A Happy 10 Years

Most people ask us when they meet us, how we met, where we got married but we have rarely shown the photos of our wedding. Our wedding took place 17 months after we first dated, of which 14 months were spent apart in different continents (Thanks to Net2Phone ..... an earlier version of Skype !) Little did we know where life would take us then.... we took the challenge together and ten years on, we are looking forward to many more years together as a family!

Thank you Iman, Jack and Ayden for fulfilling our dreams. At the beginning of the month we celebrated our ten years and this week we go duo once more on an adventure to Shanghai.

Tooth Away Day!

The moment Iman has been waiting for years finally arrived yesterday (with a bit of help from me). Loosing her first tooth at 7 yrs & 8 months is good going considering at the same age I probably already had multiple extractions!

And equally excting for Iman was finding out the toothfairy left 10 dollars for her first tooth ~ a special one off treat just for waiting patiently for the moment - cos she has another wobbly probably coming out in the next few days. Coincidently Cousin Zahra lost a tooth too yesterday!

And look who's caught up!

There was a big bicycle shuffle in the compound yesterday. Cousin Zahra has a new bigger bicycle and she proceeded to give her old bicycle to Iman who in turn gave her orange bicycle to our two wheeler novice Jack. So Jack handed his little bicycle to Ayden who did not waste much time trying it out. He was very proud to show everyone his new skill today. A bit wobbly at times and though he's learning to use the brakes, he's still quite keen to drag his feet.

(Excuse the shoe polish like marks on Ayden - it was a wet afternoon and the boys were climbing the walls and even tried out face paints on themselves)

Unfortunately despite my pleas for him to slow down ("No Mama... I CAN go fast...") our little cyclist had a little accident very soon afterwards giving him a small injury on his cheek. Hopefully he's learnt his lesson?!!!

Jack's Wheels

Check out what our little guy learnt to do all by himself one afternoon just a couple of days before Hari Raya. He literally asked our gardener to take his trainer wheels off and cycled away!

All Ireland Champions - All Angles Covered

Most of you who know me, will know that I come from Cork and as with all Cork people, I subscribe to the belief that we should win the All Ireland every year (but in a quietly confident manner). However, as a back up, I can always claim my mixed heritage (Irish Style - my Mum is from Tipperary) so this year, we have the double - Tipperary in hurling and Cork in the football. The kids love their jerseys and are proud to wear them - pictures here taken in Dingle during our week there.

Hari Raya photos 2010

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2010

Wishing all our friends and family Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. Maaf Zahir & Batin.

iSurprise!

When Donncha told me over the phone that he had bought me a nice surprise, I was thinking on the lines of Molten Brown or possibly a handbag.... So I was totally bowled over when he turned up with an iPad! And I love it!!

New school year 2010

The best thing about a long holiday is the kids are genuinely excited about going to school. So much so this morning that they were in the car before I had time to take proper photographs. And I knew they both weren't going to cooperate much with a camera in school so I had to just take it as they were. Iman is proud to be starting Year 3 and Jack has started Year 1. It was nice to see all the familiar faces in school and also plenty of new parents around (familiar faces too - this is Brunei afterall!) And after drop-off, it was just me and Ayden again... I have a few months left to enjoy his company in the mornings.

Post holiday blues

It never feels like it at the time but at the end of a holiday you always wonder where the time went and 7 weeks is a long time! We truly had a fabulous time in Ireland (and London). It's been great for Donncha to give an insight to where he grew up and also for me to introduce things from my younger years ~ Curly Wurleys, Calipos and Chipsticks just to name a few!

Still don't actually know how I managed but we packed everyting in. The Byrnes came down to say goodbye. We will miss Ruairi and Clodagh. A quick cup of tea at the airport with Grannie and Grandad *hugs* and we were off!

In London the kids were all excited to get to the hotel. We chose to stay out in Twickenham. Why sleep in a stadium? We were looking at hotels for ages and really did not fancy a cramped airport hotel room so we looked around the area and found this to be excellent value and we were not disappointed cos the rooms were really nice and getting out of the marshmallow at 4:30 the next morning was not easy.

And Twickenham high street itself was lovely with plenty of nice restaurants and we had a superb Indian ~ you just can't beat a British Indian!

Dingle Night Out

Apologies to those who by now are "Dingled" out. I promise this is the last set and believe me it is such a lovely place.

We had dinner at this little fish restaurant which has up on the front "only fresh fish, nothing frozen and no chips". And it's owned by a Frenchman so I guess you can't go wrong and we weren't disappointed!

To start we had mussels and oysters. I wanted to go all out with the oysters but Donncha wanted both. And how right was he as the mussels was as fresh as they come with a lovely flavor from fresh rosemary.

Straight from the tank

For mains I had the scallops which was superb. Doesn't look much but it was still one scallop too much for me!

And Donncha had the whole wild bass perfectly grilled. So simple but could we duplicate this at home ~ no!

Next we headed to the famed O'Flahertys for some Irish music. Dingle is a big centre for Irish music and most bars will host musicians which you will not find in other towns in the country. Initially it was just the man with the beard (a very talented man who played up to 5 instruments and could sing as well) and the lady with the flute and they were later joined by their mate on the guitar and the man on the violin was a customer who just joined in.

On our way home we noticed these big deep sea fishing trawlers unloading - they were all Spanish and more surprisingly unloading their catch straight onto waiting Spanish trucks to drive the catch back. And the trawlers didn't hang about much. They turned round straight away and said they would be at sea for another week up North. Not for the fainthearted!

Jack in action

When I showed Jack the pictures of himself his response was "...but Mama why didn't you take a video?!" So here it is...

Go Jack Go

I bought Jack and Ayden table tennis bats and balls today and after Ayden went to bed Jack figured out how he could play by himself. He was very proud and I just had to take and post the pictures as it reminded me of one of my favorite movies!