"Bobo" or "Dodo"?

Speaking of Nadia who's almost turn two next month, she now starts "speaking" and mimicking most words she used to hear and are familiar with. Mostly she copied what her big sis said (and done!), so what can I do?, am I a bad mother if I don't speak our language to them?, if I start talking in bahasa Indonesia, sometimes they'll answer (in french anyway).. sometimes they're not responding at all, and usually they only staring at me or look confused, I'm happy enough if they could understand what I was saying and I let them reply in their own convenient way. I admit that sometimes it does get to me, what people said, that making me feel like we're a bunch of strange aliens who's faces don't show any hint of "foreign" heritage, but speaking french to each other...

We've experienced quite a lot about it though, like one day a taxi driver suddenly turned head and asked us: "your children are speaking french?, you speak french to your kids?"... and we reluctantly said "yes.. ". But we've met some drivers who knew some words in french or at least the language sounds familiar to them. One driver even told us that he lived for some times in Paris in the 70s. Yesterday evening, the cab driver teased my children, as he could remember a bit of french words..

Tonight, I went out with the girls while hubby staying at home. When we're back, their dad has already went to bed because he's so tired after long hours concentrating in GMAT exercises. Nadia asked "Papa?".. and I said "Papa bobo".. then she looked at her leg and touched her knee and said: "bobo?".. haha.. now I get it..

"Bobo" in informal french means bump/swelling (come from the word "bosse"), that's why she thought her dad was in pain, I corrected what I had said then: "non Nadia, Papa dodo.." and she put her hands in her cheek while closing her eyes.. now, she gets it, as "dodo" (informal word for dormir /sleep).. Now, you can see how one word could be misunderstood, she doesn't understand that bobo in informal Indonesian means sleep/tidur... gosh...

Nespresso in Singapore

Last weekend during the hustle bustle of great Singapore sale, a yearly big sale islandwide, I saw an advertisement of Nespresso machine in Singapore. We already have Turmix T100 model that we bought couple of years back while we're still living in Geneva. I thought, there must be a counter or an outlet selling Nespresso brands here. I was looking desperately for their coffee capsules as our stock were running fast..

Luckily, I was right, there is one counter in Takashimaya B1 level. I quickly headed to the spot and ordered our capsules there. One box of 10 capsules cost S$9.10-S$9.90 depends on what flavor you choose (normal or lungo). Some models they sell here in Singapore are a bit different to the one we saw in Europe, the model looks the same but in different names, or maybe they've upgraded and changed the name of their products and I just didn't update.

The thing is, they display the bling-bling version of our machine-like (Turmix model) Nespresso coffee maker.. and I thought, it's quite.. umm... glamour?...

The Pursuit of dreams

I remember a line from The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho's book), If you want something really bad, sometimes it feels like the universe magically gathered to help you.. "life really is generous to those who pursue and believed in their dreams"..

I also believed that every day is unique, and every encounter has its purpose.

I met Erlina, a lovely Indonesian girl, a painter from Bali who's planning to do an exhibition in Paris back in 1999. I met her one day in one "traiteur Indonésienne" called Warung Indonesia in Paris 16ème (district 16^th). She was also looking for a place to stay, a youth hostel or anything that’s cheaper than Parisian hotels. She came at the right time, in the right place, because the owner of that small eatery has one room to rent within her budget at the owner’s place in the outskirt of Paris, she could even stay there almost for free.

She’s an artist, a talented painter, she found a café to display her works and she kept painting everytime she had time in her rented room, her story make me think of a true artist who live and breathe through their work of arts..

One day I discovered her paintings in the same eatery that we’ve met before, and fell in love with them. Later, when she’d already moved out and back to Bali, I discovered another painting of hers hidden inside the room and I can tell that the painting spoke to me about her feelings for Paris, I knew she’ll come back, sooner or later. I knew she fell in love with the city just like I did... her painting clearly showed me that, a dark blue, melancholy painting of a girl with a long hair, in every state of her moody face...

I found her painting touched me and then asked the landlord why she left it? and if it was for sale?.. the landlord didn’t care about her painting, maybe she didn’t even know if the painting exist.

Lucky enough for me, I had Erlina’s email address and when we’re settled in Annecy, I tried to reach her by asking about her melancholy blue painting, and she replied, telling me that she got married with a Frenchman, living in France and we have a dream of making a children storybook, she’ll do the illustration and I’ll do the story.. but unfortunately when our family member’s growing and we’re moving to Switzerland, our little project vanished in the air... dreams gone out of the window...

Until one day early this year, I contacted her again... she told me that she has 2 little boys now and that she made it, she got a contract from a publisher in France to publish a children storybook collaborated with her French writer friend, Françoise. She said the book will be ready in 2010, then she asked me if I can do the translations of their book into English and bahasa Indonesia (later on) and find a publisher here. I was so excited with the project and decided to do it.

They've sent me the initial story and right now I’m still doing the translation bits for some pages of the storybook and still need their approval. It's still a raw project and long way to go but I really hope I can find a publisher later and really wish that our dream will finally come true..

Fete des meres

Mothers day tomorrow. I didn't really notice about the day, in fact I never give a thought of what mothers day really meant, unless my daughter reminds me of it. She handed me her handmade card, simple, no fancy, just a line saying " For mummy, I love you" and a big blue heart.. why is it blue? no idea, maybe because she ran out of red color :-)

But for me blue is sweet. So the sky blue colored heart she chose, I see it as a sweet and tender love she has for me.. Mothers day is about appreciating mums for all the things that she's done unconditionally, things that money can't buy, things that are so precious that I could also said, she gave her love and life without asking anything in return.

Kasih ibu kepada beta, tak terhingga sepanjang masa..
Hanya memberi, tak harap kembali,
bagai sang surya menyinari dunia...

Singapore, May 11th 2008.

A week is not enough..

Our trip this time was too short. We should've known that if we travel with small children, we need to take many breaks in between activities. Children get tired fast and when the body isn't fit, they fall ill. That happened to us, in the 5th day in the country, just after visiting her grandma in Cianjur (West Java), Nadia vomited and had diarrhea, and since she's always threw up everything that went down her stomach, she got dehydrated and we rushed her to Brawijaya Women and Children Hospital and stayed for a night.

Despite that disturbance, our trip was really fun and we felt homey in our own home. The apartment is nearly complete, we already bought curtains, fridge, sofa, etc. Some made to measure kitchen cupboard and queen size bed were ready before we came, so it makes easier for us to settle in the apartment. We really love the fact that it is located in the center of the city and we won't have any trouble to go from there to anywhere. The apartment complex facilities are good, the building occupation is nearly full with a mix, multi-cultured people from different nationalities live inside the 2 towers condo in Sudirman Park. There are also London Business and Public Relation school, Banks, Lawyers, Restaurants, etc inside the complex.

Some things we left undone, but husband has asked her brother to take care of them and to complete our works in the unit. We're happy to know that somehow we have a place that we can really feel comfortable and we can call a home..