Berawal sekitar bulan April (lupa tepatnya bulan apa), ketika sedang super stress dengan kerjaan ... akhirnya gue memutuskan untuk "memenangkan diri sendiri" (dan bukan perusahaan) dengan ikut2an berburu tiket murah Air Asia ... plus selang bbrp minggu kemudian voucher bersahabat dari accor hotel.
Rasanya dengan browsing sana sini dan membayangkan jalan2 ke sana ke mari, hidup lebih ringan ... hahahaha .... Ditambah traveling was not part of my family culture. Jadi ini termasuk belajar menikmati hidup juga setelah kerja keras melulu .... plus Ake juga sedang libur kan ? ntar dia jamuran di rumah wakakakaka .....
Setelah dapet blessing dari Komandan Pleton (pipung) sekaligus juggling dengan jatah cuti beliau yang mepet banget (well, we have to think about lebaran too. sementara jatah cuti gue lumayan lega karena ada additional days hasil kerja malem) maka final itenary-nya adalah :
18062010 JKT - SIN (numpang tidur doang karena pipung cuti setengah hari dan kita dapet pswt jam 1830)
19062010 SIN (visiting Universal Studio Singapore)
20062010 SIN - KL (dapet psw pagi jam 0900 singapore time. lanjut ke KLCC petrosains)
21062010 KL (visiting genting highland lanjut ke IKEA damansara)
22062010 KL - JKT (visiting KLCC Aquaria)
Berhubung gak pernah piknik (gue kan travel dalam rangka kantor mulu) , banyak juga lesson learn-nya loooo ...
LL-1 : jumat sore, bertolaklah kita ke bandara SOETA langsung dengan PeDe nya ke Terminal 3 ... Ternyataaaaaa .... AirAsia international flight itu tetep berlokasi di Terminal 2. Hanya AirAsia local flight yang departing dari Terminal 3. Jadi kita rada pontang-panting juga tuh ke Terminal 2 , untuuungggg (dasar jawa) udah web check in. Jadi tinggal masukin bagasi saja. Landing tetap di Changi Airport, padahal gue sudah menetapkan hati untuk gak kecewa jika kita landing di Low Budget Terminal.
LL-2 : Check in sekitar jam 2230 di Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel. Lokasi di area Marine Parade. Berhubung nggak ada kebutuhan untuk jalan2 ke Orchard (padahal lagi Singapore Great Sale, dmana saya juga gak ada niatan buat belanja) , so this hotel considered as perfect in term of location for our visit. Sempet sih ada tragedi siap2 ngotot , ketika sang receptionist berkata "there is no room with King Bed". Untungnya walaupun double bed, diupgrade kamarnya, dikasih extra bed dan view ke arah laut (gak keleatan juga ketutupan gedung si lautnya) for free ... In this type of hotel , you have to ask for electrical universal power cord. Kayanya banyak kasus si colokan ditilep sama tamu, jadi hanya disediakan upon request dan harus dibalikin pas check out.
LL-3 : dari hotel ke Sentosa, diputuskan untuk naik taksi saja. pertama menghemat energi dan ngejer waktu. Secara kita juga cuma sehari di Singapore, khusus untuk visiting USS. Kita di drop di lower level nya Resort World. A very short walk to USS.
LL-4 : Untunnggggg (lagi2 si jawa beraksi), gue udah beli tiket USS via internet jauh2 hari. setiba kita di sana ticket counter nya tutup semua dengan tulisan "TICKET FOR TODAY IS SOLD OUT" .... wadawwww ....
LL-5 : If you are traveling with bellow 8yo kid, especially if your kid a bit allergic to the heat, alias anti panas kaya anak gue .... i shall suggest you to come to the park arround 1500 instead of starting it on 1000. Bukan apa2 bowww, permainan dan show yang bisa dinikmati juga gak begitu banyak (kebanyakan buat teenager up. character nya yang dikenal bellow 8yo kid juga cuma Madagascar dan Shrek) , jadi yang dinikmati adalah suasananya. Sementara suasana itu berasa ok ketika udah rada2 teduh .... ada bonek2 dan orang2 berkostum utk diajak foto, ada outdoor singing and dancing performance, udara udah lebih sejuk ... dan by 1830 lampu2 udah mulai nyala .... nice nice nice :) , anyway ... USS juga menyediakan stroller kok .... suggestion hanya cocok untuk anak diatas 1 tahun yang udah bisa duduk sendiri dengan properly. Kalo dibawah 1 tahun, mendingan bawa stroller sendiri ya ... :)
Setelah berpanas2 ria di USS, langsung lah kita ke East Coast Seafood center .... tempatnya rameee okeeee ..... dan dari sekian banyak resto , gue pilih JUMBO. Menu andalannya adalah Chilli sauce crab. Sepertinya terinspirasi (atau menginspirasi kepiting saus padang) .... jelas nggak sepedas kepiting saus padang, but yummyy ... Ake enjoy Shrimp with Cereal .... mungkin terinsipirasi dengan ayam kremes. Cuma ini bener2 pake cereal, so dijamin sehat ... hahahahaha ....
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Singapore = Universal Studio Saja ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010
a trip to ANCOL : a Gratitude for my TROOPS
if you asked me, how i can manage the routine happen in my family while i am selling some of my time to the company ? ... the answer is 'having a good TROOPS" ...
To show my appreciation and gratitude for them, i arranged a trip to ANCOL yesterday ... just to make them happy and of course to make my daughter happy ...
There we were on Friday 26/02/2010 , ketika libur (sambil harap2 cemas Ancol gak crowded) berangkat pagi2 sekitar 0800hr menuju Ancol.
Formasinya :
Me (driver) Surti - my driver' wife (co pilot merangkap bendahara) di kursi depan ...
lalu Ake , Anto (my driver' son) dan Narti (dedicated utk ngurus Ake) di kursi tengah ....
Jum (dedicated utk ngurus rumah) di kursi belakang bersama peralatan piknik.
Pipung nggak ikutan. Memang dari awal rencananya nggak ikut karena ada tugas di Balikpapan, yang pada kenyataannya pada hari tersebut , pipung mesti istirahat total karena kena CACAR AIR.
Sang supir menggunakan Rute WISATA , jadi gue ambil jalur Bintaro-InnerRingRoad-Sudirman-GatotSoebroto-TOLL ke ancol. Se-simple , gue pengen nunjukin Senayan dan gedung MPR kepada para Pasukan. Biar afdol gitu buat mereka , masa kerja di Jakarta belom pernah liat gedung MPR dan Senayan yang suka masuk TV ituuuu ...
Sekitar 0900hr kita telah tiba di Ancol. Sekali lagi sang supir mengambil rute wisata di dalam ancol (sambil mikir2 mau piknik di mana ntar siang) dan akhirnya parkir dulu di kawasan danau Ancol. Setelah puas bermain pasir dan ayunan (ake gak mau naik boat sih ... padahal cuma 60rb satu boat yang muat 6 dewasa 2 anak2) ... kt bertolak ke Seaworld. Ake nggak kompak di seaworld, mungkin karena udah pernah ke sini (pas dia umur 4 tahun padahal) ... buru2 aja pengen masuk ke tunnel-nya giant aquarium. but we did have enough time inside ... tak terasa perut sudah mulai keroncongan hahahaha ....
Setelah muter2, akhirnya atas bantuan co-pilot sang supir memutuskan utk LUNCH PICNIC di area pantai carnival. Pertimbangannya (1) Banyak pohon alias rindang (2) nggak RAME alias gak perlu berantem sama orang utk rebutan spot rindang . Kelemahannya : dipinggir pantai sih ... tapi gak bisa liat pantai lepas. Karena daerah ini pantainya curam, jadi ada tembok pengaman di pinggir pantai. Anyway .... kita LUNCH PICNIC di pantai carnival. Buka bekel yang terdiri dari Nasi, sambel lalap, Ayam kremes (sajen utk Ake), udah goreng tepung dan ikan Mas goreng ... nym nym nym ....
Sehabis Lunch Ake cemberut2 ... eh siapa suruh cemberut ... sang Supir di rumah sudah mengingatkan utk bawa BOLA biar bisa main2 di pasir. Bukan salah sang SUPIR dong ... dari kecil harus belajar bertanggung jawab dengan kesenangan pribadi. Walhasil , mereka minta dibelikan bubble gun ... ya sudah lah ... daripada picnic berantakan .... Setelah puas main buble war , anak2 tersebut menuju arena BOUNCING CASTLE , kok ya nemu2nya looo ... di dekat tempat kita lunch picnic. Sementara pasukan pergi ... sang SUPIR leyeh2 dulu dibawah pohon kelapa.
Waktu menunjukan pukul 1300 , wah waktunya pulang nih. Ternyata perkiraan sang SUPIR salah ... Ake menagih janji untuk nonton pentas lumba2 di Gelanggang SAMUDERA. Karena gue ingin menanamkan motto "KEEP your PROMISE and OBEY what you and other person AGREE UPON" , akhirnya gue bawa lah Pasukan ke Gelanggang Samudra. Panas ya boooo .... lagian sebagai supir gue mesti cari parkir yang penuh sesak itu , sementara pasukan gue drop di depan pintu gelanggang samudra. Waktu tengah hari, Ancol sudah disemuti para pengunjung ... harap maklum kalau parkir susah.
But its worth , Gelanggang Samudra memang lebih menghibur ... less comfortable than seaworld but more entertaining.
Than we go home ... tepat pukul 1530 ... capek tapi seneng ...
Sang SUPIR mengarahkan mobil kembali ke Bintaro. Sementara pasukan bobok dengan manis di belakang ...
hahahhahahaha ....
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Saturday, October 31, 2009
a day off @ Arthayasa Stable
Ake and her new excitement about horse ...
ADALAH alasan utama kenapa tiba2 gue sekeluarga jadi "sok elit" meluangkan waktu visiting arthayasa stable dan menghadiri Menegpora Jumping Competition di Arthayasa Stable.
Adalah Lolita, temen kantor, yang mengilhami gue untuk browsing di internet mengenai equestrian di Jakarta. Awalnya pengen mampir ke Trijaya Equestrian, tempat temen gue ini biasa latihan. Tapi hasil berselancar di internet membawa gue ke Arthayasa Stable (ada web nya dan ketika kirim email di bales pula).
So here we were at the Arthayasa Stable ....
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Malaysia : rectifying my nigthmare of curry
My first visit to Malaysia was on 2007with other colleague at EID.
I should admit that it was unpleasant experience. Got very bad cough and was in fasting period. I was very much hate the food and hate the office location (cyberjaya, in the middle of nowhere).
When my boss put me on the list for what so called "seniority booster" training in Malaysia (i tend to refer to Malaysia rather than KL, knowing that we hardly can reach KLCC without effort and extra cost), i was automatically remembering the food experience (sahur and breaking fasting with curry on my soar throat, suffer !) .... grrrrrr ... the bad experience !
The rooms been reserved in Sheraton Subang. This is even worst , the clostest attraction (if you called it as attraction tho) is only the hospital located more or less 30m across the hotel. Sunway Lagoon or Pyramid (other accomodation options in the area) have malls and waterpark attached to each other. This one ??? .... definitely living in mars (to be sacarstic) :P
There are 10 of us from EID. Three from MMSI (including me) and others are senior PMs from NRO. We (the three from MMSI) pretty much went everywhere together apart from others. Indra was the one with adequate knowledge of Malaysia.
Me ?? ben there once
Erlangga ?? first visit , i believe.
Travelling together means you have to travel as a team, including to choose where to eat.
Unfortunately the boys love CURRY ..... hrrrrrrrrr ....
First Day ,
The GM of hotel welcoming us and handed us her Name Card on our arrival to the hotel. Sheraton Subang seems on promotion, many people checking in and they gave us voucher for one time lunch/dinner. After checking in , went to the room and put our luggage, off we went to the "ruko" across the street to have something to eat as dinner. We didnt want to use the voucher that day, since we didnt understand the phase of the training, we were expecting an unpredicted late finish on the training. 
Well as a team we pretty much bunch of Risk awared person hahahaha ....
We went to TAJ CURRY. The boys asked me whether it was okey to eat curry (they knew i dont like curry), i said it was okey.
I had rice (i forgot the name) , looked green because it was mixed with chopped leave and some bean. Come with that rice , i choosed to have Mutton Curry. It was not as good as GULAI KAMBING in Indonesia but I eat it with appetite. Means i overcome my hate to Indian Curry :P
Second Day,
As what been predicted we finished the training on 1900hr. So lateeeeee ....
Lucky us, we still kept the dinner voucher. We had buffet dinner in the hotel ... so niceeeee ....
Third Day,
We finished the training on 1700hr. We planned to go to IKEA after reaching hotel. These three Risk awared ppl didnt consider the possibility of the BUS of getting broke down. yeaaaahhhhh .... totally ruin our plan !
Ollof the trainer called the hotel asking about the "never arrived" bus , and the hotel said "we will check and called you back". Looking that he never had a phone call from the hotel, i smell something fishy. I then remember that the GM handed us her Name Card. So I called the GM asking her "we are expecting a buss to come on 1715 but its never arrive at Ericsson Office ?" ... i was in a position of making a Big Complain to the lady GM. She answered me by saying that she was awared of the problem , she said her deep sorry and explain that the bus broke down on the way to Ericsson Office , she sent us 2 van to pick up. One van has already 30 minutes on the way and the other would follow. She also said when we arrived , she would take care of us. Now with such answer I can only say "okey we are keep waiting" .... no high tone of my voice. I should say she handle it well ! .... Well She is the GM , it should be on her qualification :)
Anyway, the van arrived , we got back to the hotel .... been welcome by the GM herself , She said her sorry , give us the cold towel, drink , gift ... and free dinner in the house ... AHAAAAAAA ... okey you were ruined our plan but you were forgiven :)
FOURTH DAY,
We finally complete the training by 1600 and got back to the hotel on 1700hr. The three from MMSI then off to IKEA Damansara by paying RM30 on the cab. The cab in Malaysia for me are less comfortable compare to cab in Jakarta (refer to bluebird). They never run their meters and the car relatively old. I dont think i would go on cab by myself in Malaysia. Just not feel save , purely my personal feeling pls dont refer this :P
After did some window shopping and bought severals things at IKEA, we had dinner at the IKEA restaurant. It was definitely Swedish Taste. I was refer my food choice to what been choosed by Erlangga. Well he was the one who ever lived in Swedia , a good references.
I had Meatballs with french fries (kids portion) , Daim Cake, Caramel Puding and apple juice for the dinner. Its yummy , especially the DAIM cake ... sllrppp.
FIFTH DAY,
It was the day of us to Fly Back to Jakarta.
We had breakfast in the hotel ... i choose Indian Food to close my trip to Malaysia.
I am not a Fan but I put Indian food as Optional Food.
No more CURRY NIGHTMARE :)
Friday, November 28, 2008
Breaking-Out My Comfort Zone
Living in comfort zone.
Have you ever experience it ?
I had ...
Almost three times from my entire working lifetime
Pertama , ketika kerja di SFER (oil and gas)
Kedua , ketika 'ngamen' di IBM
Kok cuma dua ?
Karena untuk yang ketiga, gue berhasil melawan keinginan gue untuk stay di comfort zone.
Jumat kemaren sore hari , ketika urusan kantor sudah nggak ada di otak sama sekali, line manager gue memberikan assignment yang buat gue personally mengejutkan. Mengejutkan , pertama : karena gue merasa nggak akan bisa lepas dari lingkaran delivery customer yang saat ini gue tangani , Kedua : karena gue mesti on board pada new assignment Senin besok.
YA sodara2 ... SENIN BESOK !!!!
Reaksi pertama ketika mendengar assignment tsb dalam hati menjerit .... WHYYYY ?!?!? ....
Rada kaget karena gue merasa :
1. I was doing fine on my current delivery with current customer.
2. Relationship dengan current customer udah lumayan. Gak sopisticated tapi cukuplah utk hidup sehari2 ... I mean, i consider myself to become proportionally acceptable in the eye of my current customer.
3. Di project berikutnya dengan curent customer gue report ke seorang teman yang buat gue reliable and one of the best (means hidup gue gak bakalan sengsara2 amat).
4. Di project berikutnya bakalan ada bbrp PM terlibat, thus i wont be alone
Tapi stl dipikir2 :
1. Bukannya salah satu aim gue adalah menjadi CFR ?
2. Bukannya ini kesempatan utk membuktikan bahwa gue ready utk lead the team by my own at totally different customer ? That good relationship with customer is not the only aspect for me to perform ? Its only one of the aspect.
3. Bukannya dari dulu pengen pegang project yang lebih ke "configuration oriented" rather than roll out oriented ? Actually IT WAS one of the reason why i was experiencing blind loyalty with IBM. There the type of project are more to consulting.
So I THINK and FEEL this is the time ...
ready nggak ready ...
I am ready :)
Monday, October 27, 2008
Friends from the PAST that i hope can be friends for NOW and the FUTURE ...
Its end of october 2008 already. I recalled my 2008 Resolution and i remember that i should "push" myself to keep contact to all my friends. May be it was easy for other people but for me is not that easy. Having an introvert personality makes me always loosing words when talking to friends from the past.
Using FB to find old friends is the most convinient way for me. U dont have to go out, u dont have to say anything if you didnt feel comfortable and you can just search and hopes your old friends were also an internet freek :P
Lucky me, most of them are ... hahahaha.
The most Incredible result from FB is i found my old-time flatemate when i was in brisbane on 1998 thru Facebook !!!!!
Anyway, last weekend I had a what so called reunion with friends from Architecture class of 90. Thanks to Ochim and Ekky for their never ending energy and effort to keep the string attached between us.
Bad thing from this , i certainly feel old. I think only old people do reunion.
I hope my friends from the past can be my friends for now and the future ... then I FEEL YOUNG NOW !
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Laskar Pelangi : The Movie and The Books
Laskar Pelangi : book-1 ....
I bought it as my companion during "never ending" flight to Frankfurt last June.
Despite of getting familiar finding stack of this book in Gramedia, one of my colleague recommended me to read this amazing book. Even .... the lady sitting next to me on the flight encouraged me to read all the 3 books from Andrea Hirata, when i started to read it. She (from goethe institute) said , the book was good and funny . Ahhh ... it should be a very nice book then :)
I am not sure whether it was me , the flight, the project situation that i left behind or the book itself ... i could only read the first 15 pages then felt a sleep. There was no trigger in me to open the book also when transitting for 4 hours in Frankfurt before flying to Dublin .... and amazingly ... i kept it in my lugage . First Impression .... I dont like the book.
I am a devoted fan of Ayu Utami. I always expect people writting as good as she does ...
Then I realised ( i've tried to read Laskar Pelangi again for lowering down my stress) that the beauty of this book are on the sentences itself. If you are a thriller, mystery, suspen story or even a romantic novel fan , you will struggling reading this book. At least when you start it.
Laskar Pelangi , Sang Pemimpi, Edensor ...
Now i have finished reading the three books of tetralogi Laskar Pelangi from Andrea Hirata.
Edensor is my favourite , simply because the story flow more interesting. Laskar Pelangi book 1 is my second choice then Sang Pemimpi is last preffered. The story between those books somehow in somepart inconsistent.
The Movie ...
I like the book more than the movie (classical for ppl who read then watch)
People who didnt read the book wont understand how Mahar and Flo connected to each other with their Mystical Club, dont understand how mysterious Tuk Bayan Tula was , dont know the sad story of the Crocodille Whisperer , The Head Master is not passed away, How Fillicium tree has been the center of Laskar Pelangi activities. There is no Trapani that is ended on the mental hospital with his mom.
Many thing you will miss from the original story ... but it is still indeed a good movie
Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Guiness Storehouse, Dublin
I am not a fan of beer. I didnt know that Guiness, one of the famous beer, is originated from Ireland.
Mbak Anty told me that i should have a visit to the GUINESS Storehouse. And i took her suggestion.
After persuading Hery that The Guiness storehouse is kinda museum and he wont find any drunken master , he was agree to come with us.
It was me, Kesi and Adriane (the phillipine coursemate) that very anxious to go to the Guiness Storehouse.
After class, we took the DART to Tara st, walked to Aston Quay and catched the 78A bus. I wanst sure what was going on. But we missed the bus, because the driver said we must catch the bus line up on the front. In fact, his bus was the one that went off first from the Aston Quay. hrrrrrrrr ... i can not help myself to judge that Dubliners are not ready to welcome Asian tourist.Anyway, we finally made it to the bus stop not far from the Guiness Storehouse and took a nice stroll.
We got there almost 1700hr, suppose to be the latest daily tour. Anyway, tour at Guiness storehouse is a self guided tour. Here, we should have ourself very interested and read the brochure or you wont get the essential of visiting this place. I saw a group of people had tour-guide.
Anyway, we finished our self guided tour at the 7th level of the bulding. There is a place named The Gravity Bar where you can see the panoramic of Dublin City from above. We were eligible of a glass of Guiness beer. Since all of us not a fan of beer, then i asked whether we could have soft drink instead. And yes we could ....
We stayed there untill the bar closed.
Dun Laoghire : my Daily Destination
Most of people works for E/// Ireland resides in this area.
My friend , back on the old days at NSN, stays in this area.
He is know working for E/// Ireland. There was one day when
i took a nice walk during lunch, I met him with his son. He
had just pick his son from school and took him back to his
house, and he still catch up the working hours after lunch.
What a nice life .... :)
Little bit unchallenging perhaps for some people hahahaha ...
Well it is back your personal preference.
DART : The commuter train of Dublin
I am not sure what DART stands for. DART is the name of the commuter train in Dublin that i used during my stay in Dublin. It took me from Grand Cannal Station to Dun Laoghire station in approx.20 minutes. They sell weekly ticket costs EURO 17.40
Jakarta Commuter train is away from reliable apart of the fact that we have to be talented in rugby to get a seat on the train. Brisbane is okey, the train schedule always on time, the station is representative, route sign and the ticketing are good,the train itself not on top of the class but it is descent.
A part of that, DART is standard and expectable :)
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Touch Down on Dublin
Flight LH 4896 to Dublin depart on 9.40 Frankfurt time. I believe it was 16.30 in Jakarta. We feel tired and dizzy at the same time. Combination of having low quality sleep and stiffed mussle after flying from Jakarta - Frankfurt.
We have to go outside the airport to be on the plane. It is time to face the real wheater of EUROPE. It was cold but acceptable. I was only wearing my cardigan. Simply because i saw many people only wore t-shirt some even wore short pant. I forgot, they live here .... My Javanese skin can not bear such cold especially the wind. Lucky me (this is the proove i am javanese), we were only outside not more than 15 minutes :)
The flight took 1.5 hour to reach Dublin. I can see from the sky , the pattern of clouds are different from what we can see when flying in Indonesia. the sky was so clear and the cloud was so thick underneath us. No wonder the tale about kingdom above the sky came from Europe. I dont think Indonesian have many story about kingdom above the sky. Simply because the cloud is pretty much grouping in different place. The king might fall down if there was kingdom above the sky in Indonesia hahahaa ....
When the flight slowly lower the height, it was felt like we go down from the cloud kingdom. Sky - cloud so white - Sea. I've never seen such experience. Feels like we were watching an opera and the curtain was open and there was the sea.
The plane keep lowering down the height and i was wondering ... where is the land ... where is the land. No body tell me that we would landed on the sea ... hahahaha. Everytime i landed in Jakarta airport, the plane was lowering down on the land that we can se the view of Jakarta city. Landing in Dublin is different.
Slowly we saw the land. The land of brave heart and U2 hahaha. And finally we touch down in Dublin. a 22 hours trip from Jakarta to Dublin finally ended. It was 11.30 in Dublin and it was 17.30 in Jakarta.
It is time to rest ... (we wish)
a 22 hours trip to Ireland
I sit on the middle (bad luck) of the right hand row. The flight number was LH779 using Boeing 747. I wish i could sit on the first class. It was located on the upper deck of the plane. Business class was okey, but economy class where i was sit , definitely a so so seat. The think that i found it was better than my 18 hours flight to America , the seat had a head holder (i dont know the precise name) that kept my head from steady during my sleep :)
We were transiting on Singapore and Frankfurt. Both city definitely apply strict security control in their airport. In Singapore we've been asked why we got the Ireland Visa at Singapore. Helooooo ..... there is no Ireland Embassy in Indonesia. We also had to place our laptop out from our cabin lugage (well every had to) to the x-ray belt. In Frankfurt , it was even worst. We have to put off our shoes and put it on the X-ray belt (most the people had to). And I've got body check by the lady in the airport ... gossshhh.
The Lufthansa's pilot from Singapore to Frankfurt did the touch down very smooth ... wuhuuuu. I've never got a flight with such Touch Down quality. Not from Garuda , even not from Lufthansa flight from Jakarta to Singapore :)
We stop in Frankfurt for 4 hours before heading to Dublin. The airport design is very high tech and the finishing definitely follow the concept of ..... My friends that are engineers complaining about the finishing of the airport. They can see some cable hanging behind the transparant ceiling hahahaha ... engineer vs architect ... different standard :P
I bought 2 post cards and send it to Ake from Frankfurt. Yet we still dindt feel being in europe hahahaha ....
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Flying for Ireland : a dream come true
Its D-2 days for me to fly out to Ireland.
It feels like dreaming that i finally can visit my cousin, mbak anty, in Dublin.
Ireland is not a popular destination for Indonesian people. for me it is more than that ...
Anyway, i will fly out there because my office send me to attend a training.
I was very excited 3 months ago, when trying hard to defend my case to be sent for this training. Now, in the middle of Project Hassle, i feel like dreaming.
and within 2 days the dream will come true ...
Friday, June 06, 2008
SOP SUMSUM: Sipirok @ Medan North Sumatera
All that i need to warn ... becareful with your C (cholesterol) level :P
Another special Food place I went during my visit to Medan was a place that serve Sop SumSum and Daging Bakar. SIPIROK located at Jl. Sinunggal 30 Medan North Sumatera.
Its a small humble restaurant that full with people having lunch when we went there. All of us had no idea how to order and what to order (they also serve foods other than Sop Sumsum). We just sit nicely and look arround first and then we decided to call the waitress.
In Java, the common name to call people is Mbak (sister) for woman and Mas (brother) for man. Here in Medan they won't response with that names. We should call them with KAKAK, similar meaning with mbak and mas. Kakak is refering for both brother (mas) and sister (mbak). You can only yell "KAK ... we want to order !" then they (either man or woman) will come to you.
Do you know what exactly Sumsum is ?
I am not sure whether sumsum is a pure Indonesia word or Javanese word to describe the semi-liquid things that is usualy located in the middle of the bone. Sop SumSum Sipirok is refering to Beef Bone.
As the standard of the serving, they provide us with 3 types of Sambal (chillis paste). One chilli mixed with Teri (anchovy) , second chilli mixed with little tiny shrimp (so tiny that the shrimps are very soft) with Pete (stinky bean but taste heaven hahaha), and the third chilli mixed with some sliced of boiled lamb. It was my first time to eat those chilli paste ... it was delicious and guarantee would bring up your appetite.
The Sop Sumsum (marrow) itself was served with the bone. It was very big that i felt just like ASTERIX eating the BIG roasted PIG ... hahahahaha. You have to forget about the table manner ... or you will end up starving at this restaurant :)
After you clean up the meat on the bone. Then it is time to get the SumSum. You should pour some soup to the whole on top of the bone. Put the straw on the hole ... and you can enjoy the SumSum ..... slrrrrrrrpppppppp ... yummy !
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Bolu Gulung Meranti : a tasty roll-tart in Medan , North Sumatera
During my work visit in Medan last week, I've managed to dropped by to buy Bolu Meranti and bring it back to Jakarta.I bouht four roll tart and they pack it in one handy cartoon box.
Meranti offer some bolu gulung variant.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
The Mulia Hotel Jakarta : garage sale
The Garage Sale term had not been popular by most Indonesian (at least for me) till the 1997-1998 Economic Crisis. So many garage sale been advertised on those year. From my humble observation, Garage Sale in Indonesia originaly been used to get fast cash on hard economic time.
During the 1997-1998 economic crisis, so many employee got retrenched by their employer. The term of garage sale then evolve bluntly as "selling in garage" :)
Yes, so many people was starting their small business by selling things in their garage at that time. I even come up with hypotesis that The Garage Sale has been triggered the change of many properties from housing become commercial.
Anyway, helding a GARAGE SALE can not be interprete as Hotel Mulia going to change its business to become a furniture retail or second hand outlet. I think this is part of the strategy for getting the last economical value of their asset. Even for the asset with BIG ZERO value :)
As a wellknown five start hotel in Jakarta, Mulia Hotel have to keep up their quality of services. That is also include providing the best room and its peripherals. I do not believe a smile and a deep-from-heart service solely can make a hotel deserve a 5 thumbs up of customer satisfaction.
After replacing their furniture with the new one, they stored those furniture with Zero Value asset to their warehouse. And i should thank to the hotel management who came up with the bright idea to advertise their GARAGE SALE for public. It was published on Kompas Saturday. Thank GOD i read that ad.
So, there we were ... me and pipung (my hubby) on 0900hr sharp on Saturday last week ... hunting for some very "pocket friendly" furniture :)
I was a bit complaining about the "un-prepared" hotel staff for handling the selling. But being able to find some good stuffes with price of 1/10 from the brand new one .... I think i should keep my mouth Shut ... hahahahaha.
