Saturday, January 15, 2011
Hello peeps, how are you doing? I'm so sleepy right now :( Spent time with NanSee today after class for lunch, movie, and some shopping. Well we wanted to shop but we couldn't find anything that we like. The title is in reference of her. Been spending time with her for 2 Saturdays in a row now and we've been having ramen. For some reason, I'm kinda obsessed with ramen now :P Been having a lot of girl talk with her and it does make me feel like calling her 'sister'. You see, my best friends back home like to call each other 'sisters'. To be honest, I can't really relate when they call me sister, simply because I haven't spent much time with them and shared a lot of my thoughts, crushes, and stuff. However with NanSee, I do tell her all that. We share each other's insecurities and hopes and so I do feel like she's a sister. She's a person whom I would totally feel sad about if she should leave Singapore and she said the same thing about me, though I feel she'll get over it in a week time. It feels really good to have that girl talk and to have someone really listen to my story and follow up on it. She was advising me on something and it made me rather stunned to see this side of her. I told her, she's so like Gascoigne, which by the way is kinda gone from my life now. I have no idea what's going on with him, maybe he's sulking in a corner or something. I do hope he's alright. Anyway back to NanSee, I have to say that she has grown quite a lot since the first time I met her. She has matured a lot and it's perhaps my older sister trait that I'm always seeing her as this younger girl :P When the truth is, I kinda can remember how I was when I was her age and I was pretty mature and independent at that time, so I think she is too now :DWe watched Burlesque today. I thought the songs were pretty nice. The story was not amazing though. It was rather patchy and the resolutions to all the conflicts came rather too easily. It has some questionable lines which combined with unconvincing actings made me squirm and roll my eyes. But it does have its entertaining values in the singing and dancing. I cannot say much about Christina Aguilera's performance because there's no difference with what she has been doing all this time. In term of her acting, well her character is never deep enough to begin with, so nothing much can be said about it. Cher was so so too though I suprisingly like her singing in, You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me. She was pretty awesome there. If I have to point out which actor I love seeing the most, it would be Stanley Tucci. I think he's just so fun to watch :)
Okay life's news now. This week has been okay. I don't think I'm stressed out or anything but I've been finding myself getting awoken up so much earlier than I wanted to every morning and it totally ruined my morning mood :( The fantastic news is, home is in less than 2 weeks and I totally cannot wait for it. My jabber boy is back this week though it's only for a week, but it was really nice to be talking to him again. I just love the random things that we can talk about, songs and such. I need that from people. I need people to be interesting, to get me thinking about stuff I wouldn't think of and get me wiki-ing stuff and expand my knowledge :)
Talking about being interesting, french class has started again and we have a new teacher now. Technically we should call him Mr. E but we're addressing him as Mr. M. Okay we don't actually call him Mr, I just like to put Mr in this blog. It's really interesting for me to see how a short form of his name can be derived from his full name, because I would have never thought of it that way. I'm sorry I cannot elaborate much on this :P It's the second class today. On the first class I asked if he knew Mr. P. He elaborated much, saying that he was his best friend and all. Anyway, at that point, I didn't know why I asked that. It just came out of my mouth. I guess it's just the way my brain work sometime that I put certain seemingly random things together and they just fit. Now that I think about it, my question was totally logical since he shows the same narcissistic streak that Mr. P has. So he reminded of Mr. P and he's really kinda like Mr. P though I think he's perhaps nicer and less sarcastic? Well it's too early to say so :D I guess the consensus right now is that we like him. LM even said that french becomes interesting again for her. Well, no offence to Mr. Ben but I guess change is good and with Mr. M, we don't know what his antics are going to bring us :D On the first class, he called me kaypoh Eka, all because I just easily jumped on the opportunity to ask him any question. My classmates can be very tame sometimes, the reserved Singaporeans and all. If you are given the chance to ask someone anything, surely there's hundreds of things that you can ask, so I don't see why people could be so quiet.
This brings us to the point of me realizing who I really am. It's like me finally meeting and getting to know me, or perhaps accepting myself. You see for the longest time, I thought of myself as the shy person who is uncomfortable among people whom I don't know. I remembered Yeni and the rest laughed when I said I was shy. The truth is I was that person in the past. There was a long period of time in my life when I really couldn't do things without anyone I know doing it with me. However, now I can be let off in this world and most of the time I can make it on my own :) I'm not that shy anymore. I'm opinionated. I ask question and I'm not afraid to ask questions. I have to work on the filtering system though because the questions I ask may come across as intrusive and the things I say may seem direct and harsh. I guess now that I admit this about me, I can fully understand why people whom I find to be interesting are the people who can form opinion about things and voice it out. I think people with no opinion are the most boring people ever and it's a waste of brain if you cannot form any opinion on something at all. Even when something makes you feel indifferent, you can still explain why it makes you feel that way. Alrighty now, I want to lie down. Take care my darlings!
:) eKa @ 8:47:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Ciao peeps. How has your new year been? Mine was uneventful. Did a bit of shopping. Didn't really get much stuff but I did spend quite a lot of money. Well, I have my weaknesses :P So today, I went to watch The Tourist. The review for it wasn't good, but there's Johnny Depp in it and it's set in Venice. I really miss Italy!!! Dear God, can I go back there soon? Anyways, I read that The Tourist is a remake of a french movie. With the bad reviews going around, I wonder if the french movie was better. So out of curiosity I went to wikipedia and read if the Hollywood version's storyline is the same as the French's one. Yeah, I sometime don't mind knowing how the ending of a movie goes before I watch it :P Actually I think knowing the ending of this movie made watching it more enjoyable. I was like, does she know, does he think she knows, how does he feel seeing her, how does he feel seeing what he prepares for her, etc. Okay what I wrote may not make sense to you, but I'm not gonna put any spoiler here. I think I like The Tourist, simply because I like Johnny Depp and it was lovely seeing Venice. Johnny Depp seemed a bit fat for me and I think he should really really not have eyeliner on unless he's doing Captain Jack Sparrow :P The other day LM was telling me that she thought that Angelina Jolie is beautiful, well I think LM is maybe right, Angelina est vraiment jolie. I think she looked stunning in this movie. The Tourist may not be exceptionally memorable but I like it :)So it's the new year, I've been hearing a new decade being said and it really really hit me hard. Goodness me. It's been a decade since 2000 and 2000 was the year when I arrived for the first time in Singapore. It's been almost 10.5 years of me living in Singapore. I don't want to sound depressing or anything but you know if you think about it, what the world didn't have 10 years ago and what the world has now, what has happened in the past 10 years. There are a lot of things that have happened in this world. There are things that have happened in my life too but I guess the ungrateful me just feel that there are too few little things, too little accomplishments in my life. I know I am being remarkably stupid for feeling that way. Well I don't know. On one side I want to think that it's so wrong to feel that I haven't done enough with my life but on the other side I do believe that I have wasted a huge part of my life. I'm not gonna go into it further because we shouldn't start the new year with negativity. Anyway in between going to be 29 this year and not being able to bear to live my life the same way for the next 10 years in Singapore, I really really REALLY hope something big and wonderful will come my way.
Not that this year hasn't been great for me. This year I got out from something which was a part of my life for 6 years plus. Yesterday as I was writing in my diary, I realized that I am more thankful to God now that He has helped me in this new chapter that He's given me than when He delivered me from the hole I was in. So relationship ended, friends come and go, I got the meet new people, make new friends and overall, I think I ended the year in a calmer and more at peace state of mind than when I started the year. Now if only I can keep being more hopeful and positive in life maybe more good things will come my way :) So I guess that's it. I'm feeling sleepy now. For some reason, I've been feeling tired these past few days. I keep on wanting more time to sleep :( On other news, the malls have gone to Chinese New Year mode. Singapore is highly efficient but the speed at which the Singapore malls can go from celebrating christmas and new year to preparing for Chinese New Year always amazes me. I am too have started my countdown and feeling excited about going home in 4 weeks time. I'm getting pretty nervous if I will have enough time to get all my shopping done before I go home. I feel I may not have enough time. Maybe I should be more worried if I have enough money :P Anyway, I can't wait to go home. So looking forward to it!!! Okay enough of this repetitive rambling. Take care peeps, buonanotte!
:) eKa @ 9:19:00 PM • 0 comments
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The second half of the AFF Suzuki cup final just started. If you don't know, it's between Indonesia and Malaysia. We're kinda down 3 goals from the first leg of this final. It's looking pretty slim that we can win this but the Indonesians are trying really really hard. There were a lot of miss chances in the first half. A quick look in twitter showed that the malaysian goalkie is a trending topic. Many Indonesians are tweeting about how lucky / good he was. Aaarrrghhh, the Malaysian just scored. My heart is breaking :'( I'm gonna stop with this live update of the match.Anyway, I've been wanting to write about how there really is power in number. The Indonesians have managed to steal the limelight of twitter trending topics a few time. Also a few days ago, this article appeared in CNN. It's very very interesting for me because I don't think Indonesia is a high-tech country. Obviously in term of infrastructure, we are so far behind countries like Singapore, Japan, or South Korea but since there are many of us, apparently we can still rock the world :P
So anyway, yesterday I watched Gulliver's Travels. I think every Jack Black's movie would have some song and dance in it :) I thought it was pretty entertaining and fun. It wasn't deep in term of the story but it was pretty fun. I kinda like Jack Black. He has this annoying air about him but he just seems to be such a fun guy. Anyway, nothing much can be said about the movie but the tilt shift effect at the beginning of the movie reminded me of when I used to play with that effect with the pictures that I took. Here's one example:
Anyway, I kinda made a new year resolution this morning. It happened because U sent me an sms telling me that she passed DELF. By the way, I really welcome the unexpected sms or call from people. Well NanSee is the only one who would normally call me. I guess what I'm trying to say, I just welcome the distraction a lot. Unfortunately I'm not that friendly to return the favor and be suddenly sending people sms just to distract them for awhile :P So back to U, she passed DELF and I said woohoo!!! I told her that she made me want to do DELF but I'm too lazy to do it. She said we should do it together and I kinda said okay, I will try to do 1 DELF next year. Since I said it, I should do it, right? It's kinda a new year resolution then ... errr, I have to make it happen :( I printed a sample test for B2 and I'm regretting saying that I would do DELF. It reminded me of CELI 3 and they are of the same level. I struggled a lot with CELI 3 but if I can really do DELF B2, it really shows how my Italian helps me a lot with French. Okay my rambling is pretty boring, isn't it? Anyway take care guys. If I don't write again before this year ends, I just want to say Happy New Year. 2011 will be awesome!!! That's me being positive :) Buonanotte tutti!
:) eKa @ 9:06:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, December 25, 2010
I remember Mr. Ben was telling me how sad it is that I would be spending christmas without anything special planned or without anyone. Err ... I kinda like it that way? I had a good day yesterday and I had a good day today as well, alone with myself. I needed space and I'm having time for myself this weekend. Went to watch Little Fockers yesterday and although it wasn't amazing and was almost boring on some parts, I thought it was pretty entertaining. I guess I just needed some light entertainment. When did Ben Stiller get so handsome? I first noticed how handsome he became on the posters for the movie and it took me by surprise. Then I saw him in the movie and he was really appealing and it did help a lot that his character was so likeable. I think the most unexpected character for me is Jessica Alba's. I didn't expect that she could be such a bimbo :P Anyway, nothing much else can be said about the movie. I am looking forward to watch Gulliver's Travels and The Tourist though both movies didn't get good reviews but I suppose they'll still be an interesting watch.
What else that's been happening? Nothing much. I finished reading Love and Lust in Singapore and I've chosen One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez as my next book. The title appealed to my sentimental-melancholy-tend-to-be-depressed self :P I've also started planning for my birthday present next year :) I think I have quite a kick ass organizational skill. I'm impressed with how much I could get done in less than 1 week. I'm pretty paranoid about it though. As usual I'm the half empty glass. I'm afraid that's it's not gonna come true and so I'm only telling a few people on a need-to-know basis because I don't want to jinx it. I think I need to pray about it every day so that God allows to do this plan, especially since it involves other people. I really hope God puts his blessing on this. Okay I don't want to speak much more about it. I think I'm gonna lie down and have a nap now. I'm so in a relaxed mood today :)
:) eKa @ 2:11:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, December 11, 2010
I am so tired right now that I feel like I should just go to sleep. There's also this uncomfortable feeling in my chest. I can't describe how it feels like but I just don't feel so good. Still, let me tell you how my week is, as if any of it is interesting.Movie of this week was The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I watched it in 3D. I don't know what's wrong with it, it was so bad that my eyes couldn't focus and it was pretty painful to stay in the cinema for that long watching something that felt like it came from some pirated dvd :( For the first time, I actually felt dizzy watching a 3D movie. I have heard some people complaining that they got dizzy watching a 3D movie. Finally I got what they meant. I thought it was just me but la Gioia who was watching it with me felt the same way :( I think it totally ruined the movie for us. I actually think the movie is not so bad. Who doesn't love adventure? Well if you don't, what a boring person you are. I have to comment that it just felt rather ilogical that kids would just approach the unknown, like approaching a city filled with bad people, without fear. However I do have to acknowledge that kids are more daring and adults take a more calculative approach and that makes us so not fun at all. Ooopss ... am I saying I'm an adult? When I often say I'm a child. That's pisces contradictory trait for you. I actually googled to see if what I just said makes any sense and this is what I found. I think it's so true. Need to show this to Ms. J and hear what she has to say, she may agree completely too :D
On this week, it was okay, I guess. I want to be positive and not say it's not okay. Let's just say I survived it and we're moving on to the next week. Let's just be thankful for that. Coincidentally I met Carl this week who said I look happier now. It was a moment of err...??? I guess it's kinda true but it's not like my world is free of merda. Shitty things still happened, like yesterday for example, but I guess the point is I survived it and I haven't cried yet. I guess we're just taking it day by day, prayer by prayer, smile by smile :)
Had lunch today after class with LM, Mau, and Jac + husband. Lunch was Italian food. I didn't have pasta even though I was thinking about it so much. I had risotto instead. I think I'm more of a pasta person. Aaaahhh, now that I am thinking about it, I so want to have pasta :( I chose panna cotta for dessert and we were given tiramisu and hazelnut mousse as well. Surprisingly I like the tiramisu. I don't drink coffee, so stuff with coffee in it doesn't really excite me but the tiramisu was really nice. I guess I just really like creamy fattening stuff :P After lunch I finally went to the mall to get christmas presents for some people. I was only thinking of 2 persons this year but suddenly there was an extra addition and the present for this person proved to be the hardest to find. It became harder because people whom I consulted to and who replied back to me had very strong opinions on how much I should spend on it. They're really logical people and they were right about the spending part since I think I may have spent close to S$500 today alone. I am too scared to actually calculate how much the damage is but I think it's around there :(
So Christmas is coming soon. I want to be all christmasy about it but after today, I think my head is bogged down with the fact that I have a french test next week. I need to study but I'm so lazy to do so. Seriously, verbs conjugation, pronouns, and tenses can be so so torturous :( Mr Ben actually said the test is a bit difficult. Darn it! I was actually wondering if I could survive it without studying but now I guess, I really have to study :( 1 week left and I haven't really touched my notes. Compared to the previous tests, I have never been this unprepared, so panic is really sinking in :( I guess it's time for me to stop talking now. Take care peeps!
:) eKa @ 10:28:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Ciao tutti, come stai? How are you guys doing? I was asked how my week was this week. I answered, "cette semaine est un peu difficile pour moi". I wish I could have answered differently but it was what it was. I even pulled an anti social mode yesterday and went for a rather expensive italian lunch alone. Well I just don't feel that S$6 for a small ice lemon tea is acceptable. I felt rather strange about going for lunch alone but I realized I should be able to do things like this and it went well. I spoke italian to the waiter and he understood me. Obviously I didn't have a lengthy conversation with him. I was just asking simple questions and he was replying with simple words but it still felt pretty good that he understood me and most importantly I think it felt good to step out from my current existence and just be transported away to some place which felt different simply because I was alone and forcing myself not to speak english. It was only for less than an hour but I guess there's always a time when you need to step out and you should really do it no matter if it's only for a short while because it helps to keep you sane.This week hasn't been all totally bad. There were moments of pure smiles and sincere laughters. There was a short moment when I could actually say that I had a good time. I think it's pretty note worthy since I mentioned it to some people, well to most people in my world actually :P I am maybe being foolish again but as I have explained it to LM today, life kinda sucks sometime or most of the time, so you should just be happy if there come moments when you can really smile with your heart, no matter if it's logically not right. I spent some time after class with LM today and we had a good long talk about stuffs. Again she's surprised with my contradiction. She said that she saw me as someone who is rational and so she found that the story I was telling her to be irrational. I could only say, you feel what you feel. You can't help it but of course the rational thing would be what you do with that feeling or emotion that you have and yes I do know that I should be taking the rational route.
So today we watched Rapunzel / Tangled. We watched it in 3D. I thought it was pretty nice. Rapunzel was pretty and her long hair is enviable. I thought he looked different when her hair was cut short and turned brunette. It's kinda nice that the movie has songs in it. It made it kinda classic disney. The lanterns scenes were really pretty that it really made you warm and fuzzy inside. As how it often happened when I watched a 3D movie, I don't think the 3D elements made much different in how nice the movie was. It made wonder if I should watch Narnia in 3D. I kinda don't have much else to say about the movie, other than it's pretty nice, which I already said above :P
Overall it's pretty good to be spending the afternoon with LM. She's always surprising me with how chatty she can be. There were a lot of stuffs being talked about :P Seriously maybe you cannot really know what's inside a woman's heart and mind. On another woman story, I was asking U today, how does she feel with the fact that we're turning 29 next year. She said that she feels rather sad about it and she was so funny when she was asking me if I'm ready and if I have prepared everything :D Yeah, as if we're gonna die. It's really funny but it's really my sentiment actually. LM was like why are you girls taking it this way, but I guess only if you have passed it and be 30 and above that you can actually say that it's not a big deal. It was really comforting that U feels the same way, that I am not that crazy. Life is amusing in its ways that an Indonesian and a Japanese with different upbringing and life experiences could feel the same about turning 29 :D
I know some people would roll their eyes when I told them how sad it is to be turning 29 but it's the last number in which we could say that we're 20 something. Yeah, it's just a number etc, but man being 30 just feels like you have to change and be more mature and wise. This week, I was telling a boy, the 20s is the year of reckless living and when you reach 30 onwards, it just doesn't seem that you can be that free anymore and there's so many things that you have to factor in in your life. Another guy told me this week that when he reached 30, he was okay about it. But now that he's 35, he's feeling rather sad about it. When I asked him why, he said it's because it's nearing 40 :D and Mr Ben last week said it's awful being 40 something :D I guess everyone is hating their numbers :P I have a theory that only if you haven't gotten or reached the things that you want to reach in your age, that you would feel sad and dread about being older. Well I have some months left in my 28. I am not one who loves even number but I am holding dearly to this 28 :P Oh well, buonanotte tutti! I am feeling very hungry. I think I'm gonna try to sleep early today. I felt pretty sleepy and tired this afternoon.
:) eKa @ 10:05:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, November 28, 2010
A Visit To The Universal Studio Singapore
I finally went to the Universal Studio!!! Initially it was Dewi's desire to go. I think I was more Singaporeanized about the whole thing. After hearing stories that it's small, not worth the money etc, I thought it wasn't an amazing place. But then I thought, I didn't go anywhere for a holiday this year, so why not. In the end I kinda "pushed" Dewi to go and our excitement kinda made 8 of her colleagues who were coming here with her to tag along as well. Apparently and amazingly, the tickets cost cheaper if you buy it in Indonesia. The ticket price for weekdays is S$66 in Singapore. Dewi booked it at S$63 from a tour agency in Jakarta. It's actually pretty strange because I tried to book it here and the web said it was sold out. So I suspect that they're giving some quota for tour agencies. I did find a tour agency in Singapore that allows us to book the tickets from them but I didn't proceed with it. I can't explain though why it is cheaper in Indonsia. Maybe Indonesian do really have lots of money to spend and maybe Singapore do banking on us to help their economy :P Anyways, the ticket came with two S$5 voucher, one for a meal and one to be used in the gift shop. I thought it's a really good deal. I love the vouchers :DDewi and her colleagues landed yesterday and after their lunch, they headed straight to Universal Studio. I was actually planning to be there by 1.30 latest but with this and that, we only entered the compound at 2. If you're wondering if it's enough time to explore the whole place, my answer is yes! The Universal Studio Singapore is like Singapore itself. It's tiny but it makes it easy to go from one place to another. Some people may not feel it's worth the money but considering I had only half a day to explore the theme park, I found it to be rather convenient. If you're wondering if there weren't many people in the park, there were actually quite a lot of people. Yeah it wasn't as full as Disneyland Hongkong but waiting time in the Universal Studio still took pretty long. I think the longest we waited for a ride was 1 hour or so. By the way, the last time I entered Sentosa was 2 years ago when Dewi came to Singapore. She was saying that somehow she ended up with me when she visited a theme park outside Indonesia (my Disneyland trip was also with her). Well, this might be the last time, seeing that she's getting married next year. She already asked me to book the second half of next year for her wedding. Anyway I'm digressing.
So Dewi came with 8 of her colleagues and my selfishness reared its ugly self :P I kinda got frustrated that we had to wait around. In the end they decided to just split from us (Me and Dewi). I have to add that I almost thought the Universal Studio trip wasn't going to come true simply because Dewi had her colleagues to think of. In her words, she had "the people's needs" to think of. That sentence doesn't come out so nice in English :( So I thought she's gonna bail on me, but she tried her best to accomodate me which makes me think that she's really the true friend (teman sejati) :P I guess she really knows me. The wrath of Eka can be pretty scary and so she really just let me drag her around :P I had quite a culture shock meeting her colleagues which was ridonkculous because I'm an Indonesian. For example, her colleague called me "Mbak" which is basically a nice way to show respect to me, but I was just stunned. Decorum is an integral part of Indonesian culture. Like for Dewi and her colleagues, she rarely called any of them with their name. There would be Mr or Madame for the older seniors and for the ones with similar age, I guess they use "Mbak" or "Mas". So anyway her colleagues left us and I felt kinda bad because I don't think they enjoyed the park much. They decided to leave early. I don't think they played much of the rides :( I hope they don't feel it was a waste of time and money. I had a list of things that I wanted to do and I had to say that I think I only missed out 2 but that's okay because I think more or less they would be the same like the things in HongKong Disneyland. So here are the things that we went into:
- Lights! Camera! Action! Hosted by Steven Spielberg --> I thought it was pretty cool seeing how a scene would be filmed inside a sound stage. I think the study of special effects is really interesting.
- Accelator --> Reading about it, I actually didn't want to go but in the end I went in and it was actually very very tame :P
- Revenge of the Mummy --> I knew this would be like the Space Mountain ride in Disneyland which I was really scared about but for some reason I thought I should do it, simply because I will never ever have the nerve to do Battlestar Galactica: Human vs. Cylon. Again my stubborness dragged everyone in (well there were some who stayed behind and didn't take the ride). It was scary and seriously for me and roller coaster, I cannot scream in them! I always get scared that something would go wrong, that my heart would stopped or I get injured or something, so I would always and always hold on to dear life. By that I mean, I was holding on to whatever safety gear I had on and I would be so focus on that, that I couldn't scream at the same time! Dewi said that I should actually scream to make sure my heart is beating and my lung is open. That would stop us from being dead. I need to google on this. Anyway the good thing about this for me (which is a let down for others) is that the ride is pretty short. That's kinda the thing about many of the rides in here, they're pretty short. Kinda perfect for a chicken like me, but for those people who like the thrill, they will get disappointed. When we were kinda slowing down, I thought it was a pause before something worse happened but it was really the end and we were like "Praise the Lord!" but I know some people would have wished it was a pause for something more :P Anyway, I actually looked pretty good in the picture that they normally take of the people during the ride, but of course I didn't buy the picture :P
- Treasure Hunters --> This is where Dewi's colleagues left us. They didn't want to wait. We waited and yes it was quite a kiddy ride. So nothing much I can say about it :p
- Shrek 4-D Adventure --> I'm such a chicken that I didn't feel comfortable in this simply because there was one point when our seats were tilted that my feet were dangling. Yes, even the little kids are braver than me, I'll admit this :P
- Waterworld --> I thought this was pretty cool because the stunts were amazing inspite of it's being done in such a small pool. I have much respect for all the casts and also to whoever build the sets. It's just amazing that things don't get totally destroyed even though they're like on fire 3-4 times a day. I actually got wet here because one of the cast water-gunned our area :(
- Canopy Flyer --> This is a ride up high with our feet dangling. I thought it was gonna be a nice easy ride. The person even said, just open your eyes and enjoy the view. God damn it, it wasn't!!! It was pretty fast, there's a bit of a tilt to the ride and Dewi having the need to scream chose to screamed out my name instead of the usual aaaaahhh. I tried to scream but it's just hard for me. Luckily again for me, it was pretty short :P
- Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure --> We knew it would be like "Arung Jeram" in Jakarta's Dufan but as we went along, we thought there wasn't much of a challenge and we didn't actually get wet. That is until we went into a dark tunnel (I hated this darkness thingy) then there's a lift that brought our raft up and then we were unloaded and as we plunged, we got totally soaked :( I don't think the raincoats that some people used helped keep them dry. I think our investment in the locker was much better :)
That's about it. We stayed until the 9.30 Lake Hollywood Spectacular pyrotechnics show. It was pretty bizzare for me. There were announcement to tell people about it on the loudspeaker but when it began, there was no accouncement or introduction. No music, no nothing. It was basically just a fireworks show. I hope they're still working on it. I love fireworks but I think they can do better with it. Overall I am definitely a Disneyland person. I'm too much of a chicken for Universal Studio. Like if I go there again, there's only so little few that I would go for :P I'm glad that I went though. Another thing I can cross on my list. Here are some pictures. The castle is from Far Far Away (Shrek and Fiona's Castle).
More pictures here
On other news, I found out that Emilia is pregnant and Rista told me today that she is also pregnant. Dewi is getting married next year and I am sure my cousin, Marlisa, is following soon after. So this is it, this is really the point when I am really left behind. I want to be totally happy and excited for them but I have to admit that I get pretty scared being left alone. Oh well, repeat the line: what you don't have, you don't need it now. Anyway I should feel happy that apparently I look young :P Today a 22-year old said that I looked 21!!! I could't believe she thought I am younger than her :D Anyway, I am rather excited to see the babies which are coming. I hope they are cute and will always be nice to Auntie Eka. Darn, I hate having to be called auntie but that's what I am going to be to these kids. Let's see, which one sounds less painful, auntie or tante. Either way, I have to get used to it :P
This week's enlightenment thought is: hate grows faster than love. I am too tired to explain how this thought came about. It's nearing 6 months now. It's pretty fast and I am thankful that I've made it this far. Thanks really be to God. It's very very late now. I can't remember the last time I'm awake at this hour. Take care peeps. Have a great week ahead!
:) eKa @ 1:52:00 AM • 0 comments
Saturday, November 20, 2010
I so want to talk about Potter right now but before I launch into that (which gonna be long), let me tell you about my day first. Skipped class today and went to Felis and David's wedding. Decided to go even though I had to go solo simply because it's for Felis. Even though we are not close anymore but we were close back in NUS days and it's just something that you have to do for friends who you respect and appreciate. I guess I find it important to be there on her wedding day. She was all smiles and I actually felt rather touched when I saw her walking down the aisle. Weddings make you emotional? It was just so touching for me to see her and she really looked so happy. I guess to see her in a wedding dress kinda brought a lot of emotion. It's perhaps a mixture of disbelief that this girl whom you know to be very casual can look pretty stunning and also she had the biggest smile in her face all the time during the wedding. I am so happy for her :)The reverend who gave the sermon was Indonesian. Luckily his sermon wasn't long. I kinda found the sermon to be interesting. He made reference to Obama's visit to Indonesia recently, I found it to be pretty funny. One thing struck me though. He said something like now there's no more I in the two of you, now you are a "we" and you should think and behave that way. I couldn't agree to that and I was thinking maybe, just maybe, this is the reason why I have noone yet. I still think very highly of being able to be an individual, being my own self. I don't know. I have no right answer on this. I guess I prefer Kahlil Gibran's view on marriage. I guess I would want that in my marriage. Will it lead to a succesful forever and ever kinda marriage? I don't know. If we to follow the verses that Felis and David chose for their wedding, we should put God first before ourselves and I suppose as it's always happened, God would then sort things out for us.
Anyway, Oshie in the end decided to go and we kinda planned to sit together but in the end I came later than him and I couldn't locate him and I decided to just sit on my own. Lo and behold when I sat, the girl next to me was Jane. I was telling Oshie that it's kinda weird to sit with Jane since we were never close but I was just so glad to have her around. She decided not to wait for the photo taking so then I found myself alone again. I decided to just go and sit with Copper while waiting. He's like becoming a lighthouse whom I can always locate on events like this :P I kinda admire him, he always seems comfortable about attending things like this alone. Well it's always easy for him to mingle around anyway. It was nice to meet my Indonesian friends from NUS but the snobbish me decided to just go off straight and I didn't stay for lunch. It was nice to see them but I still feel awkward about mingling with them. I am that silly and snobbish :(
So I decided to just head straight to Vivo. I was meeting La Gioia for lunch and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We spent a lot of money on food today. Lunch was at Serenity, the spanish restaurant. I seriously love this place. I think they serve really good food but the price always makes me dislike them enough to deter me from coming there often. Anyways, let's just talk about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I love the movie very much and it kinda make me wanna shout I LOVE HARRY POTTER VERY MUCH!!! :D I have to say though that I am not critical about the movie because I have forgotten many details of the story. There were moments when I wondered, did this really happen? Note to self, please read the book before the second part of the movie! So without all the complaint that I normally have comparing it with the book, I think this movie was nicely done. I love the story and I thought the cast were really good. I love LOVE Rupert Grint. I have loved him since the first movie and he's the reason why I love Ron Weasley so much. I thought he was as usual great. I think Emma Watson was also great; Hermione is just awesome! I'm never much of Daniel Radcliffe's fan so I'm not gonna say much about him. Well, I guess it's kinda nice to see Harry not so into himself, being "the one". He actually kinda put other being into his universe instead of himself. He tried to cheer Hermione up so that was kinda nice of him and when Dobby died he was also very nice to him.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was a pretty sad book with so many people dying but somehow it didn't register to me when I watched the movie. Only when Hedwig died, George's had his ear cut off, and Dobby died, that I remembered how sad this book is. Oh I have to say something about the Weasley boys. Bill Weasley is kinda hot! As for the other Weasley, Ron, Fred, and George are not actually amazingly handsome but somehow they are pretty desirable. Who knows that a red haired boy can be so interesting :P As for the other cast. I always love Professor Snape. He appeared very little in this movie. I think I'll be really sad on his dying scene in part 2. I hope they do him good and give him proper scenes in part 2 of the movie. Somehow I love seeing every characters in this movie, maybe because it's the last movie. I even like seeing Kreacher! It's so good to see Draco and I felt sad seeing him pretty tortured. Helena Bonham Carter was of course manic as aunt Bellatrix. I notice that Professors McGonagall wasn't in the movie, it made me wonder where she is. Oh I can go on and on about the movie. It was really a good movie. It was sad when Hermione had to erase the memory of her parent, we finally see her parent! It was nice to see Ron and Hermione's interaction. They are really so right for each other. Harry and Hermione is just such a wrong pairing, even I got annoyed to see the vision of them kissing when Ron had to destroy the necklace horcrux. Ron and Hermione just have a certain chemistry about them and I love the two of them. I think Harry and Ginny couldn't even show as much chemistry as Ron and Hermione. I am going on and on again. I just love the movie and the book so much. I think I don't even mind watching it again :P Maybe I should go back to the tradition of watching a Potter movie twice :P
Okay it's pretty late guys. I'm very tired so I cannot trust my brain to give logical sentences right now even though I still have much things to say. Like how I get my S$1142.30 back. Who knows that it would find its way back to me. It took months but God is pretty awesome, He even gave me a little bit extra. I am just in awe. So I guess the moral of the story is to let go things which are lost and to believe that if it really belongs to you, it will find its way back to you. So for everything which is taken from me, maybe if it's really taken unfairly, God will somehow return it back to me. It was truly a lesson of patience and faith :) Well I hope you guys have a good week ahead :)
:) eKa @ 11:59:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, November 14, 2010
It's a rough week this week. I'm down with flu. Still not totally cured but I am finally showing signs of getting better. I would be glad when this is over but I don't know if it will or how long it will take. I don't think I had enough time to rest and I think my drugs weren't strong enough. It was either that or the virus has become immune to the antibiotic I've been taking :(I was told, "It happens Eka". Yes it does. I guess the week is rougher for me not because of the sickness alone but because of all the other things that do not go my way. That's not literally the correct way to explain it. Many things do come my way, they're just not things that I want to happen on me :( With so little energy in my body, I just want to just walk away from everything *sigh* Shit happens? Yeah, I know. A friend once even told me that shit makes flower grow. So there'll be rainbow in my sky again one day and if there isn't, there at least be a blue sky.
Was supposed to meet Ayu yesterday for dinner but in the end we couldn't make it. She needed time to spend with her family and I needed the rest. It's rather sad because I was looking forward to meet her boy, Gibran, and also because I haven't seen her since we left high school. We hope for another better time and hope it'll happen soon. The good news of this week is my best friend, Dewi, is coming to town for a short weekend trip in 2 weeks time. She'll be with her group of colleagues but I guess she'll squeeze some time to meet me. I'm so looking forward to it. I look forward meeting and talking with Indonesians friends who are nice to me. I do know some Indonesian people here, I even spend my days with Indonesians, but I just miss and need the people who get me and say there there Eka, you're cool and awesome, and there's nothing that you cannot do. I need these people to keep me sane :P Yes, I'm gonna admit it, I do have a narcissistic tendency. I think everyone does, however small.
On a cryptic note, yesterday a question was asked to someone. I don't think the person really answered the question which was asked. It wasn't a difficult question and not a particulary memorable one but my random brain brought it up this afternoon. The person who supposed to answer the question gave a very thoughtful answer, thoughtful as in it seemed that there's a lot thoughts going on into the answer. He gave reasons and all and I was thinking where's the creativity in the answer? The curiousity, the desire, the impulse, the thoughts of what if everything could be possible. That got me thinking if I am that inexperienced youngster hence I look at the world too simply or is it failure and heartache in life that can really change a person. I like to think it's the second reason. I've experienced many failures in life and I do feel that they've become such dark shadows that hover around and make you feel there's certain boundaries and limit in yout life, but you gotta shake it off right. You gotta bounce back. Though they're there, you just gotta try to see the light and push through and don't let it limit the wonderful you. My point is, I hope when I get older I will still be curious on things and be fascinated with what the world has to offer. I hope I will still always have a list of things I want to do in life and I hope I will still strive to do them all. I know when I die there'll be things on that list that I haven't done but most imperatively, I think at least I'll die with a smile reminiscing the good memories of the things that I have done.
:) eKa @ 8:03:00 PM • 0 comments
Friday, November 05, 2010
Mr Robert Downey Jr, I Love You
Watched Due Date today. The hype about this movie is that it's from the director of The Hangover. Well I didn't find it to be as hilarious and as crazy as The Hangover but I thought it was pretty entertaining. All I can say after watching the movie is what I wrote as the title of this post :P To say that Due Date is not as crazy as The Hangover is kinda a bit of an understatement. There were some crazy and overly dramatic moments, for example when their first car flew over a flyover highway. I also wondered if an air marshall would just easily shoot someone and seriously, you can get kick out of a plane just by uttering the word terrorist and bomb? It's rather silly, don't you think?Something that I kinda like about this movie is how real the characters are. Yes, the characters played by Robert Downey Jr and (especially) Zach Galifianakis are perhaps pretty weird but the way they interacted with each other are mostly like how normal people (under their circumstances) would interact. Anyway, all of us have a certain weirdness about us too, right? :D They're not overly crazy or anything unless during the crazy moments they were into. They were rather civilized and even polite to each other. So the story revolved around how these 2 slightly strange people have to survive a crazy roadtrip together. I have to say that the thing that I like the most about the movie is Robert Downey Jr. He's just so cool. He's like Johnny Depp cool :D Well, if you're expecting The Hangover, it's not it, so you may get disappointed but it's still quite an entertaining movie :)
That's pretty much how I spent today. This week has been rather calm. So I kinda like it. Well it does help that it's a short week. I'm not looking forward much for next week but I have to be positive about it. I'm so looking forward for the next public holiday. I have nothing much else to update peeps. Life is same old same old. I am happy though for all the friends who have had dinner or lunch with me this week ;) I wish us all happiness :)
:) eKa @ 8:17:00 PM • 1 comments
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