Hazim's Birthday 13

Cousin Hazim turned 13 over the weekend. Dinner was lovely but even better was the hamburger cake especially made by Hanna, Hazim's mum.

A well earned retirement!

Last saturday my father was granted his retirement after over 40 years of service in His Majesty's Government including 26 years as a member of His Majesty's cabinet.

In uniform for LegCo earlier this year

We now look forward to seeing him relaxing at home and being entertained by the grandchildren especially Ayden and Jack! Also not forgetting all the jalan-jalan him and my mum will be able to do.

Giving to the Community

It was fundraising week in the Junior school this week and each year group did something different to raise funds for the Brunei Special Education unit.

On Tuesday Iman's year had a bake sale and Iman brought in the iced cookies - the total from the bake sale itself was B$500. Wednesday was Yr3s icy poles. And today was busy with Yr5 savory sale, Yr1 face painting and the Reception Disco (with plenty of fizzy orange!). And what a huge success it all was with B$2,800 raised in total!

For one day only!

With the amount of driving I do it was inevitable that I would need to fill up on the day sans fuel subsidies especially for Energy Day to give the public a sense of awareness.

With the subsidy it takes me up to B$45 to fill up and when I pulled up today I had every intention to do the same just to see how much it would cos and of course take a picture. But not only was the petrol attendant very reluctant to serve me but was aghast when I said to fill it up "Nooooo... it wouid cost you too much!!!". So not wanting him to think I was some nutter I settled for B$30 which filled to only above half tank.

Thank you subsidies!!! And very soon we will experience "real" prices again in Euros!!

Jack's assembly

Last friday it was Reception's turn to entertain at assembly and they did just that. The theme in the classroom this term has been the jungle and animals and in line with the theme they sang the song "In the jungle..." followed by acting out the story "Toucan". Then they all lined-up at the front of the stage and gave a fact each on an animal, a line given and practiced with one boy taking the mic round asking "Do you know what?"

Jack's line was:

Boy 1: Do you know what?

Jack: OrangUtans mean people of the jungle in Malay.

One other boy was very cute:

Boy 1: Do you know what?

Boy 2: No, I don't know!

Lastly they performed a dance with moves that explained some of Jack's cheeky behaviour earlier on in the week!

Amin is 17

Amin turned 17 last saturday and we had a big family lunch featuring ambuyat on the menu. Its been a while since we've had this and it was fantastic. And the person who probably enjoyed it most was Jack who just ate and ate complete with cacah sambal binjai - all I can say is he has a very refined palate!

Donncha's Thirty-something birthday

Great cake and as one can imagine there was a great rush for an aeroplane, computer and mobile phone as soon as the candles were blown. Thank you all for Donncha's presents and wishes xxx

2WD Assembly

Iman's class had their term assembly on Friday and they put on a great show for the lower school. Iman had a nice acting role and was a confident 'Fairy' in the story of 'Little Rabbit Foo Foo' ........ 'I'm going to turn you into a Gooney' ........

The McCarthy Boys !

We like these photos ...... and we're proud to have these friends hang out with us

My Watermelon Boy

Unlike his regular meals, Ayden never needs much convincing to eat fruit. His current favourite is seedless watermelon which he enjoys either as juice or as he did this morning, a juicy cold slice ~ and he enjoyed every single bit of it!

Mother's Day 2010

Happy Mother's Day to all especially to my mother and my sisters - love you all very much. And not forgetting Grannie Liz McCarthy (who's very lucky as she get's Mother's Day wishes twice a year!)

Iman and Jack made lovely cards and presents and we had breakfast with the usual commotion!

Sports Day 2010

JIS Juniors sports day today. Not any different to Last year except Iman and Jack have moved up one year and got taller! The good news is this is Iman's last year in the gymnasium and next year gets to do athletics on the sport field ~ albeit in the morning sun. But Jack (and eventually Ayden) will be in the gymnasium for a few good years yet! But saying all that all the kids had a good time today and cheered away for most of the morning....

Miss Medals!

Iman enjoyed another successful swimming competition this morning taking home 4 medals - silver for breaststroke and bronze for freestyle which were both excellent swims by Iman. Two medals for relay events - including a gold for one relay but there was only the one team entered!. And even better Donncha was here with us for a morning under the sun. Credit must also go to the hosts of the event (JIS) which was completed in one morning for the same number of races spread over two days for the last competition! I guess it looks like we will be doing this for a while.

No more Monkeys jumping on the ............

A first for the McCarthy clan - Ayden was happily climbing around his grandparents room, when he decided to balance and swing with support from two chairs. Unfortunately, he lost his balance and went head first into the corner of the coffee table - there could only be one winner.

A rush to the hospital with Maria and his Auntie Nana speeding off, leaving Donncha on a conference call (not a good choice!). The doctor happily recommended paper stitches for Ayden which would work for kids that sit on the couch for 7 days and don't move. As most of you know, Ayden has a little more energy than that and it was Friday, so we all headed off to the Yacht Club. After dinner and a run around the play area, it wasn't long before the plaster and paper stitches were gone !

Off we went, back to the hospital, this time for a much more practical solution. A slightly nervous Ayden was extremely brave as the doctor inserted a single stitch which we hope will remain in place for a week needed for a nice scar to appear.

As you can see, he's happily back to normal and proudly displaying his first true war wound !