Another Victoria's Secrets

I went to two wedding parties last week. The first one was Alex and Berlise's wedding; the biggest and most luxurious wedding party I've ever attended (not to mentioned the groom's sister's wedding last year) but seriously, this family really like to treat people. The father, Mr. Iwan Santosa, is a famous person in Catholic church and as far as I know, he knows almost ALL Catholics in Bandung.

Just like the last year's wedding (Alex's sister's wed), it was held in Sabuga with the marvellous decoration inside and out (in the main room and also the hall). They invited more than 10,000 people I guess cuz the building was so full of people it looked like a concert with formal dresses.

I got there with my siblings Ben and Clemy, and my best friends Jeremy and Alex. We came by our car and parked it in UPT ATAS and got a car dropped us to the main building. The decoration and everything was similar with the previous wedding which was full of soft cloths and full of flowers, but this one's more beautiful, more prefect and more interesting.

The food was appealing: beef barbecue, kambing guling, baso tahu, sushi, salmon, peking duck, etc.. We 'worked' in group so we could eat all kinds of food there without wasting too much time on queueing.

But the program inside the main room was far more interesting! The MC were a beautiful lady (whose name I forgot but worked for the previous wed too) and Tantowi Yahya. Last year they invited Krisdayanti to perform a solo. But this year, they invited three singers as well; the country singer Tantowi Yahya, the mellow Delon and... the energic Agnes Monica. What a concert-like wedding!

They really do like treating people. They gave away door prizes such as digicams, handphones, and even a motorcycle which were gave thru a 'game' of 'Super Deal or No Deal' which was quite entertaining. And every invitation got a blue man's T-shirt as souvenirs.

By the way I also met my best friends Irma-Yanto, LS-Ian, Audry and other friends there. Seems like almost all of my best friends were there. It was a very incredible wedding indeed.

But that was a wedding of the groom and bride I don't know. I just know the father of the groom (who is my parents' friend) and the bride's brother who appeared to be Andrey Toge, Ian's friend. On Sunday I was invited to another wedding of my friends; Vera and Handry.

I came to Vera's widodareni party on Saturday night at Eastern Restaurant in Istana Plaza with Jeremy, Delia, Erwin, Vincent, Odhien and Reza. She only invited us, her family, and her best friends from Tasik. We had good time chat with Vera's sister Vina and brothers Tommy and Kevin. But Kevin was the one who did almost all the talk that nite.

Then the wedding party itself was held in Istana Muara on Sunday evening. I came after work (on Sunday!) with Jeremy as usual and met our other friends Erwin, Shirly, Delia, Laura, Vicky Y, Atika, Odhien, Reza, Diana, Yuma, Vincent, Syaeful, Johan and Sonya the model.

I also met my old schoolmates Tutur, Jeffry 'Homo', Andri 'Babeh', Sanny, Yuliana, Astrid, Melissa, Della, Paulin, Okky, Chika, etc. It was so great it felt like a little reunion. There were also Mario's friends Tengkey, Irwan, Bobo, Pungky, Adi, Vick, Andru 'Grunge', Iwan, etc. I was quite excited to see them all after some time.

So, have a happy marriage guys! I hope this will be a very good start of your happy new lifes. Two hearts becoming one. How beautiful is it? I was touched cuz after all, I knew the couple even before they started hooking up. I knew a bit of their story and I knew the beginning.

It came to me a bit of question: when will my turn come? But hey, I still have time to enjoy my single life now so I'll just enjoy it to the fullest. I'm so happy that some of my friends had started new lives with their spouses. I hope when it will come to me, I'd have the most perfect couple to the end.

My Dad always told me that we could never measure our wealth by money but by our friends.
I'm sure our friendship has made me rich!!!
Tiny but wonderful seeds of blessings are sprinkled on earth each day...
and I just caught one that's so nice and true... And it's you!

I may have forgotten to say that I care. I may have failed to open up and share,
but though no words have been spoken, my promise of friendship won't be broken.
Time and distance are important between friends. When a friend is in your heart, they remain there forever.
I may be busy, but I assure you, you are always in my heart!

Friends are like the walls of a house. Sometimes they hold you up, sometimes you lean on them. But sometimes, it's enough to know they're just standing by.
If all my friends were to jump off a bridge, I wouldn't jump with them;
I'd be at the bottom to catch them.

One tree can start a forest; one smile can start a friendship.
One touch can show you care; one friend can make life worth living for.
A smile makes us look younger...while friends make us feel stronger... and they make us enjoy life.

True Friends always pop up to say Hello
True Friends don't Care if you're a lil' different
True Friends never fight like cats and dogs
True Friends will drive you anywhere!!!

True Friends let everyone come along
True Friends don't laugh at you when you get new glasses
True Friends help you up when you're down...
And True Friends never let you do something you'll regret when you wake up the next morning!

[anonymous]

I invited my best friends to my house last Saturday. My parents and little sister were gone to Jakarta so the house was kinda empty. I usually go to Jakarta with mum, with or without any plan (cuz I love going to Jakarta) but I cancelled Jakarta cuz my client asked me to stand by in Bandung just by Friday night.

So I planned the party that Saturday morning cuz I thought I’ll be bored for the next 3 days. I don’t have a car and I wasn’t in the mood for going anywhere so I just invited the crowd over.

Ester, Boyank and their child Hayden came first by around 4 and we got the food prepared for BBQ that night. They did the shopping before and mostly the planners of the party. I just played with 2 months old Hayden for a while.


[Hayden and Aunt Victoria]

Alex came around 6 and we watched She’s The Man on TV. Hours passed by and well, we started to starve so we started the BBQ ‘party’ just the 4 of us with my brother Bent (it’s Party of Five, lol). The rest of the people came by 9 just after we finished.


[the guys who cooked: Alex and Boyank]

It was kinda sucks cuz they came more than 3 hours late and let us be bored. But I couldn’t blame them, I called them the last minute invitations by the way, so I shouldn’t ask too much. I still appreciated their arrivals cuz Irma was depended on Yanto and he came late from Jakarta (blame the traffic jam) and Livia wasn’t really in the mood and she wasn’t gonna come (she arrived in her pyjamas and was so ready to sleep). So I was so glad when they finally made it.


[Yanto prepared the meal for Irma]


[romantic dinner for two]

The ‘party’ ended with card plays that nite. We were divided into two groups: capsah group and Rummikub group (it’s a rummy tile game). Definitely I wasn’t in the capsah group cuz I’m very poor in that game. I, Irma, Boyank and Bent played rummikub while Ester, Alex, Livia and Yanto played capsah. Alex went home by 12 but the rest of the party stayed over that nite.


[ester and her sleeping baby in swinger]


[and it's my turn to swing]

We continued playing the Rummikub til around 3 a.m. then we started to try to sleep. I, Irma and Livia shared a single bed together. They all wanted to try my bed curtain (a.k.a. kelambu) so we couldn’t make any movement and were just talking and laughing till 5 a.m. and finally we could sleep when we move to the extra bed. Livia stayed sleeping on my bed while I shared the extra bed with Irma, it was a lot spacious btw.


[the one who wants a baby so much]

We woke up by 9 when Irma said she was going home cuz she has a lot of things to do at home. Then Ester and family went home too. There were just me, Livia and Bent left. We spent all day watching cable TV and just took baths by 5 p.m. It was the laziest day ever for us.

Happy New Year 2008 everyone! I’m back!!
I made some resolution for the new year but basically I'll be a new person, with new good habits and new job.

Here's my 2008 resolutions. In this year I will:
1. Build, develop, and expand my business the best I can,
2. Be the BEST interior designer they can ask,
3. Earn money and pay for my self,
4. Be someone who can be depended on for anyone in need,
5. Be more charity,
6. Be the light to my surroundings, no matter how dark it is.


Btw I went to Bali for the end of 2007 and below here’s the chronology:

I went to church for 7 a.m. mass with my family minus Ben then we headed to the airport and met Jeanny. This is my second trip to Bali with Jeanny (the first one was in 2002 with school) and this time I knew only one of her friends; Peking but the other 9 were new friends to me: Ronny, Fendy, Ferry, Dhanny, Wei2, Andre, Aay and Like. Like is Dhanny’s girlfriend.

We went to Bali by 10.40 a.m. Sriwijaya flight and transitted at Surabaya for 30 minutes. We arrived in Bali by 1.30 p.m. local time (an hour ahead Javanese time) and had lunch Pecel Bu Tinuk but some of the group ate pork at some near restaurant. Then we went to The Ritz-Carlton by a L300 car we rented and the driver was very kind.

There, Peking, Ferry and Ronny had a water spa for $ 40 and the rest of us waited for them for more than 2 hours taking tour around the hotel and pictures on great spots. It was fun, the hotel’s exterior and landscape were superb but we got bored so before the 3 guys finished their selfish treat (especially Peking’s for it was his main purpose going to Bali) so we waited by the pool side and finally the lobby.

Then we went to Jimbaran to have dinner and it was okay. The food was great, we ordered lots of kerapu fish, prawn, crab, and kangkung but it tasted nice, and the price was quite reasonable it was Rp 860,000.- for 11 hungry people. Then we headed to our hotel at Denpasar but we stopped by at some surf shop which gave up to 70% discount. I got nothing but I bought a Banana Boat’s Deep Tanning Lotion with only 2 SPF. I thought maybe it would be cool if I get a bit tanned.

Finally, we reached the hotel at Jl. Hayam Wuruk 200, Oranjje Hotel near Renon. Jeanny and I got the room 116, which was quite large for 2 people and pretty clean for the price (Rp 300,000.-/night) but not much to ask since it wasn’t nearly a star hotel. But we slept alright there.

The group was going to swim at Waterbom but I had my period so I couldn’t join them but I already got a plan B: to join LS. She was already in Bali with Ian’s family from Dec 23, so I visited their hotel at Legian Beach Bungalow at Jl. Padma and waited for them to get ready then we had a walk (first we took motorcycle Ian had rented for 5 days there but it wasn’t so nice to drive motorcycle with 3 persons on board so we took a walk after 2 cross lines; and to avoid polices, too).
We stopped by at some store at Jl. Legian and I got pretty excited at Body & Soul Factory Outlet but I didn’t get anything there so we continued the walk cuz Ian’s family were waiting for us. But we met Arnold, one of LS’s friend in Glion whom made a visit to my house on LS’s last birthday, at some surf store, so Arnold joined us walking to Jl. Pantai Kuta.

Arnold stayed at Hard Rock Hotel so we went to his room after meeting Ian’s family. We got a bit of refreshing cuz the room (at Blues section) was pretty cool. Kathleen, Debbie’s childhood friend from Surabaya whom has an Italian restaurant at Sanur, and her boyfriend Irawan fetched us. We had lunch at Tanjung Pinang at Jl. Raya Kuta. After that we drove back to the hotel but everywhere was crowded by cars and people and every road access to Jl. Legian were closed by 5 p.m. So we parked below Matahari Kuta Square.

Arnold was having a gala dinner at Hard Rock for new year’s eve by 7 and we were left in his room to enjoy after a brief interview by his mum. We waited for hours without food and even we had bought the alcohol, we thought we’d save it till midnight so we didn’t actually do anything but wait. Then Adrian ‘Jiban’ came to join us and Kathleen and Irawan then bought the Wonderland tickets at Double Six for me, Arnold and Debbie cuz the rest of them had their early bird tickets already.

We left Hard Rock by 9.30 and Jiban drove me to Debbie’s crib at Kerobokan to take another motorcycle but apparently Debbie was too tired of waiting she got a bit upset by our late fetch and it was raining but finally we got her join us drove motorcycle by 3 people. I had to get off and had a walk for 10 meters to avoid policemen at a cross line at Jl. Legian. But we arrived to LS’s hotel in complete spirit of having fun that night.

But it was raining all over the beach and we couldn’t get to Double Six by 12 cuz we got only 1 motorcycle and there were 5 of us there. So we celebrated the old and new at that very room with glasses of Martell. We got fly but it wasn’t okay cuz it was spent in a dorky room. So I took an initiative to get a move though it was raining by 12.30. We asked a guy at the hotel lobby to drive us for Rp. 50,000.- and Debbie asked to get home early, she got bad mood already. We arrived at Double Six by 2 a.m. the traffic was amazing it took more than 1 hour just to get there (it was only 3-4 blocks away from the hotel) and had to walk an extra 40 meters in rain to finally get to the club.

But it was worthed it. The club was great it has some spots like Bacio, and we stopped at some spot in which DJ Aditya and DJ Marquee played. There were lots of Indonesian celebrities but I only met the gorgeous Tracy Trinita. The pool side was also crowded cuz there were some people doing bungy jumping and the last one I saw did it with his motorcycle. It was quite crazy but he did made a sensation after the electricity dead (due to over powered).

I met Ririe there and she was surprised by my new hair. Oh, did I tell you I cut my hair short now? I copied Katie Holmes’ hair style just a day before Bali. We had fun there till 4 a.m. but there were still lots of people going there and the traffic wasn’t moving. I just greeted everyone I met Happy New Year. We got to LS’s hotel finally and had some sleep.

LS and Ian had to go to Candi Dasa by 11.30 that day so we got busy from 7 a.m. to get packed and prepared to leave hotel. We were picked up by 9.20 by the driver and they dropped me off at my hotel first. I had a brief sleep and took bath and headed back to Jl. Legian at 12 p.m. by taxi. I went to Ririe’s hotel in Bali Summer, Jl. Pantai Kuta since Jiban and Kathleen were still asleep.

Ririe and I had a walk along Jl. Legian and Poppies Lane II to find this restaurant people were talking about. But it was located in the middle of Poppies Lane I so we had too much walking but when we finally get to the Bamboo Corner, it was totally worthed it. The price was SO CHEAP in Bali. I had a sirloin steak (it wasn’t okay but I couldn’t protest for the price) and rose wine. It was great.

Then we had another walk to Dicovery Mall since Ririe wanted to see it. So we walked and had McDonald’s ice cream on the way and got there by around 4 p.m. without shopping and we had a rest and just sat at the mall’s main entrance’s stairs. Finally Jiban came to get his helmet which I brought from LS’s hotel. He was with Debbie and we moved to Bali Copana but Ririe and I got so excited with the magnificent view of the beach so we started being narcist to wait the sun set. It wasn’t really nice since it was cloudy but still the view was marvellous.

Kathleen and Irawan came to get her jacket LS borrowed the day before and Jiban and Debbie went home. They were working the next day. So I got stuck with the Surabayanese couple but it was alright cuz they were very kind. We couldn’t go out from the building so we took a walk until Warung Made but everywhere was crowded so we finally stopped at The Breeze and had dinner there. Once again, I had rose wine for my meal. It was great.

We got back to Discovery to get the car and drove to Kudeta cuz Jeanny and her friends were there already and I didn’t plan to stay the night somewhere else I had to get back to the hotel. Kudeta was amazing. The exterior was fabulous it was decorated with red giant chili lamps under the tree branches in the entrance and another red flags with lamps above the pond. It was wonderful. I drank peach vodka with sprite and we took some pictures at the shore. I went back to the hotel felt so light and fly… and had a sound sleep that nite.

It was Rian’s birthday, I didn’t forget. I SMS him a Happy Birthday early in the morning. But Jeanny and I woke up late so we took bath and packed in rush cuz we had to check out from the hotel. We went to Sukawati and had some shopping there but I bought only things people ordered before; colorful Bamboo shirts for mum and Balinese sandals for Irma.

Then we headed to Ubud to have lunch at Nuris, a very special restaurant people had been talking about, but apparently the traffic jammed and there were a campaign for Bupati election so we couldn’t get to Nuris so we turned to Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck Diner) instead. It wasn’t disappointing cuz the view of the rice fields behind the restaurant was refreshing and we took some narcism pictures there.


When the duck arrived, we got excited more. Though it costed Rp 63,000.-/portion before tax (sigh!) but it was absolutely worthed it cuz the deep fried crispy duck was large and it tasted soooooooo nice with Balinese vegetables, onion and garlic sauce, and chili. We were totally satisfied.

We headed back to Denpasar to buy some food and back to Kuta but we stopped by at Rip Curl big sale surf shop and I got a nice magenta halter top, a nice peach bikini, a pencil case for Clemy and some Barong key chains for my parents. This is my biggest shopping along my vacation there.

We arrived at Ramayana hotel finally but I disagree to stay there for the price was over my budget (Rp 900,000.-/nite but we couldn’t rent an extra bed since the room was small and the beds were too small for 2 persons). So we took a look for Yulia Beach Inn at Jl. Pantai Kuta next to Kuta Square and got a family room for 4 persons and costed Rp 600,000.-/nite but it was nice compared to the hotel’s facilities. The restaurant in front of the hotel was the same one I had dinner with Kathleen and Irawan the night before.

While we waited for the car arrived we had some shopping at ethnic shops near the hotel and I got a small Balinese dancers painting on ceramic to put on the wall for my mum and some accessory for interior. I also got a nice yellow pillow case at the other store and those were all I got.

We then went to the beach to enjoy the view but once more there wasn’t sun set so we headed back to the hotel but on the way there I met Megayanti, Yodi’s friend from UPH I keep in touch on facebook all these times. We got so excited so Mega came to my hotel after we put our stuff in our room. We had our welcome drink then we went to Poppies I thru Jl. Pantai Kuta to have dinner at Bamboo Corner, this time I went with Jeanny, Aay and Mega. Then we walked to Jl. Legian to the Surfer Girls shop but we had to go to Mega’s hotel so we went back to Hard Rock (she stayed in the Alternative wing).

We met Mega’s father then we went to the beach and met my group but Mega and I separated ourselves to have chat on the beach. We went back to her room becuz it got rained. She’s just a year older than my sister (Mega was born in 1987) and we never got too close before since she and Yodi aren’t really friends but we could chat all night till I got so sleepy and decided to go back to my hotel by 12.30.

It could be counted as our greatest day cuz we girls could shop a lot of great stuff for affordable price, got a nice hotel room for a reasonable price, had a super nice dinner for a very cheap price, and met Mega, who got to Bali and home on the same days with ours, went to Double Six at the same hours with me but met just on our last night there. But it was hilarious.