I'm back

Finally back, I miss my baby like crazy. We're inseparable now, she's holding to me so tight like Koala. She even cried frantically whenever I left her to the toilet. Poor baby, she must be horrified that her mommy is not there for her for the week.

Raysa at the airport

Lunch with my baby

Cha, Mom and Aunt Nd pick me up today at the office for lunch with Kang Imam. We stop by at Clairmont before going next door for lunch. I picked a Chocolate Mousse cake which look really delicious and would be excellent for a dessert, but apparently my Mom forgot to pay for it so I ended up with nothing for dessert.

Had lunch at Mbah Jingkrak, a javanese restaurant which have hideous name on their menu such as ayam rambut setan, es jujur and sambel iblis. The sambel iblis is a killer! Its extremely hot and burn your tongue really bad! I love the sambel goreng ati there though, although they are extremely hot as well. Most of the things there are very spicy but I really love the food.

BTW cha looked really cute today wearing her brand new sleeveless tiered flowery print top with beige cropped pants with ladybug patchwork. Ltely, were trying to conceal her bald head with a cute jeans hat.

Cha with the cakes

Cha is 9th months today

She's already 9 months old today, how fast time went by. Next time you know you'll know I'm probably at the airport sending her for college. My god Im getting old, Im doing too much what if nowadays.

Went for a monthly visit to the doctor, apparently she's not gaining too much weight this month. Only 10 ounce since her last visit, that means she's now 8.24kg and 70cm in height. Not bad for a girl who once weight at 2.5kg.

She's started to stand now, of course she still need to hold to sumtin to keep her standing still. Sometimes she can stand still on her own without any assistance for about 5 seconds. That's a remarkable development I should say!

Other than papaya I just found out that she hate banana as well. Oh thats too bad coz mommy love's banana cake so much! But she loves mushroom and chicken gravy though. I also start to add couscous as an alternative for carbs, she loves it!

Oh and one more thing, she loves to be on the driver seat playing with the honk and steering wheel. Whenever Nenda is driving she will try to jump to the driver seat. So does this mean that she wanna be a racer one day? We'll find out ...

The Sportsgirl lookbook

I love checking out Sportsgirl lookbook cause they update it regularly and the way they mix their outfit never fail me. These 4 looks really work for me, why? From L to R

1. I've own a perfectly fitted red jacket which I adore so much but I always pair it up with black tank top. Seeing this picture I would love to venture into the vintage inspired top or dresses. Im recently in love with black stocking and contrasting it with beige or other colorful pump.

2. Actually this look doesnt really work for me, except for the deep purple mini dress. The color is just so me. I like this look cause it reminds me of how I used to wear my mini skirt back when I was in junior high. I love wearing them with knee hi black socks and patent heel. Back in the days I thought heels was a torture and now they were necessities for mem the irony!

3. This is how my mom will wear low cut top, she will mix it with long sleeve turtle neck cause she's wearing hijab so she need to cover up more. I think it's not bad at all combining low cut printed dress with turtle neck. Its not that we have winter in Jakarta but my office is always extremely cold during meetings season, so it will work just fine. And of course the high waisted belt that help to shape my waist, love them!

4. Only because its red and Im currently in love with lantern sleeve. Will hunt for more lantern sleeve jacket and dress.

Their clutches are also to die for ... I always love cluthches! I used to carry them whenever I can. But nowadays its impossible cause I brought so many stuff with me (milk bottle among other thing).

The man with the sword and arrow

As mentioned previously, I finally managed to watch the Pirates of the Carribean at World's End on Sat and havent I told you I love Orlando Bloom in this movie? I guess I have, but I want to repeat it again. Of course Johny Depp is stunning as usual, he's perfect for Captain Jack Sparrow but Orlando Bloom is doing much better with this movie. And he looked damn good, espescially toward the end after he became the captain of the flying dutchman and the part where he said goodbye to Elizabeth when the sunset. I love the bitter look on his face when he thought that Elizabeth is in love with Jack.

I actually like him as well as Legolas on the Lord of the Rings. As an Elf he looked very ethereal and as an archer he looked so elegant, I did not know that archery could looked that classy! I guess if I'm a lady who ride a horse and do archery, I want my movement to be as elegant as he is in this movie. Im not saying that he's too feminine but he is trying to portray an inhuman creature here.

Compare to his other part as a normal guy (in a sense that he's not holding any weapon) in Elizabethtown and Calcium Kid, I prefer him as a man with a deadly weapon on his hand which suit him better. Well i havent seen much of him in a normal movie so probably I cannot judge him just yet. I'm lookin forward for more movie from him cause apart from the obvious good looking material I actually think that he's a good actor.

Another long weekend

Holiday is always great and I'm always happy to see a red mark on the calendar. On Fri I have to run some errand for future plan with Mei to some places which was not in a very convenient location. And on Sat Me, Mom and Cha went to Senayan City for lunch and coffee at Krispy Kreme and some window shopping. R meet me there afterward to watch The Pirates of the Carribean at World's End. Man ... Orlando Bloom looked really gooood in that movie! I hope they'll be making another sequel for the pirates coz I just love the whole Elizabeth, Will and Captain Jack characters (of course esp Will Turner).

The little fashion advisor

New people

I have know idea whats wrong with all of these new people in my office. First of all, they all call me Mbak or even worse Ibu! I know I always wear excessive make-up, but do I look that old to you to deserved to be called Ibu? I'm a Mom, I know, but an Ibu? I dont think so. The next thing is that there's only a handfull few that have the right to call me Mba, and even them only few years younger than me which Im sure not more than the sum of my left fingers. So please I let you to set the politeness aside and skip the Mba! When you are younger, you feel flattered if people think you are more mature than your age but when you are older and with one child I dont think it is as fun as it used to. We tend to prefer people to think that we looked younger and fresher. See ... women are complicated we tend to hope for the contrary.

Secondly, whats with the new person that I only met once on the induction that I ran into and said that I need to blow dry my hair or even better, suggest me to go to the hairdresser to let them do it for me. Oh,did you just rub on my new scar? The hairdresser that proudly stated that he once cut for Toni & Guy buthchered my hair a few weeks back. Am pretty sensitive about the topic! I only have time for one thing in the morning, its either the face or the hair ... hair seemed hopless and I felt naked without the make up. So I choose make up!

Next time, bobbi

Next time I'm flying out, I'm definitely will buy myself at least one thing from the Bobbi counter. I'm determined that I will not leave the counter empty handed. I will also going to try one of those make over from Bobbi, to learn the most au naturale make up from the best. On my list for Bobbi are:

1. Sun kissed palette, or any eye shadow/combination sets that are worth buying. Espescially those travel special which is very value for money.

2. Lip gloss or lip tint, but preferably lip tint cause I love the packaging ... you apply the gloss directly from the tube hence you didnt have to deal with the wand applicator and its less messy.

3. Creamy concealer kit or corrector, depending on how the make over goes. I'm still searching for the perfect concealer. Im pretty satisfied with my Laura Mercier secret camouflage but maybe Bobbi will do better on concealing my eyes? Im pretty impressed with Bobbi's Living Beauty book where she said by correcting your eyes imperfection with concealer it already help alot in enhancing your look. Which is true, I saw the picture of before and after on real people and the concealer affect really do them wonder!

4. Long wear gel eyeliner in espresson ink or maybe in darker color to replace my Blitz n Glitz MAC Fluidline that starts to dry.

5. A nice pink blush, cause im running out on my MAC blush and not too keen on my current Clinique which seemed to last on me for a lifetime.

Life's a beach

Espescially if you cannot aford your own private beach. How lovely it is if you can lay on the white sand all day, you and only you is there, cause the whole beach is all yours! LOL! Picture is the courtesy of someone who own his own private beach.

Weekend in Paris

I didn’t quite finish the title yet, no I did not go to Paris last weekend, instead I went to Paris van Java that is Bandung with Mom & Dad, my aunt, uncle & cousin. I still didn’t get the idea why they named Bandung the Paris in the island of Java? It does have alot of old colonial style building and the air is cool and so much more refreshing than Jakarta, but to compare it with Paris? I dont think so! I mean do you really think that Paris is as dirty as Bandung? One of the arising problem in Bandung is the uncontrollable household garbage, you can practically see garbage piling on every corner of the city. Apart from that Bandung is actually a great city with a lot of nice building.

Left Jakarta on Fri at 1 o’ clock, it took around 2 hours drive from Jakarta to Bandung and we arrived at around 4 and went straight to Ma Uneh in Setiabudi for late lunch. I was told that this restaurant was among the first that came up with the concept of so-called Sundanese fast food restaurant, hence the steeper price amongst the rest. Raysa seemed to enjoy the nice weather in Bandung.

On the afternoon we went down to Dago for abit of Factory Outlet hopping. Went to Level and bought a nice GAP jeans hat (as seen on the pic) and a pair of Cherokee flair jeans for Raysa. We went to Happening afterward, which was connected to Rich & Famous but now they closed down. I usually checked Happening when I went to Bandung, but I guess they’re not as good as they used to.

Feelin abit tired from the FO hoppin, we head down to Paris Van Java. It looked like Citos from outside, but IMO its way better! They have row of café facing to the street which also have outside seating as well. With the weather like Bandung I think you can actually manage to sit outside comfortably. On the inside, they have shops that looked like small shopping arcade without the rooftop. It looked really nice and cozy, if only they have better shops selection. Raysa really enjoyed PVJ though, she get really pissed if we stop! When we had coffee in Oh La La she couldn’t stop jumpin all around the place. She even make friend with the waitress on the café and smiles with the bunch of ABG on the other couch.

The next day we went for some more FO hoppin with Rumah Mode first on the list. They have wide selection of Children, Men & Women wear. Lots of nice dresses with nice cutting, some of them are price reasonably but there are some that ridicilously expensive! Found a nice Giordano Bolero and fake Seven & MNG jeans which looked awful on me. As for the top, they're quite similar to those you can find in ITC, only pricier! Found several H&M tops as well priced at 200k, this is H&M we're talkin about! They're like Target or Supre in Oz, so I very much mind paying 200k for a H&M top that I found in FO!

What I love about this place is that they have a cozy café, several restaurants and playground for the kids. The coffee that they serve is really nice, although they are not for the faint hearted cause the acidity of the coffee is really strong. I took my caramel latte without sugar and they taste just perfect, what’s better is taking your latte with single shot instead of double. Warung Bali also serve nice Nasi Campur and Lotek. Apart from that, they also have Eaton and Bumbu Desa which is another Sundanese fast food restaurant with a better price compared to Ma Uneh. Raysa love it here, cause the place is crowded and she can watch the kids playin at the playground. Two shops from Rumah Mode they have another FO called Natural, nothing fancy, but they have nice selection of children wear. Heritage & Cascade was pretty good as well, lots of local brand like Transform, Atmosphere and Ciel. I also went to Glamour & Raffles Hill in Dago afterward, but they’re not that good.

Leave Bandung on Sunday and the traffic wasn’t bad at all. It’s been a great long weekend. Meanwhile, R was spending his long weekend at a friend’s house that has a view to his own private beach. Wouldn’t you like that? Your own private beach? Will add the picture of the beach later.

I found the bracelet

I've been wanting this kind of bracelet eversince I saw Nicole Richie sporting one of the CC Skye woven bracelet from a long time ago. Never find a good copy in Jakarta for ages, and when I went to Bangkok, I accidently found one in white (my favourite color) and they only have 1! Actually it looked really nice the way Nicole Richie wear two of them at the same time.

The bracelet is the one on the top. I bought the one on the bottom for my mom, which is kinda classic and cute with a heart charm to finished the pearl looked. I'm also lovin the white loop earring, its so me!

If only, In an alternate universe

If you werent who you are today, if you could change your career to a totally brand new one in an instance ... what profession do you want to do?

1. As insane as it might sound, I actually want to be a DJ. I always love the extra loud music pumping your heart whenever I visited the club. I always take notice of the music that the DJ playin and of course the level of coolness when they're actually playin. Both the guys and girls DJ they always look extra cool when they seemed to have fun with the crowd and playing good music. I can actually pictured myself spending my weekends spinning in my knee hi converse with the dresses. Whenever I imagined myself doin sumtin, the first thing that came to my mind is what outfit I will be wearin.

2. Which bring us to the second profession that come to my mind, which is to be a fashion designer. I want to be the newly discovered Tom Ford, you know that designer with an egde! Or the new Marni, I always love her sporty design that yet looked so chic. If other people dreamt to be the supermodel that showcase the designer collections, I grew up wanting to be the person dressing the model.

3. As most people already know, I'm a make up freak, so its not a surprise that I want to be a Make Up Artist. I mean I'm known as the person who did the make up for everybody among my friend. So mine as well do it professionally rite?

Lunch today

Today I have the nicest lunch with a plate of baked squid with aioli salad with an extra scramble eggs on the side at Bakerzin. I know I'm an egg maniac, but I couldnt help it. I could never pass a nice plate of scramble egg!

Appropriate breakfast

Im so hungry, didnt have breakfast this morning. I miss all the hotel and/or restaurant big continental breakfast. I'm an avid fan of scramble egg! This is how an appropriate breakfast should be served, two scramble eggs with 2 sausages and a basket of bread with butter and raspberry jam. BTW I have the oddest habbit of mixing the scramble eggs with the raspberry jam. The mixture between the melting scramble eggs and the sweet rasberry jam actually taste really nice. Oh dont forget a cup of coffee with extra warm milk on the side and a glass of fruit juice.

8 Months and standing

Raysa in Pancious after monthly visit to the doctor. Weighted at about 7.96kg.

Finally sightseeing

After several days here, finally got the chance to go around Bangkok for sightseeing. Went to visit the huge Wat Pho with its famous extremely huge reclining Buddha. Afterward I went to the Royal Palace as well, which of course being the palace it is extremely huge and grand, in a very Siamese architectural way you can imagine. We have to walk around the palace to find the entrance gate, phew that was tiring.

Had lunch in MBK, nothing fancy just a fast food thing. Stroll around the MBK abit, its huge at around 5 floor with so many stuff to buy. Theres couple of shop that sell really good designer watches fake, they quote me for 2000 Baht, but I suspect they cost way cheaper than that. Good place to find some souvenirs as well, they have wide selections at the upper floor.

Head down back to the sport complex to pick up my luggage in the afternoon and transfering to Ibis for the rest of my stay in Bangkok. The Hotel is small but its really clean and minimalist, its right in the middle of the city. Most of the shopping centres are 15 min travelling distance (by car). Had dinner in overly huge newly renovated Central World, the Japanese food is not superb but its alrite.

What I liked the most about the place is that they house Zen department store in which they have every brand that you can think of, both clothing and cosmetic ... that you barely can afford. The first floor have every brand that you can think of, NARS, Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier, MAC, Stila, Philosophy, Origins, Lola, Shu, and the big one that you always find here. When I step foot at Zen I felt like I was dreamin. The only problem is that most of the SA doesnt speak english really fluently, so I'm really reluctant to asked for a makeover. God how would I know what they put in my face if I barely understand what the heck are they sayin!

Just realized that most of the stuff there is more expensive than in Indonesia. They have nice selection of shoes though in the department shoes. I wouldnt mind having few of them, if only I can afford them!

Postcard from the camp, 3rd day

Wake up early again for aerobic which is of course exhausting! I forgot that I can sweat this much, haven’t really had any proper exercise since I was pregnant. Bfast was great, had porridge with Chinese donut and sumtin that cooked like serabi but used coconut milk instead and they’re smaller in size. Actually come to think of it, its very similar with serabi Solo.

Went straight to Khao Kheaw open zoo which took about 1hr drive from the resort. If to compare it with Taman Safari, IMO the zoo is smaller in size and have less varieties of animals. You can take the door less tram though to go around the zoo, but there’s still some barrier between you and the animal. We make a stop in several places in which in two of them I take a picture with an animal that looked similar to skunk and the other one was my mom’s fave animals which is elephant. I never much of an animal person, I’m even afraid of the cat … so you get the point rite! So it took a huge leap of faith for me to actually take pictures with these animals.

At the end we watch a bird show and went around the zoo school which mostly exhibits the snakes & lizard family. I witnessed a small mouse waitin to be eaten by the snake, how horrible! I’m not a mouse fan but the mouse is so tiny and the snake was huge!

Have a chance to catch a ½ hours sleep after the trip and the dinner tonite is pretty formal where the servant served us all the food. We had so many things for dinner and all of them are delicious! After the dinner was the group performance, the topic revolves around the sustaining of our environment. Most of the shows are fun, funny, fresh and entertaining.

As a closing, the organizer turns off the light and every participant was holding a candle light and waving them in the air as they sang the ASEAN song. And of course taking pictures are in order! Vanity is very contagious!

Everyone were dancing and singing at the end. I was jumping all around and sweatin like hell. I’ve forgotten how fun dancing was. These boys & girls have reminded me of my own youthful days which that chapter of my life have already passed. Will update wif pictures later when I received them from the other participants.

So I guess this is the last nite of the camp?

* Photos, clockwise: 1. Me with whatshisname, 2. The elephants, 3. Manmade savannah land, 4. The baby leopard named ASEAN, 5. The view from the top, 6. Me with the big elephant

Postcard from the camp, 2nd day

Slept pretty well last nite, the room is more comfortable and not as creepy as the one in the sports complex. I think the place is sort of a beach resort owned by the Navy and plus they also have TV! Wake up pretty early for some aerobic, and oh my god … its extremely tiring! Of course being tired from the aerobic and all I took a big breakfast!

We depart at 9 for the sea turtle conservation centre at the Royal Thai Navy based where they briefed us on marine environmental awareness. They played some background information on the sea turtle and we got to see the turtle in the nursery, most of them are couple of days old with couple of bigger one. At the end of the visit we got to release 5 turtle into the sea.

Had lunch in the resort and afterward the participants were separated into group to prepare for their group presentation tomorrow nite. Most of them head down to the beach afterward but since it was raining today and I felt a bit dizzy already I decided to skip the beach and took some medicines and slept during the entire afternoon.

*Photos, clockwise: 1. Posing in front of the conservation wif the turtle statue, 2. Sea turtle aged less than 10 days, 3. The big one in the aquarium, 4. The beautiful view to the sea from the base, 5. That way to the sea!, 6. Bye bye we're off to the sea

Postcard from the camp, 1st day

Wake up at around 7ish and had prawn soup with rice for breakfast which actually is nice but I don’t think I’m ready for that much spices in the morning even if it is only ginger mostly. Depart for the MFA directly after breakfast with our luggage safely stored on the bus compartment cause we’ll be departing for the Chonburi province right after lunch at the MFA.

The Thai MFA building looked so grand and brand new, which wasn’t exactly brand new! They have lovely lotus like chandelier hanging in the hallway. We were seated in the Narathip hall for the welcoming address by the people from the MFA. The hall very much reminds me of the lecture hall back in the university. After a coffee break we had a lecture on environmental protection which presented by famous Thai climatologist or environmentalist (which I forgot his name), basically told us that we can do small things to preserve our environment. True, but sometimes we hover on the small things because they’re so damn comfortable. Like switching on 2 air con at the same time because its so damn refreshing!

Lunch was great, I had a pad thai which is my fav Thai which I found out is actually made from smaller rice noodle rather than the bigger one (the kwe tiau noodle). The coconut chicken soup was really good as well, not too hot but the flavor from the chili sort of linger in your tongue to tickle you taste bud in a good way.

After the luncheon the foreign student was escorted to the MFA radio station, Radio Saranhom, where they interviewed me and 6 other students representing the participating countries about the event. Thank god it’s a taped interview, so they can edit whatever it is I’m sayin.

Finally things were over at the MFA and were headin straight to Sattahip in Chonburi province. The ride took 2.5 hr and there’s a bit of a traffic cause of a traffic accident.

Arrived close to 5 and the weather is so damn wonderful, you can really feel the refreshing beach wind blow your face. The room is neat and comfortable with 2 single beads but I had the room for myself.

Dinner was at 7 and a bit of games afterward to let the participants know each other more. Im sure that most of the participants felt displaced and homesick, away from their friends, family and mostly their home. In the last game, I somehow managed to lost twice and as a punishment me and couple other boys and girls have to perform something. So yeah, in one nite I managed to totally humiliated myself and danced and sang my way through it. Which was really fun!

Finally a new place

I'm here in Bangkok, landed in the brand new extremely huge Suvarnabhumi airport at 5 o'clock. I'm staying in Hua Mark sports complex for the nite. The room is neat and clean with a view to the national stadium and the swimming pool.