The last 6 days of December (26th - 31st)

26th December, Friday

Hung out with Dennise and Darren again today. Went to Kota Kasablanka, a new mall that I have never been to. It was located in Kuningan. The five of us : including Vivi and Helen, ate at Kyochon. Guess who's the representative guy of this chicken restaurant, it's none other than Lee Min Ho. His face is literally everywhere, on the walls, as cardboard cutouts, on plastic bags, on those papers that are put underneath your cutleries on tables (I suddenly forgot what it's called). But the food there was good! I love the chicken and the salad was not at all bad. The fried rice was a bit spicy though, but hey, who doesn't need spice in life, even fried rice needs spice to give it a little kick. 

After lunch, we went around to shop! I bought some clothes from H&M! They were having a promo that if you bought a minimum of 750k, you would get a free bag. The bag was kind of a clutch thingy but at least it could be of some good use to parties or other formal events. I don;t have that kind of bag. I usually just use the bag that I have which was a backpack, which doesn't look formal at all, so yeah this is a very useful haul. I felt bad thought about the expenditure, it's so much, although it's not just my clothes it's with vivi and helen too.  But yea we were a bit worried that our parents would scream at us from spending that much, although unexpectedly we didn't get shout off. 

After shopping we decided to eat some desserts before going home, Ate at Sumoboo. When we were about to get our table, Darren's tremors got worse and Dennise and him had to go to the pharmacy to buy some med to ease the pain. It was heart-wrenching seeing Darren trembling involuntarily and I could not do anything as I literally did not what to say out of it. Such a failure as a medsci student. Anyway, he lied down after getting his med, while we ate our desserts while waiting for the driver to pick us up. It was quite an experience though. Hope he gets well soon ! 

nutella bomb

27th December, Saturday

I am 19 y'all! Time goes by so fast. Can't believe this is my last year before I reach 20. I am not ready! Time is not on my side!!! AAAA! Anyway, I was very grateful that people remembered my bday. I am very touched though! Thank you so much people, I was kinda happy although at some point I was kinda not looking forward to my bday. I had such a good time today though.

I ate bakmi bule for breakfast! Noodles on bdays, that's a tradition alright. Then, I went to the mall with my sisters and mom. Dad couldnt come because he had to errands. Oh well, the five of us went around and bought clothes. It was fun! I should have done this in previous years. We rode the taxi to Taman Anggrek and by the time we were about 2 blocks away from the mall, there was a huge traffic. We decided to get off the taxi and walked from thereon. The road was super congested and there was no pedestrian for us to walk on. So it was such a struggle and the 2 blocks felt like a lifetime. It was a drizzling a little and the road was mushy and muddy, there were a lot of motorcycles. I was paranoid I could slip and caused a commotion but we were alright! Our feet were dirty but oh well. We shopped and shopped.. Then for dinner we ate sushi at Hachi-Hachi Sushi! Usually we don't eat sushi as a family since dad despises it but this time we ate it since he was not there. 

It was a great day, and I felt kinda tired after a long day walking. Oh and I even got a cake from Ie Susan. And it had been a while since I had a cake with my name written on it and there was even a 19th written on it. I was happy :) I even called them to say thank you. 

28th December, Sunday

We had church in the morning and the passage today was taken from Philippians 3:12-15 about Christians having to press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (v14).

Then after church I helped out at the children's library with Vivi. I had to cover new books with plastic which is such a weird hobby of mine. The teachers were going to be distributed new books for next year's materials to the kids. It was fun up till the second I stabbed myself with a staples. It hurt but luckily it didn't bleed as my next injury. So my next injury was when I tried helping out cutting unripe fruits to be mixed with a sauce to make rujak. They don't have a chopping board so we just had to do it without them. The reason I stayed there was also because of Mom's student who had not being picked up by her parents yet from church. She was in the fifth grade and she suddenly cried because she taught she was being abandoned as there were no signs of her parents picking her up. Anyway enough talking about her because this was just a blame game as I thought me slicing my finger up would not have happened if Mom, Vivi and I had just gone home right after mom had finished teaching and vivi and my job at the library were done. So, there I was trying to cut the hard bengkoang, and I was doing alright at first but I could feel the teacher beside me was looking at me that I was doing the wrong thing, but at first it was alright, I chopped up some, but when it got smaller, the knife missed the bengkoang and cut my left index finger. I tried to withstand it and tried to cover it, and acted like nothing happened, but the blood started to cover the whole tip of my finger and I had to scurry to the bathroom to wash off. Then after I covered it with paper towels I decided to cut the papaya this time. But I started to spill blood on it, and it was really red, i had to run to the toilet again since the cut was opened again. Vivi took charge this time. But after such a short period of time, Vivi came into the toilet and she told me she got cut as well, at the same spot. -_-. We both laughed.

Later that afternoon we ate lunch at home. Then went to my grandma's house. She gave me a bday hongbao which thrilled me as at first she didn't even remember that I just had my bday. When we arrived, Vivi got her 17th bday hongbao which was in just another 4 days. I was a bit disappointed that grandma forgot my bday which was what, a day ago. That was just a bit of disappointment which doesn't matter since people forget anyway. I don't really care though since I always feel that my bdays are the same as any other days. In the end I got my hongbao even though I told her that it was no need for her to pack it as she was troubling herself trying to pack the money in the hongbaos whatever. Then went to grand indonesia that night and ate at Zenbu! followed by ice cream from Cold Stone.
Helen finally got her dream shoes, wakai.

29th December, Monday

Off we went to Epicentrum or should it be called Epiwalk I have no idea, but it's the mall beside the Bakrie Tower.

Anyway, we planned to watch The Hobbit: The Defining Chapter, The Battle of the Five Armies! My mom and I haven't watched it yet and since it is the last film out of the trilogy we just had to watch. Besides, at certain XXI cineplex the ticket price costs about Rp. 25k ! This costs less than $2.5 man, what a bargain. And what I love about Indonesian cinemas are that the chairs are super comfortable and so soft and velvety. Moreover, the tickets are sturdy that they are nice to collect. I don't usually collect Sydney's movie tickets as their paper materials are like the receipts you get from shopping at Woolies or Coles. But then again, I just got the brightest idea, in which I should have just collected them and I could buy those files that you use to store business cards. They probably have the same sizes as the tickets. And after thinking about this idea, I felt a surge of regrets. I have thrown at least 10 movie tickets. Gahh.. The movie was MARVELLOUS! I would love to watch the whole trilogy again if they are showing it in the cinema, because I couldn't stand watching it at home. I would doze off any second. I've tried to begin watching The Lord of the Rings at home but couldn't and always slept anyway. Dad, Vivi and Helen watched Night at the museum 2 since both of them had watched the hobbit. After the movie, we ate at Sate Khas Senayan which has an opening discount of 15% which was alright. I was kinda full by the time it was time for dinner because I was continuously snacking inside the cinema while watching the hobbit. I felt like a glutton. 

30th December, Tuesday

I couldn't believe I woke up really late today. I woke up at 10:30, the latest since my one month holiday in Jakarta. Time sure flies huh. It's been a freaking month already! And it's almost new year!!! Anyway, today mom and the three of us, went to Grand Indonesia to do more shopping. We hauled some clothes which was great. I finally know what to wear on Chinese New Year. We ate at Sushi Tei which was treated by mom's cousin. It was pricey but the salmon soup was amazing. It tasted very nutritional. We came back home around 7:30 at night. There was huge traffic. Had a late night korean snack which was given by my aunt from Korea. It was so good.

31st December, Wednesday

It's the last day of December, y'all. It's New Year's Eve. Went to church for a prayer meet. It has been a wonderful year and an unforgettable one indeed. I am planning to make a new year resolution here on this chunk of post. I am planning to keep a planner or a small journal that I will use to write down everyday's thoughts and plans and even I will record a journal daily like Greg Heffley (Ref: Diary of a Wimpy Kid). I guess I'll try to exercise. I hope this comes true though. We opened up a bottle of Israeli's finest wine as we welcome the New Year of 2015! And also Vivi's 17th bday.  

21st - 23rd

21st December, Sunday

Went to church early in the morning. It was the last advent week before Christmas. The sermon today was from Luke. It was about how Zechariah praised the Lord for the coming of his son Jesus Christ. He was overjoyed after 9 months of not being able to speak/hear since he didn't believe that God could make her barren wife, Elizabeth, bare a child. But during this time of silence, he had more time to think and believe that the old testament are fulfilled through Jesus Christ. 

After church, I went home with dad. Vivi and Helen had library duty every Sunday while Mom teaches sunday school. As per usual, we ordered Bakmi Cen2, it got delivered to our place which is super efficient. I love the kwetiau! . Anyway, to kill time, I played the piano, re-playing all classic songs. Then, I browsed for trips to Bangka Belitung as we were "planning" to go there. I hope we do though. But to our bad luck, all hotels were booked! 

I started to read The Elite again. I continued but still couldn't get the hang of it. We went out for dinner that night to Fairy Garden. Ate hotpot there. It was good. We went there a lot when I was little during family gatherings. But I guess, the price has inflated so much that we rarely go there anymore. I think this was my first time visit again since idk, maybe in 4 years.. I don't know. Well, who's counting anyway. We were the first ones to arrive. Apparently it has just opened. The fried prawns wrapped in hams are delicious but the price was too much though. Oh, something peculiar about the menu was there was no price written on it. The ham fried rice is to die for too! But the portion has way decreased compared to ages ago. Afterwards, we bought more durians! Why are they so deliciousss. 

love this <3 

22nd December, Monday

Finally got the chance to meet up with Ci Lisda after so long. We were planning to exercise: playing the badminton or swim, at Ci Lisda's place but then again circumstances happened (mainly laziness) and we ditched the whole idea and decided to just go to the mall. We met up at Olimo and proceeded from there on to Grand Indonesia. It was quite fun when you have companions on a boring bus ride. Vivi and Helen went on to watch the Hobbit while Ci Lisda and I sat down and catch up with one another. You guys could look at the pictures below. But I'm going to write down everything here first. It appears that the text that I have typed were gone! I have no idea why, it was quite weird since I have written everything the other day and even published it, but when I tried to upload the last picture on this post via my phone, the published was reverted to a draft again and all the text was gone. Super weird. 

I always adore the oreo mint flavor from Dairy Queen. It was top-notch! We sat down in the food court sky bridge and talked there. Then afterwards we went to Forever 21 in which I was in much contemplation in deciding which outfits to buy or not. We spent 2 hours and in the end I just bought ONE pair of jeans. Even the leather skirt that I tried on, the one that I fell in love at first sight, the one that I spent ogling at myself in front of the mirror, yep, in the end I didn't buy it, and I regretted it. It was a bit pricey and was not on sale so I just had to move on! There are plenty of skirts out there. 

At about time, Vivi and Helen finished watching The Hobbit and so we ate at pizza hut for a late lunch! It was nice and we even tried out the new pizza flavor. I forgot whether it was called the okonomiyaki or takoyaki but whichever, the concept was inspired by the Japanese treat of some sort. It was good! Great experience in the taste buds. We continued satisfying our tummies by buying bubble tea from comebuy! Bubble teas in Indo are so cheap. I don't feel guilty at all buying it, I just feel guilty of the calories though but oh well.... A girl needs to eat her daily dose of bobbas, am i wrong? LOL. #soasian.. 

Krispy Kreme has its daily Monday promo on getting a free dozen of glazed donuts with every purchase of a dozen of assorted donuts. We were aiming for the glazed donuts but we were too late in buying them and it was out of stock so we got icing donuts instead. But both donuts are equally sweet. 

Spent sometime browsing through Kinokuniya and bought Neil Gaiman's Stardust. 

Then went around the mall intending to go home straight after we bought the book but we saw a lot of offers available written on the christmas decoration display. One was for L'Occitane that if we took a picture with the christmas display and post it on twitter with mentioning it and include the hashtag, we could get a free sample set of L'Occitane. We tried it but it took us a while to post it on twitter. The reception was terrible. But we got our free samples anyway. Then we took more photos with the telephone box and other displays in which I failed completely in even attempting to keep my eyes open. way to go.. 

Then at about 6ish if I was not mistaken we decided to go home. There was a light drizzle but we made it in time before the rain poured, it didn't though. The bus stop was OVERCROWDED again! Workers have started to go home at 5ish so yeah it's packed, what do you expect. Good thing we didn't have to transit on any stops. When we reached back to Olimo we were planning to take the bajaj home. However, something happened, as because of my stubbornness, we didn't take the bajaj and walked home instead. 

Basically there was this negotiation thing going on between me and the bajaj driver. They didn't want to take my offer of 10k. I was thinking I could pay the exact same amount I paid for the bajaj like the time we used bajaj when we were on our way to the bus stop earlier that day. So I decided to not ride them and rejected 2 bajajs. So we started to walk. Vivi and Helen were complaining as they were tired and were parched. Then I came across this bajaj and this time I got rejected as he was in the middle of his break. We made a quickie stop to indomaret to buy water. And we reached home safely getting the exercise we wanted in the first place! 

ci lisda..

guess how many teddy bears are there and you could win yourself one of 5 teddy bears

L'occitane nutcracker display

look at me, i'm such a derp closing my eyes -_- 

23rd December, Tuesday

Today I had to catch up with Willdy and Sheila!! My long time buddies since Junior High! I went to Central Park to meet up with them. But since I arrived a bit too early, I hung around Taman Anggrek first since Vivi and Helen are meeting up with Vivi's friend to watch The Hobbits. So I on the other hand, just strolled around to see sale promotions. Then, when I was trying to fit myself into 2 very cute tops which I didn't buy in the end, I got a call from Willdy saying that both of them had reached the place already. We were meeting up at Kitchenette. So I told her I would see both of them and then I rushed off to the lobby to go to Central Park which was just right beside Taman Anggrek. But to my bad luck, it was raining heavily. I waited for 10 minutes but the rain would not be stopping any sooner. I tried to text both Willdy and Sheila but then again I ran out of phone credit and unable to reach them. I couldn't even call them. It was such a terrible situation not being able to contact anyone, and stuck inside the mall with a heavy downpour, despite the fact that it was located literally beside the mall I was heading to. I felt bad for hanging both of them, not to mention, they probably had not eaten lunch yet and most probs be super hungry, so I braced myself out to the rain with my small pink umbrella (good thing I brought this), and made my way there. I even turned in the wrong direction and even spent more time in the rain. By the time I reached the mall, I was half-ly drenched and my sandals were quite squeaky. I quickly speed-walked to the restaurant after asking directions from the receptionist.

Upon reaching, I thought I was expecting to other people: Ricco and Michael. But apparently, I was the third one to arrive. LOL. Then after a while they both came. It was a bit awkward for me to hang out with them since I never hung out with them. There was this friendship gap between us but then again they turned out pretty okay and friendly and so yeah the meeting turned out fine. However, I had to leave an hour later since I was trying to avoid overcrowded bus during peak hours.

Basically Vivi, Helen and I took the bus earlier that day and guess what we were aiming to arrive at 11 so that we could spend more time hanging around in the mall, but the bus didn't show up for 1.5 hour! Could you believe that! Come'on! It was super hot and in the end we arrived at around 12:20 at Taman Anggrek, just 10 minutes earlier before The Hobbits start. Lucky for Vivi and Helen. The journey was quite far since we had to transit 3 times from Harmoni to Grogol 1 to Grogol 2. Harmoni was the crowdiest place of all, people were squeezing and standing so close to you with their sweats trickling out from their pores. The odour really made me dizzy and for a moment I thought I could end up smelling like one of them if I had to spend any minute longer. So yeah, this was the reason we had to go home quickly. It was quite a shame though since Willdy and Sheila was only available during that day.

At around 3, Vivi and Helen called me up and we decided to meet up. I bid everyone goodbye and joined them. And, they had not eaten lunch yet so we made a quickie stop at Mie Laiker! They ate mie-kangkung there which tasted so good! Then afterwards we went home! The buses were not at all crowded which was awesome! We even got seats. Then when we arrived at Olimo we searched for bajaj and I have learnt from my mistake, I took the offer when he reached 15k since it was pretty far away. All in all it was such a great day.

spam fries

sheila's mac and cheese which smells amazing

aww so much cheaper than Fourfrogscreperie but tasted equally GOOD

kyaa super good

reminded me of a jack-o-lantern

willdy's

michael's dish

reunion 

sheila + willdy

mie laiker

20th December

I did the most idiotic thing: I deleted the post that I had spent hours on writing yesterday an hour ago. I thought it was just a draft, so I deleted it from my phone blogger app and I couldn't believe that it was permanently deleted from my blog. I am not going to redo it again because I also have deleted the pictures that I have posted. Why am I so stupid. Oh, I tried to find the cache link but the URL in the cache version is my homepage blog!!! That ultimately does not help at all. I can't get the postID so I can't retrieve the deleted post. Stupid. I don't feel like writing now. 

I finally did it guys!! I have retrieved the deleted blog post. It was quite simple really. As I subscribed to my own blog, I get this newsletter whenever I make a new post onto my email. So I just copy pasted the whole thing as the cache method is not working for me! I feel so energised now, and so I shall tell you all what I did today! 

Anyway, today was a blast, went to Mall Kelapa Gading planning to go for a "shop" but ended up buying books instead of clothes/shoes which I practically need. So Mom dropped the three of us (Helen, Vivi and I) at MKG. We went around the mall for a couple of hours. First stop was definitely Gramedia. 

finally my sweet kaicho series is complete!
btw nakayoshi is getting super tiny in size

I obtained the last series of My Sweet Kaicho aka Kaichou-wa-maid-sama. It has finally been completed, all 18 books in total. I can't believe throughout completing this series the price of comics have increasingly fluctuates from 13,8k to 20k! Unbelievable! Comics these days are super expensive, I don't even know why. Oh by the way, I am kinda dissatisfied with this last book because I tbh have read the online chapters first when I was in Aussie and there is this special chapter regarding Igarashi Tora's love life (lol, he's a character from this comic, you guys have to read this if you haven't, I highly recommend it, it's super funny and not-your-type of shoujo comics although eventually it gradually becomes your typical shoujo high-school life comic). I love this character so much and I find his side story to be very sweet and appealing. I don't want to spoil anything but anyway he is engaged with this chick anyway (not Misaki).

Oh another thing I want to rant about is how small has nakayoshi and cherry has become! Btw, that was a wrong labelling right there, I just realised I had written "nakayoshi" instead of "cherry" But anyway they were both the same size, so why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone right in commenting on them both at once. They are so small, petite, wee, insert more small synonyms as you like! Don't get me start talking about the price, it is so much more expensive as compared to the older and bigger version Cherry and Nakayoshi. Well they are about more than 30k Rp if I was not mistaken. 

can't believe there is the whole complete set of
unfortunate events

Moving on, we went to Periplus, and spent more books there. Vivi and Helen bought books there. I have no idea what to buy then I saw this box set Unfortunate Events! I should have waited more patiently for the release of this box set rather than buying it individually. However if I did so, it would lead me to wait for another I don't know 5/6 years. I am pretty sure by then, I would definitely have lost the mojo to read the series. Anyway, I love Unfortunate Events! I love the orphans. They are super amazing, they are really smart. I am obsessed with Klaus' skills of having to remember everything that he has read. Some sort of photographic memory perhaps? I would have great use of that skill in medsci for sure. I have such a short term memory. Moreover, I have short attention span these days. I get bored easily. So the box set costs about more than 2million Rupiah. I know right, SOOOO expensive.

We began to stroll more around the mall. Went to Star Department store and also UNIQLO! Unfortunately we did not find the shoes that we liked so yea we basically didn't get anything from the fashion department. Then we got hungry.. And our eyes laid upon the famous Colette and Lola. My friends have been telling me to meet up in this dreamy little carousel cakery (wait is there such a word called cakery, I guess not, as there is a red line underneath the word "cakery" but anyway it sounds cute, and don't you just want to use this as your cake shop or sth, I would). 

came across this cute place

didnt order anything in the end though, felt so bad not being able
to dig into the cakes
sorry for the super bad quality of photo collage as I used my phone camera for this, didnt bring my bulky camera with me

Something bad happened, when I was walking down a ramp, it was kind of a slippery slope and I almost slipped but good thing I still maintained my balance, HOWEVER, I dropped my phone! SLAM, on the floor, screen first! I was mortified! GAH, luckily it still works perfectly so it's good to go. I still love my acer phone people. It's one of a kind, no one uses it but me, tbh I have never met someone who uses this brand.

later that night, had a family dinner.
bought some durian back home

At around 2ish, I texted Mom to pick us up. We killed time too wandering around the mall again till 2:40 and waited just outside the lobby till 3:00 that we made our move to the open road when Vivi glanced at Mom's car. We were running for her because we were afraid that she might not see us approaching her. So yeah, it was weird running and chasing for a car on the street. It was dangerous too, so kid/people/anyone reading this, don't follow my footsteps.

There was so much traffic that day. We saw a building on sale with a banner saying "ruko dengan danau view". Well somewhere along that line. It meant that the building has a lake view. It is true that it has a lake view as it is located just across Sunter Lake (Danau Sunter). We just laughed at it. Helen bet it would be so expensive though, I somehow agree at that point.

When we reached home it was about 4, we were hungry and ate a late lunch despite the fact that we were going to go out for a family dinner at 6. At about 6, we made our move to the restaurant called SeleraKu. I was pretty full then and couldn't eat that much but I must say that the food was good. I like the fish and this vegetable called genjer, idk how it's spelled, but my uncle said that it was a wild plant (weed but not weed).

Ate some awesome durians, my fingers are now officially smelling like durian stench. It's pretty strong. I spent the rest of my time editing photos in the form of collage and putting some stickers. Don't they just look cute. I love em. That guy/girl who creates the LINE app is just a GENIUS. I don't use the chatting app but I am enjoying the photo editor and the photo wallpaper app. Love em!

ps: Just got spoiled by Vivi about the ending to The Legend of Korra about who Korra is going to end up with, hmmm, I am torn apart. GAH, why does she keep on doing this to me.