Christmas Recap

Hello people! Yes I am well aware it has been absolute ages since I last posted and its because I am incredibly lazy. No other excuse.

Hope you all had a good Christmas and and have a very happy and joyous New Year. We had a nice, relaxed Christmas that started off with with Yusuf's year at school. They had a Christmas party after which they made some decorations and then performed Jingle Bell Rock for us. It was the sweetest thing ever and Yusuf did us all proud!

We also went to the school staff party which was a lot of fun and very enjoyable. The live band was especially good.

I decided to make home made mince pies this year (the pastry was home made- not the mince!) and they turned out surprisingly well though I think I put far too much filling in them. It said 1tsp NOT 1tbsp. They were delicious because of it so overall a good mistake! Yusuf decided to come into the kitchen at the last minute to hold the tray so it looks as if he did the entire thing himself. Not the case. He put one star on. That was it.

Christmas Day and Yusuf was the happiest boy in the entire universe. He has been begging us since last Christmas when he realised he wasn't that into Lego any more (after we spent a bloody fortune on a sabre tooth tiger set) that he wanted a Ben Ten Omnitrix (what the hell does that even mean??) watch. So we had to. I mean it just meant so much to him that he was creating them out of paper and cello-tape. I felt sorry for him. So we picked one up in KK and wrapped it up. Of of course he knew he had a Ben Ten watch under the tree but he just couldn't wait to unwrap it. This was the whole process- watch the face:

I got an unexpected present from Yusuf which really touched me. Turned out it was dark chocolate! My little boy really does know me well (Zaheer take note....)

We had a full on Christmas meal which was a pleasanter experience than last years and the food was delish! We watched loads and loads of Chrismassy films like Home Alone, The Snowman, The Gruffalo, and Elf. It bought back a lot of happy memories.

On the 27th it was our 7th Wedding Anniversary! Zaheer took us all out for lunch at my favourite place in the whole world, Excapade Sushi.

It was the most perfect anniversary because of it! We ate until I really was stuffed and then came home and vegged out in front of the TV (watching Star Wars of all things. I actually thought the films were utter crap and also did not think Darth Vader was going to turn good. I was seriously waiting for him to kill Luke...). I am very lucky to have married such a gorgeous a man!

During these Christmas holidays we also went on a week long holiday to KK, Sandakan and Turtle Island. I was especially looking forward to the Turtle Island and seeing the turtles lay the eggs. Like last time I took a million pictures and do want to share a lot of them so the holiday will be cut up into lots of smaller posts that I will hopefully post during the month of January.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! XXX

Yusuf's Arts and Crafts

One of Yusuf's After School Activity (ASAs) is Sewing. He has this on a Thursday and really enjoys it. I have also been going along to help because he is the youngest in the class and really struggled at the beginning as he wasn't getting much help due to it being a huge class. He has really come along with the sewing and has made 4 felt animals that he is very proud of.

This was during one of his lessons where he was finishing a wolf.

He had already finished an alien:

and this is how he keeps them on his bed:

And at home when he was bored, he got crazy with paper and sellotape and created this (inspired by the bugs club ASA which he does on Wednesdays):

He is really coming along with his crafting ability and paper and sellotape has opened up so many doors for him! He makes anything out of it from laptops and mobile phones to dinosaurs and robots and even a telescope with a tripod stand! All that lego in his earlier years must have helped!

EID MUBARAK!

Eid Mubarak/Selamat Hari Raya to everyone celebrating today!! xxx

International Day at JIS 2010/ Simi's Diwali Party

International Day was on the 5th of November. The kids and the teachers are supposed to come to school in their national dress or as any character from their country.

We were quite boring this year and went with the usual shalwar kameez look. Unlike last year, Zaheer decided to dress up this time and they both looked very nice.

The International Day parade was once again a colourful event with lots of different outfits. It is very nice to see the different styles and the kids love to dress up too.

(Yusuf standing with Oscar who was Harry Potter)

(Yusufs Class)

To not be so boring I've already thought of Yusufs outfit for next year (if we are still here that is.....). I think the 80s kids will get it more than anyone!

It was also Diwali on the same day so in the evening out friend Simi had thrown a Diwali Party. It was a lot of fun and the girls really went all out with outfits. A very good night!

3D cinema in Brunei!!

I should have blogged about this last week when I nearly had a heart attack after reading online that Brunei was to open its very first 3D cinema!!!

Now there were a heck of a lot of movies released this year that I would have love to have seen in 3D but the one that I truly desperately had wanted to see was this:

I was so desperate that I hoped against hope it was going to be re-released in the UK over the summer so that I would be able to watch it in 3D but nope, did.not.happen. So I just watched it a few (hundred) times since cus I love that movie.

So anyways back to the 3D cinema in Brunei. In its opening week, they were showing this:

YES, FRICKING AVATAR!!!!! That is why I was going to have a heart attack and that is why we went and watched it the day after and the best bit- IT WAS AN EXTENDED RELEASE!! Two and a half hours of Jake Sully in 3D= OMG!!

(The smile people, look at the smile!)

(Zaheer not looking as impressed. I wonder why........)

That is all..........

Another Island hopping adventure

This was another Island hopping adventure with Jacky. She had found a disused coal mine so we thought we'd go check it out. It was a good way to spend a morning.

The nice thing about this Island was there were a lot of people living here and roads and footpaths so we really got to see how the locals lived. They were very friendly and waved hello. The children were so beautiful and would run after us, laughing. It was a really nice walk and I really enjoyed the day.

Inside the coal mine:

The view at the top of the glorious Borneo rainforest and mangrove trees:

It was pretty much the same as the last Island hopping trip but its nice to be able to get out of the apartment and spend time outside other than in a rainforest or doing bukhit. We were quite outdoorsy people in the UK and loved our country side walks and felt slightly trapped here because it was just so hot. This year I think we have finally acclimatised because although it is hot, its not unbearable. We will be doing more trips like these in the future. Something different for Brunei!

Zaheer's life in Brunei

After going through my blog I realised I don't really post on what Zaheer does in his spare time here in Brunei. So this post is for him! There isn't that many pictures which may make it seem he does hardly anything (!!) but he does keep himself quite busy. He's very much into keeping fit and does football, badminton, swimming, tennis and cycling at least once a week.

On a recent bike ride with Jacky he came across this:

and in comparison to his finger (zaheer likes doing this- we have the exact same picture but with a newborn Yusuf in his basket and Z finger in his face)

That people is not a sleeping snake- it is a regurgitated snake!!! Here is how the story goes: Zaheer and co are riding along minding their own business when Z sees a long thick black thing lying in the middle of the path. He breaks quickly and goes near this long black thing which turns out to be a BLACK SPITTING COBRA!!! This cobra just happened to be slowly eating the snake in the above picture when Z got to it. As he fumbled getting his camera out, the cobra REGURGITATED the snake and slithered away as fast as it could. So Z was left with the above picture. He was very excited to be this close to a snake (albeit a dead one) and that's the end of that particular adventure. He has a lot of these. Or so he says.........

(The sssssssssssscene of the crime- yeah ssssssorry, couldn't be helped)

Apart from keeping fit Z loves and I mean LOVES the Chinese game Go. Now I've really tried to get into this but just cannot do it! So Zaheer created a Go society at his school JIS and now has people coming from all over Brunei (some who have played in International Tournaments) because the society gives them a chance to play Go in a nice classroom environment with other Go kids (normally they have to find a public space and the lack of these in Brunei means they usually end up in a cafe). Z is very proud of his Go club and so am I. He is very dedicated to it and the kids have a lot of respect for him because of it.

And lastly, as a Physics teacher, he found this RADIOACTIVE spider (Twilight!! only twihards will know what I'm talking about here) in his classroom! Well its not radioactive but its the next best thing- POISONOUS!! Yes my friends that is how a poisonous spider looks like. Its a good job they caught it!

And that is the end of Z social life here. Well its not all of it! Cus that would be quite sad but its some of the things he does here. I'm sure he'll appreciate the blog space I've given to him. xx

Charcoal Factory and Flying Foxes

Jacky, our very adventurous friend, had been to an Island recently and had discovered a Charcoal Factory that the locals had built and thought it would be a good day out for some of the newbies (and oldies!) so we tagged along with her. We got a boat from Bandar to one of the islands for an hours trek through the rainforest. It was very scenic and quite steep in places, but the view was beautiful.

We went past the water village and stopped outside one. I was very surprised at how big the the houses were. Its very decieving from the outsdie but inside it seemed to go on forever. The house was also well furnished. I had this view that the people weren't that well off in the water village but they seemed to be doing just fine!

(Inside one of the houses. How does it all fit??!!)

After the jungle trek, we got back onto the boat and went to another island where they had a board walk through the mangrove trees.

After this, we went to another island to look at the charcoal factory. As you can see it was all hand made and not what I expected! The island itself was a bit strange and the animals were in a horrible state. It just seemed to me it was all money money money. I think the man who owns the factory did everything at minimum cost and this was reflected in the conditions the men were working and living in.

This was supposed to be our last stop but Jacky had mentioned to the boat driver that she had been told there were some flying foxes nearby. The driver did say he didn't think there would be any at all because he's never seen any, but he would take us. The boat through the narrow river was sooo creepy!! We know that there are crocodiles in this part of the world and we were so close to the bank, I was terrified! It was like being in Jurassic Park! But what made it seem more real was when we turned the corner and saw this:

All them blobs on the trees are bats! To be exact- the large flying fox of South East Asia, Pteropus Vampyrus (I know, Vampire!! Edward?) I was so excited! They were making so much noise and there were literally hundreds of them. The were 4 other trees full of these bats. It was amazing!

The day ended very much on a high and we were exhausted. But it was all thanks to Jacky for organising it all. One of the many adventures of Brunei!