Perfectionist

I have a perfectionist husband. Literally in every aspect of life. He is SO picky about food, about hotel, about clothes, and about women? haha! about EVERYTHING!

I am not a good cook. Before we were married I've never cooked any single proper meal (as far as I remember I could only cook steamed rice, instant noodle, and one failed stir fry veggies). But once I got married and moved to Incheon, I had no choice than cooking (preferably JAPANESE FOOD!!!) for three times a day. No maid, no mama.

Poor Hiro had to translate the Japanese cooking book every night after tired working. Simply because he doesn't trust any recipe on the net (especially the English ones) or from any other recipe books except those are published by "ORANGE PAGE". He believes that Orange page's cooking books give the best Japanese recipe. See? what a picky guy. Even for a cooking book!

I tried my best. Again, I am not a good cook so it takes long long time for me to cook single meal. Hiro always says' "why do you need 1.5 hours to cook? other japanese wives only need 40 minutes!"

I am still in the process of learning, and I thought that I've done my best and now a much much better cook than I was ever before. But like almost every night I still get complaints about the food I cook. I always have to say a lot of "I am sorry...." on our dining table instead of "really? thanks".

I know that he works hard everyday. From 6am to at least 8pm that he really expects to eat something really yummy at home. I DO my best every night to cook good food to my tired husband. But well, as I said before, at least I have to say once "I'm sorry" to him.

Don't get me wrong. I am open to all critics and complaints. Its just....sometimes I feel like crying. It's been four years. I don't know if I could ever cook a perfect food for my perfectionist husband......

Under our house

I love the area under our house. 

It's not only for my car's parking area.

There is a sandbox and playing area where Iki can spend hours playing either alone or with his friends

 

There is a swing he loves to play

 

There is enough space for him to play with his bike.

It is big enough to host a party for 20 people.

 

A nice place for lunch on a relaxing Sunday.

 

Also great for candle light dinner.

 

I simply love the space under my house.

JUMP!!

The diving range on our new boat is a favourite for the guests we've been invited so far. It is interesting to watch them jumping in, and to see their reactions (and screaming) :D. I don't dare to do that, though. I even haven't got enough confidence to swim without arm floats in the deep water!!

Jumping from that diving range is one of my resolutions before leaving Sorowako ;-)

My First Golf

Golf is a cheap sport here in Sorowako. We only have to pay 10,000 IDR = 1 USD for a 9 holes game. Where in other earth people can play golf with that price?!?! I think that's why almost all houses in Sorowako have a golf club :p

So one Sunday in January, I went to play golf for the first time with Hiro. He said that it is a fun and easy sport, so I shouldn't be worried to much. Then off we went to the golf course, paid two caddies (one is for babysitting Iki :p).

But then I found out that Golf is not an easy sport after all. I couldn't hit the ball!!!! And Hiro, who was supposed to teach me how to do it correctly, lost his patience at the very first hole and kept shouting at me (>.<). Iki was not cooperative too, he didn't want to play with the caddie we hired. So at last after two holes I gave up. Was very angry to both Iki and Hiro.

Since then I've never played or even interested to play golf anymore :p

Whenever a friend ask me to play golf together, my answer would always be, "someday...!"

4 years...

Thanks for the marvellous four years, sweetheart.

Sorry for the few nights you had to sleep alone because of my stubborness ;-)

From kitchenku

I love you, and will always do :)

Mother's Day

I got Mother's Day Tea invitation from Iki's school. I got my very first mother's day gift from Iki.

I cried when I opened the wrap. Thanks, sweetie!!!!!

Mother's Day Tea at Singkole Int. School, Sorowako

Today opa passed away. He is 89 years old, and has been feeling really lonely since oma passed away 4 years ago. He is a very humorous person yet a very discipline one. I remember once I forgot to greet him 'good evening' after got back from the church, and he sent me back to the church!

I spent few years living with him when I was in elementary school. He always sent me to school walking. For about 12 km (return) everyday! I still can remember him clearly. I used to wait for him in front of the school, waiting for a tall figure wearing dark blue cap, with an umbrella on his right hand.

My father was with him when he was dying. He even said goodbye to him before he left.

I miss him now. God, I really miss him. I want to see him for the last time. But there is no flight to Makassar on Wednesday (even if there is, I couldn't get a seat, because being a contractor, we could only book a seat minimum a week before eventhough we get one day before notice if we get the seat or not!!). I don't dare to bring Iki on a bus trip to Makassar, and can't possibly leave him behind. Now there is WOC in Manado, so the seat to Manado from Makassar is 270 USD one way but ALL are fully booked. I just realised that eventhough we live in the same island, Manado IS a VERY far place!!!!!! 

The funeral would be tomorrow. I will miss it again, as I missed my oma's funeral 4 years ago :(..........

:(

I am in Makassar now. Leaving Iki and Hiro behind in Sorowako. I had to go to the immigration office and the consulate general of Japan yesterday, which went well, and I got my three years multiple visa to Japan stamped.

Leaving Iki was heartbreaking. After kissing him before boarding, I didn't dare to look back otherwise I would definitely cry. This is my first time travelling without him, I had been nervous the whole week, and the morning before I left I found out that he got eye infection!! I couldn't let him out of my mind since. I miss him so much....I want to go home but I couldn't get any seat in the airplane today that I have to be in a car for 11 hours. I will arrive at home midnight today and my baby must be sleeping already :(

This is our house. Can you imagine how high the stairs are? 

Yesterday Iki fell down, from the very top of the stairs. I tried to catch him but it was just too fast. He stopped when he reached the ground. 

He was shocked and couldn't move for few minutes. Luckily my neighbor, who was a doctor, saw what happened and examined him a bit. He said that he seemed alright but I must watch him for 24 hours. Iki spent two hours laying down on the sofa in front of TV, very quiet. No chattering or jumping around. After that he woke up and said that he wanted to play with Maddie. Since then he seemed normal again though. Thanks God.

I was scared to death. I won't forgive myself if something happen to him!

BYE, Bibik!

Remember Christina, my maid after Mina-chan?

She actually is good, eventhough she is so slow (I guess because she's quite old). She cooks good food because she was a cook. She is a perfectionist. And most of all, Iki loves her.

But she dissapointed us.

She invited her family to visit her here while we were on holiday to Bali early last month. Was very very noisy that my neighbor was really angry, and was surprised that I actually was not here. The news spread all over the neighborhood then that my maid was having party at my house when I was away. We were very dissapointed, especially when she tried to lied. She said the one who made such noise was Maddie (Iki's girlfriend who plays here everyday).

Later in the evening I talked with my friend who was the witness, and bibik had no choice than telling us the truth. So her family was inside our house, not underneath as what she told before. Running around, screaming, played with Iki's toys, ate the food from our fridge, and (might) have slept on our bed (>.<).

She cried the whole day, even packed her stuffs just in case Hiro would fire her. But Hiro gave her another chance.....

She usually went home every Saturday afternoon and came back here on Sunday afternoon. But lately she always came back her on Monday. Without any news. We were crossed but we are not the type who would yell to a maid when we're angry. Hiro decided to cut some amount of her salary everytime she's late. She was not happy when I told her....

We have Japanese rice here for Hiro and Iki. It's difficult to get and damn expensive (10 USD for 1 kg!). I always eat Indonesian rice for my lunch, but Bibik loves Japanese rice!!! she said that the Indonesian rice here is not delicious, so eventhough I told her not to eat the Japanese rice, she kept eating that secretly, which I always found out, and her excuse was always that the rice tasted good...!!!

Sometimes I asked her to go shopping. She kept the change and always told me that she used all the money. Oh dear....like I don't know the price of the stuffs I asked her to buy?!

She misplaced lots of stuffs. I found Hiro's underwear in my drawer, my T-shirt inside Hiro's drawer, Hiro's swimsuit inside Iki's drawer. I told her lotsss of time, and boy, it's irritating! especially when you are in a hurry and can't find what you need :p

She told me what to do. She told me how to educate Iki. She told me how to dress. She told me to have another baby almost everyday! Which were not her business at all!

Yesterday she asked for permission to go home for the national election rehearsal, and promised to come back here on that same day. 

But late in the afternoon she came and told me: "Bu, I will go to Makassar now until Monday for my brother's wedding. I have to catch the bus. See you and Monday!" 

I was half dressed after taking a bath. Was total speechless. What the heck?! 

Hiro came back home 5 minutes later, and when I told him, he asked me to tell Bibik to come on Monday to pack her stuffs!

Hhhh......

Not that I don't have maid now, though. My friend Nira lends me her maid, Ludia, working here for three days a week until I get a new full time maid :)

I still feel bad to Bibik, but I think it's over now. I hope she won't cry again when she comes here on Monday to take her stuffs. I will be alright will this part time maid for now. I hope....I do hope that I could get a new full time one pretty soon because I have to go to Makassar alone next two weeks (@_@)

St. Patrick's Day

I actually have never heard about this St. Partick's Day before in my life, until two weeks ago, in the PTA meeting at Iki's school. The school will celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 17, and mothers are requested to prepare the luncheon. And I must prepare the dessert.

I browsed the internet once I got home, and decided to bake a cake with big green clover icing. I tried to make the clover then, but it was really difficult! Instead of a clover, they turned out to be either a huge abstract leaf, a green flower, or a green tree (>.<).

In the last minute then I got some ideas of green Indonesian's traditional dessert from my friends via facebook. I decided to make 'klepon', small balls of green rice cake filled with palm sugar, and covered by grated coconut. I made some modification though, I used Japanese's rice cake's powder to get a stronger chewy taste instead of Indonesian's rice powder. I colored the grated coconut in green, so here is Iki's school St. Patrick's Day's dessert :))

I didn't expect that they would love them :p

(Another) fun holiday in Bali

We stayed at the Mara River Lodge, a hotel inside the Safari Park on our first three nights in Bali. Iki loved that place. Not only that he could see zebras, and a big rhino and some other African animals from our bedroom, but because there were lots of activities there for him.



He excitedly watched the lions -though they were sleeping most of the time- from the big window glass surrounding the restaurant. Too bad the food there was not good at all, and expensive. We don't mind paying expensive food as long as they are good :)). We definitely won't consider any dinner at Tsavo Lion restaurant anymore in the future

He enjoyed feeding the elephants eventhough he was scared at the first time.



He laughed out loud and was really interested watching the elephants' show.



He rode the camel, with papa-chan.



He loved riding the ponies too. In fact, he rode them for three times, basically every day during our stay there.



And he enjoyed riding the elephants, meanwhile I was scared to death. He kept chattering while the huge elephant brought us around the Safari Park, meanwhile I could barely move because I was afraid that I would fall down (>.<). 

We could take photos with the animals too. I love the picture with the tiger the most!, and Papa-chan loved this baby Orang Utan named Roni.


He screamed excitedly when he found the fun zone and the water park too!! Mara River Lodge is a heaven for Iki except for the food!

   

We also went to the monkey forest in Ubud. Iki was really excited seeing those cute monkeys. Too bad I don't have the pictures. I was too afraid if those monkeys stole my camera :p

We thought that we want to shop till we drop on the last three days. But we met some friends instead. Which was a great thing. We live in this far away Sorowako so that meeting friends, had a good quality time eating, drinking, and laughing together were such a valuable refreshing time.

We met Sheila, Martin, Mariza, Carla, Vincent, and little Michelle for a fun dinner at Jimbaran. I was really glad to be able to meet them all, especially Sheila. Glad that at last I could meet Martin and Vincent. It was really funny to see how Martin and Vincent got along 'pretty well' hahaha!



We went fishing with Tim and Yully's family too. They are our friends from Sorowako, and their kids -Angela an Matthew- are Iki's good friends. They moved out from Sorowako already last month, so that we were really happy to spend some time with them again.


And the next day we met Annerie and Ricardo. The last time I met them was like 4 years ago, when I visited them in Schagen, the Netherlands. Carla, Vincent, Mariza, and Anton joined the lunch too. At last I met Anton!! He was really really quiet for A MARIZA!!! Happy to hear about the plan next year ;-)

Hiro was really sick then, so that we decided not to meet anyone on our last holiday. I was sad that I couldn't meet Luky, my friend from Sorowako too, but indeed we had had a busy holiday already. We just had FEW (really few....) shopping, a quick haircut for me (which is not bad but quite dissapointing...huaaaa!!), and then a great dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant, Tratorria, in Seminyak area. It was definitely the best meal I've ever had in Bali hehehe.
Interestingly then after dinner Hiro suddenly felt better and wanted to join Tim's farewell dinner! So we went to Tim and Yully's house in Denpasar at 9.30 pm!! Iki enjoyed his last playing time with Matthew and Angela -last because that family is moving to Madagascar and we don't know when would we meet them again. We went home at 11 p.m. Drunk and tired and sleepy (especially Iki) yet we had to pack our luggage because we had to check out early in the morning on the next day.



It was an exhausting holiday. Now I realize that a romantic-honeymoon style holiday with a lot of shopping time has been ended. As Iki is getting bigger now, our holiday -all the plans- must be based on his schedules and wishes! But we had a great time. We enjoyed watching Iki enjoying his holiday, laughing out loud, eventhough we were mad at him a lot of time too haha!

Looking forward for our next holiday ALREADY hahaha!

Our flight

It was raining when we were about to board the plane from Sorowako to Makassar yesterday morning that the flight was delayed. The plane connecting Sorowako to Makassar is a small one, so the flight operator didn't dare to take the risk flying the airplane during bad weather. Which actually was very good, because safety must come at the first place. I don't dare risking our lives in the sky with that small plane too!!

But the thing is our next flight to Bali from Makassar would be at 9 a.m!! We were supposed to arrive in Makassar at 8 a.m but at last we started at 7.45! I felt like the 45 minutes flight took forever. But the other passanger told me that Lion Air (our next flight to Bali), would understand about our flight delayed and would allow us to get inside the plane. And anyway flight delayed for that airlines is just a normal issue' so we shouldn't be worried that much haha!

We arrived at Makassar 15 minutes before the Lion Air boarded. Hiro ran with Iki to the check in counter explaining about us, while I ran to take the luggage. The Lion Air's staffs kept rushing me to board the plane asap and leave the luggage behind (they said that they will send it with the next flight to Bali, but..... yeah right!!! :p). Thanks God by that time then I saw my luggage and I ran upstair as fast as I could. I lost my breath, but we could board the plane. I felt sorry for the other passanger who waited curiously inside the plane hehehe. 

So we are now in Bali (^____^), for our first one week holiday after 5 months living in Sorowako! 

'Cooking lesson'

Last FridayI was invited to give a simple 'cooking lesson' to Iki's class. Miss Desy said they were interested to Iki's lunch boxes. (Oh yes, I have to prepare simple healthy snack for Iki to bring to school, and papa-chan said that eventhough we live in Indonesia, I still have to make 'attractive' obento for Iki).

I taught the kids how to make cute shaped simple sandwich that day. Well, what else could I think of a preschooler could make easily in 30 minutes?!

I gave each kid two slices of bread and a wooden knife. I told them to cut off the bread's crust and they didn't find it difficult to do that.

Then they could spread some strawberry jam or peanut butter on their bread.

And made some shape. This part was fun. They got really excited and unfortunatelly almost everyone wanted to make heart and star shape sandwich with Thomas stamp on it. And those cute preschoolers were not patient enough to take turn. Some of them even ate their bread already haha!

Not bad, huh? They gave some of the sandwiches to the older students and the other teachers later on during the snack time. 

And here is the preschoolers with their 'cute' sandwiches

And this one is with their 'cute' Imoet :))

Make it Wednesday: Simple Mini Dress

At last I made my own dress for the 1960 - 1970's themed birthday party. It was the biggest sewing project for me so far! For a beginner like me, I really found it difficult to make even such a simple dress. I simply didn't have enough patience (>.<). During my dancing that night, I could feel some thread hanging from my lovely first hand made dress haha!! Oh well....

Valentine's Day

Iki had his first Valentine's celebration at school yesterday. He had to make cards for all the students at school. I helped him cutting the heart shapes colorful papers, he sticked some together and drew something on them. When he got home, he happily showed me his red box full of valentine's cards from the other children with some sweets too!

So when we got home, he wanted me to draw one big heart on a piece of paper. He said that he wanted to make something for papa. So I helped him cutting small paper hearts, and he did the rest of the job. He said that he didn't want to draw faces on that card, but wanted to write names, so I helped him writing what he wanted. 

Look at this. Isn't it beautiful? Papa-chan was really touched that he almost cried last night when Iki handed the paper to him.......

Meanwhile I baked this marsmallow chocolate cookie for everyone.

And this morning, Iki wanted me to cut a big heart shape paper. Then he was busy in his room and I was not allowed to enter it. He ended up bringing this with a very wide smile. "Happy Valentine, Mommy", he said. Oh God....I cried while hugging him. This is my very first card from my little boy too!!!! And he added, "I wrote 'I love Mommy, yo!" while pointing the bottom of the card. Isn't it very sweet???

This is the best Valentine's day, and I hope yours is as beautiful as mine too. Happy Valentine's day!

Make it Wednesday: Tissue box cover

Now that Iki goes to school three times a week, I have plenty of time for myself. I'm glad that I can join more activities here without feeling guilty of leaving Iki at home!

I decided that at least once a week, Wednesday, I will make something productive. Not only doing exercise, chatting and browsing the internet!

So this was what I made on my first 'free' Wednesday. Tissue box cover. It was very easy, and I could finish it just before it was time to pick Iki up at school!





Special thanks for Tomomi who sent me the fabrics and instructions!!

The Party

Last Saturday was the party. The birthday celebration for three of our friends, Jeff, Mike and Geoff. Thank you for the ideas, at last I came to the party with my handmade simple (not so) mini dress. I found the old fabric among my collections, must be from my mother in law. It is a very old fabric. I believe it was really from the 1960's from the smell hahaha!. I don't have boots, so I just wore my pink shoes. I used driving gloves (long ones, to slower my tanning process haha!) as an accesorries, plus a super hot pink wig I borrowed from Bobbie, Iki's school principal, at the last minute! Too bad I forgot my too big sunglasses, but I was pretty satisfied with my outfit :))

I don't have a picture of myself!! I can't believe it! Grrhh!! But I believe someone has, so I will post the picture later on.

But this is my lovely husband hahaha. We decided his costumes just 15 minutes before we left for the party. At first he wanted to go as a hippie with a borrowed red afro wig, but then he thought it would just be an ordinary outfit, so I offered him to wear my yukata. Indeed he was one of the center of attention that night, and he enjoyed it!!!

And these are the birthday boys:

And the audiences:

My pretty hubby then got wild and started to dance with the ladies. He surprisingly caught up with the steps pretty quick. Everyone laughed out loud and there were at least ten people asking me if he was too drunk already. He thought papa-chan was a serious person because he barely talk with everyone!! (ehm, he actually doesn't really talk because of his English level hihihi)

When he was getting hotter, he opened the top part of his yukata and dancing around. At the coffee morning this morning, the wives told me that they were enjoying the 'Geisha Porn' show that night LOL.

He also tried my pink wig

And Margie's hippie wig

He arrogantly challenged Matt

But (of course) was lost within 10 seconds

And still dared enough for a Judo. You could clearly see who the winner was!!

It was a great party. I never thought there would be such party in this far-away Sorowako. Everyone dressed up, and they all did look awesome!


Look, even little Iki also wanted to feel the party eventhough he must stay at home with 'bibik' :p





Thank you for the party ideas. Tomorrow I will ask little Iki to pick up the winner (^___^)