New Year's Eve

With Christmas in the books and 2011 behind us, it was time to focus our efforts on closing out the old year and bringing in the new one.

We received such great feedback for our Halloween party, we were hoping to host a smaller, but just as fun, New Year’s Eve party for those who did not return to their home country. Unfortunately, only one other couple was able to commit far enough in advance for us to make proper arrangements, our two families decided to book rooms at the Shangri-La in Jakarta and attend the New Year’s Party at the hotel club BATS (Bar At The Shangri-La).

No sooner had we booked the room and purchased our non-refundable tickets then the inquiries started coming in. What are you guys doing for New Years? Are more tickets available? Can we bring friends? Our party of five quickly ballooned to a party of 19….a great size for a hosted New Year’s Eve party that would have saved us all money on hotel rooms and tickets to the club.

For my family, the hotel needed to accommodate three adults and three children (my wife’s cousin from Idaho was joining us). My booking was for a suite with an adjoining deluxe room with a baby cot and additional bed in the suite. When we arrived, we were told the rooms were already setup with the additional beds and were on separate floors. I objected, showing them the confirmation on my reservation. Forty minutes later, they had moved us to a new location, but said they would have to give us keys to the adjoining room later because it was “dirty” and needed cleaning.

The family we originally made reservations with sent me a text notifying that they were at the hotel and in their room. He complained they had moved them from their first room because something was broken. I asked what number he was in. He said they were being asked to move again because of an “engineering issue” in their room, then told me the number they were currently in. It was the adjoining suite! I knocked on his door and said: “You’re moving because you are in my suite. You must be the ‘dirt’ they were referring to.” The hotel apologized for the mix-up by providing them with a $300 bottle of champagne with which to bring in the New Year.

After settling into our rooms, my wife and her cousin went shopping for a dress to wear that evening and I took the kids to the pool. My son amazed me by jumping from the wall into the pool and swimming to me. He hadn’t shown the capability in the past and, once he realized he could do it, he spent the rest of the afternoon doing it non-stop. My daughter amazed me with her patience. I couldn’t entertain her and catch my son at the same time. She waited until he was tired and ready for a break, then her and I went and swam together for a while. A thunderstorm finally drove us inside.

We ordered the kids a room service dinner and got ourselves ready for the night. We were meeting friends for drinks at 8 then heading down for a 9 PM dinner. The kids ate and we got them ready for bed. Then, the beds for the kids never showed up. The second time we called, they told us they had none to bring us because they were sold out.

We left the kids with our nannies at 8 PM and went to the Club Lounge for drinks prior to heading down for dinner. The club lounge is for guests in suites and those who have paid extra for access to the floor. They have a special concierge for these VIP guests. I explained our bedding situation and asked them to rectify it quickly because our kids were ready for bed. I showed them the confirmation and said I wanted them to fix it even if they had to take a full size bed out of another room and go to the store to buy a new crib. Twenty minutes later they came back to tell me everything was fixed and they gave us a bottle of wine for our troubles. I love companies that recognize when they make a mistake and apologize for it. A strong track record before this incident, and the way they handled this one, are why we will continue to use Shangri-La hotels.

After finishing our drinks and meeting a new couple who would join us for the evening, we headed down to BATS for the evening’s festivities. Dinner was great, and they special ordered me a few items because of my allergies to seafood. Most people had a first course of Shrimp, followed by a lobster bisque, then a Salmon main course. I had a garden salad, tomato soup, and a nice steak. After dinner a live band covered the major hits and introduced the New Year. I made a fool of myself on the dance floor and we were all ready to crash when we finally went to bed at 2 AM.

The next morning we woke with the kids at 5:30. We waited until 9 to go down for the buffet breakfast, only to find ourselves standing in a very long line. We changed our mind and instead went back up to the Club Lounge and had breakfast there (both were free to us).

After breakfast we returned home and spent New Year’s Day fighting to remain awake while the kids played.

 

Latin Ball

Last year's Latin Ball was so much fun we were looking forward to attending this year's, as well.  More so since most of our friends in Jakarta are Latin Ladies and their spouses.  The ball took place at the Shangri-La Hotel.  We thought long and hard about the logistics of the evening, having a new nanny, and spending time in traffic when we're exhausted from the evening and decided it would be best if we just booked a suite to spend the night in.  The kids hung out in the suite with the nanny while we went to the ball, and we didn't have far to go when we were done at the ball, which allowed us to remain longer.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's a Father to Do?

I'm not a feminist.  Far from it.  I'm more likely to file a petition to cancel Title IX or picket the offices of the NOW than I am to lend my voice to support them.  However, I'm also the son, brother, cousin, nephew, grandson, colleague, and friend of remarkable women who make tremendous contributions to their craft, their families, and their communities.  I can't imagine what a world would be like if they did not have their opportunities to shine.

And that's one of the things that makes life here a challenge.  Women are second class citizens, and my daughter sees it. Now, I won't lie and say that, as a man, being in a patriarchal society doesn't have its advantages.  It does.  But I also have concerns.  To wit:

1)  After our first year, when we were discussing school with our daughter, we said she would attend elementary school, then middle school, then high school, then college and then she'd find a job.  She replied:  "Women don't work!"  We laughed and said "from the mouths of babes", but also took note.  Both in Arizona and in Jakarta, all of her friends had stay-at-home moms.  Nothing wrong with that, obviously, because we've chosen to do that.  But it was an interesting perspective.

2)  Last week, my daughter started taking the bus to school.  I told her to enjoy it while she could because when we return to Arizona, she'll be walking to school.  She replied:  "I don't have to go to school in Arizona."  I said:  "It's the law.  If I don't send you to school, they come and throw me in jail.  And if I am not going to work because I'm in jail, who will earn money so we can eat?"  Her reply?  "When I'm old enough, my husband will work and he can pay!"  I'd like to blame the Disney Princesses, but it's not them.  It's what she sees.

So, what's a father to do?  In a world where all my daughter sees are women who are stay-at-home moms, nannies, maids, or teachers, how can I convince her she has other options for which she must prepare?

The Magic of Moving Holidays

Did anyone see the comment on my "Lebaran Annoyances" post (that I've since deleted) that basically said "get with the culture or go home and quit complaining about it"?  Well, I'm sure this post will send him into apoplectic fits.

One of the things you can count on in the Western world is a stable calendar.  We're a business driven society, and business operates by the clock ('round the clock, in some instances).  Imagine what would happen if  President Obama came on TV and announced via presidential decree:  "We're adding an additional Sunday to this week so we can have another full day of NFL."  The shock wave would ripple the world.

All of the Indonesian calendars indicated Idul Fitri was on 30 and 31 of August this year.  Everyone (including myself) made plans based on the belief that these dates were valid.  And they were, until 30 August when the Minister of Religion changed the holiday to be 31 August and 1 September.  How can this be?  If I remember my early "culture training", it has to do with when the key religious figure sees the moon (but don't quote me on this).  If a night is cloudy, and they don't see the moon, they can't declare the end of the fast, and the start of the holiday.  Monday night must have been cloudy (I don't remember).

In any event, we're staying in the hotel an additional night.

Why the hotel?  The whole point of staying in the hotel was to avoid the fireworks.  We obviously can't ask the people in our neighborhood to forgo their tradition of exploding things until 3 AM simply because we don't like to be kept awake.  That wouldn't be neighborly.  Instead, we avoid the noise by checking into a hotel.  The end of the holiday is the biggest night for it, so we extended our stay to miss the final night.

Did it work?  No.  We still hear them.  But, we now actually get to see them with a spectacular vantage point.  And they are much quieter, so we're sleeping normally.

What do you think?  How would this go over in a Western nation?

A Lazy Day to End a Busy Week

It's Sunday today.  Father's Day, to be precise.  And, due to my unfortunate travel schedule, I am spending it alone - though I did just have a wonderful Skype conversation with the family in Singapore.  In four days I'll be transitioning myself to Singapore and won't return to Jakarta until after our new son is born.  I'm spending today as lazily as I can.

It was a rough week, and a full week.  I'm an insomniac, by nature, and when external events disrupt my sleep routine, I'm not able to defeat my insomniac tendencies.  This meant a week of sleeping just five hours per night.  I probably would have been okay were it not for the first night alone:  Sunday. 

With the family in Singapore, I leave my computer on and open all night in case my wife goes into labor and needs to contact me.  At 2 AM, I woke from a dead sleep to the sound of someone (or something) typing on my keyboard.  Naturally, all the early talk of ghosts living in my house shot through my mind in the few seconds I was regaining consciousness.  By the time I had adjusted my mind to where I was and why it was dark and why I was surrounded by a thin white net (the mosquito netting), my heart was pounding and adrenaline was surging through my body.

My vision is bad in daylight without glasses.  Throw in a dark room with odd shadows and it is even worse.  Even so, I could see there was no person or apparition sitting at my computer making use of the internet.  It wasn't until I heard the familiar sound of quickly scurrying feet and the distinct, squeaky call that I realized one of our ubiquitous tiny house lizards had just run across the keyboard of my laptop.  Of course I was then up for another ninety minutes.

I went through my week as a zombie drinking more coffee during the week than I had in my prior 36 years of life.  Literally.  Futsal on Tuesday was tough, but far better than the prior week when only three of us showed up.  Yoga on Wednesday knocked me flat.  My legs just didn't have enough energy to hold most of the poses.  I fell down three times. 

Thursday, due to peer pressure, I participated in the only event I'll be around for in this year's company Olympics:  Futsal.  I was hoping to participate in Futsal, Golf and Bowling, but when I saw my schedule in Jakarta would only permit me to participate in the first Futsal event, I was planning to just skip the olympics this year (like all the other expats).  My team insisted they needed me, however, so I played.  It didn't help.  The other team cleaned the floor with us 6-1.

I closed out my week celebrating a big event with a friend.  He has just accepted the job as head of the Wealth Management group for a large Indonesian bank.  Pretty big deal.  And if anyone is interested, he's highly recommending you get out of anything that is US currency and move it to Singapore or Indonesia until the market settles from the major shock that will hit at the end of June when the Fed stops buying US Treasury.

We celebrated his new success at a local Jakarta club....which meant we left the house at 11PM and arrived home after 3 AM.  Of course, now that my body is accustomed to 5 hours of sleep, I was up at 8:30 this morning.  Here's hoping I'll get a nice nap later today!

Bachelor life sucks when you're married

I normally try to post to my blog on the weekends.  My weeknights are typically busy with activities, and weekdays with work, so weekends are the only time to post.  With the family in Singapore, I have a lot more time for posting....but a lot less worth talking about.  It's pretty bleak living in a large house when the family is somewhere else.

My days are as routine as I can make them.  I go to work at the same time, I come home at the same time.  I even have tried to make my evenings resemble my normal routine...but the wife nixed the at-home massage while she's gone, so my Monday nights leave me wanting for an activity.  Last week, my yoga teacher confirmed our session and then cancelled five minutes later.  It was her birthday and her friends surprised her.  That axed my Wednesday night.  Thursday was a holiday, so no rugby.  My week wasn't very routine.

Even the help is off schedule.  Not wanting to pay our nannies for two months of not working, I set a schedule where the two nannies and our maid split the weeks.  So they come at 5 PM and leave at 7 PM.  Just long enough to clean, do a load of laundry, and make my three meals.  Not sure the laundry is working out so well.  All my clothes smell like mildew.

The family, at least, is enjoying Singapore....at least the apartment in Singapore.  My cousin doesn't know where to go and my wife is too pregnant to have the energy to really go anywhere, so they seldom leave the apartment.  On the plus side, Great World City upgraded us from a two bedroom to a three bedroom!  They said it was because we were repeat customers.  I think it had more to do with the fact that we kept asking them to remove furniture to make room for kids beds (cribs, etc) and they didn't have anywhere else to put it.  Whatever the reason, they are awesome and we really appreciate it!  This is how to run a company.  I wish I could say we will use them again, but I think the opportunity is unlikely.  If the opportunity presents itself, however, we would definitely return.

On Friday I'll rejoin my family in Singapore.  Saturday is my daughter's birthday and nothing is stopping me from being around for that.  I bought us tickets to the Lion King musical (which, oddly enough, my daughter already saw in Arizona when she was three) as her birthday present.  We will all go on Saturday night...minus the little guy.  They would let him, but I don't think we'd get to enjoy the show if he was there.  It's past his bedtime.