Sunday, October 28, 2012

3rd Brunei 6-8 Swimming Championships Oct 2012

This afternoon Iman and Jack attended the 3rd Brunei 6-8 Swimming Championships. Though competition was tough for Iman, she finished with a medal from each event - 2 silvers and 3 bronzes. And Jack was over the moon with his 2 silvers and 1 bronze. This is a great little competition for the younger swimmers of Brunei. All age groups swims in mixed heats so it doesn't matter if you are 6 or 8, but final results are according to your age groups. So for example Jack coming last in a top heat was still able to come in 2nd or 3rd as he was against the other 6yr olds in the other heats. Unfair? I think not as it should help the younger swimmers to swim faster amongst their older peers. But overall the competition is a great start for the little ones especially the novice racers cos everyone is almost the same size and thankfully it doesn't go on forever!















Miri Half Term Oct '12

We went to Miri for a couple of nights during the half term. Always a welcome break and no matter how many times we go there, we never tire of the place. And even more special we had our friends the Ho family to accompany us for the first day.


















Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Our Ayden is 6 !!

Ayden has been celebrating his 6th birthday for the last week - with school enjoying a midterm break, we started last Friday with a party for his friends from school. 15 kids plus a few junior siblings enjoyed their time in the pool and along with games and some major splashing !!


The first of a few cakes this week



Today, one day before his birthday, we celebrated with family. Ayden is the baby in the compound so he is used to the attention. However, there is nothing more exciting than having all his cousins, aunts and Grandparents turning up to sign him Happy Birthday !!




Happy Birthday Ayden - finally 6 but always reaching beyond !!

Kampong Pudak walk revisited

We first came to Kampong Pudak for a walk three years ago. Its a lovely little village across from Kota Batu. The walk though challenging on the up, is not very long and the view from the top rewarding. What I enjoy most about coming to the village is watching the villagers. Not much changes around here and I even wonder if the lady I captured walking to the mosque for the evening prayers is the same one I saw three years ago.












Sunday, October 14, 2012

Football Funday 2012

There was a time when Football Funday meant chasing kids between stalls, ice-cream and cotton candy queues (see 2007 and 2009 - and they were so small!). Today couldn't have been more different from the early years as we were chasing the kids between games. Iman played JIS Girls Under 10A which is also the Forbissea team that has been newly selected.

Jack played in his first Football Funday JIS Boys Under 8 and had a blast. Ayden would have played in any team that would have him but instead had to settle for football drills with the other younger footballers that had energy to burn on a Sunday morning. Ayden and a few of his mates probably played more football than most of the kids on the pitches running around non-stop from 8am onwards with a "match" taking place later in the morning. Just cannot knock their enthusiasm for the game and we so look forward to Ayden on the pitches with the older boys.












Iman's team did fantastic winning their group. Unfortunately I missed that game as I was watching Ayden's but Iman scored twice in the game. These six girls are a fantastic team that know each other so well and work together so efficiently. We look forward to greater things from them this year. Go Panthers!


Jack's team too played in a final against the team from Panaga. They fought hard and missed several good chances but unfortunately lost in the last minute, a goal by the best opposition team member who was an unstoppable little thing. Runner-up is not a bad result for a team that only played together for the first time today.





I think we're going to be attending Football Funday for many years to come yet! As always a great day out for the whole family (I managed to sneak in a few purchases from the stalls!) and credit goes to the staff and parents that make this permanent JIS fixture a continuing success.