Journey of Happiness

Here comes the photos... In Facebook, you can view it HERE . In Multiply, you can view it HERE . For those who have not read the story yet, please see the previous post. :) Enjoy!

W e're back from our Christmas holiday, both are sick of FLU (all the blocked/snorty noses and sore throats). Well, apart from being sick, we had a great time in Edinburgh. We took off by train on Tuesday (23.12.08) morning and arrived around 1 p.m. in Edinburgh. We were 'given' a very beautiful scenery along the way up there; green landscape with hills and mountains, sheeps feeding on the green grass, simply blissful! Arrived in Edinburgh Waverley station, the cold weather greeted us, praise The Lord it was dry all the way. By the time we were out of the station, there were so many people buzzing around... Oh my! This town is so busy! To me, Edinburgh is a pretty historical city. It is unique with the ups and the downs (good for exercising!), also, it has many little boutique-like shops. Cute! I myself, love it! The architectures are simply astonishing... it's like a modern era with a touch of the magnificent past. So unique and breathtaking! As tourists, we find E...

W ith the winter being unusually cold this year, my eczema has become the worst than ever before. It is painful and disturbing. At night, I would be hardly sleeping due to the itch and the inflamed feelings I experience... This obviously affects my day-to-day life; I cannot concentrate on my study because I'd be too tired during the day. And so, for the last several weeks, I barely made any progress. Last Friday, my supervisors and I had a meeting. They would like me to seriously consider about suspending my study for at least a few months until I get better. This is due to the PhD's deadline being so strict, hence if I suspend it takes away the pressure of not keeping up with my research plan. On top of that, Lan had been suggesting me to go home, have some sunshine (damn UK! We can barely see the sun!) and relaxation a little bit. After the meeting, I discussed this issue with Lan and my parents. At first, my parents would not agree I go home leaving Lan by himself here. I kn...

P hew... just finished doing the laundry and our room looks like a clothes store going on sale hahaha... There is this thing on my mind that I'd like to share with you. There have been several times where we heard a woman crying from the flat above us (we are on the ground floor). Lan even said that he heard the man beat that woman up, sometimes she screamed in horror... I just cannot understand why would a man beat his wife? I suppose you don't marry a girl to beat her up, right? Also you don't marry a guy just to be beaten up, am I right? We get married to love and to be loved. Any man should know that he is supposed to protect his wife, not to beat her up! I thank God that Lan, no matter how angry he is to me, will never ever lay a hand on me. Poor that woman upstairs... I hope the man will come to his senses!

D espite of the fact that I was in pain of eczema all over my body, I had a great Sunday with my hubby. We got this fabulous 2for1 voucher from Pizza Express , which we normally will not go because of the price. We had a long walk from home to the restaurant, which is by the dock. We ordered a Arrancini as an appetizer, which is risotto and ham covered and fried with bread crumbs. As our main, Lan had Diavolo classic pizza, devilishly hot with spicy beef, pepperoni, onions and tabasco, with hot green or jalapeno peppers, and I had Pollo Verdure salad , A warm feast of torn chicken breast and chargrilled Italian vegetables tossed with honey and mustard dressing, served on rocket and baby spinach and drizzled with balsamic syrup. They both were very yummy, especially my salad! Ugh... I'd love to have another one! Hehehe... Tiramisu was our dessert, wooo... so deliciously melting-in-mouth sensation! After our super duper delicious late lunch, we went to the cinema and watched Madaga...

I once did the same thing the last time, which you can see HERE . Now, I will do it again for the second time as a request from such a warm lady, Sili . Let us start.... ANOTHER 10 THINGS ABOUT SHERLY: She is a very PERFECTIONIST person, who would stress herself out (and sometimes to the measure of depression) to do things as perfect as she wants. Be who she is, say exactly what her mind and heart say and won't even act nice if her heart is disliking something. Too STRAIGHTFORWARD? Maybe... She enjoys cross-stitching, knitting, scrapbooking and sometimes sketching random things. After sometime of not knitting, I will soon start knitting a pair of mitten for Lan. I hope it will work out well :) She dreams of having twins! Tee-hee... She has super sensitive nose that even Lan thinks that Sherly was a doggy in the previous life *bite Lan!* People's first impression of her: Quiet and JUDES (mungkin krn modelku garang kali ya =P). The impression after: talkactive and such a crazy ...

Y eehaa!!! It's the start of December now! It means Christmas holiday is drawing near heehee... We planned, from so long ago, to spend our Christmas this year in Edinburgh, Scotland. FYI, although I have been here for 6 years, I rarely travel to the 'faraway' destination within the UK. The transport is so expensive, too expensive for a poor student like me. Well, we have been blessed this year, our work as tutors (semacem asisten dosen), earn us some savings to indulge ourselves a little bit (although we are saving mainly for flight tickets to go to Indo next year). The thing is that it has been so freezing COLD lately... Much colder than the previous winters I had spent here. So, at the moment, my eczema is worse and I am also getting some flu symptoms =( Anyhow, have a great week, everyone! God bless you always!

Y esterday, I got 2 e-mails; one from Rini (my friend) and another from Air Asia! Well, I was excited that starting next year they are going to have flights London-Kuala Lumpur. I had been waiting for it for sooooo long. So I quickly checked on Air Asia website, planning to go home later next year, I found the cheapest ticket I could find was around £370 per person return, NOT including luggage (+£4 x 2 minimum), hot meal on board (£7 x 2), plus the ticket from Liverpool to London Euston Station to London Stanstead Airport (£20 x 2 minimum). On TOP of that we will have to buy tickets for Kuala Lumpur - Denpasar (which is around £100). In total, it's about at least £532 (I really calculate this!) per person with a lot of hassle and a very long journey... Looking at Singapore Airlines for Easter, they have tickets around £600... So do you think Air Asia is really cheap? Somehow I think it is not so cheap.... :( Or maybe I should start to pray harder that they might have flights Manch...

Yes, I am 24 now! Thank you, Lord, for another blessed year! Thank you, Lord, for all the wonderful family, friends and especially my husband around me. Thank you, Lan, for making each of my days so colorful, happy and beautiful! Thank you for the unending love. And thank you, all of you my beloved friends, for the birthday wishes, the wonderful prayers and encouragements! God bless you all! Ps. The photos are in HERE .

Featuring: Lan was caught by the camera eating martabak manis (terang bulan). 'Po', my cutey panda from Mama Papa all the way from Beijing. Erwin's sleeping and Erwin's talking with Lan. And me :D Ps. Click for a larger view.

A mong my boredom, my 'fed up' feeling, and frustration lately, I had an interesting collaboration with Lan in the weekend. Well, there is this one particular program that I am supposed to code within this week, however, my frustration just ate everything and left me with the feeling of not wanting to do coding anymore! Thank God, my hubby was so kind to help me to do it. So the two of us doing the program together and we had a lot of FUN! Correcting each other's mistakes and discussing different algorithms for the program! Just imagine, if I were to do it along it would take me at least 10 hours to finish up (plus the frustration of debugging, etc.). But, the two of us did it in total of 5 hours! Ugh... I am soooo glad to have Lan hihih... *thank you, honey!* At the moment, we are having my brother staying with us for several weeks. He came from home (Bali) with some martabak manis (terang bulan), which Lan indulged in eating it, some Indonesian seasonings for me to cook a...

O n Sunday, Lan was so kind to buy me a silicone baking tray and a whisk (a mixer is a bit out of our pocket at this very moment!)... and so, at home, I immediately 'played' with my new toys to make a roll cake. Thinking that 15 yokes on the recipe is a bit too much for only two of us, I halved the recipe. Voila! After a lot of whisking (that made my arms sore) and 15 minutes in the oven, my cake was done! It looked good, but a bit too thin... What to do? What to do? If I were to roll it, it would break to pieces, so, I decided to cut them to squares and stack them together and putting generous amount of 'meises' in between the layers. Hence, it looked exactly like in the photo! Lan enjoyed it a lot and finished it not long after. I hope you enjoy the photo too! :) Aside from my kitchen activities, I have been busy with my emotion going here and there... With winter coming, my skin allergy (eczema) gets worse, resulting in lack of sleep and self-confidence issue :( PhD...

A fter sometime ago, my beloved friend, Since, 'showed off' her beautiful fried chicken on her blog specially for me (plus sending me an exclusive offline message to visit her blog), I would like to proudly present the fried chicken I cooked last night. After postponing for so long, because I could not find turmeric powder (bubuk kunyit) in the supermarket I usually shop, I finally found the powder sitting nicely on the shop shelf of an International food shop. Yay! Thank you Since for the easy breezy recipe, it was a blast! Lan loves it and I... *hmmm* feel like sitting at my home's dining room eating delicious fried chicken with warm rice and sweet soy sauce... Superb! We also had fried tofu (tahu goreng) and sambal matah. (The sambal matah was a bit of disaster, I forgot to put balacan on it hahaha!) Anyhow, we had a great dinner! Thanks again, Since! :) ( Jangan kapok ngomongin makanan sama aku ya hihi... ) As you see on the picture: (Click the photo to enlarge) I have...

T hank you to all of you for the condolences regarding Lan's grandmother. Things have gone better now, we are feeling much better now. I have been much calmer with the problem I was facing while posting the previous post... Well, lately, I have been hating the weather, which uncontrollably wet and windy (feeling like walking in the middle of hurricane all the time!). Each morning, I always struggle to get out of my comfy and warm bed, simply because the grey sky just ruin my mood! The sun is hiding somewhere far somehow... I have been occupied with my PhD work, done some implementation (programming) and now is time to do some comparison and observation on my BeTL (a.k.a the software I implemented, read it 'beetle' please...). It is some hard work, but I just have to strive forward, right? :) My hubbie has been busy compiling a plan for my birthday; he has been asking me what would I like for my birthday dinner and so on... Oh my Lord, I am going to be 24 soon! Time flies, r...

A da banyak hal yang sedang terjadi beberapa hari ini. Aku lelah, aku sedih, aku marah, aku kecewa, aku menangis, aku tidak percaya... Namun semuanya memang nyata adanya. Maaf, tidak bisa berbagi tentang yang sedang berkecimpung di fikiranku, karena semuanya begitu pedih dan perih bagiku... Hanya doakan kami ya; aku, orang tuaku, saudara-saudaraku. Mintakan Tuhan kekuatan bagi kami. Saat ini, kami seperti keluarga yang berkabung dan kehilangan. Mintakan Tuhan supaya kami tetap satu melewati semua ini. Terima kasih, teman-temanku. Ps. Kemarin kami (Lan dan aku) mendapat berita duka, telah berpulang ke rumah Bapa, nenek tercinta Lan (Mama dari Papa mertuaku) dikarenakan gagal ginjal. Walau aku hanya bertemu satu kali, tanpa banyak kata, namun jauh di lubuk hatiku, aku menangis karena sirna sudah kesempatan untuk mengenalnya lebih dekat dan untuk dia mengenalku istri cucunya... My Lord, I will cry NO more! I will not let the evil laugh at my tears! 14.10.2008

Pengampunan Tuhan seperti dedaunan pohon di musim gugur yang jatuh ringan bagi kita, Ketegar-tengkukan kita membawa musim dingin penghajaran yang menumbuhkan... Sampai musim semi tiba dengan kuncup-kuncup daun pengampunan yang segar... Di mana kita lebih menghayati dan mensyukuri indah makna pengampunanNya. nie - 13.10.2008 on the way to office @ 11.30

G ot a homework from my beloved friend, Caroline and my big sister, the infamous Tuteh (yg ngarepin spy aku cepet ndut kayak dia *beuh deh sist :P*). Here we go... TEN HABITS AND FACTS ABOUT SHERLY: She loves and believes in JESUS CHRIST She is the wife of Mr. Zhang since 02 July 2007, and loves to make him smile. She is always grateful that God gives her such a great hubbie. She studies her BSc, MSc and *now* PhD all in University of Liverpool, UK. (some kind of scholarship hunter, here...) She loves SOP BUNTUT, SOP MERAH & AYAM BUMBU RUJAK bikinan her beloved Mami. She been away from family since she was 15 years old. She, may seems strong and mature outside, but is a CRYBABY. She makes crazy insane jokes, her hubbie thinks she is absolutely insane *hihi* She loves her friends, misses her crazy BFF, Yulia. She IS homesick right now, missing her family (parents and her 3 siblings) at home. She hopes to go home next year; saving money and praying to God that the flight tickets wi...

T his is the day of 'their' decision. Huff... I am so nervous for my interview at 13.10 (it's 10.11 a.m. now). The slides were just ready yesterday, because suddenly my supervisors asked me to change 'almost' the entire structure. Jesus, I cling to you. Be my answers to the questions they ask, Be the words in my mouth during the presentation. Be my strength, my hope and my everything... Just like all those times, help me through this battle. Huff... It's all DONE! All the extremely fast heartbeats, those difficult questions and my shaking hands. Thanks to my dear hubbie for his support and prayers, it means a lot to me! Thanks friends for the encouragement :) What now? Waiting for the result... Have a great weekend, friends! GBU!

I t's been a while since I planned to buy him this camera for his birthday next year. I have been surveying on prices of different stores. Voila! Yesterday, we found a great bargain in one of the stores in city centre. Got a 10% discount of the normal price plus a £50.00 cashback from Canon. Thus, the cheapest price I found! And I made him smile so wide and brightly! God... I love to make him smile :) Ps. so now he has a new toy and been busy with it!

W e had great time in London, despite the traffic jams that slowed us down every time we are heading somewhere. Meeting with my godfather was really worth it! We were so happy to meet him, after a year not seeing each other. In the middle of it, we had a couple of hours sightseeing around Westminster area, unfortunately the photos aren't really good, because the sun makes it either really dark or both of our eyes are closed hehehe... We did not get into the Parliament house nor the London Eye. Oh my... the queue was ridiculous, mind you it was a Saturday. Still, I had great time going around with my hubby. Now, we are back to the routine and business!

B een ages since my last post, never knew I'd be so busy! I have been chased by deadline and I have been chasing time hahaha! I have this end-of-year report, which is very important. It decides whether I get to continue to the second year or not. On top of the report, an interview will be held early October, where I will be questioned about my works by the professors of the Computer Science department. That's the reason I've been burying myself under papers and works... Monday to Wednesday, I went to a 'Reachability Problem' Workshop for free (got a great dinner in a posh restaurant, too!), other than that, nothing really excites my life! Going to London Saturday and Sunday to meet a man, who is like a second DAD to me. I hope it is going to be a great time, been missing him a lot, the last time I met him was on my wedding day... Righty, friends, gotta go now. Have a blessed weekend!!

B een to the doctor this morning in the heavy rain and strong wind. Turned out to be it is NOT an eye-infection. I was speechless that the previous doctor made the wrong judgment about my eyes' condition. Thank God there was no huge and dangerous side effect, otherwise, who knows what would happen. Anyway, I am glad it's approaching weekend! Woo hoo! Been so tired this week with this and that... God bless and have a great weekend, friends! :) Ps. Komentar-komentar di postingku sebelumnya bener-bener bikin ketawa deh... Banyak yang salah baca 'MENGOROK' jadi 'meROKOK'. Huehehehe... FYI, I don't smoke and will never will, neither does Lan. In fact, we both hate cigarettes and the smell. So, kalo ada yang punya tips tokcer untuk menghentikan kebiasaan NGOROK, kasih tau ya :) Trims.

I 's a happy day today! I just received a letter of my scholarship renewal, which means I did good enough last year for the scholarship to be extended. Praise The Lord for that! About my illness after returning from Hamburg, I had acute flu, headache, fever and some muscles and bone pain. It made me feel so mushy! Thank God, Lan took a really good care of me; cooked for me, reminded me to eat medicine, and helped me a lot. However... I transformed to a giant bacteria! I passed the illness to him! Argh... so two sick people taking care of each other! Anyway, we are OK now, in terms of those illness... Yet, I suddenly got an eye-infection! Itchy and red, it frustrates me. My eyes become easily red when I face the computer screen for too long (whereas, I am supposed to face the screen all the long to work!) I had been using an antibiotic ointment for 5 days now, as instructed by the doctor, but not much has changed. So, I am going back to see the doctor on Friday, hope it can heal soo...

I t's time to finish off our story about Hamburg. In the second week, there were not much going on, some of the lectures did not fit the field that we do, so sometimes, we sneaked out to enjoy Hamburg's city center a little bit more before we left. We bought some souvenirs for our family and friends, took more photos of us for memories in years to come... God, I still could not believe we went to Hamburg and not have to pay for it :) So... our Hamburg trip came to an end on Saturday, 16 August 2008. 5.30 a.m. we were looking for a taxi, in front of our accommodation. The night before we were quite sure to get a taxi, because there is a taxi rank opposite where we lived, but in the morning, it was empty! I prayed and prayed in my heart, 'send us a taxi, Lord!' Well, we cannot really order a taxi by phone (I will say 'no way!' to the international roaming hahaha) Finally, we got a taxi, it was a Mercedes Benz! FYI, in Germany, the taxis are usually Volkswagen, B...

O ur second Saturday started with Lan's lead to have a walking tour around the harbour and around the newly developing area Hafencity. We took the U-bahn to Landungsbrücken. We headed, first, to the old part of the harbour, where the old port buildings are still standing strong and firm. Millions of red bricks, one after another, holding those buildings together, which are changing from the used-to-be ports to cafes, restaurants, storage houses and, even, carpet shops! The wind was a little chill that day, but we kept walking... The old's are soon outnumbered by the new modern and fascinating buildings, which are promised to be all finished by 2010 as the new face of Hamburg; new flats and office spaces, which looks so futuristic! I have to say, Germans are very hard and diligent people! They are up early and finished later than any other western worlds. I have seen those public workers already in the middle of their jobs renovating the road before 09.00 a.m. and not even s...

A s the new week begun, our summer school begun. The first class starts at 9.15am and the last class ends at 18.45 a.m. You can imagine how exhausted we become each weekday after the class. Still we had pretty interesting experience... Universität Hamburg: Beautiful architecture, Strong wireless connection through out the campus, and, one most important thing is the student canteen !!! They give special subsidised price for students, the menu changes everyday; they provide several different foods, including vegetarian menu, salads (€1 per bowl), and yummy desserts (85¢ each bowl). They had Salmon (big portion) for €4.00 and yummy beef steak for about the same price as well... I have to say the students here are really spoiled! Lan and I really wish we have such a canteen in Liverpool. Mansa canteen (that's the name) is always crowded each day with students, lecturers and even some family with little kids! Two thumbs up for Universität Hamburg! Rathaus townh...

S unday, 03 August 2008, we allowed ourselves to sleep in a little longer before we hit the road around lunch time. This time was a journey to the ESSLLI (summer school) site, that is the Universität of Hamburg. Taking train from Borgweg to Hoheluftbrück, we then got on the bus number 5, as instructed in ESSLLI website. Got off at Staatbibliothek, we guessed our direction to the main university building. Voila! We got it right! We got there about 01.00 pm, hoping that we can register early so that we can continue our adventure. However, I have to put my thumbs up for the Germans, they are really strict and on-time! Hence, Lan suggested we have some lunch first. Not really knowing anywhere, we dragged ourselves to Dammtor train station, which is opposite the university. This train station (S-bahn) serves journeys between regions and province, whereas, the train we took earlier (U-bahn) is an intracity train. Inside the station, there are some souvenir shops, bakeries, cafe an...

H alo! That is how Hamburger (Hamburg people) say 'hi' to each other. Hehehe... We are in Hamburg now, very happy and excited! Hamburg is a city of water, they say. The buildings are artisticly beautiful and historical! Here is the story... 05.18 a.m. we got on the first train from Liverpool to Manchester Airport with heavy eyes but full of excitement. I kept asking myself "Could this be true? We are going to Hamburg!". We had a small incident, arriving at the airport... I almost believed that I forgot the keys for the suitcases locks at home, in fact, it was hidden under Lan's wallet in our backpack. After checking in in Terminal 1, we looked around the terminal, it was our first time to be in T1, where all flights to Europe are located in. Usually we go to T2 for all the other International destinations. 09.10 a.m. we are ready to go, seating at 12A and 12C, it is the smallest plane I have ever been! It looks like a mini jet and the stewardesses' heads ...

L ots of you guessed that we are going to Hamburg for a holiday. Yes, we would like to HOPE so, but it is NOT *sob*. We are sent by University of Liverpool's Computer Science department to do a 2-weeks summer school there (we study computer science). Eventhough it is not a holiday, we still thank God for the chance to go to Hamburg (This is our FIRST time to go to Hamburg, in fact it's a FIRST time to go to Europe after our attempt to go to Paris failed earlier this year.) Today, after meeting friends here and there, I am resting at home for the whole day. I am exhausted and not feeling quite good. I just hope I won't get sick huhuhu... It has been fun meeting my friends and have chit chat with them. Tomorrow is another busy day... huhuhu... Pray for Lan and I please, my friends. :)

T oday is officially the beginning of the busy week before we leave for Hamburg on Saturday, 2nd August. The whole day was very bright and HOT! Oh my... I can say today is the perfect ONE day of the year! Clear blue sky and some cool wind! At last we can wear our summer clothes! Hehe... Thank God for such a beautiful day! So, we went to church this morning, only to find that it was moved *again* temporarily, so we had to walk a bit further to get there. Thinking of it in a positive way, we had some time to exercise in a nice bright morning haha... At church, we got to know some Korean people, who are quite nice. We are becoming more comfortable in the new church now... After that we went home to have some lunch and a bit of nap before we picked up Bebek & her hubby at the coach station. They are really nice couple! Bebek even brought me some gifts from Singapore *thank you so much!* We had dinner together at Tokyou noodle bar (Lan's & my favourite restaurant). Glad they li...

Y esterday, while Lan and I were cooking prawn crackers my Mum has sent us, together, we came to the point where we talk about Chair Mao, the famous ruler of China. Lan said Chair Mao used to be a very good person... UNTIL he got the whole country under him. Somehow he changed... He used to not care about money and power, but after he tasted how it is to be a leader of such a massive country, he was never the same anymore. Chair Mao became greedy of power and wealth. He did all he could to get rid of those who opposed him and to keep the power for himself. When Lan said that, Holy Spirit opened my eyes and my heart... And suddenly it becomes clear why it is so important that yesterday, today and forever, The LORD is never changing ! Thank you, Lord, for speaking to me through Lan. Just imagining if God changes like human does, what would become of us? Say, after the crucifixion, Jesus changes His mind and blames all of us for His sufferings, how doomed we will be? Praise God that our ...

H ari ini adikku dah balik ke Brighton (untuk kembali lagi ke Liverpool dua minggu lagi), karena harus ketemu sama dosennya sekali lagi untuk membicarakan final projectnya. Yang tersisa sekarang adalah capek ! Huff huff huff... taking care of 2 boys is not easy. Especially when we live in a bedsit-type-of-flat. Our place becomes so stuffy that sometimes I felt like throwing out a chair out of the window *hihihi...*. Anyhow, we had quite fun together. I took my brother around city center and we went in and out to those shops with the SALE tags! Lan is lucky I did not spend a penny in those shops. Today, after saying 'see you in 2 weeks' to Erwin at the coach station, we went to town, hunting some lambbananas photos for my collection. Lambbanana is the icon for the Liverpool as the European City of Culture 2008. Lots of people were in town, it was like a sea of fish!!! Dapet award dary sis Jane ! Thanks ya!!! Ini nih ketentuannya: 1. Put the logo on your blog. 2. Add a link to t...

Y esterday, my brother arrived for the first time in Liverpool. So, at the moment, our home is very crowded. Well, it is meant to be a bedsit, so adding another person in the flat makes it feels so full haha! We went to a Chinese buffet restaurant for dinner last night and Lan gave him an 'early' graduation gift, which took quite an effort to find it. It is a very nice pen with his very own name engraved on it! We really hope he likes it. At the moment, we are in the University, Erwin brought his own laptop and is using the University's Internet right now hehehe... How boring, eh? To come to Liverpool just to spend time in his sister's office hahaha... Well, tomorrow, I am going to take him around. I guess this is the start of the busy time. This week is my brother's visit, next week catching up with work, the following week a couple of friends is coming from Singapore and then on 2nd August, we are flying to Hamburg for summer school. I hope I can cope! Well, for y...

Y esterday, we really had a lovely afternoon! And it is all thanks to Jesus Christ and my beloved husband for making it so wonderful! Five p.m., as we agreed, we left office, feeling a bit disappointed that it started to rain. We got home and changed clothes, fetched our camera and mini tripod and off we walked to the restaurant. We were heading to Ego restaurant , which happens to be only 5 minutes walk from where we live. Every time we went pass there, somehow it was always full of people and has delicious smell coming out from the kitchen! And so we decided to try... Lan had marinated moroccan chicken salad with a chickpea, apricot and raisin salsa served with a yoghurt, honey and mint dressing for starter and ‘pappardelle portofino’ chargrilled chicken, manzanilla green olives, mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes in a cream, red wine and tomato sauce for his main course. And I had grilled goats cheese served on toasted brioche with caramelised red onions and a fig and blueberry jam ...

H is soft whisper woke me up this morning. Ughhh... Cannot believe it has been one year already! Time flies, but through it all, I am so grateful... for my beloved husband, who would do anything for me. I am grateful to my Jesus, for my soulmate, for His providence and hands upon our little family. On this same beautiful day, is my best friend's birthday. One that I have known for so many years and I keep loving her more each day. And, I am so happy that since 2007, we celebrate this special date together until forever! So... Happy Birthday, my sister in Christ, Yulie! We both love you! This one whole year has been beautiful to me. Not because we never fought each other, believe me, we fought quite many times! It is beautiful that through all of those ups and downs, we willing to improve for each other and we really improve. Along the way, we compromise, we forgive and we think alike. Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful one year! Thank you friends, for remembering, for the beautifu...

C an't believe weekend went so fast, it's Monday again. *arghhh work again!* It was quite an up and down for us. Friday we got a news that lead to a huge disappointment. Something that we were happy about, before, suddenly turned upside down! Lan was so shock when he heard it, well, I could understand why he is so... since he sacrificed a lot and spent a lot on this matter. Anyway, I would not say what it is here. It breaks my heart to remember it again :( On Saturday, we were like robots with numb feelings, recovering from disappointment is so not easy! We gave the grocery shopping a miss, because we bought quite a pile of food already in the previous weekend. We heard some bad news as well from Papa Mama (Lan's parents). It's like a weekend full of bad news... I cooked some soto ayam just to cheer myself up (using the bamboo instant ingredients :p). Thank God, Lan actually enjoyed it. We slept in the afternoon, planning for 30 minutes nap and then go out to the cinema...

S udah dua hari leher dan pundakku rasanya pegel. Ntah ada apa dengan otot leherku ini, apa iya aku salah posisi tidur? Sampe serasa tengeng begini! Dipake noleh ke kiri rasanya aduhai sakitnya! Ugh... Jadinya dua hari ini aku seperti robot, tidurpun rasanya ga nyenyak. Mau jemur bantal, mataharinya malu-malu kucing! Ya sudah, akhirnya pake lampu meja aja deh manasin bantal hahahah! Kemarin si Lan bela-belain ikutan ga ngantor, mijitin pundak istrinya plus dengan sabarnya nyuapin Häagen-Dazs rasa Bailey wekekeke... Serasa Surga deh, suami tercinta plus es krim favorit! Sweet! Gara-gara si leher juga, meeting dengan supervisor besok harus ditunda seminggu, kan ga lucu tuh hadir di meeting dengan tangan kosong, blum ngerjain apa-apa. *hiks* Tapi sekalipun lagi menderita begini, I am getting excited lho!!! One week to our first anniversary. Cihuy! Sudah ada plan yang dinanti-nanti untuk terjadi :) Oh ya, kemarin dapet SMS dari my BFF, Yulie, dia jadi saksi mata kerusuhan di depan Atma Ja...

F inally! After forcing myself out of my laziness, I managed to make a new design for my blog hihihi... This one is specially to celebrate our upcoming first anniversary. I played a bit with coding, trying the blogger XML template, but I found myself to be too restricted by it, so... I changed it back to HTML template. And voila... this is it. Maybe a bit over-simplified. Well, I will blame myself for that! *can't be bothered lately!* Overall, I like it so much :D

I 'm here again hehehe... still bored and fed up somehow, but anyway... I want to complain about UK's weather... Oh my... it is not really summer here. One day it is very hot, one day it is pouring rain, one day it is 'undecidable'! Today, it was gloomy one hour ago, now it is sunny, I just wonder how do I decide on what to wear? Something not too hot and yet not too cold, maybe I should just bring my whole wardrobe to the office hahaha... Approaching the later part of this month (June), I am getting excited! Our anniversary is approaching (together with my BFF's birthday!). It is our FIRST anniversary, very soon *yay!*... I cannot believe one year has gone pass since the day we got married :) To make it more exciting, we are preparing secret present for each other hehehe... I really cannot wait :)

B een so fed up lately... with our PhD works and routines! Holidayyyyyyyy... we want holiday!!! Wait wait... where to? Whose money? Argh... too much to think of! We are just hoping to 'escape' a little bit to somewhere to freshen our mind! We just wish... wishful thinking... but also... too many things to think of! We are just... EXHAUSTED!

L an heard this on the radio when he was queuing at the barber shop today for a haircut: A woman wants MANY things from ONE man... A man wants ONE thing from MANY women. What do you think?

T his morning, via Kopete, Lan sent me an interesting news link, which made both of us giggle for a bit. You may read it here . It made me go "ah... so this does not only happen in Indonesia..." Right, it is about the price of oil *petrol* that goes up, bringing up a lot of complaints and protest in Indonesia. Some people blamed the government, some blamed SBY. Well, for your information, it happens all over the world. And UK is also one of them! Here, the price of the petrol is £1.20 per liter (which is more than Rp. 20,000). On top of that, there is so-called "road tax", which increases along with the petrol's price increase. Should we be saying "lucky you, who live in Indonesia..."? At least, you do not need to pay road tax (unless you go to highway), right? If you read in the link above, some UK citizens actually protest about the price rise, too. And, if you study more about the system of this country, here you pay hell a lot of money just for the...

S omehow, I've been having no inspiration to write anything here... I just wonder where has my writing hobby gone to?! Maybe it is because lately I feel as if life is just a routine, go to office from 09.00 to 6.30, then home, have dinner, sometimes clean our flat and then sleep. I want a more interesting life than this! This is so just NOT me... Maybe it is because I am not alone anymore? These days, if I have something in mind, I'd just talk to Lan, share things with him. Maybe I am just lazy?! Ah... I don't know. Whatever the reason is, let it be. Hopefully the desire to write will return soon... Despite the boredom and depression facing hundreds lines of codes (programming) in office, I always look forward to the afternoon to come for us to go home. Lately, it has been the little kids, Lan and Sherly, at home hehehe... Tickles, teases, jokes. While you sleep so peacefully, Sometimes I ask myself the questions of "why"... And that many times, I can't answer...

D oh! Been so long since last I posted here... Partly because I am busy, partly because I've been so caught up into one of the facebook's applications hehehe... I've been swimming in programming mode for the last couple of weeks! Supervisors' pressure really does the job on me, last night I had this dream of sitting in front of my PC, programming, however I seemed to not do the right job, i.e. getting error all the time! Arrghh, what a nightmare! I woke up with my body feeling like a punch-bag! At the same time, Lan is head over heel writing a paper. He is trying to submit a paper for a conference and the deadline is 02nd June 2008, so he is stressed up and almost every night he spends the time in the office... *surely my time will come...* Well, I have faith in him, I am sure he can do it, with plenty of prayers and determination, Jesus will open the way. As of our marriage... ah... time flies! It's approaching the first anniversary, yet, each day, we fall in love...

I t's always sad to tell story about how you parted with your loved ones... I still remember clearly that day we took the airport express coach service to the airport, shortly after we had dinner at home. It was Papa's cooking. Those last three days, I had diarrhea so badly. Mama was worried sick... maybe my body knew I was not happy to leave the home I just came into. So, for those last three days, I had to eat vegetables and rice only, no meat to ease my digestion system. Still, Papa's cooking was more than enough... I loved it and I am missing it now. The airport express coach took around one hour to get to the airport. I wished it would take longer, that way I could spend more time with my beloved Papa and Mama. The first stop of the coach was Terminal 3, the newest terminal of BCIA (Beijing City International Airport). We were all amazed... it is a beautiful airport, huge and magnificent. *I'll have to ask Lan to send me the photos so that I can show it to you ...

T hank God, it's Friday now... I am very tired this week, been sinking in programming mode, because my supervisors have been pushing me to finish it off... Anyway, here is the continuation about Beijing trip. One thing that I enjoyed the most was not the shopping, was not the great delicious food, but was the family I came in to. I can proudly and comfortably say, now, that Lan's home is my home and his family is my family. Even though I cannot really speak Mandarin, but they were very patient with me, never tired to repeat and try to speak as simply as possible so I can understand what they were telling me. They don't laugh at me, but they laugh with me... Papa called me " My little girl! " in front of all his family when we were having dinner. Mama cares and loves me as much as she cares for Lan. She always made sure I wear enough clothes, so that I won't catch a cold (I'm a warm blood type, which, even if it's winter, I don't wear much clothes...

H ello friends! I think before it is out of date, I better continue with the stories of my first trip to Beijing... Well, this time I will tell you about the shopping malls. Beijing is FULL of shopping malls and shops. Almost every corner of the city has 'at least' one shopping mall. When we think of shopping in China, we immediately 'say' the word 'cheap' in our minds, but, beware! Nowadays, they have some really posh and expensive shopping malls, too, in Beijing. The city grows so fast that a lot of international brands (e.g. D&G, Morgan, etc) open their branches in China, especially Beijing. Lan says that even if I take one whole year to intentionally visit all the shopping malls in Beijing, it will never be enough, because they keep building new shopping malls around the city. So, maybe I should take my whole life time to visit all those shopping malls hehehe I am very blessed that I have Lan as my husband, he is my greatest guide to go around Beijing...

L et's continue with the stories of my first trip to Beijing... OK, this time it is about FOOD! Something that you imagine and drool of when you think about going to China. Beijing, in particular, they have all sorts of food. You name it, it will be there; from the old traditional Chinese food, American, Italian, Korean, Japanese, even Russian! Three or four years ago, while I was studying Mandarin for fun, my teacher told me that, if one day I go to Beijing, I have to try 'kao ya rou' (a.k.a Peking Duck). Well, never did I plan it, but The Lord takes me to Beijing somehow, after meeting my beloved husband :) When I came to Beijing, Mama Papa had a list of places I must go to, one of them is the Peking Duck (the famous Quan Ju De/QJD). So, one of our days there, Mama Papa really took me there, Lao Ye (grandpa) and Lao Lao (grandma) were also there. They said they came for me * they are so sweet and lovely... * We took subway from home to QJD. The entrance door was the...

The day that you did not really wish for has come uncontrolably... The digits had to change... Still, I am happy that The Lord blesses me with you in my life. For you to be with me, walking beside me, laughing with me... Happy 30th Birthday, darling! I love you, always.