Flat Stanley visits Brunei

Are you acquainted with Flat Stanley?  If you're a parent in North America I can pretty much guarantee that you have heard of him, and you've probably met him too.

Flat Stanley is the hero of a series children's books written by Jeff Brown.  Stanley Lambchop was just an ordinary boy until one night a bulletin board fell off his bedroom wall and squashed him.  Stanley was unhurt, but flat - half an inch thick.  After the initial understandable concern of his family, Stanley soon discovered that being flat had its advantages, and the books tell of Stanley's many adventures.

One of the benefits of Stanley's diminished size is that he can be posted to visit his friends (in a special envelope, along with a carton of milk and an egg-salad sandwich made with thin bread!), which is 'much less expensive than a train or an aeroplane ticket'.

This idea generated a huge Flat Stanley project in the USA and Canada, and it was something that caught my eye when I was living in Ontario...

So, when I was teaching in rural Oxfordshire earlier this year, I set up my own Flat Stanley project.  I read the book to my class (Year 2 and 3), then gave them all pictures of Stanley to colour.  I laminated them, and sent them home with covering letters as a homework project - send Stanley somewhere... anywhere... and let's see what happens. 

Well, I wouldn't ever have imagined getting such an incredible response!  Within weeks we were having Stanleys sent back to school from all over the UK, and all over the world - Australia, China, Hong Kong, Poland, France, to name but a few.  All the Stanleys came back with postcards of where he'd been, but many of the recipients had gone above and beyond the call of duty and sent Stanley back to our class laden with gifts (the clotted cream fudge from Cornwall was particularly popular!), and often with photo albums documenting his adventures.  We could just tell that everyone had had so much fun, and it was incredibly exciting (and educational) for the children (OK, and for me!)

When I left the UK to come to Brunei I gave all of my class a slip of paper with my new address on it, and told them that I would love to have Flat Stanley to stay with me.  It's taken a few months, but last week Stanley arrived, courtesy of the lovely Polly.

I was so excited!  I immediately started planning photo opportunities...  Imagine how delighted I was to wake up on Wednesday (which was a public holiday) to hear the monkeys leaping about on our roof.  "Perfect" I thought, a quintessentially Bruneian photo-shoot - Stanley with the monkeys.

This proved easier said than done, but I managed a few with the monkeys in the background.

Pretty soon one of the monkeys came to sit on the car, a place where they often like to play.  Even better!  This'll be a great photo...  Smile Stanley!!!

Now if you know the monkeys, I'm sure you can guess what happened next...

At this point I'm shaking with laughter and trying to snap away as Stanley becomes closely acquainted with this Bruneian resident...

But then things got a little nasty...

Oh crap!  Now I'm clapping my hands and shouting "NO!" at the monkey, who seemed utterly unperturbed by my distress.  Every time I took a step closer, he simply took a step back, with Stanley still in his mouth.  I had visions of him leaping up onto the roof with him, and poor Polly would never see Stanley again.

Suddenly I had a brainwave, the ignoring-bad-behaviour-strategy!  Gritting my teeth I turned my back and began to walk away.  Sure enough - and to my huge relief - the monkey dropped Stanley and leapt off into a nearby tree.  Phew!

Stanley had a lucky escape, although tragically he lost a leg as a result of the incident.  A quick trip to the Pendlenton ER soon had him sorted out though.  I'm hoping Polly will see the funny side - after all, she probably owns the only Flat Stanley in the world to have his leg chewed off by a monkey!

We took Stanley to the Yacht Club to soothe his shattered nerves.  Nothing like a sunbathe by the sea to help one recuperate.

We retreated to the shade of the palm trees when it got too hot.

We then took Stanley out for lunch.  No expense spared for our special guest - we had a $1 lunch at one of the food stalls in Serasa!

It was genuinely delicious though - especially the rose-syrup/condensed milk/crushed ice ABC drink (although Stanley was less than impressed with the grass-jelly and sweetcorn at the bottom of the cup.  Definitely an acquired taste).

On our return home Stanley helped me in the kitchen.  We made cookies and baked bread.

Stanley got to lick the beaters.

Later that week Stanley came to school with me...  but that's for another post!

I'm so pleased that Stanley survived the monkey attack with no mental scars, he seems as cheerful as ever...

To be continued.

Wildlife River Trip

Yesterday we had an amazing day.  We've been here in Brunei for 2 months now and to be honest, we keep having amazing days!  Many people complain that Brunei is 'boring' and perhaps it is in some ways - it's a very small country, it can be quite restrictive for women, it's not great for some kinds of shopping.  But for us, so far, it's great.  We're both working full-time, I don't have a problem with not wearing shorts/vest-tops here, and my idea of a great day out doesn't involve trawling round shopping malls so we're finding plenty to keep us occupied.  Not that we're not living an entirely pleasant laid-back lifestyle here - we are - but we're just busy enough!

We did a day-long trip out to a part of Brunei called Temburong a few weeks ago (about which I will blog sometime, as that was another excellent day) but there is also a much more leisurely wildlife boat-trip, a couple of hours' long, that leaves from the capital Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), and this is what we did yesterday with our friends Paula and John.

Brunei is part of the island of Borneo, home to a multitude of amazing wildlife, but one of the animals that only lives here on Borneo is the Proboscis Monkey.  Apparently these monkeys cannot even be kept in zoos, so living here in Brunei really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see them... and this trip didn't disappoint.

We set off from the jetty in BSB and headed first for Kampong Ayer, the largest water-village in the world.  Approximately 25,000 people live here - around a quarter of the population of the capital.  It's a vibrant community with houses connected by wooden walkways and boats serving as cars and taxis.

We stopped at one house to pick up our guide.  Many of the houses may look somewhat tumbledown from the outside...

But inside they have all the mod-cons you'd expect.  The extended family all live in this house which was clearly kept with great pride.

With our guide on board we headed off round the water village past schools, a fire-station, a police-station and several mosques.

Everywhere people smiled and waved at us.  As we motored past one of the primary schools I suddenly realised that there was of course no playground for the children...  but then I saw this boy on his makeshift swing on the balcony of his house - I guess children will make their own entertainment with whatever they have to hand!

Within 15 minutes or so we were clear of the city and into the jungle. 

It's always sad to see the sheer amount of rubbish that litters this beautiful country and indeed much of South-East Asia.  The beaches are covered in it, the water around BSB is full of bobbing garbage, and this river was also dotted with various plastic debris.  I know much is washed ashore from shipping, but it's also indicative of a lack of concern for the environment which is tragic anywhere in the world, but certainly in a country so rich and diverse in its wildlife as this. 

Still, that aside, we were soon on the lookout for any movement in the trees...  we were lucky to have an excellent eagle-eyed guide, but John and Paula (having done this trip several times before) were also pretty good at spotting well-hidden animals!

There were plenty of egrets around - although they're hard to photograph as they tend to over-expose a little, being so bright white.

This large Monitor Lizard was clearly in the pay of the guide - he posed for us for ages, sauntering along the bank as John and I snapped away with our SLRs!  

And not once, but twice, we happened upon a group of Proboscis Monkeys!   The first time they were quite close to the bank, but leapt off into the undergrowth before we could take many pictures.  However, the second group were happily eating in the trees giving us plenty of opportunity to use the zoom lenses.

The group was made up of females and youngsters, so sadly we didn't get to see any adult males who have the really pendulous noses, but I liked the profile of the females with their upturned noses searching for food.

They're really quite odd to watch as they move in a much more human way than the macaques that we see so often around our house.  These monkeys are larger and 'lope' rather than 'bounce', if that makes sense.  It's hard to explain.

Excitement over, we continued to scour the mangroves...  We thought that was it as we headed back towards town.

But then our guided suddenly spotted this young crocodile!  He was lurking in the shallows near the bank, clearly hoping for an unwary bird to pass by.  I'm sure he was pretty upset with us for spoiling his potential lunch, but we were very excited to see him.

The trip was only a couple of hours long, but felt like a real getaway as we headed off up the river into the jungle. We'll definitely be back in the hope of spotting more incredible wildlife.

A final treat was a quick ride past the city's Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque.  Commissioned by and named after the current Sultan's father it was completed in 1958 and its 52-metre high dome dominates the city skyline... and provides quite a dramatic contrast with the water village alongside.

Monkeys and Mosaics

Every now and again we wake up to hear loud thumping on the roof of our house.  It confused us for a while, but now we know it's just some of the neighbours coming to call!

The video's only 4 seconds long  - I hope it works.

This troop of macaques live in the jungle around the Base and are fairly regular visitors to our street.  They can be a real nuisance - recently they took the lid of our dustbin and threw the rubbish around the garden, and they have twice now swung on the wires coming from our house, causing us to lose the 'phone and internet connection...  and yet I can't help liking them!

They're fascinating to watch, like a bunch of mischevious children, and it's easy to pick out certain 'characters' within the group.  There's the boss, a large male variously known in the street as Big Al, or Big Mac, and then there's Doris, an older female who often hangs back from the rest of the group, hoping for you to throw her some food in sympathy.  Then there's a bunch of cheeky 'teenage' monkeys who are always play-fighting and throwing themselves around.  I particularly like the mothers with their tiny babies - they're so protective of them, but the babies really just want to go and explore.

Here's a group picking grains of uncooked rice out of the grass (I occasionally throw them a handful).

And here's Doris, whose baleful look earned her a piece of papaya when the rest of the troop had scampered off into the jungle.

Today there was no food for them though.  Instead I patrolled round the garden in my pyjamas, trying to scare them away from swinging on the phone wires.  It seemed to work and they ran away to cause havoc elsewhere.

I have a day off today - a Public Holiday for 'Teachers' Day'.  What a nice thought!  We teachers always like 4-day working weeks.

I even got cards from 2 of my class, and a little box of chocolates...  Although perhaps some more work is needed on my name?  Pleased to see he's spelled it correctly,  now we just need a 'Mrs'.

Success!

I've enjoyed a bit of a lie-in and am off out for a coffee with Paula later this morning.  Paula lives on the same street as me and runs mosaic classes which several of us attend.  I've been going along for a few weeks now, and last night I was delighted to finish my first piece - a mat for the table, or perhaps to use in the kitchen?  I haven't quite decided, but I love it and feel quite proud that I made it!  Thanks Paula!

I promised that I'd post it on my blog with a mojito on it, but as it's 9am I thought it was just a little early... so here's my breakfast on it instead!

Toast with peanut butter and sliced banana.  Not quite as exotic as a mojito - but I'm sure it won't be too long until I have one of those too.