Birthday Greetings...

to my sister Hanna

This was probably Hanna's 6th or 7th birthday. The lady next to Hanna above is our late paternal grandmother Datin Hajah Nafisah.

Dinner At The Cowleys

We had dinner over at our good friends the Cowleys last night. A big welcome back to Gavin's parents are who currently visiting from the UK. 

On the menu was beef stew! But not any ordinary stew, Gavin made a fantastic chilli and chocolate beef stew. It was also served with pasta and not the usual mash - which made a great change. There was a lovely salad of baby cos, avocado and pistachio nuts and to go with it, a refreshing strawberry dressing. Well done Gavin! Also to Elysia for the yummy chocolate cake and to Donncha for the Jerudong coffee to finish! 

Elysia also showed us what to really do with the Rubik's cube. She completed the whole thing several times under three minutes!

Our Little Angel!

Friends and family often tell us that Ayden has a very mischievous face and smile. I think these pictures say it all!

Where Has The Jungle Gone?

We are blessed in Brunei to be surrounded by the pristine rainforest and I have only recently started appreciating our natural environment. Last night the hash was off Jalan Muara in an area that has been frequented by hashers and walkers for years. It was therefore a huge surprise to me that a huge chunk of the jungle in that area has been razed for a new development with major roads cutting through what used to be jungle running trails. 

Though not of my doing I suddenly felt very guilty. I do not agree with hindering development and progress but at the same time it's a great shame.

Naturally Good!

Our self-taught resident pastry chef has been at it again. This time baking about 30 cakes - chocolate, cheese and carrot to give away as presents to our Chinese family friends celebrating the New Year. 

I will not apologize for being biased but with the exception of my very good friend Savita in Bangkok, I think my sister makes the best cakes ever, well at least in Brunei. Bruneians have a serious addiction to everything sweet and there is currently (or has there always been?) a frenzy to taste the best cake, pudding or tart. As they say the proof is in the pudding but alas there is no public tasting and you will have to take my word for it that they are exceptionally good. To those partaking in the Chinese New Year celebrations - should you be lucky enough to come across one of Jasmine's creations....take a deep breath and enjoy!

Hash Night Dinners

My inspiration for our dinner this evening came from a foodie blog I read a couple of days ago - the humble beef stew. My mother-in-law Liz in Ireland does a fantastic beef stew especially good on cold winter nights. And in Brunei I've decided it's a great dinner for hash night. But I don't think I could get away with serving it at a dinner party - I can already hear Gavin Cowley's voice ringing in my ears - "Beef stew?! Is that the best you could come up with?" - actually I lie, I have served beef stew once but it was Guinness beef stew for a St Patrick's Day party - I had to include something Irish in the buffet - what was I thinking of entertaining 30 people with only 4 weeks to Jack's birth!

Thankfully the kids enjoyed their dinner this evening. I am not a foodie blogger / stew expert so no tips on this blog. I ended up having roti w/curry sauce and a few bevies after a long grueling hash through the jungle. Guess with plenty of frozen beef stew it will be the same for next Tuesday unless of course ...we decide to have a dinner party over the weekend! 

Sshhh....Don't Tell Anyone Else...

Was what I told Iman when I showed her the bird's nest precariously hanging on a plant outside Hanna's front door with the little bird inside. And she screams "Hariz....come look at this!". 

Hoping now that they won't bother the nest as they are pretty keen to see the baby bird. I have also promised pictures to take to school. So no pressure little bird!

Everybody Is A Winner!

To top off a busy week we had the Junior School Sports Day this morning. Thankfully for our year groups it was in the gym and not in the morning sun. The kids had a fab time, all wearing their house colours and making lots of noise. There were fours races for each year group and for each race every kid received a ribbon. 

It was great to see your child run the races (and she did very well) but then it was a long wait until the next race. Parents were getting itchy feet and younger siblings were starting to get cranky or fall asleep. Iman eventually let me go after the third race.

Zahra is Red House

Hariz is yellow

And Iman with her blue tshirt and all four ribbons

Studio JIS

The theme for the Junior school disco this afternoon was the 70s. Iman wore a pair of vaguely flared jeans and a beaded top. I tried to get her to wear more wackier pants but unfortunately I used the words "you will look funny" which was followed by "I don't want to look funny". It was nice that some kids didn't mind looking funny and made a bit more effort on the dressing up. I especially loved Timothee's.

Iman initially was very unsure about the loud music and the dancing but she joined in the games and there was no holding her back after that.

Hooked On The Hash

I must clarify it is the running event and not what one smokes. Last week I went to my first Ladies Hash and thoroughly enjoyed it. I went again last night and came out the jungle high on endorphins. Think that it will be a permanent feature of my Tuesday evenings. I've met some new people and reacquainted myself with some old faces.  The social part of it is fun but I love the walk / run in the jungle. I'm not a great runner but I'm not exactly going to linger around in there! As I'm new I yet haven't taken my camera so I don't have any pictures. The picture above is of Bukit Shahbandar which I try and walk with friends at least once a week. The outdoor life is what Brunei is all about and after all these years I am just starting to appreciate that.

January Blooms

Better post these pictures as it's nearly the end of January. It was a great surprise that the wild orchids outside Jasmine's house went into bloom earlier this month. But we enjoyed the pretty little flowers for only two days so I was lucky to take these pictures when I did because the next day they all disappeared.

Kids Love Parties!

I share my birthday with my brother-in-law Feisal so this evening we had a family dinner at my parents place. Before it got wild we managed a picture of the kids together. Iman and Zahra performed a great dance routine for us, chereographed none other by their guru Fatin and her sidekick Iqah. We missed Donncha and my Mum (who is back this evening).

I rooted around for old birthday pictures and found this from my 4th birthday. I am in the middle sitting down, Jasmine fourth from the right top row and I guess you can all spot Hanna in her lovely long gown. Sitting next to me is my friend Connie who I was at kindergarden with. I don't remember much but from the pictures it looked like a great party. Thanks Mum for all those fun birthday parties!

Dinner With Friends

With Donncha home briefly we took the opportunity last night to invite our close friends for dinner at home to celebrate my birthday. On our list were Santhi & Roy (with their girls Uma and Maya), Gavin & Juliet and Brian & Cath. There's nothing better than having friends around your own dinner table.

For dinner we had melt in your mouth arabic lamb with saffron rice and garlic prawns thanks to help from my mum's kitchen. Santhi had kindly brought squid curry which was fantastic. Gavin brought along his famous harissa paste and hummous. And to accompany all of the above I made tzaziki, a vegetable stew and cous-cous. It was all very good. And for dessert we had Jasmine's profiteroles which as always were very moorish.

Iman, Jack and Ayden were very excited to have Uma and Maya for a mini sleepover. So much that Ayden only went to sleep at 10.00 followed by Jack at 11.00 but Iman did not disappoint her guests and kept the party rocking. 

It was no surprise that we were slow to start this morning but with my Mum still away we had invited my Dad over for breakfast so it was fried eggs and barbequed sausages. It's the first time we've ever had my Dad over for breakfast and the kids were very excited. 

Sunday evening and Donncha's on another plane this time to Dubai followed by Hong Kong. Looking forward to having him home Friday.

Cupcakes For Sale

Rest assured that all little (and big) hands involved were duly scrubbed before we started!

Iman's reception year is having a bake sale tomorrow. The proceeds will go towards the Junior School's efforts to adopt an orangutan at the Sepilok Reserve. I'm not hugely known for my baking skills and was saved by my sister Jasmine (and who else) who helped me and the little helpers make mini cupcakes. Below is Iman with the finished product. Even more shocking is that Jasmine left myself and Hanna to decorate half the cakes below as she did something else! 

Introducing Kiriyo Kuchina-San

We have visiting friends from Japan this week, Kuchina-San and her daughter Taka-San. Kuchina-San is a long time friend of my Mum's but this is only my second time meeting her (the first time only last November). Kuchina-San is a master craftsman in her art "Kiriyo Ori" which is based on the traditional Japanese weaving form of Saganishiki. I'm not an artist but basically it's traditional weaving at its best using the best materials only, including real gold and platinum threads. Her works are amazingly beautiful and unique and its no surprise that she has exhibits in the Metropolitan Art Museum and The White House. Kuchina-San is holding an exhibition in Brunei this week and we have been most privileged to view her masterpieces. 

This piece of art Kuchina-San wove for her 13 year old grandson when he was born

Explaining her work to my mother and Taka-San as translator

I also took our new friends out material shopping - Kuchina-San also makes casual handbags as a hobby. We found beautiful imported fabrics in one shop which I have never been to myself and was very surprised by the quality and selection they had. I don't think I have seen so much quality fabric in one place - a room full of lace, another full of sarees, another with Thai Silks. And the best thing about it all - there is no import tax on fabrics in Brunei. I felt like a tourist myself!

Our Author Friend

This is Uma Roy, daughter of our good friends Santhi and Roy. Uma with the help of her mother wrote and illustrated a book "Tsunami Joe" which was published by Brunei Press in 2006. It's about a baby hippo who is separated from his parents after the tsunami. After befriending a tortoise and with the help of fairies and unicorns, Joe was happily reunited with his family. It's a lovely magical story based on a true story of an orphaned baby hippo who befriends a century old tortoise in an animal facility in Kenya.

This afternoon we went to see Uma read the book at Solitude, a local bookstore. She read very well and very confidently to her audience of little people. I've been in the bookstore a couple of times but have never sat down in the cafe. It was good to catch up with friends over a cup of tea and the kids had great fun. Ohhh.... and the chocolate muffins were real yummy!

The Pinata

It was a big relief for me that after all my hard work the pinata was a big success. Every child had a go before the bigger ones broke through to the loot of sweets and little toys.

Mathys having a go with a golf club

Zahra takes a big swing

Elliot needs to find a hurling club!

Hariz and Fatin with what remained of the shell

We Did It!

The house was in total chaos for two and a half hours. We had over 40 kids in the house wanting to play games, eat, drink, run around and all at the same time. Credit goes to Donncha and his booming voice organizing them all into games and play.

The cake was done by my sister Jasmine and was very rich and delicious. I hope she took more pics than me - check out her blog.

Picture above is "Pass The Parcel"  won by my niece Zahra. We also had the old favorites Musical Statues and Musical Mats. The pinata was a big hit - pictures on next post.

I think all the kids had great fun. It was enjoyable for us but I am so glad it's all over. I'm quite disappointed that I did not take more pictures but I was doing a bit of running around between and party and the kitchen. The food turned out really well - again no pics. We had homemade beef burgers in mini buns cooked on the barbeque, french fries, sandwiches and noodles. Jasmine also contributed mini choc muffins and we had home grown corn on the cob. I was haunted on the party bags - made up 45 and I needed exactly that! 

Iman is 5

Our little princess turned 5 yesterday. Can't believe that she is fast becoming a big girl. We are having a big party at home today with all her friends from school coming so yesterday we had a small cake with the family. As usual everyone went for the candles.

It's Iman's first big birthday party and I think we will have close on to 40 kids around her age group. We have been talking and planning this big occasion for the last two weeks and I have been amassing goodies galore for the pinata, games prizes and the party bags. Pinatas aren't easy to come by here so I decided to make one myself. In previous years we have used boxes and paper bags but this year I was super organsied and made one out of papier mache. As it's my first attempt I didn't try to make any fancy shapes and just went for the balloon shape and with my Mum's decorating I don't think it has turned out too bad. Anyway it all get's smashed up in the end!

We're Back!

Well at least for now until the mac has to go get a new logic (???) board - touch wood it behaves until then.

As I am a bit out of practice with all this here are some pictures of our new years's day on the beach - thanks to us tucked up in bed by 10:30 the night before! No picture of Iman - she was too busy playing with friends.

Waiting For The Call

Apologies I won't be posting for a while. My mac has gone into the Apple hospital and I haven't got the patience to sit infront the old pc.