Another Victoria's Secrets

Got these cartoons from my family's mailing list, as usual. I think these are very nice to be shared. The message told us this: "To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.." When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better.

"The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you"

via Uncle Pat; KSTB mailing list.

Nothing so important about last weekend that I can share with you here. I just went to Pacific Place last Friday to accompany Mom meeting with her schoolmate whom she haven't met for 35 years. But I didn't really catching up with them, I went to ak.'sa.ra instead and bought The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho after 2 hours browsing all the books they have.

After that, I went to Hachi Hachi at Central Park to celebrate Lilis' 27th birthday. Zmith made me buy the blueberry cheesecake and we had the little party with sushi. It was nice to celebrate someone's birthday, like having the joy with them and deliver more spirit for them.

After that I spent the weekend just at the apartment with Mom. Oh, I went to Mabes to play the Lego Rock Band game with Joey, Acun and Isaac (I got the bass) then went to Kemang to buy some DVDs, but other than that, nothing so special about my weekend...


...unless it was my Grandpa's sister's 100th birthday! It was amazing how someone can be so old.. but then again she lives on the beach with less stress and pollution. But unfortunately Mom was sick so we stayed at the apartment. My big family was going there to celebrate and they sent us the photo. So here I'm sharing it with you.

Before I start to blabber about anything, I wanna tell you that this is my 701st post! Yeay!
Okay. Now I wanna share some new things I got lately. I went to see Lita at Sandwich Bakar, Pesanggrahan, on Monday night at around 8 p.m. We were there talking about lotsa stuff till midnight: our love lives, characters and problems.


By the end of our meeting, Lita gave me a black eyeliner and nail polish--just when I really need an eyeliner and haven't had the pink polish yet. I think I've been a very lucky girl lately. When I need shoes, sandals, and make up, people are giving me just exactly the stuff I need. Surely karma works here so I should give to people, too. Only I think I'm too lucky to be true now :) Thank God.


By the way, Gramedia at Central Park is currently giving 30% off discount for almost all items (exclude some merchandise and electronics, until August 8th) so I and Mom used the opportunity to buy books we need, and in this case: design books. I bought three for only about Rp 300,000.- and I think it's the best bargain for such informative, useful books. So again, I thank God for all the blessings He keep giving me. Wish you all the same blessings, too, friends!

It's been six days that I stay in Jakarta now, the longest ever since I moved back to Bandung last year, I guess.. And for the last 3 nights, my grandma is here staying with me and Mom at the apartment. It is such a new thing for us, having Oma here--since she had never liked apartments before--but it is surely fun to have her here, since we visited malls (Central Park yesterday and Grand Indonesia the other day) and other shopping centers together and we did shopping together, too, that I realized that my mom got her great taste of fashion and interior from her mother... that get to me--but minus the fashion, cuz Mom said my fashion taste sucks. LOL.





And today, after all my work was done, we went to Kelapa Gading to visit my aunt and family there--but met them at the mall instead of their house--and had fun eyeing the new shops that wasn't there the last time I went there (which was, could be said, 1,5-2 years ago.) We sat at this Eat and Eat area of food market with old China Town atmosphere for the interior style. It is such a nice idea and place--and the food was also nice!--so we had fun hanging out there for hours for afternoon break.



And Zara was giving great sale deal (and so do most of the shops at MKG 3), so we did a little shopping again there, and at Gaudi, and it is such a fun thing to do, especially when you're on stress or, like, missing someone so badly... Haha.

*) please pardon my ugly photo resolution.. I'm still saving my money to buy a digicam.. or a SLR, maybe. My old one is still damaged :(

I was blogwalking thru my most favorite blog ever, Made by Girl:


(I had been a loyal follower since 2006--as long as I can recall--not too long after my sister found the decor8:)


and I found this very nice blog: The Bedlam of Beefy:


I love the large images and handwritten photo captions the writer put so tidily on his blog (and he calls us kids! I wonder how old he really is...) And they remind me of a blog my sister found few months ago: A Beautiful Mess by Elsie:


... and this lovely stuff updated at Mixed Plate:


Actually, there are still many other blogs I love, but these five are the top. I will post about lovely blogs again soon because now is a bit too late for me to go to bed (I have morning projects now) and the internet is a bit slow. So, until my next post, then... Cheerio!

This was one extraordinary weekend for me. First, I had my boyfriend woke up in the morning and made him drove me to PVJ by 11 a.m. We met with my friend and had some stuff done, and had lunch at Pepper Lunch. It was almost a year (or maybe more) since the last time we did this and it felt just so fun and exciting. I just can't love him more!!


Then we went home and had a little chat with Mom. After Mom went, Ara stayed a little longer cuddling with me because it would be our last moments for the next one week. After my homework was done, I decided to go meet my friends but I met Mom on the way and she decided to go with me, too. So together we went to PVJ (again!)

We arrived at PVJ and met Dimas right away. Then we met Cheryl and Mom went to the music store so Cheryl and I went to see Rachelle and Avie-Djoko. We decided to hang out at Black Canyon and Mom joined us, too. Otto, Hanum and others came later but it was so fun to hang around like that with my lovely girls and I was sure had a great laugh.

But now I need to go to sleep since we're going to Jakarta for Adrian-Angely's wedding so I'm gonna end the post here. Thanks for reading and thank You, Lord, for giving me such lovely family, friends and boyfriend!

I'm back to Bandung again!
Well actually it was two days ago and I hadn't have time to blog till now. So after that night at Killiney Kopitiam, I filled my days finishing my work at two projects. I had met my friends Joey, Donny and Hendrik at Bumbu Bakar on Monday while waiting for traffic jam.


I had to print some stuff on Tuesday morning and I went to the closest print shop I found in Tanjung Duren. This Biz Express is pretty much a one-stop-multimedia-shop. So I enjoyed that one hour time to browse the internet, had my morning coffee, had my files printed, then went back to the apartment to meet the client.


Thankfully I had my second project deal that morning and went to Karawaci together with Mom in the evening on Tuesday. We had furniture moved out from my uncle's house on Wednesday just before we went back to Bandung and I think it was pretty much effective work to be done for this week. So, for the rest of the week I am pretty relaxed and last night I went to see my girl friends to watch the Inception.


So I arrived at Ciwalk by 7 p.m. last night with my brother, Ben, and we met Otto who were already there waiting at Starbucks. Half an hour later, Rachelle came and we went to Platinum to have dinner. Cheryl and Dimas joined us at around 8 p.m. and they had dinner at Radja Ketjil.


We watched the 9.15 p.m. movie and it was ended by around 11.45. I went home straight from there but the movie left an effect on my brain so I stayed up till enough time to absorb it all. The movie is really a good one and the writer deserves high praise for what he had created. I love this movie a lot and I guess I'm gonna watch it over and over again... :)

Okay this is like my 6th-7th trip to Jakarta in the last 1.5 months and I enjoy every visit so much. But this time, I went with Mom and Aunt Ellen from Bandung after had breakfast at de'risol. We made a stop at KM 46, to the San Diego Hills Memorial Park once again after our visit last May for Mas Benny's funeral. This time, we moved his late father's body to rest together upon the hill.


We were a little late for the mass but at least we came ;) And after the mass we marched to the Sovereignty complex and had another procession on the spot and there, father and son laid side by side at last. We had lunch at the meeting hall before proceeding our journey to Jakarta.




As we reached the apartment, we went to Killiney Kopitiam at the basement of Central Park, but on our way there we met Joey and Zmith so I stayed with the guys for about an hour talking before I rejoined my mom and aunt. It's so comfortable hanging out here, with wifi and charger jacks and ice coffee tarikk or hot tea O, we've been here for more than 3 hours and still feeling cozy.. maybe we'll stay here till they're close tonight!!

... he doesn't care what clothes I am wearing or that I don't wear any make ups or how many days I haven't took shower or the red pimples all over my face or how embarrassing I can burp and fart and snore or how awful my appearance when I just wake up or how thick the fat can stay in my belly...

I love it when he still loves me after all that.
That's why I believe he's meant for me :)

... he says he loves me and says it while looking deep into my eyes, makes me feel like I am the luckiest and happiest girl on earth loved by a man so true and deep, and lets me know how he won't ever let me go no matter what the circumstances are--poor, rich, sick, healthy, sad, happy--through his eyes he tells me that he will always be there for me.

Okay, let's celebrate this as my first recipe I made myself. It's just a fried rice, I bet all of you can make one by yourselves. But after many trial-and-errors, this one is not just eatable but also tasty. Lol. I'm gonna share the recipe for you.

Ingredients:
- a plate of cooked rice, preferable dry/hard, not too soft
- half a piece of onion, slice
- one piece of red chili, slice diagonally
- a spoonful of frying oil
- one egg
- a pinch of salt
- a pinch of pepper
- one cube of Maggi Stock, can be chicken or beef--or other broth brand
- drops of sesame oil
- abon ikan cakalang (you can order this to my friend Joey or ask me how) or change it with tuna/bacon/chicken/anything you have in the fridge
- fried red onion

How to Cook?
1. Oil the skillet and bring it to heat.
2. Break the egg and splash it onto the skillet. Use spatula to scramble it.
3. Bring the onions to join the egg and wait a while until it drooped.
4. Put the red chili onto and mix them together.
5. Bring the cooked rice onto the skillet and season with pinches of salt and pepper, then mix.
6. Add some flavor with Maggi stock cube, mix again.
7. Put the abon ikan cakalang onto the rice and mix. Drop some sesame oil to spice up the rice.
8. Taste it! When it smells good and tastes nice, then it's time to serve it but if it hasn't, double check on the ingredients. Add something else onto it to customize the taste to your tongue.
9. Garnish with fried red onion on top of it and ta-daa, your instant dinner is ready!

Serves 1 portion
Caution: it's hot! If you don't like hot food, remove the chili.

P.S. my friend Joey sells this marvelous abon made by cakalang fish, a Manadonese food his mother makes. I usually put them in a jar and keep it in the fridge. When I'm hungry but lazy to cook, the cakalang can be eaten just like that with hot cooked rice only. Joey's tips: add some butter on it and mix. They're yummy!!

If you're interested on buying, you can ask me here. The abon is sold in 300 gr and 1000 gr packages.

So during my last visit to Jakarta, I spent most of the time doing my job in Mangga Besar. It is an interior designing stuff at Grand Kartini Apartment and I installed a wardrobe for 3 days there. But after the work, I still have hours to kill so here were what I did:


On Sunday, June 27th, we arrived in Jakarta and headed to our apartment to celebrate my brother Ben's birthday. Aunt Magda, Angel and Oma came, too, and we had dinner at Sushi Tei, Central Park, with Aunt Dewi also joined us. After that I met my friend Lilis and boyfriend, Adrian Zmith, at one of the restaurants at Mediterranean 1 for business talk.

I didn't do anything particularly on Monday evening because I was tired of the day's work.. but on Tuesday I got my childhood friend Alvin came from Bandung so my Mom and I treated him during his short stay and took him to skyscraper buildings he don't see everyday at our hometown. At 7 p.m., we went to fX to meet my uncle and also Cheryl who happened to be in the city. So Alvin, Cheryl and I watched the World Cup 2010 match at the food court to wait for my Mom to finish chatting.

On Wednesday morning I dropped Alvin at the shuttle station and proceeded to the project. It was the first time for me to bring the car alone to the 'city' of Jakarta and I felt both nervous and excited! I went to places I've never been at before such as Pinangsia and Tanah Sereal.. it felt so much like an adventure. Mom and Clemy went to Bali that afternoon, and I had another business meeting with Lilis and Zmith.

Thursday noon, after finishing my stuff at the project, I went to Pasar Pagi, Mangga Dua, all by myself. I thought I needed to buy some stuff there but when I got there, I totally forgot what I had to buy so I was just looking around the shops and got new knowledge about the area. It was another adventure.



I got back to my apartment by 4 p.m., had a shower and short nap and at 5.30 Joey came to fetch me. Lilis and Zmith were ready, too, so the four of us headed to Gading Serpong to attend William's brother's new vegetarian restaurant's grand opening: White House. It was my first vegetarian meals and they tasted so delicious! I recommend this restaurant to you all, especially the vegetarians.


After that Joey took us to his other friend's venue at Panglima Polim IV: Kaffee Hausen Sinou. His schoolmate Diera was the graphic designer and interior conceptor for this comfy café. We spent a little more time there until it was close by 12 a.m. then went back to the apartment. I had great time with my friends and had many new business (and food) recommendation, thanks to Joey!

This morning I was shocked by the appearance of a small black snake on my toilet seat! I was so lucky I turned on the light first so I could see that black slimy thing was decorating the white toilet lid. I didn't scream--of course, because it wasn't my usual response on anything--but I was truly panicked inside.


So I informed my Mom for this incident, tried to call my neighbor (but failed) and put some salt outside the bathroom door (turned out this is just a myth. Salt don't do anything to snakes) and Mom reached my neighbor's phone and the husband (who loves unique creatures from pitbulls to reptils) came within a minute.

I watched him trying to find the snake who was on the toilet seat just 10 minutes before, and found it on the toiletries box behind the mirror. I watched him picking the snake to go down on the floor, watched it struggle to escape him, and watched it strike the metal bar my neighbor was carrying to fight it. It was so amazing to see such flexible long animal going spiral and straight and spiral and strike like that in reality when usually I watch it on TV.


So after around 2 minutes of offense and defense, my neighbor succeed to pick the snake on its neck and get it lightly like holding a non-venom thing. He said, the snake was venomless (thank God!) and he took it to give it a better and warmer place inside a terrarium but for me I was just relieved that the creeping thing isn't longer in my house. Thanks to Kak Avi and family--I'm just so glad that they love dangerous animals that we are now protected :)

I went to Bandung yesterday with my elementary schoolmate Lilis and my best friend Cheryl from my apartment by 3 p.m. I stayed in Jakarta for about a week and it was time to go back to Bandung and fortunately, my girl friends were coming, too, so I wasn't driving alone (since my Mum and sister are now in Bali.)

It was a traffic jam along the highway until KM 40s so we had a short rest at KM 19. We had donuts and drinks and fueled the car, too, before we go to the flower city. It was a total 5-hours journey actually but we didn't feel tired nor sleepy, thankfully, because we had fun talking and gossiping and perhaps because Choky, Cheryl's big brother, had prayed for us before.


So we arrived at Bandung by 8 p.m. and parked at The Kedai to meet my guy and had dinner ayam penyet at warung next to it. We stayed there until the match Brazil vs. Holland finished. Then Lilis and I went to my house to rest.


But I didn't sleep. I found this interesting movie at HBO about teenagers life in UK based on a novel: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snoggings and Louise Rennison's other book series of Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

I like the movie because: (1) it's about UK's life I rarely see in movies, (2) it was about teenager's struggle to find the real meaning of love, friendship, the perfect kiss and being mature, (3) it has beautiful scenes along the movie, (4) they talk with British accent which is very sexy, and (5) Aaron Johnson was a catch.. he's so adorable!

By the way, I did have my own perfect snogging that night.. I was so glad to see my Ara after a week we didn't see each other. How I love him!