Pictures of September 2008

These pictures are taken from Abbie's website. I found out that she is a talented photographer. I asked her if it's okay to put her works in my blog and she said yes. So, her pictures are the pictures of September 2008. 

The girrafe and the grass. It's not a groundbreaking picture but i like how simple it turned out. 

I was on the picture but that's not the reason why I picked it. :) I like the mixture of the colors and the lights. In real, that pink flowery tree on the background looked so cheap and lame. But I was surprised that it looks great on the picture. The picture was taken when Peco and I sang a song for the girl who celebrated her 19th birthday. 

Thanks Abbie, and great job!

Random Stuff

The electricity was off earlier. Most of my current tasks are dealing with computer. I could always file and clean my desk but I’ve done that last week. During the non-tasks period which I was happy about, the slight thought of writing came to my mind. Not sure what to write but I’d like to write something. 

I remembered my conversation with Shane few nights ago about random things of life like future, fears, etc. It was a good conversation and I learnt a lot out of it. 

I checked out Abbie’s Flickr website yesterday and found that she is a talented photographer. I like her works and decided to put some of her works as the picture of this month. 

Two days ago was Peco’s birthday. He didn’t want anybody to sing him birthday song, I thought it was weird. It wasn’t a real birthday without birthday song. Though it’s a day late, we finally sang him the song. He said he didn’t like it but I knew from his face that he loved it. 

I haven’t been talking to Mega this week. I think there was some point where I just fed up talking to her. We’ve been friends for 11 years and this isn’t the first time. So, I guess we’re okay with it. It made my life so much easier and peaceful. But I made a truce this morning so we’ll see how it goes. 

Oh, me and some other friends from work went to a cello and piano recital. It was great though there was no air con and the power went off for 5 minutes. We really enjoyed the performance. At one point, the cellist played solo and performed a piece composed by an Indonesian artist. It was refreshing to hear something new, something modern which I really like. The piece was very unusual and made some people giggled. 

Counting the countless blessings

To work constantly with computer and paperwork can be frustrating. I have piles of paper lying on my desk waiting for me to work on and I need to keep up with a good reason of why in the world am I doing this job. I am out of focus and not sure how to find the excitement out of my job. I finally have the gut to talk to Bill about how I feel. I was nervous at the beginning, unlike the other conversations we have had before, I felt like this time’s conversation was me being a whiner. But I am glad I did it. Not only that I felt my burden was lifted, it helped me put my focus back. 

I remember one time when a dear friend of mine reminded to treasure every blessing that I receive. I’d like to do it again this time to remind me how blessed I am for:

God’s faithfulness

Having a job

Having a boss like Bill who is the man of God, wise and full of compassion

Remembering that today is my sister’s birthday

Constantly arguing with Mega and Sani, I feel like it’s the way to release my frustrations

Discussing with Peco whether we should name his motorbike Tommy. I am glad we did!

Talking about some weird stuff with Abbie at school 

Talking to Mona about how wonderful her artwork is and how her life reminds me a lot of Carrie Bradshaw

Talking to Jay about life in the other side of the world

Always having a free donnut at Donutboyz, thanks to Yudha

Being part of Solafide

Writing crazy wall-to-wall with Eln

Having Sharon & Casey constantly disturbing my peaceful life

Not worrying about what I should eat, drink or wear every day

Knowing that God is in control

The excitement of the future and not to worry about it 

Being able to grow through the hardship

Knowing that there are people out there praying for me!!!! 

Picture of August 2008

Looking at this picture somehow brought my memory of a children book that I often read with my parents when I was a kid. I couldn’t exactly remember what it was but I could remember the pictures that illustrated the book. One of the pictures was similar to the one that a dear friend of mine James took. He took a road trip across America with his lovely wife Mona recently and stopped by at this deserted barn. I can clearly see that the picture looks so remote, so out in the middle of nowhere. Yet at the same time I captured how tranquil the place is, how peaceful this deserted barn is. I think I am being a little dramatic here. But I like the picture and I need to say something about how I like it. :)

This picture is so surreal. It’s like one of those Thomas Kinkade’s painting. This picture is again taken by James on his road trip across America. My love towards American nature and landscape grew this summer when some friends sent me a bunch of pictures from their adventures around America. I like it a lot! 

Le Voyage avec Ellen part troix: The Dessert

We haven’t met our dear couple friends, Shane and Lindsay for a while. They just got back from Singapore for Shane’s medical check-up. It was great that when they came back, they invited us for to come over to their house for the dessert!

As always, Shane and Lindsay served the best that American desserts can offer. A tasty dark chewy brownies, a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing that melts in your mouth and since Ellen is a big fan of coffee it is appropriate not to forget the famous frapuccino a la Shane.



The night was a little chill but soon the conversation, the games, the just hang-out there warmed the air. It was just like Ellen. The first impression about her is that she is cold and unfriendly. But once you get to know her, you will soon find out about her warmth, care and love that surrounds you whenever you are around her.







It was a delight to spend time with Ellen in such a fun rollercoaster weekend. I believe in our human nature, it was our way to stay in her warmth, care and love that we could remember and feel as long as we could.

Le Voyage avec Ellen part deux: Sing!

As we felt that we still have so much energy even after Jogja trip, we decided to book a karaoke room at Quality the next day. Some of us would like to show off their singing talents in front of the public.



We have Peco, whose voice could make a woman flies into the seventh heaven.



Mega, with a powerful voice of Emilia Contessa.



Pita, the Siti Nurhaliza wanabe.



Fidel, the rock n’ roll diva.



Yohanes, who failed to woo the karaoke machine.



Andre, the King of Pop.



Hoho, Roma Irama of the day.



James, who I believe was a former Green Day member.



Cori, the singer and dancer of the day.



Dina, a fan of the eighties.



Naomi, the back up singer who actually can sing.



Diaz, the Gita Gutawa of the Nineties.



Jefri, who was so late.

And of course, Ellen, the queen of the Karaoke.



From pop to dangdut, slow to stinking rock, from mellow to hoompa toompa. We sang and danced till we got tired.



Actually, not really. We sang and danced till the time’s up and the karaoke machine stopped us.



We had fun!

Le Voyage au Jogja avec Ellen

Considering the limited time we have with Ellen, some of us decided to dedicate our weekend to be with her. The first thing we did was a trip to Jogja. Some of us, ten to be exact woke up early in Saturday morning so that we could catch a 7AM bus to Solo. From Solo, we headed to Jogja by a different bus. It was non AC economic bus which was interesting because we were entertained by some of the street musician along the way. Most of them sang with quite interesting voice, but there was one who had a really good voice.





Since Indiana Jones is on theater, some of us could not resist of buying tickets to watch the movie. But for some others, shopping and starbucking were more alluring than watching some guy running around in the jungle.



After shopping, window shopping, eating lunch, walking around Malioboro, talking to the strangers, and shopping again we finally met up at the train station to go back to Solo.



For most of us, it was the first time we took the train to Solo from Jogja. It turned out to be fun although some of us had to stand and sat on the floor because all seats were taken.





We arrived Solo right on time before the last fast bus to Salatiga left. But on our way to the bus station, we experienced a little bit of Solo city tour by becak. It was a lot fun!





The Saturday night is always busy even in the bus that took us back to Salatiga. Even after all seats were taken, the driver kept taking people in until it was so tight that people could not move. We thought the trip to Jogja was short but we felt so tired of the travel. One of us tookthe opportunity to sleep in the bus.