Amazing Race Asia to Jakarta and Bali

I'm sorry if I have to write another article about my favourite reality show, Amazing Race Asia, after my previous article with regards to the show. It's because on its second and third leg of the race, they are going to my home country, Indonesia. Jakarta and Bali, to be exact. I was wrong when I predicted that they went to West Sumatra, after seeing the Minangkabau-style houses and the "plate dance" (tari piring) show. It turned out to be that they performed the dance at the West Sumatra pavilion of the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, instead.

On the second leg of the race, which I watched last week, all teams left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. Using Asia's biggest budget airline, AirAsia, I believe that it's Mr. Tony Fernandez -- AirAsia's CEO -- himself, who greeted one of the teams at the tarmac before the team boarded the plane. After touching down at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, all teams were on a taxi race on the busy highways of Jakarta, to Ragunan Zoo on the south outskirt of the city. The taxi race really shows the "turmoil" of Jakarta's traffic, with most of the taxi drivers were speeding and used the road shoulder to overtake other cars.

At the zoo, all teams would have to go inside a snake pit to get their next clues. The Indians Prashant and Sahil took the fast forward by going to SMA Negeri 60 school, which is located at Kemang Timur, not really far from Ragunan. This fast forward brought Prashant and Sahil to become the first team to arrive at the pit stop, the National Monument (Monas) of Jakarta. All the other teams went to the West Sumatra pavilion of the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah to perform "plate dance" (tari piring), a Minangkabau traditional dance. Once done, they then went to Kebayoran Baru area, around Jalan Panglima Polim, to be exact, to perform the detour, Push or Sell. Yud, I believe it's somewhere near your house? :) :)

The detour is related to bakso, or meatball soup, a popular Indonesian dish. In "Push", the teams had to push bakso pushcarts without spilling any soy sauce, while singing the "Abang Tukang Bakso" song, an Indonesian children song popularised by a (then) Indonesian child singer, Melissa, about a decade ago. Not too sure why they called it an Indonesian traditional song. It's not, actually. In "Sell", the teams would have to try selling 15 bowls of bakso for 2,000 rupiah each. Once they finished the detour, they have to go to the National Monument (Monas) as the pitstop of that second leg of the race. The Indonesians Mardy and Marsio become the second team to arrive (after Prashant and Sahil who took the Fast Forward) and my favourite team, Malaysian Zabrina and Joe Jer were the fourth team to arrive, while Filipino Ernie and Jeena become the first team to be eliminated on the race.

On the third leg of the race, which I just watched earlier this evening, all teams headed to Bali, again by using an AirAsia flight from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Once touched down at Denpasar's Ngurah Rai International Airport, they headed straight to Kuta beach to perform their roadblock, digging the sands. The task was quite tiring, causing 5 (read: five) of the teams gave up digging and chose to take a 4-hour penalty instead. After accessing the Internet in an Internet cafe nearby to find the next clue, all teams went to Ubud.

In Ubud, they needed to explore the Ubud Monkey Forest to find the next clue, which leads them to a detour: Wet or Dry. In "Wet", they need to perform white-water rafting down the Ayung River while in "Dry", they need to ride an elephant at the Elephant Safari Park nearby. From Ubud, they needed to go to the southernmost tip of the Bali Island, Uluwatu, and went inside a cave near a surfing centre there to get their next clue. The pit stop of the leg of the race is the Tanah Lot temple, located at the southwest coast of the island.

In this leg of the race, the Sri Lankan team Howard and Sahran came first, since they were the first team who find the "treasure", which is a small wooden surfboard, while digging the sands of Kuta beach. Zabrina and Joe Jer came in the fifth place, while Marsio and Mardy came in the sixth place, because both teams didn't finish the roadblock and chose to take the 4-hour penalty instead, which was served at the pit stop instead of at the roadblock's scene.

The good looking Filipinos, Aubrey and Jacqueline, become the second team to be eliminated from the race, following their fellow countrymen Ernie and Jeena. No more team from the Philippines remains in the race! The only Singaporean team Sharon and Melody came in the third place because they never gave up and managed to finish the roadblock and avoid the 4-hour penalty. Two thumbs up for their perseverance!!

Based on the trailer, it looks like all the teams are heading to Sydney, Australia for the fourth leg of the race. Well, I'm not too sure whether I would be able to watch the next week's show since I'll be in Jakarta, Indonesia next week. Let's just hope that I would be at my parents' place (which TV subscribes to AXN Asia), and not at my mother-in-law's place, at that time. :)

Open House Lagi

Selama bulan Syawal tahun ini, sudah beberapa kali saya dan keluarga menghadiri acara open house yang diadakan oleh teman-teman di Singapura. Di hari pertama Lebaran, sampai tiga tempat kita kunjungi, Hougang, Tampines dan Braddell, belum lagi acara open house yang kita adakan sendiri di rumah, dan alhamdulillah cukup sukses dengan banyaknya teman-teman yang datang dan hadir di acara tersebut. Dan itu belum termasuk acara kumpul-kumpul lainnya, yang walaupun bukan berjudul open house, tapi tetap saja tidak jauh dari gathering dan makan-makan, seperti acara ulang tahunnya Zidan dan Arya, serta acara perpisahannya Wiwie.

Dalam seminggu terakhir ini, tercatat dua kali saya menghadiri acara Hari Raya open house lagi. Hari Minggu, 12 November 2006 yang lalu, saya membawa Inka dan Irza ke acara open house-nya Edianna, mantan rekan kerja saya, di rumahnya di Choa Chu Kang. Kita meninggalkan rumah sekitar jam 11:30 siang, dan menjemput Natalia dan kedua anaknya, Nigel dan Ernie dulu di Bukit Panjang, dan janjian ketemu dengan Ling Ling di bawah blok rumahnya Tante Edi sebelum naik ke atas. Natalia dan Ling Ling juga adalah mantan teman kerja saya dulu.

Kita sampai ke rumah Edi tepat waktunya untuk makan siang. :) Mertua-nya Edi memasak ayam goreng bumbu kuning khas Melayu yang enak sekali, dan Inka menghabiskan total empat potong ayam disana! Inka dan Irza juga asyik menonton film The Incredibles bersama-sama dengan Nigel, Ernie dan ketiga anak-anaknya Edi (yang sayangnya saya tidak tahu nama-namanya).

Anak-anak senang sekali disana. Kita meninggalkan rumah Edi sekitar jam setengah tiga siang, dan kita mengantar Natalia, Nigel dan Ernie dulu ke rumahnya sebelum pulang ke rumah. Foto-fotonya bisa dilihat disini.

Hari Sabtu, 18 November 2006 kemarin, saya, Inka dan Irza pergi ke acara open house lagi. Kali ini, giliran Yosi yang menyelenggarakan acara open house ini dengan mengundang beberapa teman anggota komunitas Indo-Sing lainnya. Acaranya diadakan di BBQ pit dekat dengan kolam renang, sehingga saya pun menyiapkan pakaian renang anak-anak, apalagi Inka dari siang memang sudah meminta ingin berenang.

Kita sampai disana sekitar jam enam sore, dan bertemu dengan Muda Ikhsan, Hani dan Anto di BBQ pit. Ikhsan sedang sibuk menyiapkan masakan spesialisasinya, sate Madura ala Moonstone Lane. :) Sedikit berbeda dengan Sate Braddell-nya Hany, sate Moonstone Lane ini lebih berbumbu, dan rasanya juga enak. Masing-masing sate itu memang punya rasa unik tersendiri, dan kedua-duanya memang enak. Ah, siapa ya yang bilang kalau di Singapura itu susah nyari sate yang enak? :) :)

Inka dan Irza pun segera mengenakan pakaian renang mereka, dan langsung nyebur ke kolam renang. Kolam renangnya besar dan bagus, dengan beberapa kolam kecil khusus untuk anak-anak dan untuk whirpool. Ketika mereka lagi asyik berenang, Ichan dan Nicole datang, disusul dengan tuan rumah Yosi yang juga baru turun lagi dari atas. Sayangnya, Alif dan Namira (kedua anaknya Yosi) tidak ada karena mereka sudah terbang ke Jakarta untuk berlibur.

Sekitar jam tujuh sore, Inka dan Irza selesai berenang, pas pada saat sate-nya sudah siap. Satenya dihidangkan dengan garlic bread dari Prima Rasa, dan mi goreng bikinan Yosi. Saya pun sempat mengantar Ichan (bersama Inka dan Irza) yang ditugaskan untuk membeli ikan bawal di supermarket Cold Storage di Katong Mall, dan Ikhsan pun membakar kedua ikan tersebut dengan saus khas Moonstone Lane spesialisasinya. Hasilnya adalah ikan bakar yang enak sekali, dan Inka dan Irza pun menyantap ikan bakar yang disajikan dengan nasi tersebut dengan lahapnya.

Walaupun tidak ada anak-anak lain seusia mereka, Inka dan Irza tetap senang sekali berada disana. Mereka langsung akrab dengan para Om dan Tante-nya, terutama Om Ikhsan dan Om Ichan, bercanda dan bermain. Inka dan Irza pun malah sempet akrab dengan pembantunya Yosi, yang kebetulan acara ngasuh anaknya lagi libur mengingat Alif dan Namira lagi ke Jakarta.

Foto-fotonya bisa dilihat disini. Sayangnya, batere kamera saya habis, padahal saya tidak membawa batere atau kamera cadangan, sehingga saya hanya bisa mengabadikan foto-foto selama satu jam pertama saja dari acara tersebut. Bahkan, tuan rumahnya saja sampai tidak sempat terfoto. Foto-foto lainnya harusnya ada di kameranya Ikhsan, mudah-mudahan bisa cepat beliau upload. :)

Yosi's Open House

On Saturday, 18 November 2006, I took Inka and Irza to Yosi's place around Haig Road, east of Singapore, to attend her Hari Raya Open House. The event is conducted at a barbecue pit next to a swimming pool, so I prepared swimming gears for the kids, especially since Inka has requested to go swimming since the afternoon.

We reached there at around 6pm, and met Muda Ikhsan with Hani, and Anto at the BBQ pit. Ikhsan was preparing for his specialty, Madura satay ala Moonstone Lane. A bit different from Hany's Braddell satay, Moonstone Lane satay is a bit thicker in sauce, and also just as nice, each has its own unique taste. Who said that we can't get good satays in Singapore? :) :)

Inka and Irza proceeded to the changing room, to change to their swimming gears, and splashed onto the swimming pool there, just next to the barbecue pit. The swimming pool is big and nice. While they were having a great time at the swimming pools, Ichan and Nicole came in, and so did the host, who just came downstairs. Unfortunately, Alif and Namira, Yosi's two kids, were not around since they were already flying off to Jakarta for their holiday.

At around 7pm, the kids finished swimming, in time for the satays to be ready. The satays were served together with Prima Rasa's garlic bread and Yosi's mee goreng. I also accompanied Ichan, together with Inka and Irza, to Katong Mall's Cold Storage to get some prompet's fish (ikan bawal), and Ikhsan also grilled the fish using his Moonstone Lane's sauce. The result is a very nice grilled fish ala Moonstone Lane, and the kids loved it very much!

Even though there are no other kids around, Inka and Irza were really having a great time there. They immediately got along with the older chaps, especially Ikhsan and Ichan. Unfortunately, my camera was running out of battery, and I didn't bring extra cameras, so I could only take pictures during the first one hour of the event (didn't even manage to take the pictures of the host). Other pictures should be inside Ikhsan's camera, hopefully he'll upload the photos soon!

Bukit Panjang Plaza

Bukit Panjang Plaza is a shopping mall in the heart of Bukit Panjang town, about 15 minutes' drive from our home. Recently, the shopping mall was undergoing renovation, and on the 4th of November 2006, we went there before going to Zidan's place for his and Arya's birthday party. That was the first time we visited the shopping mall after it was renovated.

It was the northern wing of the shopping mall which was renovated, and the new wing was equipped with quite a lot of eateries. There's also a big and new children playground on the second floor, just outside the Bistro Delifrance cafe. Inka and Irza were having a great time there.

Edianna's Open House

On Sunday, 12 November 2006, I took Inka and Irza to my ex-colleague Edianna's house in Choa Chu Kang. We left home at around 11:30am and we fetched Natalia with her two sons, Nigel and Ernie at their Bukit Panjang apartment before going to Choa Chu Kang. We met my another ex-colleague, Ling Ling at Choa Chu Kang before visiting Edianna's house.

We reached there in time for lunch. :) Edi's mother-in-law cooked a very nice Malay-style fried chicken, and Inka had four pieces of it. Inka and Irza also watched The Incredibles movie together with Nigel, Ernie and Edi's three daughters (unfortunately I couldn't remember their names).

The kids were having a great time there. We left Edi's house at around 2:30pm and we dropped off Natalia, Nigel and Ernie at their house before heading home.

Acara Perpisahan Tante Wiwie dan Ulang Tahun Tante Ellen

Pada hari Sabtu, 11 November 2006 yang lalu, saya, istri saya dan Inka pergi ke Pasir Ris Town Park nun jauh di timur Singapura sana, untuk menghadiri acara perpisahan Tante Wiwie dan ketiga anaknya, Abang Dzaky, Athaya dan Alita, yang akan pindah mengikuti Om Bubun ke Riyadh, Saudi Arabia pada akhir bulan ini. Walaupun hujan terus mengguyur Singapura sejak siang hari itu, kita sampai di Pasir Ris Town Park sekitar jam 5 sore. Sayangnya, Irza tidak ikut karena dia tertidur pas kita baru mau berangkat, mungkin kecapean karena dari pagi belum tidur.

Secara kebetulan, pada hari yang sama, Tante Ellen juga berulang tahun, sehingga kita pun sama-sama merayakan ulang tahun beliau disana, dengan kue ulang tahun berwarna biru yang khusus dibuat oleh Tante Neng, dari Dapur Bunda. Tante Ellen ini ternyata penggemar warna biru, dan itu juga yang menyebabkan adanya "pesan sponsor" yang meminta para tamu untuk datang memakai baju biru. Sayangnya, istri saya tidak memberitahu saya mengenai "pesan sponsor" tersebut, sehingga saya tidak tahu kalau saya harus memakai pakaian biru untuk datang ke acara tersebut. :) :)

Seperti biasa, makanan banyak tersedia disana, dan sate mendominasi menu yang disediakan disana. Sate kambing dan ayam panggang bumbu kecap (khas Indonesia, yang sungguh sangat enak sekali) disediakan oleh Tante Enji, sate padang dari Tante Ellen dan tentu saja, "the one and only" sate ayam Braddell dari Tante Hany. Om Iif dan Om Yan yang volunteer menyediakan waktu dan tenaga untuk kipas-kipas dan menjadi "tukang sate" pada hari itu.

Mengingat hujan gerimis yang terus turun, Inka tidak mempunyai banyak kesempatan untuk bergabung untuk bermain bersama teman-temannya. Athaya dan Aily ada disana, dan juga Hanifa, Falin dan Ika. Zidan juga ada disana dan sempat menanyakan Irza, yang sayangnya tidak ikut pada hari itu. Padahal, Zidan dan Syifa keesokan harinya sudah pulang kembali ke Jakarta, dan akan tinggal bersama Ummi-nya disana.

Foto-fotonya bisa dilihat disini, dan juga disini (courtesy of Tante Hany), disini (courtesy of Tante Shinta) dan disini (courtesy of Tante Kandy).

[English version]

Wiwie's Farewell and Ellen's Birthday

Last Saturday, 11 November 2006, I, my wife and Inka went to Pasir Ris Town Park on the east side of Singapore, to attend the farewell party of Wiwie and their three kids, Dzaky, Athaya and Alita, who will be migrating to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the end of this month. Despite the heavy rain which was pouring Singapore since the early afternoon, we managed to reach Pasir Ris Town Park at around 5pm. Unfortunately, Irza did not go with us since he was asleep at the time when we were ready to go.

Coincidentally, Ellen's birthday also falls on the same day, so we were also celebrating her birthday on the same event, with a special blue-themed birthday cake made by Dapur Bunda's Neng Indah. That was also the reason why the guests were specifically being requested to wear blue. Unfortunately, my wife didn't inform me about this so I didn't know that I am supposed to wear blue to go to the event... oh well... it's OK, I'm not the only one who did that. :) :)

The food was plentiful, and satay was dominating the menu, with mutton satay and Indonesian-style grilled chicken from Enji, Padang-style satay from Ellen, and of course, the-one-and-only Braddell chicken satay from Hany. Iif and Yan were, again, volunteering to become the "tukang sate" of the day. :)

Since it was still raining, Inka didn't manage to mingle around and play with all her friends there. Athaya and Aily were there, for sure, and so were Hanifa, Falin and Ika. Zidan was also there and asking for Irza, which unfortunately were not coming there on that day. Quite unfortunate, since I heard that Zidan was going back to Jakarta with Syifa permanently the next day, to stay with their grandparents there.

Other pictures can be found here (courtesy of Hany), here (courtesy of Shinta), here (courtesy of Kandy) and here (courtesy of Judhi).

[Indonesian version]

Amazing Race Asia

My favourite reality show, Amazing Race, now has its own Asian version. Amazing Race Asia, its premiere was shown by AXN Asia just now. There are ten teams competing on this race, including one team from Indonesia, one team from Singapore, two teams from Malaysia and some other teams from other parts of Asia. The show is hosted by Singapore-based Allan Wu, who has participated in the US reality show, Fear Factor.

The race started at the Dataran Merdeka (or Independence Square) of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Their first destination was the Berjaya Times Square shopping mall, and Sahran, one of the participants from Sri Lanka, cried when he learned that he would need to climb down the void of the shopping mall, from the 8th floor down, using a rope. But he finished the task, eventually!

I was also laughing to see the contestants from Indonesia, brothers Marsio and Mardy. Looks like they are not "too athletic" enough for the race, seems to be already exhausted while reaching the mall, even though they took the cab from Dataran Merdeka to the mall. My wife even commented that the Indonesian brothers wouldn't be able to even pass the second or third leg of the race.

From Times Square, all the contestants had to go to Kompleks Kraf (Craft Complex) for their detour, either batik painting or pot making, using pottery wheel. Once they completed the detour, all the contestants headed to Shah Alam Stadium for a gokart ride, before going to the pit stop at the top of Menara Kuala Lumpur (the KL Tower). And I was very surprised to see that the Indonesian brothers, Marsio and Mardy, managed to take the lead and become the winner of this leg of the race! Well, actually the Malaysians Andrew and Syeon were the first to arrive after overtaking Marsio and Mardy on the last race to the pitstop (of course!), however they didn't follow the instruction on which route to use to go to the tower, so they had to redo their steps, and Marsio and Mardy became the winner.

It's quite difficult to predict who will be at the top three at this stage. The Singaporean girls Sharon and Melody seemed to be quite difficult to keep up, and came to be the sixth to arrive. My favourites are the Malaysian girls Zabrina and Joe Jer, who were actually the first team to arrive at the Times Square and finished the detour at Kompleks Kraf, but were being overtaken by Marsio and Mardy on their way to Shah Alam.

For the second leg of the race, based on the next week's trailer at the end of this week's show, it seems to me that they are going to Indonesia, West Sumatra to be exact, because I saw some Minangkabau-style houses and "plate dance" (tari piring) show, which is Minangkabau's traditional dance. But I guess, we'll only be able to find out next week!

So, now, I have marked two important times of the week: Monday 9pm (Singapore time) for the Amazing Race 10 show, and Thursday 9pm (Singapore time) for the Amazing Race Asia show. I had to rely on AXN Asia to watch the show now, since Mediacorp's Channel 5 is no longer showing the latest season of Amazing Race, not too sure why. Thanks AXN Asia!

FeedWordPress and Multiply, WordPress Upgrade and Akismet

FeedWordPress and Multiply

For the first time, I tried to syndicate a Multiply-based blog into Planet Singapura, an aggregator blog which uses FeedWordPress. Even though I can syndicate the RSS feed successfully, however the output is a bit different from others. Usually, a hyperlink from an article will point to the permanent link at the origin blog, however, for Multiply-based blog, the hyperlink will be pointed to a page within Planet Singapura itself.

For example, an article titled Planet Singapura by one of its contributors has its hyperlink to be pointed to a page within Planet Singapura itself (http://planet.sg.or.id/?p=1586) instead of to the original permanent link at the contributor's blog (http://lailanurhayati.multiply.com/reviews/item/28), not too sure why. The non-existence of a link to the original blog causes difficulties for Planet Singapura readers to read the full article and add comments, especially since I turned off the comments option on Planet Singapura, to encourage the readers to post comments on the original contributors' blogs instead.

WordPress Upgrade to 2.0.5 (Ronan)

I also have upgraded all my Wordpress-based blogs (Minda Indra, Planet Indra and Planet Singapura) to version 2.0.5. Not too sure why they named this version "Ronan", its website said that they would like to congratulate Ryan Boren (who is Ryan Boren anyway) on his new son, Ronan.

Upgrading WordPress, as usual, is a breeze. The website provides detailed instruction on how to upgrade from version 2.0.4 to 2.0.5, which is exactly the same method as when I upgraded from version 2.0.3 to 2.0.4.

Akismet Activation

Earlier today, I read an article on JalanSutera regarding how the Wordpress-based blog fights spam using Akismet, an anti-spam plug-in for Wordpress to fight spam comments. Pujiono, JalanSutera's administrator, mentioned that the number of spam comments received by the blog reaches 10,000, and thanks to Akismet, all the spam comments were caught.

This reminds me that every day, I also need to delete at least 100-200 spam comments on Minda Indra per day (not reaching 10,000 though), and such spam-deleting work is really time-consuming and irritating. I have heard about anti-spam plug-ins such as Akismet or Spam Karma, but I also received some reports about quite a lot of false-positive incidents on both plug-ins, discouraging me to activate or install such plug-ins.

However, something needs to be done to resolve this, and I tried to activate Akismet on Minda Indra today. To activate Akismet is very easy, I just need to go to Dashboard > Plugins, and once activated, I need to key in my WordPress.Com's API key to get it running. I don't have any issues in obtaining the key since I already have an account on wordpress.com.

So far, the Akismet has caught 28 spam comments since it was installed several hours ago, and I have checked, no false-positives so far. Hopefully this will make my blogging life much easier. :)

Acara ulang tahun Zidan dan Arya

Pada hari Sabtu, 4 November 2006 kemarin, Inka dan Irza pergi ke Regent Heights untuk menghadiri acara ulang tahun Zidan dan Arya. Zidan, putra dari Om Haris, merayakan ulang tahunnya yang keenam, sedangkan Arya, putra dari Om Yan dan Tante Damar, merayakan ulang tahunnya yang kesembilan. Acara tersebut diadakan di barbeque pit yang terletak di dekat kolam renang bersusun dan playground yang ada di kompleks apartemen itu.

Kita sampai di tempat acara sekitar jam 1 siang, dan Inka dan Irza langsung bermain bersama Zidan dan Arya di playground. Selain keluarga Om Haris dan Om Yan, beberapa tamu yang sudah datang diantaranya adalah Om Budi dan Tante Echie, yang datang bersama Adam dan Maira, serta Tante Hany yang datang hanya bersama Hanan (tanpa Haifa dan Om Iwan).

Beberapa saat kemudian, Inka dan Irza pun mulai mengenakan pakaian renang mereka dan langsung terjun berenang, diikuti oleh Zidan dan Arya. Mereka asyik sekali berenang dan mencoba setiap kolam yang ada (ada beberapa kolam renang yang disusun bertingkat, bagus sekali), membuat anak-anak lain seperti Hanan, Izan dan Ika pun ikut terjun ke kolam renang.

Setelah selesai berenang, mereka berganti baju dan kemudian kembali ke barbeque pit. Inka kemudian bergabung dengan Tante Iif untuk ikut membantu membakar sate. Biasanya Inka mendapatkan "kursus" membakar sate dari Tante Hany, tapi untuk hari itu, Inka mendapatkan "kursus" membakar sate-nya (paling tidak, bagian "kipas-kipas"-nya) dari Tante Iif dan Ummi (nenek-nya Zidan). Selain sate ayam, mereka juga membakar sate udang, dan ternyata Inka dan Irza lebih memilih sate udangnya dibandingkan sate ayamnya, tumben. :)

Acara berikutnya adalah acara tiup lilin dan potong kue. Ada dua kue ulang tahun yang dipersiapkan oleh Tante Neng dari Dapur Bunda, kue Batman untuk Zidan dan kue Superman untuk Arya. Zidan sempat kesal ketika teman-temannya (dan bukan dia) yang meniup lilin di kue-nya, sehingga akhirnya acara tiup lilinnya sempat harus diulang, setelah anak-anak yang lain diberi pengertian untuk tidak meniup lilinnya, mengingat bukan mereka yang berulang tahun. :) Zidan dan Arya juga memotong kue-kue tersebut dan membagikannya kepada semua anak-anak (dan orang tuanya juga, tentu saja). :)

Semakin sore, semakin banyak tamu-tamu yang datang. Beberapa tamu yang datang diantaranya adalah Om Niko dan Tante Mirna yang datang bersama Kinara, Om Adhi dan Tante Cindy yang datang bersama Dandy, Tante Shinta dan Aidan (tanpa Om Wisnu), Om Roni dan Tante Gita yang datang bersama Fathir, Om Judhi dan Tante Ami yang datang bersama Aily and Algo, Om Duddy dan Tante Ellen yang datang bersama Iffah, dan juga tidak ketinggalan Tante Wiwie yang datang bersama Athaya and Alita.

Selain itu, masih banyak juga tamu-tamu lainnya yang datang, yang saya tidak bisa sebutkan satu persatu. :) Bahkan, setelah melihat foto dari Om Judhi (yang memang datang agak sorean) disini, terlihat masih banyak tamu-tamu lain yang datang setelah kita meninggalkan lokasi acara pada sekitar jam 4:45 sore. Padahal, secara resminya acara akan selesai sekitar jam 5. :) Menandakan, banyak sekali tamu-tamu yang datang pada hari itu.

Foto-fotonya bisa dilihat disini, disini (courtesy of Om Judhi) dan disini (courtesy of Tante Hany).

[English version]

Zidan and Arya's Birthday

On Saturday, 4 November 2006, we went to Regent Heights to attend the birthday party of Zidan and Arya. Zidan, son of Om Haris, is celebrating his 6th birthday, while Arya, son of Om Yan and Tante Damar, is celebrating his 9th birthday. The party is conducted in a barbeque pit within the apartment complex, just next to a very nice multi-tier swimming pool and a children playground.

We reached the place at around 1pm, in time for Inka and Irza to play together with Arya and Zidan at the playground. Other than Om Haris and Om Yan's family, some of the guests who had arrived earlier than us were Om Budi and Tante Echie, who came with Adam and Baby Maira, and Tante Hany who came only with Hanan.

Moments later, Inka and Irza prepared their swimming gears and headed to the swimming pools, followed by Zidan and Arya. All of them were having a great time at the swimming pools, trying one pool to another, inviting other children such as Hanan, Izan and Ika to follow suit.

After swimming, they changed and returned back to the barbeque pit, in time for Inka to join Tante Iif in grilling the satay. Usually she got her satay grilling lesson from Tante Hany, however for this time round, Inka is getting her satay grilling lesson (at least, the "kipas-kipas" portion) by Tante Iif and Ummi (Zidan's grandmother). Surprisingly, Inka and Irza prefers the prawn satay instead of the chicken satay.

The next event is candle blowing and cake cutting ceremony. There were two birthday cakes provided by Dapur Bunda's Tante Neng, Batman cake for Zidan and Superman cake for Arya. Zidan was a bit upset when his friends, instead of him, blew the candles so the candles had to be re-lighted up and the candle blowing ceremony to be repeated. :) Zidan and Arya also cut the cake to be given to their friends (and their friends' parents, of course). :) :)

More to the evening, more guests were coming. Some of them include Om Niko, Tante Mirna and baby Kinara, Om Adhi, Tante Cindy and Dandy, Tante Shinta and Aidan (without Om Wisnu), Om Roni, Tante Gita and Fathir, Om Judhi, Tante Ami, Aily and Algo, Om Duddy, Tante Ellen and Iffah, as well as Tante Wiwie, who came with Athaya and Alita, among others.

Some other pictures can also be found here (courtesy of Om Judhi) and here (courtesy of Tante Hany).

[Indonesian version]