RSI Interview at Mediacorp

Date: 31 January 2008.
Location: Mediacorp's Caldecott Broadcast Centre, Andrew Road, Singapore.

It was just a normal and usual day in the office when I received an e-mail from Renatha, one of my fellow moderators of the Indo-Sing mailing list, asked me to join a forum interview by Radio Singapore International (RSI), the Indonesian section, with regards to Indonesians living in Singapore.

He said that Handoko, another our fellow Indo-Sing moderator, was supposed to join but he couldn't make it, so he asked me to cover for him. Other people who are invited to join the forum were Sigit, an Indo-Sing mailing list user, Hany and Ellen, Indo-Sing mailing list users and IndoSing-Mums mailing list moderators, and another one which was not yet decided.

Earlier, Renatha asked Andre, Dedhi, dan Ikhsan, three of some active Indo-Sing mailing list users, to also join the forum, but they were not able to make it. Therefore, we decided to invite Judhi, one of the moderators for the IMAS mailing list, to also join the forum, and fortunately he's able to join. So there would be representatives from three Indonesian communities in Singapore, namely Indo-Sing, IndoSing-Mums and IMAS.

Efika Rosemarie (Fika) is the RSI's presenter who interviewed us. She said that it was supposed to be Rane's show, but now Rane is being posted in Indonesia for six months, as RSI's correspondent in Indonesia. We had a pre-interview meeting on 29 January 2007, located at Hany's residence in Braddell, Toa Payoh, for Fika to brief us on what the programme is all about, and how we were going to conduct the forum discussion.

During the briefing, we were also brainstorming on what topics we would be discussing on the interview forum. There were three topics being discussed during the interview, and each topic was being discussed in a 30-minute duration. Fika suggested "working in Singapore" and "mailing lists for Indonesian communities in Singapore" as the two topics that we would be discussing, and for the third discussion, the topic would be "how long we would continue to stay in Singapore and whether we would be back to Indonesia later". Quite interesting topics to discuss. :)

Unfortunately, Ellen's daughter was admitted to hospital, so Ellen was not able to join both the pre-interview meeting and the interview itself. So there were five of us: myself, Renatha, Sigit, Hany and Judhi attended the forum interview.

The interview itself was conducted last night at Mediacorp's Caldecott Broadcast Centre at Andrew Road. This is not my first experience in attending interview by RSI, I have been there before to attend an interview session with Rane. However, this is my first experience of a forum interview session with my friends, discussing about familiar topics that we all know very well. It was really, really, really fun!!! :)

Furthermore, Fika allowed us to take pictures prior, after and even *during* the interview session, and being narcisst photographers, Judhi, Hany and myself took our pictures during the whole event. :) :)

Similar to my interviews last time, it was not a live programme. It's recorded and I will update again on the exact time when the programme will be aired so that all of you can hear us on the radio. :) Unfortunately, being an international radio in Singapore, the programme cannot be heard in Singapore using the normal radio, since it's being broadcasted through the short-wave (SW) frequency which can only be received outside Singapore. Listeners in Indonesia can also hear RSI programme through some local radio stations which list can be found here. For those in Singapore, you can still hear it via the Internet, either via streaming or podcast. I'll update you again when they become available.

Update on 4 February 2007, 6:15pm: Fika has updated us that the FORUM talk show will be broadcasted by RSI Indonesia every Monday night at 9:35pm Singapore time (or 8:35pm Western Indonesian Time), starting from 18 February 2008 until 14 April 2008.

There are three topics to be discussed and each topic will be divided into three time slots. Thus, the whole interview will be broadcasted in a span of 9 weeks. The broadcast can be listened through RSI Indonesia's live streaming as well as its podcast, which will be available during and after the broadcast.

Related links:

RSI Pre-Interview Briefing and Meeting
Suatu Malam di RSI
RSI Interview at MediaCorp
Rekaman di RSI
FORUM bersama para anggota komunitas Indonesia di Singapura

RSI Pre-Interview Briefing and Meeting

Date: Tuesday, 29 January 2008.
Location: Iwan and Hany's residence, Braddell, Toa Payoh North, Singapore.

Full article with regards to this, as well as the interview itself, will follow later. ;)

Related links:

RSI Interview at Mediacorp

Photos Taken by Irza, Bagus and Luki's Housewarming (Part 2)

Date: Sunday, 27 January 2008.
Location: Bagus and Luki's residence at Anchorvale, Sengkang, Singapore.

As I have mentioned on the Part 1 album, these are the pictures taken by Irza during Bagus and Luki's housewarming event at their new residence in Anchorvale, Sengkang.

Take note that all this pictures were taken by my son Irza, although I have cropped and edited some of the pictures for your pleasure viewing. :)

He was using the camera together with Fresha and Kanaya who were also using their parents' cameras. So they ended up taking pictures of each other. :) :)

Irza, as well as Kanaya, were fond of and a big fan of Naurin, tante Lenny's baby daughter. That explains why Irza took quite a lot of her pictures. Irza were also taking pictures of om Yuwono who were trying to take pictures of the three little photographers. :) :)

Well, some of you might asked, why Irza prefers to play with the girls (especially pretty girls like Fresha or Kanaya :P :P) rather than with the boys? :) Because Irza always tend to fight, and not play, with the boys, hahaha...

Which reminds me or another thing, sometimes Irza refers himself as a "playboy". Of course, his definition of playboy is "a boy who likes to play...."

Related links:

Bagus and Luki's Housewarming (Part 1)
House Warming
Little Papparazies

Bagus and Luki's Housewarming (Part 1)

Date: Sunday, 27 January 2008.
Location: Bagus and Luki's residence at Anchorvale, Sengkang, Singapore.

On a nice Sunday afternoon, we went to Anchorvale in Sengkang, north-east of Singapore, to attend a "housewarming" event at Bagus and Luki's new residence there.

The food is all wonderfulicious, with the hosts preparing sambal goreng, fried chicken, tekwan, siomay for lunch, with all the desserts such as fruit jelly and watermelon fruit cuts thrown in.

Inka and Irza were very happy playing with all their friends there, both in the house and at the playground outside the block.

Irza even took some pictures of the event, together with other photographer-kids Kanaya and Fresha. If you noticed, pictures numbered 1215 until 1465 were missing here, those pictures were taken by Irza and they are surprisingly quite good and plentiful, so I will upload them on another album, which will be the second part (Part 2). Stay tuned. :) :)

Related articles/albums:

Photos Taken by Irza, Bagus and Luki's Housewarming (Part 2)
House Warming
Little Papparazies

Turut Berduka Cita atas Meninggalnya Pak Harto

Artikel ini aslinya di-posting disini.

Picture courtesy of Channel NewsAsia.

Pada jam setengah tiga waktu Singapura siang tadi (atau sekitar jam 13:30 WIB), saya dan keluarga sedang menghadiri acara housewarming (ngangetin rumah baru) Bagus dan Luki di Sengkang (foto-foto dan liputan menyusul) ketika tiba-tiba Aci membaca SMS yang masuk ke handphone-nya dan mengabari kalau Pak Harto sudah meninggal, sekitar 20 menit sebelumnya. Mas Jan dan Kang Dudi yang lagi asyik nonton siaran langsung tenis Australia Open langsung memindahkan saluran televisi di rumah Bagus ke Channel NewsAsia, yang menayangkan laporan langsung yang cukup lengkap dan me-relay berita dan liputan langsung dari beberapa stasiun TV di Indonesia seperti Metro TV, Lativi dan TVRI.

Presiden Republik Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, meminta seluruh rakyat Indonesia untuk mendoakan Pak Harto, dan memutuskan satu minggu masa berkabung nasional. Yudhoyono juga telah menginstruksikan seluruh kantor instansi pemerintah di Indonesia untuk mengibarkan bendera Merah Putih setengah tiang selama 7 hari. Yudhoyono mendeskripsikan Pak Harto sebagai salah satu "anak bangsa" terbaik dan seorang pemimpin besar yang telah banyak memberikan dedikasinya untuk bangsa dan negara Indonesia.

Menteri Luar Negeri Malaysia, Syed Hamid Albar mengatakan bahwa meninggalnya Pak Harto adalah sebuah "kehilangan besar" bagi region (Asia Tenggara). Menurut beliau, mantan perdana menteri Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad dan wakil perdana menteri Najib Razak akan menghadiri upacara pemakaman Pak Harto. Sementara dari Singapura, perdana menteri Lee Hsien Loong akan pergi ke Jakarta sore ini untuk memberikan penghormatan terakhirnya kepada Pak Harto, sedangkan wakil perdana menteri S Jayakumar akan menghadiri upacara pemakaman Pak Harto di Solo.

Terlepas dari pro dan kontra, serta perbedaan opini terhadap jasa-jasa beliau untuk Indonesia (artikel tersebut sengaja tidak saya cross-post disini karena memang diperuntukkan untuk "pangsa pasar" yang berbeda), saya mengucapkan turut berduka cita atas meninggalnya Pak Harto. Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi roji’uun. Semoga semua kesalahannya dimaafkan oleh Allah SWT, dan keluarga yang ditinggalkan diberikan ketabahan iman.

Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

Date: Saturday, 19 January 2007.
Location: Jacob Ballas Children's Garden, Singapore Botanic Garden.

On a nice Saturday morning, after dropping off my wife and Hera at Orchard, I took Inka and Irza to Jacob Ballas Children's Garden.

This was not Inka and Irza's first visit there, but it was *my* first visit. :P We didn't spend much time there since we were also in a hurry to go to another birthday party in the afternoon. Inka and Irza's favourite place there is the a-MAZE-ing play.

We met Natalia who came with her two kids, Nigel and Ernest. It was quite a hot late morning so I bought some ice creams for Inka and Irza at the Kidz Cafe, which is located at the entrance to the garden.

Happy Birthday, January

Di pertengahan hingga akhir bulan Januari ini, daftar di kolom "Upcoming Events" di Multiply saya lebih banyak dan "rame" dibandingkan biasanya. Setelah saya cek, ternyata banyak sekali rekan-rekan MP-ers yang berulang tahun dalam beberapa hari ke depan ini.

Dimulai dari Neng Enji yang akan berulang tahun besok (20 Januari), lalu Mbak Yaya yang akan berulang tahun hari Senin (21 Januari), Mbak Hany yang akan berulang tahun hari Kamis (24 Januari), Ichan yang akan berulang tahun hari Jum'at (25 Januari), Agus Abimanyu yang akan berulang tahun hari Sabtu depan (26 Januari), tetangga Hera yang akan berulang tahun 27 Januari, dan juga Mbak Kiky dan Mbak Endang yang barengan berulang tahun tanggal 29 Januari.

Selamat ulang tahun aja deh buat semuanya. Ditunggu acara makan-makannya. :) :)

PS. Tanggal-tanggal diatas valid provided yang bersangkutan men-set tanggal lahir yang benar di setting Multiply-nya. :)