One Last Week In Jakarta

Hi! this prolly my last entry before I'm leaving for Boston in less than 12 hours! So anyway, here's some higlights! (btw, I chopped my hair off, traded my faux-hawk for clean-crop cut!).

An Indian Wedding


Last Monday, I experienced the most interesting wedding I've ever been so far. It's an Indian wedding for Mansha's! my fave teacher of all time! (aha). Anyway, I love the fact that this wedding is sorta like a mini-reunion for some of us - and btw, the bride's Sari! gorgeous!

I went with my ex-MaFia mates, Vincent and Sianny, and we got there like 15 mins earlier. Anyway, i totally forgot that the actual wedding was held inside a Pura, so the guests must take off their shoes (I got a pair of dirty feet later that night). I met some of my old schoolmates and some of them (3 of them) wore Saris and the girls got tattooed! (henna tattos). Highlight of the night: the photo sessions and the grilled focaccia!

Congrats to the happy couple!

A Barbecue Night
Last Wed, (19 Aug) we had this fun barbecue - it was a tad quiet one (although my bro's table was the ridiculously loud that night). Well yea, it was a low-key BBQ this time, toned it down to just serving Sate (pork, chicken & lamb) and siomay (or chinese called it Shiu Mai).


I called some of my closest friends to come and it was a blast! So happy that they showed up and I truly appreciated them coming! (to Bajaj and Cyn! next time ya!). I consider this party to end the 3 months of summer holiday! to seal the deal! the finale and stuffs.

A Holiday To Remember
My holiday has truly coming to an end! Months in Jakarta, spent crazy amount of funs, foods (these weight i gained, is unforgivable) and others will be truly missed. I love the karaokes, the frozen yoghurts, the foods and of course friends and family I've been meeting for the last couple of months - and also won't forget my Jo-Rock. I personally love my trips with my closest friends - however, there's one trip with an ex-bff, was quite dull. So, so far I got a matching stars with Aidee, did hundreds of karaoke, multiple trips to Sushi Tei (& SoHo), gallons of Sour Sally, took thousands of photos and played millions of hours with Jokker & Rockey. So now it's officially over, and new semester (and busy nights) has already on the line; it's time to go back to reality now. Selamat tinggal Jakarta!

Happy Hours

These last couple of days are felt like weekends to me, I had fun - loads of em, and I enjoyed it with some of my closest friends. We sing, we laugh and we eat! and when it comes to the latter, it's all about the Friday's!

TGI Friday's that is. Yes, I love them food especially the Jack D's steak or babyback ribs. Me likey and apparently TGI has become me and some of my friends favorite place to dine and hang out (Rubby and Sianny, btw). Ok, this might sounds super cheesy, but I love hanging out with em over there, it's very laid back and jokes seem never run out from our thoughtless minds.. just kidding.
It was Friday night and I haven't sleep for 25 hrs - but somehow I feel really good!

So anyway, on last Thursday, Aug 13, we went out at 2ish PM and we went straight to TGI via highway. It was quite fun - and photographical (I mean Sianny is the photog of the day, so). We took a lot of photos that day (sadly, I forgot to took my camera when we were singin' crazy at karaoke). Some of em are okay, some of em are asian stars-ish (gah), but mostly memorable! :D. Later that night, we hit the karaoke to seal the day. We went mad inside the booth, singing madly, cover songs from "Faint", "Me & Mrs. Jones", some of MJ's hits to the bottom class track (brace yourself), "Kucing Garong." Granted, we had hell of a fun night.





So, after two days of downtime, today my bestie from high school, Aidee came visit! we walked my dogs and later that night we went out for dinner, getting our sushi fix at Tei. It was again, fun and sorta laid back and we ended the night with kwotie and Sour Sally treats.



Moral of the story: If there's food, friends and good times, I'm always in!

Knowing What's Up

Hi! For the last couple of days, it was pretty fun and super exhausting. Last Thursday I went out to see 'UP' in 3-D at Senayan Plaza and It was great with a capital G. The movie was fun, the visual was off the hook, the story-line was okay though - and oh! the 3-D was great! and I can say that Indonesian is really catching up in the entertainment department. So you knew by now that I really enjoyed it!

On Friday afternoon I woke up after a 12-hour sleep at 1 PM. I didn't know what happen but I felt incredibly tired. Anyway, I spent the whole day with family (my aunt and brothers - including Russell), went swimming, checked out some culinary school, went out for Chinese food and so on. Well, I felt really laid back yesterday and it felt nice.

Btw, I watched 'Knowing' for the first time last night and I was intrigued by it. Well, the disasters were pretty shocking, but I'm thinking about this world - people in particular. Is the world has been tainted by human so much, that we - the grown ups - deserve to be left out on earth and 'burned' alive? and what's up with the aliens anyway.. why they're portrayed like they have the rights to decide who's right and who's wrong? I think all we can do is start taking seriously about the green movement.. save the earth thingys. Save energy, conserve the forests, for the sake of our future. Good night!

Another Tragic Events

Two bombings occured in Jakarta this morning, in two of the most luxurious hotels in Jakarta (Ritz-Carlton & J.W. Marriott, which restaurant is my favorite). It breaks my heart, cause for obvious reasons, there's deaths and once again, Jakarta is not safe any longer. I just wanna say that my prayer goes out to those family who lost their loved ones.

My Favorite Things (Deux)

This is the second installment of "My Favorite Things", I called it Favorite Things summer edition (last time was, April edition, fyi). Anyway, to clear things up, this list was made out of boring circumstances about what I like at this moment. It could be a good reference though or simply, a fun thing to read.

1. Basic Black
I just love anything black since I was a kid, but now it's like I'm rediscovering black all over again. I'm crazy for basic black t-shirt, or basic black shirt, or black leather jackets or bags. I even bought a black swim pants! Black will never dies and will always live.

2. Driving Around
Yes, driving car has never been this good! (After 1,5 years without it, things could be a little bit out of control).

3. Sushi
Sushi has always been on my favorite menus since 1997 (the first time I tried this raw delicacies). But now I'm an official addict. Since the first week of my arrival here in Jakarta, I frequently stop by at my favorite sushi restaurant in Indo, Sushi Tei. Must try: jumbo dragon roll.

4. Marc Jacobs Jeans
I bought that jeans exactly 2 days before I went back to Jakarta. It's still my favorite jeans ever. The most comfortable jeans i've ever owned.

5. Stay at Home
Staying at my Sunter house has never been this good. Regular activities such as, playing Wii, getting lazy on the sofas, hanging out at my mom's workshop, playing with dogs, eating home-cooked meals (and the list still goes on), have become very exciting.

6. Sunglasses
I'm addicted to my RayBan wayfarer and MJ's aviator. Can't get enough of em.

7. Twitter
Truly addictive. The telegram for millennium era!

8. Fro-Yo
Well, i'm just a little bit late (well, way too late) for this frozen treats. Frozen yoghurt with mochi is the greatest invention after cookie dough ice cream! (recommended place: Sour Sally).

9. Karaoke
My favorite activity, resurrected! Key tracks: "I'll Be There" (Jackson 5) & "You Give Love A Bad Name" (Bon Jovi)

10. Jokker-Rockey
Of course, for obvious reason. The reason why I can't wait to go back to Jakarta. The first day I'm arrived at home, I was very tired, but then soon all of it went away, thanks to the furry buddies (I was on 30+ hrs flight, so). I took em out for walks around the complex or wherever. Took Rockey to a dentist, despite too much pain for Rockey, it was a fun trip. However, I do feel sad, cause time will fly so fast.

Connect, Connect

I have to say this: internets here are super suck-a-delic. I've been using internet for 8 years now, but still has no progress what so ever, regarding connection and stuff in indonesia. They should make it faster, reliable and qualified enough to provide faster service and whatnot. In Boston, I could download a song faster than I could say "it's done!", while in here, it prolly could take thousand years to download a thing or to stream a youtube video. It's frustrating sometimes when you're downloading something, and it's cut because of the connection down, or while's u're chatting and there's miscommunication and so on. It just makes me wanna go mad (and to create a post about it).

Also, the mobile providers. Gosh! as a very loyal XL customer (been using this number since 2000!) here I'm announcing: this year is the worst XL service I've ever have. OK, bars are lacking, almost no signals everywhere. I think since the blackberry era came over here, XL connection has been busified (pardon me vocab and grams). It's hard for me to call from inside the house using XL, while any other providers could reach. It's major annoyance. Gotta be honest; as much as I love Indonesian life, I miss my mobility in Boston.

Berry Berry Boring

After I saw couple of friends' photo with their Blackberrys, I think I have to voice my take on that matter: It's annoying.

First of all, I'm not a big fan of Blackberry since day one; I have no desire to have it (ok I lied. once. It doesn't look aweful). Besides, I already have a sidekick and I'm more into iPhone. Second, it's everywhere!! I'm sure that in every 5 miles radius, there's one person has it, in this case, Indonesia. I think, Indonesians are easily getting into trends (too much), latah (Indonesian must know that word), and they need a sort of prestige. I'm not saying that's bad or whatever, because it's their own money and they have rights. But to me, they kinda get sucked by the trends and eventually trends come and go.

To me the BB is annoying. Why? because every friends I know with BB, they hooked with their little chatting machine. They constantly checking the messenger, updating Twitter and so on. I don't like the fact that the regular conversation got interfered by that little thing called Blackberry. Beside, it makes us forgetting how to communicate naturally. I'm afraid that one day, people forget how to exactly talk to each other, show emotions, in person (at least on the phone).

Well, BB can be both good and bad. Use it wisely!

Hey, June

My favorite month of the year, with obvious reason; cuz the second day of the month is my birthday.. and it happened last week. It's hard not to be cheesy about this, but I felt overwhelmed by happiness through the wishes I got via Facebook. I felt so happy for at least the first 5 hours of June 2. I just want to say, thank you guys so much.. I couldn't thank you each and everyone through facebook (cuz, it's just too many).

Ok.. So far, my holiday in Indonesia was pretty awesome; the food is great, the house still in Sunter, and the malls get bigger. Speaking about malls, I have 1 particular place (in a mall) that I really love: Social House. I just can't get enough of it. I don't know, call me tacky, but the environment and foods are great. Maybe I'm like a fish out of water or just simply outdated. O yeah, I also went to Sushi Tei 4 times on my first week here. It was a sushi-pandemonium. I ate millions of rolls and the result was predictable: I gained 10 pounds (5kg) in just 1 week. Insanity.

I also want to take this time to appreciate my first love of magazine, Rolling Stone. Why? because It's been almost a year since RS changed the format of the magazine; they changed the mag's size from the iconic big size into the regular glossy size (i called it a recession format). I haven't really been a fan for the last couple of years' issue, because they don't feature great photographs for the cover and also, they don't feature interesting people anymore, and instead, they feature the safe-bets (yes, I'm talking about you, Springsteen and Dylan). But for the 2 recent covers, Lady Gaga and the recently came-out, Adam Lambert, they are a different case.



Their covers are interesting and daring. Gaga graced the cover (issue 1080) nude with only plastic bubbles (by photog David LaChapelle) and Lambert, the 'Wild Idol' (or at least that's what the magazine claimed), graced the soon-to-be-out cover laid down on a rustic bed, all in black complete with black eye liners, glam rock outfits and hot accessory: a live snake. RS is trying to be edgy and bold again I think (take a look at their 90's and early 2000's covers, they're daring, edgy and iconic). To me these to covers are the sign that RS are getting their groove back. Don't stop, RS! surprise us with interesting and sexy and edgy covers! and remember this old-wise phrase: SEX SELLS.

Boy, was it long post or what. Have a great summer people!
(and O, In case you wondering: I referencing Beatles' "Hey Jude" for the title, just cause I don't have any great idea for it)

First Week In Jakarta

It feels real good; home-cooked meals, the smell of my old room and of course the family and friends. My dogs also the best things ever in this house. The first week of my trip back home was beautiful. Well, it's not even a week yet though, but feels like forever now. I deffo consider this (although hasn't not even started yet) holiday my highlight of the year.