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 !!.

Farah's bread

This is Farah's project at school

she baked !!

Emir and his classic pooh

Si gundulku yang satu ini (ganteng atau gundul itu panggilang sayang bw Arif&Emir), my second child Emir really loves his bear.

At anytime... at home... always with the pooh.

He didn't know when I took these pictures !.

Gemes !!

The previous pooh -bubu- is too old, getting thinner and fragile. He said yes when I suggested him to put bubu in his closet. Then I gave him his other pooh (I bought it 6 years ago, just in case..). First, he didn't like it. He tried to punch and kick it several times to make it thinner , he..he...he... nothing change, it is still fat. Finally....

Pictures below are Emir with "bubu" (7 months ago). Then "bubu" in his retirement's place (Emir's closet). Emir with "sumo", the fat pooh.

fasting, tired, right away from school... just wanted to be with sumo.

Rine's farewell party

Ok, another one is leaving now.

It's Rine. One of Indonesians. Her husband, David Cuddon is a General Manager at Sheraton Resort in Pattaya. After quite a long time living in Thailand, now it's time for them to move again. In a few days they will live in Bali, the paradise island. Hemm...what a great place, indeed.

Last night Dudi and me attended their farewell party at Sheraton. The cocktail party started at 6.00 pm. At 5.45 pm, Ita and Martin had dropped their girls off at my house then they went to mbak Rita's house to pick her up. Dudi and me left at 6.30 pm. We arrived at the hotel around 7 pm. Last night the traffic in Pattaya was so bad !!, but we came earlier than Ita.

The hotel is so nice, we dined here several times, not as often as Nia and Lorenz did (when they were still in Pattaya). Ita, Indri and me had breakfast here a couple times.

Rine and David warmly welcomed us. We met a lot of our friends. The party was great. The food was mostly Japanese food. Dudi's favourite not mine, he....he...he.. He enjoyed the food.

As usual we left the party earlier than our friends (obviously, we are not party people, but I like to entertain people at our house).

Thank you Rine and husband for having us, hope you will have a great time in Bali.

Information about the pictures below :

The first and second pictures are : Orr (Thais), Ita, me, Rine Cuddon.

The third picture are Ita, me, Lin (Singaporean) and Anna (Malaysian).