Another Victoria's Secrets

It had been centuries of years since I was on a date and last Sunday, I went on one. It was a bit awkward, since my date was my childhood friend. I got a couple of free tickets for movie and I got no one else to go to movie with. So there we were, on a date--because it was just the two of us and there was an after meal at Erla's Mexican Cafe and we talked till 1 a.m.--and I was so happy to have the feeling again. I dunno if this is something that lasts or not, I'd been liking him since our elementary years, but I really dunno about the present and future. Let's just see about this! :)

By the way, the movie was based on true story of Sam Childers, a sinner who found God and got his redemption on saving orphanages in Sudan, Africa. His fight and struggle on the children was an inspiring one and I was deeply touched when watching this. This is one of the must-seen movie I highly recommend!

I went to Albert's party last Friday and had fun for his pre-wedding BBQ party. Most of the guests are friends from MADC, and I brought Maria my BFF along with her little brother Kevin, had fun till about midnight. Maria drove me home, we had late lunch at Tokyo Connection and accompanied Kevin to doctor before went to Congo. It was such a great day!


The next day, I went to meet Arnatt and girlfriend at RM Legoh, then waited for Alvin and Wahyu at 9 p.m. to go to Motzen. There were already Gindra, Andru, Karlina, Lala and Jeremy. It was very nice because Alvin, Wahyu and Jeremy are living on the same hill with me--I'm glad we get along so well. At the other table were Otto, Agatha, Stanny and their friends. Later, Daniel and wife Elnia joined us. We stayed there till about 2 a.m. and I was so happy!

Let me tell you a bit about girl's heart system. I just met Maria--my elementary years' BFF--on Saturday and it felt like no years had passed since 1996. We just got along so well like the old days and we had some catching up with our lives and we agreed to one thing. I also met Cheryl--my current BFF--last night and discussed about similar thing with the one I had with Maria.

So, I think a woman is capable to love a guy her heart desires so much with all of her heart. So much, that she can give all to him and most of time, when the guy is not so much a gentleman, irritates him. In this case, the guy tends to run away for he's not ready to be involved in such a serious, intense, intimate relationship.

But, once the trust is damaged, the heart is torn apart and the same mistake is repeated, the love stops. Perhaps it's not really stopped, but we girls have a system of surviving, how to avoid the same heart break and as our shield is getting thicker and stronger, we are getting harder to be reached. And once the door is closed, it's a very small chance to get open again. Perhaps a window would open for some chat, but the door is most likely to remain closed.

I don't know with other girls--I assume most of them are like me--but it's so hard for me to like two or more guys at the same time. So if I move on and date another guy, that should be the end of my liking on the previous one. That was when I really close the door and will consider carefully on opening a window.

I used to delay my "door closing" moment to years when I had to do that many years before, but experience taught me that when a door is closed, it's closed. There was no loose ends, even if there are some unfinished business to us. For them, it's finished and there ain't nothing else to talk about. Things will go differently and both of you will never be the same again. Re-opening a door for one person is a useless to me. Second (and third and so on...) chances are better be given before it's really closed.

So yea I guess that's pretty much how a girl's system works. Or maybe, a sanguine-phlegmatic Piscean girl's. Or maybe, just mine. Well at least that's what I'm thinking when I recall my most recent heart break case... I just need to move on and start on dating new people, close a door behind me to open another one. Life is always changing, the wheel is always spinning. Tho love is always the same, the guys don't always stay. We just need to be wise with our hearts ;)

Everybody must have their own time of desperation, and mine comes just recently. The reasons may be simple, but I guess these are why:

1. I am lack of friends. They are either getting married or drown with their own works and businesses. Getting new ones are never a problem, but still you can't replace a person with another.
2. Mom tells me to settle down, like every time she has the opportunity of saying. I know what I'm dealing with and what I need. I don't need people to tell it to my face all the time it just bore me out.
3. My job as a freelancer, projects are pending and my income is never certain. Still, I need money and need it to be fixed regularly.
4. This country has never be my home. I have my house and family here, but I don't feel like I belong here and this is killing me for I am always an alien here and I have no one understands me. Even the only person who does, doesn't care about me.
5. I dunno where or how to ask for help. My pride and ego had taken control of my life and I just can't lower down my standards.

Life's a bitch for sure. But I am truly helpless here I need to get out immediately or I'm going out of my mind and rotten up slowly...

This is KLM Super Bus, the first in the world to travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. It rides up to 250 km/h, so I guess it's quite some trip inside there. I wonder if they can ever make one for Jakarta-Bandung trip. Who wants to get onboard?

Creative ideas are fun to be printed on the bus. Here are some:














My favorite, is the snake one. What's yours?

Check out this almost-never ending Chinese painting during the Ching-Ming Festival. Move your cursor to the left or right to keep it moving or in the middle to make it stop. I wonder who'd've made this so detail in so long of paper.. This is so cool!

Sorry for the late updates, but I've been busy lately with the coffee business (Javanegra). This is the third week of my stay in Bandung, met so many people in many hotels, restaurants and cafés, gained so many new knowledge along the way. I spent so many hours with Andrew, brother to my childhood schoolmate, Alvin, who happens to be our neighbor since 1996. He's been helping me with the business and other things.

Meanwhile, I lost contact with my usual girl friends, being all busy with ourselves. It left me mellow on some nights, being alone and feeling abandoned. But then again, friends are disappearing at my age (27 now) and those who are in the same benefit or interest replace the space. I was discussing with Ratih about this, how friends got busy with their lives--husband, baby, work--and we have to make new ones to survive.

For myself, it had been like this for quite some time, thankful that I am quite flexible to accept new things and to know new people, but I, too, feel lonely sometimes. Like last week when I got so down and had no one I could phone to talk about it. I got the redemption in God's presence, but as a human, I need someone as well. I am just so happy that this coffee business keeps me quite distracted.

My life is changing--it changes from time to time. To my dislike, I don't find settlement anywhere along of my way. But to take it in other perspective, I get to know so many new things, places and people. I find this fearful, for keeping on sail and never to harbor. Sometimes it's just so hard to trust people to the core, thanks to my bitter recent love lives. I still envy those who have found their harbor. But then again, life is a great adventure so I'm just gonna enjoy the ride. Pray for me please :)

I was so excited. Yesterday, we set an appointment which should have been a reunion--but only 7 people came--so it was kind of a pre-reunion meeting. So Yunike and Felicia were already there sitting at Azuma section in 90 Gourmet building when Yune and I came. We were all from the St. Yusup. Not long after, Alvin, Maria and Jaya from St. Maria came.


We had great time, some catching up with each of our totally different lives for the past 15 years. Well, I didn't really left that far behind since I'm the one who's still in touch with most of them. But it's simply fun to meet people we hadn't met for 15 years or less, still so many things to be chat about. Later, Irma and her baby daughter came by 7 p.m. to complete the gang of St. Maria, made us 4 vs 4.


I promised Gindra the night before to meet up, so by 8 p.m. Maria, Alvin and I moved to Bengawan 83, a new bar I hadn't been to. Andru and girlfriend Karlina, Lala, Ferdi and Tio were there too, then Jeremy came. We joined them with bottles of beer and baskets of spicy tofu dish. That was superb--everyone's favorite, especially to me and Maria for we hadn't had our dinner.


The night continued and came Yunike, Arief, Andreas later to complete our pre-reunion meeting. Otto and Ardi were there too, incidentally, to make our meeting merrier. We talked and joked around and laughed together until it was 2 a.m. and the bar was closing. It was so nice to meet up with these people, another 'new' ambience for me. I am looking forward to our 'real' reunion in short time, but for now, it's enough. :)

My schoolmate, Vincent Rumahloine, participated in this art exhibition and they're closing tomorrow. Why don't you visit them and enjoy the entertainment?

It was a really short notice that I got from Alise, a friend from the Couch Surfing, asking me to host them for two nights when they are in Bandung. Maybe it's already written that I planned to go to the town at the same date. So I accepted them but it was quite a hectic day when we were all arrived in Bandung; I had meetings with two different hotel managers with my Javanegra team.

It was almost maghrib when we finally reached home, and the guests were 30 minutes ahead of us so it was another hectic situation that we got at home. It was raining so we didn't go anywhere but chatting around and got to know each other more. By 9 p.m. Andrew, my neighbor and childhood friend, came and picked us up to OJ's Tavern.

I also had my other friends came to the bar: Loeis, Patrick and Andre Santosa. I got limited time to meet friends in this visit so I tried to make the best out of it. By 11.30 we hit the road again because my guests were wondering about this super delicious noodle with chicken on it that they had in Jakarta before. Luckily we found a hawker that still sell in Gardujati. So I let the Latvians had the noodle and learn a bit about the ingredients used.

I woke up at 6.20 the next day--after got them all the list of where-to-visit in Bandung till 2 a.m.--and got them all stuffed with breakfast before Yusep, a man they met the day before, picked them all up to bring them to see the Ciater and Tangkuban Parahu. It happened that Yusep is working for the national tourism organization, so he took no charges on them--they just have to pay for the fuel--and brought them around the places they wanted. We're all so glad that he was available to guide them when I couldn't.

Meanwhile, in the town, I was very much occupied by the meetings with hotels and restaurants with Javanegra team and also Andrew. We got three meetings in three hours, so we divided the team on the first two meetings for time efficiency. We didn't even got time for lunch so we had it by 5.30 p.m. at Madame Sari in Kartika Sari Dago. It was a very late lunch, but we got no other options.

By 8 p.m. we were back in the home--missing Tante Judith, friend of Aunt Dewi, and her husband, Cok Simbara (a local actor)--who visited our house. Luckily Mom was home all day. When we arrived, the Latvians were just behind us, and they all got so very tired--and also Yusep who drove for them all day. So I took the hospitality to invite him inside, had some chat, and found more links for our businesses. It's like the whole day was meant for hospitality for all of us, so many new faces and new knowledge we got!

The peak was when the Latvians were going to bed--they must do that earlier for they were going at 5.25 this morning with Yusep--they gave us the souvenirs they brought from their country. It was the Jelgava County that they're living in, and in the goodie bag were DVD and booklet about their county, along with small notebook, a pen, and a postcard with personal note from the four of them. It was a very nice thing that they thought about, and surprised me so much!

At the end of the day, I learned what Aunt Dewi told us: "good people will meet another good people". The Latvians were coming to the town the exact day I was coming. They met Yusep to lead them the way to my house on first day because I couldn't fetch them and it was his day off when they all wanted to go sightseeing the nature. And all the right people are put there on our way for the coffee business.

Can't you see the work of God here? He simply never fails. He's now answering our prayers, the ones that seemed like hopeless about a month ago, but are slowly opening its ways now. All we need to do is to keep the faith and be patience. And work our best to achieve the goals, for sure. When we can prove our faith and goodwill, God will fulfill all of the promises and simply provide us. How great Thou art!

My patience for my Blackberry had reached its limit. Its battery is worn out and getting weak. So I bought this new gadget to back up my BB in case its battery gets low or dead while I'm out. I just need something for phone call but check what I got here: a Fresh TV series from Nexian with full features of Facebook, Twitter, Google, FM Radio, TV and dual SIM card. All of that for only IDR 249,000! It's such a real deal!

So when I brought my new white-mocha phone and showed it to my friends, they all went crazy to find out so many features a small gadget can hold with such a cheap price. They all crave for the same item, and we agreed to give Rachelle one for her birthday present. So I bought her the white-blue one, and made her some scrap of birthday card and had my ex-colleagues to give her those. I'm glad that she likes it, but above all, I'm glad to be the trendsetter of this cute gadget! LOL.

I am currently having fun with a lot of friends, started last Saturday when I went to Starbucks Plaza Senayan to meet Rachelle, Herdi and Ohjaan. I just had spent a whole day in BSD with my aunt that day but it was Rachelle's birthday so I went anyway. We then moved on to Potato Head at Pacific Place to meet Rachelle's other friends: Osit, Pandu and Zahir.
Some girls and guys I didn't remember the names came afterward. We couldn't really talk in Potato Head, so we moved again to Jl. Yusuf Adiwinata to have supper at Ayam Malaya Lombok. We talked and laughed for another 2-3 hours there before we went home.

The next day was spent entirely with Aunt Dewi. We went to 10.30 a.m. mass at Blok B Church and went shopping at Gandaria City and ITC Permata Hijau. I was collapsed for about two hours when we got home. My sister and brother were already home by then from their trip from Bandung. Alex called me then, and asked me to go out with Alif, too. So there we were, having dinner at Kemangi, Pasar Puri till 12 a.m.

Today, I woke up at midday and three hours later went to fetch Pipit at her house not too far from my place. We went to the south and visited Aunt Magda's house, took some of my stuff and met my family there, and went again at 6 p.m. to Benhil. We stopped at Circle K and met Cheryl there. After the 3-in-1 hours, we moved to Ayam Malaya and had dinner there.

Two hours later we got bored again so we went to Burger King Sarinah. Cheryl's friend came after, and by 12 a.m. we went home. I had so much fun these last 3 nights with different friends circle. But maybe I gotta stop the euphoria tomorrow since I got some stuff to do and gonna go to Bandung in two days. So, see you after my holiday, folks!

I woke up early today and was dropped at 7Eleven Bulungan by Aunt Dewi and had Aunt Magda fetched me there. She got a guest from Poland, Tomasz, who stayed over at her place on his short visit in Jakarta. So this morning we went to Sunda Kelapa Port, an old port that is used only for heavy material loadings now. It has many beautiful boat designs there, but too bad the port and the seawater aren't maintained, making them all seem so dirty and stink.

After that we went around the fish market, but too bad there aren't much left in there, too. Only several old small stores selling traditional housewares and toys and heavy boat spare parts. The place is also so dirty and stinks, and there is permanent flood on the street due to the seawater tide. These parts of the city are supposed to be our heritage, but apparently people and the government don't really care about it. It's sad that only foreigners care to visit this area of the city.


We spent another hour at Museum Wayang, place where they display wayangs from around the country and also international versions of wayang. There are three kinds of it, Tom said; hand-puppet or pacynka in Polish; puppet played with string from above or marionetka; and puppet standing by a stick or kukiełka. Indonesian wayang goes to the group of kukiełka. 


Mostly, Indonesia differentiate wayang by its dimension: wayang kulit (the 2-D version of stick puppet and mostly came from Central and East Java; usually it's made from the buffalo skin and play the famous stories of Ramayana or Mahabarata) and wayang golek (the 3-D one that comes from West Java and is made of wood). There are other regions in Indonesia that has wayangs too, but I don't keep track of it. Perhaps you just have to visit the museum to know more ;)


Polish are so much into puppet show so much, Tom said, and has many variations of it as well. It's so interesting to know about such things about other country's culture and habits. I'm so glad to meet so many foreigners lately. That's why it's nice to join the couchsurfing (that's how we met Tom) and I can't wait for my own turn to visit their country.

P.S. I didn't bring my own camera so more pics will be uploaded once I got them from Tom.

I just watched this movie on DVD and somehow dazzled. At how I missed drama comedy. At how I love the set and the stars--JT and Mila Kunis!--and, well, with the story. So I am wondering if this can really happen in real life. This friends-with-benefits thing. Well, maybe not literally the exact same one with the movie. But in other cases beside sex.

I guess I'm having this situation with my newest guy best friend--put aside the sex and replace it with the things I was learning from him for my personal project--but I fall for him and things get uglier now I just dunno what to do with it. Guess it will never be a happy ending like the movie somehow, but I'm gonna make a move anyway, cuz I miss my best friend so much I need him back in my life. Wish me luck!