.:: KKG gathering ::.

KKG was having a couple gathering last sunday, but since bf was out of town, i went with my family instead

now i’m going to tempt you with these pictures of the dessert..

after the gathering, i went to gading with my sis to watch cloudy with a chance of meatballs. the 3D effect was so-so, and even more so to my disappointment, the story was so-so. it was enjoyable, yes, and the characters were cute, but the it was just not quite funny.

.:: surabaya, higlights part 1 ::.

the real reason why i went to surabaya was to attend a cousin’s wedding. when i first heard about the wedding i was so psyhced,  not only for my cousing, but because i haven’t been there in at least ten years! i took friday and monday off from work to explore the city and meet the relatives. it was a great trip, i so missed the people. some i haven’t seen for years, some i’ve never even met in my entire life

anyway, the wedding took place on a saturday, and i was super busy. first thing in the morning, i had to drive a long way to the juanda airport to pick up my sis who was flying for surabaya that day, drove all the way down to my cousin’s house and changed into my morning outfit ( a little black dress i’ve bought the day before, coz i didn’t bring anything decent! ) and the off we went to the hotel for the tea ceremony. i wasn’t expected to do anything in particular, so i was just chit-chatting with my cousins and other relatives.

soon after that, we all drove to the cathedral to attend the holy matrimony. it was a really nice church, huge and classic. the ceremony was also really touchy. overall a perfect wedding!

later on, after the ceremony and lunch, we were dragged to l’frans salon to get our hair and makeup done. i really love the place, it had a really nice ambience that would make you feel relaxed. it was really homey, and there was even a garden inside the house! and i totally love the service!

it was already past five when they finished, and we were actually required to be at the ballroom at that exact time, since mom and dad had tasks to do so we hurried back to our hotel and changed into my red dress. by the time we reached the place, we actually had time to lounge at the VIP room, so i asked a cousin to take some pictures

sweet lina and i ~ and the mischievous jeffry behind

the ladies in red ( i didn’t know they were going to wear red, it was totally accidental ~ and a really nice one! )

my sis, auntie, niece and another mischievous nephew, who appeared ghostly in the background

posing with my mom and sis

again..

and again…

a niece of mine, lia, performed ave maria ( hardly believe she’d played the violin for only six months. she’s a pro! )

with my parents, after the party

with my mom and sis

.:: saturday ::.

i was actually planning to attend lancome makeup class in GI with a couple of friends ( i had even arranged the whole registration process ), but apparently said friends weren’t able to make it. sigh.. wasn’t particularly disappointed in that now i had free time to bake, and i got to spend time with my parents. the only thing i was upset about was only the free goody bag ( don’t want to say no to free stuff )

anyway, i spent the whole morning baking oatmeal cookies, and after lunch, i went to TA with my parents. but, we had to make a few stops at our relatives’ homes to drop a cousin’s wedding invitation. the things i do for family it wasn’t until late in the afternoon that we finally reached TA and i didn’t get to visit most of the shops, as we were there for a mission ~ and it wasn’t mine. however, i managed to spot a nice cocktail dress, though i didn’t get to try it. on one hand, i don’t really need a new dress. on the other, it’s like wedding season this year and the next, i would probably need one in the end. am now desperately thinking about it i should’ve tried it on, just so i wouldn’t feel this way if the dress turned out to be not as good as i thought it should be.

during our shopping trip, i received a call from a friend. she’s not currently in indonesia, and we’re not exactly that close, so i was really surprised that she would call me just to ask whether i wanted some wool yarn, coz she had just found really cute ones. i told her just a couple of days ago i’m currently into cross stitch, and though she made an honest mistake to think that i’d need a wool yarn, it was still so sweet of her. come to think of it, i actually love cute wool yarn. i just wouldn’t know what to do with it *lol* sigh ~ i’ve been wanting to take a crocheting and knitting class since forever!

on a more serious side, i’m beginning to realize how fragile life is. we have very little control of our life, everything we own could be taken away in just a blink of an eye. at times like this, i just doesn’t seem to make sense how we love to collect stuff, material stuff that won’t matter when things go wrong. i’m really grateful that i’ve been given a lot in my life; i’ve lived an imperfect but quite a happy life; i’m raised in a loving family by such wonderful parents who would literally do anything for their children; i’ve met really nice people that do make a difference in my life; i’ve been blessed with health, love and friendship. and i do hope that i could make a good use of what i have for the people around me.

.:: the harvest ~ tiramisu ::.

auntie was having a birthday the other day, and i completely forgot

so the next day, i ordered this tiramisu, simply because i’ve never got the chance to try their tiramisu. some said their tiramisu is one of the best in town. well, it was great. but even my dad said he preferred the chocolate devil i ordered for my mom’s birthday last year over this one.

.:: sabtu yang menyenangkan ::.

sabtu kemaren, bangun pagi dan langsung siap-siapin ingredients buat bikin putri salju.  dah lama banget ga baking. i kinda think that i’ve lost some of the abilities. haha.. yang paling ga sabar dan bikin cape itu tetep : nungguin proses panggang-memanggang.. secara oven gue ga gede, ngolah adonan ga nyampe satu jam, manggangnya bisa sampe tengah hari. sigh..

tengah hari, langsung buru-buru mandi dan dandan, karena my whole family dah nungguin *sweat* trus langsung meluncur ke taman anggrek. keliling-keliling cari hadiah buat salah satu auntie gue yang akan berulang tahun. akhirnya settle on sepatu sandal charles and keith. semoga muat hehe..

and what joy it was to laugh over the simplest of things. coba-cobi sepatu, coba-cobi baju, trus diakhiri early dinner di canton bay. dan walau kepengen cobain menu lain, tapi tetep akhirnya lebih memilih ifumie yang masih jadi favorit gue. nyam.. kebetulan restonya pas lagi sepiiii banget. mungkin juga karena belum jam makan malem. jadi bisa puas ngobrol dan bergosip.

senang. dah lama ga jalan-jalan santai berempat.

.:: weekend round ups ::.

thursday
free tickets to terminator : salvation. i hardly say no to free stuff. haha.. unfortunately bf was too sleepy to join, thanks to the champion league finals. however, he was sweet enough to pick me up and wait until the movie started. downside : i was unable to do a small shopping spree around the mall *padahal lagi sale*
the movie was okay, it was enjoyable but forgettable. typical terminator movie *with better cast, i heart christian bale*

friday
the day started off pretty bad. i was told that i probably wouldn’t be able to have my one week off at the end of this month. baaaaad mood on. was very relieved when it was finally approved. bali here i comeeeee!!
a bit worried though, since it will only be one and a half week after my go-live schedule. if the project is going to be delayed, i’ll be damned.

saturday
bf had to work this weekend, so  i had to entertain myself. went to gading with my sis, entered every shop we could think of, bought a bunch of stuff and had some toast at yakun kaya toast. i had milo toast. yummy.. i kinda miss toast box in SG.
on our way out, we spotted a new resto at food city, pan & roast. will check it out when i have the time

sunday
went to artha with sis. don’t really fancy this mall, hence i didn’t find anything interesting, aside from the supermarket. haha..a college friend, felix p, dropped by and hand-delivered his wedding invitation. congratz, future neighbor!

PS : *taun ini musim kawin ye? kayanya diitung pake jari tangan & jari kaki masih lebih..

.:: happy birthday, daddy ::.

may 2nd, 2009

the cake

a day before, i phoned baltic ice cream to order this mocca praline ice cream cake. it’s been quite a while since the last time we ordered baltic, so i guess it was perfect timing

the ice cream cake was wonderful as always. i love the combination of ice cream, chocolate chip and nougat almond

customer service was excellent, and they even gave three ice cream sticks as a bonus. the only drawback is the late delivery. i asked them to deliver the cake at 10 am, but they were one hour late. it was no big deal though, since i wasn’t in a hurry or something.

the dinner

later that evening, we had a family dinner at red bean, mkg. it was delightful.

food was great. service was quite good, considering the jam-packed restaurant. lucky i’ve reserved a table for us.

mie goreng ulang tahun

sapi lada hitam

udang cabe garam

ayam kung pao

kangkung ayam hot plate

my favourite of the bunch is udang cabe garam, which happened to remind me of my friend jing’s salt and pepper pork chop. oh i miss her cooking! my least favourite is kangkung ayam hot plate, and sapi lada hitam which was just so-so.

.:: sunday with the girls ::.

been neglecting these lovely ladies for quite a long time now, and it’s time to rekindle the relationship *lol* as soon as i heard that i didn’t need to go to work during the weekend, i quickly contacted my gals and make an appointment to meet up for lunch. it’s always great to laugh to their silly jokes and gossip

went to the movies afterwards and watched knowing. it was okay and i quite enjoyed it, considering i’ve already known the storyline, from beginning to end, even before i went in.

later on, i met up with my parents and we had dinner at nasi lemak kemangi. had my favourite tengiri cabe, but it didn’t taste quite as good as usual. nonetheless, i was glad to go out for dinner with them. i’ve been quite busy lately that i never have time to spend much quality time with my parents.

.:: holiday in lalala land ::.

SG Trip
8-13 April 2009

day 1 – not a holiday

* woke up at 3 am. my sis’ flight is at 6.15 and mine was 7 am so i had to have a very early start. it was my first time flying Air Asia, and i don’t think highly of it, but for its price, it’s bearable.

pros :
- i don’t think they cleaned the interior before letting the passengers in, cause i saw people coming out of the plane within minutes before we board on the plane. nevertheless, it was quite clean.
- smooth take-off and landing.
- incredibly cheap tickets.

cons :
- seats are obviously really bad for anyone’s posture, very uncomfortable.
- no breakfast/lunch/dinner. all i got was mister p roasted peanuts and water. any food/drinks beside that were not free.
- no personal television. in fact, i don’t see any television at all, but i might be wrong *lol* however, it was a budget airline, so i need to make compromises.
- not-so-professional service. the attendants only gave us mister p and they didn’t even bother to reach the ones sitting near the windows. they just put the “breakfast” on the middle seat’s table.
- delayed flight is no longer a surprising matter.

* arrived at changi and took a taxi to lucky plaza apartment. it wasn’t extraordinary, but decent and clean. but i really despise the landlady. i mean, here i was, renting the room for a week, and on the last day, she was literally kicking us out. and she kept complaining about stuff, like don’t turn on the air conditioner while the windows are open. she said that like three times, although we were only caught doing so once. geez.. calm down lady.

* not in a very good mood, and everything in SG seemed dilapidated. the mrt station, the humid air. i love my home much better.

* i H.A.T.E singlish. i’m no language expert, but could you at least use a widely understandable grammar? the medicine i view ya? go figure! just being in SG for a week had somehow lessen my english.

* spent half the day at glens. emotinally tired.

* had dinner with cousin and nephews. had the best teh tarik ever.

day 2 – shoe land

* dropped the hair dryer and had to spend the rest of the week with naturally-dried hair.

* went back to glens for results, which isn’t a bad one, yet the best we could get right now.

* had light lunch at Tanglin Mall. tasted McD’s McSpicy which is extremely delicious compared to the indonesian version

* my sis kept going on and on about the botanical garden which was just across glens, but everyone – i, my mother, and even my father said it was better to hop in the next mrt leading to any shopping centre. ha! now i know where the genes came from.

* headed to bugis, found three pairs of shoes. irresistable! i found one at BHG, and the other two at charles and keith. too bad it’s not great singapore sale. i had to buy a pair in full price

* found several cute bags, but finally settled on two *inget dompet*

* took a taxi home, the taxi driver was a real psycho. i just hate his rudeness!

* officially missed the election. it wasn’t intentional, i swear.

day 3 – all around the town

* went for breakfast at wisma atria, found another pair of shoes at charles and keith which screamed three words cute, cute, cute! had to compound myself not to get that one too

* visited plaza singapura to buy some chocolates. again, it wasn’t great singapore sale, and most of the stores doesn’t give any interesting discounts. my wallet is extremely happy

* we went straight to vivo city. it was very crowded that i couldn’t really enjoy the visit. note to self, never go to vivo city on public holiday. didn’t get to see all parts of the mall, because my feet was sooo sore.

* after dinner, i went for a night stroll to centrepoint. noticed a huge mall, orchard central, being built. there’s another one, ion orchard, just beside wisma atria. like there aren’t enough malls already *lol*

* finally found an iora store. no discount at all, so i only bought a high-waisted belt.

day 4 – the warehouse

* had breakfast at takashimaya, then went to watson’s and bought some stuff. travelling with those not sharing the same interests in makeup means : i just felt downright guilty to buy so much stuff. so settled on some items on top of my list.

* visited my cousin’s apartment, and went by bus to ikea at queenstown. it was my first time travelling by bus in SG i still prefer MRT to bus.

* the ikea itself was so-so. nothing special, it was so similar to the UK branch.

* tried the swedish meatball at ikea cafe for lunch. it was okay, but i liked the frozen one i usually bought in somerfields. haha.. i miss that good old days.

* spotted anchor point just across ikea. i’d heard that charles and keith warehouse was located there, so i was more than eager to find out.  and i heard right. every single item on this c&k store was on sale. the downside is, not everything still comes in various sizes. but i managed to find one nice pump shoes that fitted my feet. there are actually others i drooled over, i had to resist myself from jumping up and down, and spend all my money on shoes!

* almost every store in anchor point displayed discounted items. so it was a good place to visit when in SG. the downside is, not everything on sale was good. they kept the good ones at the other stores, of course at full prices! haha..

day 5 – the goodbyes

* had paris brest ~ from beard papa ~ for breakfast. yummy yummy! i wonder whether the jakarta branch has it *am drooling as i’m typing this*

* finally had a few pictures taken.

* went to my sis’ apartment for the upcoming week at cairnhill plaza. o-m-g… the apartment was really huge and very convenient. too bad we weren’t able to stay there last week

* tried to arrange a get-together with my friend, di, but failed since she was bed-resting to recover from her sore throat.

* had dinner with my cousin and two nephews. it was an small indonesian restaurant – with a sky-high price. am wondering how i could open a business in SG. haha.. just imagine, $8.5 for one portion of nasi uduk.

day 6 – real life

* went to wisma atria for breakfast. it was the most expensive char siew roasted pork rice i’ve eaten in the past few days. delicious, but still not worth it.

* travelled along scotts road, and it really made me wanted to stay longer.

* the plane was half an hour late, they didn’t even checked my boarding pass. had to endure one and a half hour on the plane in a really bored state. can’t wait to get home, but also didn’t want the holiday to end

* welcome real life!

.:: d is having a birthday ::.

sorry for being MIA for a little while

quick recap.

last weekend was a blast. saturday was my bf’s birthday, so we went to have lunch/dinner at Tamani. i had suggested to go to Pandan Cafe, but he insisted on tamani, despite the fact that he had also had tamani the day before. so i ordered one of my favourite menu at tamani, chicken maryland. as always, it was salty. i honestly liked the one at Pandan Cafe better

chicken maryland

chicken cordon bleu

after that, browsed for presents, and finally settled on a black leather wallet. stopped by the face shop to grab base coat, but saw this nail strengthener, which came in a more vivid pink color, so i grabbed that one, along with their highly-raved eye curler, which didn’t look like much, but we’ll see

spotted a new *or i thought it was new* booth at food court, Prince’s Waffle. hurried and checked the price, and it was fabulously cheap! ranging from 4400-6600, and you’ll get discounts if you buy 3 or more of the waffles. nice, isn’t it?

for starters, we bought the cheapest ones, which didn’t come with any toppings, thus making it easier for take-away. *all their packaging were specially designed for takeaways, anyway we bought chocolate, vanilla and cheese, and after being heated for some time, the waffles are safely wrapped in a white paper bag.

i really love the idea of prince’s waffles. of course the size of the waffles weren’t so big, but hey, it’s not even 7k! not too bad for its price. the waffles tasted quite good, unfortunately they were best eaten while still warm. they tend to be a little bit hard when cold. but i still think its worth a try, and definitely will go back again sometime in the near future, to try other flavours  *they have green tea waffles* and toppings, like the ones with caramel or chocolate sauce or even ice cream and strawberries.

next day, we went out with the family to have lunch at xin wang hongkong cafe, TA. i’ve never been there before, but bf heard that the place was good. so there we was. and it was delicious indeed! bf ordered a set menu for 8 people, with varied dishes, including prawns, pork, fish, chicken, squid, won ton, to veggies. my favourite of all is their pork chop.

the restaurant itself was nicely decorated with lots of wooden elements, and comfy red couches. the service wasn’t so bad. the food was served quickly after we placed the order, and the waitress was also sweet.

after lunch, we went for a stroll at metro, but for once, we only browsed the men section, and didn’t set foot at women section. such a wonder! went home and suddenly felt very tired. wished to had an early night, but my eyes wouldn’t cooperate. so i turned on laptop and watched last friday’s downloaded files : dollhouse. i heard the rating wasn’t so good. too bad, cause i think the story was interesting.

.:: weekend, weekend, weekend! ::.

thursday. went to PS with rina for “lunch”, just for the sake of  books.  remember that periplus offered 15% discount on all novels, supposedly until the end of the month? well, they had changed their mind for sure. they now offered 10% discount instead of 15%, which almost felt like geli geli doank. but i was there, and there was no mistaking i had to buy at least one book. i mean, i went there for that, right? right? anyway, i was about to get the boleyn inheritance ( philippa gregory ) but i finally got thanks for the memories ( cecelia ahern ) instead, considering i’ve still had another philippa gregory’s book – left unread.

supposed to go out dinner with lei, retz, and li at puro, what with the buy one get one promo which was valid only ’til this saturday. however, something came out, lei’s driver got some scratches on her car, and so we had to cancel

but i didn’t grieve all that much, coz only then i could watch american idol. haha..

friday. went out to dinner and a little shopping spree with my dearest friend, miss o. it’s been AGES! and it was really good that we finally got to see each other. we talked about almost everything, from A – Z, but a couple of hours on friday night is nowhere near enough!

after meeting her up at mothercare, our first stop was sushi groove. i ordered none other than chicken katsu curry rice, while miss o settled on something more.. fulfilling. hehe..  the chicken katsu curry rice was really nice, and it came in a (lil’ bit too) generous portion. i also liked the fact that the sauce was a bit spicy. i think it was better than the one at sushi tei.

chicken katsu curry rice

oleen’s bento

stupidly, we took pictures of the food, but not ourselves! i believe we were sidetracked by that free voucher! it was a 50k voucher they gave us for spending more than 100k. and by that, we forgot all means to camwhore. silly!

after dinner, we walked around the mall for a little shopping spree. i didn’t buy much, as it was always more than fulfilling to watch miss o shop. hehe.. peace yo! i did manage to grab a bottle of vov nail polish, a transparent polish loaded with chunky  multi-shape glitters, in turquoise  and silver. oh geez, this addiction has got to stop at some point!

went straight home to find a package for me. yaay.. my order (Oshaberi Na Amadeus) from Kinanti Komik arrived in a very good condition, safely wrapped in a TIKI plastic bag. i’ve read some good reviews regarding this series, so i just had to have it. i don’t know, i’m never a huge fan of comic books, but lately, i’m just craving for old comics, especially the ones written by waki yamato. so yes, i’m on the hunt!

saturday. not so much a weekend, since i had to go to work. i arrived at around 8.15 and i was the first. geez, i wondered where the others were, did they ditch work? hahaha.. it wasn’t until 9, just when i thought nobody would ever come, that the others started arriving. so i had an hour free to myself, browsing and writing this. haha.. *oops* not entirely my fault, as i was working on such a nonsense.

managed to go out of the office before the clock turned four, and went straight home. curling up with my new comic books, then went to artha to check out ace and index supersale, which was a blah! i don’t have the house  to decorate yet, to begin with! haha..

sunday. had brunch with at kantin dewi sri, bogor. mom said we used to go there everytime we visit bogor when i was very little. so there we were, reminiscing the old times it was just a small canteen offering indonesian home made cooking. the food was displayed on a long counter and we just need to point our fingers to what we wanted. too bad there wasn’t much variation, but i noticed that they kept bringing different stuff from the kitchen and placed it on the counter. probably we arrived too early that they hadn’t finished all the cooking. i had pepes ayam and tempe bacem, and es cincau selasih. all tasted delicious, though the commute from jakarta was not exactly a worthy price to pay. the place was a bit dark but it was clean and homey. on one side was the long counter used to display the food and the cashier. on the other side were booths with wooden benches. there weren’t much people when we entered the place, but soon enough it was packed with people wanting to have brunch themselves.

after that, we browse the shops at tajur, which i thought way overpriced for that kind of quality. and we drove back to jakarta via ciawi. never crossed this road before as i usually took another motorway. so it was quite a different scenery i got to enjoy

later in the afternoon, d came to my house, bringing the long-awaited package i had a fellow FD-er  sent to the office. it was a bottle of china glaze nail polish in turned up turquoise. turned out it was brighter than what i had in mind, but still love it! i put it on my feet nails while d took a shower, and i instantly fell in love with it. he also brought me oleh-oleh from the compu-fest, a new card reader! i’d broken the old one, and i’ve been desperate for a new one. yaay! haven’t tried it yet, hopefully it works okay.

we went to gading, and did nothing but strolled around the mall. was in no mood to shop anyway. i was craving for rujak, so we went to the food court and i bought a portion from gado-gado boplo. yummy…

visit gramedia but too bad they didn’t have complete set of full house kiss, so i went to the rental/shop near my house to order it. hope they would be able to find it!

if i previously said, two days on a weekend is not enough, imagine what i think now with one!

.:: turning 25 ::.