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| Saturday, 28-Apr-2007 05:30 |
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My Indon Getaway - Day 1: Jakarta
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-> In January, I logged on to AirAsia during one of their 'free seats' giveaway promotions and randomly decided to go to Bandung, Indonesia. Sadly the server kept crashing everytime I tried to buy the tickets and by the time I managed to through the free offer for Bandung flights were gone. So I bought tickets to Jakarta instead. If I'm not mistaken I only paid about a hundred bucks for a return flight. Frickin' bargain man. Oh and at that time, I hadn't consulted about the trip with anyone else... so I just bought a ticket for myself and that's it. Heheh.
-> A few months later, I bought a ticket for Eema as she was keen to go. Muna couldn't initially, 'cuz she was scheduled to go for Umrah on the same dates (but turned out that trip was cancelled too.. but we knew a bit too late. Oh well...). I also bought tickets for Wirda as her birthday present.
-> Chatted with Ili one day and turns out she'll also be in Indonesia around the same time. She rearranged her scheduled stay there to coincide exactly with our dates there. So yeay, in the end, I had with me a number of friends to enjoy the holiday with 
-> Woke up way before the sun came out on the morning of 28th April. By 5am I was already heading to the LCCT. My flight was at 7. I was alone as Ili had left a few days earlier. Eema's flight was later that evening. And Weird's flight was the next day as she had work.
-> Flew alone into Jakarta, all jittery with excitement and not knowing what to expect. The only place I've been to in Indonesia so far is Bali...
-> Arrived at Jakarta airport. Went out of the building in search of the public buses I'd read about online and Ili had given me pointers on (that girl is a veteran of Indonesia. She could change nationalities and no one would be able to tell she's originally Malaysian. Heheh). Found the 'Damri bas' and waited for the one that'd take me to my intended destination in town. Was helped by the locals who showed me which bus to get on.
-> Got on the bus (only slightly nervous, thinking back about my experience riding in a public van in Bangkok and not knowing where it was headed!!  ), and saw that I was the only girl on it. Teehee. Mumbled some prayers and God kept me safe, Alhamdulillah
-> Kept sending SMSes to Ili to confirm where I should get off. Once I reached Blok M (an area with a group of shopping complexes... macam Bukit Bintang laa lebih kurang), I waited for her to arrive. It took her some time so I just sat there with my huge backpack by the roadside outside of a highschool looking like a stupid tourist .
-> Finally Ili arrived, driven in a car by her friend Adit. Very nice guy! We chatted and got to know each other whilst braving the traffic jam of Jakarta. He drove us to the hotel we were staying at, and after we've checked in and had our biological breaks, we went back out for lunch. We ate true Jakarta street food! Sedap giler, layan sup dengan penuh perasaan. Adit insisted on paying for us... serious mamat ni baik gile. Dah la drive us all around. TRIMA KASIH ADIT!!!! 
-> After makan we went around to a few places, I was introduced to all the good spots to find indie bands' CDs and merchandise and etc. I loved it! He finally dropped us off at Aksara, kedai yang best jual books and records, where he left us to go fetch his brother from school. Ili and I browsed and shopped, and then headed back to the hotel to rest and freshen up.
-> Later on we went to Ruangrupa (it's a house that sorts of serve as a 'HQ' for an art collective...) and I was introduced to everyone there, including the Goodnight Electric boys as well as their uber-cute pets, Mentos (a hyper puppy) and Napoly (an overly pregnant cat). A very friendly bunch, but I had a bit of a crazy time keeping up with their fast Indon speak... Ili relax jer 'cuz she speaks good Indon! Haha. Anyway, Goodnight Electric had a gig at a local highschool event, and Ili and I ended up going along with them to the show. I have to admit I was excited...little did I expect when I planned for a holiday in Jakarta to be able to tag along and watch them perform!  They were really nice too, hauling us for a ride in their van.
-> It got a bit crazy at the highschool... we arrived via this tiny alley that the van had to squeeze through to get into the school compound. Once we were there the kids were excited to see the band and we were rushed up to one of the classroom that was converted into the band's prep room. Rockstar jugak ah kan. I knew GE was pretty big there but I really didn't expect that kind of a craze!
-> Their performance was great, everyone was dancing along and it was really cool. After the GE boys finished their set a whole bunch of fans went up on stage and presented Batman with a birthday cake and singing to him. It was his 30th birthday that day so everyone celebrated. We went back to the dressing-cum-classroom and some of their loyal fans came for autographs, pictures, to celebrate and we cut the cake. My god the icing was a scary colour... but Ili and I braved it and it tasted quite good actually! Hahaha. So Happy Birthday Batman! 
-> After that ended we jumped back into the van and made the drive back. Mocca was performing that night for a GAP store opening at one of the upper-end shopping malls in Jakarta, so we rushed there to watch them pulak. We arrived a bit late (traffic and all) so we missed a bit of their performance... said a quick hello to the band and then made a beeline straight for the Krispy Kreme and J.Co donut stores! Haha! Gile craving Krispy Kreme, since Jakarta had them I had to satisfy my tastebuds. Bought a whole bunch and headed back to Ruangrupa to pass the time and lepak
-> Kept SMS-ing Eema who was due to arrive that evening. She managed to make her way to the hotel, so Ili and I headed back there to meet her after tapau-ing some dinner utk dia 'cuz we'd had ours. Happily met up at the hotel, ber-squee-squee cerita kesah hari ini, and then we sleptttt....
All in all I had an awesome first day in Jakarta, and wouldn't have swapped the experience for a million dollars!
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| Saturday, 21-Apr-2007 20:30 |
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Good Charlotte Live @ Bukit Jalil
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Oooh kami lah kipas susah nak mati!
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Nicholl..don't la.. nanti boyfriend I jealous camane?
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I had four free tickets to the Good Charlotte concert in Bukit Jalil, and since we had nothing planned for the night, Eema, Muna and I decided to go and check it out (hey, it's free!). We're definitely not fans of the band but thought what the heck... maybe watching them live would change our minds. Haha to hell it did. It even reaffirmed to us how crappy the band is. So we ended up laughing at them. Erm. Yeah we're snobs like that 
I gave the fourth ticket to Azahary, and Nina got tickets via... errr.... Raja kot? (E'am etc and gang were all there too). Weird and Shy got free tickets from Sham... my my I wonder who actually BOUGHT tickets to the darned thing?? Smue dapat free handouts je haha. Oh kesian.
Well as I mentioned.. the band was crap. The opening bands lagi bagus (and I don't even like the opening bands!). Really... Good Charlotte's entire performance was bland. So we ended up dancing around like loonies to entertain ourselves and chit chatting, gossiping etc. No pictures of the band here, I'm sorry
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| Thursday, 19-Apr-2007 14:30 |
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IT4S GradNet Team Building
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Pictures from a half-day team building event organized for the Grads in SITI and DS-IT. I joined late 'cuz I had my department's lunch & learn event to attend and coordinate, which overlapped a little with the GradNet team building. Sucks. 'Cuz I missed the group photo-taking session. Which means the final group picture doesn't have me in it. Boo. Heheh.
Had a pretty good time, except for some hiccups along the way with the organizing. But otherwise, I think everyone enjoyed themselves and found it beneficial in one way or another
Oh and p/s: These pictures are entirely from Martin's camera
Oh and p/s the second: I'm too lazy to caption 
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| Thursday, 19-Apr-2007 12:30 |
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ITIP Lunch & Learn
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Pictures from April's installment of my department's monthly Lunch & Learn community building event. Fun part of this particular one? We celebrated March & April birthday babies! Which includes me of course! So yet another birthday celebration to add to my list... fun eh, even a month later I still get to celebrate
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| Wednesday, 18-Apr-2007 20:00 |
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Gema 2007 @ MMU Cyberjaya
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Sya and Shafik invited me to come along to watch this year's Gema competition, mainly 'cuz Shafik's band was competing. And, just like what happened during Audiowarfare, we cheered and cheered and their band won! Haha
Jokes aside, they were the best band competing that night anyways. So they deserved it Congrats Encarnacion!!!
Oh one of the guest bands had this Indonesian front-man and ohmygod he's cute. Sya and I were swooning all throughout his performance. Teeheehee. Whoever you are dude, you're HOT. 
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| Saturday, 14-Apr-2007 21:30 |
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Chillout and Dinner @ Muna & Eema's house
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Best 'juniors' in the world, Feruz and Izyan!
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Menonton jejaka anyaaa in Ugly Betty
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Delicious homecooked dinner
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Went to the girls' place in Kota Damansara after the charity homes visits and dance class. They'd cooked dinner (yummy spaghetti bolognese AND superlicious rice with mixed tomyam), and Feruz and Izyan was there too so it turned out into a Girls-Pigging-Out and TV-Series-Marathon Night hehe. We marathoned on Ugly Betty
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| Saturday, 14-Apr-2007 10:30 |
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Charity visit to Rumah Shalom and House of Joy
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Went to two out of the three childrens' homes that my office supports in our charity efforts. It was a routine visit to hand over collected donations, that basically go towards supporting the children housed there with their basic needs like food, shelter, and education. A few things went through my mind, seing the kids... one was that they shouldn't be pitied, but instead encouraged and as best as possible be given opportunities as other fortunate kids with parents to provide for them get. But it didn't stop me from feeling heartbroken at what some of their circumstances were... how they ended up in shelter homes. Nevertheless I had a fun time playing and chatting with them
Pictures here are a little jumbled out of order 'cuz they're from several cameras. Malas nak susun hehe.
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| Friday, 13-Apr-2007 20:30 |
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Keith's Birthday Dinner at Marco's Pizza
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Celebration of Keith's birthday at Marco's Pizza in KJ All of us headed there after work and had a lot of fun making like the restaurant was our domain haha. I can't forget how we played with the balloons (actually meant for kids, but we asked for some ), which were shaped into flowers but, to our distorted 'adult' eyes, looked more like phalluses . We constantly had to remind each other we were in a family-oriented restaurant and not be too loud to the point of traumatising the kids!
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| Thursday, 12-Apr-2007 12:30 |
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Food Fair @ MMU Cyberjaya
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With my makan buddy, Shahrin
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Pija, Sabun, and Mohsin joining us on one of the days
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Hey.. Martin's getting rounder! Hehe
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Sya and her groupmates organized a week-long food fair as part of their final year project. There were so many types of yummy food, and being the deprived Cyberjaya people that we are, I dragged my pals from work to eat there for lunch every single day of the whole week (and simultaneously help Sya make big bucks from the food fair!)
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| Tuesday, 10-Apr-2007 20:00 |
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Dinner and movie at One Utama
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My makan buddies! Shahrin and Ririn
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Eema couldn't join.. so I had to substitue her Walrus
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Sushi King had a promotion for card members, where each plate of sushi only cost RM2! I was joined by Muna, Shahrin, and Ririn for the yummy sushi dinner. Later Muna and I met up with Adam, Shafiq and Hairie and we watched Meet The Robinsons
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