Drama Queen

I just got back from my holiday...
There was just a long weekend here in Australia... we had 1 extra holiday on Friday for ANZAC day...

Me and my other 2 friend went to Melbourne just for a short vacation but there were problems... A LOT of problems I would say when we were there...

OK here is the story...

- Day 1 -

I went to Melbourne on Friday morning... what I would normally do is to do online check-in on the previous day for both going and going back from the trip but there was problem with the booking (since Jetstar rescheduled the confirm flight) so I couldn't do the online check-in for the trip going from Melbourne to Sydney...
So since I could only print 1 boarding pass, I haven't checked-in for the trip going back to Sydney and planned to check in at Melbourne Avalon airport...

The problem began when we arrived at Melbourne... I was sick when I reached Melbourne. I think it was because I didn't sleep well on Thursday night...the weather was pretty bad too, it was showering all day and we didn't realise that most shops would be closed on ANZAC day, so we had to change our plan.
We went to Sovereign Hill, Ballarat straight away after finding out that most of the shops are closed. We have changed our plan already...
We could just spend 2 hrs at Sovereign Hills while we actually need more time to explore the whole Sovereign Hill. Well I know, it was really a problem but I found that it wasn't easy for us going there either coz we went to the wrong direction so we had to spend another hour just to go back and go to the right one...

Day one hasn't finished yet. Going back from the Sovereign Hill, we decided to go back to the hotel first and then have dinner...
We planned like going to jazz bar, cafes, etc but we couldn't really do all that :(
OK, it was quite difficult to find out "serviced apartment", and once we found it, apparently we got the wrong place, the lady in the reception desk told us that we booked a motel and not a serviced apartment...
When I knew it, I really set my expectation low and I was quite disappointed since I thought I really got a good price for a serviced apartment... maybe I should come to my senses more eh hehe...

We then went to this place that was recommended by my friend, Rococo... the place was cozy, the food was alright and it was OK...no problem :)

- Day 2 -

Day 2 was the best among the 3 days I've spent in Melbourne... We went to Lygon St and had a really nice gelato :D durian and roche... what a brilliant combination hehehe... it wasn't really a combination, both of them just taste NICE and 1 cup has 2 flavours, that's where the brilliant combination comes from :)

We also spent the day in Chapel St, accompanying my friends doing boots hunting and I just spent my day there looking at good stuff... It was just unfortunate that I am not a money machine sigh...I just could look at them... and prolly touch them hahahaha...

We went to my fave Korean place in Carnegie, Kimchi Grandma... We ordered a little too much but it was nice... the kimchi cigae was a bit too spicy though hehehe...

After that, we went to Nam Loong to buy some buns and went to Casino...
It was really hard to find parking at the Casino coz we tried to get free parking spot and there was almost to space for us, especially when we didn't really know the area well...
I just forgot most of the street's name there... well not to blame myself, it's been 3 yrs since I left Melbourne...

We spent like 1 hr just to find parking...what a fool.. :|
Then we went to casino, met my uni friend and went home...
There was no major problem on day 2...

- Day 3 -

-DOCKLAND-

-SouthGate-

Here comes day 3, the real problematic day :((((
The day started with Dockland... I wanted to see dockland so we went there and took some pictures, we planned to have breakfast there but no cafe has opened yet... :((( So I asked my friends to go to cafes around southgate....

So we went to Southgate... but then my friend asked us to have yum cha...she said she had a nice yum cha in this restaurant called "Red Emperor" in Southgate so we went there...
We spent a lot of time there, like 1 hr or so in yum cha... we talked a lot and ate a lot and we didn't realise the clock kept ticking... until we paid the bill and realised that it was 1 o'clock :| DA** ITTTTTT our flight is at 13.30 :|||||
So we ran back to the car and I drove to Avalon at a constant 110% speed limit :| It was really hectic and panicking time...

We reached the airport at 13.30 but we were late...the plan has gone :((( I felt like crying at that point coz I thought OMG...I would have to buy another plane ticket :(
We checked all airlines' websites through the internet cafe but most flights were fully booked.
The ones that were available cost like $340-$400 ish... I thought it was a rip off so I then suggested "Let's drive back to Sydney" ... I felt silly now coz it was quite a crazy idea... for someone like me who has never driven out of town before... but in my mind, I had only 1 thing, I NEED TO GO BACK TO SYDNEY, I'VE GOT WORKS TO DO... SO we then decided to drive back to Sydney, coz going back by bus would also cost $300 and you will reach Sydney at 12 noon while we could go back to Sydney at around 3 am if we drive... so we picked the cheapest option, drive back to Sydney :|

My friend tried to hire the car back through the phone but Hertz said someone else has queued for that car...we've got Toyota Prius btw...
Then they allocated us a Toyota Corolla instead, we agreed to it and went back to the Hertz desk @ the airport... We told the guy and the guy said we could just use our car and we don't have to pay anything since we've paid for 3 days renting anyway, what they'll do is to change the return place for that car...so we were lucky to get the prius back considering it consumes less fuel :) and it's the best car to use for long distance trip...

We agreed to take turns driving back to Sydney so I think that is fine :)
Well I'll take this as a lesson learnt or just take this as an experience for myself... when else I would drive from Melbourne to Canberra and Canberra to Sydney NON STOP :)

*Me so tired already*

Anyway, this is my favorite noodle soup when I was in Melbourne

Wonderful Bday

Yes it was my bday not long ago...
I had my bday exactly on the same day as my flight back to Sydney... isn't it wonderful? :-)
Well it is coz that means a lot of people attending my bday :-)

It was not that bad...in the morning I still got the chance to celebrate it with my parents and friends... we had lunch or to be more exact, it was a brunch coz I was afraid I wouldn't make it if it was for a lunch... so we had brunch at around 11am.
I got quite many presents and gifts...but more importantly I got the chance to celebrate it with my closest ones... and that's what made me happy :-)

I also had some important people sent me messages and emails congratulating me :-) I really appreciate that...
Even someone who is really important to me sent me a msg...hehe I thought that person would have forgotten it :P

Ummm the story doesn't end there... after the brunch.. it was the time for me to get my stuffs and went to the airport... I thought "ahh sunny day... having a trip back to syd on my bday would be blessed" and it was indeed... there were just few obstacles that I need to bore a little...
So my dad dropped me and my mom first just in front of the gate so that we could just check in while he parked the car.. I told my mom to wait for my dad and I put my luggages under the x-ray...
Guess what happened next? BLACK OUT!!!! and the sky totally changed. The sunny day had turned into a cloudy and stormy day... "Man...why it has to be now???", I thought...
When I checked in, I asked the officer if the plan would change and she said "the runway is just closed... I don't think any plan can land here...it's too dangerous!"

I was quite panic but I tried to remain positive... I told myself that I would be OK and would still fly on that day...
So I told the officer to put me into other flight which doesn't reschedule their plan. People think it was quite hopeless to try other flights coz in most cases all flights would be redirected to other airports...

Then I also met my friends who were going to go back to Jakarta...their flight is different from mine but their flight also got delayed coz of the weather...
Then after waiting for about 1/2 hrs.. the weather got better and the airport was opened again...
One plane landed and it was my friends'... so I quickly ran to the counter again and they also called my name at the same time, trying to inform me that they can put me into other flight... so you can say I was popular for 1 day coz my name was mentioned several times hahaha...

I could say I was lucky coz everyone was trying to buy tickets for that flight and it was soo full... it was the only flight which got delayed for around 1 hr... other flights could get delayed for 3 hrs or even more.. :| and IF I got delayed, my connecting flight to KL would be wasted coz I could hardly make it :-S

After I arrived at Jakarta, I still needed to change terminal and queued up to check in... you know what?? one of MH (Malaysia Airlines) flights got canceled and most passengers of that flight tried to squeeze in my flight... no wonder soo many ppl lined up in MH counters...
I got served very slowly :-| but I could make it in the end to KL...

Now, from KL to Sydney... it was a planned connecting flight so it shouldn't matter anymore...it was just too tight I could say...
Once I got off from the plane, one MH officer was waiting for me...and it was only me (?????)
She said "quick you gotta be at gate X quickly"
I walked fast there and they've boarded already... at least I wasn't the last passenger so the other passengers wouldn't hate me :P
And the story ends at Sydney where I got off safely :-)

Such a happy ending story isnt it? :P
Now I still got a little jet lag and hopefully I can adapt to Syd time again in no time...

More Bali Pics

Bali Trip 2007

Just went back from my holiday in Bali...It was a great place to go... what a pity my mom couldn't go with us to Bali.... If she went with us, it would be almost a perfect trip...It wasnt really a perfect holiday coz the weather was terrible

- 23 Dec 07

I arrived at Bali on the 23rd... That day's weather was pretty good...well not to mention the long shower coz it wouldnt be that bad if we just had shower and not stormy day...The 23rd was OK but we had to wait a very long time just to check in...sigh a bit disappointing from a five-star hotel like Grand Hyatt :-(We just got free welcome drinks because of that... and it didnt taste that nice :-(

Grand Hyatt... a very nice hotel... but it was a bit too big... hehe... We stayed in Grand Hyatt for 3 nights and moved to novotel for another 3 nights...I prefer hyatt than novotel tho... the service in novotel wasn't that nice... hmmm maybe coz it's a serviced apartment so we cant expect the service like in a normal hotel...The breakfast was better in hyatt too... :-S of course the rate is higher in hyatt than novotel tho... but it wasnt a big difference so I vote for hyatt hehe yay!!

- 24 Dec 07

OK.. moving to the next day, we went for water rafting, 7 of us (3 girls and 4 guys)... what a pity not all of us could go, it was raining very hard too... but it was really fun still :-)Water rafting in Ayung river... it was about 10 km rowing... coz we were 7 people, so the team was divided into 2, a group of 3 plus an instructor and a group of 4 plus an instructor :)Unsuprisingly, I was with a team of 4 incl. the instructor... and unsurprisingly i won the race hahaha :P




- 25 Dec 07

Xmas day... it was raining very hard...We were gonna play in the sea but coz the rain was quite hard, we cancelled the plan and went to Ubud instead, looking at some paintings...It was quite hard to find some good and cheap paintings there... the cheap ones were the reproduced ones :-(Well we also didn't know much about the painting so it was quite hard to know the one with good value on it :-S
it's christmas day!!! so we still managed to go to the church in the evening ;-)
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

- 26 Dec 07

It was a rainy day...We went to the sea still for playing some water sports... we played "Flying Fish"... a kind of kite made of rubber which is pulled by a boat...Depending of the wind direction, we can fly :-) Nice... hehehelucky there was no thunder at all :-)
We also planned to dive...but coz the rain got harder then we were not brave enuf to do it :P so we went home and went to ubud again coz my friend wanted to buy some paintings...

- 27 Dec 07

It's time to go to the main event...well it's kinda our main purpose going to Bali...to attend my friend's wedding :-)SURPRISINGLY, those rainy days meant nothing for the couple... that day was a complete success... the outdoor parties went successfully with no problem at all...
Here are some pics again :-)

- 28 Dec 07

OK, this is it! Our last day in Bali coz we're going home on the next day :-S

LUCKILYYY we could go out under sunny sky... man... we miss it soo much :) So we rushed going out to Kuta Beach to play with the wave.. yes the best wave shouldbe in Kuta when you talk about BALI :-) well im not the expert but that's what people say and I believe it since the beaches in Nusa Dua don't have big waves like in Kuta but of course if you want to learn how to surf, learning in a calmer part of the sea is better coz u can learn how to stand in the long board... (yes we use longboard, not the surf board straight away). Long board is of coz longer than the surf board but that's what a beginner needs... heheI could see my bro's adrenalin boosted so fast when he saw SEA, BRIGHT SKY, and BIG WAVES :-D so many people tried to sell a service to teach you how to surf...The guys quickly took off their clothes and JUMPED while screaming "FINALLYY!!!" hahaha...I and some other girl friends went for a quick shopping time before we wet ourselves with the salty water :-)I just bought a pijama for my beloved mom who was in Holland, accompanying my grandma after her surgery...
We felt that the shops weren't that interesting anymore (maybe coz our mind was with the sea hee) so we went back and played with the waves... I didnt try to surf coz it seems very heavy and difficult :-S After we tanned ourselves, we went wash ourselves to go to other beach -> TANJUNG BENOA to do some water sports :-)We did our flying fish there and once we're there, we thought over some activities like banana boat, jetski, water ski, wake board, etc and we decided to dive which wascancelled before... so we DID it!!! WITHOUT LICENSEE!!! (y could we??) coz we went with some instructors who swam for us, so he would carry 2 people under the waterthen asked us to hold onto some rocks... THUS...NO SWIMMING!!!
Some rocks made my skin itchy... I tried to signal the instructor about it using my hand language hehe...but then my body started to float since I let my hands off the rocks...Instead of understanding my hand signal, my instructor pulled me down again and PUT ME ON THE SAME SPOT!!! What theeee... those rocks touched my skin again and it reallyirritated me :-S Other than that bitter side of the story, I saw so many beautiful and colorful fishes under the sea...wow... I never thought that I could see those beautiful scenejust 10 mins away from the shore :-) I think it was worth it... u know, good experience is expensive :P

The sky was getting darker, that time was like 5.30 pm-ish so it was time for us to go back to the hotel... I could see my dad was getting tired too..poor him, he was justtaking care of our bags when we dived hehe he is a good daddy :-DSo we went home quickly, took shower and went out again to do a little shopping nearby...
I didn't buy that many since I wasn't that interested buying surfing type of clothes hhehe so we went home after dinner :-)Once we're home, it started to rain again...it was quite hard that nite...

You see! Just for this day, I could write this much comparing with the other days -__- heheh We need our SUN!!!! As long as it shines brightly, it WILL make our day!!!

- 29 Dec 07

I don't like this day, we had to wake up at around 5.30 AM then fly back to Jogjakarta :-SOur holiday in Bali has finished -___-To make things worse, we needed to drive back from Jogjakarta to Semarang... another 4 hrs trip!!! OH NO -__-!Well even it was raining almost everyday during our stay in Bali, I think I still enjoy it a lot hehehe :-) And now my skin is darker too :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Tomorrow is the mother's day in Indonesia...
Unfortunately my mom has gone to Holland this afternoon :-(
Well I guess we never really celebrated this kind of day before so it doesnt really matter :P

I just went home from a meeting for tomorrow's reunion...
I was in charge of being the MC for tomorrow... should be interesting since I never really been one before..hehehe... :-D

So tired today... I also still need to pack for my BALI HOLIDAY and get ready for D-DAY!
Will sleep soon...gnite..
I will post a lot of pics after my reunion and my holiday :-)

Jakarta Trip 2.12.07

Just transferred my pics that I took in my friend's wedding...Congratulations for Anty & Freddy :-) Hope you'd have a wonderful honeymoon :-)

left-right: zita, christine, deb

left-right: eveline s, deb, peggy, audie, sherly, eveline m, yoanita

Welcome to Indonesia

Heya!!!
I’m in Indonesia now... hohoho...
Just reached my hometown 2 days ago and had spent few fun days in Jakarta.. attended a friend’s wedding, spent some money on clothes and food and more importantly could catch up with some old friends...
There was just few bad things happened on my first few days in Indonesia... Flood isn’t unusual these days (it’s rainy season here!)... blackout also happens quite often when it’s raining... some roads are dark since there was no lighting... sigh... I just hope this country’s mismanagement will be fixed quite soon... and one thing... fast Internet connection should be more affordable :P

I don’t think my plan to learn piano is achievable at this state. My mom needs to fly to Holland to accompany my grandma who is sick right now and will take surgery for her cancer. Hope you guys who read this blog would pray for her :)
I think I need to help my dad whilst my mom is away for few weeks... I’m also busy with other things like doing my website and learn more about marketing...

Btw, how’s Sydney/Melbourne btw? Hehe... Looks like it’s getting hotter and hotter there hehe...
Ah yeah, my beloved friend (Natalia) is positive pregnant for 3 months now... Congratulations!!!!
Am pretty sure, some of you guys haven’t heard about this news hahaha...
I’ve met her in Jakarta and she looked chubbier now hahaha so happy for her :-) (hmm or so happy for myself haha coz I didn’t look chubbier than her :P LOL)

Other than that, I’m waiting for my final results now... hope I could get a very good one this semester since I’ve given up my full time job just to get a better time management for my study...
Good luck for me and for my other uni friends!!!