Cooking for friends

Well tonight I'm cooking for 7 people. A few people from work are coming round for dinner. I'm probably going to make homemade pizza's.

We went to KL last night to get a couple of bottles of wine for the evening (drank a couple there aswell).

I think I'll make tomato soup for starters, but it means I've got to go out and buy onions and it's looking like it is going to rain any minute. We've had a lot of rain lately. Massive storms. Apparantly the school sometimes floods. The school field looks like a bog at the moment, soon there'll probably be no grass left. You should see the kids after P.E - they look like they've just been to Glastonbury.

It is Ramadan at the moment which means that Muslims are fasting during daylight hours. So there are a lot of sales on in the shops at the moment. When Mum and Clare come it will be Eid, which is the celebration of the end of fasting.

The sun setting on the coast of Brunei

The animals around the house

This is a selection of the type of animals we have around our house.

Our new cars&house

Mine is the blue one. The Toyota Corolla is Neil's.

Kuruman Island

Yesterday we went to Kuruman which is an island off the coast of Brunei. Technically it is Malaysia. All that is on the island is a little bar where you can buy beer, a lovely beach and dense rainforest.

It was absolutely fantastic. We went swimming in the sea which was really lovely and warm. the weather was fantastic. It was like being on a tropical island........which it is!!! The waves were quite strong so we could have fun jumping in the waves.

It took around 45 minutes to get there from Brunei and we went in a little speed boat which zoomed over the waves.

Luxury at the Empire

Last Saturday and Sunday Neil took me to the Empire Hotel which is five minutes up the road. It was amazing. Six star luxury. It was a surprise visit for our 2 year anniversary.

When we arrived we went to the room and had a bottle of wine on our balcony over looking the sea……..It was lovely. You can take your own booze to the Empire, we even got someone sent to the room to uncork it for us.

Then we went jet skiing. The Jet ski’s were 700cc……soooo fast. I was literally launching off the waves into the air. It was incredibly scary but a lot of fun.

We then went and lounged by the pool and had some G&T. I had a bit of a swim.

In the evening we went to the Pantai restaurant which is a restaurant outside which has a seafood BBQ. It was amazing. I had the biggest prawns in the world. I had fantastic mussels and I even tried Oysters (very slimy).

The next day I had a lovely breakfast and then I had a massage. It was really relaxing……I loved it. I think I would like to live at the Empire Hotel.

Mum and Clare……you are going to love it.

First month in Brunei

I've been in Brunei for just over a month now. I definitely do not regret leaving the UK education system. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to teaching with UK kids. The kids here are lovely and really want to learn.

Good news is that Neil doesn't have to work Saturdays anymore, which is fantastic. It means we can now do more on the weekends. I am hoping to go to Tembourong, where they have a fantastic canopy walk.

I'm helping out with the production tonight of West Side Story. At the moment I have the laborious task of photo-copying the script.....but hopefully I'll finish that today. Tomorrow I'm starting Malay classes and then straight after I'm teaching teachers and admin staff how to use PowerPoint.

I'm being observed tomorrow by the lady from the GAC and I have a meeting with her to discuss the course. I think I'll have to tell her, how dire it is. That way at least something might get changed.

It's very strange here. Although it is a dry country, we seem to have more beer and wine in the house then we did in the UK. Probably because it is soooooo cheap and we keep buying it when we go to KL. We're also drinking less......I've become a bit of light weight.....teehee.

I went to a restaurant a couple of nights ago near out house. We had the best Satay with peanut sauce ever and some lovely stewed rice. The whole meal only came to $8 (inc. drinks) which is about 3 pounds.

The CD shops are also very cheap. I brought 6 CD's for $12 which is about 4 pounds.

Anyway, I've got a cover now, so I better go

Julia

Pictures from my leaving BBQ in the UK

The sugar game!!



Clare and David playing devil sticks

Frank aquires new hair doo!

My poor attempt at devil sticks

Julia and Neil....arhhhhhhhhh!

What do I miss in the UK?

Things I miss about the UK!

• Bacon
• Engine breaking (I have an automatic)
• Smaller bugs
• Seasons
• The good old English pub
• Friends/Family
• Fast broadband
• Historical villages
  

Things I don't miss in the UK!

• Paying tax
• Unpreditable weather
• The cold
• The prices of EVERYTHING especially petrol
  
• Percy the Peugeot
• Traffic jams
• The KIDS
• The people we rented our house from in Manchester.
  
• Having to clean the house and iron my own clothes

Monkey Business

At the back of our house, there is a small strip of jungle. In the mornings there are loads of monkeys at the back of our house. They swing on the trees and climb on our fence. We also saw a humongous monitor lizard with a really long neck. It's like having your own personal wildlife programme.

I was the supermarket the other day and there were about 15 monkeys running around the car park. They were scavenging for food left outside. They are quite cute, but it must be mateing season, because they won’t stop bonking each other. It's quite annoying when you come back to the car park after shopping to find two Monkey's having too much fun next to your car.......I mean 'GET A ROOM'.

It's Friday today and I finish work at 11.45....yipee. So I'm off for a swim and then in the evening I'm going to Kuala Lurah with Neil and one of his friends from work. Then on Saturday we are off for a meal at the house of the Head of English at my school. Then on Sunday we are going to the Empire Hotel for a swim. My social life is so much better here then it was in Manchester. Brunei may be a small place, but it seems quite easy to keep yourself busy.

At school I'm pretty busy. I'm helping out with the production West Side Story. I'm also holding a basic computer programming club for the students and I'm giving teachers lessons on PowerPoint. Plus I've decided to join the orchestra as soon as mum and Clare bring my violins over to Brunei.

Today I had my first behaviour problem. One of my students was on the internet.....SHOCK HORROR!!!!!!! That's about as bad as it gets really. The kids here don't really misbehave. They are generally very friendly. Of course there is always the occassional kid who wants to mess around.

Got to go

Love Julia