Cikelin Chronicle

Nindi started school this Wednesday. She has got a new uniform, with a too big hat. Her first day at school was great, until I was late picking her up. Not that I AM late. It turned out that the other parents picked their children long before the school ended and worse, the teacher let the children went home first. That made me who came on time felt worse cause Nindi was the last child to be picked up. When her father (aka Nino) asked her what was she doing at the first day at school, she said that she just played around. "Didn't you learn something new today? like alphabets?" asked Nino. "No, Daddy. I just played outside with my friends." "So, what's the difference from your previous school, at childcare?" added Nino. "The difference is," I said. "This one is free." Just like what we expected. Good education, five days a week and cost no penny. A.K.

Rating: ★★★ Category: Books Genre: Romance Author: Adele Parks Is one ever enough? This novel is about an english lady, Bella, who's married to Philip, a wealthy guy. And they live happily ever after? Not since Bella met her previous husband that she secretly married to. Worse, Stevie, her other husband is Bella's bestfriend's date. Bella's bigamist life become the centre of this story. Parks had already published six novel, which were all bestseller. Her plot and story is similar as harlequim series, in more sophisticated way. I was bored reading five first chapter in this book, but as soon as the tense getting high, I easily enjoyed this book.

My daughter, Nindipong, turned five yesterday. I've just realized that a daughter's birthday means a giving birth's anniversary for the mom. My min d went back to 5 years ago at PKU Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta when I struggled to deliver this baby. Paintful but sweet memory. We arranged a birthday party at our apartment. We invited Nindi's friends around Marrickville area, which were all Indonesian. Nindi was very excited for her party. It made me worried that she would cry at the day because she's too excited. She did at her fourth birthday party a year ago. She cried aloud when all the attention went to her, when everybody sang a birthday song. But I was wrong. She was happy and bright. She even performed to entertain the guests. She did some circuss on the sofa. Well done, Darling. Happy Birthday to you, keep shining, keep becoming our qurrata a'yun. A.K.

Aussie love to party, especially in summer. They love to entertain friends and family with a barbie (BBQ). I live near Mc Neilly park which has a barbie tool. All you have to do are bringing some marinated meat and inviting some friends. The council will pay for the gas (or is it electricity?). That's why we're also partying hard like most aussie. We had party at lebaran day, somebody's birthday, new year, idul adha, and hijryah new year. And maybe we will arrange one at next chinese new year. Who cares about the occasion? Hehehe.  Tomorrow, I will be the host for my daughter's birthday party. Just like me, Nindi loves to party. We have managed to buy party's property such as ballons, birthday banner, paper hats, plates and bowls, forks and spoon, plastic glass, birthday cake, poppers, and goodie bags. She even bought a tiara to match her pretty princess dress. Uhuy! One things that I'm worried so much: can I cook proper meals for the guests? A.K.

Nindi will start school next week. This means that I will have a luxurious free time, 6 hours a day, 5 days a week (ta di ha ha, looking forward to that). This summer holiday made me exhausted. Nino and I (mostly me) had to look after Nindi 7 days a week. The days are long and hot. Nindi refused to go to bed early because sunset is about 8.30 pm. “It’s not night yet, Mommy. Why I must go to bed?” Hiks. I can do something for myself without her interruption after 9.30 pm. But at that time, I’ve already been exhausted. I couldn’t do some writing anymore. The least I can do is watching DVD with Nino (thank God for that). Back to my ‘free time’. As I’ll have plenty of time to do something, I started to find a casual or part time job. I joined the biggest job search engine in Australia and also the one provided by the government. It turned out that being a job seeker is really tiring and frustrating. I had no idea how frustrating it was since I had no experience searching the jobs in ...

Per capita, Australia is one of the worst greenhouse gas polluters in the industrialised world. The main cause for this is electricity consumption. Yesterday, Energy Australia , electricity provider (like PLN in Indonesia) offered Nino to subcrice for  PureEnergy . This means that our electricity will be supplied from the renewable sources, like solar, wind, water and biomass. In consequence, we must pay more to support the green energy program . This is as little as 4 dollar a month, but the officer said that not many people are willing to do that. Why pay more if you are not really concern with the environment? This is all about the ideology. This green energy program is good, but I think the government can do better. They should have a goodwill to fund this program to make it in bigger scale. So, it will be available in cheaper price. It's way better than forcing people (mostly have no concern of environment) to pay more for their bill. Well, at least we do something for th...

My mom emailed me the file of my published-in-KOMPAS short story yesterday. Nindi was curious to see the page with cute illustration. "What is that, Mommy?" "This is mommy's short story, appeared in newspaper. Let me read it for you." Then I read the story for her. I wrote this about 9 months ago (I forget the exact date as I don't have the original file). This story is about Nindi sucking her thumb. It is based in a true story but I modified some parts. At first, Nindi enjoyed the story. But then when I finished reading, she puckered up her lip. "Mommy, why do you write story about me? Everybody will know..." She was upset. Oh, Dear. I tried to explain to her that it was just a story. "Please don't write about me again, Mommy. Don't write that I like playing doctor. Mbak Nina will know that I don't like being the patient. I just like being the doctor. You promise?" I said nothing but hug her. A.K. in the picture: Nindi when s...

tra la la....     A.K.  

What's the best way to celebrate new year? A new haircut will cost me an arm and a leg. Hehehe, just kidding, but, really, $30 for a haircut is out of question. A firework? Good idea. If we didn't have to spent the entire day waiting with bunch of stupid drunken guys. But we did it anyway. We went to Mrs Macquarie's chair to see the biggest and the most beautiful firework on earth ever (as they said in the paper). The firework itself was spectacular, although I didn't see it from the best spot -which was already taken by them who waiting from 10 am. At 9 pm, they launched the family firework from several point in the sydney harbour. Amazing enough for the warm up. They hoped family with little children were satisfied enough with this 'little' firework, and went home. But we didn't. We waited for another 3 hours among the drunken, party goers and noisy Aussie. Not a wise parent, huh? My friend said, "Mumpung gak ketahuan kakek neneknya." Hahaha. I c...