Memorable First Times

I might have mentioned that I grew up in a big city. I was also very fortunate to be born to be into an okay family. My parents were not rich, but I didn't have to wait until I grow up to let say, go to shopping malls, or flying on an airplane. However, of course not everyone is as lucky, and I had some friends who did those for the first time when they were adults. The results were kinda funny :p

Let's name this first friend as Hiro. He grew up in a small village in India, not sure what the village name though. Anyway, he said that all his life he lived in that village, never been to the city. He then said, the first time he ever took an escalator was when he was 18. One day he visited his uncle in the city for the first time (seriously, I don't know how big this city is, Bogor is a city, Solo is a city and Sydney is also a city, but I dunno the size. Well, he said it to me as a city). Then, he went to a shopping mall, and he stopped in front of the automatic door, stunned seeing it open and close by itself hahahaha.. :p I know it's normal since it was his first time, but imagining him as an 18 years old stunned in front of the doors is really funny.

Then, he went into the mall, and he found this other weird object. Can you guess? Escalator! He stopped, looked at it up and down, down and up, confused. He said to me, he stopped and thought for a while, when is the right time for me to step into it???? LOL again, keep in mind this was an 18 years old boy :P

Another memorable first timer is the water tap, one of my colleagues. His flight to Sydney was his first time on an airplane. And he flew ALONE. Then, there was this guy named John Smith coming up to him after he got into the plane. Mr Smith asked him if he mind swapping seat with him as he wanted to sit next to his companion. Water tap being a nice guy said ok. Then he swapped seat and swapped his boarding pass too. He thought just like in a cinema, if you swap seat, then you need to swap the ticket too. Then the plane flew to Denpasar, Bali.

In Denpasar, Water Tap needed to get off the plane and transfer into flight going to Sydney. That's when the problem occurred.. he needed to produce his PREVIOUS boarding pass in order to get his connecting flight boarding pass!! Mr John Smith got off in Denpasar, so Water Tap couldn't swap the boarding pass. To make it worse, Water tap was a country boy who didn't speak much English! It was very hard for him to explain the whole situation. the officers kept asking him why did he need to swap the boarding pass just to swap seats? he told them he thought it was like in the cinema! I bet those officers were like what the.... Water Tap was very stressed. He was alone with little English. And he didn't have the phone number of his friend who will pick him up at Sydney Airport. There's no way for him to contact his friend. 

Luckily he had all his university documents with him. He gave all those documents to the officers and told them to check with his university to prove him legal. Now that I think about it, the airline should be able to get his information from the database, showing his passport should be enough. But this happened 12 years ago, so maybe it was like that back then.

The officers then called the university to check Water Tap identity. Luckily the phone call was picked up and Water Tap identity could be confirmed and he could get on to that flight. Until now he's still pissed off with Bali and what he refers to "YOUR people" LOL

Another small funny story is one of my cousin's, Ija. It wasn't her first time flying, but it was her first time flying with non-budget airlines. You know we all get earphones to use for watching movies on the plane right? She never had that with budget airlines. So when she flew the first time with Qantas, she was confused of where she should plug them in. Then she SKSD-ly asked the middle age guy sitting next to her.

Ija:  "First time flying with Qantas, Sir?"

Mister: "oh, no... I've been few times."

Ika: "oh! *excitedly* where do I plug these into???".

Lol

My 30th Birthday :)

I turned 30 last weekend!! :) well in Indo that would not be a celebration as I'm single and a female. People would raise an eyebrow and think or say '30? Not married yet?? " that's why I chose not to be in Jakarta for my birthday even with my bestie offering to throw me bigger celebration in Jakarta :P

Anyhow, my friends threw me a surprise party last Saturday. Hmm... I was kind of expecting it though XP within our group, when someone turns 30 we always throw him/her a surprise party Indonesian style with the cone shaped tumeric rice dish. But who knows? Within the last few years, more and more of our friends go back to Indonesia, and with only few people here, the minimum number of guests attending to order that dish is getting harder to meet too. Plus, the person who usually arranges for all this supposedly already flew back to Jakarta before my bday too.

So, on Saturday morning, my friend Kazeman took me out for yumcha. He said he would treat me breakfast for my birthday. I was thinking, is the surprise gonna be yumcha?? It's easier and we can have it with any number of guests. So I was kind of hoping. But when we arrived at the restaurant, no, there wasn't anyone there.

So we started eating. Just an FYI he eats a lot lol. He kept asking me if I could still have some more and of course I said yes since it was obvious he was still hungry. Anyway when we finished, I was FULL.

What funny was, right after we were seated, he said to me, "after yumcha, lets play Just Dance, shall we??". I was like errrr... -.- I just got to City for yumcha, and have to go back home again straight after?? Oh well... All right... Maybe there is something up at home.

After yumcha we went to Daiso. I needed to buy a frame for my jigsaw puzzles. I actually wanted to look around more, but I felt bad making him following me. So after that we went back to my place.

Kazeman was VERY occupied. Typing on his mobile almost non-stop all the way home. NOBODY was chatting in our whatsapp group :l I said to him, "You're so busy, did you join Sultan Agung group??" (that's another friend's high school group whose members we believe have nothing to do coz they chat nonstop everyday). He replied, no... It's my highschool group. In my head, I was like, "since when you have a highschool group?".

Then when we arrived in front of my apartment, he looked uneasy... Like he needed to go to toilet to do number 2 lol XD I said to him, "why? U need to go to toilet?". He replied confusedly, "um... It's ok, we're already here anyway." Hmm... :l oh btw, I did keep an eye on the cars around my apartment, checking if my friend's car was parked somewhere hehe :P

When I opened my unit door, I saw streamers hanging on the ceiling, then my sister said "Surprise!!!". But err... Only her and my dad were home -.- the guests haven't even arrived!!! I didn't know if I should cry or laugh lol XD the tumpeng was on the table, and decorations were up, but no guests yet.

Apparently Kazeman's task was to get me out of the house in the morning, and bring me back home at 12. And he did exactly that, when I opened my door, it was exactly 12! What he didn't anticipate was people were late, and that kebelet face (needed to do number 2 face) was actually when he read the message saying ONLY my sis and my dad are home huahahahhahahahaha.... He couldn't come up with any reason to go somewhere else so he just let it be lol.

Few minutes after, Pipit called my sis and Kazeman for help getting the drinks up. When they didn't come up after a while, I called her asking where she was, to which she replied "i'm at my apartment carpark!". I was like yeah, right, why did you call my sister to pick up drinks then? Lol

Then people started coming, including my friend who has same birthday as me. Even my bestie's sister, brother in law and their children came too! I was so happy seeing them. They are some kind of special guests lol... Just like other young families, their attendance to gatherings depends on the children. If the children are sick, or just not well behaved, then they won't come. So it is really a special occasion lol :)

But the one who really made a surprise was my bestie!! She was "supposed" to fly back to Indo on my birthday. So she lied to me about her departure date, even to the smallest details I.e. i'm already at the train, my luggages are with my sister coz the car is full so I have to take train... I'm already at the airport, your sister don't need to come, I'm going in soon, etc. Even to "i feel bad for ur sister coming to send me off, but I could only stay with her for 10 minutes" :P she even called me before she "flew" lol

I must admit she really thought it through. During the time she was "flying", she did not show up on whatsapp. And when the landing time passed, she came on whatsapp saying "it's HOT!" Lol

She did have a mistake though. When she got home, her WiFi automatically turned on. Making her "last seen time" to be updated to the time she was still supposed to be on air. I actually noticed that, and thought isn't it a bit early? But I thought maybe whatsapp was having issue and didn't think much of it. Plus, not long after, she noticed it and frantically blocked me completely lol.

Anyway this time she really came to my place by train lol... Coz her sister's car was full with her niece, nephew and her luggages hahaha... So she really had to take train. She brought all of her luggage to my place, so on Monday she can take train to my place, grab her stuffs and then take a cab to the airport. It's only 15-20 minutes taxi ride to the airport from my place , whereas it takes 2 hours using bus and train to get to the airport from where she lives.

Pipit's bro and his wife actually met me the day before when I went to get my free birthday Chatime :P they didn't say happy birthday to me that day, and I did say to myself, "why aren't they saying happy birthday to me??". They said they didn't know if they should pretend or not, and decided to pretend they didn't know and say it at the party. Lucky I didn't shamelessly say "it's my birthday today lho!!" I do do that sometimes lol :P

The food was good. The bad news is, I was really too full from yumcha so I couldn't eat much hahaha... I ate more of it the following day though. My bestie did say, "I scolded Kazeman, why yumcha?? She would be too full and it is too far to make up stories to come back!!". To which he replied, "but she wants yumcha". My bestie thought, she wouldn't eat much after.... Just to clarify though, Kazeman suggested yumcha and I okayed it coz I was full when he asked what I wanted to have. And. I didn't have any other idea :P For our birthday cake, we got mango and blueberry mousse cake from Ella's patisserie. It was really nice! The mango part was frozen, just like having ice cream.

About my presents, I got things I've been wanting for a while hehehe... My bestie gave me SeeByChloe perfume which I've been eyeing for a while, she always knows what I want :) I don't know how she does that :p Her sister gave me BodyShop cherry blossoms gift pack and also the perfume.  I actually laughed when I saw the perfume. It reminded me of long time ago, my bestie's sister had a BodyShop perfume that I really liked, it was moonflower, which is discontinued now. And back then I was still a stingy student. So I said to her, if I won lottery, I would buy that perfume. She laughed hard hearing that, saying "how pityful you are! This perfume only costs $30 and you have to wait till you win a lottery Huahahahahaha" XD I don't know if she still remembers it. 

Pipit and her bro and his wife gave me Big Bang Theory's Bernadette and Amy POP Vinyl =P hehehehe... Been wanting it for a while :) but when I opened the present and saw it, I straight away looked at my cousin. I told her I wanted those when she asked me what I wanted as present. And early that day she told. Me, those 2 are so hard to find, so she had to order it. I was worried she already ordered them. Luckily she hasn't. Turned out that she went to shops look for it that morning, but luckily they didn't have any hehehe...

My other best friend, Helen, who I have birthday with, received 2 Body Shop Cherry Blossoms gift pack lol! When Pipit saw the present she got from Eva's sister, she cried out "Ah?? Isn't that the same???". She offered to exchange it for Helen, but Helen was okay having 2, so she is keeping them both.

The party was great. We talked nonstop about anything. Was so much fun :) plus, Kazeman's PS4 is actually at my place now. Then the boys played Just Dance including my dad!! Lol it was sooo funny! Which reminded me I have to upload those birthday photos Hehehehe :P

Around 4-4:30 they left. But most of us met again in the city later on for Korean BBQ dinner hehehe... Afterall, Eva would really fly back to Indo on Monday, so we'd like to have maybe the last dinner before she goes back.

She went home straight away after dinner while the rest of us took a walk to Darling Harbour. It was nice. Nice weather and not too crowded. And good company of course :) To top it off, there was fireworks show too!! What a way to end the day :) Before we finally went to station, I just remembered that I had a birthday voucher from San Churros for free churros for 2! That's the last day I could get it, so I stopped by to get it. Not bad, I got 6 pieces of Churros with 2 dipping sauce. We shared between 7 of us and each of us had pretty decent bite size I think. Another icing on my already pretty cake :)

Quite a fun day I must say. Definitely making my turning 30 way easier and so much fun. I think I made the right decision to celebrate it back here in Sydney :)

Thanks guys, and love you all :)

Ps: Photos provided by Hello Kitty. Thanks for lending us your new iPhone for the day *hug hug kiss kiss* :)

Things I Did in Bangkok

Eat papaya salad, ticked.
Eat as much of street food as possible ticked.
Had Thai massage, ticked!
Visited Grand Palace and Wat Pho, ticked!
Being scammed by tuktuk driver, ticked!
Ride in a tuktuk, well obviously from previous point, ticked! 3 hours ride was definitely enough of tuktuk ride to last me for a very long time.
Try BTS and MRT, ticked!
Being scammed by taxi driver, ticked!
Ride on a tourist and local boat, ticked!
Watch ladyboy show, ticked!
Watch guiness book of record, Siam Niramit performance, ticked!
Visit the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, ticked!
Shop till you drop in Pratunam, ticked!
Shop at the biggest weekend market in Southeast Asia, Chatujak, ticked!
Try all fruits and juice Bangkok can offer, ticked!
Eat pad Thai, pad see euw, ticked!
Try fried chicken, ticked!
Oyster omelette, ticked!
Banana pancake, I had 2! Lol

Visit floating market, nope.
Visit wat arun, thanks to damn tuktuk driver, nope -_-""
Eat tom ga kai, nooo :( the places I went to didn't have it :( same with mango with sticky rice :(

Oh well, but I think I did quite a proudable job for 5 days trip :p

Different Kinds of Blessings

We are all blessed differently. Here are some of those blessings ;)

1. Ignorance. To not care about anything around you but yourself.
2. To be the joker and can always make other people laugh out loud with your silliness without trying too hard.
3. To eat a lot, and I mean A LOT and still the skinniest among your friends.
4. Never needed a filling all your life while you only brush your teeth once a day.
5. A morning person.
6. To be able to sleep through the night while your roommates wake up in the middle of the night to all sorts of noise I.e. party next door or helicopter flying over your roof.
7. To do "number 2" anytime per required.
8. Fall asleep anywhere anytime.
9. Winning random competitions.
10. The ability to say nice words when your friend is in trouble or upset.
11. Good in gambling.
12. Being a magnet to everyone. I.e. when meeting someone new, you are the one that always gets approached by the newbie.
13. To get boyfriend/girlfriend easily. I don't know if this is a blessing or not, depends I guess? But sure is handy.
14. Almost 30 but still looks like a uni student.
15. To bake things you never made before and almost never fails.

16. Kids love you. I don't know if you're lucky that kids always love you, or if you are actually good with kids.

17. The ability to find a bargain, and I mean ridiculously cheap bargain.

18. Having amazing skin without even bother to wash your face twice a day.

That's all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure I missed 2 at least, but can't remember. Will update when I remember it :)

So, which one are you? And which one do you think is mine? :)