To infinity and beyond !!

Hi hunny,

I want to continue telling you stories of our journey in London… you know what, a lot of people said to us that we were having second honeymoon… well they were not entirely wrong… we were having honeymoon but it’s was not entirely right either since honestly we never had the real first honeymoon. As I have told you earlier, I was a trainee in Unilever when getting married to mommy and I was not able to really go away for a honeymoon since I was not allowed to have leave yet. So, technically this is our first honeymoon…. So this is the first part of our journey in london and paris.Knowing our very limited time in London, we didn’t want to waste any time. After we had lunch in wa willy’s house (wa ibu cooked duck) we were ready to start exploring London. We put on our heavy jacket knowing it’s gonna be cold. Wa ibu drove us to Southfield tube station (the closest one to her house) because it was a bit raining while actually it’s very close and walking distance. Wa willy bought the tube ticket for us. It was 16.00 pm but the sky was already quite dark, as if it was 19.00 o’clock in the evening. We are going to go to Oxford Street since according to wa willy,almost all the stores there has started their Christmas sale and program. Well, Oxford st. & Regent st. is one of the center of shopping area in London, where almost all top brands open their stores, and big retail chain such as Mark and Spencers, Debenhams, etc. also present there. We used district line tube and stopped once in Earls Court station to change the line to Picadilly line and get off the station in Picadilly Circus station. It was really dark as if it’s evening already and to make it worse it was raining hard. Picadilly Street is like Times Square in NYC, one of the landmark of the city. Btw, as narcissist we took a lot of photos since we were on the tube and continued on the street. It was really cold !!! the rain and the wind really made it worse…. We walked to Leicester square and saw some of the theatres there although we didn’t watch any of the show. We had dinner at 18.00 in KFC (we went all the way to London, and having dinner in KFC ?????? might as well have it in Ambassador mall). But, we just wanted to grab quick bite since we just had late lunch in wa willy’s house. The meal package cost about 4 pounds (around Rp 80.000) very expensive considering we can get the same package for less than 1.5 pounds in Indonesia… yeah this is London.. one of the most expensive city in the world…. Then we were heading toward Regent street… unfortunately most of the stores were already closed by that time (and it was only about 19.00). so we didn’t get the chance to browse around… we ended just taking pictures….lots and lots of pictures.. (amazing how digital camera has helped us a lot with this !!!). Oxford street started to have been illuminated by lights… Christmas lights !! amazingly beautiful….London with all the old buildings, narrow street, double deckers, and funny taxis is really a beautiful city… We had quite good walk from Picadilly Circus to Leicester Square, then strolled along to Regent st. and Oxford st. in a really cold, windy, and wet condition…Welcome to London in winter !!! we then went back to wa willy’s house using tube again at around 20.00… what a day !! considering I haven’t slept for almost 24 hours… but it was really fun and worth it…. Will continue with the story tomorrow ya liv….

miss you a lot

ayah dicky

Hi my sweetest Hunny  !

How are ya doin, liv…. Finally the moment that we have been waiting for weeks has arrived. Mommy and daddy were going to London. We took Emirates as our flight since we thought the fare is very reasonable and we heard the quality of the planes, the entertainment, the foods are quite good…and of course we took economy class and not the business class, the fare for business class to London is just way too much if we have to pay ourself (unless being paid by company as usual). Our flight is on Saturday November 17, at 22.00. so in the morning and afternoon we still could take Adelle and Aliyya for their performance in Pasaraya… Adelle was doing the fashion show while Aliyya was doing fashion show and singing… they performed quite well though… we can see that Adelle is very talented in walking on runaway.Then at 19.00 we took a cab to go to airport, Adelle and Aliyya are still awake, but they were good girls…they are brave girls. So nobody cried…. Thank God !! otherwise it will be tough for me to leave them for a full week…. Like I told you last time… I’m worry too much…I’m paranoid..

We got to the Cengkareng at 20.00, so still plenty of time to spend time and chat with mommy in the lounge, I was a bit hesitant to use SQ lounge with my PPS Card because last time I was rejected bringing a company (new rule forbid us to take somebody who doesn’t have SQ ticket… damn rule!) we have choiced to go to Citibank lounge or ANZ lounge but finally we decided to spend the hour chit chating in Starbuck…it’s always nice to talk and laugh with mommy…. So the hour was really worth it to spend…till we were called for boarding… the plane was on time and as expected the plane is fairly new plane, Boeing 777 ER, but as expected too, the space was soooooo little…. matter of fact I should not complain because I should have known that economy class supposed to be this tight…(as I get accustomed flying all around the world with business class…paid by Unilever… he he he…).

Surprisingly, The flight was not that full…not too long, mommy went into deep sleep…. lucky her… while I was trying hard to keep my eyes closed… we stopped over in Kuala Lumpur for an hour… and apparently the flight from KL to was full !! again I barely could keep my eyes closed to get some sleep… I move here and there to find the best position to sleep….I couldn’t !! on well…. economy class.. what do you expect… good thing the entertainment system surprisingly is very good, in fact, I might say it’s even better than SQ (which I frequently use). The food is also hot and tasty… pretty good for economy class…. Amazingly the flight attendant mostly are oriental looks !!(Korean I supposed), and not Arabs as I expected earlier… they are quite friendly and gave good service.

The flight from KL to Dubai took about 8 hours and due to time difference, we arrived in Dubai at around 5 o clock… which I spent most of my flight time reading, listening to “Sempurna” from my iPod and reading…Darn, I forgot my Paulo Coelho…I managed to sleep a bit… but barely, I guess.. Dubai Airport apparently isn’t as nice as we expected, it’s not that big and not too many stores either… Changi is much much better than this one… and sooo many people slept on the floor !!! it’s soo arab !! ha ha ha… we have about 2 hours until boarding, so we went to some duty free stores just browsing around… and found out that the price is not cheaper either !! so we decided not to buy anything.

The flight from Dubai to London Heatrow took around 6 hours, and again I still couldn’t sleep…. Having problem with my sitting position and the fact that I don’t have much support (fat) on my behind that make my butt a bit tired and stiff…Mommy, as again… dozed off… lucky her… so again I spent my time reading, listening to my iPod and played my PSP (Sooooo happy bringing my PSP!!). We arrived in Heathrow at 11.50, which is 5 minutes delayed than the time we supposed to arrive, despite 45 minutes delay when we started flying… the immigration is easy and the officer was a lady which is quite friendly… only took about 5 minutes we already claimed our luggage… the first bag came quite quick.. but the big one took quite long.. we started to worry.. since in that big bag, Nini asked us to bring 4kg of grind spices for fried chicken…we were aftraid that this will create problems in the immigration, knowing life stocks, plants, animal, etc are not allowed to be brought to UK from abroad.. Alhamdulillah after waiting for about 20 minutes the bag finally appeared… fuiiih !!!! Wa Willy has been waiting in the arrival lounge…so off we go to Putney !! thank God we were picked up by wa willy, otherwise we have to pay about 60 pounds to get to his house…the weather was a bit gloomy but not raining… and we got lost for a bit… eventhough wa willy use Satnav in his car… apparently… he is very rare going to heathrow using the car… ha ha ha..

From the airport to wa willy’s house took about 30 minutes (it’s Sunday remember… so not many cars on the road)… So finally we met again with your favorite cousin Laras… and Fadhlan, and Wa Ibu… they seems happy to meet us…wa Willy’s house is in the suburb of London called Putney (near Wimbledon Tennis stadium) and near home of Fulham soccer team, it’s a new house with 3 storeys and 5 bed rooms…the land is not that big but the space is so spacious and efficient… I love it.. I want to rebuild our house like that…the color is off white and all the bed sheets are white… it was really cold liv….London here we come… Gotta go liv… next time I’ll tell you the trip and experience in London. I wish you came with us

Hugs and kisses

Ayah dicky…

Dearest Libby,

hi hunny…today is Monday, November 5, 2007 at 23.10 pm.. I’m in Manila again, staying in The Peninsula Hotel in Ayala Ave. near Glorietta mall (i have never stayed in this hotel before although almost once a month I go to Manila)… i arrived in Manila yesterday afternoon from Singapore. Mommy and I splitted up in the Changi airport. I feel pity for mommy since today is her birthday while I have to be away from her. I gave her the present when we were in Singapore and told her not to open the gift until today since it’s a bad omen to open the birthday present before it’s time (is it ???). So I called her in the morning to say birthday wishes to her. She seems like the present that I gave her… it’s a heart shape pendant with diamond (small ones,..he he he) and some precious gems in it… glad that she like it. Birthday is never a big deal for us but still I want to show my love for her, and to be honest it’s been a while since I wrapped my present for her birthday (or in fact for any occassion lately). After a while I just let her choose whatever she wanted and bought it there and then ask her to have dinner in the restaurant that she choose. but apparently small thing like wrapping the present in the nice wrap means something for her. she really like the small detail that i add into it.. I think I need to do more of that..

so, about this birthday thing, what i learned is not the price of the gift or how fancy is the restaurant that matter for her but really the attention and small detail that really show how much i love her that matter most…

i’m sleepy liv… did you send your birthday wishes to mommy ??

kisses and hugs

ayah dicky

Happy birthday my big hunny…wishing you all the best in life…

Dearest Libby,

What’s up hunny ?? Today is Saturday, November 3, 2007…today is the first time mommy and daddy are away from Adelle and Aliyya. We’re in JW Mariott Singapore(which is located on the above of Tang’s) and just across of Isetan/ Borders. It is intentionally mommy and daddy left Adelle and Aliyya with uti since we want to see whether Aliyya can be left by mommy…you know Aliyya is very close with mommy so she can be left even for couple of hours by mommy, while Adelle is already a big girl and she’s very much independent so we are not that worry about her. As I have told you earlier next week we are going to London and Paris for a week, I’m afraid Aliyya will be having trouble being left home. So for the past few days we have been brainwashing Aliyya that we are going to Singapore without her… we kept telling her that she’s a big girl too now that she’s very smart and independent so she shouldn’t be crying when mommy is not around her. And you know Aliyya is such a proud girl, she likes to be praised and always wants to be the best. So apparently our strategy works and Aliyya agreed to be with uti for the whole weekend as long as she can go to Bandung with uti to play in BSM. Now the big day came for her this morning when we had to leave using the taxi.Adelle and Aliyya was in the garage with uti waving good bye to us. Adelle kissed us goodbye and just waved to us, as we have predicted Adelle can easily take this. Aliyya also wanted to show her bravery she said “Bye mommy.. bye daddy, I love you…” and I saw her eyes started to watery as if she’s holding a cry….Actually it’s harder for me to leave Aliyya than mommy… I was starting to feel pity for her, but mommy kept saying to me “ udah nggak apa-apa.. she‘s okay !!” I know she’s okay, I just feel sorry for her…ayah nggak tega ninggalin dia…. You know me liv… I’m such a crying baby… anyway, finally we left her with uti, and I’m trying hard not to think too much about it… you know something I realize that I worry too much for my daughters’ well being… it’s like a paranoia.. I told mommy I don’t know what will I do if I have to send them abroad when they have to go to college or may be even high school… I could end up crying everyday. I guess I love my daughters too much… or may be i’m worry too much ?? i don’t know…

Love you always liv…

Ayah dicky