ring..ring..

guess what. i got a call back from the company.

it's the company i did the interview with in the previous post. actually i wasn't expecting to get the second call, so it came rather as a surprised. oh well, we'll see how it goes. :p

i need a pick-me-up.

absolutely have no desire no work whatsoever today. hmm. i wonder why. and lately i've been noticing that i keep waking up in the middle of the night, around 2-3am. trigger could be anything, ranging from hot weather, cold weather, cat fighting, weird dreams, etc. but the they always resulted in me getting up and can't get back to sleep for a while.

maybe i should've gone back to taking cough medicine everynight.

judes-mode: full on!!

terkutuklah semua mall pada saat2 berikut ini:

- weekend pertama film keren baru tayang. misalnya, weekend ini ada transformers. ngantri lebih gila daripada orang rebutan BLT. tadi di premiere puri aja baru setengah jam loket buka tiket sudah habis sampai yang jam 9an. di TA loket belum buka ngantrinya udah sampai skating ring. sinting.

- midnight sale. gak tau kenapa ya. padahal di jam2 biasa juga harganya tetep di diskon.. tapi kenapa mesti - sekali lagi - kenapa mesti datengnya malem2??? padahal dengan harga udah di diskon aja tetep gak kebeli tuh baju2. :P lagian gw bingung juga. sebetulnya mereka mampu gak sih beli tu barang2 diskon-anjing-tapi-tetep-mahal? kalo mampu, ngapain ngejar yg diskonan? kalau gak mampu... bo!! tau diri deh! kalo gak mampu beli barang merek harga normal, gak usah sok pake2 barang merek. beli aja di ambas!! banyak juga kok yg kece. *judes berat*

- liburan sekolah. mall2 jadi (tambah) penuh dengan abg2 gawol yang dandan maksimal, menggerombol di mana2 (terutama tempat2 makan yang dulu pas gw sma sih gak mungkin terjangkau kecuali kalau bapak gw punya pabrik). lebih ngeselin lagi kalau pas lagi kongkow2 pada saling pamer hp2 canggih yg dibeliin bapaknya. apalagi kalau sampai ada perkataan seperti ini :

"aduuh bb storm? gw pengen banget tuuh! tapi bokap gw gak kasih..jadi akhirnya gw dibeliinnya bb bold aja deeh!!"

anjrot! abg2 kayak gitu perlu dibasmi dari muka bumi kayaknya.

- habis nonton trus ngantri wc. b-e-n-c-i m-a-k-s-i-m-a-l!! tapi kalo kebelet, ya apa boleh buat terpaksa cari wc terdekat, which is wc bioskop. tadi malah sempet2nya pake acara judes2an lagi. abis.... habis bubaran bioskop, tentunya banyak lah cewek2 yg ngantri di wc. udah ngantri tertib2 (ngantri rapi di mulut gang sebelum pintu2 wc..bukan di depan pintu gitu ya..) tiba2 ada mbak2 nyelak pengen ngantri di depan pintu. kontan lah gw jutekin, dan dibantuin sama temen gw. si mbak saking mokalnya sampai mundur dan keluar, gak jadi pipis di situ. :p miss judes is in da house yoo.

speaking of judes, liat link ini deh. kok kayaknya LEBAYYYYY banget ya itu orang?? :p

questions of the day

weirdest questions on an application form:

1. vehicle: __________
type: _____ year: _________
who owns it: parents / self / rented / others: _________

(why does it matter? are you going to give me a car??? can i ask for another model then?)

2. have you been re-born? if yes please briefly explain.

(what the.........??? i know what it means, but .. please deh, what does this have to do with my quality of work?)

3. have you been baptized in water? if yes please briefly explain.

(hah? @#^@#$%!^???)

4. have you been baptized in Holy Spirit? if yes please briefly explain.

(sampai sini gw udah hilang minat untuk kerja di tempat itu. hihihiihi...)

weirdest office rule:

5.
she: "do you mind if you have to attend daily morning prayer in the chapel?"
me: "what, is it mandatory?"
she: "no, it's not mandatory. but it's required and the boss'd usually insist that you attend."
me: "sounds mandatory to me then."

(i don't even think it's legal to make someone attend daily morning prayer if they don't want to.., isn't it?)

and to think i drove all the way to lippo cikarang for this. *sighing dramatically*. i should've just continued driving all the way to bandung, did some shopping and relaxing, and headed back to jakarta.

...

come to think of it, i might do it sometime soon. planning a trip (yes, again) stresses me out. i suppose this is what you get when you try to compromise two working schedules, two different interests (outdoor and mall? come on... should we camped in the mall then?) and to top it all off, do all of the planning from half a world away. urgh.

family talks

the ganda-series family.

for those who happens to know me quite well know how small my nuclear family is. not many know that i also have a hugeeee extended family, both from my dad's and mom's side.

my grandparents from my mom's side for example. although my grandpa was an only child, my grandma was the oldest of 9. and from my dad's side, my grandma was the oldest of 7. and then the youngest brother got 7 children of his own. so you could imagine i have to memorize a LOT of names and relations. half of them live abroad, but many still live in indo, so i get to see them from time to time.

because of the confusing generation in my dad's side, (my dad was 9 y.o before his brother came along..and i think he was already in high school when his first cousin was born) i get to have babies and toddlers for cousins and my youngest uncle was only 5 years older than me. which is why i can call him by name, without the usual 'oom'. :D from my mom's side is better.. at least i have cousins of the same age. and we do have plenty of doctors from both side of the family. my mom's the only general practitioner, but all of my mom's siblings are dentists. and then on my dad's side..... we get more than 10 doctors in the family. some became academics (one of my grandma was a professor), many became specialists.

this was taken july 12th, 08. one of my uncle and his family (from my dad's side) visited indo from canada (he's a hand surgeon. his wife is a general practitioner. see, plenty of doctors!) most of us came to the reunion, although not all can make it. many has died (including my grandma/grandpa, and several other grandmas grandpas) but we do have a lot of additional to the family (hence the little cousins!!). for figurative purposes, hence the whole family showed up for the photo, it'll be twice as big. this was only half of the family member. :>

it took plenty of takes to get the perfect pic where everybody is IN the pic and not looking weird or got cut off the frame. :D this was the most perfect. :)


i can't imagine how the photographer would take the pic if everybody had showed up. :D

what i do when i'm bored

while blogwalking i stumbled upon this cute blog. i don't know who she is but she has some quirky sense of fashion. i don't think i like her personal choices, but it does look good on her. and then i found out she does art work. here's an example:


what more can i say by ~poop-art on deviantART

nice.

speaking of nice, i had a nice bordering on wonderful weekend too. started with a trip to the plasa senayan theatres to watch startrek (unlimited buy one get one free for mandiri debit? haha! move over bca!!), followed by shoe shopping and then dinner at pancious. i got myself a reebok to replace my broken nike. and since i've recently tossed out my old shoes and sandals, i have more room to buy new ones. i do need a formal shoes for work when it gets serious.

so on sunday after church i went to TA with my parents to go hunt for more shoes. i got two.. :p :p :p one red and white flats from choccolat, and another cute nude flat from yongki. i wanted to buy a formal looking flat from choccolat, but it doesn't sit right on my feet so i decided to buy the nude color, which is more comfortable, cheaper and cuter. :D and more. i love sale season. i just hope i still have money to pay for my credit card bills. :D

i get to see JK up close!!! :D

pertama kalinya gw bikin acara yang dihadiri oleh pejabat penting pemerintahan. dalam hal ini, capres pula! :D :D sayang acaranya sendiri kurang menarik (at least buat gw). tapi ada bbrp hal lain yg cukup menarik perhatian, terutama berkaitan dengan protokoler dan paspampres.

1. kira2 10-9 jam sebelum acara dimulai (atau sebelum pres/wapres dateng ke lokasi), beberapa orang paspampres berbatik sudah nangkring di venue. gak ngapa2in, cuma scouting area aja. oh sebelumnya malah sudah muncul sekitar 2-3 orang personil dari mabes polri.

sejauh ini sih panggung belom jadi (baru 30%). gw yg nangkring dari jam 7 lewat aja sempet kaget pas liat. hehe.

2. kira2 2 jam kemudian pasukan berbatik tambah banyak, menggerombol di pintu2 masuk menuju venue. tidak galak tapi cukup mengintimidasi karena jumlah yang banyak. biasanya mereka akan mencanangkan screening venue, untuk membersihkan venue dari segala hal-hal yang dibenci: bom, senjata api, senjata tajam, orang nekad dan lain2. kemarin sih dicanangkan waktu screening adalah jam 1. tapi by that time panggungnya baru berdiri basicnya doang dan masih banyak orang kerja. jadi nda bisa. undur ke jam 3.

3. jam 3, personil TAMBAH BANYAK. tapi gak jadi screening juga. karena panggung tetap belum 50% jadi......... bagaimana ini. mo live (in a matter of speaking, krn ini acara off air yang di taped) tapi panggungnya belum jadi. wings yg jumlahnya 8 baru naik 3... hihihi. panitia mulai resah, .. kita juga. :D

4. jam 5: semua area sudah di secure, pintu utama ballroom dipasangin metal detector, dan paspampres sudah menjaga semua pintu masuk area.... impressive. tapi tetep aja panggung gw belom selesai. keliatan banget tukang2 supplier yang bikin panggung udah pada mulai stress. hehe.

5. jam 6 peserta munas sudah pada ngumpul, terutama yang dari daerah, sambil nonton cek sound para artis yang akan manggung. panggung akhirnya jadi. itupun karena kita korupsi (ada wings yg gak kita pasang. hehe. proyek sangkuriang berhasil kembali). mulai banyak kerjaan. pasukan paspampres mulai nyaru dengan peserta munas karena semua orang berbatik. tapi tetep aja loh, motif batik paspampres paling bagus. hihihi. sayang mereka gak seperti bayangan gw. tadinya gw pikir mereka adalah pria2 berotot keker gitu.. kok gak taunya banyak juga yg tampangnya masih culun dan krempeng.

6. minus 1 jam dari schedule, kita belum dapat kabar kapan pak wapres akan tiba. jadi kita santai2 aja. kabarnya sih masih menghadiri undangan.. . jadi kita mulai aja dengan acara off air yg isinya adalah kangen band. ternyata tiba2 ada paspampres berdiri di seblah gw (gw di FOH) yang bilang "bapak sudah otw!! 15 menit lagi!" oh? ok. tapi itu diulang setiap menit.... bapak sudah di cawang. bapak sudah masuk tol. kapan ini lagunya brenti? bapak sudah mau sampe. bapak sudah di pintu tol. lagunya stop aja mbak. bapak 5 menit lagi sampai. bilang mbak monica lagunya diberhentikan saja (padahal lagunya emang cuma 1 itu doang dan udah mo abis juga. sampai sini gw udah mulai senewen). bapak sudah keluar tol dan masuk kuningan. bapak sudah putar. bapak sudah didepan.

by this time semua orang sudah berdiri siap menyambut pak wapres. pasukan paspampres dan panitia sudah membentuk pagar bagus (abis kalau dibilang pagar betis ya gak juga) dari pintu ke pintu. dan gw jadi grogi karena baru pertama kali bisa liat pak wapres dari deket. hihihihi. seriously, norak abis. sampe gemeter loh bo. hihihihi.

tapi bener aja loh. gak sampe 2 menit (walaupun rasanya lama banget) iring2an mobil pak wapres tiba di lobby.. dan pak wapres langsung masuk. hebat.

the rest of the show cukup lancar walaupun harus ada perubahan2 rundown karena pak wapres harus pergi jam 9 on the dot karena ada acara lain.

7. di tengah kericuhan peserta yang mendadak liar begitu disuguhi the virgin (eh bukan sebagai korban persembahan loh ya...) gw sempet2nya digodain sama peserta dari gorontalo yang berusaha minta no telp gw. halaaaaaaaah!! untung gak jelek2 banget orangnya, jadi gw gak terlalu eneg2 amat... hehe. waktu gw tolak dengan halus dia sempet bilang "apa perlu saya cari kamu ke antv?" berhubung gw yakin dia gak tau nama gw, ya gw bilang aja "oh silahkan aja pak." :D cari deh sana sampe bego.

ehaiwehaoeaiuehaoeha. aneh skali.

8. setelah semua kru bubar jalan, dan gw juga udah nyampe kantor dan akan pulang ke rumah, mendadak PA gw dapet telp: ada 2 cameraman ketinggalan di venue. LAH KOK BISAAA? pas yg laen ribut2 ikut angkutan, mereka kemanaaa? aneh sekali.

all in all, it was a job well done. and i get to see someone important up close. yippy.

australia part 3: rest of cairns & melbourne

the liveaboard ended on the 3rd day, so at 2pm we transferred back to the smaller boat that'd take us back to cairns. i still hate the boat, but at least there weren't so many people on board, and i didn't have to do anything but stare at the horizon. :D oh, i did buy some photos of me underwater. (actually, my friend bought them for me. hee hee).

the diving tour agent took us back to our hotel (a different one, this time rydges plaza located at the city centre, across the street from gilligan's). we took time to take a shower and only went out to have dinner at a sushi train restaurant. ergh, we should've picked another restaurant, cos the sushi wasn't very good. oh, and we also went to gilligan's tour shop to book our daily tours for the next day. we decided to do kuranda scenic train on the morning and peronella park for the day after.

day 6: kuranda
a big bus picked us up at the hotel at 7.15 on the dot. apparently this is a very popular tour, so the driver must pick up a lot of people before continuing our journey to freshwater, up north of cairns. at freshwater we'll board the scenic train heading to kuranda.

oh, there are actually two choices of how you want to do this trip.
1. train by morning, skyrail by afternoon.
2. skyrail by morning, train by afternoon.
i suggest that you do the first choice, cos the sun is better for taking photos and the view from the train is unbelievable.

the train ride takes about 50 minutes with plenty of scenery surprises. at the almost end of the track the train stops for 15 minutes so that passengers can take photos of the beautiful barron falls. after that the train arrived at a cute station.

from station to village it's only a 5 minute walk in nice weather, so we opted to walk and ditch the free shuttle bus. we got 5 hours to spend in the village (the skyrail departs at 1.45 or 3.30, which ever you booked). so after lunch and a bit of shopping (yes, they have all kinds of stuff there!) we went to see the bird sanctuary ($17). it's not large, but it's a whole lotta fun. you get all kinds of beautiful parrots sitting on your shoulder. you can buy bird food for $2 for a big bag. after that we went to see butterfly park ($16), which is equally breath-taking but not as fun as the birds. it's a bit hard to take photos of the butterflies. :D then at last we went to the wild sanctuary ($17) where you get to see walabies (can pet and feed them for free), wombat, koala, alligators, and a sleepy phyton. for $40 per person you get tickets for all entrance. and then you get another $2 per person discount voucher when you board the train. so it's a bargain you must see.

going home by the skyrail is equally breathtaking. you can board anytime you like around the time designated for your departure. the skyrail takes 50 minutes but you get 2 stops where you can walk around and take photos. since our bus (that'll take us back to the hotel) would leave at 4.30, we didn't stop very long, but it was still fun.

dinner was at a byo thai restaurant. food was excellent.

day 7 : peronella park, milla milla
i gotta say i can't remember all the names of the places we went this day, except the few names i mentioned above. basically for this tour, we went south of cairns to the top of the mountains (called tablelands) where they produce sugar and dairy products. the most memorable places are:

paronella park. a beautiful park you must see. it was build by a spannish engineer for his wife and 2 kids. it was simply breathtaking. too bad the tour was a bit rushed. i'd've loved to stay there longer. this waterfall is actually a dam, built for the owner's hydro electric generator (first of its kind back then). apparently in the old days you could swim there (i sat at the diving board), but nowadays you can't.

milla milla (aboriginal for waterfall waterfall). aboriginal language doesn't have adjectives so they merely repeat the word twice to emphasize. this is a quite huge waterfall. too bad you still can't swim there, although the water was very clear. (there's a dairy farm nearby, and they're afraid you might get bacteries from the cows).

we got home a bit late from all the excursions but it was fun. too bad we didn't have time to do the daintree rainforest and the capetribulation. oh well, we'll do it some other time. i'm sure we'll be back, someday.

oh dinner on the last day in cairns was frustrating. my friend suddenly had an epiphany that he had to eat indian food at a particular resto he's been seeing for the past week. so we went around the block to find this resto. apparently, he couldn't find it!! so we kept circling the city centre trying to find an indian restaurant. along the way we went past 3 indian restaurant, and he wants what he couldn't find. great. finally, after about an hour (it was almost 9, i was hungry and anxious that all the restaurants would be closed soon) he relented and we ate at a rather crowded indian restaurant. the food turned out to be excellent. lamb curry, prawn cooked in coconut milk, garlic canai... excellent!! he was still upset that he couldn't find the resto he wanted. i was just glad i could eat.

day 1 - melbourne
our flight to melbourne was a bit more disastrous than the previous flight. first we couldn't book the shuttle bus back to the airport at the $7 price, so we had to book from the hotel, which is $10 per pax. then the bus was late to pick us, so we were a bit worried. luckily we had enough time before check in, and managed to grab a bite to eat before boarding the plane (i don't know why i didn't fly with qantas domestic!!! should've!! much more convenient. ... oh now i remember. price. :D). we arrived in melbourne at 3pm, and waited for my friend to pick us up.

this time we stayed at the travelodge southbank, located at the lower part of eureka tower (the highest tower in melbourne now, i heard). room was a bit small, but it's nice. after that all four of us went further to southbank to grab a late lunch at a new indonesian resto called garamerica. delicious. i ordered sop buntut and gado2 for my friend. the sop buntut was delicious but the gado2 not as much. we met up with another couple friend of mine, have a chat, and then get ready for dinner (err.. yes, we ate 2 meals that day).

dinner was at sofia, an greek owned italian resto famous for its huge portion. too bad i forgot to take photos. at that time i was shivering really bad cos of the cold weather. i didn't even enjoy the walk from the car park to the resto (yes, a mere 2 minute walk) cos it was freezing.

day 2
we took a stroll down swanston st to buy some souvenirs. i'm mostly amazed at how the place have changed in 9 years i haven't been there. melbourne central is a huge crowded complex now. and dockland is beautiful... we took the free city circle tram ride to see docklands area. wish i'd stopped by now. it was raining in the afternoon so we just relax in the hotel room, eating churros with chocolate dip we bought earlier. it was nice. :)

for dinner we went to *jrengjreng*... another indo resto at the city. called es teler!! haha.. yes they have es teler there! too bad the otak2 goreng wasn't as good as the one in jakarta. but the food was nice. i ordered kari udang for me, and nasi goreng kambing for my friend. i gotta say it's good to see my friends again after all these years.

i don't know what's going on, but i heard and saw unbelievable things while in melbourne. first, when i was souvenir shopping, i overheard a girl said "hey there's a stabbing in melbourne central!! let's get the hell outta here!". great! melb central was only 2 blocks away. then at night on the way back to the hotel we saw a car crashed in front of flinders station. lots of police and fire-rescue there. whoa.

there! that concludes my travel so far. after melbourne i went back to sydney (a 9am flight... i was already jittery from all the packings and getting up at 5am in the morning) and we had to take the taxi back to the airport cos they don't have shuttle bus in melbourne, unless we go to the spencer st station. ugh. taxi cost $50 but under the circumstances, i'd take it again anytime.

in sydney airport we transfered from domestic to international ($5 train ride) so my friend could check in for his flight back to US. and then i went back to the city to do some more shopping. really. while walking along pitt st mall i heard a girl scream "THIEF!!!". whoa!!! then i saw a chinese guy running really fast, and the girl right behind him, and another 2 guys (one in satpam uniform) chasing after the thief. and the girl kept on screaming so more guys went after the thief. naturally i stopped to see what happen next. less than 5 minutes, the thief was captured. oh. :D what a drama. that's it, enough drama (and cold weather) for me. so i went to kinokuniya and bought some books and sat the cafe for about 2 hours.

dinner was at a japanese resto in world square. i ordered wagyu terriyaki .... aweeeesooommme!! must say i really like all the resto my bro picked. yummm. food in sydney doesn't disappoint.

anyways, what a great trip. it's nice to see almost all of my friends again after all these years.
:D


i'm already thinking about my next trip. :D

australia part 2: cairns & great barrier reef

located at the northeast side of australia, cairns is blessed with tropical weather, great sceneries, and good food. during winter it rains quite often, but whilst i was there (7 days), it rained only for the first 2 days. after that we got clear blue sky all the rest of the week. fantastic. some people might say port douglas is a better destination, but i think cairns is nice. it's not a big town, and the city centre is all about tourists, souvenir shops, hotels, restaurants, and tour agents. :D very easy to find food, arrange daily tours, and meet people. mind you, prices are a bit expensive.


day 1 - may 31.
from the airport you can take the shuttle bus to your hotel. just go to the counter (very easy to spot as it's not a big airport) and pay $7 per person. the bus would drop you in front of your hotel. being picky and demanding we chose to stay at the sebel harbour lights. the hotel itself wasn't very glamorous despite the 4.5 stars reputation, but the location was superb! pas banget di pinggir laut, dengan akses ke reef terminal only 5 minutes walk away. you can actually walk to the beach via the harbour walk, which is very nice when the weather is sunny.

it was raining when we were ready to find dinner.. so we ended up taking a stroll along the harbour walk, selecting restaurants as we go. the restaurants along the walk were expensive, so i don't recommend it if you have limited budget. however we were too lazy to walk 2 blocks to the city centre in the rain, so we ended up having a really delicious seafood dish for 2. it cost a lot, but it was worth it! fried calamaries, shrimps hot and cold, breaded scallops, oysters, clams, lobster, baked fish.. you name it they have it. they even give cold tropical fruits as part of the dish. naturally i took all the grapes back to the hotel with me. :D yumm.

day 2
we had the day free so we took a stroll around the city to find something for lunch (greek food. yumm!). after that we went to the harbour and look at the boats. apparently a lot of the local people own a boat (or yacht, some of the boats look big to me). lots of people spent their afternoon fishing. one particular korean guy seemed to have something stuck on his fishing line, so we stopped and watch for a while. it looked like he got something big caught in the line, and whatever that was was trying to swim away. we ended up waiting for more than an hour just to see what he's got. a lot of people stopped by and watched too. one old couple malah sempet2nya nyelesaiin afternoon walk mereka dan kemudian balik lagi untuk nonton si orang korea ini selesai fishing. :D too bad, after all the wait, we had to come home disappointed krn kailnya copot.... padahal udah deket loh, udah tinggal diangkat doang. darn. everybody was equally disappointed. lots of "tough luck, mate" were given to the poor korean guy.

dinner was at chinese resto. actually we were so tired that afternoon that we fell asleep, and didn't come out of our hotel until near 9pm. all the resto were closed but this one chinese restaurant. fortunately the food didn't disappoint.

day 3 : liveaboard
we got up early ready for the cruise tour to pick us up at the hotel. i thought they're going to pick us up at 7am, but apparently they didn't. a slight panic occured, but everything turned out well. we got picked up, went to the tour office to check in, and then went back to the reef terminal to board the vessel.

the boat.. ahh... how do i describe the boat except that i don't like the way it moved!!! made me seasick for a whole day. jadi gini. me and my friend already booked this liveaboard diving trip previously. we get to stay 2 nights on the vessel, and dive every 2 hours (or so) at different reefs. but to get to the vessel we need to get on a smaller boat, jammed-pack with other tourists looking for a chance to snorkel and dive for a day. along the way (an hour boat ride to the first destination) the instructor would brief us about safety equipments, how to snorkel, how to dive, etc. i took the intro to scuba dive class, which means i get to dive up to 5 times. 2 times on the first day.

i was actually so sea-sick that moment that i didn't want to go anywhere except dry land. but when i did force myself to snorkle, the seasick lessen. plus the gorgeous view below made me push myself to go on the first dive. it was aweeeessoomee!! first attempt going down was a bit of a mess, cos i have a phobia about going into murky water where i can't see the bottom of, but i managed to calm myself and follow the instructor. oh, i lost one of my contact lens when snorkelling, so my vision was slightly blurred. i didn't have the strength to put on a spare because of the seasick but at least i can see. hehe.

the second dive was even better. i was no longer afraid, but still had some troubles trying to float about. i also cut my finger on a coral whilst trying to watch a clown fish eat. hrgh.

around 2pm we transferred to the vessel (ocean quest). it's a bigger boat, so it doesn't move as much as the first boat. i was still seasick but glad to find hot scones for tea (a bit too sweet but still delicious with thick cream and pieces of strawberries in it). half an hour later i was to go on the third dive. this time the water's a bit murky so i couldn't see too clearly. at first i thought it was my missing lens and foggy goggles, but turned out all the other divers experienced the same thing.

during dinner (lamb chop and roasted veggies... plus salad bar and all you can eat bread roll. yummy!!!) we sat near one particular girl who couldn't stop talking. we made a mental note to try and sit as faaar away as possible from her. lol.

day 4-5
onboard the vessel they have 6 diving schedules.
dive 1: 6.30am
dive 2: 9am
dive 3: 11am
dive 4: 2.30pm
dive 5: 4.30pm
dive 6: 7.30pm (night dive)

me and my friend were too lazy to join the morning dive, so we took the 9am dive. the weather was nice, and the reef (a different one from the previous day) was blooming with lots to see. i finished my last 2 diving schedules, and then spent the rest of the days sunbathing and reading magazines. i was reluctant to snorkle alone, and had to pay more if i want to dive. being the cheapo that i am, i naturally declined the option and went for the free sunbathing instead. i gotta say life is good. :D :D

australia part 1: sydney

as i said, it took months of planning for my trip this time. not just because i know it'll cost a lot of money, but also because it involved going with someone who lives half a world away. fortunately, we were able to figure out a specific destination, managed to negotiate and compromise on a lot of things, and wriggled ourselves out of work at the same time.


day 1 - may 28
i arrived first in syd. went home to my bro's place, and then spend the first half of the day sleeping and shivering. man, i know it's winter time down under, but the house was freaking cold. and no heater at all in the entire house! after that i went out to the city to grab some lunch (thai food, oh so delicious. so unlike thai food in indo) and then do some city exploring with my bro. i forgot to bring his camera so we relied on my ixus.

good thing the weather was perfect blue. we went to the government house, then to sydney opera house, cross the street over to the rock area (which is the early settlement of sydney), and then walked across the harbour bridge (which is ... a LOOONGG way to go), go down the bridge to a park (ada luna park juga di sydney tapi sayang tutup), and then got the bus back to darling harbour. too bad the battery died so we couldn't take anymore pictures. we took the bus back to darling harbour and drank hot choco (me) and ate choc black forest ice cream (my bro) at the lindt cafe. excellent! too bad they don't have it here in indo.

when nighttime fell we went to see sydney opera house again, cause they're having the viv'd festival. old buildings and the rooftop of SOH were bathe in gorgeous lights that changed design every 10-20 minutes. dinner was at lowenbrau, a german resto famous for its beer, i was told. thanks to my bro's friends, sempet2nya gw disuruh maju ke depan resto untuk berpartisipasi dalam chicken dance dan mainin lagu edelweiss pake bell. haiyaa!! dah gitu gak bisa difoto lagi krn batre kamera abis. ARGH!


day 2
gotta get up early to the airport to pick up my friend. it was only 7am, so we couldn't check in to his hotel yet. so we ended up waiting in paddys market, for a dimsum breakfast at marigold, a chinese resto just across the street. worth the wait.. the dimsum was excellent. after that, we went back to his hotel so he could get some nap. we tried taking a stroll around the city in the afternoon but it rained the whole day so we ended up getting back to his place so i can get a hot shower and change clothes. i hate sydney in winter. i don't know how i could get used to the cold weather. but i love civilized country. not that i hate indo, it's just that being in a city where the people know how to queue and the streets don't have sampah all over the place is very nice.

dinner was at a korean resto, madang. ini kayak hanamasa but korean style. so we grill our own meat. deliciousssss! a must-visit-again resto! letaknya di gang gitu.. but very crowded. harus antri agak lama, and in the middle of rain, it wasn't very pleasant to do. fortunately the food was worth the wait.

day 3
got up early again to take pictures of sydney opera house (again! but this time the 2 guys brought their camera equipment along and i get to play with the video camera..) and then take the ferry to whatson bay and then bus to bondi beach. we missed the first ferry, so had to wait for the next one. it was freezing cold, and once we got to whatson bay, it was raining. me and my friend were cold and wet and did not enjoy the walk very much. so eventually we went into an asian noodle resto. the food was so so (chicken laksa for the 2 guys, crispy noodle with shredded duck for me) but the resto was warm and dry. so we were very reluctant to go out. but eventually the sun showed up and we managed to take the walk along the bondi beach. phew.

actually bondi beach is really beautiful, if it hadn't been for the rain, that is.

now this is an ocean pool. which means the pool is located next to the sea. kalau ada ombak gede, ya.. airnya masuk ke dalem kolam. keliatannya seru.

the photo opportunity was fun. but all the powerwalk my bro made me do and the rainy weather wasn't very inviting, so i ended up having aches all over my body. i was relieved to go back to the city by train, which means we don't have to walk a lot. :D yes, me and my lazy ass were tired. come to think of it, i complained a lot about the walk, and my friend complained a lot about the lousy weather. lol. what a perfect companion we made.

we then went to a famous resto, called hurricane at the darling harbour. they serve the BEST baby back ribs ever!! yumm! again, a must visit resto when in sydney. mind you the place is always fully booked. if you want to get a place without a reservation, show up no later than 5pm. otherwise you'd have a long queue ahead of you. if you do want to reserve, do so 2 weeks in advance.

after that we split up. deny went with his friend, and i and my friend went with deny's other friend's car. we agreed to meet at luna park to take photos of the sydney opera house with viv'd. when we got out of the plaza, the harbour was lighted with fireworks. apparently it was darling harbour's birthday.. so we ended up watching the fireworks for a while. very fortunate, cos after that it rained for the whole night. we ended up sitting in the car, not being able to see anything worthwhile. so deny's friend took us back home. phew. no more walk for the night.

tomorrow, we have to board the plane to cairns. now i gotta say i really looovveeee this place. the sun's warm, the ocean looks inviting, and the holiday experience was... let's just say i had a blast.



wish i could stay longer.

back to reality

i'm baaaaack.


kalau di recap, liburan gw adalah sbb: 4 hari kedinginan, 7 hari jemur2 di bawah matahari (hence the photo above), lalu 4 hari kedinginan lagi. in short, i had a blast! too bad vacation's over now.

*sigh*

kapan ya bisa cuti lagi? :D