inspired by rockstar diaries (my #1 favourite blog!!!), I’ll recall some memories of 2010.

in january, I spent new year’s eve in London with little sister, brother and boyfriend. We intended to be there in London eye and watched that famous fireworks festival but totally horrified by the massive crowds. so all plans changed: new year’s eve at hotel room!! the day after my sister and brother flew back home. holiday’s over! I, too, went back to reality: college stuff. So, I was snowed under assignments and exams for a month or so which drove me really crazy.

in february, I got back on feet! got my freedom from college stuff back. so, boyfriend and I made it to warwick castle as the celebratory. blizzard hit the UK again around this month and I couldn’t  hardly wait until spring came, found some nice places to fulfill my craze for sweets in London: the kensington creperie, and the primrose hill bakery (famous for cupcakes), visited Cambridge for the very first time, and had curry dinner in birmingham with classmates.

in march, some spring flowers started to grow and I’m really happy spring was approaching. I went try yummy pancake in my old dutch, London. then I had another dinner with some friends, that time we had risotto, and I had a really nice spring break. Had a daytrip to London with classmate then I went to visit my aunt and her family in Netherland and they took me around (also visited Paris, Brussels and Antwerp).

in April, I started my diet program because mum and dad kept bugging me with their comments on how chubby and fat I was around that time. The first attempt has always become the toughest. day by day, everytime I woke up in the morning, I contemplated whether to do exercise or not to. and I won over my laziness. I started to have exercise regularly. spring has sprung and I loved seeing beautiful flowers everywhere. With some friends, I had a roadtrip to cotswold. and the rest of this month, I devoted my time to finish mountain of assignments and…. cooking. found cooking was my latest hobby and mood booster. don’t ask me if I still cook now.

in May, I managed to lose some weight! boohoooo. and I worked out regularly, still. then I had a daytrip to York. I love York! especially the tea rooms. haha. the polaroid film price really got me frustrated but I still gave it a go. I bought some packs. life was pretty much flat this month. assignments and exams on its way! and I craved for sushi too many times during this month. i just don’t know why. weird. oh, and I was offered to become photographs contributor for an online travel UK magazine. boyfriend got an internship placement in Oxford.

in June, took some pictures of birmingham landscape, finished second term (I was all relieved!), went to stratford upon avon with a friend and enjoyed typical british summer in there, got some book bargains too in stratford upon avon, had a little reunion with some old friends in London, and bumped into a nice little cake shop: the candy cake shop in London.

in July, research project started on and I was a busy busy bee. but sneaked a weekend to London which I really had some fun. grabbed some nice stuffs during summer sale and nice price! during this month I was working in the lab from 9 am to 9 pm almost everyday (sometimes weekend too, and sometimes until 10 pm). I enjoyed running the experiments so much, although I could barely have time for myself.

in August, I cut my hair quite short after months contemplating to cut or not to cut. I had thai ice tea in Oxford to celebrate the completion of all my experiments for research project. and it was finally all-wrapped and submitted in mid-August. I went to London for a daytrip with Selin and had a great time. also had a great time during the photo session with all fellas from chemical engineering and biochemical engineering which was followed by a really fun gathering (had dinner, bowling, and some drink with truth-or-dare games. it was so damnnnn fun!)

in September, i had an awful lot of spree time to spend!! helped boyfriend find his new apartment, move-out, and move-in, then went spent some times with neni before she left the UK for good. we went to wolverhampton, took some crazy pictures in wolverhampton art gallery, made a whimsical journey to belfast (some unpleasant travelling experiences, but not that bad either!), my camera broke down (for God’s sake!!), had the hotpot and BBQ dinner (i went home with a bloated tummy) with the girls, and took some friends to the airport. they were going back to my home country as they had finished and done very well in their master degree.

in October, happy news that I obtained my M.Sc degree! bought a new DSLR camera to replace the one that just broke down, made a roadtrip to cornwall with birmingham fellas, and just spontaneously decided to book ticket home (a week before the departure hahahaha). so I arrived at Jakarta in mid-October and had a really nice time there, ate a looottttt of food, attended reunions here and there, jakarta-bandung back and forth, celebrated birthday with family, and got lomo lc-a from boyfriend as birthday present, on behalf of my parents went to my brother’s school and took his academic report. he did well.

in november, developed my first attempt of lomo film and surprised by the results, the parents’ meeting ; ) then back to the UK in mid-Nov, jetlag attacked (i hateeeee!), winter shopping, and went to the very first day of christmas market in birminghaam, reunited with the delicious garlic sauce mushroom. yumm! a week after, came round to Delft to visit college friends by the weekend. some following days, flew to Paris and met my sister in Charles de gaulle airport. wohooo! so the europe holiday began! we went to paris, copenhagen, stockholm, prague, netherland (short visit to aunt’s family). somehow wish I could turn back to  that time.

in December, christmas season! parents and little brother’s visit to the UK, had UK trip with them, attended my graduation ceremony, graduated in snow shower, blizzard in the whole country (and dad was the one who got excited the most), aunt’s visit and met her in London, met my bestfriend tyas (who studies in TU Delft) in London, christmas-presents hunting, played dressed up with my sister and had christmas eve dinner with christmas gifts exchanging (actionsampler from boyfriend, a nice scarf from my sister). I finally gave my red-lipstick-attempt a go. on christmas day, attended the christmas service then spent christmas at home watching christmas movies, and had takeaway meal. bought something I’ve really wanted with knocked-down price on the boxing day. and mostly spent days watching tons of movies at home.

I LOVE 2010! 2011 is just around the corner. God bless us all in this coming year. Hope you all have great time!

Never in my life have I imagined to be graduated under showery snow. yes, bloody cold. but it wasn’t that bad after all. I am genuinely happy! and these people completed my happiness.

hopefully, that snow shower exactly on my graduation day brings me luck. we’ll just never know. anyways, thank God. for everything.

While people would choose to go south during this cold weather of winter, we were the contrary. we went north. to the scandinavian land. well, it’s not as if we were on a “fear factor” reality show, nor that we were challenge-junkies. it was merely a bad estimation as we didn’t expect winter would come that soon in scandinavia (we should’ve known it!!). as the matter of fact, it did. and we found ourselves quite helpless with the cold weather and obviously, were freezing all the way. but, holiday must go on. there must be some fun behind all those. and we pulled through, by the way.

so the second destination was copenhagen.

our arrival was greeted by snow. i do love snow (just as much as i hate it). copenhagen was all white upon our arrival. anyway, this city is nice. small, beautiful and lavish (and also expensive)! I could just sense them as soon as I arrived. i love to see people riding bikes everywhere. nice bikes, might I add. to go shopping, to work, to do some errands, etc. there was this woman, rode a bike and took her two children with her. there was also a young dad rode her daughter to school. and couples, each riding their own bikes, looked so in love moving along the road and chatting with each other. so relax and loose.  never have I seen such views before, thus I found it soooo cool. I also took some sneak views to the local people’s house then promptly fell in love with the interior inside, which was all white. simple and sleek. the people… unlike the cold weather, the danish people are not that cold anyway although slightly seemed to be. they were actually warm and nice to us, three crazy tourists. they all looked happy (maybe because the are really prosperous). jumping to the food….  well, the geographic condition benefits the scandinavian countries particularly in seafood sources. we went try the local danish restaurant by the canal in Nyhavn where I scanned a lot of seafood dishes listed down in the menu. i am a big fan of seafood! open sandwich is a must try there. basically a sandwich. a slice of white bread, and shrimp/salmon with mayonnaise sauce, lettuce, and eggs spread on top of it. sounds like nothing special with this little delicate. but seriously, it was delicioussss! I also ate the mussels cooked with white wine, which I really fell in love with. and danish pastries are splendiddd! as you may have already known, pastry is one of my weakness.

places we visited: tivoli garden, nyhavn and stroget (the pedestrian shopping street). they say copenhagen is at its most beautiful during summer. i just wondered how more beautiful it could be. in winter itself, it looks really nice and beautiful.

I just love Paris to every inch of it. I wouldn’t mind the very bustling and crowded vibe, bad-smelled metro station (of course not all stations) or some rude people I bumped into. They were all fine by me really. Paris was…. beautiful and romantic. and sexy. and chic. everybody was well-dressed and had their own style. as silly as it may sound, staying there made me feel beautiful too. haha.

three-day visit is such a short one. but as it was the third time I visited Paris, it wasn’t so much touristy. well okay, maybe a little bit touristy. we had so much fun at disneyland, went to montmartre (i love this place), stopped by laduree cafe and ate macarons, tried the pierre herme macarons as well. i still prefer laduree to pierre herme by the way. that’s it. nothing much, see?! but I really enjoyed each single moment during the visit. let alone getting on the metro, listening to accordion being played in many places (romantiiiiccc!), seeing couples in love, observing style of many different people (which pretty much gave me some hints about new style), seeing people bring baguette on the road, listening to French conversation, enjoying beautiful buildings, smelling the air, etc etc. I’m sure I can blabber until tomorrow, non-stop, on this topic. I still have plenty in mind just so you know. however, in short: i love paris to every bits!

after all, I can say Paris is my most favourite holiday destination. hope I can come again someday.

watch out, I’m gonna go a wee bit personal now.

so, christmas just left. and this little kid is pretty much sad. another 360-something-days counting until next christmas. and anyway, it also means 2010 will soon pass by. I really thank 2010 for being so nice to me. Maybe it’s fair enough to say that 2010 is quite my year. Frankly speaking, I didn’t expect too much from 2010 in the first place. 2009 was a really difficult year for me which probably became the reason why I didn’t want to put too much expectation on 2010. I just somehow had the feeling (maybe “faith” is better than “feeling”) that 2010 and I would hit it off. And we actually did! Well, apart from the graduation, family visit, and travelling, actually there weren’t so many fabulous things occured in the year 2010. It’s just that I could perceive life in a better way. regardless anything. yep, as simple as that. and I’m genuinely happy!

By faith I say the year 2011 and I will also hit it off. maybe problems, challenges, difficulties, and whatever you name it, will still be there. but as long as I keep being committed to the journey (of life), enjoy every bits of it, take the full fun of it, keep in faith, I believe those mentioned earlier aren’t big deal really. perhaps my one little hope for next year is getting a job. like, a good job. which will further determine the whole next plan. fingers crossed. and anyway, I still believe that “work hard, play hard, pray even harder” still works in many respects.

last but not least…. I want to feel and love Him more each day.