Another Victoria's Secrets

We went first thing in the morning last Sunday, 24/01 to take Dad's ashes in the Funeral Home and departed to Jakarta right away. At around 7 a.m. we arrived at Ancol, meeting almost all of the family at Pantai Karnival.




After all were gathered, at around 7.30 we got on board, the 16 of us, to deliver the ashes to its final resting place. We sailed about 300m from the beach and drowned the china vase with its white and grey content to the bottom of the sea and said our last goodbye.



We stayed at the beach for the next 3-4 hours till it was midday. We had our morning meal on plastic mats, had a picnic with our big family. Only Mas Pluki, Mas Benny and the Setiawan siblings who were in Australia couldn't make it. I was so happy to meet all of the family, though it was a really sad moment.

Two days earlier, we had a 40th day mass to pray for Dad's soul at home. Father Iwan led the mass and most of the guests were from our parish and family. Except for some of Clemy's friends and Irma and Ara. It was also a nice moment to meet family, I hope our next meeting wouldn't be as sad. Thank God for giving me such a family! :)

It took Stan Munro (38) six years to build this toothpick city. He used six million toothpicks and 170 liters of glue. He can spend up to six months to create a building and each of his creations is built to 1:164 scale. He works at the Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse, NY, USA. Check out the amazing works of one of the most patient men in the world:

Today is my Dad's 40th day since he was gone (here in Indonesia we pray for one's 7th, 40th, 100th and 1000th days after one was dead) and we celebrated it by going to a 7a.m. daily mass at Cathedral. We (me, my sister and Mom) came just in time when the mass was begun but thankfully had time to give the intention of the mass to the Father.



After church we had wonderful dim sum breakfast (as Dad would favored) at Po Ka Tiam and finished there after 10. We had some businesses to do at the car insurance and banks and at 4 p.m. we were done and I dropped the girls at Mom's friend while I went for another business stuff. It was nice to have busy days but less time to blog.




By the way, thank you for all your support and prayer throughout the last 40 days (and more) for me and my family. We are strong because of you guys. And the mass for Dad will be held on Friday, Jan 22nd, at my house. Please come by if you want to support us with more prayer. Thank you all!

Gosh, I am getting busy!
So I spent a whole Saturday last weekend with my aunt and it turned out to be fun. I promised her I'd help with her friend's car and we went for checking the tires, filling the gas, and she accompanied me buying papers, printing and copying stuff for the mass book for my Dad's 40th day.





We went around Tidar, Jl. Banda, and Jl. Dipati Ukur. But between those places we stopped by at Gudeg Yunap for lunch, BIP for a little refreshing and shopping moment, Cathedral for 5 p.m. mass and Roemah Nenek for dinner. The last spot we stopped was Jl. Dipati Ukur, but the copying stuff needed an hour of work so we had a walk around the road and stopped to buy some DVDs.


Thank you, E.T. for the pleasant aunt-and-niece's day out! I really had fun that day! :)

Yesterday I attended another requiem mass for a dead neighbor, the third person in our neighborhood I knew in a month since my Dad had passed away. After that I went with my sister for lunch at Nasi Bakar 15 at Jl. Cimandiri, behind the Gedung Sate. We met Ara there and had lunch together.


Then after confused of where to go, we went to Istana Plaza to meet Esther to get the 'manye' cake (the cake they make to celebrate a baby's 30th day of being born in Chinese tradition) and we got these cute cupcakes. Before that I got a little time to buy a nice book of bags that I need the most now at Times.


After that me and my sister went to Ciwalk at around 4 p.m. and we went around the shopping center, sweeping every corner of it and because Mom said she wanted to see Avatar with her friends, we waited for them till 9 p.m. to come and we went to watch Sang Pemimpi.


Basically this is a good movie, based on a great novel saga of Andrea Hirata. We had so much fun watching the movie, especially the 1980s settings of Sumatra and how a real 'kampong' children play at that times. The only one thing that ruined the whole movie was the appearance of the actor who plays the present-time Arai that made me laughed for more than a minute just to know that he appeared there (seriously, it was a huge laugh for me!)
But the whole movie was sweetly packaged by Mira Lesmana and Riri Riza, making this another Indonesian great movie you should watch. Salute to the Miles Production!

Got this link from my family mailing list, I think you all have to watch this short video of Budi Soehardi, an Indonesian pilot in Singapore Airlines who donated most of his salary to build a home for orphanage in East Timor, called as Roslin Orphanage as the first kid's name they helped there. To see how the simple generosity being paid y the children's smiles and being announced in CNN Heroes by Kate Hudson at Kodak Theater here made you wanna give a little something for the human being, right?

Yesterday my friend Icha came to my house with her family: her husband, her baby son Nathan and her mom. They spent a few hours at our house sharing stories, exchanging some stuff and playing with Nathan.


After they were home we had lunch and at around 4 p.m. Aunt Dewi and Oma who came to stay over for the weekend departed to Jakarta by Auntie's car, driven by Ben. Then at around 6.30 I went to Indischetafel, an old-fashioned restaurant in Jl. Sumatra, Bandung, to meet my best friends Irma, Livia and Ester with her family.


It's funny how I meet two babies of almost the same age (one is 8 weeks and the other 40 days old) in a day, whose both moms asked me to be their bridesmaid years ago. But it's fun to see how a girl's life changed from their teenager to a motherhood. Congratulations, girls! You both had given birth to beautiful nephew & niece for me!

Okay, okay. Call me outdated but I just watched the Avatar movie tonight. I was busy taking care of my mom who was sick when my siblings watched it in Jakarta last year and got no time until now. And today, finally, I watched it! *chest forward, chin up and proud smiling face.

So after business today I went to Ciwalk by 6.30, tried to purchase the ticket but it was sold out so after meeting Ara there we went to PVJ, and along with Boy, watched the 3D version of the movie. I love the movie very much: the story, the visual effects, the beautiful colorful forest and the magnificent beasts... And above all, I watched it in 3D which made them all packed so perfectly when delivered to my brain. Bravo to James Cameron and his Avatar!


Official Avatar Movie

I was supposed to make this before the old and new but due to my lack of time, this is the best that I can gather for now:

1. Get rid of the acne on my face--all of them--ASAP!
2. Excess most of the fat in my tummy before March
3. Eat healthier food, do more effective lifestyle
4. Reduce, reuse, recycle more.. and refuse plastic bags
5. Get a job.. and start a business on my own
6. Wake up earlier and do yoga every morning
7. Go to bed earlier--the latest is at 12 a.m.
8. Pray every day and be more active in the church/parish
9. Help people more, be more sympathetic and proactive
10. Be on facebook/other social networks less
11. Get another new tattoo(s) on my neck and perhaps ankle
12. Be more fashionable on street and delicate at home
13. Shop less, be more creative with recycling stuff at home
14. Learn to cook, at least basic food for everyday meal
15. Add another at least 50 new friends along the year 2010
16. Go to Thailand, especially to Phuket and Pattaya
17. Blog more of the qualified posts than the nagging ones
18. Be grateful more and nag lesser--if possible zeroed the nagging
19. Learn a new language or continue la francaise.
20. Get married. LOL.

Finally--we could go out of the town! So we went to Jakarta by 9 a.m. last Thursday, Dec 31st '09: me, Mum, Ben, Clemy and Aunt Ellen. We stopped at one of the rest areas for lunch and arrived at Taman Alfa Indah (West Jakarta) by around 12.30 p.m. to Aunt Dewi's house. She prepared us meals so we ate and had some rest until it was 5 p.m.

We departed from the house by 5.30 through the Pesanggrahan and Kebon Jeruk Highway, through the Alam Sutera and Serpong--all along the whole 35 km to de Latinos, the housing complex where my Aunt Sisca now lives with her family. She just moved in there few days after my Dad's death and we were there to see the new house.

We arrived there the first and had a little tour around the house, and moments later the other arrived and we had a little but fun gathering there, with lots of delicious food such as ketupat, Manadonese woku, baked potato (that tasted more like lasagna), and others. It was nice to see the whole family together again and I had real good time that night.

Oh, there was a moon eclipse, too, just right after the old & new at around 1-1.30 a.m. and we witnessed the bright white moon that was so beautiful inside the rainbow ring beneath the gray clouds up there. It was beautiful, but still we had to go back so we turned via other road that is much a shortcut than the one we went by before.


On Friday noon we had lunch at Gado-Gado Cemara at Pos Pengumben, then we split: Mom with Aunt Dewi went back home while the rest of us went to Grand Indonesia. I met Siska and Arnatt there and had a 2-hours-conversation at the Cold Stone Creamery before Siska had to go at 5 p.m. After that Arnatt accompanied me looking for a shirt for a friend until it was almost 6.30 p.m.


And today, I went to see Julie and Fendy at Stone Cafe after church from 7 p.m. till they were closing at 10 p.m. It was such a nice moment to go seeing friends again--something that I haven't done in months and missed so much--and a real 'have fun'. Although I haven't met any of my girl friends after my Dad's death, it was nice to see other friends like them all who I met.


Oh, before I forget, at Dec 28th Mom's cousin Tante Shunny came with her daughter, Karen--who made us the cute Christmas cupcakes--and we went to Lisung for 4-5 hours talking after having another 4-5hours of chatting at our home after lunch. It was so nice to have them here, because we didn't know we had other family such as them who are connected and so nice. Thank God for that!