A Wedding and Reunion

.: January 28 - 30, 2012 :.

I was so excited to be back in Jakarta again. This time it was for a friend's wedding. We arrived on saturday, my mum and bro picked us up at the airport and we went to Bekasi straight away to inspect our new house. From there, we drove to Plaza Indonesia, since it is the closest mall to our hotel, to meet my friends Tika and Rosa. I discovered huge news, soo happy for my girl, way to go Tik, hihi.

Sadly, time didn't allow us to share many more gossips, my mum's close friend already booked us to have dinner together. Aahh the same restaurant we always went to whenever my mum visited me during my college years. After dinner, we even went to Binus, my bro wanted to sleep over at his friend's place near there. Seeing again the building where I stayed for over 3 years brought back old memories. I remember me and my "Golden Bowl" friends went out at midnight in search of a bowl of noodle and we had to literally make our way back through thunders and rain. In the middle of the night! I didn't know why I said yes to such an idea back then lol.

 

~ Our sinful yet super delicious dinner! ~

The drink is from a fruit called "Holland eggplant". I thought I heard my mum wrongly but yes, she said "terong belanda" with a face that said it wasn't a big deal at all haha. I asked her why would I want to drink an eggplant juice and my mum gave me her word that it was good, and It was indeed.

 

~ JW Marriott, the hotel we stayed at ~

 

~ The wedding ~

Hihi it felt weird seeing my friend's getting married, particularly this friend of mine. He is a friend that has seen the lowest of my lowest states, seen my teary face and listened patiently to my incoherent blubbering. He did all those with his signature goofiness wakkkaka. So, I am super duper happy for him.

Maldives: Sea, Sun, and More Sun

Deciding where we would go for our honeymoon was no easy task, albeit fun and exciting. So many places to go, many choices and I just couldn't make up my mind. Since winter always be my favorite season and I would love to feel snow falling on my face again, I wanted to go to Europe. But then, swimming at the beach is also feels like heaven. Remembering Lombok *gee, we used to go to the beach there, swimming every weekend* and Phuket, made me yearn for a little bit of sunshine and sea. So Maldives it was for us.

We took a late evening flight to Male from Singapore, a four hours flight. Male International Airport is the main airport in Maldives. From there, a team from Club Med escorted us to a speed boat for a 30 minutes ride to Kani island. What a bumpy ride it was, like, at times we were literally being tossed off our seat.

At Kani, we were given a light green ribbon to be worn as a bracelet. So, apparently, they use this ribbon to distinguish people who stay in lagoon suite from other guests who stay in other types of suites (beach, land, etc.). They have a special lounge area, called Manta Lounge, where everyone is denied access except for guests staying in lagoon suites, so it's for this purpose.

 

~ Manta Lounge, a place where you can have a free flow of champagne while basking in the sun ~

 

~ A bottle of champagne *on the house, of course* awaited us in our room. We didn't it drink it tho, we brought back home haha ~

Things that I like about staying in a lagoon suite; whenever I felt like swimming, I went to the room terrace, and the sea was right down there. How cool is that. Also, a bath tub facing the ocean and we had our mini bar refilled everyday!

Being in Maldives, I remember I only took a shower once a day haha *oops*. Well, why bother? Where you can throw yourself in water at anytime? And an abundance of food! We had breakfast, walked along the beach, collecting shells, dropped by at beach bar, grabbed a bite, went snorkeling, had lunch, swam at the pool, dropped by at beach bar again, and hang out there until it came time for dinner. And amazingly, I only gained 1 kg! Maybe walking under the sun equals to sauna :p

I guess we were lucky. As it happened, on our last day there, they arranged a special dinner event. Dining Under the Stars. True enough, that night stars indeed shone brightly and in just a couple of hours later, we were rushing to a jetty deck ready to endure 30 minutes speed-boat ride back to Male airport. Hope there will be honeymoon part 2 hoho.

Chinese New Year Lunches

.: Monday, January 23, 2012 :.

Happy chinese new year! Now… I know people got excited over this year's being a dragon year. I say, every second, every hour, every day, every month, and every year is good since it is created by Him for us. So… be it dragon year, rat, bla bla bla, continue on living and giving our best <3

What I like about CNY here is we have 2 days off, how cool is that. And initially I wanted to go back Bali, playing with my "barongsai" puppies, but as it happened, we have family coming over instead. We spent Sunday afternoon having dinner together at fred's brother's place. Then, we had the rest of the days off for ourselves. Off to Vivo city we went, to take a look at Sentosa Flower Festival. But oh my, when we reached vivo, it looked like the mall was being invaded by those Chinese and Indians wanting to go to Sentosa as well. Bye bye flower festival.

Aahh… it was Padang dishes for our lunch. I wanted to have dim sum but all chinese restaurants were closed on first day of CNY.

 

.: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 :.

Okay so Padang was not that bad, but I was dying for dim sum. Thank God the 2nd day of CNY, one decent chinese restaurant was open.

Dinner Marathon with Colleagues

.: Thursday, January 19, 2012 :.

One of our ex-colleagues will be leaving for Taiwan, so we arranged a little farewell dinner cum pre chinese new year dinner. After office, five of us heading to Hillman Restaurant at Ferrer Park. There, we met two ex-colleagues. Meeting ex-colleagues together over meal will certainly bring a lot of interesting gossips haha. Overall, having dinner together with colleagues is what makes me remember we are all "human being", and we tend to forget that when we get so stressed out. So it was nice, to recall again why I like working together with them, and on top of that, to bitch together about our sworn enemy at office lol. 😏

 

.: Friday, January 20, 2012 :.

Yazawa is a traditional Japanese yakiniku style restaurant. I like the ambiance, like a real izakaya place. Well, my ex-colleague Kenjin has been persuading me to try this restaurant for literally since the first month of us working together until now, that is almost 1.5 year. And wanna know why it took me 1.5 year? It's because Yazawa only serves a top quality beef which only means one plate of certain part of cow can cost $120 - $150, only for 5-6 slices 😱  But those meat… they're so ridiculously good.

So, five of us *two of them are ex-colleagues* braced ourselves to enter this place. We trusted Kenjin, who clearly is a Yazawa regular, to pick a menu for us. For an appetizer, we had a tomato flown over from Japan which costed $12, for one bloody tomato! But the grown-in-Japan tomato proved itself worth the price. Really, I never tasted tomato that good before nor have I ever eaten one when I still stayed in Japan. If I knew Japan's tomatoes cost so high here, I would have eaten myself sick of tomatoes in Japan. 😪

For the drink, what else could best accompany beef other than sake? Besides, our friend Kenjin is notoriously fond of wine and sake. I had a Calpis, aaah hishashiburi ni~

Oh the meat, made me recall my wagyu kobe beef experience with my family. It melted in your mouth, that's how good it is. And see that marble like pattern?… kampeki. They said that all the beef is flown from Japan everyday without refrozen twice so it's all fresh… and tastes so lip-smackingly good 😘

The Forgotten Blog

Well well well, if this blog was a book, it would be collecting dust by now haha. Just finished setting up new blog editor in iMac and guess what, I forgot my blog URL @.@ and I had to open up my iPad whose browser cache, luckily hasn't been cleared for decade, to look up my blog URL!

So it is some sort of wake up call I guess, for me to start blogging again.

To start off with a topic, I switched to Mac. Noo, not completely, I mean I still own my dear old pink vaio but it is getting less and less used now. And this iMac is not mine but Fred's. He has it since.. i dunno, more than three years ago maybe, a gift from his boss, but is never used. I know, riiigghht?? When I figured out this iMac whereabout almost two years ago, I literally rolled my eyes, took a deep sigh and began throwing him a series of why's. Why he is not using it is incomprehensible to me. I mean, who doesn't want to use Mac especially when he has one?  Such a beauty and he has it covered up in a box *sob, sob* So, it is up to me now to unleash this pretty iMac.

Littered with Books

  I still remember how excited I was the first time I set foot in this little, gorgeous bookstore. Littered with Books embodies what a cozy bookstore should look like.

Well, I guess I should thank a local TV programme that covers small yet beautiful stores in Singapore. When they aired one episode about a small cake shop owned by a Japanese chef, I made note to visit the shop. And God be good. Just there across the street from the pastry shop, among the quiet neighborhood, stood the cutest bookstore I’ve ever laid my eyes on, in real life.

It is charming and inviting with an ever-so-lovely white colonial windows lined the wall of its two-storey house. The owner must be a real book lover and they paid so much attention in the store decoration as well. Every little detail seemed to add a nice touch to the overall vibe. The placement of sofa, table, books on display… ohhh bottom line is, I adore this little bookstore. Small haven for you who get sick of shopping malls!!!

Note: All photos courtesy of “GreatNewPlaces”

Company Trip: Bangkok Day 1

.: September 09, 2011, Friday :.

Gyaa… I missed the flight! O.M.G! I was supposed to meet my other two colleagues at Changi airport at 6 AM and guess what, I woke up at 7 AM. The flight to Bangkok was scheduled to take off at 7:40.

Okay, so here’s a bit of story behind. Our boss, being so kind and generous, arranged a company trip to Bangkok for 3D2N, return air tickets and hotel rooms paid by company. Supposed to leave Singapore on Friday morning, the majority of my colleagues decided to go there on Thursday night after work, leaving me and the other two stayed on schedule. So only three of us on a Friday morning flight, which in the end, only two really got on the plane.

You really got no idea how horrified I was. I woke up and looked at the clock and was stunned. I couldn’t believe I woke up at 7 and even if I was to grab my luggage and head to airport in my pajamas, I could never make it, geez, the damn flight was at 7:40 AM!! And on top of that, I felt really sorry for bf, he was waiting outside since 5 o’clock, trying to call me with no result *my phone was switched off automatically every night*. By the time I panicky called him from my room, he was still standing outside *sobs*. Man, if I was him, I already left and tried calling from my home.

I almost decided not to leave but I thought about all expenses paid by my boss were about to waste, I felt bad and finally waiting at the airport for the Thai airways counter to open at 9:30 AM, trying to get myself on the next flight to Bangkok even if I had to pay for the ticket myself. Well, they did put me on standby and I was told to wait until 12 PM to see if I got the seat or not. It was excruciating to wait for 2 hours and not knowing. Every time I asked the staff, they brushed me off.

Finally, the moment of truth. They called my name and gave me a boarding pass without me paying a single cent. Lucky my company bought a commercial air ticket.

In Bangkok, after checked in to Baiyoke Sky Hotel, I had the time for myself until dinner time, so I got my nails done in gel overlay, they say it can last for two months. Let’s see…

Star Virgo: Redang Island Day 2

.: September 01, 2011, Thursday :.

We arrived at Pulau Redang and decided not to take any excursion and boy… I was glad we didn’t. The weather was just killer, hot, hot, hot. We stepped out of the ship anyway and hit the beach, sat in front of the pub overlooking the beach. We waited and waited for the sun to be a little bit tolerated, but it didn’t happen so in the end we just decided to go back to ship. It was an okay day overall, enjoying banana fritters while watching a local band performing “Waka Waka” dance with tourists.

Star Virgo: Redang Island Day 1

.: August 31, 2011, Wednesday :.

Phew. I never thought I could make it on time. I was prepared to burn the travel voucher just like last time. Everything began few months ago when we got this awesome good deal on Star Virgo Cruise. Well, just like anything else without proper planning especially on a company leave wise, it was destined to be doomed. I had one good example before, I bought a trip to Batam, since I never been there before, and on the day itself, I couldn’t get a work leave, hence the first doom. Had to close one eye and tried not to think the money left wasted *sob*. 

Almost like the first one, I knew days before that I had a small chance of going. Geez, so damn busy at office for that whole week. You never know how I mentally schemed the situation to figure out a loop hole and came up with explanation so I could go, but no matter what it was like there wasn’t any hole for me to escape. Many meetings I couldn’t ditch out coz they’ll affect my future haha. Luckily, all meetings finished on-time which was a miracle, coz like, never before in our company a meeting finished on a scheduled time! So I quickly hopped on a cab at 6 PM and rushed to Harbourfront Centre. The check in counter would be closed at 6:30 and the gate will be closed at 7 PM. By the time I reached there, bf already waiting at the counter and no one else was queuing. I made it.

After checked in, we found ourselves in a very long queue with lots of Indians and  mainland Chinese pressed against us. Gosh, I don’t know why they like to stand very close to each other and basically people queuing in front of them! It’s not like the queue will move by them doing so!! Anyway, after a grueling 45 minutes or so, we stepped on the cruise. After taking photos, the first thing we did: EAT. We had an international buffet at Mediterranean Restaurant. After that, we roamed about the huge ship; library *ooh the room was so pretty*, slot machines room, and my fave of all was Observatory area. It was a sitting place next to a floor-to-ceiling window. You can just sit there and look out to the sea, sipping a hot chocolate milk, reading book. My definition of relax, indeed.

Tulle or Ruffle?

.: August 09, 2011, Tuesday :.

It was Singapore's National Day and we had one day off, so I decided to pick my wedding gown. Weeks before, me and bf accidentally came accross this bridal fair at Raffles and we took home some of the brochures. Among those, one brochure with fabulous choices of gowns and I made a mental note to visit the salon.

We picked mum at the airport at 2 PM and straight away went to this bridal salon. It was located in a street lined with many other bridal salons, like, the whole area was full of wedding thingy. Heck, I was tempted to hop from one salon to the other, they displayed soo many gorgeous gowns with lots of varieties in style, you name it they have it. Anyway, I did stick to the plan, though, I had no choice that's why. Few days ago, on Sunday, we already paid the booking fee to secure the package *me being too panicky*. Ah well. 

Then, what happened in the next 2 hours was hectic. Bf was sitting outside the fitting room and playing games since I forbid him to take even a single peek, me standing amidst the gowns that filled the whole fitting room floor, a very kind consultant picked several gowns from the rack that she thought I might like, mum pushed her way into one huge closet full of premium gowns *that's what they call them* and picked gowns for me ONLY from that closet. Well, mum came up with a theory that the assigned consultant tried to make us pick only from the general rack not from the premium range which was irritating to think, coz we paid for the premium range. But I gotta give credit to her, a super patient lady who kept smiling despite my rejection to basically every single gown she offered me haha. She had to bring that heavy gown to me, helped me change, gave a comment, helped me out of the dress, only to hear that I didn't like it :p

It never occured to me that it would be hard to choose a wedding dress, I wish I could have more than one dress so I got to change every hour or so :p

In the end, I got what I wanted and mum got what she wanted me to have, ie. a dress from the "premium" closet ^o^

It's Official Now

.: July 09, 2011 :.

At first we didn't even plan to have a  婚約 party, but grandma said we had to follow tradition and there it was, on Saturday, July 09th, 2011 my extended families crammed into our relatively small living room to exchange gifts, have lunch and a photo shoot. Photo shoot? Uh yeah! That also one of the form of love shown by my uncle haha 

So basically, mum's family is a photographer family, started from grandma who was an event photographer herself. Following in her footsteps are my mum's two younger brothers. And, determined to capture this special event, mum's youngest brother brought along his photography gears, complete with the lighting stuff, mind you. And there in a very living room, he set up a mini studio photo for us haha... arigatou Ku :p  

Well, the session didn't end there in my house, we continued to have dinner at the W Hotel. Photos shown here are courtesy of my very beloved cousin, Nitha. Thanks girl :p

  



Gattopardo Night

.: June 25th, 20011, Saturday :.

I didn't expect the paintball could be that much fun! Sadly, my team was placed a runner up and the shopping voucher only given to the winning team! *bah* We wrapped up the game at around 2 PM and I reached home, took a much needed shower, and headed to the hospital for ma to do her check-up.

I felt so devastated as always whenever I was in hospital, the tought of a delicious, hearty dinner at Gattopardo we would be having later on that night was the only thing that cheered me up haha.

Gattopardo is our fave Italian restaurant run by an Italian chef specialized in Sicilian cuisine. I first found out this restaurant from my colleague who is very much into life style and dining experience. I needed help in finding a restaurant for bf birthday, and this colleague of mine was the first who came into my mind :p Thanks a lot, mate!

Anywhooo... here are the pics taken at full speed, given we were in an almost full house Italian restaurant and taking photos was err... a bit of a no-no. The head chef, Chef Lino himself, came out and talked to us for a while, aaah too bad I didn't dare to ask him if he wouldn't mind taking a pic with us :p

Folded Pizza... oohh this baby was pure delish.

With a buffalo cheese, wild mushrooms and smoked ham stuffing.

The famous Squid Ink Spaghetti with Crab.



And many more... we ate a lot haha

Company Outing: Paintball

Oh man , somehow I feel a bit worry about this... I just brace and prepare myself for the worst, bruises and paint smeared all over my clothes. It'd better be fun, this activity

Anna Karenina

Phew... At last! After spending almost everyday reading Anna Karenina for the last one month plus, finally I turned the last page yesterday. This Leo Tolstoy's novel... oh, what a joy I had in reading it, such a truly great work of art from the Russian writer.

I came to know this novel and its author since my early age, that was almost the same time when I knew about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and yet I couldn't be bothered to read it, what a shame! If only I'd known then the beauty and insight I could get... Well, thanks to The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks that really "sparked" my curiousity, because I love The Last Song *made me cry * and I wanted to know what was in Anna Karenina that made Nicholas Sparks put it in the book. That and also the thickness of the novel haha. I love reading great and thick novel and Anna Karenina has more than 800 pages.

It was a bit daunting at first, didn't know what to expect and actually prepared myself to some disappointment along the way, you know the things with really really absurdly good author from ancient time such as Charles Dickens and Shakespeare, they were arranging the words in a way that makes you scratching your head in an attempt to find the meaning. Well, not in Tolstoy's case. Don't get me wrong, mind you, I had to reread the sentences a couple of time to get them right, especially when the characters start the discussion about Russian politic and agriculture, but to my own amazement, I didn't feel bored at all and kept turning those pages!

So the story is about a tragic love story between a so-called brave and rebellious Anna and Vronsky. In their time, everything was about the society, if you go against them, you are like an outcast and it is humiliating to the point of depression. And what Anna did was against society, to openly leave her husband and lived with Vronsky without any marriage status. But sadly, in the end she gave in to her jealousy and despair and commited suicide.

Together with Anna, there is one more central character, Levin, he is the very opposite of Anna. And Tolstoy I think, often channeled his own ideas and view of Russian society and politic through him. I like this Levin character from the start because I think he is honest and open and say whatever he feels without much consideration of what people might think of him later on or might even ridicule him. I say it's pretty cool, like not going with the flow if that's not what we really are.

Anna dared to oppose the society just like Levin, but in the end she lost to herself. Levin, on the other hand, through events of his life, he managed to find the true meaning of why he lived, which was to live righteously in the eye of God and men.

My number one book that shifted Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns to number two

Dress hunting

.: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 :.

Well, weeks before my mom called to tell me to buy a dress, something in red hue. I was like, "can i wear my black dress so i don't have to buy again?" and I got scolded in return

And so my dress hunting began. It was so hard finding a dress which doesn't look over the top. I want to wear simple dress, a dress that doesn't scream "too much". . After spending much time from fitting room to fitting room, we went to a store which I never gave a second glance before. Massimo dutti. And, 思い以外に, I found the dress that just click haha well except that it isn't red at all! Anyway, I'll talk my way through with ma

Hm three weeks, I dunno if I can lose 2 size

One Night in May

.: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 :.

I often imagined what it would feel like when the day came, what would be the first thing that popped up in my mind, you know… that kinda thing. But to be honest, nothing came short to what I would expect. I didn’t comprehend at all what was happening, like, was this for real?

Well… first of all, I felt that moment was a part of the very natural thing of my everyday life, thus I wore a sort of blank face I guess :p But 5 minutes after, I was panicking inside haha. I remember how I struggled to contain myself, not to jump up and down and most importantly, to not squeak in delight wakkaka.

 

~ Marina Bay Sands, Ku De Ta ~

Singlish: Conversation of the Day

Yesterday, I was sitting on the train next to a middle-aged woman and a little boy. Then, she talked to this boy, I think he is her grandson.

Grandma: Turn around, look!


Grandson: (turning his head to face the window) Why?!


Grandma: See, got car car, got tree tree....

Muahhaha oh man, of all the singlish sentences... that one was the hit of the day. I almost cracked up hihi, good job, grandma!

Pretty, The Little Princess

So I was back in Bali from April 26 until May 1st with one purpose in mind, to meet our new puppies. Yes, yes… we got new puppies!!! I was so damn excited when my mom called to tell me about this news. Her church friend gave her two puppies. Pa named one of them Madonna haha and I was quick to change the name to Molly. I mean, Madonna?? Come on,  Pa… :p And the other, the smaller one in size is named Pretty. They’re of Maltese breed and only 4 months old.

I had to wait for about one month till finally I got a chance to go home. Mom picked us up at the airport together with Pretty. Molly was left at home, still very weak, because sadly, one of the customer at our office stepped on her front paw with a high heel. With a high stiletto heel! The poor puppy’s paw was bleeding and she received IV infusions. Well, a dog receives an IV? That was the first time I heard of it haha. Anyway, only Pretty was staying with us at our home in Nusa Dua.

Pretty, we called her Prit, was a real charmer. Almost all “bule” that we met took a picture of her. Ma bought the two puppies the same pink dress from Japan. It was a very cute, pink, ruffle dress, and I think, thanks to the dress, everyone adores her. Geez, I couldn’t get enough of her and I brought her with me everywhere I went, even to the hair salon :p

Oh gosh, and now back in Singapore, I miss her cute lil head and most of all, her muzzle wakkaka, adorable.