Update 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.

 

Ethan's trip to Kampong Ayer

 

Trip to Jerudong Park- The amusement park that
once upon a time had more than 4 rides

Noah and Alex, a friends very new bubs

I have been a bit slack... here is the first installment.

Miri Airport (Malaysia)

Miri (Malaysia)

An update of our shenanigans is long overdue so with some time on my hands I have decided I had better keep our nearest and dearest happy. Life continues to roll by extremely quickly for us over here, even with so much spare time on our hands we seem to be filling in the days with one activity or another. A lot has happened since my last update in October - opps, let's start where we left off...

Singapore

Singapore Chinatown

Singapore Chinatown

Sydney-Auckland

New Zealand (Finally!)

A surprise trip home in December for starters was well executed to ensure our arrival at Dad’s 60^th birthday party. His face was priceless, as was the rest of the family’s as we strolled in unexpectedly after a very long transit from Brunei-Malaysia-Singapore-Sydney-Auckland-Tauranga with only my sister Amy in the know of our arrival. Surprising Oma was just as much fun the following day with two little boys knocking on her door unexpectedly.

Skin! Something we hadn't
seen a lot of lately. 

Jas celebrated Dad's 60th
and our arrival pretty hard. 

After a few days in Tauranga we flew to Christchurch to stay with friends who had moved there from Tauranga just before we moved to Brunei. They did an awesome job of being our tour guides and feeding us superbly (without rice!!). I was also able to catch up with my brother and finally met my nephew while we were there which made the trip all the more worthwhile.

New Brighton Pier.
Cold. Another thing we hadn't
experienced for a while.

 

Christmas Dinner

Christmas was busy as all good kiwi Christmases should be. We were thankful to be able to spend it with family, enjoy the great food and thus eat far too much.

Te Kaha

A trip to Te Kaha was next on the agenda to stay with Brett, Leigh and the girls. The boys enjoyed hanging out with their cousins and spent most of their days playing on the beach. Jas enjoyed some late nights/early mornings with Bretty that involved staggering to bed.

Te Kaha

We made it up to Matarangi to stay with Shane, Ali and kids in their gorgeous home away from home. Again the boys were able to spend some quality time with their cousins on the bikes, out on the boat and dabbled in some mildly successful fishing. Matarangi is such a beautiful spot, I would recommend visiting to all.

Being home was wonderful; it’s the small things we seem to miss about home that we took for granted. Being able to open the windows and doors of the house when it gets hot for one. I miss having a climate that actually changes! Not having to watch your step wherever you walk (for killer drains, holes in the pavement or unexpected steps that appear from no where). Being understood everywhere we go without having to worry about confusing someone. Mostly though it was awesome just to catch up with friends and family and be ‘normal’ for a while. I went back to Greenpark to say hello and it pulled on the heart strings more than a bit to be back ‘home’. I crashed the end of year dinner and drinks and managed to catch up with most of the crew. I do look forward to my permanent return to being a classroom teacher once again (even if I will be doing twice as many hours a day).

Whilst Jason was able to participate in the festive consumptions of more than a few ales, I had to spill the beans early on in our trip that I am expecting number three. Although it was still early on in the pregnancy there was no way I was going to able to dodge the sideways glances I would get for NOT having a glass of wine connected to my hand for the entire month. Unfortunately early pregnancy did not agree with me this time around so although we had a great time I was sick for majority of the trip. The sickness was not limited to the morning, but lasted most of the day. Much of my time was spent feeling sorry for myself on Dad’s couch.

After a month at home in New Zealand, coming back to Brunei was not as tough as I thought it would be, the drive home from the airport was a familiar one so somehow it felt as though we were returning from a holiday. I don’t think we will try any more surprise trips as it was quite the mission to plan, organise and keep quiet.

Greenpark Staffroom Christmas Dinner

Brunei Staffroom Celebration