Festive Fat Buster

Went for a run, yes, RUN to East Coast with Matt as a coach who was going "Come on, you can do it!" by my side.. It was my first run ever, in my adult life and it was hellish.

I couldn't stop caughing and felt like puking. I was serious about calling the ambulance.

But I did it. 2.5km?

.....and that classic tune from Rocky in my head.......

Merry Christmas!

Had X'mas Eve dinner at home when Calven received a turkey and the frills for free! Not knowing what to do with it, he called Matt, who called Lucas and I called Keith over - and what was supposed to be an impromptu party turned out to be a great relaxing night with lots of laughter.
On X'mas day, Simon & Carol invited us for a real English style X'mas meal at their beautiful pad. Started popping champagne from 2pm and had a slow slow sumptuous meal that was just amazing! All the goodies on the table! As an English tradition, there's a 'Secret Santa' where we exchange gifts that are the most useless gifts and we wear silly paper hats the whole day. Nobody is exactly sure what time we left but it was definitely pass midnight. My thoughts on my first English style X'mas day meal.... I forgot how fun X'mas was! That is how it is and how it should be!

Keith's B-day @ Brewerkz

Keith's birthday is on Dec 23 and every year I was away for his birthday bash.

Last year was his 40th! so it was huge, and I missed it.

This year, he didn't even plan for it til the last minute, but quite a lot of us (mainly the alcoholics) managed to turn up.

He's taking up "Ikebana" (flower arrangements), and I know he loves flowers so I gave him an oil painting of a Poppie for his pressie.

BritCham Ball

Went to a Ball organized by the British Chamber which was held at Shangri-La Hotel.
We first went to Robertson Quay to meet the boys and a house party for a pre-drinking then to the party.
I wore the dress Mom designed and Bang Anen made and even though I didn't know there was a 'Disco Fabulous' theme til I arrived, I felt good in it as I always do.
Wine and champagne flowed freely and we hardly remembered the food, everyone was everywhere.
My thoughts on my first Brit Ball..... It's ALL and ONLY about drinking, and they are proud of it!

Calven's Birthday @ Chez Rat's* Chilli Night

We celebrated Calven's birthday and it was also Matt's turn to whip up a meal and be the host for his friends on the monthly drinking club, so he cooked his meanest chilli at home.
I helped to prepare garlic bread, mash potato, rice, coleslaw and a mocha birthday cake while everyone brought a bottle or two.
The idea of having 8 blokes at home freaked me up but everyone was on their best behaviour, drank a bit too much for Wednesday, but with great food and fun friends, it was a successful night.

*Matt a.k.a Rat (he was a rat in Pinocchio play when he was a child therefore this nickname)

I Won!

Out of sheer curiousity, I Googled my name and found I won an iPod Nano from Zouk!

I didn't even know I was on a mailing list or some kind of member with Zouk.

It was announced in April 2007 and the collection due date is April 2007...it's now December isn't it?

I don't think I either received a call, email or sms during that time, or I would have collected!

Doesn't hurt to have another iPod, does it?

I think it's a scam! I hate Zouk management anyway.

http://www.zoukclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1743&sid=39813a0790ec2ad7a8a683c732ecc11b

So anyway, when I Googled my name + Singapore, my blog "Survivor Singapore" came out.

So did Emi Takeya. So I'm going to type out my parent's name here - Sumiko Takeya and Satoshi Takeya for the sake of being found out on the www, in case some of my parent's friends might be Googling them.

Goooood morning Vietnam!

So it's Matt and my first time to Vietnam!
This time we chose to spend the rest of the holiday at Ho Chi Ming City also known as Saigon.

It was my first experience to go to a place where the traffic is worst than Jakarta!

Lots of motorbikes - so there were many fancy Vespa and Piagio.

There were more 'Chinese' faces - fair skin and slim!

We stayed at Park Hyatt Saigon - probably the best in town, thanks to Matt's corporate rate... hi hi
It is located in the central HCMC, very accessible to many attractions in the city

I fell sick on the 2nd day (worst hangover + my monthly curse) So unfortunately we had to skip the Mekong river tour and the cave tour... a good excuse to go back again!

And though we stayed only in the city, we loved it and will gladly move here if we have to!
People were generally friendly - some guy helped us cross the road or some men pointed at the directions from far - of course, we probably looked like helpless tourists.

But also it is an exciting city... Communist country? hm...nothing I imagined.
We experienced gun shooting scene at a bar where we had a beer, on the first day.
Or a 3years old street girl smoking....

Anyway, please check out http://hochimingcity-nov2007.blogspot.com/ for more photos!

Bali - November 2007

BUT, before I get on with 'work' and 'reality' in Singapore, I'm off to a relaxing holiday with Matty to Ubud for a week!
It was Matt's first time to Bali and my 4th visit. I had not been back for almost 5 years. It was so peaceful, it made me think, this paradise is so near us and why didn't I do this more often.

While soaking in the beauty and serenity of the nature, ironically I thought how nice it will be to go with a big loud group, Mom, Dad, Emi & Rique, and of course Daichan and his family who will bring with them another level of fun to the trip.
Matt's family and friends in UK has never been to Bali so we are planning for another trip, perhaps with them too.

We stayed at Ubud for the whole week in a beautiful villa called "Alam Shanti".
This villa was rated No.1 in Trip Advisor in 2006.

Please see
http://mattsfirsttriptobali-naomi.blogspot.com/
for more pictures of the villa, sights and tour we took.

Moving back AGAIN

5 months in Jakarta - tried, distracted and learnt some lessons...

Firstly, I am no longer scared and unfamiliar about babies! They will be born and they will survive, just by being a baby - has everyone's attention. It's just natural.



And of course, though I wasn't much of a substantial help to H20, it was interesting to dip my toe in the F&B industry, adding to my 'Jack of all trades, master of none'ness.
Fashion - leave it to the people in the trade.
But most of all, I strongly felt the inevitable cycle of life.
So where am I going from here?
I'm still searching for what I really want...
But I'm looking forward for the new chapter of my life.

Company Outing

Went to Puncak - the highlands 2hrs drive from Jakarta - with KiraKira Ginza, Jurin and H20 staff.

I was surprised and touched at how the staff sincerely enjoyed themselves, so much so that most of them were too excited to sleep!

Food was plenty, winning the hearts of everyone there - ending with Kambing Guling - Lamb BBQ.

It wasn't even a hotel accomodation, rather they slept at the attic with futons side by side, men, women, boys and girls all in 1 place. They even organized games on their own.

Such appreciative bunch of pure and beautiful people.

Jurin - Realization

While H20 is closed for the fasting period and renovation, I worked at Jurin with Toko-chan.
But when Toko-chan went to Japan to see V6 in concert for a week, I took over the role of Mama-san!

And through this experience, I found the ugly truth about myself.

That I cannot fluently speak and joke in Japanese. And not even in English like the natives. It's a dilemma that I can't belong to any groups.

Secondly, I found it painfully difficult to make conversations with the Japanese men who patronize this place.
And that's because I am not a good listener! And that my general knowledge is...er embarrassing. I am shallow.

So I started grabbing books in my hand again.

http://riqueleonbaby.blogspot.com/

I can't help it. He's so adorable. I get all mushy.

So my 3weeks holiday is ending soon.
It was supposed to be a short visit to Singapore (1wk) which turned out to be 3weeks....

It's enough.... I need to work.
Human are made to work.... what a wonder.
Maybe I'm all eager to work because I was busy planning for the next holiday!

Macintosh VS Windows

I'm now using Matt's Mac laptop.
I've been using PC (Windows) all my computer literate life (25years?).....

And I am wondering, why didn't I use Mac earlier? And why do people still use Windows?
Nicer display is one, but a better stability and speed is another.
APPLE users may ridicule me, but it's never too late to convince others who are still using PC.

Just an update of my latest discovery.

FACEBOOK

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=852850170

Facebook, an Interntional community site on the www is so popular and hot at the moment.

I even met old friends from Junior high school! It's mainly for the English speaking so don't expect our Japanese friends to be on it, unless they have many English speaking friends.

Anyway, the difference between all the other communite site and this Facebook is, that they have these things called Applications - which has various purpose and use to make the page look more interesting. Just visit and you will know, if you still haven't got an account.

Matt's 30th Birthday Party

Matt had his 30th B-day party combined with his friend Jar who also turned 30.
It was held at Brewerkz Indoor Stadium.
Initially he planned to have a BBQ party at his apartment but weather forecast said rain the whole day,
we cancelled last minute. Turned out it was the most sunnies day perfect for BBQ.
Anyway, it saved the hastle to prepare and ended up cheaper.
The theme was supposed to be BLUE but not everyone paid attention... oh well!
We had a great time anyway!

Family Party

To celebrate Dai Papa's successful heart operation and return from Japan, AND to celebrate him seeing his new born Grandson Rique for the first time, we invited people who knows him and had a BBQ party at home.
Started from 6pm and ended at 12am. About 40 people turned up.

Food is always nice when Daichan fixes them. But for some reasons, he only handled half leaving the other half to Mom and me. For the first time I contributed 3 dishes, spagetti bolognese, potato salad and 2 dips! It's a very nerve wrecking job considering I'm serving them to the iron chef!

Rockabye Baby

Hi-tech baby cradle like this is not available in Jakarta (or it's very expensive) so Grandpa made a make-do cradle from his own sarong. Rique is a lucky baby.

Then I remembered the spooky lullaby "Rock a bye baby" and the ugly monster from Goonies.

Rock a bye baby on the treetop,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

X2

Went to check out X2 club in the name of research.

Heard there are few halls playing different music but only managed to go to one room playing House music, where girls gone wild and amazed guys just couldn't hide their excitement.

Like in CJs, working class and working girls cannot be clearly distinguished. All girls just wanna have good fun.

H2O

A bunch of young rich kids (in their 20s - 20s is young when u look back) came to H2O.

They stayed for 7 freakin hours. It's unusual considering how empty 2nd floor was and being partially renovated).

It's a good news for the bar but I wondered 'Don't they have anything better to do?'

And then I remembered, I used to do that too, not long ago.

One of the Korean chic asked my age and when I said I'm in my 30s, the air went cold.

Solo Cafe

Went to DAPUR SOLO with Emi. It's a newly opened cafe/restaurant, walking distance from home, serving traditional Solo (Central Java) food.

To our surprise it was really good. The fresh fruits juice was icy and thick, music was a traditional Javanese music played with Kenny G style, food was presented delicately but generously, and the price is more than reasonable. We will be repeaters.

Trust me it is a sophisticated serving compared to other Indonesian cuisines like Padang food or Manado food.

Each food around the yellow rice has a meaning and the rice is stacked up like a tower - tradition for Wedding banquets represening acheivements and growth or something like that...

Ms. I lost my phone again

If anybody wants a model for a reseach on a person loosing the most mobile phones, or a test dummy for body imbedded phones, that's me.

Yes yes, I will hang it around my neck from now on.
Yes yes, I will get a chain.
I know.... don't buy an expensive phone.
Good idea to buy a spare phone just in case.

And always make a back up!

Matt's 2nd visit to Jakarta

This time we stayed at Dharmawangsa Hotel for the whole weekend.

The Monday 3am flight is a killer for Matt who has to work but I'm not complaining.

Matt got me this film camera (yes, not digital) from Japan.

I miss the whole developing, anticipating and framing the nice photos up experience. I would have been happy with the "bakachon kamera" (instant camera) so this Klasse W is so precious! I'm so gonna hang this around my neck!

Had brunch at home with parents, Daichan, Emi and Rique.

8days old

After returning from a short trip to Singapore, Rique was visibly bigger.

He still can't see things and sleeps all day if not he cries a little for milk and has his pampers changed after.

He is the prince in the house.

A Very Special Day

After 3 attempts of induction, Emi did not get contraction so she had to opt for caesarian operation.




Daichan witnesses the operation. According to him, even though he's used to butchering cattles as a chef, it was quite a traumatic sight, seeing his dear wife being cut opened and placenta being ripped.
And... the baby was out!!
Rique Leon Takeya, Born on July 23, 2007, 07:21, 2565g....

Rique = Initially he was going to be named Riku but because it is too common in Japan, his name was changed to Rikki. The spelling Rique was already embroidered everywhere so they decided to keep the spelling. Instead of the name looking like French, it is now looking Spanish.
Oh well! Whatever!! This is just the start of all the hype from the Grand parents!

And I may sound like a typical aunty, but he is the cutest thing alive I've seen in my life.