The Thing That He Said

As little children who are very keen to learn new things my boys can sometimes be too upfront. Sometimes it’s a good thing but most of times I have wished I could disappear through the wall behind me. Just like the other day…

Monday morning little A and myself had arrived in Dunkin Donut after dropping off K at school. I always go to this place alone every Monday and Thursday to use their free WiFi for my blogging work but that day was an exception as little A had begged me earlier for me to take him along. He had promised not to disturb me and I held on to his words.

He was quietly enjoying his donuts and hot chocolate while I started wrecking my brain to finish a post. The room was still empty I could hear the staff were talking to each other behind counter. Five minutes later the door was opened and a big bearded guy brushed in. He abruptly sat at the table next to mine, took out his laptop and whatever gadget he had and started to work. He had ordered a cup of coffee on his way in so it didn’t take long for the coffee to be served.

Little A who had gone across the room to play came back and sat in front of me. Our table and that man’s table were very close by. Hence little A sat only less than a meter from him. He watched the man’s face for a minute, paid full attention to his bushy beard and then his little voice broke the silence.

He pointed out to the man and said…

“Mommy, why that man looks like monkey?”

I swear, at that very moment, I had hoped I could go poof and disappear! The first reaction was definitely a shock, I found it too embarrassing and I was left speechless. Maybe I should have had apologized to the man but I could see from the corner of my eyes that he had pretended not to hear what little A had said. He was probably embarrassed too and I thought it would be really awkward if I just apologized and he actually didn’t hear a thing about it.

So what I did was just look straight at little A’s eyes and gave him a ‘ssh’ sound. But little A thought I couldn’t hear what he said and he repeated the same words AGAIN. This time I quickly responded with “what? no baby, the picture in the t’shirt is not monkey”. I looked at the man to at least give him an apologetic smile but he wasn’t looking at me nor little A. He was busy doing his work (I got a feeling he was just faking it to avoid being in an awkward situation).

Little A looked puzzled with my reply but I didn’t want to let him say another words so I gave him my iPad and tried to distract him with the games. He refused the iPad however he decided to go back playing (this time under the table) and that was a relief for me.

I took another glance at the man. He was still ignoring me. I decided the best thing was to pretend it was never happened.

What would you do if you were in my position?

A Quick Note: I am in Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia. A very crowded place with psychotic traffic jam. Last Monday eve I took a flight to the city with the boys to renew my driving license. Because we have been nomaden the past four years my IDs are from all over the place. My ID card was issued in Bekasi, an outer part of Jakarta, while my driving license was issued in Lombok. So complicated! I will be here for one week to straight things up especially since my driving license is about to expire.

If you are a follower on twitter you would probably recognize my random live-tweeting during departure. Not very easy though, doing that while traveling with two boys under five ha ha..

Anyho, I will be so busy with this thing but I really hope it can be done as soon as possible.

Have a great week you all!

Breakfast Date at JW Marriott Medan

As the only five stars hotel in Medan, JW Marriott surely knows how to give a glorious starter for someone’s day through its buffet breakfast charm at Marriott Café. The colorful refreshing fruits and juices, the soft bakeries and sweet pastries that are addictive, the live cooking counter for hot dishes and the marvelous local cuisines are laid on marble islands along the side of the dining room so easily overwhelming. I am so happy to be able to take part in this pleasant morning festivity as I enjoyed a breakfast date with a friend at JW Marriott Medan.

My decision to bring along little A was right because my friend also took her daughter with her. Hence they could play together while we were chitchatting over breakfast.

I could sense that we had arrived in the middle of breakfast rush looking at almost fully occupied tables. Thankfully we did safe ourselves a good table, near the live-cooking counter with open wide views to the entire room. It must be because of the long weekend started from the ascension day so many people, mostly local, decided to unwind at this lovely hotel.

I took around to see what are the options available to satisfy my growling tummy. Not an easy task because all dishes were tantalizing. I saw a small counter displaying meatball soups and variety of noodles but I wasn’t feeling for it. I went to check the cut fruits and juices counter and took couple slices of watermelon and a small shot of strawberry muesli. I must admit I had never liked muesli before but Marriott Cafe had presented the healthy dish in shot glasses, so beautiful I couldn’t resist. The taste was delicious!

Next, my hot dishes option was definitely my all time favorite the American Breakfast minus the toast and pastries. Two sunny side ups welldone, couple of chicken sausages, some turkey bacons and a piece of hash brown potato. Little A indulged in similar dishes with addition of chocolate muffin. My friend and her daughter had local cuisine of noodles and tempe (soy bean cake), a little omelette and some sausages. I washed down the palate with a glass of orange juice and a big cup of coffee.

One of the local breakfast cuisine

My favorite counter

I want to eat them all! But then I remember the calorie count hu hu hu..

Here I want to specifically stress on the coffee I had. Like in other 5 stars hotels I have been, the black coffee was superb. But I really appreciated the big cup Marriott Cafe had for coffee and tea. It was way beyond my expectation.

Coffee!!

As a former hotelier (I think I have never stopped being one) I know there are various way people rate the quality of a hotel. Service and food and beverage are a big part of it and most of the time I personally rate a hotel by how the breakfast is served (and how gorgeous their croissant!). It is so easy to see how good a hotel is just by seeing and experiencing their breakfast period. I think my score for breakfast at JW Marriott Medan is 5 of 5.

Do you have a good recommendation for breakfast out in your local area? Where would that be?

Punk Ginny at Met Gala 2013

I was watching E! News about red carpet Met Gala 2013 and almost got my eyeballs out when I saw this woman Giuliana was talking to. Her eyes were fully plastered with dark eyeshadow and I thought, “who the hell is this?!”.

Turned out she was Ginny Goodwin! She managed to step out from her comfort zone of being sweetie Ginny all this time and cross path to daring punk Ginnie, completed with messy hair a la punker. She was taking a risk. I didn’t like the look but I admired her courage.