I'm Back!

It's been ages! felt like it anyway, not sure where to begin and how to write it but i'm gonna try and make it short. More than 10 weeks in Indonesia and I just came back a lil over a week ago,I spent every single minute of it with my family and friends, shared so much laughter and tears, endless flow of conversations 24/7 and i feel like even 10 weeks is not enough :p Lots of happenings while i was there, being picked up by my best friend at the Airport was a nice surprise, visited my dad's grave the next day and then went for a road trip as it's our family tradition that we go for a family road trip usually once every 5 years so it's long overdue for me and as usual we took Java - Bali route as we've done it a few times by car.

From Jakarta where my family lives, it took us about 24 hours drive and more than 1500km to reach Bali Island plus a 20 min ferry ride to cross from Java Island to Bali Island. Since all my nephews and nieces have grown up, this time we rented the second car a slightly larger one (3/4 mini bus ELF), total family who went? 18 people :p

Lots of Toilet trips along the way in every rest areas or petrol stations and sometimes when you really gotta go and cant find toilet? well in the bushes in the woods. I was appointed to be the navigator for the bigger car and my older brother became the driver and as for the smaller car was my eldest sister the navigator and her husband as the driver who came from Netherlands with their kids :) Thanks to GPS now that we didnt get lost too often :p I truly dont want to be the navigator next time coz when all the others were watching movies in the back or sleeping, I had to concentrate on the road and see signs and entertain the driver so my brother wont get sleepy or hungry hehe.

Lots of meal breaks too and experienced lots of lovely food from different towns/cities along the way, stayed at nice villas/bungalows, mom and aunt are in charge with the food with the help of my sisters/in law. Cook our own meals in the villa and the kids spent many nights awake playing cards and hanging out alot. I took so much pictures that the 8GB memory card in my digicam ran out of space and had to buy 2GB more. Watched sunsets every afternoon on the beach in Bali, truly heaven!

So much things to say, so many photos i've taken that I dont think it would be enough to put it into words in one page but anyways, when we came back from the road trip and had a long rest days, we attended my youngest brother's wedding and that too was a lovely family gathering, all my relatives were there and it was held in another town called Bandung so we also stayed in the villa, it was my chance too to meet my other relatives that i've never seen for ages!

so anyways, when my sister and her family had to go back to the Netherlands, it was a very sad moments, everyone was crying and then I too had to fly back to England. We don't know when we're going to have family reunion or road trip again as it's kinda sad now that everyone has grown up and have their own families and busy with their own things and I feel lonely the next day I arrived back in the UK, the house is so quiet and no midnight talks and kids' laughter while they're joking around. I'm missing them and feeling homesick already! :p

anyways, it's a long entry here, gotta say I miss blogging and i miss reading my friends' blogs and so many things i've missed! the jubilee, the olympic, my husband's parent's 50th wedding anniversary and i havent even unpack my suitcase, just finished cleaning the house that is sooo messy and I even almost missed my own birthday hahaha but got here in time and hubby cooked me a nice birthday meal, that's for another post as I've been on the laptop for quite a long time and it's still not fixed yet and I will give it a rest for an hour or so before I got online again and visiting my lovely friends' blogs one by one!

Happenings

The Saturdays' Concert last night in Brighton went well despite arriving late to the venue as there were some accidents and one of the girls' hubby stuck for half hour and couldnt come home in time to babysit their son, we missed the opening band and got hungry coz the group started late, we got seats quite far from the stage so i ended up watching the big screen most of the times, My camera zoom is crappy and each time i recorded the songs the camera kept telling me that the memory card is full.

By the time the show finished, the staff ushered us quickly out of the door and i couldnt find a toilet as I seriously needed to pee! We stopped for kebabs and i was busy trying to find a place where they got toilets with no luck so I pleaded to the girls to eat quickly and send me back first with some threats that i might pee in my pants literally which was working, by the time I got home, i forgot my key and hubby was grumbling half asleep when he opened the door and i dashed to the toilet first.

if there were any consolations, the performance was great, the dancers are gorgeous and the songs are good though i don't know most of it but I enjoyed dancing to the beat :)

I've decided to go to London on Friday to meet my friend for a day trip, abit nervous as i've never gone to London by myself, will bring a book to read on the train to pass the time. I'm glad that I've sent the Faithhopeandharityshopping Christmas Swap package yesterday to my swap partner an alien world, Hope you'll recieve it soon!

Meet New Friends

A friend of mine asked me out last night to Brighton Marina, she also invited three other friends and introduced me to them, i must say it's abit like a multicultural meeting, 3 Indonesian including me then she introduced me to one lady from Malaysia, another one from Vietnam and an English lady.

We had dinner at Frezzo Italian restaurant then went next door after dinner to Karma Bar, the food was gorgeous and the girls were awesome!

I had too much drinks that i can hold, not used to wear high heels or heels at all for that matter so after 15 mins of trying to be proper with shoes on while dancing, almost toppled over so i took them off :)

Lovely place and kind of romantic with incense smell and candles as well as comfy chairs and cushions, came home about 3am and so glad i dont drive coz i think i dozed off in the car all the way home :)

dealing with hangover now but wishing everyone a HAPPY Sunday!

The Ambassador's House

Celebrating Indonesia's Independence Day and Eid-ul Fitr at the Ambassador's house in London yesterday, free food and entertainment from Indonesian Famous Singers,supposed to be a garden party (so the house is off limit), lots of food stalls selling indonesian food. Sadly the weather was horrible, I was soaked to the skin since 11am coz they didn't set up more tents outside and too many people came, the sun decided to come out around 3ish, talking about getting wet and dry again by the time we left around 5ish.

hubby cant come coz his toe is still paining him so he didnt feel like driving to london for 2 and half hours, I tagged along with my friend with her husband and their daughter (in the pic wiht moi), I didnt take alot of pics as i dont want my camera got wet so this was taken before we left.

crowded and messy after the rain, something new that i learnt about my hair that it goes from a perfect straight (after straightening it for 2 hours) to a lioness hair-do, not a pretty sight! might invest more on a strong hair spray! posing with friends at the tennis court as it's less crowded.

Got home around 8pm, still feeling tired this morning...hope i wont be sick coz i read my friends' status on facebook today who were attending the event that some of them got cold. Just one more event to go to on friday night, my friend's husband celebrating his birthday.

Happy Sunday!

I've been quite busy last week that I haven't got time to blog, been doing alot of vaccuuming, ironing 5 feet worth of clothings, pulling out some weeds at the back garden and it's still not over yet! in the middle of it all, a friend of mine invited me to her BBQ party at her house near chichester, a nice break but was abit upset coz i found out i chipped the memory card in my digicam so i couldn't even take a single photo coz it kept showing the built in memory is full but i know i don't have a single pic inside as i always prepare my camera fully charged and emptied the pics inside it before i went, so this pic is a courtesy of my friend's taken from her iphone.

but I guess i have to be grateful as i went back home and found that i have a spare memory card and managed to take pics of a giveaway that I've won over NewEndStudio a few weeks back. A lovely Welsh Kitchen Recipe book, along with some cute ribbons and cute bookmarks all wrapped up so beautifully, How sweet! she even made me an early Birthday Bookmark! Thank you!

That's it for now, Happy Sunday Everyone!

Time Flies Quickly

Hubby and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding anniversary yesterday, though we didnt do much yesterday as he was working, I did however cooked and made something for us on sunday.

we had a relaxing time, made him toasts with jam for breakfast, beef fried rice for lunch and a summer fruit with pastry for desserts. I remembered when he first came to Indonesia to meet me and i introduced him to this indonesian dish called Nasi Goreng (fried rice) and he likes it, so I decided to make it for our 3rd anniversary :)

..as for the summer fruit, I was actually mistakenly bought the wrong pastry, it's too thin therefore it's abit burnt (as usual with me and baking). But it tasted yummy with the strawberries and raspberries in cream. it's only fitting for the summer, we enjoyed them with tea, of course :)

This was taken in Indonesia after having our small wedding ceremony at the hotel, with just family and close friends as we like it that way in february, i guess we have two weddings but we only celebrate the one that we did in England as we got our certificate here.

Linking to:




Sweetology101

Weekend Update

I recieved a package on Saturday from the lovely and sweet Jem, it was beautifully wrapped and I'm so touched that she thought of me and sent me this precious gifts!

...I absolutely loveee the different flavors of twinings tea bags she sent, I'm enjoying one of them right now, loveee the aroma of the Twining's Limited Edition Blossom Earl Grey Tea especially in a gloomy and drizzling day like today, The post card is soo beautiful and the words she'd written at the back is so touching and heartwarming! But that's not all....

She sent me this super gorgeous heart shaped wedgwood dish that she also got and posted in her blog here! Thank you Jem, it's so beautiful! I love it!!

I was going to post this yesterday but i had a bad hangover from saturday night out with the girls, one of my friend bought me drinks and I can't refuse :) We had dinner at China Palace Restaurant in town.

The girl next to me is the relative of my friend who came to England for a month's holiday, she's soo tiny! she talked abt how cold england was when she got here and it reminds me of how i felt when i first came here.

The food was lovely, we had crispy duck for starters and various other dishes for main course, the holiday girl ate soo much and i was surprised that for someone as tiny as she is could eat that much! must be the jetlag hehe.

These two lovely ladies are the first two people that i met and befriended when i first came to england, Nining (in all her pinkiness) and Komang (in black). They take turn in picking me up and drop me home whenever we go out, bless them!

We went to Club Ten after dinner, it's a few mins walk from the restaurant. Nining and Asti are cousins, they're both Javanese while Komang is a Balinese girl, as for me? well I'm part Javanese as i was born in the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta and I can't speak Javanese. Sorry for the long post, i'll post my anniversary update tomorrow as i haven't uploaded the pics yet. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend? x

Royal Wedding Frenzy

I'm so excited to watch the royal wedding tomorrow on BBC, was offered to record it by hubby if we happened to wake up late but no, not me! I'll be sure to tune in at 9ish, already bought a biscuit tin from McVities at sainsburys with William and Kate on it too! Will munch those while watching.

I did get invited...by hubby's parents to watch it together at their house but hubby declined as he's not feeling too well, however I got a surprise in the mail today, a commemorative royal wedding tea for one from my mother in law (bless her!), now i can munch the royal biscuit with the royal teacup/pot :)

It's quite cute actually, again...with William and Kate's picture on it :)

I was going to post this in the afternoon but i was doing my cross stitch and boy I have never moved soo fast to finish it and finally it's done and right on time! so glad i got a frame that was a perfect fit for it. I ran out the right color of yarns for it so i just used whatever i have, not too happy with the colors though!

Right! gotta get some sleep now, let's gossip again after the wedding :p

Red Nose Day

I know it's abit late to post this but I have been very unproductive this weekend, No Baking, No Crafting and No Going out coz hubby is still feeling unwell, so anyways for those who don't know what Red Nose Day is, you can visit the website and find out more Here.

Basically in the UK, Red Nose Day is a day like no other (on 18th March) when the whole country gets together to do something funny for money and change countless lives in the process.

My husband and I are fans of Jamie Oliver, he has all of his recipes books and I'm glad that He contributed his part on Red Nose Day by selling a mini Baking Recipe book coz I love baking these days so I grabbed it from sainsburys for £3, they also have a cute pin that I could put on my cardi and as for hubby, he bought the silly giggler red face that he managed to annoy me so I could wake up in the morning, right in my ear, it produces the most scariest giggle/laughters that I really tempted to throw it into the bin :) well at least wearing that little red nose that I also bought for the fun of it didnt annoy him coz it doesnt giggle like a maniac :)

I'm glad hubby is feeling abit better, not sure if he's going to go back to work tomorrow but I hope everyone has a better weekend! x