To infinity and beyond !!

Hi my sweetheart…

How have you been liv ? Just wanna break the news to you that mommy is pregnant again (apparently our honeymoon in London and Paris was successful.. ha ha ha). So, you’re gonna have another siblings (let me know liv whether it’s gonna be a boy or a girl). To be honest, mommy is not really keen with the pregnancy since she felt that we already have enough daughters and she feel that she’s too old already. But it’s me who wanted one more. Before mommy and I got married, everytime we discussed about the future family that we’re gonna have, I always said that I wanted three children in my family. The reason being, I just felt that three children is still manageable financially and on the other hand it’s also going to be quite merry having three kids. Three kids will make the family “jadi rame”. “Rame” with the laughters, with the talking, etc. and not too mention that when we got old, we still have somebody left behind in the family to accompany us (I don’t want when I retired, all of my kids are having family already and leave two of us at home.. he he he..). It’s should’ve been perfect with you, Adelle, and Aliyya around but since you went home to heaven earlier, I want to keep my wish by having another kid to make three kids around the house. So it’s not because that I wanted a boy in the family as when a lot of people keep telling us to have another kid. To me having a boy or a girl would be the same (knowing my naughtiness during my childhood, I always worry to have a boy in my family… afraid that “karma” will haunt me and my boy will be as naughty as me when I was a boy and give me a lot of headaches… he he he…). If you’re still here with us, I could imagine my three daughters will grow to become three beautiful, smart, and kind girls. You will be leading and giving guidance to your little sisters as you’re guys growing up (you always did when you were still alive). Ah well, it won’t happen… but I’m sure that you will give guidance to your little sisters from heaven through their dreams as Adelle and Aliyya keep telling me about them having dreams about you.

Mommy’s current pregnancy seems a lot tougher than the previous ones. Now mommy is in 6th week and she always complain of having back ache and her morning sickness now does not happen in the morning only but all the time….. (aduuuh ripuh banget deh liv hamil yg ini…). Mommy always asked me to massage her back… (dan ayah nggak boleh cape… he he he…).To be honest, I feel sorry for her since I was the one who wanted this pregnancy and she seems very tough having it now. Btw, she always wanted to eat sushi and sashimi but I told her that sushi is not good for the pregnant woman (for the fetus, since raw fish can contain a lot of mercury and bacteria). And she also wanted duren !! We haven’t been to an obgyn (we are still looking for a good one in Jakarta, most probably we are looking for a doctor who practice in RSPI, and preferably a woman obgyn although oddly enough, apparently not too many woman’s obgyn around… I wonder why…)

Ngantuk nih, liv… doain mommy ya supaya kehamilan nya lancar, sehat terus, nanti adik kamu lahir dengan selamat, panjang umur, bisa tumbuh cantik/ cakep, pinter, baik kayak kamu…jadi anak yang shaleh/ shalehah..

Miss you very much….

Ayah dicky

Hi hunny,

How are you doin, Liv ? I wanna continue my story of our trip to London. On the third day we were in London, we were planning to use tube the whole day to go to anywhere inLondon. We were planning of going to some places that we missed yesterday. Our London’s Big Bus tour ticket is still valid till today, so we still can use the bus to go around the city. Wa ibu was going with us. Early in the morning we have planned where to go first, then next, then next, because we wanted to maximize our time in London. We bought day pass tube ticket so we can go on and off the tube whenever we want and wherever we want.. Our first destination was Maddame Tussaud. We already bought the ticket for 17 Pounds each yesterday when we bought the Big Bus ticket. We got off in the Baker Street station and just walked from the station to M.Tussaud which is located only about 25 meters from that station. Wa ibu bought the ticket for the most popular touris attraction in London (so that the ticket sellers said yesterday) in the ticket counter for 30 pounds (almost Rp 600 thousand !!). Good thing we have bought the tickets in Big Bus with discounted price. We have heard that anything in London is very expensive but I don’t have any clue, that it’s not only expensive,… it’s VERY expensive… We were in Maddame Tussaud for about one hour and half. Then we went to the biggest toy store in London, Hemley’s which is located in Regent Street. We didn’t buy anything there for three reasons, 1) again, it’s very expensive prices, 2) almost anything there we can easily find in Jakarta or Singapore at worse, 3) we still have to go to Paris and we didn’t want to carry too many things on the way there, especially knowing that we are taking train tomorrow. Wa ibu went home straight from the toy store since she has to pick up Laras and fadhlan from the school in the afternoon. Mommy and daddy continued our journey on another worse rainy and cold London weather. We went back to Oxford street station to go to Harrods (the most famous Shopping center owned by Dodi Al Fayed). Again, everything there was very very expensive. Almost all the brands are available in Indonesia, although the collection was more complete. We only bought some toys for Adelle and Aliyya. The Christmas spirit has started to be felt there in Harrods. A lot of people seems doing Christmas shopping already. Anyway, at least we got off the stores with some big shopping bags from Harrods in our hands. Feel like rich people… ha ha ha…We then took tube to go to Piccadilly Circus station. Mommy wanted to have lunch and I remember there are some restaurant near Leicester square, at least there is KFC (which we had dinner on the first night). Innitially, we were going to have steak for lunch, but after considering 50 Pounds steak per person, we felt that it’s just not worth it to have it (beside mommy wanted rice already… dasar orang melayu ya nggak berasa makan kalo nggak ada nasi). So, we ended up having lunch in Chinese restaurant nearby. Mommy ordered peking duck, while I ordered prime ribs. Turn out the portion is so huge that we couldn’t eat it all… and the prime rib that I ordered apparently was pork !! It was the second time we ordered pork and ended up wasting it !! We took the left over home. After having the lunch we continued browsing along Regent Street up to Oxford street. Stop in some of the stores along the way but again the prices stopped us from buying anything. We went all the way down the Oxford street toward Marks Spencer’s biggest store in the world (so they say…) we stopped by in Disney’s Store… It’s a paradise for little kids.. you would have loved it, liv !! All the princesses costumes were there…. I really like a costume of a new movie called “Enchanted”.. but it costs 125 pounds (2,5 million rupiah for a costumes ??? hhmmm, I don’t think so). Despite our drool on the stuffs there but because it’s outrageous price, we only bought some High School Musical stuffs. They are still expensive… but we figured Adelle and Aliyya would love them (your sisters really love High School Musical and all merchandise about it). We went home at 18.30, after too much of walking and not enough of shopping… hik hik hik…..London is very expensive city, Liv (payah ya kalau jadi turis kere kayak mommy & ayah… he he he…)…. But I like it anyway.. Wish you were here with us liv, visiting your bestest buddy, laras… tomorrow we are gonna go to Paris…

Lots of loves ayah dicky

Hi Libby,

What’s up sweetie pie ? I wanna interrupt my story about my trip to London with something very important. Today is mommy’s & daddy’s 11th wedding anniversary. Yup next January will be my 11th januaries I spent with mommy as my wife. I just want to use this occasion to reflect and tell you how lucky I’am, having your mom as my wife as the mother of all my children. She’s really an amazing woman. I couldn’t have enough words to tell stories about her greatness… she’s simply the best for me….

Let me start with the story of how we met and how we became a true partner in crime till now…forever…. and ever…Mommy and I met the first time in Unpad’s volleyball’s court ?? in front of Aula Unpad in Dipati Ukur. It was 16 years ago during UNPAD’s OPSPEK. Mommy was running because she was late, she was wearing white blouse and white skirts, two ponny tails, with couple of ribbons in her hair. She was pretty but to be honest, I wasn’t really attracted to her, knowing that in my eyes (at that time) all pretty girls are materialistic (Semua cewek cantik = MATRE !! ha ha ha), beside she wasn’t really my type either.. she was a bit bitchy (judes ! syape loe ???… that’s what I thought at that time, ha ha ha)…. But I was happy that I found out that she was in the same major as me (international relations).. so at least we have pretty girls in our classroom…

Later we became good friends, mommy was Tante Emeh’s friend in high school and Tante Emeh was Oom Thanon’s friend while Oom Thanon was my friend in high school.. so to cut the story short, we became best friends (among 8 other friends : Oom Thanon, Tante Emeh, Tante Olla, Oom Dikky Panjul, Oom Andit, Tante Mega, Oom Bombom, Oom Ogie and plus Oom Deddy Morded). We were notorious group of hedonistic beautiful people (ha ha ha) in the campus. Well, Mommy, Tante Olla, Tante Emeh, and Tante Mega were the kembangs of the kampus…the pretty ones (of course there were some other girls who were also pretty but they were among the popular ones). And during our first year of college, we always played around, hang around in Gelael (eat in KFC) , we went dugem in SE, watched movies together, had dinner together, went to subang, went to Puncak, went to Pangandaran, went to lembang, etc… it was all played, played and played… ha ha ha…as if we have nothing to worry… the group was known as The Cerdas Jaya group… a lot of people in the campus looked cynically to us… because as if all that we cared about was playing and having fun… well they were’nt totally wrong either… ha ha ha… all that we care about was really having fun… but yet we still get good grades… of course except oom panjul and Oom Bombom (sorry nya Nyul & Bom…) our GPA were still above 3 in our first year of college, in fact I was having one of the highest GPA in the class. Almost all of the girls on the group at that time were having relationship (including mommy… darn !!) but all of them were in the process of breaking up (bener nggak sih ??? ha ha ha… jangan2 gue ngarang).

Along the way…, on March 15, 1992, I declared my love to mommy in mommy’s house in Jl.Ciremay… (ha ha ha…nyalip di tikungan). But we kept it secret to other group members… until we finally announced it to everybody.. but you know when some people in the group are having relationship then of course it will affect the others. Cerdas Jaya was sort of falling apart… there were distances in some of the members for a while, until everything went back to normal again toward end of our college years.

Mommy and daddy were inseperable at that time… you could almost see us together wherever we went. We were like siamesse twins… ha ha ha…We watched movies almost every Tuesday because that’s when new movies coming out at that time in Studio 21. we didn’t go to clubs or disco that much…. Because both of us don’t drink alcohol and we were lousy in dancing… but very often I treated mommy to Glosis or Tizi’s which are the top restaurants in Bandung at that time…. Or just went to Cisangkuy for a glass of yoghurt… most importantly, we were always together…We spent the college years together… literally everyday..

Did we fight ? of course.. being a jealous and insecure guy (knowing that I’m not that handsome, not that macho, not that rich, not that smart, etc) I always have a strong jealousy toward any guy who tried to approach mommy (mommy had so many fans at that time… huuuhh!!), so most of the fight was started because of my jealousy. I remember one time mommy got so mad that she broke glass of her house’s front door with her fist (now that foolish act of course cause her to bleed etc)… now you see how she could get really angry… hiii syerem. but we always settled the fight in less than three days…we could barely far away from each other. In the process, I turned mommy into a typical girl that I like….the way she dress, the way she talk, the way she behave… (nggak bener ya ?? he he he…). She transformed herself into a gracious &; elegant girl … or I should say I turned her into a lady (ha ha ha….) Despite of our fights but our relationship was mostly filled with loves and laughs…not so much of tears…

Then, after having steady relationship for about 4 years, after I graduated from the college and got good job in Astra Internasional, Uti asked me, how serious I was with mommy and asking what to wait till we get married. Otherwise she would give mommy to other guy… ha ha ha… So I answered that I was really serious and planning to make her accompany me for the rest of my life. So we planned for the engagement time (or in this case, more of a lamaran) on August, 1996. We set the date for the marriage on Saturday night, December 7, 1996. So after short preparation, since both mommy and I were working at that time in Jakarta, we got married in Secapa Bandung (at that time, that’s the biggest hall that we could use for 1200 invitees). Mommy was really really pretty on the wedding day…she was wearing green kebaya and I was wearing green beskap, the color theme was green (come to think of it, I couldn’t recall why we choosed green as our color theme…). Mommy was having her period on that day !! (darn !!). As I have told you, we didn’t have honeymoon since I have to start working in Unilever as management trainee the following week.

Now of course I wouldn’t be able to tell you day to day stories of our marriage. But what I can tell you is that I don’t feel any less love toward her (if only not increasing)…. I love her as much as when she was my girlfriend (again if not more). We still fights (now mostly about money… ha ha ha)… but we still fill our marriage with loves (lots and lots of loves) and laughs…we take and give, we compromise… if one of us got mad, one of us will be quiet so there were hardly big fights in 11 years of our marriage.Within 11 years of our marriage, of course so many things have happened,…. happiness as well as sadness (the worst sadness of course was when you left us)… but we learn to use the principle of “Berusaha, Berdoa, Bersyukur, dan Bersabar” . We try and work hard for everything we do, we pray to God to bless us with the best result, we are thankfull if God give us what we think good for us, and we are patience when God give us something which we feel bad for us. Mommy has been really the best partner for me sailing through the current and waves of life.She’s always there through the best and the worst time of my life.She has given me three beautiful daughters… I wouldn’t be able to live without her….she’s my half….she’s simply THE BEST !! ((I love you very much shaney….thank you for always being there for me, thanks for being patience with my childishness, my ignorance,….please accompany me till the end of my life).

Sebelas Januari Bertemu
Menjalani Kisah Cinta Ini
Naluri Berkata Engkaulah Milikku
Bahagia Selalu Dimiliki
Bertahun Menjalani Bersamamu
Kunyatakan bahwa Engkaulah jiwaku

Akulah Penjagamu
Akulah Pelindungmu
Akulah Pendampingmu
Di setiap langkah-langkahmu
http://www.free-lyrics.o

Pernahku Menyakiti Hatimu
Pernah kau melupakan janji ini
Semua Karena kita ini manusia

Akulah Penjagamu
Akulah Pelindungmu
Akulah Pendampingmu
Di setiap langkah-langkahmu

Chorus:
Kau bawa diriku
Kedalam hidupmu
Kau basuh diriku
Dengan rasa sayang
Senyummu juga sedihmu adalah Hidupku
Kau sentuh cintaku dengan lembut
Dengan sejuta warna

Let me know liv if you want to ask something from me.. Gotta go now…good night Libby.

Love you always

Ayah dicky

Dearest Libby

How are you today ?? this is the second day we are in London, I finally had a good night sleep !! may be I was really really tired and by the time we arrived at wa willy’s home last night at 20.30, it was already 2.30am in Jakarta. Today, we are planning to take a tour within London to see some point of interests. We were at home when a telephone guy from BT came and we have to wait for wa ibu coming back from dropping off teh laras and fadhlan to the school. Then, we walked from wa willy’s house to southfield underground station. It was still cold and raining… but it wasn’t as cold as last night. The wind was not that bad..and it’s nice talking to mommy while we were walking for about 10 minutes pass along nice victorian houses. Wa willy’s house situated in a new housing and apartment complex but to get to the station we have to go passing by some old houses… but it’s still nice neighborhood. One thing I noticed, the street is usually narrow, 2 lane street with cars being park on both side of the street, leaving only small area for cars to pass by… and british apparently drives their cars quite fast…with these narrow streets, no wonder tube become so popular, otherwise there will be traffic jam everywhere. As I didn’t buy the ticket by myself yesterday, I had to ask the officer to teach me buying the ticket for the tube from the machine. One day pass for zone 1-4 cost us about 5+ pounds per person, so it is really expensive, but in comparison if we have to take taxi wherever we go, it is way way cheaper ….. we had studied the stop , the connecting lines, etc, to ensure that we didn’t loose time getting lost in London. But, it’s very easy to follow the information and getting anywhere, if we got lost we just get off the train and change to other line… it’s that simple…very nice !!! We decided to stop in Picadilly Circus station then there we would buy “Big Bus” city tour ticket. When we got to Picadilly street we looked for bus stop and it’s easy to find. Apparently the bus stop is also the stop for Big Bus City Tour and we could buy the ticket from the officer there. The ticket price of Big Bus City Tour is 22 pound per person (about Rp 400 thousand) and since it was winter they have special offer that the ticket is valid for 48 hours (from usually 24 hours) and we could buy ticket to some of London’s attraction with special price. We decided to buy the Maddame Tussaud’s ticket there as well so we could get discount and we don’t have to queue there. Maddame Tussaud cost us 17 pound per person (in the ticket box it’s 30 pounds) a very significant discount. With this bus we can go to almost all London’s places of interest. We can sit on top of the bus which is open air.. if it’s not raining actually it’s really nice to sit on top of the bus. We decided to take the red route in which we will start the tour from Picadilly street to Trafalgar Square, one of the most famous place of London. We stopped there for a while to…. Take some pictures !!! ha ha ha…. The sun is finally shinning… really shining for about an hour… before it’s raining again… darn !! We also went to National Gallery which is located across Trafalgar Square. I was really excited to go inside since National Gallery has a wide collections of paintings from great painters. My favourite one is of course Van Gogh’s !! there are a lot of Van Gogh’s painting there… I really love ‘em… beside Van Gogh’s, the National Gallery also have collections of Monet, Manet, Cezzane, etc. oh, I could spend full day just to browse around this museum but since we only have limited time in London, we only spend like couple of hours here…before we went to Museum’s shop and picked up 2 posters of Van Gogh’s painting, ready for framing. Then we hopped on the bus again to the next stop which is the Westminster ! here is the Big Ben, The Parliament, and Westminster Abbey church located. On the way there we passed by the Downing Street which is the official residence of England’s Prime Minister. If the time’s right actually we can see the guard’s changing near there. After taking some pictures in Westminster, we continued the journey to London Eye, a gigantic ferish wheel (they said it’s the biggest one in the world) but we decided not to get inside since the weather was not that good anyway, (what will we see ??) so we just passed by and continued the journey to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in which Princes Charles and Lady Diana got married. It was a beautiful cathedral… we had lunch there in Fresh Italy, this part of area seems like a business area since lots of people wearing suits and tie. Fresh Italy is quite nice.. I ordered lasagna and Chilli Shrimp salad, while mommy ordered carbonara which is apparently have lots of pork bacon in it… so she didn’t touch it and just ate my food…again it’s not cheap to have lunch here. We kinda get used to expensive price by now for everything…. He he he… we continued the journey passing the famous London bridge, then we stopped in Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Again looking at the timing we didn’t go inside the Tower of London where they place the crown of the king’s and queen’s. From here, we took a boat cruising along the Thames river.. passing by UNILEVER’s Global Head Office in Black Friar. The guide said “ On the right, there’s a big white building, the home of giant detergent and soap manufacturer Unilever” (giant detergent and soap manufacturer ??? this guide needs more training… he he he…). The HO looks stunning especially with lights start to illuminate the building…suddenly I was proud being an Unileverian. The day has been quite dark although the time just showed 16.00.. the London eye and Big Ben’s looks incredible in lights. The boat stopped at the Westminster pier where we walked passing by Westminster Abbey Church (I think Prince Andrew got married here). We were waiting for the Big bus to take us back to the Picadilly circus station. Oh no…. apparently, the big bus operation stopped at 16.30 so we decided to take regular bus to go back to picadilly street. Thank God, there is the last bus coming so we just hopped in… rejeki mah nggak kemana.. the Officer asked us the destination and when we said we are going to picadilly… he said we were on the wrong bus and suggested to get off in victoria and take the bus to green park which is the last stop for that bus. We just followed his suggestion. But what I found amazing is that the bus officer was very helpful, asking all the passenger and suggesting the best route to take them to their destination. Yeah because it’s already late (19.00). we stopped at the Green Park bus station and went straight to the tube station to go back to Putney. Oooh.. what a day !!!! full of walking, full of pictures taking… not enough shopping… everything’s soooo expensive !!

We’ll catch up again later okay liv…

still miss you a lot..

ayah dicky