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The only excitement last week was noticing that the 'grains' in my out-of-date Ryvita started to move across my plate in a fashion contrary to gravity - weevils!!!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

Background on Brunei

Just returned home from a weekend over the border in Miri, Sarawak, which is part of Malaysian Borneo. Ashamed to say that six weeks into our South East Asian adventure and we are already looking further afield than Brunei for our entertainment! For while Brunei is modern and functional, it is a small country with not a great number of diversions. So I thought this an opportune moment to give some more information for those who have not heard much about the place without need for geographical embarrassment on anybody's part. The text below has been adapted from Wikipedia for your convenience.

Geography

Brunei, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from the coastline with the South China Sea, Brunei is completely surrounded by Malaysia and Malay is the most commonly spoken tongue, although English is prevalent and Nepali and various Chinese dialects are common too.

History

Brunei became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion. Brunei regained independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country. Brunei has a constitutional sultanate. It has a legal system based on English common law, although Islamic shariah law supersedes this in some cases.

Ecology

Most of Brunei is within the Borneo lowland rain forests eco-region that covers most of the island but there are areas of mountain rain forests inland. Coconut palms and travellers trees grow frequently along the coastline, recently the palms in our road were harvested to prevent any inadvertent injury when the coconuts ripen! Fauna of note around the base includes long-tailed macaques, a variety of birds including the rather striking hornbills, snakes such as cobras, monitor lizards, chit chats, frogs, and loads of insects such as dragonflies and damselflies.

Metereology

The climate of Brunei is tropical equatorial. The average annual temperature is 26 °C (79 °F), with the April–May average of 24 °C (76 °F) and the October–December average of 23 °C (74 °F).

Economy

Crude oil and natural gas production account for about 90% of the GDP. About 167,000 barrels of oil are produced every day, making Brunei the fourth largest producer of oil in South-east Asia. It also produces approximately 895 million cubic feet of liquified natural gas per day, making Brunei the ninth-largest exporter of the substance in the world. Around the garrison area 'nodding donkeys' can be seen in the grasslands, pumping oil to the required location. Brunei depends heavily on imports e.g. rice, food products, livestock, motorcars and electrical products from other countries. Things that seem to be produced locally i.e. are cheap and abundant are watermelons, sweetcorn, durian fruits, cucumbers and rambutans.