18 hours later

As promised, this is the account of THE flight(s) as I'm happily sipping rose in nearly eternal daylight in super-warm Helsinki.
Jabatan terbang in Brunei is still not finished despite of the plans of welcoming the ASEAN country leaders through the brand new arrivals hall last year. Most of the departures is wrapped up, leading to an insufficient number of seats for waiting passengers, and to no internet. Note to self, don't go there more than the bare minimum time before departure. At least there are no queues - silver linings....

I was clearly ready to leave Brunei as I completely lost it in the coffee shop waiting for our flight. I was waiting for my coffee, and waiting, and waiting, so I finally went to shout at one of the 4 members of staff who was facebooking (apparently he was texting his manager). Not cool. But I got my mocha frappe pretty quickly after the outburst.

After our previous travels I had grown wise to the "security checks before boarding your flight" so I didn't purchase any drinks just to throw them in the bin. But there's none of this please taste your baby's drinks and meals neither so I was able to share Sofia's drinks on the plane.

Singapore is such a breath of fresh (clean and efficient) air in comparison. Like a weight was lifted off my shoulders when I reached the airports well lit corridors. The process of rechecking our luggage for Helsinki flight took just under an hour and included a rendition of Frozen music to the passport officials (by Sofia) and several accounts of The plane flies niaaaauuuu crash to the bemusement of fellow passengers (again by Sofia). Since T1 in Singapore offers free films, the rest of the 2 hours flew by. Although I would have much rather been shopping! 

On both flights I managed to dodge the chicken & rice option in favour of  beef and potato. Finnair did beat RBA on that. Furthermore Finnair surprised my taste buds in the morning with a cheeky bratwurst fry up. I hadn't realised how much I had missed that taste!

Sofia was a real star on the flights. We did a bit of stickers but most of the time was glued to an iDevice, which I generally loathe but had already given myself the permission to use them as much as I needed. I already feared Sofia wouldn't sleep before night was declared on the flight; Unfortunately I was right. At 2 am,  after 1 Frozen, several games, 2 Gruffalos and a meltdown we had the lights out and a sleeping Sofia. Whilst she kept waking me up wrestling in her seat, she seemed to sleep well until the lights came on 2,5 hours before landing giving us 5 hours of sleep. My made up scarf tent didn't fool anyone. As I tried to convince Sofia  that it was still night, she peaked through the blinds and clearly declared the night to be over....

A bit of breakfast and some more telly later we reached our destination. If Brunei was beautiful in the night, Helsinki greeted us with cloudless skies. Both of us crashed for a nap in the day but all in all the flights went much better than anticipated! 

Leaving on a jet plane

This time it was Sofia's and mine time to pack far too much in our suitcases (yes, in plural. This is the last time I'll buy gifts!) We're heading to Finland for three weeks. I'm completely out of touch with any kind of weather demanding anything longer than hot pants (not that I wear them regularly, I just sweat) and I ended up packing even mitts... Yes, for August!!! And I'm willing to bet I've left all the useful stuff behind.

Sofia packed her own Trunki; it contains: baby and her blanket and a change of clothes, dog in his kennel, a book, nurse's outfit, a ball and pencils. She's been very good at pulling it along. One excited passenger! 

I thought I was a seasoned traveller but I still managed an excellent faux-pas. Demanding a jus for Sofia as all the other children in the check in queue was handed one, I was politely asked if we were fasting too. No, I said, embarrassed. Better wait until our mealtime... 

This is an 18 hour trip, I will update at the end of it on how we got along! Evening flight out of Brunei sure is a beautiful sight though. 

Three weeks on

The fasting month Ramadan is fully on its way, and as I wrote recently, it is the first one in Brunei (and in our lives) where all food outlets are closed other than for take away until the dusk. That marks iftar or Breaking Fast. Life has taken a new pace also in our household although we haven't participated in the fasting other than via the imposed no drinking in public rule. The government offices shut early, so we've witnessed long queues in the offices before midday (and then its good to start closing to be ready to leave at 1.30 as no one should really work until the end of the working day), abhorrent never-seen-before traffic jams on the motorways at 1.30 (as no one should really stay in the office until the end of the working day) and mad rushes in shops with empty shelfs (no have...). 

As it happens, the half day "rule" seems to apply to our family too. On paper this may sound amazing but in reality there is very little to do outside home comforts. No lunches out, no coffee breaks and no outings as we shouldn't be carrying water around. 

After few phone calls we've gathered that the international hotels only serve hotel guests and the 5* local hotel has decided to take the opportunity to renovate their pool area. So no swimming even, let alone drinking. in comparison to the Middle East for example there doesn't seem to be enough expats in Brunei to cater for non-Muslims even in the way of more lenient regulations. 

The "worst" time has been the two day public holiday to mark the Sultan's birthday as his celebration day marks one of the two days a year when most shops are closed. Two of the Bruneian's favourite past times, eating and shopping, have been banned - what to do! Most expats escaped over the border as whilst Malaysia is a Muslim country, too, it is much less prohibitive than ours. Phil didn't have his passport back from the immigration so we stayed put.... As many people have said before, this time around we have seen how fundamentalism has taken fun out of everything.

A little piece of Italy

We celebrated a friend's birthday in a local Italian few week's back. Sorriso in Kuilap is run by a colourful Sicilian character. The restaurant's reputation has preceded the chef and we became even more determined to give it a go after making his acquaintance on our Sunday BBQs and boating tips around the Brunei bay.

Start of the holy month

The hilal of the new moon of Ramadan 1435 Hijrah was sighted on Saturday night a week ago, marking the start of Muslims' holy month.