The Valois do Brunei: April 2013

Boys in their Pencak Silat outfits

Pencak Silat performance at ISB

My new PRA class (Reception/Kindy)

Greetings from Brunei, we hope this update finds our family and friends well.

Term one of the school year has come and gone for both the boys and I. Government schools like mine run on a 4 term year, the boys are at International School of Brunei which runs on a 3 term year on a mainly British curriculum (cringe). The boys continue to enjoy school- though they won’t admit it. They have various after school activities that they attend from card making to mosaics to martial arts. School for me, well it continues to be very different from home. It is missing the challenges and demands of teaching back home with just 15 hours of ‘contact time’ each week, however I miss teaching at home dearly.

17 weeks pregnant -
Touch Rugby Champions

Jason has moments of being content with life and other moments of pure frustration. I take my hat off to him though as being a ‘house dad’ isn’t for the faint hearted, any at home mum will tell you they have the toughest job. The worrying about bills, food, laundry etc etc is new to him, I think he is beginning to realise that I have spent the last 10+ years making sure our household functions without much input from him. He is making the most of the free time he does have during the day before it all ends when bubs arrives. He is enjoying the rugby season here and his team seems to be having inconsistent wins and losses.

Our new pad, only 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms

All looks good on the pregnancy front, our 20 week scan showed a healthy baby who wasn’t prepared to cooperate when we wanted to determine whether we would be buying pink or blue gear. I am unsure whether there will be another scan before the birth, as much as the anticipation is killing me, I may have to literally ‘wait and see’ what he/she is. I am 24 weeks now and feeling really well, long may it continue!

I have been under the knife twice to remove basal cell carcinomas from my face over the past couple of months, though I am not happy with the scars I have been left with, I would much rather have the BCCs removed than left to stay and continue to grow. The pain the afternoon of the surgery is pretty tremendous, but it soon becomes tolerable over the following days.

Boys being silly buggers with Jas at boxing

Our 4 legged addition Arbie.
We have a new four legged addition to the household, Arbie is a ‘Brunei special’ or ‘Kampong Dog’ aka a rescued, mixed breed stray. Friends rescued her and her 5 brothers and sisters from being drowned by the neighbour after a stray mother gave birth in the front garden. We have recently moved into a bigger house with a larger compound with all the creepy crawlies that go with grass and trees here. We had a snake inside (which we didn’t see but saw the mess it was leaving on the floor) so getting a dog was the best solution to keep nasties out of the house. She is a dopey goof but very sweet. The boys adore her to bits.

Monkeys getting into the

rubbish bin outside my

classroom.

Noah's trip to recycling centre

Jason has been accompanying the boys on school trips, most recently a trip to Kampong Ayer (Water village) with Ethan. Where a government school hosted Ethan’s year group for the visit. My school is further down the river from the main water village, which is in the CBD. It was eye opening for both Jason and Ethan seeing how the locals live over the water.

That’s about us in a nutshell at the moment, counting down the weeks until our family of four becomes a family of five and trying to deal with the never ending heat.