Merry Christmas from the tropics!

My apologies for the long gap between posts, this may have been owing to the fact that I changed the password some months ago and embarrassingly couldn't regain access. All information has now been re-set and systems are go!

We recently returned from a glorious trip to Australia where we visited relatives, cuddled marsupials, enjoyed western food and happily relied on finding clean public conveniences! It was a great opportunity to make the trip while we are only a mere seven hours away.

Since then we have been having a deeply personal time with the passing of a very close family member. Although as is often the case in the grand circle of life, we are pleased to announce that there will be a new arrival to the Fly South clan, expected middle of May 2014! So emotions have been running high and in fact I have been quite savagely homesick, finding for the first time that the heat is a burden rather than a pleasure, eschewing al fresco situations and the consequent mosquito bites due to a local outbreak of Japanese encephalitis for which I have not been vaccinated. So overall we feel more strongly that soon it will be time to return to our native country and be reunited with our family (and our warm clothes!). No idea yet when this might happen but possibly before Fly South Jr is crawling, making packing boxes even harder!

Now we are facing a quiet (and with Big Man covering work over the 25th - largely alcohol-free!) Bruneian Christmas in our house. Having scoured the usual suppliers for bacon and found them wanting, we were forced to use a long-distance delivery service to ensure that the pigs-in-blankets are not missing from the main feast and I can now happily reassure you that bacon is now safely secured in our freezer (power supply willing). Some seasonal customs cannot be forsaken!

As my previous post of 10th September explained, cards have not been sent to everyone this year; blame hormones, rising postage costs and grumpy over-heated souls, so this is our opportunity to say 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year' to all!

One Year Today!

So today we have been in Brunei for exactly one year. And we finally feel settled; Woozles is full of beans at school according to her teacher, Big Man has got lots of new sports on the go and I have joined a couple of committees to do my bit for the community. It has been a good year, but not without ups and downs. The first few months having moved from the Falklands involved getting used to the warm climate, having access to plenty of fresh fruit and re-learning how to navigate a network of roads (though not very extensive!).

However, although everybody comments on how the two postings are radically different, and certainly the wildlife is completely new, actually a lot of elements of our life are the same. We still shop at the Naafi, go to playgroup, meet friends at their houses, bemoan pestilential creatures in our kitchen cupboards (though weevils instead of mice) raise our eyebrows at the weather (torrential rain instead of howling wind) and drink cups of tea! Guess we are British after all.

Some of you may remember I did a post all about the Falkland Islands myths and misconceptions entitled 'Fact or Fiction'- well now we have lived here for 12 months it is time to do the same for Brunei - see how you score!

Statement # 1. Brunei is located in the middle east near the other 'oil states' such as Dubai and Qatar.

FICTION

Brunei is located in South East Asia, on the island of Borneo (third largest island in the world), on the northern coast between the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak and only 5 hours from the north west coast of Australia. However there certainly are similarities with Middle Eastern nations and traditions.

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Statement # 2. Brunei is a 'dry' country.

FACT

New Sharia laws have recently been introduced with extremely severe penalties for Muslims found to have partaken in adultery, drinking alcohol and abortion. "While expats are allowed to import small quantities of alcohol for their personal consumption, they are not allowed more than their designated allowance or to sell alcohol to others" (Expat arrivals.com).

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Statement #3. Natural gas just seeps out of the ground all over the place.

FACT

Brunei is very rich in oil and gas deposits and areas of Shell petroleum housing along the coastal plain have reportedly been moved in the past due to natural gas bubbling out of the ground.

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5. Because of the offshore oil industry, most of the rainforest cover is intact.

FACT*

*Though recent development projects have started to diminish larger areas of rainforest than ever before, a much higher proportion of semi-natural habitat remains than in most countries. Whereas traditional communities travelled from villages by river in long boat, new roads, buildings and extraction sites to support them are currently under construction.

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6. Brunei is the size of France and has a population of 1 million.

FICTION

Brunei is actually supposedly comparable to Devon in terms of land area and the population is only 400,000.

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7. There is no crime in Brunei.

FICTION

Brunei is a very peaceful place and compared to most nations has a very low level of crime. However we do not leave our door unlocked like we could in the Falkland Islands and Big Man has had his flip flops stolen not once but twice!!!

Supper at the Sultan's Palace

This week we were fortunate to get an invitation to dinner at the Sultan's Palace (Istana Nurul Iman) in Bandar to celebrate his 67th birthday. Big Man had to wear his formal uniform and I had to wear white from head to toe, which is definitely not my usual sort of clothing! This event is one of the highlights of the social calendar in Brunei. Now the Sultan's birthday is actually in July, as I mentioned in my post on the 9th of that month but this year it coincided with Ramadan so the occasion was postponed until September.

Late afternoon on Tuesday we travelled up to the capital in the army charabanc, being careful not to transfer any smudges of camouflage cream remaining on the seats onto our white apparel and enjoying the relaxed, child-free outing.

On the drive into the palace grounds, there was decorative lighting for the occasion and many people making their way up the road.

We were shepherded through security where we had to scan our bags and into an extremely large venue where we were placed on a long table amongst six thousand other people! Here we are in our white outfits enjoying orange juice and mineral water.

Eventually a few words were spoken, the royal family and dignitaries were seated in their golden inner sanctum and the lid was removed from the silver tureen so we could tuck into the food, which was a selection of curries and rice. At this point we were so hungry we would have eaten a small horse. I had intended to have a snack before setting off but was deterred by the thought of soiling my clothes!

Some time after dinner, people began to stand at the other end of the hall, and we were shuffled around into a suitable formation. The Sultan moved along every table, shaking hands with each and every guest. This picture shows him in the white jacket in the next row to us. His entourage included his grown-up sons, one of whom is the Crown Prince, and his two younger children by his third wife (non-consecutive).

We weren't sure exactly what the protocol was so Big Man was taken by surprise to be spoken to but I have been told since that he often likes to engage with the British people.

Then it was home time and after a few entertaining requests for photos from local girl guides (who possibly had us mixed up with somebody important) we headed back to the bus for a little snooze. The exertion of consorting with royals in far flung countries was starting to get to us!

The dying art of sending Christmas cards

I have come to the conclusion, in this modern digital age, that the tradition of posting Christmas cards is dying out. As evidence let me offer to you our experience over the previous 12 months. Last year in early December I laboriously wrote out over 40 cards destined for friends and family in the UK as well as one or two other countries and took them to our post office to send them, requesting second class as usual. [For those who do not know, we only pay British postage rates and so do those who post to us as the military very kindly organise the delivery on the London-Brunei leg]. I was informed that the postage came to over £25. This was a staggering shock to me. "Twenty five pounds for second class, are you sure?!" I spluttered. The price was correct.

Over the next few weeks we exchanged a few more cards with neighbours around the estate, a single Nepali child in Woozles' class who had made the gesture and some of Big Man's very thoughtful colleagues, most of whom are not Christian or European. A handful of cards arrived from the UK, which was lovely. And we arranged them above our windows on the box pelmets we are so thoughtfully provided with, dutifully replacing them every time the fan whirled.

After the festive season was over, Epiphany was truly done and dusted and we were well into January, another batch of cards arrived. Once I had combined them with the others in order to make gift tags (an annual event I always relish), I found the tally of cards from the UK = a grand total of 11. Now I am not a mercenary person and I am happy to do good deeds without expecting something immediately in return but it left me feeling the whole business was a bit of a let-down. Now fair enough most of my friends and a fair few of my family are busy having babies/ working hard/ moving house (particularly the military contingent) at the moment, but I was slightly put out. I suspect we can blame the Royal Mail, or whoever they are these days, for putting up the price of stamps, and of course it can't be easy keeping tabs on where we live when we move, on average, just under once a year, however with the exception of a few elderly people who do not have a computer I am officially resigning from sending Christmas cards from now on. Maybe it'll even inspire one or two individuals to read the blog other than that weird guy in Russia.

'Autumn' term in the tropics

Back to reality in Brunei after our summer holidays and Woozles is settling into school reasonably well. The weather has started to turn a little breezier and wetter and we have even had two cool, cloudy days when I forgot to turn the air-con in the bedroom off and had a distinctly chilly bedtime! Soon it will be time to watch out for floods and all the beasties which emerge from their hidey holes when water levels rise. So even though there is not an autumn here, we have definitely reached the transitional season. We will still have plenty of sunshine though in case you were worried about the weather when visiting!

This weekend has involved us eating our way around the local district. Friday night we were lucky enough to be invited to a Nepalese curry night, complete with momos (a momo is a yummy dumpling which I may just turn into), samosas and rice. Then yesterday after lunch out, we went to a buffet function hosted by His Nibs' rugby sponsor and had another plate full of satay, curry, salad and the like. Late last night at the leaving do of a dear friend I gorged on mango chicken and a selection of home-made cakes! Needless to say the post-holiday detox only really lasted 2 weeks and waistlines are bulging again! Gym and pool beckon.

Big Brother Special: South East Asia

Apologies for the silence; we have had our first family visit since we moved to Brunei and I am pleased to say it went off really well. In summary, we had only one physical injury leading to scarring, one bodily entanglement with a snake, several million calories consumed and a super-size quantity of shekels spent but it was absolutely fantastic to have such good company in our own home and on a trip away.

Below are a few extracts from the travel diary. We collected our arrivals from the airport and brought them back to our house to experience life in a 'dry country'.

Day 1 with Big Brother in tow and we arrived safely back home to show them around. A few drinks were possibly enjoyed on the patio through the evening.

Day 3 with Big Brother in the house and chaos prevails. Number of power cuts 2, broken glasses 1, no. of hours of lost sleep 7, no. of alcohol units consumed way beyond measure, no. fruits and / or vegetables ingested by nephew 1. This comes to you sponsored by locally grown cucumber for feeding the children, detoxing the insides and putting on my beleaguered eye bags.

Day 6: Big Brother in Bandar. Only a few seriously hair raising moments during another busy day. Meeting a menacing troop of monkeys enacting their own Olympic diving competition by hurling themselves bodily out of a tree into a stream to cool down at midday. Sis-out-law surviving a set to with a snake after almost stepping on it. Big Brother lacerating his leg climbing into boat. Our river cruise revealing tail of crocodile sliding into water near our very small boat rendering us very vulnerable. Quite a trip.

Day 8: Big Brother (BB) in the Jungle. Could have massively done without being told about missing man + his pack of dogs i.e. worrying about cannibals and other horrible things before setting off on an interior adventure to waterfall past tribal longhouse up very long road. Expect the garlic I put in my rucksack kept it all at bay. The only dramas we had were a snake crossing road (and refusing to budge even after tooting the horn), leeches (BB seemed more than averagely attractive to the little suckers) and a petrol deficit, which in an oil-producing country did seem a smidgen ironic.

Day 10: Big Brother in Singapore. Relatively smooth plane journey over the South China Sea followed by fractious foray on MRT to hotel in back of beyond. Only accommodation available due to weekend not only being Hari Raya (end of Ramadan) but also National day.

After a sociable 'Sling' or two in Raffles, it was decided, perhaps unwisely, that I would chaperone the nippers in a trishaw to the next block to satisfy their urges. A trishaw, for the uninitiated, is basically a pushbike with a sidecar. So off we went along a five-lane highway, pedalled by a geriatric, me clutching my two precious charges for dear life. Upon being deposited somewhere, anywhere, we then passed a trying forty minutes seeking the rest of the party, what with all pedestrians wearing red, throbbing towards marina, and presence of numerous barricades between all open areas hindering our flow.

After a testy reunion we enjoyed the day with ice cream, fireworks and aerial display viewed from gardens on the bay and a gut full of delicious chow at Newton circus.

Day 14: Big Brother at the beach - Pulau Tioman in Malaysia. After a very protracted and tedious journey on a bumpy bus and ancient boat we arrived on a beautiful beautiful tropical island. A little bit of sunburn and the usual additional hidden costs aside, it has been a lovely stay. Beautiful sea for bathing, plentiful food and drink, great pool, even a massage and massive monitor lizard, not related. And no biting insects, which was maybe the most fabulous thing of all.

This is the two young cousins exploring the steps at the entrance to Batu Caves and enjoying an ice cream. The guided tour of the Dark Cave was a big hit.

Day 17: Big Brother The Final Episode. Had a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur to round off the adventure. Has been, in the words of my nephew, 'epic'. We have traversed beaches, pools, rivers, jungles, cities, caves and swamps on foot, by boat and by plane, train and automobile. Seen monkeys, snakes, bats, insects and more. Eaten Malay, Indian, Chinese and Western cuisine, devoured more satay sticks than could possibly be counted.

Now it is time to prepare for school term and start to organise the next instalments of the adventure!

Holidays are here

Today is the last day of term for Woozles and is also the first day of Ramadan. Coupled with the birthday of His Highness and the Sultan next week, it is definitely holiday season here in Brunei!

It has been a strange week; staying up til 1 a.m. to witness the Murray win at Wimbledon; various social engagements including the leaving do of a dear friend; finding our hamster had passed away and subsequently acquiring a new cat (cat acquisition and hamster mortality not related!). We now have a black and white female cat, name of Tic Tac and a young ginger male (subject to vet visit next week) as yet unnamed. With the warm climate they are more often to be found outdoors, in fact they are pretty low maintenance and fortunately quite tolerant as a certain young girl has a lot of affection for furry creatures!

Last night we had a briefing for Woozles forthcoming school start when we met her new teacher and ordered some uniform. Our big girl is growing up!

Rain has arrived!

Having our second downpour since yesterday, most welcome after three dry weeks, although accompanied by the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard.

More lurgies bringing down family members this week; hot, sore throats, coughs and sneezes. Seems like Brunei is a veritable sink of germs, although we get less head colds than UK and Falklands. Swings and roundabouts. Not helped by Woozles having the last of her immunisations needed for the tropics and before she starts school full-time in August.

Sewing machine has been out and busy lately, turned Big Man's Mess DRESS into a skirt for me, made clothes for all the dolls around the place, cushion covers for our patio furniture and still got a couple more things on the list.

Managed to scrump a couple of mangoes this week from around the estate, not sure whether they are in season or just finishing as only saw one or two but nicely (very) ripe and enough to complement a fruit selection for breakfast. Yummy.

Now busy planning future trips around the region including hopefully long-lost relies in Australia so lots of good things to look forward to. Watch this space for travel snippets and photos...

What a week!

Week 3 of being back in Brunei after our trip back home and what with the jet-lag and all the leaving dos we have not known which way is up.

The summer ball - entitled 'Garrisonbury' (the idea for the name was all mine!) on the 8th June was a fantastic night out. It offered the full festival experience, with brilliant bands, fast food trailers, t-shirts and a tent pitched on the grass. Then His Nibs got promoted last Friday, which meant more celebrations.

This week he also had his first glimpse of the Sultan, who came to the garrison for the first time in a few years. Etiquette is as follows: no wearing yellow, shoulders and knees must be covered, no hand shake unless proffered, no overly zealous grips for hand shaking, good eye contact to be maintained at all times. Spouses were allowed to visit but as Woozles was off school with possible hand, foot and mouth virus and it meant waiting in the sun without shade for 2 hours I decided to bypass this one. Click here to see the BruDirect website write-up

Now it is the end of the week and we seem to be smogged in from the forest fires in Indonesia. It has meant no fresh air, lots of marauding mozzies and a slight smell of burning. Hoping for some wind, fresh air and rain!

Homesickness, homecoming and homework

No sooner had we started to feel fully settled in our new home than the urge to be back amongst family, friends and our own culture has hit. It is the little things I miss, like being able to go for a brisk walk in the cool air, being able to communicate fully and freely with contractors so they tell you before cutting the power to the pc (grr!), being in the same time zone as people so that you don't have to make all your phone calls in the late afternoon and evening with a fractious child and a tired Mummy, and so on.

So we are booked to return to the UK in May although before then I need to finish assembling the Falklands plant data ready for the next phase. So it is all systems go. Fun stuff like baking, crafting, photography and hard phys are on the back burner until the blessed spreadsheet is populated. Big Man recently said "there is only one thing more boring than data entry, and that is talking about data entry" but if you could picture an Excel file 324 rows tall and 101 rows across, equalling 32,724 cells in total, then that might give you some idea of my days at the moment. Currently 39% complete!

Better get back to it ...

Borders in Borneo

It has been a busy month here in Brunei with the Easter holidays and two very memorable journeys. Our first big road trip took us across the border into Sabah, Malaysia, where we based ourselves around Kota Kinabalu for 5 days. We saw orang-utans at a rehabilitation sanctuary for orphaned animals, drove to Mount Kinabalu National Park and walked one of the trails (actually one and a half trails as the signs were not clear) and then got a boat to one of the islands and had a go at snorkelling.

I was very lucky to be allowed to go into the jungle in Brunei the following week and see some more incredible sights. Reaching the field centre involved travel by road and by river, which in itself was a fantastic experience. The first evening I climbed a gantry to the top of the rainforest canopy and was rewarded with a beautiful combination of rising cloud and sunset. Once my knuckles had loosened from the fear, I was even able to capture some of it on camera!

Now back home and the school term is well under way again. Big Man is busy at work, I am trying to get my Falklands project completed and Woozles is now riding the bus to school, like the very big brave girl she is.

The only excitement last week was noticing that the 'grains' in my out-of-date Ryvita started to move across my plate in a fashion contrary to gravity - weevils!!!

Brunei beasties

As promised in a post a while ago here are few of the critters we have encountered - and managed to photograph - on our adventure so far. Being a tropical country with a reasonable amount of forest cover remaining, and a low population, wildlife is abundant.

Big Man has been lucky enough to see otters on his way to work, which I assume are the asian short-clawed variety but I have not had the pleasure yet. So no photo. Can't leave here til this is done!

Long-tailed macaques Macaca fascicularis A troop of macaques are often seen on the grassy verge near the road or scavenging from bins at a nearby nature park.

Monitor lizard Varanus sp. Not sure whether this really captures the scale of these often massive beasts!

Oriental pied hornbill Anthraceros albirostris. My birds of Borneo book has this as 'widespread and locally common' but I believe we are incredibly lucky to see these rather large, clumsy and bizarre-looking birds almost every day.

Snakes alive!

Actually the snakes were dead. But the skins, skeletons and head parts were found IN OUR GARDEN last week, striking fear in our hearts. The remains were found on a pipe halfway up the back wall causing us to wonder what they were doing up there and if they could get in the nearby air conditioning vent. Then as I relayed the story to a friend (or so I had assumed!), she asked how big the snakes were. Not big I replied. Why?

Well... it turns out she knew the person who lived in our house before us and they had a small snake living in their loft space! This person didn't think she should tell me as I had mentioned my fear of snakes. Aaaargh!

Apparently the small loft-dwelling snake had been examined by the appropriate authorities and determined to be non-venomous. I still don't tread in a room until the light is turned on though!

Brunei Beach, BBQ and burn

Had a lovely trip to the beach near Tutong yesterday which is much more scenic than the area around us. Golden sand, clear waters and a clean tide line. We jumped in the waves, built sand castles, buried children (temporarily) and Big Man had his manhood tested through repeated application of a large weight!

When we had had our fill of the beach we had a BBQ and a game of rounders with our friends, returning home with sand in our hair and pink stripes all over our bodies!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

This time of year in south east Asia you cannot fail to notice the red and gold lanterns springing up around houses and shops and a lot of red items and oranges for sale (more on those in a moment). This is of course Chinese New Year and with a decent size Chinese population in Brunei we were pleasantly surprised to be invited to two parties to help celebrate! One part of the tradition is to take oranges to your host as symbols of luck and wealth.

Part of the ritual is a family dinner on New Year's Eve, explained one taxi driver last Saturday evening, where all the family congregate and have a great feast.

At any time of the day or night family members can drop by and leave sweets or baked goods, another person with Chinese relatives explained.

Then on Sunday or Monday the main activity was a lion or dragon dance to bring good luck and acting as a show of strength to ward away evil spirits. This dragon dance was taking place in Miri on stilts. Photos by my good friend Lizzie Morris.

We also got to see a lion dance where the children fed some money to the lions. The money was given in red envelopes also known as angpau.

This celebration included the loudest firecrackers I have ever heard, my ears were ringing for another hour afterwards!

Naturally we were also fed loads of delicious food and party snacks and headed home most serene if a little hard of hearing.