New Year's Eve 2013

There was a small house-party on last new year's eve and we had barbeque party, too. I was simply disappointed by the absence of my big brother and big sister, but my friends, my relatives, and my sister-in-law came to have a great time with me.

Cool! Elle, my sister-in-law came and helped us prepare for the barbeque. She is an amazing chef. As the result, our satay was good. It was really good. It was so tasty. Erie and Shari came, too, as well as Derrick, my cousin, and Ferry, my high school mate. And it looked like Derrick and Ferry are good satay chef ㅋㅋㅋ

And then the fireworks started blasting, coloring up the dark sky. We went out and saw it from the front yard. But the party did not just end. Koh A Chong and Sebastian came and we had movie-train session from 1a.m to 7a.m. We had had photo session before the movie-train session started.

from left to right: Koh A Chong, me, Derrick, Sebastian, Elle, Shari, Erie

Thanks for coming to the party, guys! :D

Merlion Congratulated Me On My Birthday

So, lemme see how long I've been away, eh? Hahaha, I've been away for weeks, I guess. And yeah, now I come up with the stories of my birthday vacation. Vacation? Yup, my parents had actually planned a visit to Singapore before my holiday. As the result, I celebrated my birthday in Singapore, and that was very very great!

So I took a flight to Singapore on May 27th in a very early morning. The plane landed at Changi Airport about an hour and half later. When a lady officer checked my passport, she asked me how old I am. She also gave me hint of my birthday that I laughed and admitted visiting Singapore to celebrate my birthday.  She congratulated me before I left.

And I continued the trip with my tour group. We went to Merlion park to take pictures there. It was cloudy so the day wasn't as hot as if it's sunny. It wasn't my first visit to Merlion park, but still Merlion excited me. It was Sunday and I have to admit it I didn't really enjoy taking pictures there at the day because there were so many people there, I mean, too many people there! It was very very crowded that little children might be lost. But fortunately I could still take some pictures there.

What I regret the most is, that I couldn't visit Marina Bay Sands. I wish I could have swum in the gorgeous rooftop infinity swimming pool :[ but yeah, at least I've visited Merlion. Some believe that a person is not visiting Singapore yet if he doesn't visit Merlion. So I think visiting Merlion when you go to Singapore is a must *LOL*

The last two pictures show photos of me with the view of Singapore CBD as the background. Compared with other pictures above, I prefer the last two pictures to the others. I don't know, it's probably because of the pose (?)

Okay, so I continued the tour, and the next destination was Chinatown. Yeehaw! Chinatown! Well, I felt like home. There were so many Chinese ornaments in red, here and there. I smelled joss-sticks burnt, deep fried snacks, and good-smell perfumes from perfumeries. I didn't buy a lot of things there, but I bought a T-shirt and some keyholders. I had to be aware of pickpockets since the streets were crowded. There are so many stalls and shops selling unique stuffs and gifts, from T-shirts to keyholders, from perfumes to cheongsam. Visiting Chinatown is a must, and certainly, visiting The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple is a must, too!

So, when did I celebrate my birthday? Okay, let's skip several hours until 10p.m, Singapore time. I arrived at the hotel and I took a rest for a while. I shared a room with my father's student whom I consider him as a big brother. Someone knocked the door and it was my father's student named Icha. She invited us to go out and have fun with her friends (the tour group consisted of my family, my father's workmates, and my father's students from EduTech department). So, my seniors and I went out and I told them that tomorrow would be my birthday (May 28th), so they cheered for me and we counted the time while walking around the city.

Our destination that night was Mustafa Center. My phone rang, alarming my birthday. My seniors congratulated me and we sang while walking to Mustafa Center. Some people looked at us but we didn't care. I was so happy and it was the fist time I celebrated my birthday outside. A senior recorded a video of me saying something about my birthday and my wishes, and I'm too shy to upload it (hehe).

We finally ended up chatting and having some snacks at pedestrian cafe nearby Mustafa Center. I bought a can of Pringles, my favorite snack, and some chocolate bars and drinks. We chatted about a lot of things and we also took some pictures.

I got ten dollar from Ka Angga :]

We were celebrating my birthday :]

from left to right: Ka Fanny, Ka Icha, me, Ka Angga

We went back to hotel at 1p.m, and when I arrived at the hotel, I checked my Twitter. So many tweets for me from my friends, congratulating me on my birthday. Wow, thank you so much! That birthday is so memorable and I cannot forget it. Once more, thank you for y'all! :D

He Said, "One More Glass, Please!"

Saya biasa diajak kakak saya, Ko Izi nge-jam di MU Cafe PVJ. Walopun saya nggak nyanyi (kadang-kadang juga nyanyi sih, or at least play the keyboard *kalo ada itu pun*), tapi saya seneng bisa kesana. Setidaknya ngeliat dan ngedenger penampilan live acoustic sambil menikmati segelas choco mint blended dan nonton pertandingan bola (walopun gak ngerti).

Kemaren ini karena nggak kebagian tempat, akhirnya koko bilang mendingan duduk di kursi bar aja. Menurut saya, tempatnya VIP dan lebih asik. Atmosphere bar-nya lebih dapet. Sambil bisa ngeliatin bartender bikin minuman dan ngeliatin campuran apa aja yang dia pake. Di sebelah Ko Izi, saya ngeliat seorang pria, udah dewasa tentunya, mungkin umur 25an. Dan yap, orang itu sering saya liat tiap saya ke MU Cafe. Kayaknya udah jadi pelanggan tetap, ato who knows kuncennya :P dan yang saya baru sadar adalah, he couldn't speak Indonesian. Yes, I guessed he was Korean or Japanese. Tapi dia langganan ke MU Cafe sampe malem dan berhasil nenggak mungkin belasan gelas bir.

Dari segi perawakan, dia mungkin setara sama artis-artis Korea (walopun nggak se-cool Uncle Seungho). Pake kacamata dan saya rasa dia maybe pebisnis muda. Setiap saya ngeliat ke arah dia, pasti lagi nenggak gelas birnya. Dan saya berfikir kemudian,

"Ada ya orang yang punya toleransi sangat tinggi terhadap alkohol? Saking tingginya sampe semaleman itu, anggeplah dari jam 9 sampe jam 1 malem udah habis berapa gelas karena nambah terus? Belum lagi cocktail dan minuman laennya yang tetep aja beralkohol. Saya pernah nyicip coklat yang ternyata isinya ada alkoholnya. Oh great, saya sempet mabok gara-gara makan 4 potongan kecil. Ternyata toleransi saya terhadap alkohol gak tinggi. Dan saya gak ngertinya, orang itu dateng setiap Sabtu yah di channel dan jam yang sama. Minuman yang keliatannya sama setiap kedatangannya. Dan ekspresi wajah yang sama! Was he depressed?"

Disaat saya mulai ngantuk, eh dia masih nenggak bir aja. Ciri-ciri saya ngantuk adalah kepala udah nempel ke meja bar terus megangin dompet buat bayar bill. Dan disaat itu juga, si orang itu ngeliat saya sambil senyum. Entah senyum karena saya mengingatkannya ke masa dia waktu muda pas lagi cute-cutenya ato kasian sama saya kayak anak kecil nyasar ke bar.

Kalo saya jadi dia, kayaknya pulang-pulang udah digotong aja tuh..