Instead of spending time researching about weight loss pills that work, andrea has committed to taking zumba lessons. Together with arlene, they go zumba-dancing on Tuesdays and Friday afternoons, usually leaving before 6 and then returning a few minutes before 8. I, on the other hand, become in charge of the kids and the house while they work out.

So far, it has been great. I get to spend some alone time with anika and mateo, while andrea and arlene get to spend some sisterly time together. There were a few challenging moments, yes, especially when anika would demand getting lulled to sleep for almost the whole 2 hours, but otherwise, it has been awesome. The girls seemed to be enjoying the workout (so much so that andrea has been persuading me to go with her lately) while the kids and I do a lot of catching up/bonding (during playtime).

Perhaps, when mateo and anika are old enough, we can all try zumba together. But until then, I’m okay with staying home. hehehe!

To get to  our place, you have to pass through 2 forks, an intersection, a blind curve, and a steep bending incline (and that’s just from the main road). As if these are not daunting enough, the road too is a bit narrow that at certain points, only a single car can pass at a time. No wonder a lot of people get lost trying to find our place. But what can we do?

At the moment, our location is very convenient. We’re just 15 minutes away from our place of work, a local store, 10-minute-ride away from the closest mall, and just a few houses away from the nearest Filipino community. I told andrea it might help a little to put some address plaques at the main road but she told me that people here are used to such setups. Even our service driver is content with getting just the road numbers when trying to find a place. He said that’s really all you need to find any location here in Brunei. No fuss, no hard-to-pronounce or remember names, no confusions. What else can I say to that?

December is not exactly the most festive month here in Brunei. This is especially true if you grew up in a predominantly catholic country like the Philippines where people consider the last month to be synonymous to the greatest celebration of the year – Christmas. And you know what makes it even lonelier? – not being able to go anywhere else, that’s what.

Andrea and I were thinking that the Christmas break would be a lot more bearable if we could at least go to the mall, or the park, or anywhere else besides home just to break the monotony. The problem is our family (with anika and mateo) makes it quite inconvenient to take public transportation. And with our regular service drivers going back to the Philippines for the vacation, even special transport services are not an option. This is the reason why we’re seriously pursuing the alternative of getting our own car by December.

I know it would probably set us back a few hundreds, but getting one seems to be the practical choice. It’s not like we can assemble our own ATVs even if there’s a surplus of polaris sportsman parts here in the country. And even if we can construct one, we’d probably be covered in cakes of dust and smoke before we reach the closest supermarket riding the thing.

Anyway, there are still a lot of things to consider – budget, requirements, models, and so many more – before we can decide if we really can get one. Hopefully, if all the considerations permit, we’ll have our own ride as we celebrate Christmas.