Thursday, October 23, 2014

Week in Recap: Weekend of Love N Luxury (Part 1)


Hello, Friends!
 
I have so many pictures and stories to share from last week, I decided not to bore you with too many things in one heavy post, thus this week in recap is split into two! I know it's very late for week in recap post, but better late than never, rite!
 
First, let's talk about weekend. My parents came to Jakarta on Friday, to stay until the following Wednesday. My parents adore their grandson, they spoil him as if he were their first grandchild, when in fact, he is the third! Several days before my parents came, I already prepped Michael by showing him videos of him playing with Grandma and Grandpa that I have on my iPhone. I did it so Michael would remember his grandparents and would not think they were 'strangers' who invaded his house! From experience, I know that Michael would not go near my parents for several days, and when he have grown accustomed to them, and let them hug and kiss him, it was time for my parents to leave. So, this time, I wanted to familiriaze Michael with the idea of Grandma and Grandpa prior to their coming. The plan worked! My parents were so happy, because in than an hour, Michael stuck with his Grandma, playing, cuddling, watching YouTube videos. So cute!
 
Saturday was a usual day of early morning stroll at 6 am with Hubby and Michael. After that, Hubby and I went to visit the renovation site as usual, but this time we took Mom and Dad. Usually I went back to sleep after visiting the site, because I usually slept in very late on Friday, but this time Mom and Dad wanted to take a long drive around the neighborhood. I didn't realize that lack of sleep and lack of breakfast would took its toll on my not-so-fit condition. I spent the rest of my Saturday in bad with terrible migraine. Ouch!
 

 
My parents stayed at our home for one night, then left to Grand Hyatt, a luxurious establishment downtown that consisted of a hotel and posh mall at the prime location of the city center. Grand Hyatt might not be the most expensive or newest hotel in town, but it's the one most reeked with class, since the 'old moneyed' and the wealthiest of Indonesia love the place. There are other more expensive hotels, but somehow they don't have the subtle elegance like Grand Hyatt, more ostentatious and glamorous instead, frequented by celebrities and the 'new moneyed'.
 
My brother booked my parents there for a business meeting, and he has diamond tier membership, so they were eligible for late checkout at 4 pm instead of 1 pm. Hubby and I decided to make good use of the late checkout, so we visited early to get a glimpse of what the room looks like. I also wanted to show Hubby the club room, the lounge and the rooftop garden. I went there several times on business, but Hubby had never been there, despite his often being entertained by vendors and suppliers at posh places. The best thing was, there was no need to carry the stroller with us, since we figured Michael could take his nap in the room!
 
Michael wore a new shirt, handsewn by Grandma. Actually, my Mom made me a new dress to be worn on Hubby's birthday, of a beautiful piece of batik print fabric in light blue, with patterns of colorful little people and farmers and cattle animals. It's called Kompeni Batik, and it was hand stamped, though not handpainted. Mom had enough leftover fabric to make a tiny shirt for Michael. Isn't it cute! Thank you, Mom!

 
 
My parents chose a room facing the city center, with a spectacular view of Jakarta skyline. This is Michael with his grandma, looking out the window.

 

 
This is what the view looks like.
 And this is the living and working part of the room looks like.
Mom and Dad are the typical honest, hardworking small town business owners. They might make more money from their business than most cool-looking executives walking around downtown Jakarta in expensive suits bought with credit cards, but they are not sophisticated people who enjoys the glams and sparkles of big city. My Mom appreciates beautiful handpainted batik fabric, genuine antiques, and rare books. Dad appreciated good, no nonsense food and traveling. But she and Dad are not impressed by the opulent standard the five-star hotel has to offer. They said the hotel food (with all the luxurious ambience of Grand Cafe) is so-so, the swimming pool too small (which is understandable since it was on top of a roof garden more for pool party than real swimming), and early in the morning they went to the street to buy snacks and food from streetsellers and joined the crowd for a "car-free-Sunday" walk. Forget about lounging at the expensive spa! My parents are no way pretentious people. Hubby and I are not glamorous people, either, but we do appreciate and enjoy a little bit of glam once in a while. Perhaps because we are still young? Hubby and I talked about it, and both of us are happy that my parents are like that! In fact, come to think of it, the older we become, the less and less we crave the luxurious glam life and opt to live a simple family life in the suburb instead.
 
I jokingly told my parents that it should be me and my husband who should spend one night in Grand Hyatt, because we could make it into a fun romantic night and appreciate it more than my parents. And they agreed. ^__^
 
For lunch, my parents did't care to eat at the hotel, so we went to the adjacent mall to have steak at BakerzIn. Michael insisted to bring a notepad and a pen from the hotel room, so we let him, telling him that he should bring it back to the room. He said yes.
 
I'm glad that Michael can keep himself occupied with a notepad, a pen, salt and pepper shaker, spoon and restaurant menu. There were many toddlers his age around, playing with iPads. Well, there's nothing wrongwith it, it's just that... well, it's a bit weird when you see a family who eat together but they don't talk to each other that much. Each of them is busy with their own gadget. I don't want to start Michael too early to be like that. Gadget has its time and place. We don't want Michael gets too attached to a gadget, any gadget, or any worldly thing really. We want him to be able to play and entertain himself with anything that happened to be available around him.  A plate, a twig of tree, a cardboard box, a straw. He won't lose his head without a gadget.
 
We got a free piece of tiramisu, complementary, from BakerzIn. I offered the cake to Mom, but she said she's full already, so I asked the waiter to have it to go. Hubby was ecstatic. BakerzIn is famous for its delicious cakes, and Hubby's favorite cake in the world is tiramisu! He planned to have it for dessert later on.
 

 
After lunch, my parents took Michael back to the room, while Hubby and I went to the fifth floor, where the roofgarden, pool and private party house are located. It's called OnFive, and it's like a little oasis in the middle of skyscrapers, with lush green and traditional gamelan music and incense. There's an independent apartment built there, that is supposedly the hotel's most expensive honeymoon suite. Rumor has it that the first couple who booked had such a terrible fight on their first night that the place was trashed and the mirrors were broken into pieces. Well, I don't know whether it's true or not, but the place is now turned into a private party place for rent. Of course the rent is astronomical, you need to pay USD 2,500 just for the booking of the place, not included food and drinks. but for the very rich, money doesn't matter. For example, on the very day, some parents have booked the place for a one year old's birthday party. Yes, they book one of the most exclusive and expensive, grown-up place in Jakarta for a birthday party for a one-year-old baby! Wow. Ow, also, on the exact same day, another parents booked the grand ballroom, fit for 3000 guests, also for their one year old's son birthday party. Hmmmm... come to think of it, when we took a peek inside just out of curiousity, the party looked so grown up, and most of the guests were grown ups.
 
"I bet they spend at least USD 100K for this party. Even if I had all money in the world, I wouldn't do that, " Hubby said, incredulous and amused at the same time. I agreed. Children's birthday party should be children's birthday party, not some showing off grand scheme.
 
Hubby took some pictures of me around the roofgarden, then we left the place. As you can see, it's like a tropical garden surrounded by concrete jungle of skyscrapers. ^__^
 

 
 
 
Back to the mall, we went to Mothercare, an expensive baby and children's store chain orginated in England (I think). I don't normally shop there, though they do have very good clothes and toys, because the prices are exorbitantly high. I'm not spending USD 20 on a piece of T-shirt that Michael will grow out of in a few months! However, when they have great sale with 50-70% discount, you might find some cute things for a more "normal" price. Also, I have a coupon that will add 50% more discount to the already reduced price. I ended up buying two pairs of sandals and two pairs of shoes for Michael, in sizes 9 and 11 each. His current sandals are in size 7, but I always up by 2 sizes so the shoes/sandals will fit him longer.
 
If you have little boys you must have known that shopping for little girls is a lot more fun than shopping for little boys. There are a much wider array and varieties, textures, style and colors for little girls clothings compared to those for little boys. Luckily on that day, I could find some cute models suitable for boys. Here they are. The sized 11 sandals - the blue and white ones - are actually the exact same model as his current pair, but even Hubby agreed that they are very nice model and it's OK to buy them.
 
 
Back to the hotel room, it turned out that Mom had eaten the tiramisu cake! Hubby was a little bit disappointed, but of course, he didn't say anything at all. I decided right then and there that I would buy him another tiramisu cake on Monday. Poor Hubby! But I'm glad Mom ate it, since Mom is also a big lover of tiramisu.
 
The hotel found out that we had a toddler in the room, so they sent us this complimentary baby kit in a nice paper bag emblazoned with their logo. It's from Johnson and Johnson, and the cute container with baby blue lid has cheerful pink giraffes. Inside there were a baby oil, baby talc, baby powder, baby head-to-toe bath soap, all in small sized bottles, and three sets of pull-up disposable diapers.
 
 
Michael was too excited being in a new environment. Also he squaled with joy at seeing his new shoes, and wanted to try them out right away. He didn't care that the shoes were still too big for him, he was just a happy camper, walking around the room with his blue and green new, cool shoes. With his little cute voice, he kept saying that his old shoes were "broken". We all laughed for we knew it was just his little excuse for wearing the new shoes.
 
At three o'clock we decided to check out and went home. Michael cried once we went inside the elevator and he threw up a bit on his clothes and mine, so I rushed to the bathroom to change him, as well as trying to minimize the "damage" on my clothes. After that, we got inside the car and went home. Michael fell asleep on my lap immediately once we got inside the car. I guess he was just tires since he usually naps at 12 noon for three hours. I held his little body in my arms and held myself stiff with as little movement as possible so I would not disturb his sleep. Just a couple of years ago, I would have loved if someone were to tell me that I would bear the discomfort of sitting still like a statue not to disturb my son's sleeping! Ah, the blissful joy and pain of being a mother... You bear dutifully and willingly, even jooyfully. Well, not all the time, of course. Having baby vomit on one of your good dresses is definitely not joyful!
 

I'm linking up to these wonderful Ladies:

Monday

Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

6 comments:

Unknown said...

It looks like you had a great week! You're little boy is so cute, and I'll definitely have to try out your idea of familiarizing my little guy with his grandparents before they arrive. :)

-Lara @ Methodical Living
http://methodicalliving.blogspot.com

October 23, 2014 at 6:29 PM
Carrie said...

Your son is SO blessed to have such great grandparents! What a lovely week! Also, another great necklace and outfit... You look great!

October 23, 2014 at 9:35 PM
Pam @ over50feeling40 said...

Thanks for sharing your trip and your sweet family with us at the Thursday Blog Hop!

October 24, 2014 at 2:35 AM
Anonymous said...

Wow I loved reading about your family, and your little boy is so sweet. Loved that your Mum hande made some of the clothes #fashionfriday

October 25, 2014 at 1:21 AM
Jess said...

What a fun family weekend! So busy! I love your tan shirt dress too! Very cute! Thanks so much for joining Celebrate Southern link up this week! I hope to see you back on Tuesday doll! :)

October 27, 2014 at 7:05 PM
Adorned From Above said...

Thanks so much for sharing with Adorned From Above's Link Party. We hope to see you at tonight's party.
Debi

October 29, 2014 at 5:53 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...