Lost

Losing someone you love forever is never an easy thing to cope .. losing family, lover, close friends to death are very difficult. I've never lost anyone so close to me before *touch wood*, apart from my grandpa back in 1998 when I was in Aussie .. but I wasn't that close to him, so the feeling of losing wasn't so bad.

I have 2 close friends since back in Kindergarten, though we don't get in touch regularly anymore but our family have known each other since then, so the connection always there . All of us grew up together and our moms saw us growing up too ..

Last Oct, one of them lost her mom -- it was a sudden death which shook all of us up. It was another normal morning for her, after finished her morning cooking, she told someone at home that she was tired and gonna take a short nap and that was the nap of forever -- she never wake up since. When I received the call, I thought it was a joke .. but who would joke about someone's parent death? She was 1 month away of turning 60 ..

Yesterday, another sad news -- my other friend's mom passed away after her fight of long illness. She has been suffering with cancer for almost 4 years, but these last 2 months were the worst. The cancer has spread all over her body. I guess we have seen this coming just didn't expect it will come this fast. No matter how ready the families are in losing her, they never really ready by heart .. I went to pay my respect last night, all of the children and the father looked very strong in appearance, but I know deep down, it's really hard to accept the fact that she is gone .. though it's for the better rather than seeing her suffer and in continous pain.

Big condolonces for both of you and your family .. be strong. Your moms are happy now in the Hands of God. Tante Margareth and Tante Yung Cu .. you are both deeply missed. I'll keep you in my prayers.

We all know that people will die eventually, whether 'cos of old age, sickness, accident, or just something .. our age and our life are in the Hands of God. So while we are still alive, let's do good and always keep the faith. God bless!

Busway - Trans Jakarta

Busway is the most recent transportation development which is hoping to reduce the Jakarta's traffic. Corridor 1 to 7 has been implemented for quite sometimes and it has quite successful reducing the traffic in CBD area -- it's been running for about 2 to 3 years .. sadly it doesn't go to my office area. So I still struggle with bad public transportation everyday.

Honestly I praise the existence of Busway, 'cos it has its own lane and we don't need to go with the normal lane of traffic, full with motorcycles, private cars and other public transportations. Long distance can be reached in no time.

Corridor 8, connecting Harmoni to Lebak Bulus was planned about 2 years ago .. and yes this covers my office area so I was very happy when the lane was built, the only thing is the bus stop is quite far from my office, but it doesn't matter 'cos I can get to exercise anyway :).

After being postponed for over a year, it finally run last weekend and today is my first time taking this new route (I ride busway for other route quite often) -- to accommodate the full route from Harmoni to Lebak Bulus, it needs 45 buses, but so far only 25 buses running to accommodate almost 30km distance .. crazy as it sounds but it's true!

- fancy bus? Don't believe everything you see,

it doesn't look like this at all -

The thing about this Busway, it suppose to come every 8-15 minutes top, which means I don't have to wake up too early to wait for the uncertain normal bus I take every day. So this morning I woke up 1 hour later than usual, taking things slow and enjoying the morning. But it turns out, I had to wait for almost 30 mins and once inside the bus, it was amazingly packed, I couldn't even move and more people keep pushing to get it. On the road, the bus still have to join the traffic 'cos the several lanes share with normal road. Once I came out from the bus, I sweat like I've just finished a marathon :(

So much for excitement .. I'm returning with public transportation starting tomorrow, at least until the full 45 buses are running -- don't know when exactly.

FRIENDS Bloopers

Today marks my 100 posts .. congrats Net, not bad! Considering I don't write everyday. It's hard to find any interesting stuffs to write knowing that I spend my times more at the office rather than doing something else.

Last night I was playing around my FB and found Friends site with complete bloopers, so I went straight to Youtube .. and boom, there goes Bloopers from Season 1 to 10 ... COMPLETE!! Yey!! :)

I'm a Friends lover since it's first out back in 1994 (I think I've posted about this before) .. so anyway, I've watched it like maybe thousand times and everytime I watch, I still laugh to my head off -- imagine watching the bloopers .. I had bad stomach-ache for laughing last night. I actually cried watching the last episode of the tenth season. It was the best ever .. and still is.

I've yet to own the US version original DVD which comes with bloopers on each seasons, US$199 is too much for me to bear right now .. but someday I'm gonna own this awesome set.

In the meantime .. youtube is all I got. Enjoy this :)

Goodbyes

Saying goodbye is never easy .. indeed. I have fair shares of farewell and saying goodbye for good, knowing that I might be able to see some of them but also knowing that it's a possibility that I won't see them again.

I guess, after a while I get use to of saying goodbye -- specially with technology like today. It's only a phone call, email, sms away .. and now, thank God for Facebook. Though I know, things won't never be the same without having that someone physically with you. You got through it .. :)

I can say that my worst farewell is to Australia .. the life on my own for 5 years, times that I could only depend on myself and make my own decision. It's really hard to say goodbye to the life you love so much, where you have shared countless laughter and happiness, numerous hang outs with friends and other students, heaps of multi-cultural friends, and also sadness and tears and most importantly LESSON in LIFE that can only you, yourself learn by living it. If only I could turn back the time and freeze the time for just a short while, I will .. those were my best moments in life -- so far!

But I also believe that life does go on, people come and go, some stay in your life forever, some only left a small dot in your heart -- but all those are part of your growing up life. So cherish them, love them and keep them .. memories will only stay as memories. You can only keep them but not repeat them ..

So dear Friends (specially to those who's leaving me soon enough) .. Goodbye doesn't mean forever, please believe that we'll be seeing each other again someday somehow someway .. somewhere. 'cos the circle of life will meet us once again. You may be moving from your old memories, but don't be afraid to make new ones, 'cos everything had happened in the past and will be happened in the future will have special meaning in your life.

Movies time ..

There will be quite many interesting and nice movies this year .. these 2 movies are coming this month so I'm switching to movie mode this month, I'm gonna take a break from books for a while. Twilight and the Cullens have quite worn me out, and January was all about Lee Hom ... so before I'm starting my "autis" moment with books, I'm taking a short break and heading to cinema. Though lately all the movies have been mostly adapted from books which yes I know all about it :) And all these 3 movies are adapted from books

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC is one I definitely gonna see. I read the whole series of Rebecca Bloomwood 'till the last one "Shopaholic and Baby". It's a very light and entertaining movie, so I'm so up for it. Here is a sneak peek ...

Second is "Marley & Me" .. I adore this type of dogs, Golden Retriever and Labrador have similarily in fast and friendlyness. I loved watching them running around behind my dorm back in uni and they are the nicest dogs but not in this movie .. but hey I do believe that Dogs are men's best friend. And I like Jennifer Aniston, so this is must see movie.

Last but not least is He's Just Not that Into You .. I recommend all girls to see this movie and learn more about MEN! I know about this book from Oprah, I just bought the book yesterday and now it comes on big screen with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston as the star .. so YEAH!! I'm so there.

So be ready for your popcorn, 'cos I'm coming your way Cinema ^^ oh just out of the topic, today is Friday the 13th .. spooky friday :)

I've GOT it ..

This must be the quickest decision I've ever made in buying an electronic gadget. Actually I thought I'll be getting the phone first but it turns out ... :D

Normally it takes me a while to decide when I go shopping for shoes, pair of jeans or even a CD, but with this just within a day. Though yes I've been wanting to get portable music player, but never in mind that I'd be getting an iPod. But pheewwww .. I also believe that "God will make a way" .. at the moment I decided to get this, there is a 0% 6 months installment promo using HSBC and I got good price from the iBox store yesterday. Yipeee ... I have new gadget. And with 16G memory .. I can fit 4000 songs easily. Take me anywhere baby :)

Too bad I didn't get to store anything inside it yesterday 'cos I couldn't install itunes on my work computer, I need to ask permission from the IT people at work to install un-related work matter. And I didn't have time to do last night at home 'cos I was busy finishing up wrapping LH pre-order CD 'till 1am last night (yawwwnnnning!). Hopefully I get to do it today so I'm all set for the weekend.

Sepuluh

I'm planning to catch on this movie this coming weekend .. yes another alone time on Valentine's day. Sepuluh, directed by the son's of local business millionaire who is just 19 years old.

Henry Riadi is trying to portray how all of us are searching for Love Perfectioness in un-prefect life. The movie covers 3 stories of life .. one is the story of a mother named Yanti in search of her lost daugther, two is about a father who is trying to fix his relation with his son and lastly is about a street kid who has to stuggle in fighting for violance and injustice of life and how to survive in the darkest part of life.. will they find their happiness and the perfection of love they've been looking for?

new gadget

Initially I was planning to get laptop as my new gadget for 2009, but 'cos laptop here is based on US$ rate, the price has increased un-reasonably. So then I thought I don't really need laptop that urgent, my bro's computer is still working OK though there are few hiccups since it's quite old, but for browsing and games, I suppose I can live with that. Plus rumours saying that my office is gonna replace us with laptop this year .. so no reason for me to get laptop on my own.

Instead I've decided to get 2 gadgets .. one is this iPod Nano Chromatic (getting the blue one definitely), it's available in 8G and 16G. Second is SE W595i, blue one again. My current phone W810i has been playing on me lately. The earphone connection is loose and it hangs on me sometimes, specially when I'm sms-ing and phone call comes in. All this while my phone is my music player, I suppose that's the reason why my phone breaks fast. I survived with my previous phone for 4 years, but my current phone is only entering its 2nd year.






Market has been overwhelmed with Blackberry, even Obama has his own special Blackberry model. Few of my office friends have changed their phones to BB, but I'm not interested in smart phone .. as I'm not into high-tech stuffs. I'm happy just settling in with normal phone and now iPod. I'm familiar with Apple products since back in uni, I dream of having Power Book or MacBook Pro, but with US$3,000, it's just not worth it.

So, if I'm really getting these 2 things shortly, I'm gonna use my phone as phone and maybe music every now and then ... and will use the iPod for music and watching my fave vids.

Gonna browsing around for prices.

Missing Lyrics

"Missing Lyrics" is a game show on local TV which was adapted from somewhere, where popular singers trying to win the grand prize by filling in the blanks in song lyrics. They will sing the first verse to reff and in the middle the lyrics will go in blanks, they have to fill them in.

Lee Hom was in the Taiwan version of Missing Lyrics is called "The Million Star" sometimes ago, he raised money for the World Vision by trying to win the prize money. He did well 'till stage 8, managed to sing 2 of his own songs "Long De Chuan Ren" and "Wei Yi". He also managed to sing some old songs including his rumoured ex-gf song perfectly. But at the end he stumped from singing Mayday's song which according to bloodbubble it's a popular song they always sing during encore. LOL!! It was very funny, he went home with NTD50,000 -- not bad at all.

stacking, sorting, packing ..

I spent the whole day yesterday sorting out Lee Hom's new album pre-order. I've never had so many LH's CDs and stuffs in my room like yesterday before. I think I'm drunk of him now .. I was so dizzy sorting them out and I have back-ache now for sitting on the floor for too long.

Four medium boxes containing 93 albums and 72 pictorial books were spread out on my bedroom floor .. from sorting out the address based on province, piling which to mail and which to distribute, separating who order what and which go where, countless mis-counting of the albums, inserting left-over Sands concert flyers, re-attaching the plastic wrapped, and finally wrapping and labelling - ready to send. What a work .. thankfully I'm doing this for LH.

Stacking went like this .. still neat when they came out from the boxes. Once the sorting out started ...

Sorting who order what and which address to mail ... went a little in mess. I could barely move around in my own room.

Finally .. batch 1 is done. Buyers outside Jakarta, get ready to receive the CD. Yesterday I managed to wrap 21 CDs to 17 different destinations and sent them all today. More and more to go .. there are still 31 CDs to be sent to Jakarta and around, I'm aiming to do that all within this weekend, so help me people!

one more to go ..

Finally I own Hao Xiang Ni CD .. Lee Hom third album. Phewww ... very rare CD for quite a price, but thank goodness I got it. So one down, one more to go :D

It leaves with Bai Zhi (White Paper) to complete my collections. But I'm sure the last one will be more difficult to find.

Many thanks to my gal pal bloodbubble for finding it on eBay and Gotep for settling the payment in SG. Yippeeee!!! :)

Jakarta's New Season

Jakarta - Indonesia in general only has 2 seasons, wet and dry season. Same goes to most Southeast Asian countries. But cos of the global warming and climate change, the weather has changed dramatically all of the world. No, we don't have Winter yet (hoping so though), but we're starting to have Autumn/Spring season.

For the all 4 seasons, I love Autum and Spring season .. when it's not too hot and too cold. Just nice! I get to wear my light stylish jacket instead of thick and bulky winter jacket. I just don't like when the rain comes adding to the beautiful weather like these last few days.

Though I don't mind a little winter in Indonesia .. having a view like this, who would object? Though it might be too much to ask for a tropical island like us here .. :)

Michael Bublé's Call Me Irresponsible

I'm in need of a change of music .. it has been all about Lee Hom and Chinese music for a while now, so I need a little break from it.

There aren't many International artists I like too much. I don't have any preference, I just buy random CD and listen to music which I think it's good. I don't hold any collections of specific artists except for Josh Groban and Michael Bublé ... they are the two artists that I really like adore. I have all Josh's CD, since he came out for the first time and stunned the world with "You Raise Me Up" and love him ever since.

As for Bublé, I wasn't too fond of him at first 'cos I'm not a jazz fan .. but his jazzy style is really nice, easy and enjoyable. I don't own any of his albums until today, I only downloaded few of his songs.

Anyway, I watched an on Rachael Ray show last weekend and Bublé was the guest, he introduced his 3rd album back in 2007 called "Call Me Irresponsible" and today I went to get it. Finally I got new collections of Michael Bublé, which left me with his 2nd album.

Bublé and Groban have different genre of music, but yet it was amazing seeing them combine their music style on stage. This is my fave performance, when Josh made surprise appearance at Bublé's concert .. funny!! Imagine having both of these two talented musician on the same stage .. I hope they hold concert in Indo soon.

connection .. confusion ..

I've been having dreams lately which involved this special someone from the past, sweet dreams which keep me wonder .. someone who was very important and very close to me. Someone I used to love and adore .. I have let him go ages and ages ago but somehow someway I still feel connected to him. I don't know even know how he is doing right now with his new life .. but why does he keep coming back to me?

Perhaps we once shared special bond and it hasn't disconnected completely .. that's probably why, unconsiously I'm still hoping for something to happen, like in the dreams .. the connection still there and someway somehow it's still trying to find their way together to be fully connected again.

Sigh, now I miss him! Where are you? I hope you're doing well with your life .. no matter how bad you've hurt me, deep down inside, you are still special ...