Week 5 Semester 2

So stressful :'(
So different than week 4, but if it means 1 week closer to home, I'll bear it :')

Had multiple sleepovers because I don't want to stop functioning :')
Praise the Lord for the beautiful friends I have living near me that are ready to welcome me any time :)
But walking, delish Indo lunch, & baking does help! :D
Made cream puffs & redvelvet brownie cheesecake this morning :D yumelicious.

OH and I found this video of James Corden and Coldplay, and I could not stop listening to it !! :D Go and have a listen :)

I just can't wait for this semester to end :")
I can't wait for the holidays! I'm missing people at home. Looking at what they're doing, looks like they're having lots of fun! Moreover, I'm wearing a typical outfit that I'd wear back home and it made me miss Christmas & New Year a lot.

My brain could not stop churning, I really wish I could just run to the finish line.
But HIS grace is still with me nevertheless.

Cheers!

-*^^*-

Week 4 Semester 2

Wow.. What a week!!

I didn't do a lot of studying, which is always nerve-wrecking to some extent for me.
But instead, I get to experience this city all over again ^^

With some family members coming to visit, I took the time to lay my studies aside and just enjoy family company & enjoy being a 'tourist' in this city.
Someone once told me that being to comfortable and 'homey' in this city is 'dangerous', and now I know why. This city has quite a lot to offer, but you really need to keep your eyes open.

I got to go places I've never been before: Phillip island! :D SeaLife! Melbourne south wharf, Ben & Jerry on Collins, Royal Botanic Gardens. What a beautiful city :):)

This week also marked the 71st year of Indonesia. It breaks my heart not to be there, but I know one day I'll give back to my country :)


For 6 days I enjoyed the company of family, having people around me almost 24/7, which is so nice (especially when you're spoilt xD)
BUT now coming back to my little cozy room and getting to enjoy some times alone, feels nice as well :)

At least before it gets too quiet and lonely....

But I have assignments due real real soon, so that's going to keep me up nice & up.


1/3 way done, and in 2 weeks, I'm 1/2-way there :)
Ah, until the next break, I'll keep holding on.

Cheers!
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Week 3 Semester 2

By far the most intense week of the semester.
Maybe I over-do some things? :p Is there really such a word.
It just really dawned on me that studying leads to assignments, and I love one and not the other :')

BUT it's going to be worth it! :)
Next week some family members are coming, so it's going to be FUN and exciting and relaxing :)
Taking a step back from studying is going to be SO good. (Not a total step back, but I'll relax a bit, whilst I can :) )


Nevertheless, this week has been fun :)
A friend stayed over - which was different, but quite nice to have a company for the night as well :)
Bought raisin toast - yum. Delish, simply.
Walked to Fitzroy - twice ! ^^
An opportunity to join a production - we'll see how this goes :)
Another blessed iCare
A song-writing session at church followed by prayer :)
Crepe: 'jam doughnut' ^^


Even though it's hectic, honestly I feel like I'm using the most of my time enjoying my life as a uni student :)
But it's quite intense as well - I spend literally from the morning to night reading/studying/catching-up. SO tired, but that's what being a student is like? :p

Can't wait for next week!
As for now, 0.25 of the semester is done! :)


CHEERS!
-*^^*-

Week 2 Semester 2

Still quite unsettled -- two new tutorials and a decision yet to be made in the next week regarding another tute.
But so far, so good! :)


I can't believe we only have 10 weeks to go. 10 weeks are a lot. But it's 2 less week to worry about :)

Essays are coming, and I'm terrified and pumped at the same time - good! :D


It's been warmish-cold here in Melbourne this week. A good and a bad. I miss summer, terribly. But at least it wasn't below 0.

Had the chance to catch up with friends over hot choc and pizzas, had our first icare since the holiday with pizza party, had a sneaky, impromptu sleep over too! :p

Walked to church - like, literally walk - with a friend this morning.

Oh I love week 2.


But I still miss home - the people at home. They're all uploading pictures and videos of IFGF Conference. And I'm here. Cold. Quiet. Aaahh! But I'm sure the time will come when I'll join them for a conference, in a few years time maybe :)


Now that the engine's warm, let's get a real wriggle on!


CHEERS!
-*^^*-

BALI 2016 - Day 4 & 5

DAY 4

I realized how sad I was waking up that morning. Only 1 more sleep till my flight to Melbourne. 2 more days of being with the people I love most in the world. But I was in Bali, the most incredible place, surrounded by these people, and I could only be grateful.

For our final breakfast at Jaen, (I think) we had the Mie goreng, bircher (Cuz we couldn’t get enough of that!), and also Eggs Benedict. Simply delicious. Okayy with the eggs benedict, it was like their own ‘creation’ à poached egg with toasted hollandaise sauce. One of the two eggs were poached quite runny, and the other one was just set. I prefer the runny yolk, but some liked it set. Either way, I think it can do with a little bit more sauce, but the other condiments are nice!

My dad had to go to the notary, and since we were moving to another hotel, we packed our bags and went with him. Me and my sister – for some reasons – decided to stay in the car. Yep, under the heat of Bali. We survived, thank God. It was so so hot in there. Even with the windows rolled down and the air con turned on every now and then. Phew.

BUT what made us really excited was that we were heading to Lao Ta. Porridge! ^^ Okay, so there was this porridge (or congee) place in Semarang, but it closed down :( So Lao Ta is my go-to place now. We had the minced beef-yolk congee, the seafood congee, greens, and cakwee :D YUM.

My sister wanted to buy new shoes – and she could only get it in a particular store. So we visited the mall and got her the new shoes. We also bought some pop corn in the mall’s cinema à one of the best caramel pop corns I’d ever had. PERFECTION. Crunchy, sweet, yummy.

Then it was beach time! :D We checked in to the hotel, had a change of clothes, and went straight to the private beach. Everybody came along :) It was quite cloudy, so it wasn’t too hot. Actually, it was not hot at all – I didn’t get any tanner! But it was beautiful. Me and my sister got to take a walk along the shore with my dad – who, of course, then walked super fast to the point that we lost him and could not care more :p We drew some things on the sand, and took tons of pictures. The tide was super low that day. There was almost no waves on the shore; it formed like a small swimming ponds along the shore. Lovely.

After the walk, I laid down for a while, put on some music and read a few pages of (one of) my favorite book. Then we took a quick shower, before heading to dinner at Bali Collection. We chose Bebek Tepi Sawah. It was quite expensive, but so good! I had chicken, obvi. It was smoked and slathered with some yummy sauce. I ordered a fresh coconut and got a HUGE coconut fruit – blessed! The table next to ours ordered fresh coconut as well and got only a small one, for the same price.  But anyway, then it was shopping time! With heavy eyes I went to the supermarket, looked for some breakfast drinks, then we all went to Sogo and shopped some more. I think I got two tees, but I left one in Indo, and only brought one to Melbourne. It was a Giordano special edition tee – I’ll put a picture of it some time :)

We drove around the Nusa Dua area, then headed back to the hotel. Me and my sister hung out in our parents room for a while, watched TV and lay on the sofa, before heading to our own room and fast a wonderful sleep :)

DAY 5 :’)

The hardest day of the entire holiday. I don’t want the holiday to end. But that day still present itself as exciting, so one didn’t have the reason to just stand down and do nothing.

We rented 3 bikes – 1 tandem bike and 2 regular bike for family of four :D We cycled around Nusa Dua, and spent around 30-45 minutes. The seats were the most uncomfortable seats! Yet it was so fun :D I hadn’t cycled in years, so it was refreshing :)

Then, my dad and my sister went to have breakfast in the restaurant, while me and mom ordered the Asian Breakfast to have in the room. We got fruit juice, coffee, nasi goreng, fresh fruit, and we also ordered a side of sautéed mushroom. We bought a tiramisu coffee and some bread at the supermarket the night before, and we have some of that as well.

Afterwards, we headed to the beach again :) Just like the previous day, it was cloudy. But I didn’t wear my sun block this time – I needed me my tan! So rebellious :p

Me and my sister took countless picts again, and walked to the opposite side of the beach that day. But the wave, unlike yesterday, was gigantic! They were almost vicious! X_X I braced myself to stand just at the tip of the shore, to get some of the residuals of the waves. But one or two huge one did catch me and my sister – and it was fun!

We didn’t get to lie down for too long on the seaside, because we had to check out from the hotel. Very sad, but the adventure must continue. We said goodbye to the hotel who had become – somewhat – like our second home in Bali :p We’d been there for so many times, and it never failed to bring smiles to our faces.

Because we had such a late breakfast, we decided to go around the city first before grabbing lunch. My sister needed to exchange her newly bought shoes, so we went back to the mall. (I couldn’t resist myself from buying a choc waffle – YUM). Then we went to Discovery mall to park our car, (check whether their Mark & Spencer had the food section, and it didn’t,) and walk to Bubba Gump Shrimp :D

I’ve only been there once, although I did visit the one in New York. To be honest, I think the food was average, but it was the atmosphere and uniqueness of the concept that drew me and my family back here. We had a selection of seafood and chips, calamari ring, and to finish it off, a slice of the chocolate chip cookie-cake.  Woot-woot! It took me and my sister back to New York. We were sooo full but so happy. Oh, dad also got a complimentary choc ice cream for checking-in on Facebook. Obvi.

We went back to our car, then moved to another mall (the third one that day :D), Beachwalk. This was another ‘ritual’ that me and my family did. We didn’t spend too much time there, though. We headed to Zest Legian, to shower, pack, and had dinner in Jaen.

Then it was time to go.

We were all very quiet in the car. And thinking back to that day, I started tearing up. I could feel that we e all wanted the day to be longer, the vacation to never be over. But life must go on!

We parked the car (after circling the airport as we couldn’t find the parking area), dad had to carry my luggage up and down the staircase as we did not know where the elevator or the bridge to the main airport building were, but eventually we made it. We hugged it out, I went in to the check-in area, queued the long long que to the security and immigration gates, then rushed to the boarding gate.

It was not easy, but I thank God that we’d had a beautiful time together as a family, rediscovering this beautiful island that God had made, and we’d spent our time well.

Now, second week into the semester, I’m already planning our next vacation :p

It’s one way of keeping myself sane – and it will be wonderful to have the time just for the four of us, hiding somewhere away from the ‘crowd’ :D

CHEERS!

-*^^*-

Bali 2016 - Day 3

DAY 3

Breakfast was another treat! This time it was nasi goreng (delicious) and bircher muesli, along with fruits, croissants and pain du chocolat, and fruit juices. Then, as my mum and dad had some business meetings, me and my sister decided to walk around the hotel, got myself a pair of flip flops, and then went to the beach :)

It was raining a little bit, and the waves, just like yesterday, was really high. But the walk was lovely. We left for lunch quite late, but we first stopped in Seminyak Village to check things out and to park the car. Then we crossed the road to Sistersfield, a Melbourne-style café. We had to wait for several minutes, but it was worth the wait. The food was delish! And it really reminded me of the brunch-y Melbourne food culture. I got a chicken salad, but every single strand of the veg was coated with delicious vinaigrette, and it tasted superb. Dad got a delish burger, and my sister tried lamb sausage with poached egg. Perfectly poached eggs! I had a cup of tea along with the meal. Once we finished, we headed back to the car, and drove for some coffee on our way to Tanah Lot. Again, I sat in the front passenger seat, so I didn’t want to be sleepy, hence the coffee. We got ours from a small coffee shop, tucked away in ‘ruko’, but it was quite yum!

 

Tanah Lot was a wonderful experience! It didn’t feel like we were in Indonesia in some parts – the viewing parks’ infrastructure were good :D Still, there were people selling or promoting stuff and services everywhere, so it grounded us :p The view was beautiful: natural black rocks that supported and surrounded the temple stood firm, while the giant ocean waves came and went away. It was very accessible. Definitely want to go back, and definitely would recommend everyone to check it out!

We rushed back to the city as my dad had another meeting to attend. But, he dropped me and my sister off at Legian street, and off we went to Nalu Bowls! ^^ We love their instagram account and lovelovelove their smoothie bowls. This time we tried ‘Pipeline’ and it was delicious! We were also very fortunate that it was Tuesday – 3 free toppings (that would otherwise cost from Rp3,000-Rp8,000 ish?). So we added dragon fruit slices, frozen mix berries, and almonds to ours. We couldn’t believe the huge and generous portion! We were stuffed, but very happy. We opted to walk back to the hotel instead of taking taxis. The traffic was quite heavy so it would be faster to walk, and we wanted to enjoy this famous district anyway. We made it to the hotel safely :)

After showering, we had dinner with some guests and tried the hotel’s restaurant’s menus. We tried the ribs, nasi goreng, chicken fingers, chicken satay, and salmon. Some was good, some still needed improvement :)

It was another day well spent! :)

 to be continued...

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Bali 2016 - Day 0, 1, 2

When I 'moved' to Melbourne, I almost made a resolution that every time I went back to Indo (directly from Melbourne), I'd always land in Bali. I'd love to be welcomed by Bali Airport's warmth.

But this time I'm quite lucky because I got the opportunity to venture out a bit between my flights :)
It was just a simple meal of Nasi Pedas, and a peek to the new hotel in Legian with my dad. But experiencing the road and heat of Bali was just incredible. And of course I still get my mandatory Burger King and Starbucks at the airport, along with Beard Papa :p


DAY 1
I came back to Bali on the 17th of July. We rented a car - my dad drove himself. But we got a manual car, so he needed a little time to get used to it. Fortunately everything went well; we did not stop in the middle of the road! :)

First meal of the trip: Jimbaran's seafood feast! Snapper, mussel, shrimp, over rice and lots and lots of sambal. Yum. There was no coconut juice though, sadly :(
BUT we did get some fruit juice once we got to the hotel, Zest, after taking a little walk around Legian.
We all slept with smiles on  our faces :)


DAY 2
I wanted this trip to be a real 'touristy' trip - to go to places we've never been before - while still coming back to the absolute best that Bali has to offer.

So we rose early in the morning and drove east to Sanur beach to try and catch sunrise :) But perhaps it was too cloudy, or perhaps we came a bit late, because we only got the light blue sky, not the orange and red sky hues that I was hoping for. But nevertheless, it was beautiful. It was like watching a baby woke up, smiling :)
We saw some people getting into boats to go to Nusa Peninda, and I noticed that the water level was quite high. We bought McDonalds for a quick fill before breakfast :)
Breakfast was huge! For the four of us, we got coffee and fruit juices, fruit platter, bread baskets with delish croissant and danish, and corn fritters, bircher muesli, and Jaen's Breakfast. SO FULL! I went back to my room and took a quick nap :p
Then, we started our journey to Ubud. This time we used a different car - a matic car :)
It was lightly raining the whole day through, but I kind of like it. We did need to buy umbrellas, but it made the drive and it made Ubud a lot prettier :)

I sat on the front seat as the map reader/holder. We stopped by Nuri's for lunch - the sausage was DELISH! And who can argue with good chips? But the chicken portion was tiny. Then we drove around - I fell asleep briefly :p We parked our car in one spot that we found, went into a few shops, then walked down and hunt for coffee. We found this small, cozy place, Grandpa's coffee and eats. My sister got fish and chips, I got a raspberry frappe-sort-of, and dad got cappucinno. It was quite good - but they used tuna for the fish and chips, and the flavor was a bit too strong.

We headed back to the hotel to change and lie down a little bit, before heading to dinner! I know, we did eat a lot. This time, we went to Seminyak. We dined at Lacalaca, a Mexican restaurant! It was so fun - the place was really cool! We got quesadilla, a fajita platter, and churros for dessert! :) I got horchata - a rice and nuts milk drink that was creamy and yummy. We drove around Seminyak a little bit afterwards :)


Although we were very tired that night, we were also very satisfied! And still quite excited as our holiday had just started! :)

to be continued...

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