Paddington House of Pancakes

Since there was no school today we decided to take the kids and try out this new place for lunch that I'd heard about, the Paddington House of Pancakes. This is a franchise that already exists in Malaysia, Macau and Singapore, and it opened here in Brunei in July.
Actually, I had read rather mixed reviews of this place, but I must say that it was pretty good - we will definitely go back again!

The interior and decor was lovely, the service was prompt and the menu was very extensive. It turned out they don't only serve pancakes in every form and shape, from all over the world, but also other dishes like pasta, burgers and salads etc. 

Here's what we ordered, a (rather large!) Tuscany crêpe stuffed with veggies, an 'Australian' (lamb burger), a 'Wellington' (chicken burger) - and a small stack of chocolate chip pancakes, guess who...

Even though we are creatures of habit, and mostly just go for sushi, roti or Thai for our lunch dates; it's really nice to try something new every now and then. Although pancakes might not be the healthiest of foods... more of an option when it's time for a special treat - it's nice to see the restaurant scene grow here in Brunei!

My box

Here's a little movie one of the other members have made, about our box here - Reebok CrossFit 673. It's a great presentation of the place where we work out, but also an into to CrossFit training itself. Enjoy!

Junior hares

Before the summer, Carol (my GM at the Hash) and I got roped into laying one of the Kids Hash runs this year, as representatives from the H3. It was the one scheduled for this weekend, and the last three weekends we've been out doing rekkies for it. It's pretty straight forward laying it, as you don't do any checks on the Kids Hash, but it's not just one run, it's usually three: a toddler run, a medium run and a long run.

We had to re-rekkie, as our initial plan had to change when what we had planned to be the medium run became far too long, and had to be the long one, and we had to come up with a different medium one. Also, the short one became super short as the rain had flooded a river crossing that is normally doable, but now was far to deep for the toddlers.
Ah well, in the end we had three runs, so we were happy!

This morning we went in to lay it. The kids and I were responsible for the toddler run, which we laid on orange paper that the kids had helped me cut up:

Off we all went in different directions, Anna and Carol's daughter did the medium run, and Carol and her husband laid the long run.

It was nice for the kids to see a bit of the work that actually goes into the Hash each time. Although they obviously haven't been there for the rekkies, still getting to walk on an empty trail and lay down the paper that people were going to follow later on, was pretty exciting.

They did a good job, laying lots of paper to make it easy for the toddlers to find their way around.

So later in the afternoon, it was time for people to actually run the hash! There was a huge turn-out today, so many new faces, really nice! The kids were excited to see people go off on their trail, and Lucas even went on the medium run with a friend; Linnea claimed she had done her exercise for the day...

We take the hash seriously here! The Brunei Kids Hash is the oldest kids hash in the world! Here 's one of the youngest hashers, in a very cute outfit, on-on!

At the shout-up it was time for us hares to get called up on the chairs to get our down-downs:

Yeah... Lucas' can wasn't empty when he decided to put it on his head... The things you only can get away with at the hash...

 

We party hard on a Saturday night!

For a lot of expats in Brunei, doing a "border run" is a regular thing on the weekly schedule. This means going across the border into Malaysia to stock up on alcohol - and while there, have a drink or two at Linggis, a bar just across the border.
I've only ever done border runs three times before, the very first time was just after we had arrived, once we went as a family, in the daytime, to sort some visas out, and the last time must have been about four years ago, with the Hash.

Saturday night there was a 'Band Night' organized at Linggis, and a couple of us girls decided we would go. Three different bands were going to play, and all the proceeds were going to a good cause - Linggis grandson has got leukemia, and the money raised will go towards his treatment and helping out his family.

Since I last went across the border, the whole area has changed a lot. There now even is a proper bottle shop where you get your supplies. (Brunei is a dry country = there is no alcohol to be bought, neither in restaurants nor shops. As a non-muslim, you are allowed to import 12 bottles/cans of beer and 2 bottles of wine/spirits every 48 hours.)

So, after we had done our shopping, we went to Linggis to get a good table before the crowds turned up. All set up, we ordered some bubbles, and got a fancy ice bucket..!

It was a good idea to get there early, because it got really, really busy. It was a great, great night with an amazing atmosphere. It was a huge turn-out, so cool to see so many expats in one place, and realize that most of them we'd never seen before! Who were all these people, and where do they normally hide??

We had an absolute blast, the place was buzzing! We were dancing like crazy, enjoying our bubbles, chatting with lots of different people - it felt like we were on some hot holiday destination!

As the border closes at 10pm, you can't really stay and make it an all-nighter. You have to cram in all your partying, dancing and carrying on rather early. So we did all that, and left before the queues to get across back to Brunei got too long - we ended up being back home already at 9.30pm!
Yeah, we're badass us, we party hard..! :D :D :D

2nd generation

Lucas came home from school last week all giddy and told us that they had been trying out instruments during music lesson, and he really wanted to start taking lessons in playing the clarinet!
So we thought, music is a very good thing to know, and a genuine interest coming from himself, needed to be fed. Of course he should be taking clarinet lessons!

So we had to pay a bond to be able to borrow a clarinet from school, so he can practice at home, and yesterday was the first day he brought the clarinet home.
He very proudly showed off how to open and close the case, how small the case looked - because the clarinet was actually in pieces inside it, how to mount the instrument together, and how to line up all the keywork - and we were even so lucky as to get treated to a little concert..!

Well, would you believe it, but he will actually be the second generation clarinetist in the family! Apart from piano and percussion, I played the clarinet for quite a while in my youth. I was even part of the 'Skara Musikskolas Paradorkester', the local marching band. Many, many good memories from those years, and I still have good friends I made through the 'Skara Musikskola' (=our local Music School). Can you spot me?

I'm really happy Lucas is taking to music, it warms my heart. (What it does to my ears at the moment... that's a different story, ha ha..!)

"Very safe Ma'am"

Before the summer, we had to contact our landlord because our gate had started to totally disintegrate and literally fall to pieces. We asked him to fix it, or preferably replace it, and he came by to happily tell us that he had decided to replace the whole fence. Ok, all good with us, as long as the new fence would keep the dogs in.
Here's the old, green fence. Rather inconspicuous:

So they started working on it over two weeks ago. At first it was fine, as they worked on the front part and we could still keep the dogs loose at the back, but locked up of course. Then we ran into trouble, as they removed the gates - without replacing them straight away, and wanted to start working on the back part of the fence.
So, we now had to keep the dogs on chains for about five days, and inside at night because they kept tangling themselves into the furniture, and into each other...

Finally yesterday they finished the back part, so the dogs could live out there again, and today - lucky day - we got our new gates! Only thing is, we now feel like we are living in a prison!
Check out our new fancy fence:

They've mounted a serious fence, about 2m high! The landlord came to inspect the work other day and when I asked him if he could cut off and cap the poles, to make it look a bit neater he said:
- "No Ma'am, we are putting the string on the top."
I said, "Oh no, we don't want any string, it will just make it very ugly!", to which he replied:
- "But it was included with the fence... And it makes it very safe Ma'am!"
...

Yeah... That's why we have dogs... Ah well, we now live in the safest house in the simpang! No one will mess with us, ha ha!

The Lion of Zion

The latest member of our CrossFit family was announced like this on their FB page yesterday:

"In the blue corner, entering this contest at a height of 21.5 inches and weighing in at a lean 8 lbs 12.5 ounces. Haling from the Heart of Borneo, move over Beast of the South East and get ready for the Lion of Ziiiiioooon."

Emily and Mo, our CrossFit Box owners and coaches, welcomed their fourth child, Zion, yesterday. After school today the kids and I went to the hospital to say hello. Sooo cute!

We like babies! Welcome Zion, we are looking forward to getting to know you!

The WISE run

Last Tuesday's hash was organized by the WISE - the Welsh, Irish, Scottish and English.
I didn't do the run itself due to some serious (self-inflicted...) and really painful DOMS from the start of the week's CrossFit sessions, but of course I took part in the on-on.

 
All the Brits had come together and organised a huge tea party. There was so much food, and we had a really lovely evening. (Thank you HashFlash for the photos!)

Since nobody laid a St Georges run this year, Anna and I decided to use the "outfits" we had prepared for that, for this run instead. Would be a shame not getting to wear our jingly hats and big flags..!

The start of the seventh

It's been a bit quiet this week here on the blog, the beginning of a new school year is always hectic - getting everything ready, managing the new schedules; and all the different kits and bags and recorders and other things having to come to school each day etc.

I even forgot that we've now "ticked over" into yet another year - our seventh year in Brunei!
Can you believe it, we've been here six years already. Six years done. Oah...

Best way to show how time has flow is probably the school photo from Lucas' first day at school (Kindergarten) six years ago...

... compared to this year!

Linnea also was busy doing "homework", even though she wasn't even at Nursery yet then.

Year seven, here we go!

Oh, so ombre

My hairdresser is in town and I had an appointment on Monday, perfect timing, the day before school started and everything. But now it'll be nine weeks until she comes back, and even though I really like my really blond hair, I hate the ugly dark regrowth even more.
I had googled for inspirational photos of the ombre effect on shorter hair as you normally see it more often on girls with long, luscious locks and I didn't know if it would work. I managed to find quite a few though and decided to go for it. Since Nathan doesn't like it when I cut my hair short, I thought a slight colour change could be fun too!

As my hair didn't really take to the first application of the dark colour, it took well over four hours on Monday before I was done. Jacky curled it for me as I was going out that evening, and this is how I looked:

I wasn't totally happy though, it hadn't turned as blond as I wanted in the ends and it felt really, really dark. So I went back today, to have the ends lightened up a bit more:

Now there is more of a contrast between the dark and light, still with a nice graduation, and the ends are much lighter - I love it! Quite a daring change for being me, and I'm not sure I'll stick with it for long, but it's fun to look a little bit different every now and then. What do you think?