sunday lunch

sami's creation: home-made pasta with pesto and shredded roasted chicken breast on top.

OH hello blog-world! i'm back. and hopefully not just for a temporary moment :) so what made me disappeared? during my blogging-break, i was very occupied (mostly) with Nataya (off course) & husband (he got hospitalized in April), lecturing (i handled 3 classes this semester, wew!), and went back-forth Bandung-Singapore for several times in March-April-May (that's another story). though in between i could manage doing small projects for k.e.d. buttt, unfortunately, couldn't manage to re-stock for the stockists :( hopefully in the near time! apparently,  i've asked for a short break from lecturing during this short semester. for me it is surely good news (ops, pardon me XP) as i could do more for k.e.d, including designing new items for the next season. it's about time, don't you think? and this time, i want it for real! R E A L!!! :)) so inspiration, come to mama! :))

whole-hearted

him: "i think He is going to pick me up soon.."
me: "you think so?"
him: (silent) "yes, very soon, i think.."
me: (silent) "oh, so you need to be ready whenever it is. and you need to be very very whole-hearted when it is the time.."
him: "are you?"
me: "i am. i am ready and whole-hearted at the same time.."
him: "really..?"
me: "i know, it would be scary and misterious, but.. after that all your pain will gone.. you won't feel the pain any more.."
him: (silent)
me: "you never thought that i would be this strong, rite?"
him: (smile)

------

that was a short conversation happened in my dream some nights ago. i didn't realize it until i got this bad news regarding my father's health today. i think i was reminded to be always strong and whole-hearted whatever happens. it was so vivid that i was really strong in that dream. hopefully i would be like that in the real life, amen.

i love you, dad.

6

(nataya's fingers want to take part of the pic, haha)




♥
more

eid mubarak 1432 H

hope you all had a wonderful eid just like we did :) nataya and i were very delightful that we had sami for the whole week :) -- means good food, lol. we spent the last days of ramadhan in bandung, went to watch Kung Fu Panda 2, which nataya enjoyed very much. she could now appreciate long movies better and didn't ask to go off the theatre before it ended :)

we did our eid prayer at the mosque near my parents', then went to my parents' straight afterwards. my father wasn't in his best condition, but he could manage to go along with us visiting our relatives in the city. and then, in the afternoon, the three of us went to jakarta to meet sami's parents.






i didn't feel really good for a couple of days after too much eating ketupat and opor. too much cholesterol, i guess. blah. but feel better after consuming much fresh fruit and juice.

selamat idul fitri, everyone! may Allah bless us always. amen! :)

small notes

hello. how's everybody? :) oh i am such a bad bad blogger. so minimum updates this past months :( 


anyway, life's been good. oh, i missed one update: we've been to bali in april, celebrating my 30th birthday there, such a blast. would loove to share about the trip. hopefully on the next entry :D. 


nataya's growing well, she's been more chatty lately which is a good thing, since we were a bit worried that she couldn't talk well in her age. she's done more crafty projects by herself and is not afraid of sticky glue anymore :)) she could do coloring better and draws more often, and could also write better. and not like last year when she just cried all day, she performed nicely on her preschool's farewell party last may as a ballerina. she could enjoy the party much better now :) -- will write about the party on another entry, later :D. and now she will be ready to go to another school this year, and we're excited as she's going to her mother's and aunty's alma mater :))

nataya performing as a ballerina on her preschool's farewell party last may.


anyway, amesh mentioned k.e.d on her article about the say-it-with pencils. thank you!



and have you enter for cocomomo's giveaway? their mini cambox are soo irresistible!

and now i have to hurry, i've got to attend lecturing at 9. and i haven't showered yet. ack! anyway, nayata is in jakarta, staying at her grand-parents until this weekend. a good thing for me, i could concentrate finishing k.e.d's projects. go! go me! :))

when he's around

last monday sami took a day off, and tuesday was vesak day, a public holiday. so he stayed longer with us, not only on the weekend but got extended for 2 days more. yay! when he's home, he usually spend most of his time in the kitchen. lucky for me and nataya :) like last tuesday, we got home-made bread for breakfast, roasted king-prawns for lunch, and dinner.. err, we didn't do much, we just fried some pempeks from my mother :P






in the afternoon we went to Bandung Carnival Land, a new mini playground in town. nataya got really excited there. when she knew that she could ride a vehicle more than once, she got more excited. while her mother got a bit worried on some vehicles' safety.






more pictures of the playground, take a look at our flickr set.


oh by the way, last weekend, k.e.d joined tobucil's crafty days #05, which was really fun and exciting. will write about it on the next post! ;)

on a saturday

we've promised to take nataya to kampung gajah (translated as elephant's village or `tempat elephant' -- that's how she mentioned the place) since weeks ago. we were about to cancel going there (again) since nataya suddenly got a stuffy nose. but she didn't got any fever, so we decided to stick to the plan.

it was actually our second visit there. the first one happened on may last year and  i didn't make any blog post about it :P when we revisited the place yesterday, we spotted new games at new areas and various new eateries.

the place itself offers various activities, both for children and adults. but the parents went there to accompany the kid to play. so i myself didn't think a bit of trying those adult games though it should've been a lot of fun.

nataya's main aim to the place was having a horse-riding besides playing around at the playground and having a bumper-boat ride. she did have them all though the weather wasn't really nice. it rained once in a while. so we had to take shelter in the middle of the play, not really comfortable, but no problemo, we just tried to enjoy it. besides, we could wait for the rain to stop by having a sip of tea and some snacks at the free-wi-fi-ed cafe :) nataya should've taken a nap while waiting for the rain, but i guess she wasn't really into it though she told us that she was sleepy. so she ended playing games on my cell-phone.

sundanese menu for lunch

playground

horse-riding

the bumper-boat's lake

strawberry field

we closed our visit by picking up fresh strawberries at the strawberry field. the strawberries were surprisingly good, not as sour as the ones we usually got at the market. nataya really enjoyed the picking and loooves the strawberries as well, she couldn't stop munching them.



the fresh strawberries, picture taken the day after, at home :D

first dinner on 2011

cheese fondue for dinner on 1.1.11. the actual recipe's using wine, but since there's a tiny human enjoying, we exchanged it with milk :) so it was basically just cheese sauce in a hot pot ;) we used 3 kind of cheese: mozzarella, quick-melt cheddar and parmesan. too bad, the night weather didn't match well, it was hot when we're having this! :)) so we're melting all the way. never mind, it was fun anyway, a fun way to have a warm dinner with the family :)

happy birthday, you!

sami's birthday is actually on december 22, but we postponed celebrating it until he's in town on december 24 :) nataya and i had prepared a present for him, but nataya ruined the surprise by telling her dad (when we're greeting him on the phone on the D-day) what we had bought a day before. booohoooo! but cute at the same time. lol.

i didn't bake any cake, sorry! but i did managed to buy a slice of mille feuille from the strudels factory, his favorite ;)

the present ;)

yup, THAT's the candle!

"oh, what's inside?" -- fake expression :))

yummy cake ;) --ignore the tape ;)

of course, girl.. you can have it :))

cirebon trip

we decided to have a short trip to cirebon on our anniversary weekend (17.11.10 until 20.11.10). cirebon is a small city located at the far east of the west java, near the borderline between the West and Central of Java. you may google if you want to know more about the city ;)

we prepared everything for the trip about a month before (after browsing here and there), like: buying train-tickets for the departure, making travel-car reservations to get back home and booking a room-hotel. both sami and i haven't been to cirebon yet, and we do know nothing about the city itself (except from the internet). that should be very exciting! ;)

we went from bandung by harina train, a long-distance night train from bandung to semarang (central of java). the train was scheduled at 8:30PM, but it went off about 15 minutes later. 

nataya enjoyed the ride very much. she got very excited from the very beginning, she just can't wait to get on board :)) she loves her seat very much and enjoyed every minute of it: drinking milk, reading books that we brought along, drawing on the table-built in the seat until she felt sleepy and finally slept with her head on my lap. the air-conditioning was very chilly, so she was covered with 2 layers of blankets (and so was her mom, hehe).

we arrived at cirebon past midnight, around 1:30AM. since the hotel was just 200 meters away from the train-station, we decided to take a walk. after checking in, we went straightly to bed ;)

the next day, after having breakfast at the hotel, we did a city tour: pasar kanoman, keraton kanoman, cirebon harbour, seafood lunch, then having sate kalong for dinner. we went around the city by angkot and becak. nataya enjoyed everything although it was very sunny (and i mean VERY), hot and humid. so for dinner she got KFC chicken and 20-minutes playing at the KFC playground. well, since the places that we visited were mostly the parents interest, she deserved an award for being super-nice! ;)

pity, that it was not the right time to visit the keraton kanoman (kanoman palace). we couldn't get inside every corner of the place. we were just allowed to enter the museum, main hall, and terrace which was located in front of the keraton area.

the second day was started with nasi jamblang at the harbour for breakfast. it was damn good. everything in it was just yummy! ;)

after that, we stopped by at the pasar, then continued our trip to trusmi village by becak (yes, a 30-minute trip by becak. the three of us in one becak!). trusmi is a village of cirebon's batik shops and workshops. sounds boring to nataya, hahaha.

luckily we found a shop which provided a restaurant with a small playground, clean toilets and musholla. oh heaven. so mommy could do the shopping while dad and kid were busy in the playground ;)

tired of batik hunting, we went back to the hotel. took a rest then get ready for the afternoon walk to the bakery nearby the hotel, continued to the city hall, and seafood dinner at h.moel. we really wanted to try mie koclok, one of cirebon's signature dish, but the place was closed since it was Idul Adha. we went there twice. too bad.

the third day--the last day, time to take pictures of the train-station, continued with empal gentong for breakfast.

we had KFC for lunch, delivered to hotel, then checked out around 12 noon. and got picked up by the travel-car not long after. the traffic wasn't very smooth, we got in a traffic jam around cadas pangeran-sumedang until cibiru before entering bandung. but we arrived safe and sound at our house in bandung at 6PM. and it was sooo good to be back home :P 

after all, we all enjoyed the trip! even nataya. she kept on telling stories about the train, hotel, travel-car, and becak ;)

more pictures, check out the flickr set!

19.11.05

amazing 5 years of us. ups and downs. goods and bads. oh. it wouldn't be nothing without you :) i love you ♥  

one of the wedding pictures; taken a day after the wedding.