Hols in Oz

Something that was a major consideration when we came to Brunei was that we could travel and see places that it is unlikely we would have ever gone to.

The main ones were Australia and New Zealand, so we took the plunge and booked a week in Perth, WA as it is the closest at only 5 hours flight time and no time differene.

We stayed at the Novotel Langley which was very central, however a word of caution, if you value a good nights sleep then it is not the place to go as the beds were awful.

I really hadn't thought that much about going or what I would expect, but surprisingly Perth reminded me of a really big Edinburgh. Loads of shops, cafes, restaurants and bars with a real eclectic mix of people. Although I have to say it didn't seem to be that easy to find somewhere centrally to eat with 2 small children, so I think that if or when we go back a hire car would be a must.

We went as total tourists and decided that we would hit as many of the main tourist hot spots as possible. First we went to Perth Zoo, took a taxi from the hotel and got there in no time, our taxi driver was really friendly and gave us lots of information and told us where we could get the ferry or bus back to the hotel once we'd finished.

As Amelie is only 3 and often thinks that walking is something that she shouldn't have to do on a regular basis we decided to hire a buggy, this was $12 to hire and well worth the money, there was a little pull along wagon, but the lady advised the buggy as it had a hood and would provide some protection from the sun. This was a lifesaver and made the trip much easier.

We decided to walk it instead of going on one of the guided tours, we got maps (these were a $1 each) and headed off, investigating each section of the zoo. First we went to the Australian Wetlands, then we did the Bushwalk followed by some lunch and before we headed off to the Asian Rainforest and the African Savannah. It was great we saw Kangaroos, Koalas, Lions, Tigers, Wallabies and loads of different birds and reptiles. The girls loved it and the shop was a must so that they could get T-Shirts to mark their visit (plus cuddly toys).

We took the ferry back and then decided to go on the Ferris Wheel, a sort of mini version of the London Eye, this was great and the views of the city were fantastic. We then booked a trip to Fremantle and took the boat ride up the Swann River which was great.

Fremantle was nice, we took a trip on one of the 'hop on, hop off' trams and in doing this we probably saw lots more than if we had just gone on foot, we stopped at the Fishermans Wharf and had our lunch at a place called Cicerellos, fish and chips (naturally) and it was fantastic, all around were massive fish tanks and the food was amazing.

We left there and got back on the tram and carried on with our tour, ending up in the city centre where we had a wander round the shops, this is where I found a second had bookshop which seemed to be employing the rudest person I have ever met, the bookstore was called Elizabeth's Bookshop, personally I cannot recommend this store as when asked a basic question I was told to just "look for the book", I wouldn't have asked if I had found it!!!!!

We also went to the Aquarium at Hillarys Boat Harbour and that was another brilliant experience, which all of us really enjoyed, then we walked over the car park and went to the Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre (NMDC) which was really interesting and the girls got to touch Sea Stars, Sea Cucumbers and a Bamboo Shark in the touch pool. Once we'd finished we went to eat and then headed back. You could have spent your entire day just at the Harbour as there were loads of shops, cafes and restaurants as well as having the harbour itself where people had their chairs and towels at and were just relaxing.

All in all we all really enjoyed Perth, there was lots more we could have done but we tried to pace ourselves throughout the week. Would love to go back again and go to Rottnest and re-visit some of the sites we went too, people were nice and very helpful (except in the book shop) and with the Fremantle Doctor keeping you cool in the afternoon it was just perfect.

Wildlife

One thing I never really thought about was the different types of wildlife we would have in Brunei. I did have a fleeting thought in relation to mosquitos and other types of creepy crawlies but that was it. Little prepared me for the extremely cheeky monkeys and the mad Hornbills (a type of bird).

The Hornbills here seem to be slightly deranged and fly from a branch in one of the trees at the back of the house right into either our bedroom or dining room window. To start I thought it was simply a mistake, but I stood in our bedroom watching these rather odd birds fly back and forth, hitting the windows and then looking a little shocked. I have tried leaving the blinds down but this seems to make no difference to their crazy behaviour, so I have learnt to accept that when I hear very loud bangs on the windows I know the Hornbills are playing chicken!!

As I also mentioned we have monkeys, so far we have seen 2 different types, a large grey macaque and a smaller (but not by much) brown macaque. So far the only ones to totally plague us are the brown ones, they have no respect for anything and like eating cockroaches and dropping the remains on our veranda. They also adore the bin and like to have a good rummage, I feel that on this one we have deeply disappointed them as we don't put anything out until late at night so it is slim pickings!

On returning from a week away we were shown that they had got hold of a bottle of floor cleaner that was in a box on our veranda and had been biting it, as well as trying to destroy the box it was kept in. Nothing is sacred!

The large grey macaques are amazing and swing through the trees around the perimeter of our garden (you don't see the other monkeys when the grey ones are around). There must be around 30 of them and they a go one by one from tree to tree, I have to say it beats telly...

Other than ants, cockroaches, mosquitos and other buzzy insects we have Monitor Lizards, these also seem to be the main form of road kill! There is also a crocodile that lives up the road and has based its home at the Panaga Club Golf Course, so far have not seen it and in all honesty I am not overly worried about this, I feel that crocodiles are best left alone.

Beauty, Brunei Style

Brunei seems to be awash with Beauty Salons and shops full of beauty products so I thought I would give it a go as along with shoes, being pampered is definitely one of my weaknesses.

I went to one of our local supermarkets, called Supersave (or as I keep referring to it as the Kwik-E-Mart, definitely watched too many episodes of The Simpsons). Next door to Supersave are a couple of units.

One is a laundry and the other is a Florist/Beauty Salon/Hairdresser (yes all 3 are together in one shop).

I went and did some shopping then after putting it in the car thought I would be very brave and go see what they had to offer. I went in and asked about a pedicure, the next minute I was sitting in a chair with my feet soaking in a bowl of water with flowers in it.

In front of me was the lady who was away to do my pedicure, she then looked at my hands and then another woman was sitting next to me with my fingers in another bowl of water. The pedicure was fantastic as was the manicure I received and my hands and feet were now ready to be back on show.

As I had been sitting there watching all the comings and goings; to explain it seems that beauty treatments are quite sociable, you get to watch different people (staff I think) trying on clothes and looking for opinions, washing each others hair and styling it and having very animated conversations which all ended in lots of laughing. I decided I would ask about getting my hair trimmed (it was starting to look a bit mad, not that it takes much in the humidity).

I was then whisked away into another chair and a lady came up and put a gown and towel on me then walked away, I looked over the the sinks but silly me, we weren't going there. She came back and dolloped some shampoo on my head and then squirted water on it to start to get it to foam. This hair wash took about 25 minutes and if there was any tension in my head it had to be gone by the time she was finished. We then went over to the sink and she promptly told me I was to get my eyebrows shaped ("very cheap and take no time at all" she said), not wanting to sound offended (as I had just done them - admittedly not very well), I said "OK", in all honesty I don't think it would have mattered what I'd said they were being done whether I wanted it or not!

My hair then had the shampoo washed out (this took another 10 minutes) and then the lady for the eyebrows arrived, she was like a whirling dervish and when she was done she got a mirror and I was absolutely delighted, better than they'd looked in ages and for being a bit of a coward when it comes to plucking I didn't feel a thing.

I then went back over to the chair and my hair was trimmed and blow dried, I have to say for the first time my hair looked normal and felt great (as did I), I was told that next time I should just come in for a hair wash and manicure/pedicure and they will do it all at the same time (which I noticed is what the lady next to me was doing).

Then it was time for the bill, now normally I would be thinking of a 3 figure sum for all this so when I was asked for $46 which is the equivalent of £20 I gladly handed over my cash with thoughts of what I could get done next time!

I did resist buying flowers but can say with certainty I will be back for more pampering (maybe next week).

About this Blog

This was started due to some serious nagging from a friend, who shall not remain nameless (Carol Harding). I thought it would be fun to do but never really pulled my finger out until we got settled in our house (which we moved into on the 22nd December).

This is really more of an electronic diary and a way of noting down all the different things I see and do while we are off on our travels. and a way for me to remember the different things we have seen, done and experienced.

Most of it will be out of order but I am sure anyone who does read this will be able to read between the posts and work out where each one falls.

I hope you enjoy reading it as I have to say "Thank you Carol, I'm enjoying writing it".

Being In France (then off to Brunei)

When it was all first spoken about it sounded like the perfect solution. We would sell the house, the girls and I would move to France and stay with my parents for 12 weeks while Gordon goes to Brunei to get settled, then we would all head off to Brunei to join him. Ultimately it was the perfect solution and I have to say that it all fell into place rather smoothly (much to my relief).

We arrived in France on the 30th August and to say I felt tired is possibly and understatement. I was physically and emotionally exhausted, I had spent all week running around trying to tie up all the loose ends while the contents of our house were being packed and I was attempting to hand over work, while in between I was bidding farewell to my friends and then obviously our family. The first week at my parents went by in a bit of a blur.

The next hurdle was to get both Madeleine and Amelie settled into a routine, this included school and nursery as well as going to bed at a sensible hour! As I have said before I think in my rose tinted view of the situation we would all arrive and instantly be speaking French and feel totally at ease - at this point a claxan should really sound like it does in cartoons as I needed a wake up call and to step right back into the real world - it didn't but the moaning and groaning of 2 children certainly did!

Madeleine and Amelie went to the local school in Nanteuil-en-Vallee. Madeleine did her usual and just got on with it and Amelie made me feel terribly guilty by crying and clinging onto me for dear life, however she did stay and when I picked her up she was always happy and had enjoyed herself. At this point I realised how poor my own French was and spent most of my time grinning like an idiot and nodding a lot when the teachers were giving me information - Mum was on standby but wasn't always able to come so I quickly started to pay very close attention and then go home and try to repeat what I had been told - surprisingly this sometimes worked, other times it was a mess but we would work it out eventually.

As time went on it was clear that neither of the girls were totally happy. In reflection I think that a lot of this was down to the fact that we had just got up and left everything we knew and replaced it with a new version that was being played in a different language and didn't have subtitles. We had many ups and downs and I also think that alot of this was due to me feeling out of my own comfort zone. I had gone from living in my own home, with all my things, a set routine and all of a sudden I didn't have this (or my other half).

I can only really write about this reflectively as it is obviously 2 months since we left but despite the odd fights and fallings out, the tantrums because of not wanting to go to school or wanting to go to school (depending on how the wind blew), all 3 of us enjoyed our time and I only wish we were able to replay it knowing what we know now. Ah yes hindsight, such a wonderful thing. In short all 3 of us were in limbo. I don't think it would have mattered if we had been in Edinburgh or the Moon we were constantly waiting to leave, which was a shame as we must have missed so much.

The experience for all of us (and I include Gordon) was hard going but ultimately I think worth it. Being back as a family was strange to begin with but within 2 weeks we all seemed to fit back together and I would say it has enriched our lives and made us a much stronger family unit.

Madeleine and Amelie both speak about France and it is always in a good and positive way. They both enjoyed having the time with their grandparents and many stories get told (mainly of Amelie running around with nothing on except wellies and felt tip pen all over her face). We were sad when Emma (the dog) passed away but again in some ways we were pleased to be there to say good bye to her. L'Eclerc supermarket is a favourite dining hotspot and it has already been requested that we go there for lunch in summer - take note mum and dad!

My only regret is that whenever I have returned home (back to my parents) to stay for any length of time it is always on the back of something manic happening which always has an effect (usually me and dad bickering like small children) but I am so pleased that we did get this chance to stay and would do it again in a flash, especially now I know what to expect!

I think that our stop over was well worth it and it was also great to get to know mum and dads friends better (they are all brilliant) as well as getting to know the area they live in. Beware we may land on your doorstep again (and not just for a holiday)!

Anything I would change? Yes, I would have finished work at least 3 weeks before, so that we could have had family time and to give me, Gordon and the kids a chance to adjust and to get settled so that none of us would have left with all the baggage, tiredness and exhaustion that we all carried for far too long.

Anything I would keep the same? Yes, I would have still gone to France only I would have carried out my instructions above so that I would have my head screwed on correctly and would have found it easier to adjust and therefore help the kids adjust so that the experience would have been easier on all (that includes my parents).

We left for London on the 16th November and played a game called, "how many hotels can you stay at in a week?" We managed 3, The Mercure in Bordeaux, The Grosvenor in London and the Hilton at Heathrow, all of them were super and I would stay at any of them again. We then also played the game "how much stuff can you get from the hotel bathroom into your suitcase" not surprisingly the kids were pretty good at this game and we came away with all sorts of body creams and shower gel!

Then it was the big day, we were in the airport heading to Brunei (shame the flight was delayed), I had emailed Gordon to let him know but he hadn't got it so we arrived to a rather panicked looking Daddy who had been waiting since 8am (it was now 12.30pm), but we'd arrived, we went through immigration and outside into the wall of heat and back to being all together at the Seaview Hotel.

The Actual Move (Aberdeen to France Part 1)

The more I think about it the more it think we must have been total maniacs to do this.

Neither Gordon or I had any idea what we would really need to do, as far as we were concerned all our house contents would magically materialise in Brunei. OK reality check, Team Allied, who were the removal company, phoned and made an appointment to come and see how much "stuff" we had for moving and that was the beginning of the end.

We went around the house and it was agreed that they would need 3 days to get everything packed (you would think we lived in a 3 storey, mansion) but no, we just had a lot of things, and it would seem that a lot of it was in the garage!

Gordon set to work to clear said garage and after a week of hard slog you could actually see the floor! We then had to go through a form which was loosely termed 'Inventory' this was in actual fact a method of torture and was designed to drive a sane (I use the term loosely) person totally barking.

By the time we had decluttered and taken many trips to the local civic amenities it was time to say bye bye to Mr G as he had a date with KLM and RBA. On the other hand I had to get on with my last week of work, packing for France, helping where possible with the packing and cleaning up to make sure we left nothing for the new owners to deal with. Madeleine had her last week of school and to Amelie's great annoyance her last week with Yvonne (Yvonne is/was Amelie's childminder).

It was at this stage that I turned into a jelly and had to take advice from my 7 year old who told me "not to worry as it would all be fine and we should just pretend daddy is upstairs in his office working". This said I set to work with the inventory again, but due to its fiendish layout needed re-inforcements. These came in the form of Gordons mum and dad, who I have to say were fantastic, I know that I couldn't have done any of this without them.

Gordons mum and I went through the list with a fine tooth comb and got as much as we could sorted, while Charlie (Gordon's dad) went to work on the gardens. We discovered that I had a shops worth of cake tins and various other items that I clearly had no real need for, so some of these were left with my brother-in-law, John for safe-keeping and the use thereof should he ever need to cook a 21" cake! All the food stuffs were decanted to anyone who wanted them and finally when I came home on Thursday night our house was empty.

After a discussion with the girls, it was agreed that we wanted to stay in the house until we left on the Sunday morning, however having no beds was a bit of a challenge. Lucky for us my friend Gillian said "I have a self-inflating bed you could use", so that was it sorted. We got the bed and put it up in the living room with much hilarity. You just plugged it in and it started to inflate s before us we watched a king-size bed frame appear, then we did the same for the mattress. Our first night was 'alternative' as all 3 of us were in hysterical giggles as one movement and we all bounced around, but finally we got to sleep and it served us very well for our final nights.

My last day at work was wonderful, and very sad as I didn't really want to leave. We went for coffee and bioche (Louise informed us all that they were French - this became a joke for the day) then they embarrassed me by giving me presents and a card. I carry my emergency poncho everywhere as when it rains (in Brunei), it really rains and you can be ankle deep in water within about 45 seconds. Then it was lunch at the Northern Hotel before going back to work and me then having to leave to go and pick up Maddie from school.

On the Saturday I did a quick flit into town and did some shopping and had a lovely lunch with my friend Susan then I had to return our car to the garage. My brother-in-law followed me out and after signing it back to the dealer we headed back. I think at this stage it hit me the most that we were actually going.

Sunday morning and it was madness, we were all up and running around (money, tickets, passports), final looks around what had been our home and farewells to Gordons folks and that was it. Gillian had offered to drive us all the way down to Edinburgh Airport and I am so pleased she did, we put the now deflated bed into her car and this was followed by our many suitcases (good job she has big car) and we were off.

We stopped at Glendoick Garden Centre (highly recommended, very tasty food and lots of nice stuff to look at), this was our usual haunt when we drove to or from the Scottish Police College (SPC) so Gillian and I thought it was fitting for our final coffee and piece for some time in Scotland then we headed off and in no time we were at the airport.

Gillian dropped us off so we could get a trolley and she parked the car, we all headed in and my 2 horrors thought it would be very funny to play a trick by hiding in the toilet. This was all going on s I was checking-in. However, Gillian said that it wasn't hard to find them as they were giggling so much!!!!

After lots of thank you's and hugs we said bye to Gillian and that was us at the Departure Gate away to get onto our Ryanair 99p flight to Poitiers. We landed in France and my Dad was there waiting to pick us up (lucky as I needed to Euro for the trolley) and that was us at the beginning of stage 1 of our move from the UK.

I have to say that at the end of this week I was totally and utterly drained, mentally and physically exhausted and know that if I ever find myself in that position again I would definitely allow myself time to get it all sorted and not be running around like a headless chicken....

Kota Kinabalu (KK), Malaysia

As I mentioned before, we went away for a week on holiday to a place called Kota Kinabalu.

Gordon booked this on recommendation and it greatly appealed as it was only a hop, skip and a jump from Brunei.

All I can say is "I am so pleased he did".

We stayed at the Shangri-la Rasa Ria Resort and it was absolutely fantastic. We stayed in the Ocean Wing of the resort and had a beautiful view from our balcony. (There is also the Garden Wing).

The resort is next to a nature reserve and you can go and see Orangu-tangs, but be warned you need long trousers, socks and decent trainers/boots as it is full of buzzy things that like to bite you (nice). We didn't have anything suitable to wear and after speaking to someone who had been we decided to be wise and give it a miss (although we will be back and will have the right stuff with us next time).

Sand Flies are also a bit of a menace but if you are not bothered about going onto the beach then you shouldn't have a problem. However, there are so many things to do on the beach you might want to just take weapons grade insect repellent with you and hope for the best.

The hotel and staff were wonderful and I have never been anywhere that has resulted in every member of staff not only knowing all our names but remembering them for the week we were there. Amelie and Madeleine were treated like royalty (as were we).

One night there was a chocolate fountain which naturally had small children round it like moths to a flame, but much to Amelie's disgust it was gone the following night. This didn't prove an issue and 8 chocolate covered marshmallows appeared on our table much to both my children's total delight.

The food was a phenomenal as the resort and we tried each one of the restaurants but the highlight was definately the Japanese Teppan-Yaki restaurant, Kozan where all the food is cooked in front of you on a large iron hotplate. It was totally amazing and well worth a visit. We also went to the Indian restaurant Naan and the food there was also fantastic, all the ladies/girls were giving Bindi's to wear which was a novelty for my 2 horrors.

It was the complete opposite of the Seaview Hotel and so very much enjoyed by all of us that without a doubt if we get the chance to go again you can guarantee we'll be there.