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the hermantos

Loy Krathong

This is an old traditional Thai celebration. The festifal of Loy Krathong is celebrated annually on the full moon night of twelfth of lunar month. The festifal is believed from hindus/ brahmin in origin. Thai people float the krathong (made from banana leaves and flowers) on the water (especially in the river) wish for goodluck and ask apologize from the goddess of water. Here gendhog cilik celebrated the festifal at school wearing the tradional costume and float her krathong in the pool.

Farah in loy krathong dress

blow the candles..

Saturday, Nov 10th. We had a complete nasi uduk for breakfast. The Indigus family was with us. Great !!. Farah and me blew our candles. Our birthday?. Yes, extended...

Birthday

Whose birthday is it now ?. It's Farah's !. 2 days after my birthday, in November the ninth. She is 5 years old. My boneka, she's smart, nice, beautifull. At around 1 pm, arry and me came to the school. The cake and the goody bags were with me. It was a recess time. Farah and her classmates were still in the playground. I went inside to the classroom and got ready, took out the cake, the plates... The children got back to the class, they were ready now. Miss Helen told them to sing a birthday song after that then Farah cut the cake, I helped her. Farah looked very happy to give the cakes to her all friends, seemed she really enjoyed as a birthday girl. Ha..ha..ha... obviously she's got interest in entertaining, just like her mom.. :p After the kids had finished with their cakes, it was time for goody bags. Farah gave her friends one to each of them. Happy 5th Birthday Farah

39

I am 39 years old now.

I was so excited today. Got up earlier than usual.

I cooked and prepared a lot of food !!, yes, my first time to make my own birthday party at home, ha..ha..ha.. I like to make party but never made my own birthday before, till now.

Year ago, my Indonesian friends came to my house and they brought food then May Goetz my Thai friend who's married with a Germany, a hotelier, hosted a birthday party for me at the hotel (Amari). 2 years ago my friends arranged a birthday party for me at a restaurant. Hemm...yes, today I made my own.

Farah got up earlier too, she remembered my birthday. She was the first person who said happy birthday to me. She went down to find me in the kithen, then she went upstairs to wake her brothers up and told them to say happy birthday to mommy right away.!!. he..he.. she's so cute. My husband is still in Indonesia for business trip.

I was so honoured when Debbie made a special birthday cake!. It's a cherrie cheese cake, wow.... it's so perfect. I saw a lot this kind of cheese cakes in the magazines, but now...hemm it is on my table !!. It's real, the whole round cake and big. Maybe 4 pounds cake ?? or 5 pounds ??, dunno.

I'd spread the invitations for 23 persons, but unfortunately Ida robinson is in Singapore & Kati needed to bring her daughter to the doctor. My guests were : Ita Krebs, Arry Indigus, Elen Manurung, Lisa Sofiar, Anni Bimo, Sopie, May Goetz, Eva Kuehs, Toko Suzuki, Janet Seale, Emma Dowd, Debbie Cavanough, Malini Varma, CaiLin Teo, Anna Teo, Lim, Aini, Len Hansen, Alma, Kay Martinezs, Geeta Elliot.

I've got birthday presents from my friends. Thank you girls. You are so thougthful with your presence, gifts and wishes. You are all made my birthday really special.

Today also Malini Varma's birthday, we share our birthday except she is a year younger than me. He..he..he..

Food

For today's birthday lunch :

On the long buffet : caesar salad, and to acompany nasi lemak are fried small anchovies, fried peanuts, slices of hard boiled eggs, cucumbers slices, ayam bakar bumbu rujak, malbi sapi, sambal bajak, and fried noodle (Arry).

On the big table : dimsum (bought), fruit salad (Lisa Sofiar), kinda beef siomay (Anni), risoles, tuna balls (those are my specialities), bakwan (Ita), nuts (Janet), layer cake-lapis legit (bought in indo), bika ambon (bikin ndiri bo!, pake pondan tapinya), and punch.

On the round table : coffee and tea, kue tape hijau, kue lapis (Elen), beverages.

...

Hallowen

Participants :

Me and Farah. Ita and her girls -Zara and Clara-. My boys?, they were not excited, just wanted to stay at home.

We went to Burapha houses for treat and trick. Ita and me had prepared goody bags for the kids.

It's not like in the US, the kids there, are not encouraged to wear scary costumes, but cute, beautiful, or kids caracters. Here in Thailand 95% of the little kids liked to wear the scary...scary..... and blody..blody...

Here I did only take Farah and Ita's girls pictures.

Geeta's farewell party

farewell...farewell....

Lately my blog is about me attending farewell parties ??

This time it's Geeta Elliot from Australia. Her husband's got a new assigment. They're moving to Karachi-Pakistan.

Sad...sad.....sad... since I'll miss another good friend of mine. My son (Emir) and her son (Sanjay)are friends, Farah and Geetanjeli -my daughter and hers- are friends. Hate to say good bye to her, but off course good luck for them.

Geeta is a really nice and very warm person. She has lots of friends !.

At Geeta's house (farewell)

EID MUBARAK - Lebaran - Hari Raya Eid Ul Fitr

This year Eid in Thailand was on Saturday, October 13th,07.

We left to Bangkok on Friday. Ita and her 2 girls came with us. Farah was so happy having friends in the car, 2 hours from Pattaya became not boring for her. Arry and her family too went along together with us.

Yes, just like years before, we always celebrate lebaran with other Indonesians.

We broke our fasting in Central Chidlom. It was really nice. Everybody liked the food here. we could find Indonesian food. Very good for buka puasa, indeed.

The next day on Saturday, after had breakfast at the hotel, we went to Indonesian Embassy for sholat Eid and Halal Bihalal-hemm... eating...

Got back at the hotel. We made few phone calls to Indonesia, to Dudi's parents and our siblings. I needed to call my mom in Saudi Arabia. She is there for Umroh. That's why when Dudi had the idea to celebrate lebaran in indo, I was not really excited, I couldn't see my mom, though.

I am so proud to my 2 sons. They did the fasting excellent !!. Full month. This year Emir did puasa for the full day. Maybe for those children in Indonesia puasa are easy for them, but for us here, are not easy. My kids still did PE at school.

Hemm... gw jadi kangen ama suasana lebaran di Amerika. Kita ngerayain lebaran rame2, banyak orang beragama islam. trus banyak acara/games for children and a lots of presents too. Gak kalah deh ama natalan.

I took these pictures before sholat

Me and farah

Ita and her girls, Arry and her girls

Lebaran hari ke-2

Sunday, October 14th,07. As same as every lebaran eid fitr for the last past several years. Since I've been living in abroad, I'd like to make special food for lebaran. I cooked a lot. I had prepared the food days before, then put them in the freezer. I set the table before we left for Bangkok. For the very special days like now, I took out my antiques porcelaine serving dishes. They were from my mother (which she got from her late father). Too bad I couldn't take out the plates (still in the cupboard). I forgot, yesterday I left the key in my traveling bag (and the bag was with my friend, Arry). In this special day, the kids took shower early, got ready early then sat nice for breakfast. Anyway, breakfast today we had nasi kuning, ketupat, sambal goreng labu siam, opor ayam, rendang, malbi, sambal goreng ati, sambal bajak, krupuk udang and krupuk palembang. Yeepee..... Arif and Emir tried sambel goreng ati. First they didn't want to eat the ati. Hii..... must be spicy and scary....., but then they like it. For dessert we had hot chocolate sundae cake, hhmm... very yummy. The children ate the cake with vanila ice cream plus m&m. They really (especially Arif & Emir) love it, that's why I made 2 recipes for this cake. I also made kue tape. Aduh endang.... bambang deh pokoke.... . then I also have layer cake from Indonesia. Not to mention I baked cookies days before. Ha...ha... complete enough, isn't it ?. Lha wong idul fitri. (fitri artinya makan lho saudara2 sekalian. Bukan suci. Jadi selamat idul fitri itu artinya selamat makan). We had dinner with our special guests from Indonesia. My dear auntie, tante Farida Srihadi (my mom's younger sister) and oom Srihadi Soedarsono. They came with their daughter Rati, son in law Indra and the kids Indira and Ravi. They are here in Thailand with the tour. Dudi, Farah, and me picked them up from the hotel. Ravi, (2 years old) is so cute. He brought his teddy bear (hemm it's not a teddy bear actually, but the cute and fluffy white little goat) with him. I always love to see little kids with their favourite dolls. I reminded Rati (my cousin) our old days when we were still kids, we just did the same. I told my auntie and my uncle that I still kept my teddy bear (which was from them, souvenir from America) in my bookshelf. Hemm... so nice to remember those old days with Rati since we'd grown up together in Bandung. More than last 10 years, my auntie, tante Farida and the family always welcome my mother's big family to their house for lebaran. Open House. The big family from Pangeran ke 11....( and so on... names and titles are so long) is centered here in their house, lots of people !!, olds, youngs, kids, babies (all ages - 4 generations) so I can imagine this year my family in Jakarta. Bet, not as big as usual !. Actually since her mother (my grandma) passed away 2 years ago (at 104 years old), my auntie and her family didn't celebrate lebaran at home. Last year they went to the US visiting their son. And this year they are here. My mom also is not in Indonesia. She is still in Mekkah for Umroh Pilgrim. We were extremely happy and honoured to have my auntie and family. We prepared lots of food & beverages for guests. Our Indonesian friends know us well that our door is always open for trhem. Tonight we also had Dudi's friends (from the office) came to our house. They were Sudung and family, Didi and fam, Bimo and fam, Putut and fam. We got a special cheese cake from Putut family. Hhmm.. yummy... it is definately good, super !!.