Halfway week

So another week has been and gone in our big countdown. This week we passed the halfway mark, which means that in exactly four weeks time we should be touching down in Abu Dhabi - roaring to start our new adventure! (I say should be, all travel arrangements are still not finalized, so watch this space...)

This week was a rather big week, you see I have been up in Abu Dhabi, and the kids have been on a four day sleepover with the Turners.
But before that, there was also time for dentist appointments for the kids, Valentines Day hashing for me on Tuesday and a couple of lunch dates and the other normal activities.

Of course the kids still went to school Thursday and Friday, as usual. On Thursday Lucas took part in the Junior Sports League competitions in the afternoon, and played both football and t-ball. On Friday the Prep School had their Sports Day, and both kids were now out on the field participating in proper events.

I heard from several of my friends during the morning how well they were doing, and Tash also snapped some photos for us to enjoy.

Yellow house won - again!

On the Saturday Linnea and Ben had a Minecraft birthday party to go to, which seemed to have been  a success.

It was two very tired children that came and picked me up from the airport last night after a busy weekend with their friends. They were both really happy to see me. Lucas said he had been a bit homesick - and didn't want me to go away that long again...

What I was up to in Abu Dhabi, will come in another post.

The fourth week

I have an app on my phone that gives me daily, weekly and monthly horoscopes. On Monday it told me that I would suffer some technical issues this week... Great.
Well, Tuesday morning we came out to this when we were supposed to go to school in the morning:

No panic though, we were really early, so all I had to do was call Nicole, and she took the kids to school for me. Had she already left there's another neighbour also going to school, or Anna, Tash and Pip all pass my house as well.
Then I called the 24/7 crew, who came and changed the tyre for me:

Luckily I had no plans Tuesday morning, I could carefully drive the car on the spare tyre down to the tyre shop, to have them fix my tyre for me again (it had a huge nail in it!), mount it back on the car and store the spare tyre away under it. They had raised their price since last time I was there. It only cost me $3 last time, and now I had to pay FIVE dollars! Ha ha!

Then my Amah's alarm didn't wake her on Wednesday so she slept in... No big deal there either, I can still figure out what goes in the lunch boxes and get everyone ready!
Finally the other day my kettle packed up! So I guess I've had my fair share of technical malfunctions this week, I hope next week will be better!

Otherwise I've kept clearing out, and preparing for the packers. I think I'm really, really close now to having only things that will come in the house, or either be donated or thrown away in the end. Some more furniture went this week, so now it looks really empty in some corners of the house:

I also jumped on my neighbour's garage sale this morning, and sold a few more weird and wonderful things I have no more use for:

We managed to spend a few hours at the Yacht Club finally yesterday, and realized they are building a brand new car park outside, which will be really good once it's done!

Apart from that, we've been to a CNY party and a BBQ this week; I've celebrated Anna's birthday and hashed; AND I managed to close our post box, forward our mail, plan and execute Lucas' birthday party and get the some last vaccinations we were missing.
The days roll by quicker and quicker, so Jay and I truly enjoy our quiet nights together in front of the TV, when it's peaceful enough to try and catch up with everything going on, also in my mind...

Lucas 10th birthday party

Yesterday we had Lucas' party for his 10th birthday. The reason it happened two weeks after his birthday was simply because we wanted to do a movie party this time, and "The Lego Movie" only premiered here on Thursday.
14 kids came along to the movies, 12 boys, Hannah and Linnea - and I had roped Tash in to helping me usher them along, since two of them were hers! ;)

The had this new cool Lego display outside the theaters, "No touchy touchy!", ha ha!

After having got popcorn and a drink for everybody, we were ready to go find our seats!

The movie was fun, everybody seemed to enjoy it! Such a perfect movie for this age.

After the movies we took them across to one of Lucas' favourite restaurants 'Fish & Co' for dinner. It all was very easy and went very smooth. They could order what they wanted, and all ate with good appetite, even though they'd had movie snacks.

When it was time for cake, the waiters from the restaurant performed their birthday rap:

Lucas got to close his eyes and make a wish...

... and then blow out the candles!

He insisted on cutting up the cake himself, a Minecraft cake made by Greets & Treats, just like he wanted:

Waitangi Run

We have a lot of themed hashes at the moment, last night was the Kiwi hashers turn to lay their Waitangi Run. (Waitangi Day is held each year on 6 February to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840.)

It was a good run, in a dry jungle for a change, no rain for a few days makes such a difference. At the on-on afterwards we all got new t-shirts and yummy NZ style food. We also celebrated this month's birthdays:

They did a 10 question quiz, and Anna and I managed to answer two questions correctly first, so we walked away with prizes, again! :)
Anna donated her prize to me so that my kids would get one each, and they were very happy this morning when they received these little NZ bags with stickers, pencils and other Kiwi things inside:

Lush lunch

Yesterday was Anna's birthday, and she had invited a few friends over for birthday lunch, to help her celebrate.
As always at her place, it was really lush, salmon and salads - super healthy and super fresh.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Pandora Kiwiana style

I was wearing one of my Pandora bracelets the other day, and only put Kiwi charms on it! Well, apart from the heart, but that's because I ♥ NZ!

From left to right it's a pavlova (that I got from Tash for my birthday, so I wont forget her, she always makes pavlovas), the ♥ charm, a kiwi bird, a white murano (for the "long white cloud"), a charm that symbolizes Aotearoa and some jandals (also from Tash, but that's a story for another blog post).
Cool huh!

Junior Masterchef

The other day at lunch time, asking for some help from the kids setting the table spurred on a discussion about helping out, different jobs around the house etc. I told the kids that once we get to Abu Dhabi we probably won't have an Amah for a while - and Lucas got very quiet and then asked:
-"But they do have restaurants in Abu Dhabi, right?!"

So, the discussion continued, and I asked them how they were planning on looking after themselves when they are leaving home? Lucas again took a minute to think, and then he exclaimed - "I need to learn how to cook! Teach me how to do pancakes!"

Ok, I guess that's a good place to start - said and done, I let him make the pancakes, all by himself.

He did a pretty good job! Kitchen got a bit messy, and pancakes a bit thick - but for his first time doing it all by himself, it was really well done. Linnea ate with good appetite as did Lucas, being very proud of himself.

How's Nathan doing?

How IS Nathan doing?
Well, he's busy! He's doing ground school and training, which means five days a week, full days of school - he's about to start week four and if I'm not mistaken, soon going in to type related stuff.
He's just moved hotels and will be staying where he is now for at least another month.

In a perfect world, we will be finding our perfect new home when I go up there next week to visit, and he will be moving in just in time to find some furniture and get it all sorted before we get there... In a perfect world that is...

He has found a good mate that he hangs out a lot with, Johnny. They go to the gym, do their different jobs, have dinners and talk shop together. In the beginning now it's been pretty much the same as it was here, lots of admin to sort out, visas, bank accounts, ID cards and all that. They only have two days off each week, so they are busy; cars to test drive, shopping malls to discover, and of course he's also scouting areas and places to live and trying to follow up on all of our school applications.

I wish he would FB or something a bit more often though, cause after the initial "How's the selling going?", the next question in nearly every dialogue I have with anyone at the moment is "How's Nathan doing?"...

1/3 done

So, another week done in the big countdown... It's now only six weeks left until we leave the Abode. Although in theory, it's only five left of "normal" life - the last week when the furniture goes and the packers come in, we will move into a hotel.
It's a bit crazy when you can map each week out in your head, and you know exactly what's happening or needs to be done when. Even though I am very much on top of things, I can't help starting to feel the stress, or the excitement maybe. I keep waiting for something going horribly wrong, but so far *knock on wood*, it's all going very well and according to plan.

This week was a short week at school since we were off Thursday and Friday for Chinese New Year. Lucas had an all-day school excursion to Seria and the Oil and Gas Discovery Center on Wednesday, which he enjoyed a lot. We also went to a birthday party at the Yacht Club on Wednesday afternoon, after CCAs, so both kids slept really well that evening!
Linnea went on a sleepover Thursday, and to an CNY Open House with her friends on Friday. Unfortunately she fell ill when she got home, and threw up all evening. Luckily it seemed to be a one-off-empty-the-tummy virus, as she was better the next day.

Apart from the usual hashing and clearing out (never ending...) for me, I managed to get the car serviced with the huge help of friends picking me up, and dropping me off; I also went on a birthday lunch for a friend on Monday, a girly lunch on Thursday and I was at Turners for a BBQ last night, which was super yum as usual.

The days are rolling by. 42 more to go.

The year of the Horse - Gong Xi Fa Cai

It's the eve of the Chinese New Year, or as the Chinese themselves call it, the Lunar New Year. Here are a few things you should do to prepare, according to the Chinese:

- Clean your house from top to bottom and pay off all debts before New Year.
- Decorate your home to welcome in the New Year. Red is a popular colour, it scares away evil spirits and bad fortune.
- Place mandarins in bowls throughout the house. Mandarins are the fruits of happiness. Keep their numbers even, as uneven numbers bring unhappiness.
- Wear new clothes and ensure you are polite to others on the first day of the New Year – it sets the tone for the year to come.
- Celebrate New Year with a family dinner. Traditional dishes include fish and chicken, symbols of prosperity.
- Make sure the barrel of rice is full at New Year to ensure prosperity in the year to come.

Here's what I've found that the Year of the Horse will bring for Nathan and I, as we are both oxes:

"The Year of the Horse brings a sense of restless excitement. Ox natives prefer stability and security. With Horse pulling you along, your challenge will to be more flexible and adventurous.
Wood energy encourages slow growth that supports your best interests. In a year marked by change and reevaluation, have the courage to surrender what no longer works for you.
It can be uncomfortable to leave what is familiar. But your social networks, good friends, and wise mentors will help you find your best path forward. Apparent roadblocks will be giving way to exciting new opportunities.
The year 2014 for the ox will be better and more beneficial than previous years. This 2014 can be used as a stepping-stone to the following year, a potentially huge 2015 which be the game changer the ox sign bearers have been looking for. Do not be afraid to rely on friends because they will be the support that the ox sign bearers will need."

Ah, sound just about right I guess!
Happy New Year!

Aussie Day at the Hash

Last night was Australia Day run at the hash. It was a rather long and even though it was dry yesterday, very muddy hash, thanks to all the rain we've had the last few weeks. I like the jungle around the Salezia Gardens where we always are for the Aussie Day hash, it's very jungly.

As per usual we had some Aussie snags for dinner, and the hares had also organized an Aussie quiz - which the Swedish Team (that is Anna and I obviously) won! We only had one wrong out of all the questions! Well done us!

The weeks roll by really fast now, and I only have a very few hashes left to enjoy. Luckily there are lots of special ones, next week the Waitangi run, then the CNY run, the Valentines run and my very last one will be the St Patrick's Day run.

Getting bare

So, another week has passed, and whereas the first week without Nathan seemed to be the slowest week e-v-e-r, this one was more normal, and went by in a flash!

It's been a good week, obviously with birthday celebrations galore on Monday, Tuesday Hash and play dates as usual. The kids had friends over for sleepovers Friday night and I was next door for a movie night. Linnea went to a "Murder Mystery"-type (without the murder bit!) birthday party on Saturday afternoon after our trip to the salon and Lucas has been playing his Xbox Infinity and finished a few games already!

Apart from a little car glitch, where a light came on and I had to call Dave to make sure it was nothing serious (which it wasn't, just a generic warning at a certain amount of kms), it's been a really good week. The kids and I have established our own routines, and the days roll by. I'm even sleeping really well, something I usually don't do when I'm on my own.

I've sold a few more of the bigger items, the brown sofas downstairs have now gone, and the blue rugs. I got good money for it all, so decided to let those things go. It's getting a bit bare downstairs, but for each thing that gets sorted, that's one less thing I'll have to deal with in the end!

This week we are having Chinese New Year, so no school for Thursday and Friday. I'm hoping to get the kids to help me get through and sort a bit more of their stuff, as that's seems like a never ending project...

Girls morning

Saturday morning while the boys were left in peace to play Xbox, the Turner girls and the Watson girls went to get pampered at the salon! We all had our hair washed, massaged and blow dried and came away with super nice hair dos for the weekend ahead!

Linnea's hair is quite long now. When they blow dry it super straight like this, you can see it's all the way down to her shoulder blades. She looked really pretty.

Hannah got pretty curls done in hers.

Me and my girl.

Last Kids Hash

Straight after the Aussie BBQ this afternoon, we went a little bit down the road to the Kids Hash.
The rain had stopped by now, luckily, but it was still very muddy obviously - plus we were a bit late and everybody had already gone, so we decided only to do the short trail. Good choice, as the people on the long trail had gone through several river crossings, and some (adults!) had been in muddy water up to their waist! Fun, fun, fun!

We wore yellow, because it was the CNY run. After the run the kids got new CNY t-shirts, and also a lucky coin, an orange and a pretty CNY cookie - it's the year of the horse coming up.

Since it was our last Kids Hash (we wont be making neither the February nor the March one unfortunately), they got a big farewell, a down-down and a certificate. Linnea ended up having done 41 runs, and Lucas 39 - here in the Brunei jungle!
Well done kids!