Friday, December 25, 2009

Orchard Road - new facelift

Yesterday after half day work, my hubby and I browsed the Orchard Road. It's been quite some time since our last visit. We went to 313 Somerset first. It's a great shopping mall especially for young people. You can find whatever brands you want to look for, such as: Zara, Uniqlo, Esprit, G2000, Forever21, Guess, HMV, and many more. For food choices, there are Marche, Trattoria Italian, Food Republic, etc.

Wrote on Post-It Note - To Do List for Next Year (mine)


Next, Orchard Central. The building is nice, but for shopping, not that good. It's a bit complicated to find the escalator inside, but I admit, the design is really great!!! They have a very high and long escalator that can be seen from outside.

1. Vertical Challenge (inside Orchard Central)

2. View of Orchard Central from the outside - the escalator

3. View of Orchard Point - from top of Orchard Central

4. View of Centrepoint from Orchard Central

We went to Centrepoint, then OG. Had our lunch near OG there.

We continued our journey by passing through HMV Building - they renovated the front part, Mandarin Gallery - front part of Mandarin Hotel - it's opened now!, Takashimaya, Wisma Atria, ION, passed through the underpass to Wheelock Place, went to the opposite, Isetan, and had a gulp of free Coca Cola... Hehehe... Enjoy the pictures!!!

1. View of HMV Building - front side

2. View of Mandarin Gallery - Mandarin Hotel front side

3. In front of Takashimaya

4. Along Orchard Road - Deer 1

5. Along Orchard Road - Deer 2

6. Along Orchard Road - Deer 3

7. Along Orchard Road - small group parade

8. In front of ION Orchard

9. Take a break with Coca Cola - in front of Isetan

10. View of Christmas Banner & ION Orchard11. Along the street - Deco 1 ( Santa Claus - Red )

12. Along the street - Deco 2 ( Deer - Orange)

13. Along the street - Deco 3 ( Snowman - Blue )

Merry Christmas 2009
Wish you have a great day!!!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

It's Saturday night!

Reunion - Kemurnian V Primary School 1990s @Samudera Seafood, Taman Anggrek



Reunion - Me, Phing2 (Tae Kwon Do's friend), Iyin (childhood's friend), my sis, Cannel (cousin)



Reunion - w/ Ely (Vihara Dhamma Sukkha's friend)


It's a last night here in Jakarta. I had lots of fun meeting many old friends yesterday. Since yam cha in the morning with my primary school friends (managed to meet up of more than 20 pax), frozen yoghurt time w my ex-Tae Kwon Do friend, lunch and high tea at Pizza Hut w my childhood friend, then we had dinner w my cousins at the same place where I had my yam cha. After that we stayed a night at my eldest sister's home.

We had Soto Tangkar for breakfast, nasi Padang for lunch, and just had Sate babi (pork satay) and kuah paikut (pork ribs n salted vegetale soup) for dinner.

I have finished shopping my groceries this evening and ready to pack my lugagge for tomorrow.
I still have much time before the departure at 7pm. Still dunno what to do yet. Perhaps eat mie capcit for breakfast :D

Have a great weekend! Some of you are preparing holidays! Mine is over soon.. Hope for next year CNY trip coming up soon!!! Hahahhahahaha.....

Thursday, December 17, 2009

6th day in Indonesia

Yesterday night we had kuo tie and rujak juhi (dried sotong rujak) in Pancoran for dinner. It was our favourite food since we were very young. The kuo tie is small, can bite in 1 or 2 mouth, crispy skin outside while inside is steamy pork meat w vegetable. My cousin bought martabak, half keju (cheese) and half choco peanut, takeaway home.

This morning we had chicken noodle in Mie Abadi. The noodle is thick and hard like rubber, it's their specialty. The chilli is spicy. We ate siomai and fried pork ball as side dishes.

In the afternoon we went to temple to pray, then my mom and I continued our jouney to ITC Mangga Dua, the shopping paradise for everyone. Its stuffs are not really cheap, but there are lots of varieties of goods sold over there, both local and imported products. I'm very satisfied to find all things I wanted today. I spent quite lots of money but I brought back so many stuffs with me. If I shop in shopping mall spending that amount of money, I may only bring back 2-3 stuffs home.

We shopped until 3 pm and went back home by Bajaj. Bajaj is a three-wheel transportation. We took a newer version. Its colour is blue, size is bigger, less noise and air pollution, use gas as a fuel, use leg to brake instead of hands, and the one we took, it even has two big speakers behind our seats. It's very interesting. The whole journey I kept praying that we could reach home safely and soundly. I was afraid that we were robbed on the way home, because it's opened and easy prey to rob. Thanks God that we reach home safely. :)

Tonight we ate kambing soup Soma at the roadside then went back home and sleep early. Tomorrow I've gotta wake up early to eat pie oh again at 6am in the morning. Well, write til here. Continue again tomorrow. Gud nite!!!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

4th day in Indonesia

Today we went to outside Jakarta. My parents, 2 sis, cousin, my son and I, 7 of us sat in 1 car. Our first destination is Bandung. We went to my cousin's bf house at Cipaku. We had lunch at the house's veranda.

Dajie and Baobei played baby foot ball :)

Great house with great view. We were served various dim sum, rice, ayam buah keluak, fried noodle, plus the food cooked and brought by my cousin, sambal petai prawn and chicken chilli.

Lunch at veranda

We took a look at the sheeps that were raised by them too on top of his house.


After lunch, we continued our journey to Garut. We had foot reflexiology at one of the villager's house. He is great in foot reflexiology. While I was massaged, he would tell me what sickness do I have. By touching my foot in less than 15 seconds, he could know that I have surplus in antibody which causes stir with the antibodies themselves. He also said that there is something wrong with my amandel. He said he could fix lots of disease by treating it with reflexiology. But it requires many times of treatment. Like for my case, I need to do it for about 100 times or three months time. Lots of people look for him even from a very faraway places.

No wonder my father likes to go there. He said he inherited his skills from his father. He talked much about IQ, EQ, SQ, RQ, and so on. He said he has treated many people who were sick. He pressed the foot. Whenever we feel pain, it means there is something wrong with our body parts. By doing reflexiology, he could fix the problem points, but it is really painful!!! We would shout and pull our foot from his hand. Heheheh...

Interesting person. My father was in very much pain when he was massaged. I thought my father wouldn't feel the pain, but I was wrong. My son even laughed at him. And tell u what? Whenever my son was naughty, I told him, be careful, later gong2 will hit you. And do you know what he told me? Never mind, later I ask the uncle again to massage hom harder so that he would be in great pain.... Kekekeke....

My son was massaged as well. But according to research, the younger you are, the less sickness you'll have, so you will have less pain when you were massaged. Can see the difference when you see the reaction of people who were massage. Hahaahahah.... :D

Baobei had his foot reflexiology

Once everyone has done, we continued our journey to the hotel. We sleep at Cipaganti hotel. Before that, we had our dinner at Cibiuk, a Sundanese restaurant. We had fried chicken, sour soup, grilled petai, batagor, empal (marinated beef), and deep fried fish with free flow salad and chilli sauce. Hehehehe.... :D

At Hotel Cipaganti

We went to hot spring water pool after dinner, about 7pm, then went back to our hotel. We continued soaking our bodies in our hotel room's bathroom. There was small hot spring bath inside our room. We talked and chatted inside. It was quite fun!

After that we had a beer and fried pig skin. Great moment, hehehee... Oklah I'm tired now. Going to sleep now. Gud nite!

3rd day in Jakarta

I woke up early this morning, followed my mom to market. She bought ingredients for breakfast and lunch. We had mom cooked lor mie for breakfast. It's one of my favourite food.
After that I went to the room, reading back my old notes. It took me back to the days when I was still quite young. I always regard this home as a place full of loves and memories. Although many still has been buried somewhere.

In the afternoon my two sisters came. Both stay here tonight. We finally play w Rafa again.
Afternoon menu: beef ribs soup w carrot n potato, chilli petai w prawn. Both taste great! Home cooked food is always the best!

We went to salon after that. Three women had creambath. I had pedicure at the same time. My son had his hair cut and wash. Once finished we went inside the mall. I bought my son a deck od Animal Kaiser cards. It's very famous in Timezone now.

He is very happy with his new things. It's kinda hard and expensive to play that game in Singapore. Here, at least he managed to play few games. We sat at Kafe Betawi for high tea. I had Soto Betawi Daging. My sis has rujak juhi and Soto Mie. All taste good.

We went back home and made ourselves ready for the next appointment. My eldest aunt invited us for dinner at her house. They were having praying session, blessing something, which 'til now I still don't know what... Er..... ;P

At my aunt's house

It's kind of family gathering from my mom side. I managed to meet up with quite lots of relatives there. The food was great too! I managed to eat bakwan and bakso that usually sold at roadside :)

Mei Ling, Claire and me :)

It's late now. I'm going to sleep soon. Tomorrow we're going to have 2 days 1 nite trip to Garut and Bandung. Good nite everyone!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

2nd day at home

Here we go!! I'm at my home's balcony now sitting on the floor and trying to get rid of mosquitoes, at the same time trying to get the internet connection as it's very hard to get one inside the house. My cousins and her families have just left to the airport. They're going to Yogyakarta at East Java for holiday and after that fly to their home town in Bangka directly. Below are my three cousins (they all sisters) : Moi (the eldest), Lan (fourth), Fong (the youngest), Kayle (Moi's daughter - sleeping one), and Zach (Moi's son)


It's been more than 13 years since we last met. She studied in US then getting married, having children and staying there for goods. This time round they're coming back since her sister just got married last week. She has 2 children. 1 boy, 3 months older than Reever, and a girl of 3 yrs old. Reever kept asking about the 2 children once he arrived here yesterday and only managed to see them at night. They got together pretty quick. They played UNO and spy darts together till sleeping time. And this morning too.

Zachary and Reever

Zachary kept asking me if Reever could go back to States together with them at the end of the year, and perhaps Reever could go to school together with him and maybe staying at the same class. Hahahaha... What a simple mind of children, I like their thinking so much. They don't think much and far as long as they can get whatever things they want and like.

Reever 7th year Birthday :)

Well... Yesterday was Reever's 7 years old birthday. Like I wrote in previous blog, it's his first time to celebrate his birthday in Jakarta together w my parents, sisters, and families. Last year was in Hong Kong, though. We went for early dinner at Gandy Steak Restaurant in Gajah Mada area. The restaurant has been there for over 20 years, since I was as same age as Reever, but they got renovated for sure. And the food is not as good as before. But it's alright. My eldest sis bought a Ben 10 birthday cake for him. The band sang a birthday song for him. He cut his cake and blew his candle there. Then we went back home, go through the traffic jam in city area like usual.

Although I just went back here few months ago, I always find this city changing from time to time. Like this morning, as usual, my parents and I went to eat pie oh, kind of turtle meat, at the Chinatown area so early in the morning. We left home at 6am. When we reached there, I saw the burnt shopping centre called GLoria. It used to be one of the oldest shopping centre in Chinatown. I used to go there when I was young. Even at the last visit to Jakarta, I still saw the building and its shops inside. But now it's gone. It was caught fire somewhere this year. I still have a vivid image of how the shops inside look like 'cos I often went there to buy the batik, the Indonesia's traditional clothes. There were old medicines shops, the Chinese old pottery shops, cakes shop, even supermarket.. And now it's gone. What left was just the memory. It's kinda sad for me to see that. My aunt used to rent a cloth shop there about 20 years ago.

And I like to see the surrounding when I was inside the car. It's kinda sad too that my home town's condition is deteriorating day by day. The spoilt road, the dirty river, the old buildings like nobody cares... You know what, you still can find here on the roadside where a group of people watching a small TV outside the small stall. At least it's colour TV, not a black and white one. If I compare with Singapore, people in Singapore should be grateful with a TV in each room, with some big flat LCD TV with built in stereo surround. Haiz... I don't know what to say. We live in the same world, at the same time, but the condition could be very much different. It reminds me when my hubby asked me to watch the TV on how the North Korea people lives their life there.

Well, I guess it's enough for now. Going to take a bath now and we're going to have my eldest sis birthday lunch soon at Emporium. We're going to have steamboat there. Well, have a great Sunday everyone!! And feel great with what you have now :)

Saturday, December 12, 2009

It's holiday time!!!

Finally it's 12th Dec. Keep counting down for today. Kinda tired of my work and really need a break! It's a special day for baobei as he'll celebrate his first birthday in Jakarta together w popo, kung kung, kangma, and yizhen auntie. It's also our first time meeting Rafa.

I'm a lil bit tired now as I don't have enough sleep as I just packed my lugagge last night after met w my buddy in LR time. He and his wife flew from London, dropped by for 3 days before flying off again to his wife hometown in Surabaya, also another week of holiday in Bali. We had lunch at Food Republic (Wisma Atria, Orchard) and dinner (Lau Pa Sat) together, went to airport to fetch his brother and his gf who were arriving yesterday from German.

Me and my bestie :)

And below is pic taken inside Raffles Place MRT Station, after having dinner together at Lau Pa Sat.

Vincent, Ina, Lisa, Felix, and 2R

Well, waiting at the boarding area now. The plan has not yet been seen, hopefully we don't have the delay and everything goes smoothly.