September Holidays 2011

Written on 14^th September 2011, 1429hrs (Singapore time)

2^nd of September 2011

Last week was a super duper fantastic week. I went back to my beloved country, Indonesia. I flew back to Yogyakarta on 2^nd of September. There was no direct flight, so I had to make a transit at Jakarta, and as a result, even though I left my homestay at around 0630hrs, I only arrived in Jogja 8 hours after that.

Before I continue, I’d like to comment on something which kind of bothers me… When you’re taking a plane somewhere, and then the staff calls the passengers to board the plane through the intercom, there’s always this big chunk of people just rushing to board the plane first. I mean, what’s the big deal? We’re all boarding the same plane, we’re gonna arrive at the same time, why bother to get on the plane first? And usually, the flight attendants will call the people seated in the rear to board first. There’s always some people who, despite having a seat at the front, force to board the plane first. And so, this causes a kind of traffic jam inside the plane. Most of the time, while I’m queuing to board the plane, the passengers queuing up behind me will sort of try to push me forward because of the whole concept that ‘we need to board the plane quickly’ or whatever. Last week, when I was boarding the plane to Jakarta, there was a woman and her daughter, and they were rushing and trying to kind of cut the queue or something, and if you saw us you would think that they were like my bodyguards or something haha.

Okay let’s move on. When I arrived in Jogja, the sad thing was that some of my relatives were already going back to Jakarta or wherever they live. So I didn’t really get to meet all my relatives. On the night that I arrived, my father’s family had dinner together at a Thai restaurant called ‘Phuket’ if I’m not mistaken. The dish that I loved the most was ‘Roti Naan’. It was like a combination of roti prata and pancakes. Delicious.

At around 2200hrs or so, Om Tris, Daddy, Mamik, Pakde Agus and I watched a soccer match… via TV! It was the qualification round of the FIFA World Cup 2014 between Indonesia and Bahrain. I though Indonesia would win because we sort of have an edge over them-we were playing home, and so, we had the support of thousands of people in the stadium. But the result was still disappointing, we lost 2-0 to Bahrain. A thing I just discovered was that after the match, during the press conference, the current Indonesian soccer coach, Wim Risjbergsen (or whatever his name is, sorry I can’t remember) made a statement, blaming the Indonesian players for the loss. Naturally, I would be mad, because as a coach, he also has responsibility, and whatever the situation is, he can’t just blame other people. And what was even more shocking was that it was reported that 7 players now refuse to play if the coach is still him. This, I think, is also inappropriate. You can’t just quit like that. And it’s not just that, I mean, you’re playing for your country! Why would you refuse to do that? If I were you, I would be honored to play for my country, and I would play no matter what, just like Bambang Pamungkas (I read his blog last night and I now have a lot of respect for him because he’s just an amazing individual). I don’t know what’s happening right now, but I hope they solve it soon. And by the way, why did PSSI fire Alfred Riedl? I thought he was a talented coach, no?

3^rd of September 2011

The next day, Adam, Nadia, Danar, Krisna, Ilham and I went to Ambarukmo Plaza or more commonly known as Amplaz to watch ‘5 Elang’. Someone told me it was something like ‘5 Sekawan’ (in English: Famous Five – by Enid Blyton) but apparently, it was not. It was really disappointing. I expected it to be better. For those who like the movie, I’m sorry but I think the storyline is pretty weak. The conflict wasn’t much. It wasn’t really interesting. So, yeah. After that, my parents and us went to Kalimilk (Kaliurang Milk). It’s like this new café thing, something like Starbucks but I think it tastes better and is of course considerably cheaper. I tried the Cookies Milkshake, and I think it was great.

In the evening, Tante Inung, Om Tris, Tante Rinta, her daughter, son and us went to the Prambanan Temple to witness the superb Ramayana Ballet Show. To be honest, I didn’t really understand the story, because it was basically just dancing. To make it even worse, I fell asleep nearing the end of the show. I don’t really blame myself for this because I haven’t had much sleep. I slept at midnight the previous night, and the night before I woke up super early because I hadn’t packed my stuff yet haha. Anyway, I wasn’t the only one who slept :p

4^th of September 2011

The next day, we stayed at home I think. I just had fun at home with my family, just chilling out, surfing the internet and stuff. Oh, and by the way, my grandma’s kitten is so cute!

5^th of September 2011

The next morning, my family and grandparents went to this sort of goat farm called ‘SuKa As-Syifa’ if I’m not mistaken. I think the place was still new, judging by the amount of goats there. Here is a short video…

In the afternoon, my family and Mbak Hasna went to Empire XXI to watch Transformers. I’ve actually watched the movie, but the others haven’t. Unfortunately, the tickets were sold out… So after that, we went to Kalimilk… again! J

6^th of September 2011

The time has come for us to go to Jakarta… But before that, there’s a video below that I recorded while in the car. It’s supposed to show you a bit what Jogja is like.

The flight was early, so we arrived in Jakarta at around 1000hrs if I’m not mistaken. Oh, by the way, I love Terminal 3! It’s really modern, the only thing missing is the Indonesian identity.

Nothing much happened on this day. We picked up our cats from the petshop (because we can’t bring them along with us to Jogja), played around, and that was it.

7^th of September 2011

Now, the 7^th of September was a really special day, especially for my sister. It was the day where we picked up our (or more specifically, Nadia’s) dog! Yes, dog! We now have a pet dog! The dog is a Collie, and he’s male. He’s still 5 months, so not old but not that young either. He was really quiet and nervous in the beginning, but by the time I left for Singapore, he was already happy living with us. Actually, I kind of disliked the idea of having a dog. The reason is not because I hate dogs. No, I LOVE dogs. The reason was because in Islam, dogs are kind of… I don’t know what the English word is, but in Indonesian we say ‘najis’. But my parents still agreed to Nadia’s desire to have a dog because she really showed how much she wanted it, and for 2 months or so she even went to our neighbour’s house just to play with their dog! But now that I’ve seen how fun dogs can be, I can’t really say that I still dislike the idea of having a dog… hehehe

8^th September 2011

At around 0900hrs the next day my mom and I went to the dentist because I told her I think there’s a cavity in one of my teeth. And true enough, there was one. Another thing the dentist commented on was that there were 2 special teeth that I don’t have yet, and so I had to get an X-Ray of my teeth. But I didn’t do it on that day.

Besides going to the dentist, we also went to pick up my mom’s car’s letter or something like that, and, we also went to Cibubur Junction or also known as ‘Tjieboeboer Janksyen’ in my dictionary to buy a BlakcBerry for Adam. *sigh*. Now I’m the only one in my family who doesn’t have a BlackBerry! I’m also the only grandchild in my father’s family who doesn’t have a BlackBerry. It’s kind of sad, but at the same time, I think BlackBerrys are starting to have a bad effect on people. People are starting to spend too much time communicating to other people through their phones, and especially with BlackBerry, there’s this instant messaging feature called BlackBerry Messenger where you can contact your friends who also have BlackBerrys for free! That is, as long as you have internet connection. During family times, once in a while, one of my family members will take out their BlackBerry because they noticed that there’s a new notification or something. And yes, I get it. Having a BlackBerry is cool because it’s easy to communicate with people. I know that because I’ve experienced it. But it’s starting to have a negative impact. And yes, I would probably be more ignorant of this if I still had my BlackBerry, but I don’t. And even if I still have my BlackBerry, I think I would still notice how BlackBerry is starting to change our lives. I’m actually considering buying an Android phone next time :D

9^th September 2011

I don’t think much happened on this day. My mom left in the morning because she had to go to the bank or something, and that leaves me and Nadia at home. I tried my best to spend quality time studying, but it was just difficult with all the distractions. In the end, I did an A Maths paper, but I made a lot of mistakes while doing it because I wasn’t focused and I also took a really long time to finish it.

In the evening, Nadia, my mom and I went to Rumah Sakit Mitra Keluarga. Nadia was going to the doctor because she’s been having a flu, and I’m going to the ophthalmologist because I realized that my vision has started to get blurry. True enough, I don’t have perfect vision anymore. My left eye is -0.75 and my right eye is -0.25 so I have to wear glasses now! Dang.

10^th September 2011

We were actually planning to go to MOI or something at around 1000, but there was The Glee Project on TV, and so we watched it, and by the time it finished, which was like 1200hrs, a guest came by. So we left home at around 1330. We went to CJ first. We went to Optik Melawai and another optic shop to buy specs for me, but they both said that I had to wait for a couple of days to get the specs. So we went to PIM, and I bought glasses there. I’m wearing glasses now! -_-

I also bought a pair of shoes for formal events.

11^th September 2011

It’s the last day of the holiday, and it’s time for me to go back to Singapore. Byebye Indonesia~