Tuesday, December 30, 2008

どもありがと (Thankyouverymuch)

2008 is coming to a close, and deep down inside, i'm relieved to know that its going to go away soon.

God; For such unconditional love. For not giving up on me. For the countless times i've fallen, You've never failed to pick me up. And for the comfort, especially in times like this.

You-know-who; 2nd on my list. Always the first i think about when i get up in and last when i get to bed. For the past 15 months or so you've been someone i could rely on, a shoulder i could cry on, a comforter, someone that made me smile, to look ahead, telling me things will get better, someone who always makes me laugh with the little silly jokes, someone that take cares of me, most of all, someone who really loves me.

Hann darl; You've been such a great friend, really. And i think i cannot thank you enough for helping me and being with me in pj. You're someone i can trust, to tell all my problems to, a listening ear. So many times you've made me laugh too. I know i'm a whole lot of nonsense and you're influenced too! Hahaha. Thank you for all your company, i'll really miss you.

Pw group aka Yummers!; Mats, Morg, Bee, WC, Py. At first, it was a rough start eh? But look at us now! We've grown pretty close. Just look at the two STs and you'll know. Thanks for all of your company too, and for once, being with all of you made me happy in pj. I'll definitely miss you guys too. For so much silly things we did, like playing in the playground, and the waterbomb thing for Morg's bday. And another thing would be how much fun we had with pw, its hard work, but you all made it fun. I know that i know, we will do well when the results are out in time to come. I'll come back to visit, i promise :)

***

While bathing, some thoughts suddenly came into my head. Like some light out of the vast darkness. Finally i've understood why i did that yesterday.

Yesterday, there was a faint tugging in my heart.

It said, Let go, just let it all go.

Now i understand. And now i shall try to get it out, to explain, to let things get unbottled.

I guess, when things are screwed up, all i want is a fresh start, to find another new, blank page of a book and start all over again. I don't want to fix things, wait, maybe, i've got no courage for that. So a fresh start's the best solution, a do-over.

That's what i've been doing from eons ago. And its the same when it comes to my jc/poly stuff.

Maybe you're right, right about me being too perfectionistic.

You're right about having to appreciate what we have, too.

I'm always hankering after things i don't have.

I told you, i need time.

It doesn't mean its entirely over.

I need time, to CHANGE, and mostly, to heal.

I need to let go of the past where i've been hurt.

"Don't curse it, don't nurse it, don't rehearse it, just RELEASE it"

Monday, December 29, 2008

A trip to remember

OMG you have no idea how long i took to upload all these photos.

But yeah, its all that i have for my trip to Indo.

Lets continue with Bali, shall we?

Below, you can see the map of Bali. Kinda reminds you of Singapore eh? Okay. I've marked the map too. It tells of our destinations. Now let me explain.

The yellow spot is Denpasar, which is where we landed. Then, we had to travel all the way to the orange spot for the first hotel. My goodness! The journey was long. Yes really long. It took about 4 hours i think? x_x

The second day, we travelled all the way back to the green spot, right at the bottom. From one end to another. So its another 4++ hours gone. Pooof.

I know ya'll will ask, "Why travel all the way there just to stay only for a night?"

Well, its 'cause this hotel (Hotel Melka Excelsior) has got special things to see/experience. And no, its nothing supernatural. You'll see later on why.



Our room :D



Now here's the reason why we travelled all the way. Its for swimming with dolphins! :D

Its a pretty cool experience. & when i went in the pool i was really really scared cos they said the dolphins may bite. Okay that sounds weird. But yeah.

And the dolphin's body is actually quite slimy. Like jelly i think? Hahahhaa.



The guy was briefing us on how the dolphins would actually play with us.

What we had to do was to lie back on the water and let them go over you.







Irene looks like she's having fun!



Besides dolphins, they were also a whole lot of other wildlife. Which makes this like a hotel cum wildlife reserve. Hahhah. Okay. Check the next picture out. Its feeding time for the snake.


The way it staares! Omg scary isn't it?



Antelope!

& that was it at that hotel. We were on the road again to travel.

Both pictures below was what i forgot to include in the previous post.



And so, we're back on the road and we've arrived at our next hotel, Inna Putri Bali. This time, a five star one. Ooo that got all of us pretty excited.

What's more, there was a World Junior Wushu Championship going on in Bali so there were lots of Wushu people from around the world. Pity i didn't spot Singapore. But there were lots of good looking guys, especially the ones from South Korea :P

But there was a complication in our booking process. The hotel receptionist told us we could only stay for a night instead of the intended 2 nights cos it was fully booked the next day.

Honestly, i was pretty disappointed at first. But you know what, after we checked in and went into our room, beholdddd... It doesn't look five star-ish at all. Very overrated. And when we walked around the gardens, the lamps weren't even turned on. How nice.

I guess the five star rating is for the facilities. Cos they had a squash court, tennis court etc etc.

After that night, we decided to switch to another hotel instead of staying another night there.


Hotel reception

On the next day, we went for Rafting. Yes, the one in my previous post if you have been following. After we were done we had to travel back and we passed by this reptile park. So we decided to go in.

This park is poorly maintained. And very deserted. The waters were all infested with algae. Its kinda disgusting.

And the protection it offers is OMG. THE BEST I TELL YOU. You are only separated from the crocs with a thin wired fence (As you can see later on) and a small moat.


See how dirty it is?

Then while walking around... We stumbled upon some ducks in a cage. And we thought, hmm, it must be for the crocs to eat.


And, the next part. We (jes, james and i) wanted to buy a duck to feed the croc. Edi was like, "sheeesh, you all are sadistic"

Yeah i guess, but i really wanted to see how it actually goes and eat.

So in the end, we bought 2 ducks and threw it in the enclosure.


You see a croc, but can you spot the duck?

Allow me to zoom in for you.


There you go, this is the last second of the duck, alive.

(Credit goes to edi for photographing that. Really, its only a second or so that it got to swim before the croc emerged outta the waters)

In a split second, its gone.


God bless the two ducks we threw in.

We killed 2 ducks in exchange for feeding 2 hungry crocs. Some lucky crocs, and just 2 very unlucky ducks.

Okay okay, i know, i'm being wayyy too sadistic.

Here's the ironic part of the story.

We actually went to eat ducks right after we threw in two of them. Ya, i know, how very ironic.


Me, with a slice of black russian pie. The rum they put in was tasty.

Now for the ducks. Mmm-mm! Its really good.



This is the part where your mouth is supposed to water :P



While waiting for the duckies to be cooked, we went exploring into the padi fields behind the restaurant.


That pretty much concludes my happy part of my trip in Bali.

Because the next day, i happened to have my period,
AND IT DESTROYED THE REST OF MY TRIP! :((((((((
Really, its a sad sad sad thing because we're going on cruise and the activities in store included riding on a banana boat, going on a submarine boat thingy, snorkelling etc etc. Its all water related activities which i cannot play at all.

Sighhh.

But still, i went on board, thinking maybe i'll just watch them having fun. I mean, there's always a next time right?

Well no. There's another twist. Because i got sea-sick and started throwing up. Plus you know, it was coupled with the cramps in my stomach. So if you add them all up, you don't have to be a genius to know that it actually equals to some very bad sickness.

Its the crampsy-headachey-sea sicknessy illness i got.

So i was on board that ship all day just to lie down in pain.

Then only at night i started feeling better, after i-don't-know-how-many-pills-i've-eaten-just-to-get-better-and-not-well.

The day after that, my mum and grandma flew back to Jakarta first to attend to some wedding dinner while the rest of us still had 2 days left in Bali

Oh yes! I'll show you the hotel room that we stayed in for the rest of the 3 nights of the trip.

We stayed at the Bali Dynasty Resort and got ourselves a 3 kids suites to accomodate all of us. ZOMGGG its awesome. The best hotel i've been to so far, nevermind how many stars it has.



See? It has 1 King, 1 sofa bed and 1 bunk bed ( The one with Sponge Bob Square Pants) There's actually a partition in the room that separates the bunk bed from the king sized bed. & that little kids room actually has a playstation with games in it too.

How awesome is that?!

So when James went into the room he was really reaaaally happy about it. Until he was almost in hysterics. HAHHAHA.

And and, the teevee in it is clear and has got tons of channels, unlike that previous hotel. So having said that, you'll know that i've been staying up to watch lots of teevee. Hehehe.

That very afternoon, we were all supposed to be going to the water theme park. But since i couldn't get into the water at all, i decided to stay behind in the hotel. Y'knw, like chill out.. AND WATCH TEEVEEE. HAHHAHHAH. So it isn't that bad that i'm missing out on some fun.

That night and the last day was reserved for lots and lots of shopping around. WOOOO. I like retail therapy. HAHHAAA.

& the next day, we all bid goodbye to Bali. We'll be back in another 2-3 years i think. (The last time i went there was in '05)

***

Back to Jakarta it was for all of us.

& the day before we left for Singapore, we went for another trip. This time, a road trip to Bandung. Which was were i went last year for a couple of days.

The trip there was also a couple of hours. But ohhh, the fun thing about it was there's no speed limit on the highways of Jakarta so my uncle went at 140km/h at alot of times and it was very thrilling. Hahhahaha. Fun!

Then we went to eat at Sapu Lidi-Lembang. Very very nice place. Its also beside the padi fields and it has a nice atmosphere and concept to it.



Alll of us! YUM YUUUUM!!!! d("-")b Hehhehe.

Then, we drove around for more shoppingg! WOOOOHOOOO. Went to lots of boutiques. Bandung boasts a whole lot of them, its impossible to go to all in a day.

Below are two pictures taken at one of the boutiques we went to.




So all-in-all, that pretty much sums up my trip in Indonesia. Specifically, Jakarta, Bali and Bandung! :D

I'll tell you how much shopping we did. Jes, being the one that did the most. Hahha. I just bought a couple of shirts along with some bags.

When we went back at night to pack for our trip back the next day, we still had to hunt for extra bags to stuff our clothes that we just bought from Bandung. HAHHAH. Busy busy!

We came with about 3-4 luggages i think. And we left there with 10 luggages/boxes checked in!! HAHAHHAHAH. Ain't that awesome or what?

But that left us with around 2 hours of unpacking and putting it into our cupboards when we came back.

Okay i'm finally done. Y'knw, this post took me about 4 hours to upload/type. My goodness! But yeah, since i haven't been blogging that frequently i might as well do a mega one. Hahahha.

Next year end, we're aiming to go to Gold Coast/Phuket! ;)

Friday, December 26, 2008

Ba-lee

Merry Christmas, everyone! (I know its late, but, whatever.)

Had tons of events leading up to xmas this year. Busy, but i had a whole lot of fun.

& Of course, what's Christmas without going to church to celebrate it? Hahahha, the drama they put up was awesome.

This particular christmas is different for me though. Its the same ol' one. Xmas i mean, but yeah something's just different, in a good way.

Well yesterday, like i said, i went to church, then we all went to eat, yadah yadaared and then we went off to go for Uncle Dudung's house for the xmas party we have every year.

This year's one is one of the best yet! We (us kids) were offered wine to taste. Haaaa. We can only do that in his house. Mmm, so we got to taste ice wine, sakae and red wine. I think i like the ice wine best, cause its sweeet :P

Well, i think mum drank quite alot too, her whole face was red. As red as the blouse she was wearing. I don't think she's drunk but yeah, like edi said, drunk people don't admit they're drunk.

Mmmm, and after that, we played Monopoly. Omg i hadn't played that in ages since i've given my set to James. But yes it was a whole lot of fun. Especially when Ryan's neighbour Jonathan came over to join us and then it became havoc. It was hard to concentrate with everyone laughing a whole lot.

We stayed till 12. HAHAHAH. I ended up sleeping at around 2. Wooo. I'm becoming more nocturnal rather than an early sleeper. The latter apparently flew outta my window.

& later we might be going over again. Bring on another round of monopoly! :P

But first, mum wants to catch a movie so we're all going to go :D

Oh yes, i did upload some pictures :)

This was taken at some park at the mountains in Bali. We passed by when we're on our 3 hour journey to our next hotel.







& yesss i've got something to tell ya'll. Did i mention my mother is a pro at taking jumpshot pics? OMGG its like, its a success everytime, only that we didn't respond well enough to jump at her count of 3. HAHHAHHA.

Failed.

Its James' first time at jumpshot. HAHHAHHA Funny. We all keep laughing when we try to mimic his pose up there, in the picture.


So yea, that would be it. I'll upload more another day, got a movie to catch right now (;

Toodles.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Rafting @ Bali

& then we all went rafting while in Bali.

I'm telling you, it was AWESOMEZZ!

All getting ready to climb down a 500 steps staircase to the river

Its a long way down. Really.


And finally we've reached the river! Still very dry.

Then we rafted until a waterfall. And yes we were all soaking wet by then. Hahaha.








& look at our contented faces after 2 hours of rafting :D



:D :D It was my first time rafting. FUNNNNNN! I like-e! Hehehe. Next time we'll go for the whitewater rafting. I bet that'll be more thrilling than this normal river one.

But we were lucky that it rained while we were rafting.

(This way it makes the current go faster, and thus more thrilling)

Now i shall be off to bake choc chip cookies with edi&jes. They started without me! Hahhah. So i shall go, like, right now.

Heees, bye! :D