Tuesday, July 10, 2007

OMAH SENDOK WITH THE GIRLS



Akhirnya makan bareng sama cewek-cewek LGS terjadi juga.. setelah 1 bulan ini ditunda-tunda terus… kali ini kolaborasi aku dan Jika yang jadi host-nya. Tanggal 5 Juli 2007, dinner di Omah Sendok, Jl. Mpu Sendok, Senopati.

Rumah yang lucuu,,, dengan gaya rumah kuno yang hangat.. trus bisa juga makan di halaman belakang, outdoor by the pool dengan lampu-lampu kecil yang romantis. Hehe..
Tapi kita dapat duduk di dalam, karena halaman belakang semuanya di-booked sama orang lain.

Participants: aku-ipung, jika, irma-willi, dinar-janter-natasya, tiessa, wulan-michael-nadja-raia. Seru jugaa udah lama nggak ngumpul.. apalagi sama wulan, udah lama gak ketemu.

The food, hmm,, kok kayaknya nggak seenak pertama kali aku ke sana yaa..? agak biasa aja gituu.. although not so bad juga. Appetizer buat rame-rame: tahu pong, sosis solo dan ada satu lagi apa ya..? Aku pesen ‘nasi garang asem’.. hm, nggak seenak bikinan Niniku sendiri.. :) beberapa pesen iga bakar, sate ponorogo, sop tangkar..

Yang paling asik, ngumpul-ngumpulnya itu sendiri.. thanks gals and guys..

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

HOUSE WARMING THE SECOND



The following week, 9 June 2007, we had the second round of house warming. This time was with my friends from LGS. It was a collaboration of our house warming and Irma-Tiessa-Jamal birthdays.


The food was a blast!!
Ipung and I (with help from Mama, Sri and Mbak Irah) prepared a set of NASI CAMPUR BALI, which turned out to be everybody’s favourite!! Wow, thanks for the compliment.. :)
We also bought some BAKWAN MALANG CAK MAN as the refreshing ‘kuah-kuah’..
Tiessa came with some snacks (potato chips, etc) and STRAWBERRY CHEESE CAKE from CHEESECAKE FACTORY.. what a dessert!!
Irma brought some WATERMELON and delicious CHOCOLATE PUDDING..
Jamal, who arrived quiet late,, hehe,, had the famous KAMBING RICA which everybody was waiting for.
Dini also had some ICE CREAM with her..
Perfect combination guys..!!

The house were really warmed by the attendance of Irma (with Willi n Ferrel), Jika, Tiessa (with Didi n Raska), Jamal, Dini, Rondang, Dinda, Dida, Dian, Icut, Didi, Vanda (and her friend), Nita and Ferry. [did I miss anyone? Hope not..]


Thank you for coming.. although we know it’s very far… :) you guys really warmed our house.. and the next day, on Sunday, Adit and Nila came for dinner. We also cooked some dinner for them. Lovely… lovely…

HOUSE WARMING

Finally Ipung and I moved in to our house at Bukit Nirvana in mid of May 2007… …after we thought we were ready to move in, the house is more or less ready for us and also after we thought that our ‘duty’ to take care of Nini has finally ended.

It’s so cozy being in our own home, especially where most of everything were prepared (although, indeed, took some times) as we wish.


On the first Sunday in June, the schedule of Surowidjojos visited Nini and Aki at Tanah Kusir, I invited them to come and warm our house for brunch after the visit to Tanah Kusir. Most of them in Jakarta came. Oom Tatak, Mbak Lucy and Banu couldn’t make it.

We’ve prepared a set of NASI LIWET SOLO and SOTO KUDUS. Mama surprisingly also made a set of NASI KUNING. There were also serabi and some cakes for the snacks.

We also bought a tent to be placed in our yard. We didn’t think anybody wanted to sit around the tent since it was so hot. But it turned out everybody was sitting there. When Tante Vita came later in the afternoon that day, they started discussing the Arya’s wedding plan there. Hehe…

Also joined us, Mas Djoko and the funny little Ruben.
Thanks all for coming…


Next Gateway: BALI





The following week after the Jogja gateway, I had another gateway,,, to Bali.. this time with my new friends from the new office..

We arrived in the afternoon and went directly had Crab Porridge at LAOTA. A yummy welcome meal with a refreshing vegetable juice. Then went to Kuta Paradiso, which turned out to be a not-as-expected hotel. The air conditioner went off at 2 a.m. in the morning so we had the technician came and fixed the trouble at that time.

Anyway, after unpacked our things, we went to BREEZE, at SAMARA, Seminyak. A great place. We had some drinks and snacks. The crème broulle was awesome!! We went back to the hotel at midnight.

The next day, we started by walking around the shops at Kuta and started shopping. It ended at HardRock Hotel megastore, then we had lunch at BALI NIKMAT. A great seafood restaurant, especially its udang rebus and crab fried with salted eggs.

After that, we took tour to find another hotel. We browse hotels at Seminyak until we found the great ASTON hotel at Seminyak, but already close to Legian. It has its own private pool in each of the bungalow. Just perfect!! We took a cottage with 2 bedrooms, living room and dining room. Enough for the 9 of us (Mbak Ike, Mbak Bina, Mbak Wilse, Mbak Isof, Mbak Vina – who joined us later on, Mbak Shanti, Irma, Monik and me).

Further, we went to DISCOVERY at Kuta to see sunset.. it was almost late to see the sunset. We stopped for some coffee and heading to JIMBARAN for seafood.. yummeh.. seafood all the way..!! ow, well, we stopped for about an hour at Legian on our way to Jimbaran.

We went to Aston ‘early’ this time, at about 10.00 p.m. Mbak Vina, who just joined us from her proceeding in Jogja, has waited for us there. After some chit chats, as planned, we jumped to the private pool. The water was so cold that night. After experiencing that there were too many people in the pool, we decided to go to the hotel’s public pool. What a fun!

We finally finished swimming and ready for bed at about 1.00 or 2.00 a.m. what a day.

The day after, which was our last day in Bali, we started with busy dressing up in whites. After took some pictures, we went to Ubud. The plan was actually to see the gallery around Ubud first, but we then decided to go straight to BEBEK BENGIL to satisfy our hungry stomachs. Hehehe… Good food and great place!

After that, we were heading to PASAR SUKAWATI for some ‘oleh-oleh’. Then went back to Seminyak. Some of them revisited BREEZE for sunset, while Irma and I revisited Legian-Kuta for some more ‘oleh-oleh’. Hehehe.. but we finally made it to BREEZE for the sunset.

At 7.00 p.m. we returned to the hotel, took a bath and got ready to the airport. Mbak Vina and Mbak Shanti stayed for another night in Bali, the rest of us were going back to Jakarta. The flight was late at 11.30 p.m. (and delayed until about 00.10). It was another great weekend gateway..!! So much fun..

Also so happy to see my hubby’s face waited for me in the airport. Hey,, I’m back.. :)


Jogja - Weekend Gateway






Friday night
(15 June 2007), after office hour I ran to the airport.. had a plane to catch at 19.40 to go to Jogja.. I’m meeting my hubby there, who has been in Jogja since last Wednesday for work. There will be a family gathering held by my hubby’s office on Sunday.

After succeeding passing through the traffic on Friday night (thank you Pak taxi driver..!!) I finally arrived at the airport. Go straight to the check in counter and almost fainted when the lady in counter said “Ibu, ini tiketnya untuk besok lho, bukan malam ini”. Gleg… it was scheduled for Saturday, though the same time as the flight I’m checking in at that time. Thank God there was a seat for me for the next flight that night.. pheww.. I called my hubby straight away and told him what just happened. His office’s travel agent is terrible…

Well, the flight was delayed for almost an hour. So I ordered KFC for dinner and enjoyed hot soup and tea at airport’s lounge.

Finally, arrived in Jogja at about 9.30 p.m. Mas Ip and his colleagues (Mbak Yeni, Mbak Yuni and Rita) picked me up at the airport. We went straight to GABAH RESTO.. a restaurant and lounge behind Novotel Hotel. A lovely resto.. * too bad I didn’t take any picture there.. still had a funny feeling in my stomach because of the flight.. * We met Mas Tanto and his girlfriend Wita there. One of Ipung’s friends also joined us later..

After we had drinks and snacks, we went to EMBASSY,, it’s a new bar and lounge located in Hotel Garuda at Malioboro. We were entertained by Mas Tanto and his partner, Mas Didi, who are the event organizer of SH. Many ABG of Jogja were there.. there’s also a night life for ABG in Jogja.. hehehe.. There were also live music, which I discover was quiet impressive.. I started a little dizzy after the 3rd or 4th glass of coke mixed with jack daniels.. so really had to stop. I’ve asked Ipung to go to the hotel.. I’m tired already, it was over midnight..

But the entertainer asked us to move to other place, so called STADIUM.. a place on the way to Adisucipto airport. Uuh,, tired… the place was more crowded there. It’s just like in Jakarta.. we stayed there until 3.00 a.m.

Finally arrived at the hotel.. I took a shower (can’t stand the smell of smoke from those places) and got some sleep..

Saturday

We woke up at 9.00 a.m. and got quick breakfast at the coffee shop. By the way, we stayed at Mercure hotel, a very lovely place, designed with Javanese-colonial style. It looks like Kembang Goela restaurant in Plasa Sentral, Sudirman.

We went ‘nyekar’ eyang Surowidjojo and went to Ipung’s house at Banyu Urip. It didn’t look as scary as I first went there 2 years ago.. hehe..
Then we joined Mbak Yeni and her family for lunch at BOYONG KALEGEN.. somewhere near Kaliurang. The restaurant was surrounded by fish pond. We had fresh fish there,,

In the afternoon, we took the trip to KETEP PASS.. a top of a hill where we can see GUNUNG MERAPI.. that volcano mountain was covered by clouds most of the time. Only for several times we had the chance to see the top of the Merapi.. until few moments before we decided to go, the sky was clear and we could see the full picture of the Gunung Merapi.. how beautiful..

At almost 6 p.m. we went down hill.. stopped at SOGAN VILLAGE, for dinner. A lovely place to eat. It was an old Javanese house,, very classic..!! the resto was also accompanied with a gallery.. also a very nice gallery. I bought a batik top there.

At 8.30 we went back to the city. My hubby and I took a city tour by becak for a while. The cold wind at night made us want to sleep in the Becak.. hehehe…

Sunday
The family gathering day.. it was the final round of the celebration of Sari Husada’s birthday. Located in housing and facilities district of the Indonesian air force in Jogya (kompleks AURI gituuh.. haha..).

There was a museum there.. I found Aki's name written twice in the museum as one of the first pilot graduates in 1945-1946. So proud of him..

The gathering was a crowd, full with people in their red and black t-shirt uniform and their families. We didn’t feel like we were part of them, since all the participants were from Jogja office.

So Mbak Yeni and her family asked us to go to lereng merapi, BANYU ADEM. We escaped from the gathering and went there. At Banyu Adem we could see the ruined village and bunker caused by the Merapi explosion last year.

After that, we had lunch at,, mm,, I forget the name. We had shrimp satay and fried fish. Mbak Yeni kids, Reihan and Naira (Rara) went swimming there. Mbak Yeni, Ipung and I went to Malioboro for about an hour, then Ipung and I went to the airport.
Again, I have different flight schedule from Ipung. His flight is an hour earlier than mine. What a travel agent!!
We tried to have the same schedule, but didn’t work. So I had to wait longer at the airport. My flight was the same as Mbak Yeni’s. So, finally arrived in Jakarta at about 7.30 p.m. Except for the flight schedules, it was a great weekend gateway…