Stupid GPS and a Sneak Peek at Next Getaway

October 3, 2010, Sunday

Oh my, I don’t know if I ever again will truly rely on GPS!! So here’s the story. Mum and dad had reserved a resort at Kintamani for the next holiday. Since I’m pretty much a curious person, I asked mum a lot about this place until she couldn’t take it anymore and suggested why didn’t I checked the place out myself. And me being me, I said why not? That day was Sunday, so our plan *initial plan* was to go to church at 7 am, go to Kintamani, have lunch at Warung Bu Oka, Ubud, and finally pick up mum at the airport. But as usual, a plan is a plan. What is a plan without someone *unintentionally* trying to mess it up? (In this case that person was me). Yes, I wake up at 7, the service begin at 7 while it took us approximately 45 minutes to drive to church from the hotel. So, we decided to skip the morning service but we would still go to church… why? Because I really wanted to eat lumpia (spring roll) sold at church food court.

After we grabbed those yummy lumpia, Kintamani was our next destination. Now, this is the turning point. Dad was going with us, so he could show us directions, but… BUT… because of this new GPS device installed in our car, we would like to try it. This way dad wouldn’t need to pay that close attention on the road. So we followed the GPS directions.

It was okay for I think the first 20 minutes before bf missed the turn. Sure enough, the GPS showed us the alternate route. Then, us being innocent, without suspicion followed the directions. The roads pointed by the freakin’ GPS were all small roads, we even made a joke that time: “Even the GPS knows the side road”. After a while, things got worse, the road became even narrower, windier, going up and down in a dangerous steep, not suitable for car. But we kept on driving. Not long, we heard a loud scratching sound from under the car. Yes, the road condition was that bad it scratched the car body. The joke was on us then :( We decided to turn back, and what a nightmare. The road was narrow, with a dried small river on either side. And when the car passed the same road, we heard the same heart-ripping sound (oh, I felt sorry for the car).

Well, we were a bit down at the time. But felt a bit relax after we reached the resort. It’s a lake-front resort, very quiet and isolated.

A long journey caused us hungry and as planned, we headed to Warung Bu Oka. Now, there was a Balinese wedding ceremony held at the temple next to Warung Bu Oka. It turned out to be Happy Salma’s wedding. Well, because of it, they closed down the place for the day, so we decided to go to Bu Oka’s other restaurant :p Oh yes, we all  couldn’t take anything other than Bu Oka’s famous “Babi Guling” for our lunch. Bon Appétit.

Home Sweet Home

October 01, 2010, Friday

Me and bf went to Bali for the weekend. It was a short trip but enough to lift up my spirit. Boy, heaven knows how much I needed holiday. Anyway, our flight was at 9 PM, so we had to rush after work to catch the flight.

October 02, 2010, Saturday

Early in the morning, we packed our bag again coz mum had booked us a hotel room at Nusa Dua. But sadly, mum couldn’t join us, she went to Semarang later that day. We had our breakfast at Sanur beach; a local fave, Nasi Bali. The place run by three Balinese women and not that commercialize that it’s known only to local. Afterward, we sent off mum at the airport and straight away went to have… a SPA!!! Oh gosh, my shoulder and back were killing me for the past few months, so having a spa was just a must ha ha. The last time I had spa was.. I think December 2007… Kinda like déjàvu to me. Only this time, I was with the person who, despite knowing the ugliest side of me still wants to be with me. Hmm.. enough about that, overall it was a nice, relaxing time.

After being pampered, me, bf, pa, phopho and her two sisters went to Sanur to have lunch at Mak Beng warong before headed to Novotel Hotel. Mak Beng warong only has one single menu, i.e. fish head soup and fried fish. The fish head soup? Super delish.

At the hotel, I couldn’t wait another minute to throw myself into the swimming pool. Hungry after rounds of swimming, there’s no better place for dining out than Jimbaran! Pa managed to get the big family gathered in. What a nice way to end the day with the lovely crowd.

 

The three sisters

 

Greetings from Singapore Flyer

August 29, 2010

I finally got a chance to take a ride on Singapore Flyer. It’s a giant ferris wheel with an approximately 40 stories in height and claimed to be Singapore’s most recognizable icon. The ride lasts for about an hour (or maybe less?? couldn’t remember). What I enjoyed most was the height!! I love high places where I can observe everything below, and indeed, what a breathtaking view I got to see from inside the Flyer capsule. We went there at noon so we still got a clear view of a blazing Singapore city. I wonder what it’ll look like at night, must be more awesome.

Well, all this thanks to a colleague of mine. He’s funny and kind (there, I give you that Brandon *grin*). He got two special-price tickets so I took them haha. Thanks a lot man.

Weekend with Friends

Singapore Art Festival, June 5, 2010

Uda lupa chronologist-nya gimana saking lamanya ga di-post hehe. Seingetku, kita ketemuan di Takashimaya buat lunch bareng di Korean resto, after that, off we went to Sing Art Fest. What a hot day! Kita nonton performing art dari France artists, seperti biasa, kalo nonton yg model2 contemporary art gitu suka ada perasaan uneasy feeling… mungkin karena temanya juga kali yah.

 

Marina Barrage, June 6, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

Klo yang ini bener2 mengecewakan, gw pikir Marina Barrage tuh keren abis tempatnya, eeeh ternyata ya cuman gitu, reservoir doank. Banyak orang yang maen layangan. Jd inget cerita Kite Runner :p

 

Marina at Keppel Bay, July 31, 2010

Nah ini pas si Mr. Rendy aka Unko dateng berkunjung ke Sg. Ceritanya hari sebelumnya gw diajak si boss ke Marina at Keppel Bay, tempatnya bagus, ada banyak yacht lagi nangkring. Yang gw seneng dr tempat ini tuh ada water-front cafe. Enak banget buat santai-santai, ngobrol, enjoy a cup of coffee, and of course I can see myself spending a hell lot of time reading a good book there. Jadi, besoknya gw ajak mereka kesitu buat having brunch hehe.

I had mushroom soup, yum                            Bf got himself … forgot the name :p

 

1st Universal Studio Singapore Trip

.: May 8, 2010, Saturday :.

When mom and dad came here to have yet another eye checkup for pa, we went to check out the newest attraction spot, USS. Actually I didn't feel like going coz i felt that the $72 entrance fee was too much, it wasn't worth the bucks given the fact that only 3 out of 5 themes are working. That, and of course the size of it. I've been to Universal Studio Japan and USS looks like a mini-me version of USJ. Oh one more thing, no parade!! How come we have no parade??. A theme park *and we're talking about no ordinary theme park here, it's Universal Studio for crying out loud!!* without a single parade is just too disappointing.

Anyhow, we ended up buying the ticket *sigh* after finished wandering about the resort world Sentosa and we really got no idea where else to go. We entered the venue at around 12pm. It was super super hot, i felt like i had glue on all over my body *sweat*.

~ We made a trip to this store whenever we thought we couldn't handle
the heat *grin*, located just next to USS entrance point. An oasis indeed ~

   

 

~ The famous globe ~

   

 

 

We didn't try some of the major rides tho, coz, gosh… the long queue was certainly the mood killer.

At around 6 pm we had enough of USS, so after buying some stuffs for my
brother, we walked out exhausted and sticky!!

Just outside USS, there’s this popcorn store called Garrett Popcorn Shop. I was intrigued coz, according to the ads, is Oprah’s fave, so we’d like to give it a try *Hey, it’s recommended by Oprah =p* Hmm how was it? …Nah!! not nice if you ask me. Okay, I may not be a big fan of pop corn, but the caramel flavor was waayyy to sweet for my taste and the cheese one… I felt like I ate a sponge, didn’t crunchy at all.

Before we called it a day, a visit to Resort World was not complete without first stopping by Victoria’s Secret. Yeahh, I knowww… it’s opened in Singapore!! I got my body lotion I wanted so much after I tried it more than a year ago when Ellen bought one for me from US. Sweet.

Chocolate by the Bald Man and White Kipling

On last Sunday after church service, I went to National Library to borrow some watercolor books, and to go there I have to walk pass Bugis Junction Mall no matter what. Now this is dangerous, everyone, as I already proved it *sigh*. So here's the story. We walked out from Bugis MRT station and moi mind still safely fixed on watercolor books. Everything was fine. But came the moment when we had to pass by the mall. And guess what I saw. A super giant, in bold red 20% - 70% Kipling SALE!!! Now, you tell me if you can just ignore the calling, geezzz... Being a true Kipling fan, I let myself in and kept telling myself that I needed to check a luggage price for my mom (Ma once told me that she wanted to buy one if there was a huge discount). Straight away I went to luggage sector and what a disappointment, the price was still sky high. So naturally, I went browsing the other areas too, handbag and backpack. Oh my, Kipling sure has a lot of beautiful array of colors to choose from. I found this small backpack but i spent quite some time to decide the color. Brown, gray, blue, black, pink... getting dizzy... so finally i decided to take home the cute white Kipling for $91. And right after I paid, I snapped back to reality. Man!! I paid 91 bucks for SMALL bag!!! Oh well, back to the plan. Continued the short visit to library…

Finished with the books matter, we walked back to mrt station carrying the super heavy books under the blazing Singapore sun. Desperately in need for something cold and refreshing, we decided to have some parfaits in City Hall... at least that was our first intention but I didn't know why we ended up indulging ourselves in chocolate at Max Brenner. Now, this cafe definitely is for choco lover. I walked in, sat down, opened the menu, and I was like whoaaa... the menu design itself already shows how much the founders' love to choco is and that makes me want to open a similar cafe *grin*

.: A Chocolate cake with warm chocolate sauce inside. Me in heaven :p :. 

 

Basically there's nothing inside the menu that doesn't scream “YUMMM”, at least to me. Almost all of them use chocolate as an ingredient *what more can I ask?* and I was like a little girl inside the candy store, wanting to try everything. Seriously, if you have a sweet teeth like I do, you should try Max Brenner :p

We finally settled with waffle and chocolate cake. OMG! They were totally delish!

The waffle… oh the waffle… I didn’t know that a waffle could be THAT tasty. I mean, I can eat it without any additional stuff. It’s that good. I definitely will go back for the waffle.

Sticky Day at the Singapore Zoo

 

HELP!! I’m running out of places to go here… haha, so yeah, normally I wouldn’t opt to go to the zoo, not if I had other option. But, Singapore Zoo is quite ok, it got tram that can take you to different areas of the zoo. Yes, we definitely need a tram here or else we’ll suffer from the sun.

 

We went there after Pa’s surgery. When we got home, his eye was red and we remembered what the doctor said, no dusty place, no crowd. Oops.

Singapore Botanic Garden

 

Before Dad’s surgery on March 23rd, we went to Botanic Garden to keep dad’s mind off the surgery. To be honest, with dad being the biggest fan of orchid, our main purpose was to see the Orchid garden. Mind you, lots and lots of varieties of orchid can be seen here. Mom, mesmerized by the flowers, actually took picture of every single one of them *gosh*. But sadly, weather was not our best friend at that day, coz we only explored half of the garden when heavy rain hit the area *couldn’t believe it*　せっかく行ったのに~

Welcome to Bintan Island

.: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 :.

Thank God, Good Friday is coming. I seriously need holiday after almost a month I've been abused by ridiculously heavy work load. Good Friday is really good, indeed. I have my much anticipated long weekend drawing even more closer. So the story is, we get ourself this short trip to Pulau Bintan (Bintan Island), our little getaway. We've booked a room at Bintan Lagoon Resort for 2 days from April 2 - 4, bought a roundtrip ferry ticket, and all checked, we are ready to go.


Initially, we planned to go to Genting but all the hotel rooms are fully booked. I was still struggling to happily accept the fact that this weekend might be spent by going nowhere. After all, a holiday is still a holiday, rite?? But then, somehow one of us came up with this idea of going to Bintan. The next day at church, my friend started talking about Bintan, out of nowhere!! So it was a confirmation. To Bintan we go!

the second copy

.: Watercolor :.

~22 February 2010~

Oh okay, so now it’s Valentine’s Day… Happy Valentine’s Day everyone ^^ and today also happens to be Chinese New Year day. As I’m sitting cool in my room typing this blog, I can’t help counting hours down to the time I’ll be flying to Japan *yay!* 32 more hours…

I actually don’t have any plan whatsoever today, except maybe going out to Orchard after doing laundry to buy some clothes and omiyage for my friend. You know, the weather today is nice, not too hot as any other day *Yeah, you will almost likely get hot, sticky day here in Singapore* so I’m getting this rare urge to sketch. In the meantime, I’d tell you more about this painting posted here.

It began during my college year, I started to oil paint. And as a starter, I used this watercolor tutorial book with so many paintings in it. I spotted one that i like, and I used it as a sample. So I did the reproduction of watercolor painting into oil painting. You can see it in this post. Sadly, now it belongs to someone else. I know!!!! being one of my favorite paintings, I couldn’t believe I gave it away just like that!! ughh, now I wish I had the guts to get it back hahaha *oh well…*

And to get over it and a way to redeem myself, I decided to paint it again. This time using watercolor. And voila, it finished on February 22, 2009. There are few things that I’m not satisfied with this painting, for one, the color of the shadow of the tree *what was I thinking? why on earth did I use GREEN??*

Christmas with Love 2008

Hm I know I should've posted this sooner, and now the moment's really gone but nevertheless, not enough reason for me not to force my eyes open to write something 'bout it here at... gee 4:46 am... gotta hurry...

So a week ago, December 13, 2008 we went to a Christmas party held by KMKI Jpn (Indonesian Christian Community in Japan), somewhere near Meguro. It was pretty huge, with Indonesian Ambassador to Japan being there and opened the event. But um, without any slight intention to show less respect to Mr. Ambassador, I must say I came solely to see the guest star of the night, Rio Febrian *sigh... what a voice he has *. That and of course to celebrate Christmas itself with all my dear friends

Totally enjoyed the night, oh who didn't?? we all got to see rio febrian sing 4 songs *four wasn't it? uh pardon the memory, I'm getting old* one of them is actually my second most favorite Christmas song, The First Noel. Number one is not yet to be dethroned, Mary's Boy Child hehe Anyway, since my departure to Hong Kong is not until 25 Dec, it is only true if I say Christmas with Love 2008 is still the highlight of this month so far.

But too bad, we went home empty handed. Ohhh I wish I won the door prize, round trip ticket to Bali + 4 days accommodations...

nabe feast

>>the crab is back<<

oh I have the whole time in the world and still, I'm too lazy as to post last weekend small party hhh so, one short posting and a bunch of pics will do for now.

quick summary:
:: sunday evening @machida apartment
:: nabe... yeahhhh *thanks to ria, we got to eat nabe!!*
:: cheese fondue+chocolate fondue = that day's highlight *geez, nothing could ever beat dipping banana in choco fondue... yum*

i could sleep all day... la vita e bella

illumination @Tama Center

What first comes to your mind if you hear the word winter? Snow and Christmas, right?! And Christmas lamps add more fairy land kind of vibe and beauty into our Christmas spirit, don't you think? *no, i don't mean to dwarf the deep, deep meaning of Christmas itself, but come on... no one can resist the beauty of those little lamps ^^* So, to mark the beginning of winter, many places in Tokyo are specially decorated with all kind of illuminated figures and shapes. We went to see one of those festive lighting in Tama Center. Sanrio Land is located there, so it's only natural if Sanrio characters become the main mascots.

We planned to meet up at Fujigaoka ryou, ate lunch together, and at 3 o'clock enjoyed a Christmas concert in front of Tokyu Store Fujigaoka, but... once again, it was only the plan. We didn't have the heart to leave the comfort and the entertainment fujigaoka ryou offered. Ping-pong table! Had a good laugh, so much fun. I remembered the last time I played ping-pong with my dad in Bandung nine years ago, hhh... time really goes by so fast.

Momiji hunting

Woo-hoo! 3 days off!

On Friday, me ria ellen had our movie night *didn't actually plan it* It is such a shame to let friday night slip just like that, don't you think? We watched I Am Legend and I'm not sure if I like the ending. Sam is dead!! Why couldn't they let the dog live?? Other than that, I say the movie... hm quite good?! For the whole first part of the movie - before the arrival of other fellow human - I kept having goose bumps, you know, just imagine, you live alone without any living soul except your dog... uh, me would have gone crazy in an instant.

The next day was spent by curling under my three-layer warm blanket, idled the morning away by watching Friends - the most brilliant tv series ever!! - reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, sleeping, watching, eating and eating again until it was 2 pm. Time for me to get ready. And, an hour and a quarter later off we (Ellen and I) went to Catholic Church in Meguro. We attended the evening service and... a feast. Soto, gado-gado, lumpia, opor ayam, kerupuk, sambal... INDONESIAN FOOD!!! Thank God, You did know how much I craved for Gado-gado. Oh what a blessed Saturday night...

After brutally attacking those foods, we (+edwin) dashed to Shibuya to meet Tawil and Rendy to discuss tomorrow's plan. Wait, no. That would be a lie. The truth is, we wouldn't have gone in the first place to Shibuya if the nearest Beard Papa's store were not in Shibuya. Me and ellen REALLY wanted to buy those Beard Papa's cream puffs *yeah, thanks to inge, to arouse this craving ^^*

Hhh so beat, and foolish me, I decided not to sleep given that I had to wake up early in the morning coz we planned to meet up in Kita Kamakura at 6 or 7 o'clock *forgot* and from where I live it takes for about one and a half hour. But, as often happened before, I... uhm I drifted off to sleep. Geez, it was so freaking cold in that ungodly hour and I really had no options other than snuggling under blanket. I closed my eyes *just a couple minute, until whatever song that was playing then was over, I thought* ... But, once my head touched the pillow... that was it *sigh* 2 hours in the dreamland.

Sunday

Momiji hunting @Kamakura.

Oh what a disappointment! I thought I would see Kamakura in its glory, with all red, orange and yellow leaves, but instead, the trees that had turned red were not that many compared to the green ones, and scattered everywhere. Less to my liking, coz what I had in mind was this Kamakura with red and orange foliage drifting down. Nevertheless, count the momiji out and there it was, breathtakingly morning scenery of the old capital of Nippon, Kamakura. True I didn’t fancy the still-too-much-green scenery, but I did adore the town; its shops, its narrow streets, and I loved watching people leisurely doing their activities. Somehow, I felt like strolling in Ubud *ehm, without the rice fields of course* and though I’ve never been to Seattle before *?? why Seattle? i dunno myself, popped up just like that*, I imagined more or less, that what it would be like, with all the local markets. I love small towns!

~hihihi LMAO, National TREESURE~

After eating our lunch in a curry house *we gratefully claimed our seats after half an

hour waiting outside on the sidewalk* we visited one more temple, ugh forgot what it is called. Then from there, with battered body and soul *hell, I only slept for 2 hours!* we were off to our next destination, the most beloved Enoshima. The sunset was totally

awesome *God how great Thou Art*

On Monday, well, as a revenge for my last failed-plan, I did secure a hell lot of time to myself ^^ just getting through the day by reading.