Living Again in the Five Star Hotel…

I am utterly surprised. I was going to sit down by my laptop to write an email to a dear friend of mine but while I was waiting for gmail to stop saying “loading”, I ended up here.

I thought I ended blogging. Why? I have a new passion one might say. Instagram. Plus I felt my blogging became one sided. I did not have time anymore to read my sweet fellow blogger’s posts and I felt rotten about it.

Enough said about why I betrayed my own blog. By the way, if you read this much so far, you are very kind. And if you happen to be saying to yourself, oh I hope she will not end this post without telling me how I can find her on Instagram…. I have good news for you. I will tell you and I will also tell you a bit about how our life is nowadays. What is the last thing you know about us? Oh yes… my eyebrows… They are doing fine, thank you. I found someone at the spa, here in Thailand who was shocked at “how thin I like it” but is willing to do the shaping.

What spa?! What Thailand?! Oh boy… are you new to my blog? Hey, no worries…. I will fill you in quickly: my husband runs a beautiful hotel, here on Samui and we actually live in the hotel. We did live in Spain too… twice…

Anyways, Zoard can now use words like gecko and shy. He can say sawadee khap when he feels like it. Well sort of. He is better at putting his hands together to greet someone with respect. And highfiving is super easy for him even when he feels somewhat shy about it. He loves the buggies that take us up to our room. The hotel is on a hill…

Do you want to see some of my pictures? And I am krokovayeszter on Instagram…

For some reason, I cannot see any of the pictures I am trying to attach to this post and I am at the point of giving up. If you do happen to see some random pictures at the end of this post then that is great, if not, so sorry. I have no idea why… xoxo

 

How Do You Feel About Gossiping?

Well, how do you feel about gossiping?

I always admire those who say that gossiping is an unpleasant characteristic of a person and it is much more appealing if you do not talk behind other people’s back. I even see the logic that if you notice someone gossiping about others, you can be sure that that person will also talk about you, when you are not around. 

I would love to join the group of nice people who have manners, unlike me and resist gossiping. I personally cannot imagine how they do it or how You do it, if you happen to be one of those good people. 

Talking about other people is a habit of mine. Even if I would chat about something else with my husband such as … dinner on Christmas Eve or a new restaurant that just opened up… (I guess the other topic that comes to my mind to talk about is food… HAHA). I know that eventually, I would end up discussing who should not be invited to the Christmas dinner and who are my favorite couple to go out with, when there is a new happening like the opening of a cool place.

Is it worse if I also like to talk about strangers? Or is that considered more polite? I mean… less rude.

My husband and I used to go to the gym together (long, long time ago) and we would occasionally talk about someone worth talking about. Occasionally. Right.

This was my introduction to the gym theme by the way. 

Here is Zoárd examining the weights at the hotel’s gym (we live in a hotel if you are new to my blog). 

If I would have endless time, I would love running on the treadmill while looking at the view. I would run endlessly.

Some say that gyms are cold, heartless places, full of machines. I think a good machine is priceless for a good work-out.
Where do you stand on this matter? 

Did you miss my face? Here I am! Making sure my baby is as safe as a baby can be at a gym. Seriously, I let Zoárd explore a lot of places meant for adults to be around at but you really have to be there, mentally to prevent an accident.

Do you measure yourself? If you have kids, do you measure them? Is it gossiping if you tell me how much your partner weighs?

Leaving Thailand For a While

A week from now, we are flying to Hungary for the holidays. And from January, we will be living in Barcelona again for 3 months. 

I would like to make the most of our time here and one way of doing this is to show Zoárd new areas of the hotel. New for him that is.

We have been all living in a hotel room for almost 7 months now and since Zoárd is becoming more and more curious of the world, why hide it from him?!

I will try to post every day before we fly off: my husband to Barcelona to look for a flat for us and Zoárd and I will land in Budapest waiting for him. 

In my last post, Zoárd experienced the inside of the yoga studio.

He is chilling by the salt bricks. This is the back of the yoga studio.

The hotel also has a movie theater. I picked out many, many of the movies that you can watch here. 

Zoárd tested one of the bean bags (with my help)… HAHA

He also had a good look at the steam room.

And the sauna. 

Which one do you prefer? Steam room or sauna?

This is something new for all of us: we are letting Zoárd play on the terrace. Supervised.

You can tell that he is having a great time with all the positive energies of freedom floating around. Did I just project that on him?! HAHA
Anyways, I think space for moving around is good for a baby.

This is as close as he can get to Nature.

Are you a Nature Lover of more of a City Kid?

Close your eyes. Imagine that you could live anywhere on this planet except for the country you are currently living in. Where would you go?

What Is Your Environment Like?

I want to be fair with myself when the question comes up: “what is lovely about Thailand?” 
I refuse to answer by saying: divine massages, gorgeous water falls and small islands you can hop to with a speed boat.
One may speak theoretically but I choose not to.

Here is a bit of my reality which is not a field for complaining either… 

Friendly view.

A car that most men find pleasant. 

We are privileged to have a car seat.

Our home right now is small but while we live in a five star hotel’s room, others live very differently from us…

Dogs don’t have a name but they got lots of freedom.

I decided to show something to Zoárd every day even if it is indoors.

Today we had a nice time at the yoga studio. Speaking of must go… class starts in nine minutes…

What do you think of your environment?

 

What is Your Hobby?

Good news: I do not have many hobbies at the moment so this post will not be as long as the previous one.

Besides, the obvious that I love taking pictures, emailing, blogging I think that it is important for me to have a proper hobby.

Coming up with funny pictures to take of your baby does help you spend time but your baby might not like your projects at all times… Though he did not complain, honestly…

And even if Zoárd would agree to be part of my self-entertainment for the rest of my life, I feel the need to do something else.

A couple of days ago I started visiting the hotel’s bar. Some stairs were built very close to our room so now I have no excuse not to go. And I realized that a guy called Ake makes the perfect half-shot latte for me. By shot I mean coffee shot…

Today is Ake’s day off so I might skip my latte break until he comes back. That is what loyal customers do you know.

So Zoárd’s fans will have to spend a day without him.

Now that I made it clear that taking pictures and drinking coffee is NOT my hobby then maybe I should announce that I picked yoga as my hobby. 

For me it is very important to be able to exercise regularly. And yoga can also be done dynamically. I am burning calories for sure when I am in class which is a 90 minutes class held at the hotel’s yoga studio. (I never said I would be bored if I would be a guest at the hotel we live in.)

I came up with my personal goal. I would like my shoulders to be more open. 

Yoga is a way to work my body. I like to dress up nicely for the classes (I prefer beyondyoga and Nike) and a good class for me is when the teacher makes me sweat. I am not spiritual.

Here is an example of a yoga top I have.

I drink water only after class. Never during yoga. This is how I was taught by my first yoga masters on this island and this approach works for me.

Here I am with my first teacher, Mon. She is one of a kind. This picture was taken 3 years ago. (And if you look at my feet on other pictures of me you will find that I am still rocking a Birkenstock -something I never thought I would do when I was an über-serious city chick…HAHA)

This will not be a nostalgia post but I dug out this picture because I wanted to show You where I do yoga. (The picture was taken before I got pregnant.)
See the salt bricks in the back?

My yoga baby is asking me to stop writing this post…

What is your hobby?

Step in to My Gallery and Leave Me Your Book

I will say very little today.

Please recommend me a book that made you laugh a lot when you were reading it.

And could you please tell me which one is your favorite picture of Zoárd?

Here they are:

 

Would You Take a Baby to a Party?

Monsoon season in Thailand means lots of rain. Since we are living in a five star hotel whatever will happen (three days of power outage for example) will not hit us too badly. 

Perhaps, at the moment, outdoor, safari style activities are not the best for us.
What is that?! A Maison Bentley Style party?! Sounds just what we need to take our minds off the rain…

Zoárd and I went down to the general manager’s (aka my husband’s) office. He was thrilled to hear about the party we were invited to.

I think the key to a good party with an infant is discussing the rules.

We did not have to talk too much about “rules”, the boys took this party very seriously. When you go on a celebration to the North part of Thailand this is a very appropriate hat to wear. Though I think Maison Bentley does not live up North…

Let’s get in the car and party!!!

Zoárd was in charge of complimenting all the art work at the party. 

Obviously, I was not the queen of cocktails but I kept saying how delicious the coffee was. (I have no idea how the whipped cream got in to my mug…)

When Zoárd became slightly tired of all the partying. My husband read him a very exciting tale about all sorts of exciting characters.

I thought about adding a picture of the rain but who cares about the rain?! We had a great time! Thank you!!!

What do you personally think about taking children to events that are meant to be for grown-ups?

Weekend Photo Challenge /Week 7/ – How Do You Feel About Posing?

Some of my friends tell me that they prefer to see pictures of me when I am all natural, not aware of the camera and certainly not posing. Well, the good news is: this photo challenge is about having your baby pose. The bad news is: there is no such thing as looking at a picture of me a la natural, I am not aware of the world,  I am simply sitting on the floor wearing a large boyfriend T-shirt without make-up on.

And surprise, surprise this photo challenge always comes hand in hand with an outfit of the day pic! Ha! There I am! Probably posing… Ha! Not “probably”, I AM POSING! HAHA

So what is this weekend photo challenge all about? There is always a theme and you can have fun with it in a blog post. That is my interpretation at least.

As always, I told Zoárd about this week’s challenge. He asked me not to put anything on his head.

I told him I cannot promise this and he was not pleased with me.

I thought it was a compromise on my part to let Zoárd pose however he fancies. 

But maybe I got carried away a bit with the beanies I made him….

OK, OK!! Peace!! No more posing. For now. Yes, I promise!

Check out the other photo challenges:
6th challenge
5th challenge
4th challenge
3rd challenge
2nd challenge
1st challenge

How do you feel when people take pictures of you? Do you like to smile a certain way? Or is it best if you do not know about the camera man lurking around you?

Who is The Funniest Around You?

Kerry started a series of “A Day In The Life” where you can show the blogging world what you do all day. You can read all about it on Kerry’s blog.

Danielle if you are still looking for a fun project maybe this is for you!

I think one must post about her day at least once in great detail. This is what I did in this post:
https://kukolina.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/how-do-you-spend-your-whole-day-with-a-baby/

I failed to do the same with FEW words but nevertheless I think I did a mighty fine job:
https://kukolina.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/a-babys-diary-in-few-words/

I started taking notes and pictures following my day today. I think today can be called a typical one (but I will show off some other moments as well). I also thought about the weekly photo challenges I have been doing on Saturdays. I will sneak in an unsuspected son of mine and my outfit of the day. This was last week’s photo challenge that was actually posted on Saturday:
 https://kukolina.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/weekend-photo-challenge-week-5-this-will-not-make-you-sleep/

Zoárd and I make up the “late ones to wake up” around half past seven in our family of three.
As soon as I start taking pictures of Zoárd I cannot go unnoticed and he starts posing.

Here is Zoárd with his tooth brush and if you want to know how you can tell his excitement that he can be the model of my pictures, look at his straight baby legs. HAHA

I could probably do a whole post with Zoárd being happy about “picture time”.

I sometimes take over 50 pictures of him and I  noticed that he makes sure that he is facing me.

If I move because I want the lighting to be better he moves too. Face to face! – is the philosophy!

Almost, after an hour we woke up I had my breakfast which means I take out everything from the minibar. If you are wondering what things I did beforehand I will put it in a bracket just for You (cleaning poo; I made sure the play area is safe, I put away clothes, I made sure I am not naked but I did change my clothes later, I made a list).

I have my breakfast in front of my laptop everyday while I read emails, comments etc.

I dislike finding Zoárd on the sofa but that does not stop me from taking a picture…

I am fast forwarding otherwise this post will be as long as the strudel’s dough.

Lunch is in the hotel’s restaurant after Zoárd’s first nap.

I eat rice noodles with eggs and tomatoes OR (this is NEW…) with buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes.

Zoárd and his tomato.

It is not nice of me to give a catchy title to my blog post and not tell you the answer to my question.

I think Zoárd is funny like all babies but I think he is starting to get us.

He is comfortable about playfulness in public.

He makes us smile, we make him smile.

We are one happy family who met an awesome stranger at Starbucks. Look at the picture the stranger took of us? Not only did she know that I am not a fan of pictures showing our nasal hair, she took a really friendly shot of us.

In the afternoons Zoárd either holds on to my chair or he finds something that interests him.

I am fascinated by his eagerness to stand up anywhere he stands a chance. HAHA

I go to the gym before dinner and the boys space out.

Here is my outfit!

Thank you for patience if you managed to read everything: every single word. You are a star!

Who is the funniest person around you? Could it be You?

I Became The New Face of Estee Lauder

I like to have fun with the details. I imagined this post and I wrote the main theme in my head. Talking about what it is like to get your hands on your essentials while being on an island.

And by essentials I do mean my concealer for example. It is my foundation over here and I have been loyal to it for many years. I wanted to find an image of it on the Internet but neither one was good enough so I decided to take a natural picture of me holding my Estee Lauder concealers. 

Taking this picture was a lot of fun.

When people ask how I spend my time I should just show them these images:

Going back to my original thoughts, now that you know what I put on my face. HAHA

If I run out of something important I need to think of ways to have it shipped to me. Many products simply cannot be shipped to Thailand or it would be seriously not worth it after paying the shipping fee. That is why I take questions like: “would you like something from duty free?” -very seriously. Our friend Dong is coming back from China next week and he is bringing my eye make-up remover. (He asked if I needed anything.)
A few days ago my mother sent us some detergent against ammonia built-up specifically for cloth diapers and my mother-in-law is going to the post office soon with my birthday present. I always ask for practical stuff. Holidays, birthdays are a good way to stock up. 

So when someone tells me to buy a kit for child proofing our hotel room I just laugh. We could not even find a simple mattress we wanted to buy for Zoárd. 

Even though a tropical island might not have a few big brands and some modern gadgets but you will find caps and hats. Remember: staying white or becoming whiter is what the locals aim for. And what better way to do this is by covering yourself up! 

Zoárd and I know how to behave absolutely normal when shopping at Tesco Lotus.

Yesterday we left the hotel eagerly to find the oats and natural granola that we eat every single day. But they were out of them both.  That can happen. Once again I must point out that on an island even the big Tesco Lotus can have delays in stocking up. 

Each time we leave the hotel, the receptionists ask us where we are going. And before I can answer with a bored face they guess the answer and say: “shopping, shopping at Tesco Lotus?” They say it with such excitement that I always feel ashamed of myself. Yes, when you live on an island going to the big supermarket is considered fun.

After shopping for toothbrushes, my husband felt like eating sushi and we know a Japanese gentleman who has such passion for preparing food that eating at his place is always magical. I am a picky eater, a very, very picky eater but even I tasted octopus when we were there the last time. That was before we had Zoárd. So the idea of going back to this quiet sushi bar was not appealing to me at first. Zoárd was naked as usual and I started to worry about silly things like too strong air conditioning. Since we just happened to buy a top for him from the F&F collection of Tesco my non-existent problem was quickly solved.

Here we are! I am waiting for my tomato soup with noddles and my sushi with cucumber. Adventures me! HAHA

When was the last time you turned a situation around? Do you think humor and having a positive attitude makes things easier?