Brunei Life « JEWELLE TAN

Making Kids Enjoy Books

Filed in Brunei Life | Family | My Daughters | Parenting Leave a comment

I am the kind of mother who spends on books for my children more than anything else – not clothes, not shoes and especially not toys.

So they are used to having books around them.

In nearly every part of our unit within our family home, I kept shelves of books for them to flip through at any time.

And it makes me happy albeit a little stressful when my 8-year-old gravely informed me that she has finished reading a book I bought just a few hours earlier and asked “Could we go to the book store again?“

It makes me happy to catch my usually hurricane-in-movement-and-typhoon-in-sound of a 6-year-old sitting quietly on the couch, flipping through a huge book, declaring “I love this! There are so many stories here!“

It makes me happy when my 3-year-old told me that she was “Drawing AND reading, of course!” when asked why was she being so quiet in the living room.

Contrary to what many people think, it is not hard to make kids enjoy books. Just put books all over the house and watch them pick it up.

09Dec

Farewell, Home

Filed in At Home | Brunei Life 2 Comments

Golden sunset over the whole neighbourhood

This will be my last post from our current home.

It feels like only a few days ago when my husband called to tell me that he had found a house that he was sure I would like and which I did, from the moment we turned in our junction and I caught sight of the house.

Reminiscence of my parents’ house was all around and that instantly made me feel at home. The big grassy lawn, trees all around the neighbourhood and that small forested hill behind our back block are everything that I want.

But it has been two years and now we have to bade farewell to this house.

Oh, the things that I will miss about living here. The proximity to stores and restaurants, easy accessibility to the highway – even the sounds of the police sirens and helicopters!

And how can I forget the best albeit elusive (I’ve seen it only twice) gift of nature to this neighbourhood. The most amazing sunset that the whole area would turn bright yellow. It looked so surreal that the first time it happened, I actually checked the sky if there was something up there that casted such glow – because it cannot be JUST the sunset!

I will miss this strange sunset, the house will miss my children’s laughter (and cries) but we will always remember the memories of joy and happiness we had in this house.

Good bye for now, dear home and thank you for looking after us.

06Nov

Best Country To Live In

Filed in Brunei | Brunei Life Leave a comment

So Brunei is the 33rd best country to live in – out of 187 countries/territories.

Well, I don’t need this survey to know what I have always known for sure – I am living in a wonderful place.

Of course it is not for everyone but this country fits most of my needs – and most importantly, I can live without all the things that I cannot get here.

Just last night, memories of smoke-filled outings, loud music that pulsated harder than my heart while ordering yet another Long Island Tea over the bar came to mind after reading a certain weekend-is-here Facebook status.

It was nostalgic to think of the days when we were young and foolish – but I am happy to move on.

I am happier to note that I am so much more relaxed here as compared to my hometown (with the traffic jam, crowd, crime etc etc) that I no longer need the above-mentioned-activities to de-stress. So much so that I even find it interesting to learn random things like heatshrink (check out this animated picture) and a real and relatively recent head-hunting tragedy.

In short, I am not even curious to know about the other 32 countries because I am totally fine here.

09Aug

Lightning Prone Lumut

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For some reason, our family home in Lumut is regularly struck by lightning.

Just a few months ago, it happened again and several of my family in-laws appliances were damaged – modem, television, DVD player and etc. Fortunately our house is insured, not from Wholesaleinsurance.net but from a local agency, replacing those items were not much of an issue.

It was only a little inconvenient when they could not go online and there was nothing to watch.

Actually, come to think of it, it was quite a BIG inconvenience and fortunately it happened during the weekdays (when we were not around).

One of our neighbour whose house was without any home insurance had his house spared and was about to breath a sigh of relief – until he realized that the lightning struck his big electric gate.

*Photo : Lumut road leading to Seria

21Jul

Speed Boat Nostalgia

Filed in Brunei Life | Humour | Random Leave a comment

Whenever you drive by Kampung Ayer in Brunei, there will be at least one speed boat on the water, with passengers travelling between the village and Bandar Seri Begawan.

It is quite exciting to see those boats from the safety of dry land.

Because as much as I enjoy the rides I had more than 10 years ago – when I was younger, more adventurous back in the days when untamed flyaway hair looks so utterly sexy – I doubt I will willingly go on another ride.

At least not on boats without any roof (UV rays, people).

And definitely not speed boats because the old-lady in me will be holding on the sides for dear life. Gone are the days of standing with arms outstretched to feel the breeze ala Winslet – not to mention that the diCaprio in my life will just be pulling me back down none too gently and tell me to behave.

Besides I hair-sprayed my hair for a reason and no flyaway whatsoever is tolerated.

So now, the only time I will ever get the rush of a speed boat – in motion – will probably be if I am on some roadside and a car or truck with a boat hooked up via one of those boat or trailer hitches passes by.

Yes, how very gripping.

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