Last Sunset of 2008

The sun bows out for the last time in 2008 by showing off her most beautiful colour of rays today. Hope this will set us to a more beautiful fortune in 2009. Amen.

Old School Golf Buddies

I played golf with buddies from high school: Gravin and Ardianullah (Sumbel) at Sentul Highland. Had lots of fun as we came from the same golf 'school' at Bontang. Old jokes still made lots of laugh.

Global Warming Effect?

It's been three years since we visited Anyer beach. One thing I noticed from the past is the ever advancing shore line. Now the beach area is only few meters when during the sea tide. Effect of global warming?

Cheap Massage

I couldn't resist the temptation for a massage, wild accompanying my kids on the beach. Besides with only 20 thousands rupiah (approximately 2 dollars) for an hour massage, you can't go wrong with that!

Holiday in Anyer

This holiday our family go together to Anyer beach with Elok's family. We have lots of fun at the beach, especially because the waves are high. Double the fun! Well for some people like Elok and Endah here, they prefer to have a massage. That will do as well. :-)

Dewi Wedding

One of our maid, Dewi, is getting married today. Four of us plus Siti, our other maid, attended the wedding party at Japos, Tangerang.

Bona Defends His Title

Bona succesfully defends his title to make his Copa Kresnadi tally to 5. Trailing me just 1 victory, just like Mas Oyi. Today I played a really awful tournament, both my teams lost in their first game. Not my day. Can only bite my finger.

XMas with The Leuwols

It's christmas day! We visit Mbak Wik's house to celebrate christmas with her family (The Leuwols). Good food, great fun.

Aya's Fairy Tale

This one is Aya's story about a brave rabbit. A four pages story, this one got in honest praise from her teacher.

Kids Progress Evaluation

Had Parents and Teacher Conference today at kids' school to evaluate their progress during the first semester. In overall, we're happy with the kids progress. One most obvious progress is on their ability to write a story, as done by Rafif here. He wrote his fictional experience of having car driving lesson with me ;-)

More Than Words

Obviously, 'More Than Words' is Extreme's most popular song for general audience. You can see the lights coming from audience's hand phone, trying to capture video or just a picture of Nuno and Gary singing their most famous song.

Extreme Stage

I and Agung watch Extreme show tonight. We came in early, and have to wait for an hour before the show begin.

Trio Metal

HR 'Metalheads' during AAMI farewell party at Forbidden City tonight.

Richard's Wedding

Our dear friend Richard is getting married today at Hotel Dharmawangsa. He marries Ellia, former office mate whom he met at HSBC. Of course we did not miss the opportunity to take our ritual 'DEWA' like pose with the bride and the groom. Hehehe..

Match Play Mailing List GolfClub

Had match play game today for my mailing list Golf Club againts Pak Eddy Ruswandi. We both felt great deal of pressure which made us play worse than our usual standard. Playing with 7 strokes lower handicap, I did not make enough putts and made too many cheap mistakes. In the end I lost 1 down. Damn! Kopi pahiiit!

Take a Break During Exam Preparation

Aya and Rafif play games on computer after finishing their exam preparation. Kids today are so fortunate, the teaching method and materials are so much advanced than what we used to have before.

Lesehan Party

We have fun yet very modest party. Everybody sits at the floor, lesehan style, and eat Nasi Padang in a box. Very suitable in light of this financial crisis situation hehehe (ngeles, nggak dapet restoran padahal)

Rafif 7th Birthday Celebration

Our close families came to our house today to celebrate Rafif's 7th Birthday. The birthday boy sang together before blew his birthday candle.

Batak Day

Aya has Batak day at School today. She wears Bataknese costume. Because she had difficulties in wearing it, Aya is in bad mood, reluctantly show her smile. :-)

Birthday Boy and His Present

Rafif proudly show his birthday present from me. He's been asking for this Gundam model kit from quite sometime, claiming he is 'big' enough to build it. :-)

Rafif's 7th Birthday

We have a small celebration of Rafif's 7th birthday today at home. The maids cooked a very delicious Nasi Tumpeng which we all love it! Hope Allah will bless Rafif to be someone everybody can proud of.

RBS Blue Day

Today my employer, ABN AMRO changed its look-and-feel to RBS. I took part playing drums in management team musical performance. I took a picture in front of the stage, shortly after performed our last rehearsal plus sound check.

Wii Golf

Elok and the kids picked me up after my work on Sunday completed. After dinner, we played Wii golf game at Blitz Gamesphere. We had really great time. I would have really considered of buying Wii if only I don't have PlayStation and Xbox 360. It's a great family game console. Everybody seems to be able to pick it up and play straight away.

Smile of The Sunday Shift

The 'blue collar' workers put up big smile after succesfully completed their biggest task of the year :)

Labour Intensive Factory Managers

Yeah right! We work on weekend this week to meet deadline for my bank's employee integration project. I and Sulis took a snap during the process.

Where Do You Want To Go in Bandung?

I can show you the way! Used to be a Bandung Streets illiterate, the GPS technology on my phone guide me on every turn.

Yoghurt Lychee Cisangkuy

My favourite in this popular yoghurt store: lychee juice!

Meet Oom Thom

One of our uncle come visiting us during his business trip to Jakarta. Oom Thom, as what we call him, is our uncle who lived with us during our childhood years in Bontang. So today we gather at Mbak Wik's house to meet him and laugh those fun stories from the past.

Beautiful View at the Top

Pure Restaurant offers beautiful night view of Jakarta city. As it is also a revolving restaurant, you will Be able to see 360 degree view of Jakarta, from north to south, from west to east.

10th Anniversary Dinner

I and Elok celebrate our 10th Anniversary by having dinner with the kids at Pure Restaurant, Menara Imperium. Time flies so fast, we've been together for total of 15 years. Hopefully til death do us part. Amen.

Friday Night Traffic

It is 30 minutes past 10 at Kuta Square Bali, but the night looks just began here. Cars are jammed in the street crowded with shops and tourists.

Management and Union at Kuta Square

Representatives from Management and Union took pose in front of Kuta Square before we hold consultation session for collective labour agreement.

Bryani Rice Mutton Set

My favourite Indian dish: Bryani Rice with mutton. They put it on top of banana leaf, which looks exotic. Courtesy of Banana Leaf Apolo Restaurant

Deepavali Festival

During a business trip to Singapore this week, last night I was asked to a dinner at Little India. Currently there is Deepavali festival where they lit up the lights along the streets.

PSP Boys

What is the commonality between these four boys? All of them are gamers! They are always busy with their PSPs on family function! :-)

Halal Bihalal AKRUD

My mother's big family hold a ritual event, Halal Bihalal at D'Cost Kemang. An event of reunion and forgive each other after Idul Fitri.

Jedi Starfighter

Rafif showed off his latest Lego creation, Jedi Starfighter. He's good at this.

Cleaning the Koi Pond

Back to our home sweet home, Aya can't stand to see her Koi pond become filth and dirty. She assisted our maid to clean up the pond. A big job, but she seems to have fun with it.

Glass Bottom Boat

One feature at Siam Ocean World which Jakarta's Sea World doesn't have is Glass Bottom Boat. With this boat, visitors ride on the surface of the gigantic fish tank while observing the life underneath through its glass floor. As shown, Aya and Rafif had a close encounter with Tiger Shark from South Africa swimming past below the boat.

Siam Ocean World

On our last day in Bangkok, we visited Siam Ocean World, an underwater park which was highly recommended by my friends in Bangkok. It did not disappoint the kids, as it presents number of water living creatures in attractive ways.

Paragon Food Court Fish Tank

Kids just love fish! Aya and Rafif stare at the large fish Tank on the top of the dining table on Siam Paragon mall food court, the place we eat every day at Bangkok, as it is just across the road of our hotel.

Little Monk Gamer

While his mother busy shopping for Thai's souvenirs, Rafif do a monk-style seating, dodging laser missiles on his PSP :-)

Exploring Grand Palace

Visiting Grand Palace without a tour guide means Elok has to recollect her memory of our tour guide story last year to guide her mom and Aya.

Grand Palace

A trip to Bangkok is not complete if you don't go to Grand Palace. A beautiful palace with rich collection of sacred cultural heritage.

Photo With Noot

The entire family, including my mother in law, took photo together with Noot.

Meeting Old Friends

I had dinner together with Jason and Noot, my old Friends from Singapore International Foundation Asian Student Fellowship back in 1996. They work and live in Bangkok, and we haven't met for long time, so we catch up with each other at a cafe in Paragon Siam Mall.

River Cruise

Our tour finished in style. We took a ride on Grand Pearl River Cruise to Bangkok through Chaoprya river. I took picture of Aya and Rafif while they are sitting on observation deck at the back of the cruise. They love it!

Elephant Ride

Ruins and temples may be a bit boring for the kids, especially Rafif. But they are definitely excited to hop on elephant back and take a 10 minutes ride at Ayutthaya.

Ruins of Ayutthaya

View of Ayutthaya ruins. Formerly capital city of Thailand which were destroyed by war and natural disasters, It is now become one of the most visited tourist destination in Thailand.

Bang Pa-In

Today we take a tour to Ayutthaya, ancient city heritage, an hour drive from Bangkok. We stopped by at Bang Pa In Summer Palace. A beautiful palace indeed. One thing that makes it absolutely delight in the eyes is because of the excellent maintenance of the place. I wonder why can't we do the same for Kraton Jogja or Kebun Raya Bogor? Surely they have similar potential. Oh well, no wonder our tourists are only one third of Thailand's.