Good News

Jim sent out an email today to some people in Brunei Shell's HR Department and was contacted by someone to mediate the situation. They told us that we had to remove the word "Furniture" from the contract. Hmmm. The guy yesterday was not capable of doing that? They put their stamp of approval on it and the contract was sent to the owner for his approval. Jim spoke with him this evening, and we will meet him for coffee in the morning and sign the contract. Thank you Lord! All is good. This afternoon, I had a call from Olivier, another Brunei Shell(BS) guy that arrived on the same day we did. He had heard that we had found a house and wanted some details on the process and the real estate agent that we used. He told me about his experience in being evicted from his hotel because Brunei Shell did not extend his reservation. The hotel had already promised his room to another person. Then, BS moved them into an apartment, which was full of mold and are just not a pretty sight. I explained to him that Irene, Real Estate agent was very good, but her English was not very good. I told Olivier to tell Irene that she should find him a place similar to mine with the same conditions. Tell her not to show you anything that does not fit into your budget, as it is a waste of time. I get the feeling that I will be passing this info onto a lot of people in the very near future.....

I made some Santa hats for the children across the hall from us.

It's a Stressful Time....

For all the people that told me that I would love this place, I have one thing to say..... You were WRONG!! Yes, it is a beautiful place and everyone is happy all the time, but they have no clue how to conduct business here. They make life very frustrating! Since it appears that we will be in this hotel for at least another month, we decided to look on the open housing market again. We found a house that we both like, and is ready to move in anytime. It is a little further away from the office than we would like, but it's still only about a 10-15 minute drive. Jim goes to Brunei Shell housing department(BSHD), and asks them what is needed in a rental agreement. They tell him that the rent and the other furnishings can be itemized on the contract. We meet again with the owner and we agree on a price of 3500 BND per month with everything included. The owner writes his standard contract, itemizing the rental of appliances, gas, electricity, water, internet and the house. Jim brings it to BSHD and they reject the agreement! They don't explain why, just that it is rejected. You can not win in this situation. Moving targets are difficult to hit, and usually they are not any fun. Finally, after much heated discussions, Jim get a copy of a sample contract. It does not let you itemize anything! Why did they tell him that? Do they get some joyful pleasure out of this? Who knows? First of all, the owner wants to itemize the rent so that he does not have to pay taxes on the other items that are included. Fair enough! The new contract does not allow utilities and appliances to be itemized. How will we solve this? Jim filled out the new contract last night, and will ask the owner, William to sign it today. I doubt if William would sign it because it is not what he wants. I hope that Jim will bring William to BSHD today and let them figure it out together. Hopefully, they can come up with an agreement. The Riviera Hotel is where we are staying, along with many other Brunei Shell families. Some have been here for 2-1/2 months. There are BS houses available, but BSHD will not release them. They claim they have to be inspected and of course, there is only one inspector. I expect he is on holiday this time of year. That information can not be disclosed! There are over 60 families living in hotels here. I think I have it figure out though. The BSHD is made up of all Bruneians. Therefore, they are fueling their own economy. The hotels would have very few people staying in them, if it were not for all the expats. Restaurants would not flourish if all these expats were no living in these hotels. The restaurants here are nothing to write home about. Especially, with my MSG allergy. They can buy MSG by the kilo here! It's another poison for our bodies! No thank you. I think it is just that simple. They are NOT complex thinkers, so this fits very well. The Riviera Hotel is not the worst place I have ever stayed, but it is definitely next to the worst, which was in Nigeria. That's not saying much. They consider Brunei to be a developed country. I think NOT! The staff at the hotel are not trustworthy, therefore, I don't allow them in my room unless I am present. Yesterday, (a friend that is staying across the hall from me) I went to her door, which was open and said "anyone here?". The cleaning crew's cart was outside her room. No one answered, so I stepped inside and observed a man lying on one of the beds watching TV, and another playing with her baby's toys, as others were watching this activity. I quickly left the room. After she returned, and the smoke alarm went off, we both stepped out into the hallway to exit the building when it stopped. Hmmm. I wonder what that was about. We started chatting in the hallway, and she invited me in. As I was sitting playing with her 4th month old baby, I casually told her what had happened earlier. Understandably she was very upset by this news. She asked if I minded her speaking to the manager about it. I said that was fine with me, but that I was not one of their favorite people. I told her why I keep my "Do not disturb" sign on all the time. About an hour or so later, she asked me if I could come downstairs to discuss this with the manager. I said I could and proceeded downstairs. When I entered her office, she did not introduce herself, and asked me to have a seat. The manager asked me to explain what I saw, which I did. She asked me if I had done anything else in the hallway before entering my friend's room. I told her that yes, I had taken a plastic trash bag from the cart for my kitchen, since I had brought out the trash the night before. Then, she made a big deal about me taking one trash bag from the cart, and carried on about it for a few minutes. She also told me that I had "no right" to enter my friend's room. I paused at the door and called her name. She could have been in the bedroom changing the baby?? My friend did not have a problem with it. Her behavior was that of a person that had something to hide. She told us that the man sitting on the bed was "checking the channels", so we replied, I've never seen them do that while I am there?? She said that they only do that when the guest is out of the room. What the hell?? She had us watch the CCTV of this time, which took up a good 20-25 minutes. It was dinner time and we both wanted to leave, but she kept going on and on. She brought up the trash bags again! I finally said, Really? You want to argue with me about trash bags? Do you know how much they cost? I will bring you the trash bags and that way they will ALL be accounted for! With that I left her office. I came upstairs and retrieved the trash bags and brought them back to her, which she would not take, so I let them fall to the floor and left. Another thing about this lovely hotel, which Jim and I have made quite a joke of is the toilet. When we flush the toilet we have to hold the handle down until it completely flushes, which takes roughly 20 seconds. We always cheer when it flushes successfully! After a hard rain it does not flush! Now you know about our stressful lives in Brunei! I can definitely see how it could be laid back and relaxed, but we are not there yet.

Good News!

We had to give our Shell rental car back on Friday. We had to have something to drive and quick because the care we are buying is not ready yet. I found a car for rent for 450 Brunei dollars (BND) for a month! It is almost exactly like the Shell rental we had. This is a private owner, renting their extra car. The car is in good mechanical condition. My neck and shoulder muscles continue to give me some pain. I started physical therapy on Monday, but with the Panaga clinic only having on therapist, she was booked the the rest of the week. I have 3 appointments with her this coming week, then she will be away for 2 weeks. I am also seeing a orthopedist in Jerodong, which is about 1-1/2 hours away. They took some MRIs this week, and I will return to see the Spine Specialist on December 27th. Hopefully, I will make it back to Germany to see Dr. Zeegers (surgeon) and Dr. Baumbach (neurologist) after the 1st of the new year. We received some good new this week; we received release papers from immigrations on Thursday for the cats to be release to home quarantine when we have a temporary house. We submitted the paperwork to Shell Housing. Hopefully, they will move us soon into our temporary house. Here are some photos of the kitties on some of my visits from this past week enjoying some time on the patio.

We also found out that our shipment will be here sometime this coming week! We will see how long it will take for them to release it to us. Finally, today we received our new car, a Mazda CX5. We'll take some photos tomorrow. Here are some funny (different?) things about Brunei that I have discovered so far: - You can't use your index finger to point, you have to use your thumb. They claim the reason for this is that some people (ie, muslims) could find this offensive! - Everyone drives on the left side of the road. - You have to look RIGHT when crossing the street. - Monkeys are everywhere! They love to dig through your trash to see what they can find that is delicious. - During the weekend, which is Friday, Saturday & Sunday, you have to bring your own shopping bags. All other days of the week, you are given many plastic bags. - One of the main landmarks in Kuala Belait is called the Teapot Roundabout. I call it the Tacky Teapot R/A. Here is a photo.....

A few years ago when we were here, they would turn the water on once a week, but now they don't do that anymore. Probably because the pumps need maintenance. - There is a van that is made by Toyota called a KIJang. This is only place in the world I have ever seen this vehicle. They have very popular amoung people that own a small business, but in maintenance. They have very small engines, and there seems to be thousands of them on the road. They usually putt along on the highways below the speed limit, not in a hurry to go anywhere. Not like they COULD go anywhere very fast. I have seen these in almost every color imaginable! When I see them on the road I always announce KIII Jang! The locals like to paint them in odd colors, put stickers on them, etc. It's definitely become a running joke between Jim and I. Here is one that I saw the other day:

Notice the BMW Mini sticker on the hood!

More photos of KII Jangs to come.....

Brunei Driving License

Today we are hoping to get our permanent Brunei driving license. AND.... perhaps our new car can be delivered. We are getting the last Mazda CX5 that is in the country. It is a 2012 because it takes that long for even dealers to get cars out of customs. I say these customs people need to lighten up! Yesterday, Jim informed me that we now have multiple exit/entry visas now in our passport. That means we can actually leave and come back if we want to. You gotta love those dictatorships! I could hold off no longer, I started my garden. At present it on the patio of our hotel room. The workers here think that is very funny. The looks on their faces when I showed up with all these plants was priceless. They were very unsure about me bringing in some extra soil and some flower pots. They are probably thinking "This is one crazy American". Here are some photos:

Today I am trying to rent a car. I made a reservation through Avis via their website. I called them to ask if they would deliver the car to the hotel. No problem. A guy shows up at the hotel with an 8 year old car that has over 165,000 km on it that reeks of body odor! I told them "no", and said go find me a car that has less km's and that has not been smoked in, and one that has less than 50,000 km. HaHa! That does not exist. Jim send me a message saying that we can keep the Shell car until Friday. We can put the rental thing off for a bit longer.

Sunday.... posted late

After seeing the kitties in prison, we headed for the very exciting city of Bandar. I takes about 1-1/2 hours from where the kitties are located. We went to two different shopping malls. Not much different than the stuff that is available locally in the small town of Kuala Belait. LOL! It so funny living in such a small country! I don't really complain, as most things are available there, you just have to know where they are. We were actually hunting for the Starbucks, which does not exist yet.... Driving is getting to be less of a challenge. I am actually getting used to the blinker being on the right side. Whenever I am completely not paying attention or in a hurry, I turn on the windshield wipers instead of the blinker. I always feel so dumb for doing that! This week I have to figure out how we can get an immunization for Japanese Encephalitis. There have been 15 cases of this in the last few weeks in the area where we are living. Yikes! Evidently, kids 15 and under get priority. WTH? I see Hornbills on a daily basis. Finally, I was able to take some photos of them. They live in the Panaga area, which is very cool! They are very big birds! It is unusual for them to live in such a populated area. I will post some photos. On Friday morning, I was Hornbills, a Kingfisher and some crows that have black heads, but brown wings. I have seen some other birds, but have not been able to identify them yet. There are many monkeys about, but I have not taken the time to get photos of them. I have seen a few of them flattened on the road going to the kitties prison. They like to hang out on the side of the road, and watch traffic. I made my first plant purchase today. There was some ladies selling some plants close to the food open market today. I bought a couple of hibiscus, nothing exciting. There were some other plants that I was interested in, but the seller was not around at the time. I went to a couple house of people selling plants today, but the prices seemed a bit high to me, so I pass on them. There is a nursery not too far from the medical center that I am going to tomorrow, so I will stop in and get a better idea for plants, and hopefully pots too! Here are some photos that we took this weekend. The chandelier is in The Mall in Gadong. It's interesting that they could not come up with a better name for the main mall in Gadong.

Weekend - Somehow this didn't get posted.....

After seeing the kitties in prison, we headed for the very exciting city of Bandar. I takes about 1-1/2 hours from where the kitties are located. We went to two different shopping malls. Not much different than the stuff that is available locally in the small town of Kuala Belait. LOL! It so funny living in such a small country! I don't really complain, as most things are available there, you just have to know where they are. We were actually hunting for the Starbucks, which does not exist yet.... Driving is getting to be less of a challenge. I am actually getting used to the blinker being on the right side. Whenever I am completely not paying attention or in a hurry, I turn on the windshield wipers instead of the blinker. I always feel so dumb for doing that! This week I have to figure out how we can get an immunization for Japanese Encephalitis. There have been 15 cases of this in the last few weeks in the area where we are living. Yikes! Evidently, kids 15 and under get priority. WTH? I see Hornbills on a daily basis. Finally, I was able to take some photos of them. They live in the Panaga area, which is very cool! They are very big birds! It is unusual for them to live in such a populated area. I will post some photos. On Friday morning, I was Hornbills, a Kingfisher and some crows that have black heads, but brown wings. I have seen some other birds, but have not been able to identify them yet. There are many monkeys about, but I have not taken the time to get photos of them. I have seen a few of them flattened on the road going to the kitties prison. They like to hang out on the side of the road, and watch traffic. I made my first plant purchase today. There was some ladies selling some plants close to the food open market today. I bought a couple of hibiscus, nothing exciting.

A Big Beetle

Here is some photos of the very large beetle that I found laying upside down in the patio area of the quarantine unit. Coco was the first one to paw this thing. It hiss at him, so he hissed back and walked away. Poppy gave it one slight and was unimpressed and walked away. It has a nice claw on the top of it's head. Yuk!

My Thanksgiving Day!

It's been an interesting week. We dug more into renting a house on the open market. On the one house that we were most interested in, the owner expected us to do maintenance on his 7 A/C units every 3 months. The cost for this is 350 BND! Ha! We rent our house in NL, and no way could we ask our tenants to do all the maintenance on the equipment in the house. I guess if you can find companies/somebody to agree to this, more power to you. The cats are still doing well, but are pretty bored! I take them to an outside area every day. They love being out on the patio, however, they want to eat the weeds. I don't let them eat the weeds because it will upset their tummies. Poppy sometimes gets very unhappy with me when I fuss at her for trying to eat the weeds. It's a tough kitty life! We finally received our temporary Identity Card (IC), which lets us apply for a Brunei driving license. Now we wait again for 10 working days to pass, and then we get to do the next step. We still cannot purchase the car that we have picked out. We have to have our local license before that can be processed. We have to give back our Shell loaner car this Wednesday. It looks like we will rent a car for at least two weeks. We went and checkin with the clinic at Panaga. They don't carry any of the medications that I am currently taking. Of course they want to give me an alternative drug, but I am not willing to change, since Cymbalta has been working for years. Therefore, they sent me to another pharmacy in Jerudong, which is about an hour away. I will begin physical therapy at Panaga next week. My adventure on Thursday (Happy Thanksgiving!) was to the town of Jerudong to the Jerudong Park Medical Center. It's an interesting place. I would not expect a medical center to be placed in the middle of a park. There is a very nice 18 hole golf course and polo club. Surprise! There is very little parking for the medical center, so I parked over in a lot for the convention center after I sweet talked the guard at the gate. From there I had to walk over to the medical center, maybe a 10 minute walk. I didn't mind, as the weather is very pleasant. I walk down the sidewalk where all the horse stable is located. All of the horses are stamped with a number on them. I was feeding them some sweet grass as I was walking along. There are probably close to 100 horses in these stables! Amazing! Once inside the medical center, I noticed that there is an orthopedist on my way to the pharmacy. I handed them my prescription and went back to the orthopedist clinic and made an appointment for Monday. The challenges of finding descent medical care while overseas! Here are some photos of my day there!

Today is Sunday, and it is a pretty slow day. We took our usual trip to see the kitties. We took them outside on a fenced in patio. They enjoy all the smells outside, but Poppy was looking for some kind of escape route. I did some more trimming on Coco. It was a bit warm, so hopefully, they will have a shower there today. I took a video on the way to quarantine, so you can see what it looks like. We drove over to the Panaga Club for lunch and met up with some friends that we had dinner with the other night. They had been out playing tennis. They both look pretty hot. There are not inside tennis courts here. We went to the upstairs restaurant to have lunch thinking that it would be quiet and less kids, but after we had order our food, a group of about 18 kids (8 or 9 year olds) came in and sat at a long table next to us. Some much for a quiet lunch! We are going out to dinner with some friends for sushi tonight. Here are some photos that I have taken in the last few days. The sunset from two nights ago.....

Interesting art in one of the restaurants:

Christmas tree at Panaga. I think it's funny how muslim women will take photos by a Christmas tree.

Engrish

This is NOT part of Coco anymore...

The first photo is the sign indicating the name of the Quarantine Unit and the second is the sign on the outside of the building.

Some cool looking clouds....

An old house that reminded me of some of the houses in Louisiana from the 60s.