Giving Thanks...

Happy Thanksgiving y'all...

Oh, I miss Thanksgiving - when it's Fall in Chicago, when the weather is cool and crisp and the leaves are golden brown. The smell of turkey roasting in the oven, and maybe I'm weird but I lurve green bean casserole, but my favorite is the sweet potato pie with marshmellow, hhm yumm...
Best part is always enjoying it with friends - there were usually some friends who stayed around in Oak Park.

We don't have thanksgiving in Singapore, so while there is no turkey for me, I will still try to give thanks.

I am thankful for my mum for even though she always bugs me to lose weight, to get married (nowadays, she would be happy with a boyfriend), and many other things she bugs me with... her voice comforts me and her prayers support me.

I am thankful for my friends - the ones far away whom I long to spend some time with, I am thankful for the emails and phonecalls and the visit (that's you, Sarah :)). The ones who are close by - for all the dinners, BBQs, KTVs. And the RGs all over the world - it's so good to be able to share that same passion for rugby and Richie :)

There are other things in my life I am thankful for. My job, even though it's difficult at the moment - it pays the bills and it got me back to New Zealand (my happy place :)). My little nephews. My travels. This little cookie thing called Squiggles - Hokey Pokey, oh they're so goood...

I am blessed.

photos from jakarta

more photos of the family and friends..

jesse

joel

jesse and his dad (my bro, tom)

joel with mom, Desy

with my cuties

dinner with my friends lisa and claudia

joel's 1st birthday

my little nephew celebrated his first birthday on last thursday, sept 20. I was home in Jakarta for the family get together. he's a healthy, happy, and strong little man. And I love him to bits...

happy birthday, jojo....

here's jo with mom, dad, and big brother jesse.

my mom cooked the special menadonese yellow rice with all the trimmings. hhmm, so good... she doesn't cook very often but only for special occassions. she is really good. unfortunately it doesn't run in the family.

special birthday love to my uncle, papa buddy - who is also a year older on sept 20.

and, a big congrats to the AB boys who just beaten scotland 40-0 in murrayfield, edinburgh, in the 3rd pool game the rugby world cup tonight. they're a bit patchy at times, still - but it was an exciting game. captain tackles scored the first try of the match.

WE MUST NEVER EVER FORGET THIS DAY

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

RWC 2007: ABs v. Italy (Marseille)

i got home saturday just in time for the national anthem of the first AB game in the RWC against Italy in Marseille. i thought i was going to miss it - traffic in geylang on saturday nights are bad :(

kevey led the Ka Mate - his first time and he did good. but the italians decided to turn their backs on the haka and made some of the boys a little mad - including the skipper.

richie and some other boys lingered after the haka to stare down the italian team. then he put them back in their place by scoring the first two tries back to back. the first was inside the opening two minutes and both were a beauty. you done me proud, richie.

richie scoring the opening try for the all blacks

by the end whistle, the boys scored 11 tries and gave away two.

final score 76-14.

well done boys. especially to captain fantastic, richie mccaw, man of the match (officially:)).

rugby world cup fever

the rugby world cup is only days away. the AB boys are in marseille - they received a mayoral reception when they arrived on monday. the french love the ABs :)

i am so excited about it. my coworkers know it too :) they wondered why and how i became a rugby-mad girl.

my story? i've always loved sports. i grew up watching tennis (the french open, wimbledon) with my dad, and staying up at night with my grandpa drooling over the skills of AC Milan players (of one Marco Van Basten, especially)and rooting for Holland in the international matches.

love of sports continued since going to college in the States (Indiana U. to be precise - Go Hoosiers!) to include basketball, baseball, and (american) football. then in october 2003, i went to new zealand. i had no idea that there was a major rugby tournament happening across the tasman until i got there and got myself a few all blacks stuff but still knew zilch about rugby. once back in the states, i chatted with my irish friend and he started my interest in the game. he talked irish rugby, six nations, and all that. but without watching a single game yet, i was only a little bit interested - like i was with golf :)
then i moved to singapore in 2005. one weekend i turned on ESPN and there was the All Blacks playing against the British and Irish Lions in the first test of the tour. and the rest, they say, is history. i was hooked, to the Blacks and Richie McCaw.

two years on, i watched almost every test match the AB played, followed two seasons so far of the Super14 on Australian Network, and i went to a couple of Air NZ Cup matches when working in NZ for a month last month: Auckland v. Waikato at Eden Park and Canterbury v. Wellington at Jade Stadium (newly named AMI Stadium) - awesome. and now i am estatically waiting for the start of the tournament this friday.

oh yeah, i also found a bunch of girls from all over the world (france, england, the US, south africa, australia, and new zealand among others) who love the ABs and Richie McCaw from the Richie blog. it really makes rugby much more fun.

now there are three

my friend elma gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Jovanna Ditha, on Sunday morning, August 26. Congratulations and much love to you, El.

Friday night, which was my last evening in Auckland, we went out to dinner with her husband and their two cuties in Parnell.



Now there are three cuties in the family.

Go Canterbury

Downtown Christchurch seemed abandoned by the locals during the weekends (they’re off to the malls in the suburbs, Guy said – only tourists walking around. I walked around by the Avon River (which was quite pretty) before he picked me up for the rugby. It's Canterbury v. Wellington. Yep, I'd been excited about it for a couple of weeks.

The rugby was cool. To me, Jade Stadium has a bit more of rugby atmosphere than Eden Park. The Cantabrians are serious about their rugby. Canterbury won. Thought it was going to be a close game - it was at half time. But the last 20min of the game, the Canterbury boys scored two tries and a bonus point. I think Wellington lost Piri and Ma'a and they just lost the steam.

I ♥ WGTN

I took a couple of days off work last week to go to Wellington and Christchurch (it was supposed to be a few days off before heading back to Singapore – but work got extended and I have to come back to Auckland for another week).
The Wellington airport is very small and it’s very easy to get to the city from there. Actually, I’ve been enjoying flying domestic in NZ. I only have to be at the airport about half hour before take off and all three flights I took this weekend had all been a breeze from the check-ins till I got back to Auckland last night.

The reason I wanted to go back to Wellington is because the last I was here with the girls, we didn’t get a chance to see Te Papa museum. And I wanted to. And I was lucky that on Thursday, Te Papa opened late, until 9pm. Yep. So after I dropped off my pack at the YHA (nice, clean place) I walked around the city. Cuba St mall, Manners St mall, all the way to Lambton Quay. I was just checking out the stores – decided not to get buy anything because some of stuff I liked, I could get in Auckland (although I have to find the time to go shopping) and the stuff that were cool and exclusively Wellington, I couldn’t afford.
After all that walking, I finally went to Te Papa. It’s one cool place. I loved it. The exhibitions that I saw were Toi Te Papa (Art of the Nation) and Made in New Zealand plus the other permanent collections.

[I met Rachel from Christchurch who was staying in the same room with me at the YHA, we were talking and I mentioned Richie McCaw at one point – I always managed to mention his name in a lot of my conversations :) and she said, “ah, yeah, I just saw him the other day, at the grocery story doing his shopping.” Fantastic.]

Friday in Wellington started with a nice long breakfast at Wholly Bagel on Willis St. Then off to the Parliament for a tour of the Beehive, the House of Representative and the Parliament Library.

After the tour, I took the cable car up to the Botanical Garden. The guy at the ticket counter wanted to give me a student ticket but I said, oh, I’m not a student and he kindly said that I really look like one :) Hahaha, I wish. Up on the top on the hill, I stopped by the cable car museum then walked a bit in the garden before heading downhill. I wanted to walk around Vic U but I was tired and hungry and lost so I just made my way down to the Lambton Quay, had lunch and went shopping a bit. I found a CD collection of kiwi songs. Should be good – but I haven’t listened to it yet.

There’s a new kiwi movie out called Eagle vs. Shark. It has gotten a rave review and the director Taika Waititi is touted as the next Peter Jackson. I thought it might never screened in Singapore so I went and watched it on Friday night. It’s very cute, funny in a very kiwi way, I guess. Thumbs up. Loren Horsley was very very good. I like her.
I have a bit of time to spend Saturday morning before my afternoon flight to Christchurch, so I went back to Te Papa. They opened a new exhibition today, The Scots in New Zealand. Quite interesting. The last trip I took was to Scotland and I loved it much and thought that the country had the same feeling as NZ. And that’s what some of the people who were interviewed for the exhibits said. Cool.

Aroha Aotearoa

It’s been a pretty hectic week with work and me, being very tired doesn’t help, so I haven’t been writing anything. And the one night I attempted to, I had a problem downloading my photos for the updates so I just said forget about it. Anyway, I'll post some updates tonight but the photos will be posted once I get back to Singapore.

Tonight is my last night in New Zealand. It’s been quite an experience work-wise. It’s been challenging but I like it and my contacts at the clients are very nice and hospitable so that's good. Personally I love NZ (even Auckland :)) I love the rugby obviously and I also love the scenery. It’s really a beautiful country (yes, even around Auckland). I will be back here to the 2011 rugby world cup and hopefully be meeting the other Richie Girls from all over the world. That’ll be cool. But hopefully sooner if other work opportunity arises.

Okay, Campbell Live is almost on and he has an interview with Richie (thanks for Mary and Izzy from the Richie blog for the heads up), so I better get on with it ...

saturday at the rugby...

so i finally went to my first rugby game on saturday. i've seen a lot of super 14 games, guinness premiership games, all blacks tests, 6 nations, you name it - on tv. but this was my first time at the rugby stadium - it's at Eden Park to boot. yay... and it's auckland v. waikato.

eden park is smaller than i imagine it. but the atmosphere was cool. we were surrounded by waikato supporters but thank goodness, none of them had their cowbells with them. i could follow the game better from tv but then again, it's a lot of fun seeing brendon leonard in person (the kid was good), dougie howlett (oh, dougie, you're one handsome man) and troy flavell (and you too, troy :) yep... )

the kickoff - waikato no 9 (also all blacks half back) brendon leonard at bottom right.












that should be troy standing closest to the stand.
he came off the bench in second half. and almost straight away got into scruffles with sione lauaki who is widely thought to have taken troy's place in the world cup squad. i'm not much of lauaki fan but i think we need someone like him in the team when we play a physical team like south africa.

auckland outmuscled the mooloos men, by the way, to stay at the top of the table. canterbury on the other hand also bagged a win against otago but no bonus point this week so they're at no. 2 behind auckland.

i've got another game line up next saturday. canterbury v. wellington (no more tana umaga though...:( his last game in new zealand was this weekend at home in wellington) at jade stadium, oops the AMI Stadium (they renamed it this week - AMI the new sponsor of CRFU) in christchurch. that should be fun too.

city of sails

today i went out early in the morning and took the harbour cruise around auckland. wanted to go to Devonport after that but i didn't want to back to the water again. i don't know, a bit tired, i guess. so i walked around the Viaduct area a little bit, down Queen St. then head back to my hotel. in time for the Counties Manukau - Canterbury game on tv. so i ended watching that and then took a nap. yeah, didn't do as much as i wanted but i want to take it easy.

here are a few other pictures i took today:


NZL40 - america's cup sailboat

devonport form afar

auckland city of sail

my brother, Bram, would love this - a real NZ navy ship

north head, devonport

some sunshine, finally...

there and back again

kia ora...

i am writing this from new zealand, one of my favorite places in the world. this time i am here (in auckland) mostly for work but i'll be taking a few days after that to go down to wellington to check out the Te Papa museum and to christchurch for the rugby.

i got here tuesday afternoon. straight away met up with my old friend, elma, who lives here. she brought along her two children, dimas and dinda. i saw dimas the last time i came to auckland, about 4 years ago. but he was a little baby then. now he's a cute 5 year old. and dinda is adorable. she's three.

aren't they cute?? :)



i spent the afternoon with them at their home and then we all went to dinner at degree in the viaduct area. it's a hotstone grill place and it's so good. the food was simple, just a slab of very good quality meat (beef, tuna, chicken) on a hot stone. hm, yumm.. joshi (elma's husband) and i also shared a plate of really fresh oysters. elma couldn't have any because that woman is 8 months pregnant :) the third one :)

after that first evening, i've been working long hours. after the normal work day, i grab dinner and head back to the hotel and continue working. hopefully next week will be a bit better. i'd like to explore the city a bit more.

today i wanted to go to mt. eden. one of the tallest hill in auckland. but the weather wasn't that great. overcast all day and drizzling off and on. the wind was kinda wild too. i plan to go out again tomorrow, early, so hopefully the weather will be better.

bring on the world cup

last saturday's final tri-nations game between the blackness and the crims was good. i didn't go back to brewerkz (on a hindside, i should have - i want to see them aussies wept after DC kicked his 7th penalty goals) but i watched it at home instead. it was a difficult condition in eden park in auckland with torrential rain before the kickoff and drizzle through out the game. i thought the wallabies had a better first half - they were full of confidence and they stole a lot of our line-out balls(what's up the line-ups, boys?) but in the second half, the ABs turned it up a notch, with a combo of powerful forwards play and accuracy DC's boot. final score 26-12, new zealand.

and speaking of forward play, i thought richie did really really well. i didn't write this - found at stuff from manawatu standard by peter lampp today (july 23, 2007)
"Daniel Carter might have been in the zone with his goal-kicking in the wet but the miracle man was Richie McCaw. He was in every TV frame doing something.
The All Blacks hit the rucks with venom but when McCaw hits them, it's like a hay- baler at work... Leonard's intercept turned the game. It led to Tony Woodcock's try and dented the Wallabies' morale. And at last we had a referee who pinged the Aussie props and George Smith for slapping the ball down. The wrongs of Melbourne were righted but overall, the Bledisloe and Tri-Nations Cups were McCaw's Cups."

freedom cup checked. bledisloe cup checked. tri-nations cup checked. now bring on the world cup.

and these are the boys who will be fighting for new zealand for the world cup glory



forwards: hayman, oliver, mealamu, hore, woody, tialata, jacko, ali, robbo, reuben thorne, captain tackles, rodder, sione lauaki (bolting from junior ab), jerry collins, chris masoe. backs: wazza, brendon leonard, andy ellis, DC, nick the sneak evans, lukey mcalister, aza, rocketman (joe rococoko), ice, conrad smith, dougie howlett, sitiveni sivivatu, rangi macdonald, mils

(sorry - rico gear (i would pick you,really...), piri weepu, troy flavell)

rainy days and mondays ....

they usually get me down. mondays especially (i actually love rainy days as long it's not terrential rain like they sometimes are in singapore - perhaps a few years spent living in seattle do this to me). but today, it's not so bad.
for one, work is not bad and i got to leave the office at a decent hour and went to get a facial (it was so good..)

two, my friend sarah got her air ticket and she's coming to see me in singapore. yay... she'll be here in september. how good is that? i miss her so. i think she's going to like singapore. and i promise to take her on a long weekend trip while she's down here. perhaps thailand, vietnam, or bali or somewhere. i'm stil looking around the internet for a great place.

a little wobbly still...

but the All Blacks got the job done and they gave the springboks a good hiding. final score 33-6 at the jade stadium in christchurch (or little england, as the jedi likes to call it).

again, they left it to the last 10 -15 min of the game, once the boks were flattened out tired defending their line and the ab fitness proved to be much superior.

"captain richie mccaw with the freedom cup"

i'm nervous about the high handling errors. way too high. and wasted opportunities. too many. but there were of course a few good points. richie mccaw was always great. sigh... robbo stole a line out. yeah. and dc-lukey-ice combo looked good. well, we can throw in aaron, mils, nick evans, conrad smith and that would do too. we'll see which combination mr. henry will go for in the world cup. and i hope he gets it right.

on to next saturday. bring on the wallabies. it's for all the marbles - namely bledisloe glory.

girls night out

after another gruelling week at work, some of the girls from work went out and chilled out on friday. we needed it. started out at keyaki bar at pan pacific before hanging out at balaclava. we talked, and goss-ed with some wine (australian white - hardy's). good times :)
tracey brought her camera and we took some pics - so i probably post a couple if there are some decent ones :)

nina spotted jason scott lee (he's an actor whose film credit includes Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story, the Jungle Book, hmm that's all that i know off) while we were heading to bar. she's awesomely good in her hollywood and general entertainment knowledge. he ended up getting a table in front of us but we didn't get a pic or anything.

john mcclane lives on ...

went to watch die hard 4.0 tonight. and that was fun. it was very typical die hard. bruce willis is still quite hawt, i must admit, especially with the cuts and bruises (and gunshot wounds) all over his face and body (just like richie mccaw was after the bledisloe battle in brisbane last year and in rustenburg, south africa, well, without the gunshot wounds of course... oiii...)
the movie was full of actions. sometimes the sequences were out of the world. with the car and the heli, with the truck on the highways. and no matter how badly hurt john mcclane was, he lived. even after he was hunted down and shot at by a fighter jet F28. yeap. but i guess you just gotta enjoy it. it's a die hard movie afterall.
the movie was also funny and cute tho - the boy from Ed (what was his name... warren, yeah.... that's his name on the show, hhmm, ok, justin long - looked it up on yahoo movies) was quite good. maggie q kicked ass (one thing that i didn't like in the movie was when john said that she was a something something asian chick. i didn't like that. it had a bad tone. although i understand he was talking to the bad dude and was trying to aggravate him or something, so anyway..).

all in all, it's worth to check it out at the theater.

there are a lot of movies coming out this summer. i haven't seen transformer yet and it seems like everyone i know have seen it. so if i can find someone who hasn't seen it, i'll go. harry potter and the order of the phoenix of course is coming out soon. i haven't been a harry potter fan. but channel 5 has been showing the earlier installments and i had caught a little bit here and there and the new trailer looks really interesting. there's also rush hour 3 (again, i haven't been a chris tucker fan - although i like jackie cheung since i was really little when he was still doing martial art movie, real ones like the drunken master, what a classic - but the trailer also looked really fun. my friend caroline and i also want to see ratatouille .
i don't know if i can see all of them but i hope to catch a few. i would need some diversion with all this crazy going on at work.

oops, before i forget, a happy birthday to my oldest brother, bram. i don't know how long it's been since my family and i celebrate birthdays together - well, since i left home for college i guess... yeah, it's been that long.. but i always remember them. i am sending my best wishes to you, bro.

TGIF...

it's been such a loooong work week. i'm involved in the transition project of one of the largest new client and it's been a pretty challenging work. it requires us - in our singapore office to work with colleagues in different offices, chicago, london, and bangalore. and that means a lot of conference calling at 10pm and later.

i'm so ready for the weekend. it's not that i have any great plan or anything. i think i just want to catch up on sleep. do a little bit of cleaning around the house and some laundry. there's one rugby game on tv on saturday. it's just the wallabies and the springboks - nothing too exciting, really. but i guess i'll watch it. i'm still in a bit of a shock from my beloved AB's lost last weekend. yea, it's still an unfamiliar feeling. but i guess, better last weekend than in the world cup final (that's what most kiwis would say to ease the pain). i watched the game at Brewerkz with some coworkers -one specially from new zealand, two other girls who had never seen a rugby game ever before but we managed to turn them into AB supporters and of course, i showed them richie mccaw, all in a bar full of aussies...

aahh, it's so hot and humit today (nothing new eh?)