Tag Archives: paris

A Late Giveaway

18 Oct

SO! Because my friends Bubu the socialite & Mrs Cat are kind people who do giveaways on their blog, I will also share some of the things I bought in Paris as giveaway gifts to everyone who reads this blog.

Actually, the other day, I stumbled upon this box full of accessories from H&M. YES, I shop H&M sometimes – strictly when I’m in Europe (because the prices in Asia are just insanely expensive) and it’s on sale 😛

So, in a fit of rage, I bought like, loads of cute H&M accessories. Like, LOADS. When I got back from France, my mother who is practically the neatest person I’ve ever known – arranged them inside a box so they’d stay dust-free.

After we went back from France, both my husband and I were drowned under work, work and work for almost three months. I completely forgot these accessories – the box was stashed in one of my mother’s drawers.

Because there are simply too many of them – in my moment of shopping OCD, I really bought a lot, intending to keep a stack and wear them one by one. But then I realized – there are SIMPLY TOO MANY!! So I decided to give away some of these accessories to my friends, families and female clients.

And also to my blog readers 😉

There are 3 cute accessories you can have: a necklace and two bracelets, all from H&M.

(I have some more, but I haven’t taken any photos yet)

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All you have to do to get them:

You just need to leave a comment here on why you want them; and then tweet-mention me (find the link on the right-hand list of links).

Oh, also, you have to live in Indonesia 😉 I don’t ship abroad because it’d take so much time to arrive at your place.

That’s it! Good luck!

UPDATE:

Giveaway is closed! Novi, Angela, Dhita & Shalof all get the prizes 😉 Well there are two necklaces identical with each other, so please leave your address here or DM me!

(Or maybe we can all go lunchie lunchie and I’ll give the stuff to you directly??)

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Summer in France – Part 2: Paris

17 Oct

Back again!

We left Paris on a sunny, albeit a little bit windy, Tuesday morning. 2.5 more hours of TGV where we could finally sit down in a private compartment – empty save for us and the TGV controllers. Louis was behaving OK – apart of the TGV magazine whose pages he took pleasure in ripping and the chocolate yoghurt he “accidentally” poured everywhere, everything went fine.

Arriving in the Gare de Lyon, I honestly didn’t want to take any metro with all our luggage, so we just hitched a cab to our flat, which was located in the Beaubourg – Pompidou at the 3rd Arrondissement.

(Now, if you have never been in Paris before, Paris is divided into 20 areas called the “Arrondissements”. It goes from the middle of Paris, Isle Saint Louis, which is the 1st Arr, and it rolls outward like a snail house / shell. The best things happen in the middle, of course. I personally love the 3rd and 4th Arr best. The 1st and the 16th Arr is mostly the posh ones, while the 19th and the 20th are considered ghettos – even though this is going to change soon. We are buying an apartment in the 3rd – fingers crossed!!)

Things to do in Paris with a baby

This summer, actually, what we wanted to do was just relaxing. Afterall, it’s not like we were tourists. We just wanted to walk around, stroll around, go shopping, relax, dine & drink in nice restaurants and spend time playing in public places like parks – basically, things we don’t have in Jakarta.

Since our apartment was literally IN FRONT OF the Paris MoMA (Museum of Modern Arts), the Centre Georges Pompidou, it was near everything. Restaurants, bars, cafés, small boutiques, nice shops, and the Forum des Halles!!!! Hurrahhhh!!! Shopaholic hormones speaking up

So, we spent a week just like that: we didn’t even go visit any touristic spots – we just spent quality time, the three of us, going everywhere in ballads of Paris, and shopped a lot. The highstreet shops being mere minutes away on foot combined with a couple of shopaholics with their baby would not be a good combination for the resulting luggage going back home.

But, in case you’re going to Paris with the kids and wonder where we also went, here are the places you might consider, apart from the EuroDisney of course.

Along the Canals of Paris toward the Parc de la Villette

Paris is small!!! Compared to Jakarta, of course. Jakarta is a gigantic 661 km2, while Paris with its agglomeration only makes 100 km2-ish. It’s 1/6 the size of Jakarta, but it’s full of great things friendly for kids.

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Parc de la Villette is located at the end of Paris, at the northern tip of the city just under the city limits of the 19th and 20th Arr. From Pompidou/Beaubourg, you just have to go up north, along the Canals of Paris, about 6 kms of walk. We chose JUST THE PERFECT DAY for this stroll: the sun was shining bright, but there was some breezes which made things comfier.

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We put about an hour and a half because we took our time to take photos and stop everywhere. Louis was behaving very very nicely and he even fell asleep inside his stroller. (Bless Aprica Karoon, this stroller is just magically lightweight – we will soon buy the Karoon 2 to replace this old soldier so very used already)

It was NICE! We loved the canals – so quiet, under the shades of the trees, listening to the running water. We passed through the Canal de l’Ourcq where there are a nice park and restaurants, with two cinemas, one in each side of the river.

And Parc de la Villette itself! It’s huge. We arrived on its southern tip, near the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie Paris, which is Europe’s biggest Science Museum. There’s always something cool for the kids here, so we promised ourselves to return when Louis is older.

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The only downside of Parc de la Villette: sandwiches were expensive and the taste so-so – we should’ve prepared our picnic basket from home.

Next summer we’ll definitely be back at this park. Loved it.

More info here: Parc de la Villette – Paris

Metro: Stop at Corentin Cariou on Metro Line 7 or Porte de Pantin on Metro Line 5.

Entrance Fee: Parc de la Villette is free. The Science Museum I’m not sure, something like 8-10 € I guess.

Jardin des Plantes de Paris and its Ménagerie

This is Paris’ Botanical Garden, located at the 5th Arr near the Mosque of Paris (next to it).

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It’s not so big, but it houses a lot of very, very beautiful flowers and plants and it has its own mini-zoo, the Ménagerie, as well as some museums (Museums of Natural History, divided into 4: The Evolution, The Mineralogy, The Paleontology and The Entomology Galleries).

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It also has a beautiful maze, atop a hill, a dreamy-looking rose garden with hundreds of varieties of roses, dahlia garden, tropical garden and a field of sunflowers.

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The Ménagerie itself isn’t so big as a zoo. But it was okay – it even had some pink-almost-red flamingos, reptiles, leopards and some orangutans (which are of Sumatran origins!).

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More info here: Jardin des Plantes de Paris

Metro: Stop at Austerlitz on Metro Line 5 or Censier Daubenton on Metro Line 7.

Entrance Fee: Jardin des Plantes is free for public, the Ménagerie 10 € per person (adult, I don’t remember how much would be for children, but it’s also free of charge for babies under 2).

Centre Pompidou for children & Fontaine Stravinsky

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Centre Pompidou has its own children gallery (Centre Pompidou Juniors) and from what I saw on their official website, it’s quite interesting – too bad Louis is still too young to explore it.

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But we had some fun time sitting near the Fontaine Stravinsky – a very whimsical fountain just some steps away from the Centre Pompidou. Louis liked to observe the fountain and all its sculptures.

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More info here: Centre Pompidou Junior Paris

Metro: Stop at Rambuteau on Metro Line 11 or RER A, B or D, stop at Châtelet-Les Halles.

Entrance Fee: Entering the museum itself is free, entering the galleries I’m not sure (we didn’t get in far). Stravinsky Fountain is of course free – it’s located outside, in a public space.

Shopping for Children’s Stuff in Paris

When we arrived in Paris this time, it was the final week of SUMMER SALE! OH. MY. GOODNESS. Everywhere we went, there were signs of “FINAL REDUCTIONS” on the display windows.

We bought quite a lot of things for Louis – clothes and some toys, mostly. The Summer Soldes will make everyone completely insane. Okaïdi Obaïbi, Nike, Adidas, what else? Oh, also Lacoste.

Except the Lacoste red polo shirt with long sleeves that we got at Lacoste Champs-Élysées where there were no reduction whatsoever, everything we bought never exceeded 15 €. The Nike ensembles at 15 and later on 10 €, swimshorts from Okaïdi Obaïbi for 3-5 € – it’s Jakarta prices slashed in 3, sometimes 4!

At Gap, H&M, Du Pareil au même – everything was on sale. We didn’t find anything for Louis here but we found some cute little things for families/friends’ kids at home.

If you’re going to Paris, I really, really advise you to go between end of June till end of July – where all the Summer Soldes happen.

There is no Mothercare though – I think that brand is native to the Great Britain – but anyway there are more brands to shop at in Paris.

AND! If you have a daughter, you would’ve gotten crazier than we were. Boys’ stuff are like 1/4 of the total stock – there are more stuff for girls – all beyond the highest cuteness level possible.

Now that I’m making all these posts, I start missing Paris badly…

Anyway, everything went smoothly! Louis was like an angel – always smiling, always nice, cried only a little and the rest of time he was happily sitting on his stroller and observing things around him. He was also behaving very nicely meal-wise – he liked baguette and soups and purees so no problem on that side.

During our stay in Paris, I also had to wash the clothes, clean up the apartment and do all domestic chores I usually never lay my hands on – all by taking care of Louis. Now, we also knew how hard it is to take care of a household and raise a kid without any help – I know this sounds so lame, but yes, we do need help from our family – in my case, mother and aunt – to raise Louis. It really does take a village to raise a kid.

This was the first time ever we went so far and so long just the three of us – and we succeeded! Two great weeks in France. Not a crisis – well perhaps just one or two (On the way back to Jakarta, Louis was unhappy and crying badly on the plane and even puked on a stewardess) – but that was all!

We’ll be back soon, Paris!

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How I Met Your Father – Season Finale, Episode 14: The Happy Ending

14 Apr

The kiss had officially declared what we were feeling for each other. And although we were at first unsure of the future, and the next-day felt so hard because we had to say goodbye on Monday, it was a beginning of all things wonderful in our life.

Eddie was the happiest of all when I told him about what happened. He was amazed and slightly bemused because he didn’t believe that two people eventually met and got together for real over internet – I couldn’t be more thankful to him than I already was.

Our story was even published on Yahoo – about true love found on their Meetic.

It all happened so fast…

After that first visit, came more visits, and more trips for me back to Paris. It was a long-distance relationship, and as we celebrated our two months being together, J already asked to come with me to Jakarta, to visit and meet my family. He had already asked me to meet his too, at Christmas.

And on his 22nd birthday in November, that we celebrated together in Bonn at the Tacos, a hip Mexican bar in the Zentrum, he told me he wanted to move to Germany to be near to me.

“You can’t possibly want to leave everything behind in Paris?” I asked, half-hoping that he was serious.

“I do. I really do. I want to start over new with you.”

(We would have the similar conversation twice – once before Germany and once before Indonesia)

“You don’t speak German,” I said. Now that was a real obstacle.

“I’ll learn, I promise.”

He really did. In fact, less than six months after we met, he moved to Germany.

A week after arriving in Germany, we went to Indonesia, the first time ever J had stepped outside Europe – and in a country so far away he never dreamed once before that he would go.

He loved Indonesia the very moment he arrived in this country. I brought him as my Plus One at my cousin’s wedding – I finally somehow managed to do so.

He also fell in love so much with life in Indonesia that, on our way back to Germany, in the airport, he told me we should never leave, that we should just live there. It didn’t happen that year, but the year after, and we have been living and working here since.

It’s love

It’s strange how love could make you do things you never thought you would. Like switching all your life to match your significant one’s life.

J had switched his life, turned it upside down so that he could be with me. Because he loved me. And I loved him so much for that, too (aside his sense of humor, his smile, his small habits and a gazillion more things in his persona). It isn’t easy changing job and country, let alone changing everything in your life altogether at the same time.

J always thought that he’d spend the rest of his life working and living in Paris, marry a girl there and pay mortgages for a flat in the nice Parisian banlieue.

Instead, we took our chance, moved to Germany and then to Indonesia. He married me, someone completely stranger, that just happened to cross his path one fine Sunday, the 1st of August 2004.

We were married 18 months after we met.

I always thought I would not get married until much much later – at 32 maybe? Or even 35. Instead I was married before I was 24.

Of course we had taken a wild, crazy bet by getting married that early and things could have not worked between us. Fortunately after the newlyweds’ dramaful adjustment phase, we just bonded closer and closer.

Today, we have been married for six years, six full years of love, commitment, trust, honesty and faith, but also six full years of understanding, adjusting, adapting, compromises. As we grow older and wiser together, our priorities changed and our goals in life, too.

Louis, you were born seven years after we met, five years after we were married, and you are the most important milestone we have reached together so far.

And I’m looking forward to more, much much more years to come, more milestones. Because the efforts of being married doesn’t stop the day you say “I do” – it is in your everyday, your whole life. It takes so much things to make a marriage work and we are still, always, making everything work.

Now you know, Louis, how I met your father. One day, on your wedding day, I hope we will be there to tell these stories. And one day, you will be able to pass on these wonderful memories to your own children.

This was how I met your father.

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How I Met Your Father – Episode 6: The Parisian Guy

6 Apr

“So who’s this AsHeardOnRadio guy?”

I must be so obviously not myself – Mathilda, the six-foot tall Kenyan girl in my class, one of the good friends I had in university, inquired with interest because I seemed unusually so very unlike me (Months later, she’d told me that I looked strangely happy – could I have been living the Savage Garden Song “I knew I loved you before I met you” moment? She also said I didn’t talk about anything else but AsHeardOnRadio).

Eddie was away at his mother’s in Düsseldorf and Laurie was in London for the summer so I hadn’t had the chance to tell them yet. Mathilda and I met for coffee in downtown Cologne, at Monday afternoon following my first encounter with AsHeardOnRadio, whose real name was J.

“Well, he lives in Paris and he works in web industry.”

And he has a blog! I added to myself. Mathilda wasn’t very internet as a person so she wouldn’t understand the importance about having a blog as much as I wasn’t a tresses person (I obviously didn’t understand why she’d spend 8 hours every Sunday to redo her African tresses).

But yes, AsHeardOnRadio, that I fondly called “The Parisian Guy”, lived in the 18th Arondissement in Paris in his own flat with a roommate called Rudy. Gosh, looking back, I feel like a stalker. But his blog had pretty much the information I needed. A little bit TMI, actually. He talked a lot about his life, his job, his family and way before I met the people in his stories in real life, I already knew all about them.

He was the fourth of five children, from the Jurassian St.-Claude, south-east of France. His dad had a ranch with milk cows and his mother worked in a psychiatric hospital, he had a sister living in London and a brother living in Strasburg, another brother living in Gex, in the French-Swiss borders and the little brother who was still in high school. Himself had lived since 2000 in Paris.

His blog address proudly bore his own surname (That would be your surname, Louis, one day, but one story at a time, okay?). That kinda impressed me. Back then, I knew people could buy domains, but owning your own family name as a domain, oh wow, how cool could that be? Beyond. (Everyone was also saying that in 2004: “How cool could that be?” “Beyond!!!”)

He works as a web mobile developer for a company called Index Europe. So the blog was a part of his own personal résumé website. I was so bad at programming at school that I was also über-impressed by the small script he put on his website, a script called Mosaïc which went like this: you have a blank box, on which you have to click and then small boxes in gray would appear in tiles, big and small, then the small gray boxes went around their canvas before disappearing, over and over again. Wow. I. Was. Impressed. (Years from that day, we do the more advanced version of this small animation in each and every web product we deliver to our clients – I guess Mosaïc was the primitive version of JQuery?)

The blog, of course, also has his photograph. In black and white sepia. He looked serious, bold, but there was some fun sparkling in his eyes and most importantly, he was handsome. He had green eyes (That you will inherit, Louis), with deep dimples etched in his cheeks when he smiled (The dimples you will inherit too), dark hair and most important of all, he was funny.

After he said hello, we kinda talked for like, five hours straight and then he called me. I liked his voice with a strong French accent (At that time, Louis, I no longer spoke French so your father made an effort to talk in English).

I was asking myself, “What is this? Why would I be talking to a stranger I don’t even know for real? Am I getting desperate? That desperate so I’d talk to just anyone?” But he was so entertaining I couldn’t stop talking to him.

At that time, Yahoo! was booming. (So sad that it’s declining today) And Yahoo! Messenger was fun! Such a great instant chat messenger. I no longer use Yahoo! Products except Flickr – kinda miss those days. And by then, we could have a main Yahoo nickname that serves as our email address, but in addition to this main nickname, we could have endless multiple nicknames.

AsHeardOnRadio’s main email nickname was Mainate. It meant Black Myna Bird in English.

Strange thing was, we were strangers, right? But we talked for hours and as we talked and talked, everything felt so familiar. Like we knew each other for real, and for years. People say, that’s how you know you find your soulmate. For me, it was because he was interesting.

Do you know where Indonesia is, Mister?

“Where are you from?” AsHeardOnRadio asked me.

“Indonesia. Do you have any idea where it is?” I responded. I was sure he didn’t know where it was.

“Of course I do,” he knew where it was even if he had not a single clue how the country could be like. I was the first Indonesian AsHeardOnRadio had ever met in his entire life. (There were a lot of Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese in Paris, but Indonesian? He had never met one before)

Of course, at that time, he had no idea he would end up marrying this very Indonesian and so far has spent 20% of his life in the country, where his son was born, too.

The Parisian Guy. That I ended up marrying and became the father of my baby son. Funny how life goes around making things fall into places, eh?

I would spend my whole first week of August, right before I flew to Ibiza with Ed, talking on Yahoo! Messenger with AsHeardOnRadio.

And by the time I had to fly to Ibiza, he had me under his spell.

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Paris. Toujours.

20 Feb

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Paris was, is and will always be one important place that holds so many memories for my husband and I.

We didn’t meet for the first time in Paris (that was another story with the Köln-Hauptbahnhof / Cologne Central Station on a breezy summer night years ago) but he was living and working in Paris back then. Countless are the numbers of times we caught the maroon-red Thalys train back and forth from Paris to Köln.

We spent so many days and nights in Paris, living the life of young lovers crazily in love with sweet -as-sugar together-forever promises. It was in Paris that we made the important decisions in our lives: moving to Germany, moving to Indonesia, started our first business venture together…and many many many other things that have brought us where we are today.

So when we went back to Paris, just the two of us, it was like all the things that lighted up the fireworks years ago came rushing back once more.

J went to Paris 3 days earlier with his best friend Romy who came to France with us, and I caught a TGV from Bellegarde to Paris (just like back in the days) on the 30th of December, leaving baby under the care of his grandmothers and my aunt. The fact of not meeting him for a shortwhile and the anxious feeling I had all the way inside the speedrunning TGV were just like back then – I felt that I was going to meet him on a day like a day sometime years ago when we had just met.

I was lucky to catch the same train as my brother-in-law Ben and his other half did. We booked each a TGV, one hour apart from each other, but we ended up in the same train. In fact, the night before I was supposed to go, there was a heavy snowstorm – the wind uprooted some trees which fell and blocked the TGV route and there was too much snow, so Ben’s train came about half an hour late, and my father-in-law talked the SNCF controller into letting me in (“Excuse me, sir, are you really going to let a lady travel alone at dusk with a train that might never come; while in this train there’s his brother-in-law??”). Lou, Ben’s boyfriend and I immediately chatted our way through the journey and only stopped after a woman next to me stared at us with angry, bitchy red eyes. So I wasn’t alone. And in Gare de Lyon, Paris, J and our friend Romy were waiting for us.

Words can’t describe how much we were happy to be reunited again, in Paris, even if we were just apart for 3 days it felt like forever. It’s true what people say – sometimes you need to make a little time away from your significant other, just to revive the sparks that once made you an item.

While Paris was a bit unfriendly when we first arrived, this time it was different. I loved every bit of promenade we did along the Champs-Élysées; going from Arc-de-Triomphe/Étoile downward to the inner city of Paris. We had dinner at Le Consulat, a cafe on the hills of Montmartre, then the next day, lunch in this pretty Parisian bistro called La Belle Ferronière (and I am officially in love – yet again – with caramel crème brûlée).

We spent such a great time in Paris – the two of us – we walked around, caught the metros together, chatted happily and found every bit of the corners familiar – as though we had never left at all. As though those newly-becoming-an-item days back then were just yesterday. Even though a big half decade separated us from the last days we spent in the City of Love together.

And then something struck us.

We love Paris. Always.

If we love Jakarta for all its mess and its lively quarters, the noisy nightlife, the daily brouhaha – then we love Paris because it’s so culturally enriching. Jakarta isn’t exactly the place where you can go out to theatres or just hop out of your apartment and walk around – it is a nice place to live, but for all things cultural it’s Paris.

We miss Paris. Always.

We’re planning to spend a month every now and then in there. Of course by controlling the company from afar – there won’t be any problem on that matter, because internet connection is everywhere in Paris. We want to be one of those seasonal Parisians who come every now and then, spending a season there, then back to the tropical Indonesia. We want to share our time between the two worlds, because we are a couple made of two worlds.

We adore Paris. Always.

It will always be a big part of our love story. And we hope that in the future it will also hold an important part in our life. We want to stroll down along the parkways, hand in hand, us and Louis (and maybe his future siblings). We want to teach him that city life isn’t all about being stuck in traffic and childhood isn’t all about going to the malls; we want him to know that city life also means metros, walking around on foot and childhood can also mean parks, libraries, museums; we want him to know and value his lifestyle in Indonesia with all the helps we have – while in France everyone practices DIY method. And lastly, we also want to teach him that he isn’t always the all-important mixed-kid superstar like he is in Jakarta, he can also be just an ordinary kid in Paris.

People say, that when you really really want something, the universe conspires to help you get it. Let’s hope that the universe is conspiring to let us make this dream of Paris come true.

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Consumptive Society

18 Feb

Sometimes I can’t help but think that we live in an over-consumptive society. And we’re not against it – we’re indeed supporting it.

Take this example. The iPhone 4S has just arrived in Indonesia a few weeks ago and everyone’s like, I must have it no matter what it takes. The demand is overwhelming – everywhere where an iPhone 4S Pre-sale gets held, the queues are super long.

It costs a mere 7,999,000 IDR – about 680 €. And Indonesia’s standard minimum wage is 1,500,000 IDR – about 127 € a month. Meaning that the price of an iPhone 4S in Indonesia is about over five times the minimum wage!

Some might say, “Well, that’s a PRICE TO PAY to get an iPhone 4S.”

I don’t deny the fact that it is an attractive gadget and a beautiful object to hold, we also own iPhone 4S, bought in Switzerland, the Apple flagship store at Genève – at a relatively low price when compared to the price they market the 4S in Indonesia. But still.

And another example: in Jakarta rather than in Paris, I see much much more people abound in luxury. It is a standard soiree peers with women toting first-tier designer bags and wearing the red-soled Louboutin heels while dressed in Dior Couture and bearing multimillion dollar Chopard & Cartier blings, striding along in a silver Bugatti or a white Ferrari driven by their husbands who sport some other millions worth of Patek Philippe. They can be seen out in the city: in Jakarta’s five-starred hotels and commercial centers, quartier d’affaires, high end nightclubs and restaurants.

Which is unusual for a country categorized as one of the countries with the biggest population living below poverty line, don’t you think?

While, Paris is supposedly THE mother of all haute cities of the modern world in West Europe – France being one of the elite members of the G8. The pinnacle of all things fashion, branded, designer, luxury et al. But while I was strolling the streets of Paris last month I saw most people just looking plain simple and ordinary.

Or is it because the rich & famous elites of Paris don’t take metros? I don’t think so. Even at Galeries Lafayette the main crowd preying on the luxury brands consisted mainly of Asians – Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Americans. And the importance of Indonesian shopaholics being such that each luxury outlet does have one or even more sales staff of Indonesian nationality.

In Jakarta, having a Louis Vuitton collection is standard – what’s cool is to have a closetful of Birkins.

There are a LOT more gadgets in Jakarta than in France – talk about iPad, iPhones, et al – even though the infrastructure for 3G internet is still rather poor when compared to France.

Indonesians are among the biggest purchasers of luxurious Swiss watches.

And the demand for luxury cars is crazy – when you want to buy a BMW X1, the cheapest of X-Series which is actually not cheap at all, for example, you’re going to be put on a waiting list – and then if you’re lucky you’ll get your car after a couple of months or so – if you pay the full amount on Day 1 of course.

Just recently I heard that Indonesians are among the top high-end property owners in Singapore. We’re talking five-star-hotel-like condos here, not simple apartments.

And guess who are spending more and more in Macao? Indonesians, of course.

It’s an endless circle.

I don’t blame people, of course – I would be too hypocritical to say I don’t like luxury – I do. I like my comfort and my standard of life – but every now and then I would just think that Indonesia is such a tough country to be living in – people’s standards are so high yet the reality is that the income is generally relatively low.

People get indebted to buy luxurious things – things that they don’t necessarily need, but things that they believe will get them acceptance from their peers. I know of a girl who owns a Vertu phone, toting an authentic Chanel and walking on Manolos, but she lives in a small kost in a poor neighborhood. And some others who spend their last dimes to buy fashion things they don’t even need – to dine out to expensive restaurants they can’t afford, to be seen in places who bear prices they’re actually scared of. And more others who want to be socialites but can’t keep up with the standards so they turn to fakes. And further ones who go traveling like, every fortnight, to exotic destinations, even though their salaries don’t even reach the standard-middle-5-mills. And even further ones who have iPhones, DSLR Cameras and iPads while surviving on a salary mostly eaten up by the debt installments.

Sometimes I’m asking myself – how COULD they afford to do this this and that? Buy this this and that? On modest incomes? While we earn even so much more but we don’t even spend as much as they do.

But then a billionaire friend told me an interesting story in which one of his friends once bought a sparkling new sporty black Mercedes Benz while not even having enough left on his bank account to pay for its monthly maintenance and gas. It’s all about appearance. Appearing rich and fabulous while you’re actually not. So people would think good of you. So you’ll get their acceptance. Even though sometimes it costs even much more than it seems.

We do live in a crazy, cruel consumptive society.

I’m lucky I’m married to a guy who, even though now things have changed for us into the better, still has his both feet on earth. One who still thinks twice before any big purchases. One who still loves simple pleasures. One who doesn’t become rotten by money.

We live in a super consumptive society who constantly puts a big pressure – to be able to buy things others have. To be able to spend as much as others spend. It’s sad.

I wouldn’t be surprised each time I hear those criminal news on TV – young girls prostituting themselves or people killing other people for money – living in such a consumptive society, it is a crime not to have what everyone else has – even though it means sacrificing your dignity.

We live in a consumptive society – and the only way to be accepted is to be like everyone else. Even though it means putting extra financial burden people don’t really need onto their shoulders. So that they can do like others. Spend the money they don’t have. Walk around parading expensive things they couldn’t afford.

And the saddest part is that there is nothing you can do against it.

Ah well – enough about being philosophic – I know that tomorrow I’ll perhaps wake up and wanting other luxurious things, as well, and finally, I am a part of this society. Incessantly, the desires of owning those things will get the best of me – like they get the best of most people.

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Traveling to Winter Europe with Baby

17 Jan

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Since some blog-and-online-friends asked me about my experience and tips in traveling with an infant, I’d like to share the story on this blog.

We returned to France last December with Louis, then 4.5 months old. Even though it was not Louis’ first flying experience – he was already in Bali last September while he was just 45 days old – but unlike last time, this was a long-haul flight from Jakarta to Paris, France.

ImageWe booked the flights a bit too late, so all the shorter-duration flights were no longer available (There isn’t even any direct flight from Jakarta to Paris). Our route was Jakarta – Jeddah – Paris, with a 4-hour transit in Jeddah on the departing trip, and Paris – Riyadh – Jakarta on the return trip, with a 2-hour transit in Riyadh.

The flight from Jakarta to Jeddah took about 10 hours, while the flight from Jeddah to Paris took about 7.5 hours.

How was it? Well, it was exhausting, to be honest. But Louis was behaving very nicely during the trip, and the fact that we had a baby in tow also made everything much easier.

Easier? How? Try this: with a baby, we always became everyone’s priority, everywhere, at all times. We were always allowed to bypass the line, board first while arriving the last, having each a handbag / rucksack, a luggage and a shopping bag; we were even allowed 3 liters of liquid on board (1.5 liters of Evian water and 1.5 liters of hot water inside an insulated thermal bottle – all for baby’s milk).

During the 10-hour flight from Jakarta to Jeddah, the airline used a big, two-story plane, which usually serves for the annual pilgrimage for Indonesian Hajjis. The plane wasn’t exactly a luxurious one, really – there wasn’t any in-flight entertainment and the service was just so-so, but there wasn’t a lot of people on the plane, so we could have quite a big space for ourselves.

We traveled together in family. Us three – Louis, his father and I, as well as my mother and aunt. It made everything easier because we took turn in taking care of him during the journey.

Upon taking off, we practiced the trick we also did on the flight from Jakarta to Bali in September: we fed him milk and it helped avoid the usual ear pain – Louis didn’t even cry, he calmly drank and then fell asleep peacefully.

Once on the sky, we requested a baby bassinet, but Louis was apparently too tall for his age – the bassinet was too tight for him. It didn’t stop him from sleeping tight for a couple of hours, though. Once he was awake, he played with the toys we brought from home: Sophie la Girafe, his favorite chewing toy, a soft book about an elephant, his Jungle Giraffe Rattle and the Blossom Farm mooing plush cow. The toys helped him not to get bored too fast. And each time he did get a bit bored, we just walked him along the plane corridors back and forth and he’d be happy again.

Image Upon reaching Paris, it was 6 AM in the morning. The weather in the middle of December was, as expected, chilly, about zero degree Celsius with quite strong early morning wind. Goodbye sleeveless onesies, simple cotton socks, t-shirts and shorts! Hello, jackets, cardigans, sweaters, knitted socks, scarf and bonnet!

Louis usually doesn’t like anything on his head and he’d try to take off hats, bonnets or whatever you put on him; but this time, he just let us wrap him inside warm winter outfits – he didn’t say anything, perhaps because the weather was so cold and the fact that the bonnet gave him warmth and comfort made him oblivious to the fact that the bonnet was there. He also didn’t protest about the scarf and the snowsuit. We put him inside his Aprica Karoon (bless Aprica, the stroller is so lightweight even though not so compact) and doubled the lining with another blanket.

If Paris was chilly, the weather in Louis’ dad’s hometown was even colder. It went down to -10 degree Celsius at night, and climbed up to 2-3 degree Celsius on daytime.

During the 3-week holiday, Louis mostly stayed indoor. Except for several times we went outside with him to go visit some places, mostly after we returned back to Paris.

Even when we stayed indoor, we would always put two layers of clothes on him. An inner long-sleeved onesie, a woolen / thick cotton pullover, baby trousers and thick cotton socks. Usually it was good if the baby only stayed inside, since we also had heater in the house.

And each time we brought him outside against the cold winter in its peak, we’d add an extra sweater, knitted scarf, gloves and bonnet plus his baby blue snowsuit. We always made sure his body was warm enough so he’d feel comfortable.

During the trip, we also gave him extra vitamins – as suggested by Louis’ pediatrician, the vitamin intakes would keep him fit and help increase his immune system. And thanks to this combination plus sufficient feedings, Louis stayed in good condition all the way through the holiday.

ImageOne thing that helped us very, very much was the fact that we didn’t lack of helping hands. It was the first time that most people of his paternal family saw Louis, and he was the first new baby after seven years (his youngest cousins were already seven years old) so everyone was keen to hold and feed him, play with him and take care of him.

My aunt (as pictured left) and mother also enjoyed promenades in Paris with Louis. He was never cranky – always happy, and he even learnt some new skills in France: rolling over left and right, making “brrrr” sounds and “read” books (more on the books on another post).

Since Louis was already quite big, we didn’t make much use of the carrier (The baby didn’t like it anyway, preferring the traditional batik cloth carrier rather than the modern carrier). Most often, we took him in his stroller, even though bringing a stroller in Paris could be a big challenge – not all metro stations are equipped with escalators / elevators – some stations are just so complicated with their endless stairs and corridors. Again, luckily, we were traveling together as a family, so we shared the tasks of carrying the baby, folding-opening-and-carrying the strollers up and down the stairs, carrying the baby bag, etc.

Overall, we had almost zero difficulty traveling with a baby and we really enjoyed France, even though it was cold and some days were rather rainy and windy.

Our next step would be learning to travel to a nearer destination, just the three of us – the baby, his father and I.

Some Tips for Traveling / Going on Holiday with a Baby

  1. During the flight, especially if it’s a long one, always prepare enough for the baby’s basic needs, from milk / food supply to diaper-changing tools as well as enough extra clothes.
    Most airlines allow extra hand / cabin luggage if you’re traveling with a baby – you’re even allowed to bring water or other liquids like milk if it’s for the little one! It’s better to bring a bit more rather than not enough – same goes for everything that your baby needs.
    You will never know if the baby will ask to be fed more / get multiple bowel movements / need to be changed clothes. You will feel so relieved if you know you have everything you need.
  2. Feed / give a pacifier to the baby when the plane takes off as well as when it lands.
    This is a very well proven theory. We did it all the time and Louis wasn’t even aware of the sudden pressure change in the air. Don’t overfeed the baby before the plane takes off so that just in time s/he will feel a little pang of hunger and ask to be fed.
    Pacifier works too, but feeding is the best solution for me so far.
  3. Don’t forget to bring some toys, books or musical widgets for your baby.
    These would help a LOT – some babies can get bored fast and just cry – having his favorite toys to play with, a book or a musical widget to occupy the baby with could be the answer, so the baby will stay calm on his waking hours during the flight.
    Keeping baby peaceful and calm without any loud crying incident during a flight is important; remember back in the days when you were childless and traveling on a plane and just wanted to sleep / read / do anything else but listening to some loud, endless wailing and anyway some babies were crying all the time and you thought how annoying it was?
    Well, the same goes for other people on the plane, it’s just now that you’ve switched roles you might have completely forgotten about it. So, keeping your baby calm means respecting others too.
    If toys / books / musical widgets still don’t help then try to walk around the plane, some movements along the corridor will do your baby some change and s/he’d calm down again.
  4. If you’re breastfeeding, bring all the breastfeeding equipments including pumps and some extra bottles. If you’re formula-feeding, bring enough supply of your baby’s usual formula milk, the one that goes well with him / her.
    Because you will always need to feed your baby, right? So, even though you can’t travel with your collection of breastmilk glass bottles neither can you haul the breastmilk refrigerator at home on your trip, at least a set of those glass bottles or some containers would be enough to store – you’d have to pump or breastfeed directly more often because you can’t store the milk like you usually do, but it’ll help too!
    As for bringing enough formula milk supply, well, we never know if buying a new kind of formula milk from your holiday destination would be OK for your baby, right? Some babies adjust well with changing formula milk just like that, but some don’t. Rather than risking to have a problem with baby’s digestive system, just bring the usual formula milk, enough to last during the holiday.
  5. Always ask for a baby bassinet, so that your baby can sleep in it and gets less fatigue.
    Sleeping in someone’s arms, even his / her own mommy’s, could be tiring for the baby as well as for you, and the bassinet will allow baby to sleep like s/he was sleeping in his/her own little crib. Most airlines do provide the bassinet – perhaps not the low-cost carriers or airlines operating on domestic trajectories, but most international airlines do have baby bassinets in stock for you. If you don’t know or unsure if they have baby bassinets, ask upon booking / confirming your booking. Make a special request. Send them an email. Almost all airlines do have a website and a customer service that you can contact online for this purpose, right? So make use of it.
  6. Bring a lightweight stroller that is also easy to fold and carry.
    Our Aprica Karoon only weighs 3.6 kg and that was the MAIN reason we bought it. It turned out being very helpful during our trip in France, since it was super light and super simple to fold back and forth, therefore easy to carry. Don’t forget the rain cover, too! Aprica Karoon, for instance, doesn’t have one. So we took the rain cover from our other stroller, the Sola one, luckily it fits the Karoon well.
  7. Pertaining to no. 1, always bring a set of spare clothes for YOU too.
    In fact, spare clothes practically for everyone who’s going to take care of the baby during the journey, because we do know that accidents happen more often now we have a cute little troublemaker with us, don’t we?
  8. Bring clothes fit for the destination you’re aiming for.
    If you’re going to a tropical country then perhaps the usual clothes we wear everyday in Indonesia would be sufficient. But if you’re traveling to a four-season country, always check what’s the current season in the country during your travel, and get to know a week’s weather forecast in advance.
  9. Pertaining to no. 8, if you know you’re going to go to a cold place / during winter time, do prepare the warm clothes suitable for the temperature.
    The fact is that you cannot buy snowsuit or proper bonnet / scarf / gloves in Jakarta. So perhaps, prior to your departure date, you could ask around for help – if one of your friends / acquaintances have some winter outfits that they can pass on, take them.
    My mother-in-law brought the snowsuit, and the matching set of bonnet / scarf / gloves from France to Jakarta two months before we left for holiday, and those winter outfits are proven very handy. Without them, baby wouldn’t even have left the house at all!
  10. Dress your baby COMFORTABLY.
    Enough for the weather change. Don’t overdress or underdress him / her – just make sure the baby feels comfortable.
  11. It’s important to keep your baby as fit as possible during the whole trip.
    Make sure your baby is in prime condition before traveling, don’t exhaust him / her too much prior to the departure date – even better, let him / her rest a few days at home without bringing him / her out at all so that on the departure date, the baby would have enough rest and be in good condition. Vitamin intakes could help too – consult your pediatrician for advice on this.
  12. Also, before traveling, always try to meet your pediatrician to ask for a list of medicines that may come in handy.
    I know some parents are against giving medicines to their babies so this is really up to you to decide whether you’d want a stock of standard baby medicines during your travels.
    I am OK with rational use of medicines with prior consultation with Louis’ pediatrician. And in our case, we didn’t even use any of the medicines last time in France, but we brought a complete set of standard medications, just in case the baby could get little woes, we know what to give him.
    In our mini medication-box were: Tempra and Bye Bye Fever (for fever), Transpulmin (baby balsam), Sterimar (for stuffed nose), and some medications I can’t remember the name, consisting of Antihistamine (for cold, cough & flu as well as for allergies), anti-diarrhea and anti-constipation.
    I usually text the pediatrician for suggestions, advices and confirmations / opinions before giving baby any medicines, anyway, and we always note what we give to the baby so that we’d keep track of things and we’d know exactly what, when, where and how if we need to consult further with the pediatrician.
  13. Always make your baby feel at home.
    Let him / her adjust to the new environment, but at the same time, try to keep some routines intact. For example if your baby usually sleeps after his / her bath or after a book at 8 PM, try to do the same on your holiday. This would help the baby cope better with the change around him / her and avoid him / her feeling uprooted.
  14. Prepare complete travel documents and baby’s papers.
    You always need to bring the complete travel documents as well as baby’s proper papers. With child-trafficking and kidnapping as well as passport-faking happening more and more often in the world, now most Western countries could require you to prove your kinship with the complete documents upon arriving at their immigration check in the airport.
    Seriously, this may sound exaggerated but extra checks actually do happen more and more often now in the European and North American airports now, so, better be prepared, right?
  15. Plan everything in advance; because you’re traveling with a baby.
    Yes, unlike it was on your honeymoon, you can’t just go and do whatever you want now. There’s a baby to consider. So if you’re traveling only with your partner / spouse, do check your options in advance.
    For example, if you want to go out on a date night with your partner, check first if the hotel you’re staying at has a baby-sitter service, or better, if you’re visiting family, friends or relatives, check with them if they know a reliable baby-sitter you can hire or if they could even help baby-sitting while you’re on your romantic night out.
    Also, plan things to do / see / visit that can involve a baby.
  16. Relax, it’s a HOLIDAY.
    Don’t push yourself too much if some things just don’t go the way you want them to. Remember, it’s a holiday, so take your time, get enough rest, and chill! Don’t be stressed – stress is for usual work time activities, not for holidays!
    Take turn caring for baby with your partner / spouse and try to enjoy the holiday. Nobody is judging you – a happy mommy makes a happy baby, so your well-being during the trip is important, too! Only if you’re feeling good that you can, in turn, take good care during what might be your first trip with your partner / spouse and your little one!

OK, I think that’s already quite a list – hope that helps and don’t hesitate to share your traveling stories with your baby, too!

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2012

13 Jan

With long overdue, Happy New Year to all of you. Let’s hope that 2012 will be great, prosperous and bountiful for us all.

I’ve found myself celebrating the turn of the year in Paris several times – including the Silver Millennium, the turn of the century.

But the last time I celebrated New Year’s Eve in Paris was in 2005, though, at some friends’ place. And it felt like a million years ago.

And this time, we celebrated it with an apéro at the apartment before going out to Champs-Élysées popping the champagne and celebrate together with the whole Paris (News said there were about 400,000 people there on New Year’s Eve).

So we started the day with a promenade in Paris, which ended with grocery shopping. We prepared ourselves the meals including the delicious foie gras and lots and lots of canapés. Smoked salmon, guacamole, tzatziki, bite-sized tomatoes, oven-fresh homemade cheese pastries, olives, cashew nuts, pecans, almonds and mini cucumber pickles, mini-blinis with salmon-crab tarama jam, with wines, obviously!

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And then we went out in the cold, taking the metro to Arc-de-Triomphe/Étoile. During the night of 31 December to noon on 1 January, all public transports in Paris were free of charge. Even with its usual paying state the metros were almost always full, let alone when it’s free. All the trains were literally full to the max.

We were out a bit late, so time was tight and due to some perturbations in the metro line, we ended up celebrating the turn of the clock inside the metro. It was nonetheless charming!

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And fortunately, J’s eldest brother brought champagne bottles inside his pocket, along with plastic cups (God bless him) so we had a toast and drank to the upcoming year 2012, in the metro, yes. Noisy and funny. We reached the Arch of Triumph about five minutes past midnight.

Then we poured out, along with gazillion other Parisians, into the Avenue de Champs-Élysées, everyone was toasting, drinking and laughing all the way.

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It was BEAUTIFUL. Albeit the huge humongous crowd and a lot of drunkards. I most certainly will be back to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Paris in the future.

I was a bit drunk from bottoms-up champagne coupes unwell so after we took the metro to Châtelet everything was a bit hazy and very much blurry for me. I remember that we got in to a medieval bar and ordered some french fries, beer and sodas (really??) and that it was pretty much a rip-off (90 € for two trays of oily french fries, a jug of beer and some sodas? You’ve got to be kidding me. Well you’re not kidding, obviously – it’s PARIS!!!!!).

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The next day, I was a zombie for the whole day. But Paris is unforgettable – a New Year’s Eve in Paris as well, even though age doesn’t lie I got exhausted from the cold weather and the almost-constant rain that poured over Paris all the time.

See you next Réveillon – in Tour Eiffel I hope! (Or better, at our own apartment in the 17th overlooking Gustave’s masterpiece, never say never!!)

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On the Way Home

22 Dec

Actually the beginning of this post was written during the long haul flight from Jakarta to Paris and completed in the TGV, but only posted almost a week after because I have been made lazy by the pure airs of the snowy Jura mountains.

We left Europe almost six years ago. We were young. Brimming with hope to make a life – to build something. And we left, with not much money in our pockets but a lot of dreams in our hearts. Six years later, we come back to France – with a baby. How a lot of things have changed, and we are only too happy to be back. And for the first time, Louis will see his second home.

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On the way to the Jura where Louis’ grandparents live, we passed through Paris and spent a day there – in the middle of a busy weekend before Christmas. Not necessarily a great Saturday – Paris was cold, rainy, unfriendly, and too crowded. We went shopping at the Galeries Lafayette, but it was simply impossible to get close to any goodies there: Louis Vuitton and Hermès outlets at Galeries Lafayette were full with Asians – Japanese, Chinese and Indonesians (whoever said Indonesia was in crisis??), the only possible outlets to approach were just Marc Jacobs & Balenciaga – I’m over my MJ phase already (thanks to the ruined Stams) and I just bought a Balenciaga City about a month ago, so I didn’t buy anything except inquiring to replace the broken mirror of the City (60 €  for a piece of glass? Errrr. Well. Maybe not), even though the prices are so very interesting (875 € for a Day Hobo RGGH which is about 40% less than in Indonesia).

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So we just bought a box of the wonderful, most delicious Pierre Hermé macaroons, with creative flavors: infiniment marron glacé, citron & piment d’espelettes, figue-foie gras, chocolat-foie gras, truffe-ail-noisettes, my favorite being the two last ones, as well as classic flavors such as pamplemousse (pomelo), cassis (blackcurrant), salted caramel, framboise (raspberry). All of them are absolutely and completely terrific (Well, at 85 € for a box of 40 macaroons, they have to be terrific) – I’m not a particular fan of macaroons but I adore Hermé’s creations.

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Lafayette, as always, was chic and not cheap. The 19th century store houses the world’s most famous brands and is apparently THE place to get your Christmas presents for Parisians. You can find just about anything designer-created: from clothes, shoes, handbags, watches, engagement rings and diamonds and super cute things for your kitchen. It’s just THE place to shop for French and tourists alike.

That being said, J found it a bit excessive – Lafayette is indeed a temple of consumptiveness and temptations – you won’t believe how much an average person would spend there in several destructive hours. Everything was expensive, and people buy just for the sake of the brands and the fact that they buy it at Lafayette. Not even because they like it – some things are indeed pretty but some are plain hideous.

We also fell on a wrong day – the second-last Saturday before Christmas, when everybody in Paris was doing their Christmas shopping – the crowd was insanely big, everywhere, at every corner. We had a difficulty finding a restaurant for lunch – the first four we tried were full and we were on the waiting list – the fifth one was good, though.

So we were glad to finally catch our TGV at 7 PM. It was comfortable and it arrived on time – we were on the road for a total of 39 hours and when we finally reached home, we were exhausted but super happy.

All the way across the continents and then across France, Louis was behaving very very very nicely. He is such a great baby. A happy one, too. He was tired and jetlagged, but he was still nice. And the Aprica Karoon does help a lot, it must be one of the best strollers ever invented because it’s so light and compact – all without losing its comfort for the baby.

If there is one thing that I always complain about, but once it’s not there I’ll suddenly miss, is the fact that Indonesia is always so warm. No need to put on any coats, no need to worry about bad weather – just go out and enjoy the day.

It’s Christmas soon – I will post some photos from the snowy Jura later on.

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