Birthdays, Leaving Dos and Staff Party!

This month has been a very busy one for us! First off, it was Zaheer's 30th birthday!!! It happened to fall on a work day so he had to blow the candles out at school. It was such a delicious cake- white chocolate and vanilla sponge with cream.

Simi and Salome (our very good friends) had taken the keys off me this morning as they had a 'special delivery' for Zaheer when he got back from school. I was intrigued and slightly apprehensive as to what could be soooo massive that it had to be delivered to our house. Well the minute we got home we were greeted with this:

(I think Zaheer liked it is probably an understatement)

His very own football table! Yusuf was probably more excited than Zaheer was!

After that I decided to take him out instead off cooking at home and finally get to spend some money on him! (I saved up this year!) Normally I get the money off him for his birthday meal (plus present!) so it doesnt really feel like I'm giving him something but this time it was all on me! (Well to a limit...) So on his 30th birthday we went to watch................................

It was such an AWESOME film!! I had been dying to see this (so had Yusuf). I loved the other 2 and couldnt believe it had been 11 years since Toy Story 2 came out. But this film was just as good as the rest. A perfect ending I thought.

(I even went all out with the popcorn!! It was his 30th..........)

We then went to Kimchis which is a Korean restaurant (I think) and the food is just gorgeous but Zaheer last minute decided he wanted a good old curry so we went to Tandoor instead. The food here is always good and it is a beautiful restaurant- something that is quite rare in Brunei!

(Yusuf having fun with his poppadom)

I haven't actually bought Zaheer a present just yet but it is one in the making so he will (eventually) get it.

The day after Simi had organised a joint Leaving Do and Birthday at the Palm Garden Hotel.

Some good friends of ours will be leaving in July (don't go Clare!! Sob sob) and it was a good way of celebrating their time here.

Zaheer also got another birthday cake!

It was a really fun evening. The food was delicious and the company was a lot of fun. We are really going to miss our friends. I suppose that is one of the bad things about being an expat.

Then on the weekend it was the Staff Party!! I had really been looking forward to this just because of the Shooting Stars sketch.

It was organised by Rob and Scott and was the funniest thing I had seen in ages. They even made their own A-Team trailer which was just so so funny! They had us in stitches and it was just such a good start to the night. The food was cooked by Tandoor and was delicious. Overall it was a brilliant evening.

And that was the recap of the last couple of weeks. My next post will probably be the final one before we leave for the UK (yaaaaaaaaaay!!) on the 9th July.

Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

After the Royal Regalia Museum we decided to go and visit the Mosque. I have seen it every time we have been to Bandar but never actually went inside so I thought it was the perfect time. I remember as a child we had a picture of this very mosque in our house and I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be seeing it for real. It was just amazing. (You can click on the pictures for a larger view.)

To get to the Mosque we went past the Water Village.

and directly opposite was this view:

This Mosque is just stunning. We will be going back to it in the evening some time as the lights are on then and its just spectacular.

(This is in the boat opposite the Mosque)

This was one of my favourite trips in Brunei. It is during times like these that I wish I could stay here forever. It really is a beautiful, magical place and I feel incredibly lucky and grateful for the opportunity to be here and experience it all.

Royal Regalia Museum

As I said in my previous post we have actually done no sightseeing in Brunei so yesterday we decided to go to the Royal Regalia Museum. It was a beautiful day and wasn't too hot which was a nice change.

We couldn't find it at first because it turns out the building I thought was a mosque was in fact the museum:

As soon as you enter the lobby you are met with this:

This was the vehicle that the Sultan rode down the streets of Brunei on his Coronation. It was huge and spectacular. Our first words were 'WOW!!!' The whole museum was pretty much the same. There was gold EVERYWHERE! We saw the crowns, presents the Sultan had received from other countries, ceremonial clothes, gold cannons, etc. It was beautiful and showed off just how rich the Sultan is. We weren't allowed to take the camera with us in the museum but were allowed to take pictures in the lobby as we were leaving.

(Shields and spears used during one of the ceremonies)

(Yusuf has mastered the peace sign pose)

(These were REAL gold!!)

(The inside of the dome)

(Yusuf especially loved the gold cannons and said he wanted one....)

(This was my favourite piece becasue not only was it solid gold, it was decorated with real diamonds! What's more there was 6 of them. I was very tempted to get one and run like crazy- so pretty......)

Well that concludes the first part of our day. We went to see the Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque after that which is also in Bander Seri Begawan and was walking distance (its the only place in Brunei where pavements exist!). More on that in the next post.

HOLIDAYS!!!!!!! (but this is just a general update of what went on BEFORE the holidays)

So we are currently on holiday for a week (only 5 more weeks after that and then we're back in England!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!) and we thought we'd finally explore Brunei. We actually haven't done any of the touristy sightseeing things because we've been in Miri or KK for the holidays but this time we thought no we'll stay put and do Brunei (well we didn't have a choice really. The school have our passports as they are sorting out the employment/visa passes and we still haven't got ours back. Just as long as we get them back before the summer holidays...........)

But before I update on what we are doing for the holidays I thought I'll quickly fill you in on what has been going on.

Yusuf took part in his second assembly at school and I must say it was much better than the first.

He had a few speaking parts and he did really well (surprised me!). I was very proud of him.

The play was called Two Can Toucan (as their theme for the term had been the Jungle) and Yusuf was one of the animals. I actually have no idea what animal he was because he told me he was supposed to be a zebra but then that turned into a dragon on the day and after it he said he was a unicorn...........

After the assembly they made the parents stand up and do this dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugeztWg-RCI&feature=related. It was hilarious! (We were actually allowed to dance! No seat dancing!!!) Me and Gwen had such a fun time!

Speaking of Gwen (see the way I did that.......) she won $10,000 from HSBC!!!!! I was insanely jealous until she asked me if I would like to come with her to collect it because she actually thought it was a hoax at which point I was even more jealous that I was gonna see her hold this massive $10,000 cheque-only joking Gwen!! (not really). Only 3 people won $10,000 so it was a huge deal. I was very happy for her and she was over the moon.

Well that's the update. I need to sort and edit about 200 pictures from the Royal Regalia Museum and the Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque that we went to visit today for the next post so it might be a while........hope your all enjoying your holidays (if you have them) x