Sights of Jakarta

My previous company is an American company, which has a strict policy with regards to suitable locations for regional/global meetings. As Indonesia is deemed as a high risk country, in all my years there, I’ve never travelled to Indonesia for business meetings. Two weeks was my first, to Jakarta.

There isn’t much to see in Jakarta – I visited Taman Fatahillah, the town square surrounded by several museums, the old harbor of Sunda Kelapa, and the National Monument.

Museum Fatahillah (National History Museum), at Taman Fatahillah

Bicycles for hire at Taman Fatahillah

Old harbour of Sunda Kelapa

Museum Bahari (Maritime Museum), housed in a 17th-century spice warehouse

Jakarta's last remaining Dutch drawbridge

National Monument

At one corner of Taman Fatahillah is Café Batavia, the city's most iconic international restaurant. Set in a 19th-century colonial-era building, it's filled with period antiques, and hundreds of old photos of long-forgotten movie stars, royalty and presidents adorning the walls.

While at Taman Fatahillah, I chanced upon a family of street performers. This child was being tied up by the man, and few other men were whipping the ground with these huge whips. I feared for the worst – I was thinking that their performance was to put the child into a trance and whip him, but luckily it wasn’t. The child was shoved into the tent, and while the man chanted and danced, the child unravel the binding and walked out from the tent. Phew!

(L) The child being tied up (Top R) The child being shoved into the tent, see the huge whip that the man was holding? (Bottom R) The child freed himself and gleefully ran back to his "family"

Another performance from the same group

Bento #196 – #200

More outdated bentos...

Blanched noodles in soya and oyster sauce, French beans, broccoli, fish balls and grapes.


Homemade nuggets, steamed broccoli and cauliflower and grapes again.


The four brown pieces look similar but they are actually different types of food – fish nuggets (front) and heart shaped croquettes (back) with her favourite mini Mandarin orange.


Chocolate flavoured mantou, corn on the cob and wedges of rose apple.


Strawberry swiss roll snail, corn on the cob and a tulip rose apple.

Of being Star Student of the Year

While helping her with her Chinese homework one day, she told me her Chinese teacher praised her for speaking good Mandarin. Then she said,
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, this year I don’t want to get “Best Handwriting” again.
Mummy (teasing her): Get the “Star Student” lar.
Yiu Yiu: I cannot get the “Star Student” one.
Mummy (puzzled): Why?
Yiu Yiu (smiling cheekily): Because I’m too talkative.
Mummy was ROTFL. Not that mummy doesn’t know, girl!

Kids say the darndest thing

We were eating out for dinner one day and when our food arrived, Yiu Yiu gave me half the portion of her rice and said, “Mummy, come I give my rice to you. I don’t want to give to papa because he is very fat already. I don’t want him to eat too much.” Wakakaka..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My niece, Xiaoyu has a tendency to vomit. Whenever she runs around after a meal, or cry (which she always does), more often than not, she’ll vomit. The other day, she vomited again after a crying bout...
WF (my sister): You see, vomit again. Give mummy work to do only. Who asked you to cry?
Xiaoyu: Who asked you to make me sad?
Mummy 0, Xiaoyu 1.
Haha!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Again with Xiaoyu – I was at my sister’s house one day and chatting with her in her room. Xiaoyu interrupted and said,
Xiaoyu: 二姨姨 there’s so many books in my room.
Me: Why are there so many books in your room?
Xiaoyu: Because, because…there’s not so many books in my mummy’s room.
Makes sense right? :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is 18-SX. Read on only if you are above 18, or under parental supervision :-)

When Yihao pees, especially in the morning, he shoots all over the toilet seat. Sis reprimanded him one day.
WF: Yihao, why can’t you shoot properly?
Yihao: Because my penis is long.
GASP! Shocked? Actually what he meant was that due to the morning erection, he couldn’t help but shoot all over the place. Ha ha!!!

Bento #191 – #195

These are some of the bentos Yiu Yiu brought to school so far this year – I haven’t been diligently packing, and if I do pack, it’ll be just simple stuff with no elaborate decorations as I have neither the creativity nor time in the morning.

Panfried chicken drummet, chocolate flavoured mantou, steamed cauliflower and a lone wedge of apple.

Red bean pau, facial fish cake, fishball with cucumber skewers and checkered apple.

Potato wedges with homemade chicken nugget, and grapes.

Heart shape pasta in Bolognese sauce, steamed broccoli and carrot, and skinned grapes.

Homemade banana cake, fishballs on balloon picks, edamame skewers (she doesn’t like this, and left most uneaten) and mini Mandarin orange (she simply loves this!).

Po-po and gong-gong

We were in Nilai yesterday to pay respect to my dad. Before we went, Yiu Yiu said,
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, please don’t tell gong-gong that I bumped my head.
Mummy: Why?
Yiu Yiu: Because I don’t want him to be worried.
How thoughtful!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This happened the last time we were at Nilai. We bought a double niche in the columbarium, so there’s an empty space next to the inscriptions of dad's details on the plaque covering the niche.
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, I know the empty space there is for po-po. Next time when po-po dies, we will come here to pray to po-po also.
Mummy: Yes, that’s for po-po. Do you want po-po to die soon or live long long and be with us?
Yiu Yiu: I want po-po to live long long with us.

Few days later, mum related to me that Yiu Yiu told her that the space in the niche is for her when she dies. And mum asked her the exact same question I did, and she answered exactly the same way. Really don’t know how she got the idea, as nobody ever told her so.

FGS Dong Zhen

This is a very nice place to visit during CNY as it’s specially decorated with flowers, lights and statues; but it is also extremely crowded! The last time I went was when Yiu Yiu was still a baby in my arms. Mum had always wanted to revisit this temple but somehow, over the last few years, we didn’t manage to. So one Saturday before the CNY ended, I drove there with mum, with my two girls and their cousin, Xiaoyu in tow.

We arrived just before 6pm while it’s still bright enough to capture some daylight photos.

Rabbits welcoming visitors to FGS

Thank goodness there were some amusement rides at an open space just outside the temple, so the girls were kept entertained while we waited for night fall to capture the beautiful lights.

Entrance to FGS is free, but I suppose profits from these rides more than made up for it. I think I busted close to RM40 just for these three rides.

Yiu Yiu slipped and fell while I was trying to take a photo for her here, and she refused the camera after that. What a pity coz the lighted decorations were really pretty.

Love the reflection on the little puddle of water

So long rabbits...till the next time.

We went for a late dinner at about 9pm at one of the restaurant in Jenjarom town – nothing spectacular but the price was quite a rip-off. I suppose they were not worried about overcharging, as they know we were simply a bunch of once-in-a-year customers.

Dreadful Sunday

The girls woke up yesterday morning to find that their papa was already out of the house. Yiu Yiu was a bit upset as she didn’t know where her papa was. Just then, my mobile phone rang and it was papa at the other end. Turned out, he went for a morning walk at Bukit Kiara with his buddies, and he was having breakfast. He called to ask what we would like so he could tapau breakfast home for us. When Yiu Yiu found out that papa went for his morning walk without her (sometimes he’d bring her along), she got even more upset and started getting emotional and cried. At the same time, Yan Yan, naughty as she always is, tried to snatch the phone away from her. Amidst the commotion, papa hung up.

Yiu Yiu got even more upset and when I called again, his line was engaged as he was also trying to call back. When we finally got papa back on the line, I told her to go to her room and speak to him, so that she won’t be disturbed by Yan Yan; I also distracted Yan Yan by nursing her. I don’t know exactly what happened but I suppose papa hung up again as he probably thought no one was at the other end of the phone. She came back into the room, crying even harder, and spoke rudely. My patience was running a little thin and instead of consoling her, I spoke harshly to her.

She left the room in a huff, and I let her be, and when she returned to the room, still in her fit of anger, she accidentally walked into the corner of the dressing table partition. I wasn’t wearing my spectacles, and I thought it was just a minor knock, until I heard her frantic cries and screams of “Mummy, mummy, got blood coming out!”.

Bloodstains on her face, floor, arm hand and arm

She suffered a deep gash just above the right eyebrow, and blood was oozing out from the wound. I quickly took some tissues to stop the bleeding, carried and consoled her. I cleaned her up after she calmed down, and by the time papa reached home, she was back to her normal self, and even managed to finish her nasi lemak breakfast.

We took her to a paediatrician but he advised us to go to the hospital, as he said the laceration was deep and jagged, and it would be better for a surgeon, or better still a plastic surgeon to perform the stitching, so that the wound would not leave an obvious scar. After making some calls, we ended up in the hospital just before noon. Yiu Yiu was examined in the Casualty, before the plastic surgeon on call arrived and did the stitching.

At the A&E waiting for her turn (L); doing homework in the ward while waiting for the surgeon to arrive (R)

She was strapped up to prevent her from wriggling and that must have terrified her coz she started crying even before anything was done. And when the local anesthetic was injected, it must have hurt a lot as she screamed in pain. She continued sobbing when the stitching was done, but I think it was more out of fear than pain.

The rather appetising hospital dinner

Savouring her dinner after the procedure

We had to admit her for a night, but took home leave and by the time we left, it was already 7pm. Hubby went back to the hospital to settle the discharge procedure this morning, and the bill totaled RM 2187. Thank goodness we had insurance!

The very obvious stitched up wound on her forehead. Hope it'll heal nicely and the scar won't be too obvious.

Violent behaviours

The two sisters were eating some biscuits when the little one went near to jie-jie and offered jie-jie a bite of her biscuit. Jie-jie, thinking that mei-mei didn’t want the biscuits anymore since it’s only a teeny weeny piece left, ate the whole piece away from mei-mei, instead of taking a bite.

The little rascal got angry and pulled jie-jie’s hair so hard that some strands of hair ended up in her hand. Jie-jie yelped in pain, and gave mei-mei back the biscuit.

Guess what happened next?

Mei-mei shoved back the few strands of hair to jie-jie, and said, “Nah!” As if saying “Here’s your hair, since I got my biscuit back.”

Mei-mei was beaten by papa for attacking jie-jie, but I tell you, she didn’t cry. Didn’t even flinch when she took the hit. Haiyo!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mei-mei shoved a book to jie-jie (probably with the intention of asking jie-jie to read to her), and jie-jie took it from her. But when mei-mei asked for the book back, jie-jie didn’t want to hand it over. Mei-mei struck back by biting jie-jie on her tummy.

A small section with the skin bitten off, and another bigger section with a bruise

So ganas, this girl. Wonder where she learnt these bad behaviours from!

The (not so) surprise Valentine’s dinner

We don’t normally make a fuss over Valentine’s day, coz I think it’s just ridiculous to have to pay so much more for flowers or Western dinner compared to any other day. Come to think of it, I cannot recall the last time we actually did something for V-day. Oh wait, this was the last time hubby got me something for V-day. Now when was the last time I got him something? Probably aeons ago, probably never…Oopss!

Anyway, on the morning of V-day, hubby casually asked if we should cook something special for dinner. That being a working day, I was not keen. So he asked me to pick up the girls from the babysitter, and he’d be back early to prepare dinner. Okie…

And this was what laid before me on the dining table when I got home…

It was just supermarket bought marinated rack of lamb and beef steak, instant soup and prepacked salad, not some super duper made-from-scratch fare, but still, he made an effort and even took the trouble to decorate the table and the food – and that’s all that matters. My beef steak tasted really nice, by the way :-)

He had to go out for an appointment right after dinner, so guess who got to clean up the mess in the kitchen?

Anyway, Yiu Yiu was really impressed by papa’s efforts, and in her drama queen kind of way, kept saying, “Today is the best day ever.” And while I cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, she came in and we had this conversation:
Yiu Yiu: Mummy, I love you and papa. You love papa or not?
Mummy: Yes, of course I love papa.
Yiu Yiu (in an accusatory tone): I know, you only say you love papa because he cooked a nice dinner for you.
Mummy: No lah, (even if he didn’t cook dinner), I love him lah.
Yiu Yiu (in an authoritative tone): Then why you always complain papa never help take care of me and mei-mei, always go meeting, meeting, meeting?

This girl ah, always gotta have the last say in everything!