (Danish)


10. Who won 33 Davis Cup Singles for Sweden in the 1970s?
A. Björn Borg
B. Stefan Edberg
C. Jonas Björkman


11. How do you say hello in Swedish? 

A. Howdy
B. Hej
C. Häagen-Dagz


12. A “sambo” is...
A. A special name for same-sex couples
B. Your girlfriend/boyfriend
C. Your live-in partner


13. Which statement is true about the artic circle?
A. In the summertime the sun never sets above the artic circle.
B. The artic circle does not cross Sweden.
C. At mid winter you can never see daylight above the artic circle.


14. In which answer do you find a world famous Swedish scientist?
A. Bohr, Kopernikus, Galilei
B. Newton, Curie, Darwin
C. Röntgen, Pasteur, Carl von Linné

I ♥ Bali

We truly had a magnificent vacation in Bali.
The world is a big and beautiful place and there certainly is so much to discover that you could say it's a shame returning to the same place twice. But when it comes to Bali... I will have to go back.
I fell utterly in love, and a week certainly wasn't enough to explore it all.

I knew I wanted to bring back some sort of memento to put in our home, something special and not just your average souvenir, like a Bintang Bali t-shirt... I was lucky to find the perfect piece of art. I didn't do much other shopping unfortunately, a few summer dresses and a few things for the children - but at least I came home with this:

I love it. Now it stands on the table in our hallway, and every time we pass it, it makes us think about our lovely Bali vacation!

The Swedish quiz

Here's the Swedish quiz we had prepared for the Hash on Tuesday. Try and see if you know the answers. Correct answers will be posted tomorrow! :)

1. What’s the capital of Sweden?
A. Helsinki
B. Oslo
C. Stockholm


2. What is the currency of Sweden?
A. Krona
B. Euro
C. Mark


3. Which are typical Swedish animals?
A. Bear, beaver, moose
B. Polar bear, moose, lynx
C. Wolf, bear, polar bear


4. Which companies are originally Swedish?
A. Volvo, IKEA, Statoil, Tetra Pac
B. Saab, Electrolux, Ericsson, IKEA
C. Ericsson, H&M, Carlsberg, Alfa Laval


5. Which invention made Alfred Nobel world famous?
A. Gunpowder
B. Nitroglycerin
C. Dynamite


6. Which one of the members of ABBA was actually not Swedish?
A. Agnetha
B. Björn
C. Benny
D. Frida


7. Swedish is an official language in another country than Sweden, which one?
A. Denmark
B. Norway
C. Finland





8. In Sweden the only place you can buy beer, wine or spirits is in special shops, owned by the government. What is this shop called?
A. Vinbolaget
B. Alkoholbolaget
C. Systembolaget


9. Which one of these is a Swedish music group?
A. Aqua
B. Cardigans
C. Michael learns to rock


10. Who won 33 Davis Cup Singles for Sweden in the 1970s?
A. Björn Borg
B. Stefan Edberg
C. Jonas Björkman


11. How do you say hello in Swedish? 

A. Howdy
B. Hej
C. Häagen-Dagz


12. A “sambo” is...
A. A special name for same-sex couples
B. Your girlfriend/boyfriend
C. Your live-in partner


13. Which statement is true about the artic circle?
A. In the summertime the sun never sets above the artic circle.
B. The artic circle does not cross Sweden.
C. At mid winter you can never see daylight above the artic circle.


14. In which answer do you find a world famous Swedish scientist?
A. Bohr, Kopernikus, Galilei
B. Newton, Curie, Darwin
C. Röntgen, Pasteur, Carl von Linné

Swedish National Day Run

Today is the Swedish National Day, so Anna and I had booked in already since the beginning of the hash year this past Tuesday to lay the Hash. We wanted to make a Swedish celebration out of it.
As we are the JMs this year, we decided to put a really big effort into it this time, we really wanted it to be a good night.

We laid the run itself through the orchard across the road, a beautiful site with fantastic views. Unfortunately the run got cut short as someone had moved the paper after we'd laid it, so most hashers were out already after 40 minutes and had missed the first 1/3 of the run. Ah well.
We had the on-on at my house, for the first time. We had ordered the tent anyway as the weather has been pretty unpredictable lately, and it was a good call as we did get a bit of rain later in the night.

I had decorated the tent with all the blue-and-yellow flags, balloons and other decorations I had; I also used some of the Swedish information sheets I put together years ago for the International Day celebrations at school. We also had some speakers outside with a playlist with only Swedish music.

As the hens came back from the run, they each got a Swedish quiz to amuse themselves with, and a gift from us hares - a Swedish cook book! Linnea was our little assistant and was very nicely asking each lady her member number, and ticking them off from a list as she handed out the books.

Our first time guest, Kym. It only took her 11 years in Brunei before she made it to her first Hash! :)

We hadn't asked for it, but a couple of the hens had still dressed up in the blue-and-yellow theme!

The kids both were very excited about having the hash at our house and they got to participate for a little while, until we started the shout-up:

Of course the down-downs for the night were Absolut Vodka shots instead of the normal beer!

Unfortunately Anna and I got the hashit... Ha ha, it was totally deserved though, we managed to forget we had a first time guest (=Kym. I guess we hang so much she didn't feel "new" to us!), and had to be reminded to welcome her. Never happened before, we're normally very on to things! ;)
Maria had to share it with us though, because Kym stitched her up when she was taking her down-down, and drank before she was allowed, all on purpose, of course!

It's all good fun, it's only water!
I was lucky and only got it down my side, I think the other two copped most of it!
After the shout-up it was time to bring out the food. Of course we had Swedish Meatballs; together with mashed potato, Janssons Frestelse, brown sauce, lingonberry jam - and for dessert Kladdkaka (=goey cake) and Daim chocolates.

I got to use my Sweden shaped serving plate!

(Thank you Yvette/Hash Flash for some of these photos!)

The food was really popular, even though we've had to make the meatballs halal of course! Everybody was pleased and thankful for their gift as well.
It really turned out to be the lovely night we had hoped for!