Today I felt that Indi and I can use a new nickname "The Most Misunderstood Couple".. Why? Because I observe that both of us had experienced many times being misunderstood by people. For example, people think I am arrogant, whereas in reality I am shy and timid!

As for Indi, he is the man with sincere curiousity and is inquisitive in nature. He loves to question things and never take things for granted. But people misunderstood him as somebody who craves attention, because he ask a lot of questions!

Perhaps here's where the cultural clash came about. Having lived in the US for a long time made him a man who is not afraid to ask questions. I guess Indonesians find this really weird and in many cases, feel offended. To be honest I feel angry at the people who misunderstand Indi. But I'd rather put my energy into somewhere more fruitful rather than channeling my anger.

Anyway, we take it as a lesson to be more careful in communicating our ideas. But we will never let other people judge us! :>

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Yodhi told me that I was on TV, RCTI News to be exact, when they were covering Inul's concert in Singapore! Viva Inul!

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Today... hmm what did we do today? Oh yes, at 9:00am we went to have fish congee and cakwe for breakfast at Alexandra Village and then went to get economy haircuts for only 10 SGD per head at QB inside IKEA building. We walked back home soon after and I did my weekly chores: Ironing our work clothes, while Rani worked on her application for UK Urban Design Scholarship that she's been wanting to submit.

Later in the afternoon at 3:00pm we went to my colleague Fauzia's party to celebrate her sister's 60th birthday. Her sister, Sharifah Noor, is now a resident of Den Haag and works for the UN International Crime Court (?). It was kinda big family reunion for them and we were very privileged to be a part of them. After all, Fauzia is a great person to work with and she does have a heart of gold. She is like family to us!

She lives in the Marine Parade town area where PM Goh Chok Tong's political strength is based out of. The area is just so lively and you could find every single detail virtually spotless.

At 6:00pm we left the party and walked toward Marine Parade Community Centre and guess who we saw at the lobby surrounded by hysterical folks? INUL DARATISTA! :) Yes sireee.... Inul had just had a small concert with about 700 people and it was indeed her first time shaking her bon-bon in Temasek. Rani soon handed her camera to me and started getting closer to Inul. Inul was indeed very radiant in her red tight outfit showing her typical energetic gestures. After the public photo sessions, Inul was escorted to the van and was surprised to see a young woman already waiting for her in the van. She was crying and begging to come with Inul in the van but the bodyguards wasn't able to persuade her to come out of the van until Inul approached her and gave her a hug. The young woman was crying and Inul comforted her like a mother to a child. Inul really knows how to show her love to all. She has been mystified as a Hero in the eyes of every young woman in Indonesia. Inul symbolizes success and pure modesty in every way (although her outfit does not always seem to say so). It was a heart-breaking moment to witness it as Rani kept telling me to take journalistic photographs of them but I was just unable to do so. I just snapped the camera but my mind just couldn't capture that moment. It seemed so unreal that a person like Inul was so open and forgiving to that young woman. We thought she was perhaps a maid working in Singapore and if so, then she must have been the luckiest person among all fans to experience such a warm hug from the Heroine.

Enough said... here is Rani's picture with Inul and the heart-breaking moment with a fan:








Written by Indi

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Various interesting psychological test you can find in
BBC - Science Human Body - Psychology Tests Website!! I just did "What Sex is Your Brain?" It says that my brain is a Male Brain... o my god!!

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My old monitor finally rested in peace and now I am using AOC, a Taiwan made, 17" CRT non-flat. The LCD ones are too narrow/thin for my big desk. It won't look good at all so I decided to stay with CRT technology instead.

My wife has kindly reminded me to write daily and I think this can be quite fun! See you tomorrow...

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Yesterday night we had a great big family dinner at
Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Riverside Point! Attendees are: Indradi Soemardjan and me, Gita Wirjawan, Yasmin Wiryawan, Gian Wirjawan, Bu Iik, Pak Maman, Mbak Yuni and Mas Ricky, Prita Delia, and My Mum. we had Chili Crab and Black Pepper Crab!

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After being resigtered in Friendster.com for quite some time I finally managed to have 60 names on my list of friends. If you are a member of Friendster.com and view it, you can click Friendster - Indi's Friends. Alternatively, you may also ask me to invite you to be my friend.

My wife is coaching me on blogging although I think I am already an expert on snogging.

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Last saturday (31 January) we held a lunch gathering at home inviting the members of fotografer.net Singapore Chapter. Full coverage can be found here (in indonesian language). We made Tongseng (Javanese Mutton Curry) and Gado Gado (boiled vegetable salad with peanut sauce). Earlier that morning, I found a green caterpillar munching my lime tree away. Initially I wanted to just kill this little monster. But, the little animal was so cute, that all the photographers who came for the lunch started to take out their camera and tried to take macro shot of that poor little guy. At the end of the day, I decided to adopt this little caterpillar in order to save my lime tree, and fed the little guy with lime leaves from Pierre's lime tree.

At 6pm we all continued to walk through the abandoned HDB land to take the bus to orchard road. We intended to take pictures of Chingay parade.

Indi and I arrived just before seven and found a nice spot in front of Mandarin hotel where we met Adi (he brought us a bottle of Bailey's from airport). It is a nice spot because our view was not blocked by the chair stage (those chair stages were intended for people who pay for the seat). We waited, and waited, and the parade which was supposed to start at 7pm did not start until 8pm. And later we found out that the parade participants were only performing in front of the chair stages! When the parade participants passed in front of us, they were only, well, walking by and waving at us. But they did not perform their full stunt for us. This is disappointing. As Masindi told me, even the parade in NYC does not treat non-paying-member-of-audience differently. I guess I wouldn't want to go to Chingay parade anymore. At 9pm we gave up and continued to take MRT to City Hall and had dinner with Adi's Sri Lankan friends in Chinese-Thai Restaurant at the Capitol Building.

In the morning, I checked out Cattie, our little caterpillar. She's so cute when she is eating, she eats the lime leaf just like eating pop corn. And after finishing one leaf, she took a break and poo. Her poo is in the shape of small balls with 1.5 milimeter diameter. I can't believe that this little thing manages to eat leaf that is about her body size.

On Sunday we invited some friends to enjoy Mutton Curry, Sambal Telur, and Salad. We plan to put the pictures and story here, but I haven't figured out where I should store the picture to link back to this blog. And it is late, we are going to sleep now. Tomorrow is not public holiday anymore (I wish it is still holiday!)

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