Baby Rules

Ever wonder what happened if instead a full-sized human adult, we have a baby as President?

1. The country will be in total bliss, as who can resist the charm of babies. No interruption, no interpelation. In fact, the calmer the baby, the happier the total population. Of course there might be some people who just dislike babies. But who cares? Even babies can't satisfy anyone.
2. The government will put meeting the staple and basic needs to be the top priority. Stock up if it must.
   
3. When the President is tired, he sleeps. When he needs to wind down, he sleep. Who wants a singing baby? An adult-size singing President is scary enough. (*note to self* guess the suckers who actually buy the CD/cassette?)

Wedding

I'm addicted to wedding. It's not so much going to the wedding, prepping myself, trying to find a party outfit that still fit (and that challenge has snowballed lately), but more to see the happy couple, going through the ceremony, looking at the bride's make up and sometimes when my mom tagged along or vice versa, we would gossip about how horrible/beautiful the brides looked like.

These were the recent ones I went to.

Ms. Pudjo's wedding; she's Kasih's kindie teacher. The bride and groom wore Padang traditional wedding costume. She looked absolutely stunning in this purple get up. I totally heart purple.

The other one was Ms. Fani's wedding, a teacher at LIA Cikokol-BSD. Didn't she look dashing in the gold outfit. The bride and groom wore traditional custome from Sunda, West Java.

*note to self* do some bicep tricep curl. STAT

We are the Goofy goofy family

Believe me when I said this, I am a pretty serious mother, not such a goof-off, only a dose of craziness every now and then.

But, add my kids to the mix, and my Peter Pan hubby, you got these :

Diamond (knock off) is (also) a girl's best friend

I was strutting along the City Walk in Dharmawangsa Square, checking out each displayed stuff, running my fingers along the fabrics showcased there. Although there are several items I would love to get my hands on; hello Nicotimo thongs, but this ring kept calling me back.

And I kept going back to Jewels of Eden, even after thinking that some sushi combo for lunch will curb my desire. You know what they say, full tummy, happy feeling.

No such luck.

I even tried to buy other items for Aca. Nope, he's not interested in Ninja Turtle raincoat and still insisted to get one with pants.

Oh boy.



My hand looked like it belonged to a rich lady 75-year old madam with killer diamond bling bling. Must exfoliate and slather hand lotion like mad ASAP. But back to the ring above, I happily pocket the wooden box (so lovely) and just waved my right hand around whenever I got a chance.

Luckily, I'm not too much of an evil mommy. Otherwise I might also stop by at MAC counter in Grand Indonesia to do some serious make up shopping.

Weekend Haul

As hard as I try (well, I've never actually left my wallet at home when I go to the mall, so, in retrospect I never really try hard), there's always this unexplainable pull between stores and my wallet. At least I've tamed down a bit. Instead of visiting different kind of stores, I'll just browse at Zara and MAC these past months. In my defense, though, I hardly ever bought Zara stuff at full price if I can help it.

Needless to say I came home from last night with 4 Zara stuff :

1. Formal pants (the incredible things about Zara pants are they lift up your butt. For someone with sagging set, this is quadruple plus. On the negative side, different models have different numbers so I have to retries 40 to 42 a lot and sometimes those numbers still don't fit me well. The next one will be their pants are designed for a tallzilla. I basically have to chop off the hem about 20-25cm.
   
2. 2 cute basic shirts for Kasih
3. 1 black jeans for Kasih too.

Just looove Zara.

side note : Unless you have at least 2 hours to spend, don't enter Zara with nothing specific in mind. There are so many outfits to try out and they're basically scattered everywhere.

He could Speak!

I always try to speak in English with my sons; after all, they're studying in a bilingual private school that rip off a huge hole in my wallet every month. It's pretty hard to be consistent about it because there are lots of things that are more natural to say in Indonesian than in English.

me : Siapa lagi yang berantem? Siapa? Hah?
son1: Dia tuh, ambil mainan nggak bilang-bilang *wiping tears off*
son2: Dia duluan.

And those kind of loving dialogs happen a lot at home.

However, one thing that quite surprised me and I just realized about it last night was how eager Aca in speaking English. He never complained when I told him to use English when talking to me and he always tried his best. Of course he still makes plenty of mistakes but last night was one of a proud moment for me when, after trying to explain to me of the new Zuma-like game he played at the school computer he said:

Bunda, may I use Indonesian for this?

When I said yes, he switched to Indonesian.

In the dark, I felt like leaping.

The Durian Trip

Everyone in my family knows how I love love love Durian. But, being in the car with 3 packs worth 2 kgs of opened Durian for, ahh, lessee, 1 full hour was headachy. The smell ... oh, God.

Happy Valentine's Day

I was a bit surprised this year that my parents actually was into Valentine's Day. My dad the other day asked my mom to go out for a Valentine's Dinner, which she refused because she said they're not teenagers anymore. This morning, while on the car, my mom was pretty absorbed in watching teen celebrities' romantic plannings or deeds during the V-Day. She even said Happy Valentine to me! That was so cute.
On a side note, I got chocolate from Uda.










That's midnight affair - Revlon LE on my fingers.

I also found out that most people my age, here in Jakarta, thought that Valentine's Day was only for younger people and that not many people cared too much about celebrating it. It was kind of a relief knowing that I don't have to demand Uda to be all mushy toward me especially on this day. Imagine how Americans (or perhaps Europeans as well?) mostly go all out during Valentine's Day. I personally think that Valentine's Day is a bit overrated. What is really so special about having chocolates, plush dolls/teddies and candlelight dinner today compares to any other day. Now, I might have different say if let's say I have a diamond ring or Tiffany bean necklace or ring as a Valentine's present. Now, I'd call myself extremely extremely lucky and all the love gods and naked cupids in the world certainly love me.

Eventhough I couldn't care less about Valentine's Day but still that is not an excuse to look dopey. So here's my Valentine's Day face.

Face : No sunblock as it's totally cloudy outside
MAC Bronzer in Bronze
L'Oreal Blush delish in *pink*
Body shop Foundation #7/6
Select Sheer Loose Powder NC20

Eyes : Green paint pot (from painterly) all over lid up to the crease
Sweet Violet just over the lid
Bourjous pink gold blush as the highlight
Revlon red on lips and PAC orange gloss on top of it.

Voila!

Face fresh from the storage

I still haven't perfected my beauty routine. This morning, I took about 30 minutes to primp just my face. Gosh, how time flew when you played with make up.
Anyway, here's my routine :

1. Lather up with SPF 50 sunscreen (it doesn't really say that in the tube, but I was hoping that's what this doctor-prescribed sunscreen would have)
2. While waiting for 20 minutes for my skin to absorb the sunscreen, I apply my eye make up. Start with filling in my brows with brown shadows from my La Tulipe pallette, then draw a line along the creases with the same shadow. After that woodwinked on lids, and Bourjouis white shadow for highlight. Finish up by tightlining my eyes with MAC macroviolet fluidline, and Anna Sui + L'Oreal mascara.
3. Put on Prep+Prime Mac on my T-zone and cheeks.
4. Dot Body shop foundation sparingly; on the reddish area around my nose and on my chin.
5. NC20 all over, and LÓreal on my forehead. I sweat a lot so I put tons of powder on my forehead to absorb the sweat as well.
6. Clarins bronze balm and Revlon Shell Pink & Nude on lips
7. Bourjouse #35 on cheeks
8. donnnne

BEBOT'S PARTYYYYYY!!!

The rundown:

5:30 am : headed to Senen to buy 3 whole chickens, 2 kilos of legs, 2 kilos of fish fillet and the chillies and veggies for adults, plus cake plates, forks, and tissues.

6:30 am : cleaned the chicken and got everything cooked (Masni's job)

9:00 am : got all the boys and the party girl to look dapper

10:30 am: First guests arrived (oh boy!) : Icham and his brother

11:00 am: (where's the other guests). Phew ! Mila and the boys were here! More people! (oh right, the snacks). Darryl and Salma and his little brother were here. Kids were milling around in the pool, impatient. OK, MC started the party, kids singing, the whole bruhahaha. Totally wild!

11:30 am: They all had lunch before heading to the pool.

12:30 am: More guests : Eyang & Nenek, Lula+Andi+Kayla, Nisa+Ubi, Andung, Uni Ef+Uda Fatih+Ziyad+Namira, Uni Yet+Haziq+Sukna+Uda Fahril, Uda Gun+Uni, Maya+Hubby+Fitri+Shakira

15:30 am : GRRRREATTTT PARTY. Kasih's totally happy.

PARTEEEEYYY PREP -Feb 2, 2008

After class today, with Uda, we headed to Giant in Kalibata Mall to do some shopping. This was the only time to do all the shopping for Kasih's party.

So, in the end, one party bag would consist of :
1. Star stickers
2. 2 vita charms
3. 1 milk
4. 2 pcs of beng-beng
5. 4 pcs of little jelly
6. 1 pack of cheese biscuits


In the evening, the whole gang went on a birthday hunting trip. We had to cancel Kelapa Gading since that area was still flooded. Kasih didn't like any of the cakes in Gran Melia Hotel and she looked devastated. I was so desperate for cake! Thankfully Regina's bakery in Menteng was still open and yes they could do the cake and yes they took credit! Half of my load was off.

After the kids went to bed, I spent the evening filling in the party bags and Uda got all the balloons ready. We're gonna have a big party tomorrow!!!

And God, please no rain just on Sunday. Hold it off at least until the party was over. Please, please.

The Flood

I'm such a lazy poster. There were so much happening since last week, and I posted, what? zip. But, it's better than late; at least I've got tonnage of stuff to download to.

First thing first.

Picture this, Friday, February 1, 2008. Eight-thirty am. I was waiting for the driver , the kids had been shipped happily to school with various colors of raincoats and umbrella (note to self : Aca wanted a raincoat with pants). Another hour went by. The rain was still pouring, driver had called several times telling me that he got stuck in a traffic nearby. 09:30 am, he finally arrived, then I stopped by at my mom's, the water had risen quite high (almost reaching the top of the Panther tyres). Half an hour later, the water had seeped out from my mom's bathrooms, up to my ankles. Whhoooaaaa!!!!

After we tried to block the water from the street to get into the house, off I went to start facing the Jakarta traffic. Traffic? What traffic? It's only the rain. Of course there's not that much traffic. Uh-huh. We drove almost to every little streets to get out of Cempaka Putih. No luck! Flood evvverrrfrigginwhere. So, I went back home because there was no was that I could manage to get out of the area.

Around noon, mom called saying that water had got into the house and she needed help to move furniture to another level of the house. Yikes!!! Poor mom. I just could picture the panic. There was no power as well there. Thank God above that I didn't have that problem.

Apparently, almost all over Jakarta the flood was as high as 1 m. My house was also surrounded by water and I was lucky none got inside the house.