Day 21 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful for having found this quote: 'Everybody dies, but not everybody lives. (Drake)"

I dug my old collection of photos and thought the flying bird could represent the living.
I'm gonna live my life as I always have, and so should you.
Day 20 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful for feeling good to party again."

After last year, my view of parties and alcohol got very ugly. I saw how aggressive an excessive abuse of alcohol was and how it could lead to stupidities that were not necessarily a part of someone's real personality. No, I'm not talking about myself. I ALWAYS know when to stop if I want to stop. But many people don't.

But I'm still not against having fun at parties. Alcohol is great when consumed within limits and not very often. But it is especially bad when drunk to run away from reality. Tonight, however, nobody was running away from reality. We were having a good time. And though a clash did happen at the end between Vincent, David and Laurence and I got just slightly upset because for a moment I thought nothing changed at all, overall it was still a nice outing. The music was great and I danced so much like I never did for a long time.

I didn't even expect to have a party tonight. I went to the ad print meeting and I thought I went just for that. But it appeared that the office was celebrating Sandrine's birthday. Since I was there, I was handed a glass of champagne and a piece of chocolate cake. It didn't stop there. After the apéro, we went for dinner at Warung Made. Vincent was already tipsy from the apéro, yet he ordered more and more vodka (and this is the same guy who said that he hated vodka the first time I knew him). So he got really drunk.

You could tell that Vincent was drunk only by his nod on dancing. And not any dance, a Tango.

Of course it wasn't a real tango, but Vincent's drunk mouth claimed that he could do Tango dance very easily. He danced first with Sandrine and then with me - yes, far from how you described how Tango should have been.

there's no such clapping on Tango dance, but this is Vincent's style

When I got back to my seat, his friends said: "Wow, you were so brave!!! Embarrassing yourself like that."
Marie drinking from flamed glass

Bahiana



After that we went to Bahiana when I danced happily with Laurence, Marie and Sandrine (and Vincent and David). But as usual, my eyes couldn't stay open that long. I'm a morning person and I wake up at 6 AM no matter how late I started sleeping. So I retreated when it was almost three o'clock. I knew as usual the boys wanted to go on and on at La Vida Loca (they really never know when to stop) but this time I wouldn't care. It's really too tiring to argue about it every time we go to the bars.

So I said good night to everybody, left Vincent to argue with David and Laurence, and went home.
Day 19 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful for the time spent with the IALF girls this afternoon."

Nupi suggested us to meet at Luthu Café in the afternoon. Her Chinese restaurant - called Fortune Cookie - just got a three star from a review from the trip advisor website - a disgrace for her excellent 5 star reviews before. In Sanur area, apparently this Luthu Café was the first in popularity so that's why she wanted to check it out.

I've been to Luthu Café before, and I liked it because of its coffee. I think the barista won a Capuccino designing competition in South East Asia (or something like that) and he always made me really cute stuff from the pouring milk. Like this one below.
The topic of the day was around cicak (English: house gecko). How Nupi hated it because she found a dead cicak in her honey jar once and ate the same honey without her knowledge that it was the same one where the cicak was drown in. Then I told them my experience with one when I accidentally drank the cicak's poop in my coffee.

It was great, as usual. We are four girls who think alike, though very, very, very different in personality. We threw jokes to each other and we LOVE gossiping about men. :) So here are the other girls.
Dian - very pregnant, due in a month
Nupi - very funky and tomboy, owner of Fortune Cookie, a nice Chinese Restaurant
Pam - you know her... one of the very weird people I know. :)
Day 18 of 365 grateful days project.

"I'm grateful to be able to play The Sims 3 again."

Due to my broken nail from the Menjangan trip, I couldn't play badminton today as usual. I like playing badminton, though I suck at it (and perhaps that's why I like the sport), but it is also nice to have a break from it once in a while. Vincent was still going to the practice, while I was busy playing The Sims 3 on his new CPU.

The Sims 3The said CPU was bought without consulting me first. :P But judging from the performance, I couldn't object much about it. It's fast, it's got super graphic card that enables us to play any game we want without experiencing any lag time.

So yes, it's a pity that I don't go to the badminton exercise today, but it's great to relaxingly play The Sims 3 again. :)
Day 17 of 365 grateful days project.

"I'm grateful that the client likes the 4 designs I've made."

So I woke up at 4.30 AM to be able to catch my flight this morning, which was at 6.10. I was supposed to have the meeting in the afternoon. However, the meeting got cancelled because the Client needed to be somewhere else, but I still sent the work I've done via email. - I wish I knew that the meeting was cancelled before though. Then I could have spent more days with my family in Surabaya.

Anyhoo, I'm super happy they like them! Now it's only the editing process that we have to go through. But that's more relaxing than coming up with concepts.

Awesome.
Day 16 of 365 grateful days project.

"I"m grateful for having a new design project to do from now to a couple of weeks later."

I've just got the news that my proposal to the ad print design for a PMA company in Bali is accepted. I'm terribly, terribly excited to do that! I like to work on anything visual; so photography and graphic designing are two of the things I love to do the most. Make it a business and earn from the creativity that I enjoy every second making, that's even better.

The downside of that news is that I have to go back to Bali earlier than I would have preferred. First meeting will be tomorrow on Friday (I know, such a tight schedule). Luckily, I have prepared some designs even before the proposal was agreed. But I need to do some polishing with some of them.

My mother was pouting, grumbling that she still missed me and that my trip was too short. So I had to promise that I'd come back soon. I do have to come back sooner than the last time I visited Surabaya (about a year ago). This trip didn't make up for it as I only spent my time with my mom and my family. Next visit will be slightly longer and I'll try to make some time to meet some friends.

Life is good.
Day 15 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful for the great, successful Mum's birthday celebration."


She woke up at 4 AM and insisted that I should not be falling asleep again. She talked and talked and talked for hours and how happy she was that I was there. It was her birthday so I tried my best to be awake at that weird hour.


Later that day, after Michelle came back from school (she had her final examination so she returned home earlier than usual), I made her my sous chef. We made macaroni schotel for starter, roasted chicken and potato wedges for the main course, and chocolate chip cookies for the dessert. I think there was never a time in my family's life to have three courses in a row. But this time we do. All baked with my Mum's brand new oven. :) 


Michelle, especially, was so excited that she was allowed to help. My mother never allows children to be around her in the kitchen when she cooks. She's afraid that something will happen to the kid: knife cutting the finger, or too close to the fire that they get burned. That's why I never knew how to cook until I was 27. For me, children should be acquainted to cooking in the kitchen from the early age. The more they are used to it and the danger of several things, the more they are aware of these. And they can develop their cooking skill from then on. And I mean how can you resist to smile to see this happy face of hers while she cooks?






And my mum was super happy because there was a change in the dishes consumed on her birthday this year. She'd been having pecel for her past birthdays.