American Idol

Gw Takjub bener nih. Sanjaya masih bertahan jadi contestant. Padahal suaranya yah samalah sama gw (ini pasti gw sedang berbohong hue...hue..). Rasa2nya pingin telp temen gw di sana, .... hi..hi.. maaf2 kalau gw salah prasangka. Mustinya diganti tuh namanya jangan american idol. Habis pasti di-idol sama anak2 cewek abg. Mustinya namanya american best singer kek atau apalah jangan pakai kata idol.

The boys and the piano

These pictures below were taken when they had piano recital in their music academy. Small performance in front of the parents. To be honest they don't like to take piano lesson. But unfortunately their mother won't listen. So they go every saturday to the music academy. Hope someday they will understand its benefit.

I can play piano. I can read the notes. I didn't like to play piano. I learned piano from I was in elementary until high school. But you know... not so so good because on and off and I had to move a lot along with my parents (alasan...)

Maybe (hope) one of my kids have the talent like their oma -my mother-. She played piano very..good. Very talented. In 1950's her dutch teacher advised her parents (my grandpa) to send her to Europe to take more lesson. She almost left. But..the story was gone different.

Anyway...here we are, the boys and the proud parents.

Hi Farah, do you want to join them now ?.

One night

I just sprayed my boys room with the mosquitoes repellent. While they were waiting until the smell had gone, they wanted to play with their sister in her room. But who is the boy in the far right side had slept already..??. not to mention his bubu, the teddy bear

Harvest

One afternoon after picked up Farah from school. Arry (my friend) saw the mango tree in my back yard. It has a loott... of mangoesss.. What?? I just realized that. Yeah....It's harvest time!!. But it didn't take long for the people who are living around us to know. They enjoyed our manggoes too!. Everyday there were less and less manggoes. They just took them without permission. Luckly our maid could manage that. We could eat them everyday. Especially for Farah and my husband (not my boys, they don't like it). Even my maid took the manggoes for my mom, sho she could bring them to Indonesia. She was happy and she would share them with her neighbours. Although the manggoes here are still green but surprisingly, the taste is far from sour. It taste sweet. That's why my mother really admire it. C'est bizarre.. It's weird. Green, crunchy, but sweet. When I was a kid living in Surabaya, My late father used to buy manggoes from Pasuruan. Mangga Gadung. This habit still continuing when we moved to Jakarta, he liked to buy those at Pasar Kramat Jati. I miss you dad.

Happy 40th Birthday

Who's birthday ??. Of course the father of my wonderful kids and he is my husband (sing ngganteng dhewe). Couple days ago. In Feb 22nd.

We had dinner at Indian by Nature. Indian cuisine is one of his favourite foods.

I had lunch with GM ladies at Casa Pascal (not to celebrate his birthday). while I was with them, I kept thinking what's cooking today...hm... needed to cook quick and a lot. Ok I gave up. Not have enough time. A..ha!!. Got an idea. Thinking what cuisine that I'm not really good to cook. Although I'd learned before with an expert Indian lady. Ehm..called Dudi and suggested him to have birthday dinner outside. He's Ok he..he... he's really a good man.

We really had a good dinner that night. The kids like the food so much.

But so sorry, I didnt't have a present for him yet. Need to go to Bkk. (yihaa..!! another excuse to go to Bkk!!)

Selamat ulang tahun papa tersayang........... Doa2 dari kita semua... semoga dikabulkan oleh ALLAH SWT, Amin.

Gala Dinner

Last saturday in Feb 10th, Dudi and me went to Bkk. We were invited by Bill Botwick (president dir of GM Thailand) to attend again The 50th Years American Chamber of Thailand. When I read the invitation, it's written that this year is 50th years anniversary for american chamber. What??.. again??. Last year was 50th years too. This time the party was held in Royal Thai Navy. Wow I was excited. Since the party would be finished around midnight, so we decided to stay a night in Bkk. We were sitting together in the same table with Ruth and Bill Botwick, Myra Williams (Tobin was in shanghai), Kris & Mario Aldea, Yoko & Steven Small, and Geevan. At the other table there were Debbie & Ken Cavanough and another 3 couples from GM Bkk. Timlins, McGrats, Absilises, and Scott Robinson didn't come. Oh ya everybody asked Bill about the 50th years and he just simply said that this year is the right number. (lho salah tho... jadi yg bener tuh sekarang, he..he..) Anyway we really had a good time here. We left the party at around 11 pm and went back to the hotel. The next day on Sunday. We had lunch together with Nia, Lorenz and baby Nola Kroenert. The Kroenerts were here because they needed to do some final shopping in Bkk, before they leave thailand forgood -going back to Germany-. Since they were here, we decided to invite them for having lunch together in Erawan Grand Hyatt. It was very nice lunch and also sad as well. They will leave soon in the next 2 weeks!!. Nia and me are good friends. Lorenz is Dudi's friend. They play golf together almost every week!!. We couldn't take any pictures because my camera was death-no battery and Nia forgot hers in the car. Too bad...

So blue..

After spent 1 month here, my mom went back to indonesia yesterday. Nggak enak banget. Hope she had very good times here. We really missed her stories. Especially my kids. Every morning while the kids were having breakfast she liked to tell the stories about Rasulullah SAW. Alhamdulillah, she's still in a very good health. Almost everyday my mom and me went together. We (mom, kids and me) spent alot of times in the kitchen !!. She was so amazed to see Arif really like her sop buntut dan rawon. He's just like his opa!!, she said. (and finally I know now to make the right rawon jawa timur yg uiiteemm.... sampai kedaging2nya, hue..hue..) It was so sweet to see my kids doing homework with my mom helped them!!, right Emir?. And Farah you're such a lucky girl having your oma picked you up at school many times and even sang and danced together with your teachers and friends in your classroom. We left at around 5.am in the morning. It takes 1 1/2 hours to go to the airport. Before we left, my mom went to her grandchildren's rooms, wanted to say goodbye. They're still sleeping. She kissed their heads while she was praying. She always do that. Prays and kisses our head at the same time. My kids managed to get up and salim their oma. I introduced my mom to my indonesian friends. Since I've been living abroad, whenever & wherever my mom came to visit, I'd like to invite my friends come to my house. Thank you friends for coming and even brought foods and gifts for my mother. Girls, you made her so touched. She knows all my friends and liked to be taken pictures with them. She's happy that I have good friends. (off course mom, we have to be nice to people, but when it comes to have friends I always choose them, -tentu aja tho kalau berteman gw pilih2) She had lunch at Indri' s house and Ita's house. Thank you girls for having my mom. It's really appreciated. She liked to do shopping in Bkk. Bought oleh2 for her friends and relatives. Her luagages were so full that she had to leave few things she bought for herself. So, I'll make sure myself to bring them with me next time I visit her in indonesia. For me, having my mother here at my house, melayaninya. I was soo extremely happy and blessed. Maafkan ananda berdua mam kalau ada kekurangan dalam pelayanan. Kalau ada rejeki kesehatan, kesempatan, materiil, Insya Allah, we'll make sure for having her and my in laws at our house again and again in the next years.

Koh Samui

At the begining we were all not excited to go to koh samui. Everybody was tired. We just came back from Indonesia in Jan 5th and now left again ??...... But like Dudi said if we wanted to change the date we needed to put some more additional fees per person. Ok then..... Ceritanya dari bulan oktober tahun lalu. Dudi lagi iseng2 browsing, then he got cheap tickets to go to Koh Samui by Air Asia. For all of us (berlima) -return- only for $ 200. Are you interested?, should we go?, instead I said no I replied it's up to you. Hua..hua..hua... salah sendiri deh gw. Ok, done the luggage is always my job. Although we only went for 2 days but we're 5. Don't forget everybody's swimsuits, these and those cremes, books, sunglasses, sandals, etc.. We left in Jan 25th (thursday) and would be back in Jan 27th (saturday). Titip ibuku dan rumah sama pembantu, yah aku membiasakan nama -pembantu- ini terhadap anak2ku, karena semua tugas rumah tangga adalah di pundakku, dan tugas dia hanyalah bantu2 mama, helper, yg nolongin mama, bukan sebaliknya kaya rata2 pembantu di indo (nggak semuanya nih jangan kesinggung yah ibu2, gw nggak nyindir kok) yg sepertinya rendah derajat, semua pekerjaan ada di pundak pembantu nyonya tinggal nyuruh2. Anyway, we said good bye to my mom and apoligized to her because this time she couldn't go with us. Besides there was no any tickets available (lha yah dah habis tho, wong pesennya dari 4 bulan yg lalu), plus perjalannya nggak worth it at all. Why? because we went by air asia, so the flight only reaches until...I forgot the name of the place. Pokoknya in the middle of nowhere. After that we needed to continue by bus for 3 hours. Wah.. and still not finished. After waiting for some time (about one hour) we went on the ferry for another 2 hours. Then again another 45 minutes to the hotel by taxi. Oalah....... gombal beeng !!. Ngos2an nggak tuh. We left from our house at 7.30 am ( remember people.... the airport is near bkk) and arrived at the hotel about 5.30 pm. My husband said we supposed to be in Shanghai now. Hue...hue..hue... The hotel is really good. Hhmm... nice......, the kids took a rest in their room. They didn't want to have dinner outside. They had room service. After Farah slept, Dudi and me strolled the beach and had dinner at the restaurant. On Friday (the next day), we just spent the day at the hotel. Swam and played on the beach and in the pool. Taught my kids how to swim correctly. (I'm a preety good swimmer). Breakfast at the hotel, bought some burgers at Mc Donald then had dinner at the hotel. The dinner buffet was superb!!. Saturday was our last day in Koh Samui. Dudi decided to change the flight. Off course this is another additional expenses. Anyway it's worth it. We went on Bangkok Airways (one way). It is directly from Koh Samui to Pattaya and only need 1 hour. Yes, airport in Koh Samui is only for Bangkok Airways (boutique airport owned by bangkok airways). It surprised me, the airport is small and very simple. Even the floor is not tiled. But it's clean and they serve international destinations. When we went inside, wow! they have internet service (high speed) and small corner for snacks and drinks (again, they're free). We arrived at Sattahip-Pattaya Airport ( owned by Thai Navy). My mother picked us up. Hm...what a journey.

Arif's 11 th Birthday

Ulang tahun anak pertamaku ini jatuh hari Sabtu last week, tepatnya tgl 13 Januari. Aku bikin nasi kuning dan lauk ala kadarnya. Trus beli cake juga. Tapi berhubung hari itu padat banget. Jadi acara tiup lilin jatuh hari seninnya, tgl 15 januari. How come?. This is the story. Directly after my 2 boys finished their piano lesson, we drop off Arif at his friend's birthday party. And we went around Pattaya, then had lunch at the restaurant. Then, went to IT center. After that, pick Arif up. Then had dinner at the restaurant. Arrived at home, all the kids were tired. Lelap semuanya. Including the birthday boy. Sunday?. Very early in the morning we left. Went to Bkk. When we were at home, it was too late. Again, the kids were really tired. Jadi, Seninnya deh... Trus partynya diadakan hari Sabtu tgl 20. Di Hard Rock Hotel (kebagiannya hari ini, penuh bo!, padahal bookednya dah dari bulan november lalu pas ultah farah). Uwak dan tante dah pulang ke Indo. Pesta dimulai dari jam 11.00 am sampai 5.30 pm. Gw yg nungguin. Dudi dan mama nyusul. Pas makan siang, kurleb jam 1. Anak2 pada happy deh. Anak2 total 10 orang. Banyak activitiesnya pesta di sini. Banyak games. Terakhir setelah semua program activitiesnya selesai ada tambahan foam party. Yeah... anak2 nggak jadi selesai deh, main lagi. Puas lah anak2 semua. Farah juga ikutan sih. Tapi nggak bisa lah yau main bareng the boys. She's too small to join with them. Jadi aku yg ngawasin dia bernang2.

Party at Hard rock