3BT: Random Days

1. The last Christmas gift package that I ordered arrived already yesterday. Phew!!! Just in time for Christmas he he...

2. I've got surprise gifts and Christmas cards this year. THANK YOU, people!


3. A customer bought a big sack of dog food and said, "This is Christmas food." It made me laugh instantly! :-D



glitter-graphics.com
4. We've booked a trip for our spring holiday next year. WOOOOHHHHHHHHOOOOOO!!! :-D THANKFUL to have a chance to do a trip again!

5. Slathering lotion all over hubby's legs in winter and hearing no protest.


6. After serving an English-speaking customer, I turned to the next one and accidentally mentioned the sum in English, which prompted us both to laugh at the same time HA HA HA HA...Some days it takes my brain a longer time to switch back to Finnish LOL!!!

7. Hearing, "Don't run! You don't have to rush! I'm not in a hurry" when I try to come back to the till as quickly as possible. 

8. Finding Jeruk Bali (Balinese Orange) aka Hunajapomelo which took me straight back to my childhood 'coz I used to eat a lot of it when I was a child - and we used to turn the thick skin into a toy. Ah...lovely memories!!! :-D

8. Looking at cute/funny cat pictures (well, mainly cat pics but there are some other animals, too). Makes me go ooh-aah-ing. Mmmmmmmm... 


glitter-graphics.com

6 Years Ago Today

Six years ago today, I had the final fitting for my wedding gown. R2 was with me along with my parents. It was the first time for my Dad and R2 to see my wedding gown, 'coz the first time I went there to choose my gown, I went there only with Mom.

In the beginning I wasn't planning to rent a wedding gown at all. Due to the fact that R2 was still unemployed at that time, I was the one budgeting the wedding all by myself, so I didn't want to waste too much money for the wedding, so I bought a silver party gown already (I ended up giving it to my friend 'coz I had never worn it). However, Mom asked me, "Are you REALLY sure you don't want to wear a wedding gown? It's once in a lifetime, you know? It's OK if you're sure about it, but I just don't want you to regret it."

I thought about it and then decided to rent a secondhand gown IF I could find one that fit my budget. My budget at that time was around €120-130 max. So off we went to this bridal boutique and the owner/designer was there. When she saw me, she immediately took out 4-5 wedding gowns. We tried on three, but we fell in love already with the first one, so I asked how much it would cost and she said it would cost about €125. Splendid!!! She said the price included the rent of tiara and jewelleries as well as the veil and gloves of my choice (they had several options). She also said that she showed me that first gown as her first choice 'coz she thought it'd suit me best. Well, she was totally right he he he...

It was such a blissful time to be able to spend time with R2 again (the second time we were together in real life) and we had a blast, though I was a bit worried about the craziness of it all for him. I mean, it was his first trip to Indo and he came to Indo ALONE to marry me!!! He'd have to meet my whole family and friends at the wedding party, but he was so calm and collected as usual. :-D

My make-up artist was heavily pregnant at that time. She was a bit worried that she would give birth before or on my wedding day, but thankfully it didn't happen, though she did give birth only a week or so after my wedding day, can you believe it? When I first went to meet her months and months prior to the wedding, I didn't know she was pregnant. When she asked me our wedding date, she said, "Oh, I think I'll be able to make it. I'm 3 months pregnant, you see?"


She usually did the hairdo herself as well, but due to the fact that she was pregnant, she called on another guy to help her with it. Let me tell you that the guy was the gentlest hairdresser EVER in my entire life! He had to put on at least 50 hairpins on my hair but I didn't feel any pain at all (I had such a bad experience before with another salon). And I can't forget the look on R2's face when he saw me with my make-up, hairdo, tiara, and wedding gown he he he he he...He said I looked like an angel! (this is coming from a man who says that make-up = fake-up, so I was afraid he wouldn't like the make-up bit). :-D :-D :-D

Ahhhh...so many lovely memories pouring forth already...13 years ago we "met" by chance through an internet emailpal site, 12 years ago we started falling in love with each other, 8 years ago we met for the first time in real life and we've lived together for almost 6 years now. I really love growing old with him.

Anyway, I guess I'll still spend the next few days reminiscing and being sentimental ha ha ha ha ha ha...

P.S. We went searching for R2's suit in an outlet 'coz there was just no time to order one from a tailor (ordering one from Finland would be outrageously pricy!). After all, he arrived in Indo only 4-5 days prior to the wedding day. Not bad for a €50 suit, eh? (though the jacket part is probably a bit too long).

P.P.S. For the sake of nostalgia, here are two wedding pics...Notice my high heels in the first pic! LOL!!! :-D They may look troublesome to wear, but they were REALLY soft and comfy (I've never been a big fan of high heels) - and most of all they came in my size (36 - the only pair in the store)!!! :-D

 

Memories: Best Friends

I have 6 friends whom I consider best friends from Indo. We all live in different places now. I met four of them in Junior High and 2 of them in High School. The degree of closeness between us varies and fluctuates, because we are all different people with different interests and each has such a busy life nowadays, but we still keep in touch until now (mostly via emails) and share our lives with one another. 

All of us got our boyfriends rather late in life (either after we were at uni or after we graduated from uni), so that meant that we enjoyed so much quality time together without boyfriend troubles or without having to consider dates with boyfriends. Plus, 'coz some of us had long-distance relationships, that meant that we could still hang out together a lot. The first of us to get married was when she was 25 years old. 

What did we do to have fun back then? Before any one of us started learning how to drive, we went by public transit to the cinemas. Mostly we just went to eat in a cheap restaurant, watched movies in a cinema, then browsed around the stores to look for cute stuff we couldn't afford buying. I'm sure shopkeepers used to dislike us 'coz we would touch so many cute things on the display and discuss them with one another without buying anything he he he he he hehhhh...



glitter-graphics.com

After we got to uni, we became busier 'coz we went to different universities and faculties and we had different schedules and some of us had started becoming private tutors, but we still met quite often. By then we had more pocket money (esp. those who had started becoming private tutors) and some of us had got driver's licenses and cars, so we had more freedom. We usually just went to malls or stores and different cafes (trying out different cafes or restaurants), CD stores and cinemas. Or we just drove around in somebody's car around the city while talking about nothing and giggling. We'd stay in a cafe for hours and just enjoy being with one another. Some talks could become deeper, some were just us joking around and teasing one another. Another thing we loved doing was also stay in someone's place and talk and joke around. We'd also arrange sleepovers every now and then.

Life seemed more uniformed back then, esp. before we went to uni. After uni when we went to different faculties and universities and then we went to work, it seemed that life took us to very different directions 'coz by then some of us moved to different places already. It got harder and harder to really understand what's going on in my friends' lives, esp. if I haven't had any experiences in that area, but that doesn't mean that I don't try to understand as best as I can.

Anyhow, each of us has plenty of fond memories of those days (and each of us longs to repeat those days whenever the mood strikes). One time we even wrote a silly story together - each of us wrote some pages and then the others took turns in continuing it. Did we ever finish it? No, but last time I went back to Indo, I got the books from a friend who was the one keeping them for us. It was so funny to read how different personalities affected the characters and the plot. Yeah, the characters didn't stay the same throughout because each of us could change them as much as we could and I giggled like crazy when I reread the story.



glitter-graphics.com

Some of us did have some clashes at some time, but it was mostly due to misunderstanding and once the misunderstanding was resolved, we all got back together again.

I remember that years and years ago, one best friend's much younger sister sharing her envy about our friendship at one time. At that time she had just moved to our hometown and she did have friends, but the friendship wasn't like ours. I was surprised to hear that, but as time went by I realized even more that what we have is so precious and that it's so hard to find best friends like these girls (not just people to hang out with and have fun with).

I can rely on them to keep my secrets and they've never backstabbed me nor said bad things about me. We've shared our innermost thoughts and feelings with one another - some more than others - but the main point being is that they've shaped me, helped me, supported me, encouraged me, inspired me, accepted me for who I am, entertained me, enlightened me, taught me things I'd never have learnt on my own, and in the end they have made my world all the more colourful. 

MIL's Cows

Before I forget some of the cow stories that MIL told me, I'm gonna write them down here.

MIL and FIL were farmers at one point in their lives. They had plenty of cows, a huge shed, and a big field. MIL told me the other day when she visited me that they named the cows and it got harder and harder to do it. 

There was this small cow named Annukka who always kept to herself in the field. She'd munch grass in peace at the corner of the field and when it was time for all the cows to go back inside the shed, she wouldn't even hear a thing. She was so focused on munching and munching and munching and MIL would let her be until the other cows got back inside.

Then she'd go outside and call out, "Annukka...come inside!"

The cow would turn around towards MIL and then she'd look around and upon realizing that the others had gone inside, she'd run as fast as she could into the shed. :-D

MIL also said that when this small cow had a calf, even though she was small in size, she produced so much milk. And she said that normally cows had their young for the first time when they reached 2 years of age. And she always remembered the happy look on her face after she became a mother. She was a good mother, MIL stated. :-D


glitter-graphics.com

One cow managed to produce 12 calves in her lifetime. That meant she lived until she was 14-15 years of age. However, MIL said that these days there's a rather strict law that states that if cows don't produce enough milk after they have their calves for the first time, then they'd be sent right away to the butcher. MIL says that this is a rather bad strategy because some cows only produce the best quality of milk after giving birth three times.

MIL also told me about this one cow named Onneli who (after giving birth) would always moo so loudly when MIL came inside the shed, as if she'd say, "ME FIRST! ME FIRST!!!!". She'd want MIL to milk her first and only after that she'd be willing to start eating he he he he he he...There was also another cow who'd want to eat from her hand while she was being milked.

MIL said that life in the farm was really something else (I bet!!!). Her cows had plenty of calves during the years, but due to the limitations of space, she had to sell those calves. She said if it was up to her, she would want to keep all the calves, too. :-D 



glitter-graphics.com

Next time I'll ask her to tell me more about these types of memories. I just LOVE hearing her stories! :-D :-D :-D

Book Fun

Back when we were 19 y.o. (probably second grade at the uni - year 1997), one close friend came up with the idea of writing a book together. There were 7 of us in the group, though one is never that close to us, but still we included her. The idea was that each of us would write a few pages and then we handed it over to another friend - sort of a relay race, but it's in writing a story ha ha ha...

Last time I went back to Indo, I retrieved the book (actually two small notebooks) from one friend and I've just started rereading it. The story was never finished for some reason, but it's fun to read again what each of us has written and I actually got genuinely shocked at some of the things we came up with.

Oh, maybe you're curious about the title? Well, according to the book, I was the one who came up with the title, which is...Romiette and Julio (yeah, the twisted version of Romeo and Juliet) HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

Anyhow, last night I wrote down some short paragraphs from the book written by different authors and then asked my friends to guess who wrote which part. The email made them laugh out loud - some even had tears in their eyes hi hi hi...

I've gotta tell you that all of us probably don't even remember anymore the details of what we've been writing. I myself felt weird when I reread the part that I read (I had only managed to read through one part) due to the choice of words and many other things. It's really obvious that the book is written a long time ago 'coz there are just some words that people these days don't really use anymore in Indo (or they're written slightly differently) HI HI HI HI...

Memories, oh memoriesssss...I'm SO glad we decided to write the silly book, though. It's nice to go back in time every once in a while. :-D

glitter-graphics.com

3BT: Random Days

1. Hubby helping me set something that I failed to do on my own and he never made me feel like an idiot for not being able to do it.

2. A customer said one of the nicest things I'd ever heard in my entire life. He made my day (and made my eyes wet)!!! :-D Bless him!

3. Rainy day at work the other day helped me and my supervisor. It especially helped my supervisor 'coz she has a lot more things to do than I do.

glitter-graphics.com

4. A sunny day after the rainy day. :-D

5. Missing hubby. After spending a whole month holiday and then going back to work, I missed spending more time with him.

6. Sturdy raincoat. Big, protective, and comfy enough for me to wear while riding my bike under the downpour.

7. Another customer (an old lady) said that I had been missed at work during my holiday. Bless her!

8. Finally getting some free days from work - due to some sick coworkers I've had my plate full at work.

9. Wonderful memories - and reminiscing them.

10. Clean air, abundance of clean water, and the lack of noise and traffic.

3BT: Random Days

1. When my cold hand accidentally touched hubby's bare back last night when we went to bed, he shrieked in surprise, but didn't get angry. Instead, after realizing that my hand was cold, he grabbed it gently with his hand and he pressed it onto his super warm back. I don't need diamonds or expensive gifts to show your love, just keep on treating me this way for the rest of my life...

2. Being able to see my brother, Ken, my bro's wife, and Mom through webcam.

3. Fresh cold blended mixture of apple, strawberries, and bananas (a litre of it). Yum yum...

4. Having a very positive mother who always encourages me and supports me.

5. Memoriesssss...beautiful memoriessss...let me also share here some old pics of me and my friends...Looking at these photos took me back to those beautiful moments spent with my friends.

First pic: I was around 15 years old. It was probably taken in 1993.


I forgot when this one was taken. Probably around 1998 or 1999. So at least 10 years ago.


This one was taken on my friend's farewell party before she flew to Holland. September 2003.


This last one was a pic of me and my ex-campus friends in 2004 when one of them visited Bandung again after having lived in USA for a few years.