Cikelin Chronicle

1. Water in the toilet. Using paper towel is terrible. 2. My whole family and the semanggi's 3. My motorcycle 4. Everyday Sunshine 5. Tempe goreng, Mie ayam pinggir jalan and HotCuiMie Malang 6. Reading Kompas in the morning 7. Silly Infotaintment 8. My Friends... ehm... let me think. well, I remember that I dont have any 'real' friends there. I dont have a social life. Even my brother told me that I'm not really exist in the real world. Hihihi... [I can chat w/ my online friends from here, so it doesn't matter to me much]. A.K.

As a birthday gift, I gave him a virtual card that I set as a background in our laptop. Well, I wanted to surprise him in the morning, w/ a birthday wake up call, but since I couldn't manage to wake up earlier than him, I just set the virtual card. As soon as he woke up and did his morning works, he would realize it. But then I just couldn't pass his birthday w/o any present. I manage to give him a starbucks card. It's a bit tricky, actually. When I bought him that card, meaned that I want him to invite me to that coffee shop. But, argh, sometime man just need a push, right? Hehehe... We celebrated Nino's birthday by having a picnic in a sydney-bridge and harbour view park, which was awesome. It's Irene's idea that we (om dion, irine, adiel, nino, nindi and I) had lunch at that day. We had roasted chicken sandwiches, philadelphia cheese in chilli, salads, strawberries, potato chips, orange and passionfruit juices and cokes. Irene gave him a coffee plunger (...

"Do you speak Chinese?" That's the top question somebody asks me (fyi, only the Chinese or Vietnamese that happens to say hi to me). Oh, yeah, I wish I could speak Chinese. [take a look at my pic a bit closer. do I look like a chinese girl? or maybe it's true that my grand grand grand grand grand father was from China.] A.K.

Nino is a sambal-maniac. Unfortunately, I'm not the one that patient enough to ngulek sambal, as I don't like sambal at all. Here, chilli is ridiculuously expensive, up to $38 a kilo (Rp 266.000 ?). But we still manage to buy an ounce to make fresh-nino's favourite-sambal. That's before we find genuine-extra-hot-sambal-in-a-bottle. Our searching of Sambal Beneran (not instant ABC's sambal) began when we ran out our Chilliez (instant sambal that we brought from Indo). First, Nino got Sambal cap Ibu Jempol at White Lotus, an Asian Shop. It's not so nice, but as we bought it anyway, we should be responsible to eat it, hiks. Then we found Sambal Ayam, made in Malaysia. It's not nice either. I thought it's too sour (too much tomato I suppose). A week ago, I found Sambal ABC extra pedas at an Asian Shop in Marrickville Road. But Nino is never satisfied w/ instant-not-too-hot-sambal. Yesterday, we went to Haymarket at Chinatown, near Central Station. I could se...

Apple-juice is Nindi's first word after five days silence at school. She answered when the teacher asked her: what would you like to drink? She finally dares to speak up. I'm proud of her. A.K.

Hari ini kami ikutan Pesta Kampoeng 2006 yang diadakan di Quadrangle, Sydney University. Acara ini diadain untuk memperingati hari kemerdekaan. 17-an ala warga Sydney gitu deh ceritanya.  Ada banyak stand makanan Indo di sana. Menunya komplet, semuanya ada. Mulai dari sate padang, sate ayam, sate kambing. Mulai dari gudeg jogja sampai empek-eempek palembang. Kami cuman nyobain sate padang doang. Soalnya belum terlalu kangen ama masakan Indo sih, baru sebulan ini. Lagian, di rumah, kami juga masak masakan Indo melulu (pakai bumbu jadi dong, hehehe). Asyik juga piknik di Quadrangle. Kami makan di halaman tengah, main-main ama Nindi (sampai guling2 di rumput segala), dan menyapa teman2 yg datang ke sana juga. Mendengar orang berbahasa Indonesia di kanan kiri, rasanya kayak di kampung sendiri. A.K.

It must be uneasy for my 4-year-old daughter to adapt in Sydney. The weather is different, the people is different, the language is different.No friends yet, just w/ me and Nino. Nindi started her school in a Childcare near Sydney University last week. She looked forward to attending school since she's bored w/ me and nino(perhaps). First day at school, she survived. We dropped her at 10 am and picked her up at 3 pm. Yeah, my girl had that guts. It was Nino that seemed so worried. (FYI, Nino is more a worrier than a warrior, hehehe). Nindi started to make friend w/ a Chinese girl. Nindi had a lot of stories to share from her frist day at school. She told me: "Mama, tadi itu teachernya bilang 'lemon tea, lemon tea!' Terus murid2nya disuruh duduk. Tapi kok kita dikasih susu, padahal bilangnya lemon tea?" Well, it was Morning Tea actually, instead of Lemon Tea. But I tried hard not to laugh on her.  The second day was worse. Nindi said she's crying because it see...

Last week I felt quilty cause I broke my promise to help Nino handling the laundry - twice. I still found it hard to wake up early in the morning, specially in winter. But then I found doing the laundry is easy. Not as hard as I imagine doing it at my home (w/ the 2 tub washing machine). Just pour the detergent, load the clothes, insert coins, and let the machine doing the rest. Aha, now I feel less quilty. A.K.

The best things we have in our first month here, suprisingly, is the food. It's great to master my own kicthen, as in Malang, its the authority of our maid. hehehe. We start cooking the simple things such as any ingredients w instant spices. no wonder if our cooking is always special. sate, soto, empal, rendang, nasgor, opor, ayam goreng, anything w instant spices. thanks for bamboe, and indofood and kokita, for making me not such an idiot cook. then we dare to try another recipe w/o the instant help. and we're still success. my Mum would not believe me if 'this lazy girl' can cook Sapi Lada Hitam w/ Paprika. Hem, yummy! A.K. ps: in the pics, Nino's cooking in our kitchen