a "guilt trip"

Who'd said there's nothing else to do besides shopping in Singapore?

My incapability to be a good mom actually led to a never experienced ever before trip to Singapore. I travel to Singapore quiet often. Well, I was actually educated there. I lived in Singapore for 10 years back in the 80's and 90's, but I've just found out of something fun to do besides shopping. I had a great time with my son for 4 days. It was his first time in Singapore. I was as excited as him.

See below Raihan's snapshot's of Singapore. I hope you can feel his excitement...

PS: he loves the Merlion (for a reason I don't know)

DAY 1

The first sight of Singapore...The Park Hotel (ex-Crown Prince) besides Paragon...

Then we went to the Discovery Center (sorry no pictures as "ibu" forgot to charge the battery)..it was fun..saw a 3D movie about the brain, spoke to a "real" robot, built Singapore, danced a kungfu dance...and saw a music clip about the "Merlion"!!!!

First stroll at Orchard Road...in front of Takashimaya where ibu was given a rose from a man... :)

and Raihan wanted to see the real Merlion and ride the MRT...so, we decided to go to it by taking the MRT from Orchard station..it was a challenge buying the ticket and walking thru the Friday night crowd..

The Fullerton Hotel is where I live my dream..where I meet my Knight in shining armour..even if it's only for a little while..till I wake up from my sleep...

DAY 2

We started the day with breakfast at the hotel...then we took a cab and went to the Singapore Zoo..

WOW!!!! was the first reaction that came out from both of us...it is truly a beautiful Zoo. It was great to walk around and see all the animals around you. It was like we were in a forest (we came right on time during feeding time, so the animals were all out)...a clean one...they even had a resting station and it's air condition!!!!

Raihan loved the Polar Bear the most..."ibu" loves the Ben & Jerry's ice cream corner...yummy..

After the zoo we went for lunch at Paragon had Chilly crab!!! (at Ny. something resto - sorry can't remember...but it was located at the food center at lower ground level) - the Chilly crab was heaven!!! - it's different than the ones in Red House East Coast or No Name at Gelang...but it was food to die for...then we went to Toys 'R' Us and bought some toys, and shopped some more at Paragon kids for Guess Kids and Armani Kids...finally got everything Raihan needs...

Shop, shop, shop...back to hotel to rest awhile then to the next fun.."Duck Tour"!!!

at night I watched Raihan sleep...and I feel happy...as a mother and a career woman. I worked hard..but it all paid off..I can finally make my son happy. It's the reason I am here and blessed with him as a son...

Singapore has once more made me happy...

DAY 3 - LAST DAY

Last day was the last minute shopping for "oleh-oleh" day!...for eyang kung..salmon paste..eyang putri all the balsem in the world..om Doni and Tante Dini..anything interesting laaahhh...no idea!!!

BACK IN JAKARTA!!!! - back to reality...and it bites!!! ouch!

For all working mothers with lots of guilt feelings...Singapore is an affordable "guilt trip" - a place that gives you a chance to bond and have a great time with your child...

I had a fantastic time...

no reason, no justification for gun's

Another good reason why this world don't need gun's. Don't even try to justify why we need it. Since the first time it was created, it brought us more harm, war, accidents than the good reason it was invented in the first place.

People say it's for protection. By harming other people? And now they have even made it more high tech than ever. Some with noise reduction, some with on target pointers and some can even shoot from far range that you become undetected by others! For protection? I don't think so...it has only one reason, to kill. Be it animals, be it humans, be it an object that contains humans or animals.

It's time we realise that peace will never be in our life time as long as gun's are still around. Us humans will always find the right justification to keep it available.

See the latest tragedy...of course besides all the wars happening in the world as we speak.

MASSACRE AT VIRGINIA TECH
Shooter showed 'big warning signs,' students say
POSTED: 5:41 a.m. EDT, April 18, 2007

Story Highlights

• Former roommates say Cho Seung-Hui stalked women, spoke of

suicide

• Thousands gather on campus for candlelight vigil

• Former English department chair pulled Cho Seung-Hui out of class

• Police say one of the guns recovered was used in both shooting incidents

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Cho Seung-Hui exhibited warning signs long before his deadly shooting spree on the Virginia Tech campus, fellow students and professors said.
As disturbing details emerged about the resident alien from South Korea, students gathered by the thousands in the heart of their campus Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil.
Meanwhile, one professor recalled being so concerned about Cho's anger that she took him out of another instructor's creative writing class and taught him one-on-one.

The former chairwoman of Virginia Tech's English department, Lucinda Roy, said the anger Cho expressed in the fall 2005 course was palpable if not explicit.
And two of Cho's former roommates also described his behavior as unusual, saying that he had spoken of suicide and had stalked three women. (Watch Cho's roommates describe his "crazy" behavior )

Authorities confirmed that Cho had been investigated last year for stalking a woman in person and by e-mail.
Roy, meanwhile, said the writings by Cho, an English major, were disturbing enough that she went to police and other university officials to seek help. (Watch the professor tell how her student frightened her )

"The threats seemed to be underneath the surface," she said. "They were not explicit, and that was the difficulty the police had."
His instructor and fellow students also found his behavior in class "inappropriate," Roy said.
"He was taking photographs of students without their permission, especially under the desk," she said.
But without a clear threat nothing could be done, and Roy made the decision to instruct him apart from other students.
Police say Cho killed at least 30 people and wounded 17 others before killing himself Monday morning in Norris Hall, an engineering classroom building, Monday.
According to a search warrant, police found a note in Norris Hall containing a bomb threat directed at engineering buildings on the campus.

Two other bomb threats received in recent weeks were also being investigated. (Watch how the note threatens engineering buildings)
It's also believed the 23-year-old student killed two other people earlier that day in a dormitory on campus.
Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said ballistics tests show that one of the two guns recovered at Norris Hall was used at the dorm.

'Something out of a nightmare'

Ian MacFarlane, who said he had class with Cho, called two plays Cho wrote "very graphic" and "extremely disturbing."
MacFarlane provided a copy of the writings to AOL, where he is an employee. (Read MacFarlane's blog and the two plays)
"It was like something out of a nightmare," MacFarlane wrote in a blog.
"We students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter."
Cho's roommates, who asked to be identified only as Andy and John, said they suspected Cho was responsible when they first heard a description of the gunman.
In retrospect, Cho had exhibited "big warning signs," Andy said. But he was so quiet, the roommate said, "he was just like a shadow."

Cho spoke of suicide after police investigated his involvement with a female student, Andy said.
"I told the cops that. And they took him away to the counseling center for a night or two," the roommate said.
Cho paid $571 by credit card for a 9 mm Glock 19 pistol and 50 rounds of ammunition just over a month ago, the owner of Roanoke Firearms told CNN Tuesday. (Watch dealer recount selling weapon to Cho )
He also used a .22-caliber Walther pistol in the attack, police said. The serial numbers had been filed off of the weapons. (Interactive: The weapons used in the shootings)

Shooter's note

Cho did not leave a suicide note, according to Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police.
However, a government official told CNN that a note had been found indicating Cho showed anger against "rich kids." The official also said Cho had a history of mental illness but gave no details. (Classmates called Cho "question mark kid")
Authorities are still investigating whether Cho had any accomplices in planning or executing Monday's rampage, Flaherty said.
Cho, who moved to the United States at age 8, lived at the university's Harper Hall, Flinchum said.
"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations.

Acts of heroism

Details, however, were emerging about the victims and acts of heroism during the shooting spree.
Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old engineering professor and Holocaust survivor, was killed while he barricaded his door and allowed his students to climb out of a second-story window, students said.
In another classroom, Zach Petkewicz and other students held a table against the door to keep Cho out. Petkewicz said Cho fired shots into the door but struck no one. (Read more of Petkewicz's account)
Student Kevin Sterne, an Eagle Scout, used a cord to tie a tourniquet around his leg after he was shot twice in the thigh. Doctors said he is in stable condition, one of 14 survivors still hospitalized.
At least two of those killed -- Erin Peterson and Reema Samaha -- attended Westfield High School in Chantilly, Virginia, where Cho had graduated in 2003. (Read more about the lives that were taken)
Students and victims' relatives gathered on Tech's drill field, holding candles aloft against the chilly night. Though the vigil was primarily solemn, students broke out in chants -- "Hokies, Hokies, Hokies" -- in a show unity and determination.

University response questioned

Tuesday, after an emotional convocation service on campus attended by President Bush, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine announced that at the university's request, he was appointing an independent panel to review Monday's tragedy.
However, Kaine said he wasn't interested in arguments about gun control.
"People who want to take this within 24 hours of the event and make it their political hobby horse to ride, I've got nothing but loathing for them," Kaine said.
As questions continued to arise about how police reacted to the first shooting at the dorm, university President Charles Steger defended the response, saying police believed it to be "a domestic fight, perhaps a murder-suicide" contained to one dorm room.

we live and die for a reason..

Shawn Bridges rests in his bed in the living room of his father's house in Cape Girardeau, Mo., last year. Bridges, whose documentary about how methamphetamine ravaged his body drew global attention, died Monday.

Man chronicles his death by meth use

35-year-old made documentary to warn others off highly addictive drug

Updated: 7:29 p.m. ET March 27, 2007

ST. LOUIS - A former trucker whose documentary chronicled an agonizing descent as methamphetamine ravaged his body has died, optimistic to the end that his story would keep others from the highly addictive stimulant.
“He was extremely satisfied, wanting to do more in getting the word out and showing kids what meth harm does. We didn’t get to that point,” his father, Jack Bridges, said shortly after the 35-year-old died Monday at a hospital in Cape Girardeau.
“He didn’t want anyone to go through what he did,” his father said.

Shawn Bridges drew global attention last year for “No More Sunsets,” a 29-minute film shot by a former southern Illinois television videographer at Bridges’ request.

By his family’s account, Bridges already had died at least twice, his heart so damaged by years of using meth — a concoction that can include toxic chemicals such as battery acid, drain cleaner and fertilizer — that it stopped and had to be shocked back into beating.
The documentary shows Bridges mostly bedridden, his constant companions a catheter and feeding tube.
“I’d say he’s got a 34-year-old body on the outside with a 70-to 80-year-old man on the inside,” his father told The Associated Press last May

Roughly 28,000 people sought treatment for meth addiction across the country in 1993, accounting for nearly 2 percent of admissions for drug-abuse care, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Just a decade later, the meth-related admissions numbered nearly 136,000 — more than 7 percent of the national total for drug-abuse treatment.
Haunted by brother's deathFamily members have said Bridges had been haunted by the dreary day in 1976 when his younger brother Jason, barely a year old, died in a car wreck. Shawn was 4 and nowhere near the accident but still blamed himself, wanting to trade places with his dead sibling, his father said.
A lenient upbringing set Bridges on the road to becoming “a little monster,” his father said. “By 16, the kid was a high school dropout and partier.”

At 26, Bridges had a heart attack that his father blamed on meth’s ability to damage a chronic user’s heart and other internal organs. Bridges learned he had congestive heart failure. Twice, he tried to kill himself, according to family members.
During his final months in a hospital bed, Shawn’s words slurred to guttural sounds when he tried to talk. At times, he spit up blood, and his weight fell dangerously when he couldn’t keep food down. His father said Monday that Bridges developed a urinary tract infection shortly before he died.


INTERACTIVE

• A look at how heroin, cocaine and other drugs affect the body“I don’t think people will forget what got him to this point,” said Chip Rossetti, who filmed the documentary. “But what he did with his condition is really the amazing thing.”
Rossetti said 500 to 600 copies of the documentary have been sold, some going as far as Australia. Bridges was also profiled on German television. Rossetti said Monday he plans a sequel, chronicling Bridge’s final year and testimonials by people touched by his awareness effort.
“We wanted to keep him with us a lot longer, but we appreciate God’s good grace,” Jack Bridges said after his son’s death. “We’ll still be trying to drive home the point that these drugs are poison, and that people using them are heading the same place Shawn has gone.”


FREE VIDEO

• Meth addict dies March 27: A former trucker and methamphetamine addict who documented his demise in 'No more sunsets' died at the age of 35. MSNBC.com's Dara Brown has the story.
MSNBC.com

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

So what was Idam's?

That at the end of the day having a friend worth so much more than any amount of money in the world. Money is so not worth fighting for, killing for, losing a friend for.

Now we can regret. Learn. And move on.

He made us realise that more.

If only we can avoid hurting the people we love. If only we can hold ourselves to not ever take people or things for granted. If only we can constantly avoid forgetting to thank God for all the pleasure we enjoy and the challenges in life we learn from.

Why wait for "if only's"...open your eyes, mind and heart...cherrish everything you have in life. Believe me it's much more than you deserve...you just have to learn to enjoy and appreciate.

dear Santa...

this year I wish for...

the beautiful Prada mobile phone.

the slick BMW 1 series.

the ultra chic city loft.

the ever after love.

the must have bag...one of them will be great. both is fantastic!!

as I've been a good girl, Santa...

when I was M.I.A

I was out of my blog for quiet some times. A lot has happened. My brother's wedding was one of them. An interesting event indeed. From rejection to acceptance. Well, me..I just wanted what's best for my brother and family. Plus, I didn't want to hurt my brother's girlfriend (now wife). Because I've been rejected before and it really hurts. I didn't have anybody to back me up or to to help me. I was always alone. Being rejected, unwanted, unacceptable. I promise to myself that I will never let anyone feel that kind of treatment. No one should! Especially not by my family. So, I made extra effort with my heart and soul to give the very best for my brothers bride to be. And every cent and sweat was worth it. Even God helped me made it happened. I am very pleased and happy with the result and my new sister. Now my whole family accepts her and we became one big happy family.

generation "BRATs"

I am not an expert in psychology nor in children nor in being a good parent. I just observe, digest, feel and speak my mind, when there's one to be spoken.

Yesterday, a normal day in advertising, I did a photo shoot for a milk ad (well, it's actually for a packaging of a milk product for toddlers). Anyway, it was a second re-shoot. And during this normal activity, I witnessed an abnormal condition which I thought can be considered a warning on how the future generation can become. It was a horrifying sight and sad at the time.

I don't know what or where it went wrong. Was it the up bringing, the parents, the grand parents, the environment, TV...what was the cause of the two kids becoming total brats! They were both 3 years old, aware that they were good looking (Eurasian), "special", "princess", "prince", rude, etc, etc...a complete horror movie. They had no respect for the adults, kicking and punching them, saying bad words such as "stupid", "retard"..and this was to grown ups!!! And the worse thing was the fact that their parents was there. At the end of the day, no one thought they were cute anymore. When they left, we were cursing them not to come back and at the same time praying that they will be given a chance to be taught right and grow up to become good people.

Dear parents,

What I saw yesterday is a warning, a sign. It is important to love our kids, but it is also very crucial to love them correctly. Loving our kids is being able to prepare them as much as possible to survive in this world and make them a part of making the world a better place to live in the future.

It is our responsibility to teach them emphatic, love, care, appreciation, responsibility, courage, integrity, passion, etc. All the basic essence of a good human being. Able to teach all is definitely a challenge as we, ourselves, have a long way to go to master it all. It is sad to watch kids not able to accept not getting what they want, or kids that lives only with believes that beauty is everything and only it can bring them success and power. Or kids that are spoiled to death that they are incapable of doing anything themselves. Imagine what would happened to these kids if all was taken away from them? If their parents can't afford the luxury anymore?

Allow me to answer my own question. They would be depressed, low esteem, and might even become a danger to the society. Therefore, we have to prepare our kids for the real life. That in life you have to work hard, appreciate for what has been given to you by God, love your family, friends and the community you live in. Help each other and learn as much as possible from anybody and anything. Money is not the ultimate wealth, knowledge is. As it is unlimited and will be able to be kept till after life. Money is limited and only accessible in this world only and won't get you far.

Parents, let's be sensitive and responsible. Be unselfish and think of them after we are out of this world. It's not about us, it's about them.

thank you, kak..

Twibs,

you are really the best brother a sister can have..

you have always been there for me in my most happiest and saddest moments in life.

you've dealt with my temper, my ego, my childishness, my tears, my insecurities...the good and the bad me.

today I trust you..as you felt my pain and sadness in you.

dearest kakak..thank you for caring..love you!

Twiz

a shoot to remember

"Every house has a story..what's yours?"

by Holcim, Y&R, Kenny Benedict, Velocity

Yesterday we wrap our TVC shoot. Holcim's second brand ad. No intention to suck up to the client, and no intention to brag about the director Kenny Benedict, and definitely no intention what so ever to "don't know what anyway" to the production house, Velocity. But I tell you, it was, it can actually be considered one of the most enjoyable shoot I've ever been in my whole entire carreer life. A great team work.

I guess each of us did our part with heart. From an inspiring brief by the client which resulted to a great creative concept by the advertising agency, till the perfect execution by the film director...and the coordination of assisting us all to make it happened...the ever dependable production house. All work with passion. No hierarchy, no ego. The only emotions felt was joy and team work.

It's one of those things you keep in your mind and heart forever...