Team work

When it's time to go to the pool and it takes to long to inflate the rubber ring, Oskar immediately jumped in to help his father.

This is the beginning of the father and son team :)

Time

I had asked for time for my birthday and among all the time gifts I received from Wolfram was a massage vouncher.

Today I finally found the time to go.

I might have fallen asleep at some point.

I surely have sore muscles in the shoulders.

I definitely enjoyed the break.

Thanks Wolfram! (on track for best husband ever)

Mariah Carey still has it

PAfter J-Lo concert at the formula one, I was in the mood for concert and I convinced Wolfram to go to the one of Mariah Carey in the brand new National Stadium. Not that I am a big fan of her but opportunities to see international artists are limited in Singapore so better grab what we can.

It started bad when we realized that the set up of the stage and sitting was not as showed on the website. We had picked seats in category 2 with a decent view on the stage. When we arrived we realized that the stage was much closer than shown and consequently we could barely see anything.

Luckily there were empty seats here and there so when spent the first 20min of the show hoping around until we had better seats and no one claiming them.

We were still far away but close enough to see her on the stage. 

And she was surprisingly good. Maybe we had particularly low expectations after J-Lo, maybe we had no idea how Mariah Carey is live but we were both positively surprised.

True she gained weight and does not do much dancing on stage. She never was really a good dancer anyway. But she still has her voice and she can really sing high. When she does it live it's really impressive.

It was also great to see all the fans going nuts at the first notes of her big hits. I only knew the old ones I have to confess.

Fundamentally she and her musicians had fun on stage and as a consequence the audience had a great show.

So well done Mariah and thank you for making our Friday night out memorable.

Milestone follow-up

It seems that Oskar is getting used to going to sleep by himself. 

Three nights and two rounds of naps later, it takes him about 30min of turning around in the bed until he falls asleep. That's way more than we could have dreamed. We were ready for tears and hours of drama. Our little boy surprised his parents by making it super easy.

Our son is great! 

Totally unbiased assessment obviously :)

Milestone

After one year and a bit more of walking / bouncing / rocking Oskar to sleep, tonight I put him down, sat next to the cot and waited.

There was heart breaking crying and two little hands reaching out to be carried but I hold strong. Surprisingly this lasted only 10 minutes or so.

It was followed by Oskar playing in his bed, talking, turning around, trying to find a good position, putting his feet through the bars, etc. 

After 45 minutes, Wolfram took over and patiently waited.

It took an hour and a half, but Oskar eventually fell asleep by himself!

Yes, our little boy is growing and is now learning to fall asleep by himself.

Soon he will leave for university, I can already feel it :)

Is this spring cleaning?

Is this spring cleaning? Asked Tess as we started to empty our wardrobe to clean it and sort all the clothes.

Obviously not because we are in October :)

To some extent yes because we have decide to clean the whole house to eliminate all the black dust that comes from the outside (thank you pollution and haze) and to sort our belongings as we need space for all the new toys that Oskar received at his birthday.

We will go slow: one room every weekend starting with our bedroom.

Hopefully by the time we are ready to go on vacation, the house will be sparkling clean making it harder for mould to grow and we will have some space in our cabinets so we can store all the toys and maybe some left for the upcoming Christmas gifts.

Catch me if you can

Prambanan

After Borobudur on Saturday, it's time for the second big temple near Yogjakarta: Prambanan.

Prambanan is a Hindu temple, one of the largest in South East Asia. What are the odd that two of the largest temples in the world are located in the sample place? Small you would say and you would be wrong looking at Yogyakarta.

From the moment we arrived I had the feeling of being in one of the temples of an Indiana Jones' movie. Don't ask me why. I kept on thinking the whole time that if I push one of the statues, it will open a secret passage. This did not happen but I found a lot of temples and statues making this site super interesting. I tried to take pictures but with Oskar in the baby carrier my freedom of movement was a bit limited. We will see how bad I did once I have the computer. 

A selection of pictures:

The site was damaged by an earth quake a few decades ago. The biggest temples have been rebuilt. The smaller ones are still in process.

English teachers bring their students to the temple so they can practice their English with the tourists. Wolfram and Oskar were the center of the attention of all the girls. Once they are done questioning you about where you come from, how long you stay in Indonesia and your favorite Indonesian dish, it's photo time!

Some details of the temples

Not sure how much Oskar enjoyed the visit but he did enjoy wandering through the temples, especially when escaping from his parents.

Indonesian dinner at Warung Heru

It's a small place with maximum 10 tables. It has a limited menu with only Indonesian dishes. 

I had vermicelli noodles with chicken and spices. Do note the krupuk on the side.

Wolfram had chicken with rice and lots of vegetables called Nasi something... Most Indonesian dishes are called Nasi something making it difficult to identify which one is what.

And it was excellent!

A tour in a Javanese village

There was an option for a biking tour to a Javanese rural village but we couldn't do it because they had no baby seat available. We couldn't bike but we could take a horse cart and so we did. Not as much exercise for sure, most likely extremely tourist like, but why not?

We were licked up by our guide and our driver in the horse cart and quickly were leaving the town for the countryside i.e. the fields neighboring Yogyakarta.

First stop was a small factory making krupuk. Quid? Those are deep fried crackers made from starch and flavoring. Still no idea? Check your plate next time you go to an Asian restaurant. Krupuk are the prawn crackers that we find in south east Asia. I had no idea, now I know what they are but also how they are being made, at least the locally handmade ones. Given the volume consumed in the world I also assume there is industrial production going on.

Next was a local farm where we learnt that people invest in cows. They buy a veal for 3 millions of Ruppiahs, grow it and when ready sell it for anywhere between 10 to 25 millions. At celebration time it can be even more. People build a common farm for the animals and share the cost and facility. Thinking of it, it seems a better investment that most of my saving accounts.

We then rode throughout the rice fields. I've seen some already but the green color always fascinates me.

While stayed in the shadow with Oskar napping, Wolfram and Tess went to learn how to make bricks. Now Tess can build her own house back in the Philippines.

Last stop was a house where women make Tempe. It's some kind of dough/bread made with fermented soya that is very popular in Indonesia. Taste is ok. Reminded me of some bread. Of course it's all manually made.

This was the end of our trip. After a short snack we rode back to the hotel.

Here is a selection of pictures to give you a flavour of our little trip:

Making of Krupuk

Local farm with all the farm animals

Rice fields

Making of Tempe

Our horse cart

My boys 

Chili!

During our tour today we came across a lot of fields with chili. You can also see then in gardens. It seems chili just grows anywhere around here. Yes, as simple as that.

We could have picked some up as a souvenir but we behaved.

Java coffee

Verdict: it's ok says Wolfram 

Borobudur

You may ask, why Yogyakarta?

Well it was a combination of monsoon and preference for a short travel time that led us to Yogyakarta.

Yogyakarta is famous for Borobudur which is the largest Buddhist temple existing. It's a great place to visit at sunrise. So, keeping up to our tradition of early wake up while on vacation, we booked a car to take us there for sunrise.

We woke up at 3am, sneaked out iof the room without waking up Oskar, were in the car at 3:30am and arrived there at 4:30am just before sunrise.

It was night but they were organized and provided us with flash light so we would not hurt ourselves climbing to the top of the temple.

Of course it was cloudy and we did not see much of the sunrise. This said the temple is really impressive and we spent the next three hours taking pictures of it and of the many Buddhas.

Here is a selection (directly imported from the camera i.e. not reworked yet but good enough to give you a feel of the place).

First family vacation

Yes we have been to Europe with Oskar but that was more like going home.

Yes we have been to Bintan with Oskar, twice even, but that was more if a long weekend in a resort.

This time no resort as we head to Yogyakarta. In case you wonder where that is, check a map of Indonesia, more specifically the Java island.

4 days to explore the area. Starting this Friday with an early start to get to the flight. 

While we were collecting all the luggage a (did I mention that traveling with a baby requires a lot of things?), Oskar was already ready to go. 

I bought him a little bag pack when I was in Japan for his toys.

We were flying SilKAir and also we did not ask for it because it was a short flight, they offered a bassinet which turned out very handy once the little boy was asleep.

The arrival in Yogyakarta was typical of the area: disorganized to say the least, chaotic, crowded... Yet we successfully managed to get our visa on arrival even though it costed 10$ extra vs. what was communicated. This by paying both in US dollars and Singapore dollars. It's actually scary that you can buy the visa in US dollars, Singapore dollars, Australian dollars, Euros, Japanese Yens, but not Indonesian Ruppiahs.

The ride to the hotel was a bit bumpy because of the road quality but also because Oskar got hungry and we had to feed in the car as he was getting very agitated. 

Once we had settled down in the hotel, Oskar and Tess took a nap while Wolfram and I went to the travel agent to organize the tours for the following days.

On the way to an ATM who do we see? Tanguy!

We go all the way to Yogyakarta to escape and the first thing we do is bump into someone from the office. It is a small world.

We enjoyed a drink before we went back to the hotel for some swimming pool time. Oskar couldn't wait to go begging his father to hurry up.

We took the rest of the day easy with a few drinks in the terrace. I have to say it was nice not to rush and just taking the time to do nothing. Well except running behind Oskar who's exploring everything whenever he gets the chance.

Once baby was down, we left him under Tess's watch and went for dinner.

We both ordered Indonesian food which of course I forgot to write down the names but pretty much looked like this.

By 10pm we were in bed because tomorrow we are going to Borobudur. Wake up time: 3am!