Junior High reunion 2 - The Activities

The reunion schedule was 17.00 to 20.00.  I arrived at about 16.45, the committee were preparing for the event.  People were coming between 17.00 to 19.00. The activities started at about 19.00 with dinner, continued with photo slideshow and games. 

Preparation

The boys preparing audio-video system for the photo slideshow and 

playing 'old-time' songs

The girls preparing... something :p

Dinner time

Hmmm... delicious!

As I remember, there were chicken, shrimp, meat and ribs...

Games

The gamers work with newspapers and tapes, pretending that the newspapers are their school's uniform.  They must put on the 'uniform' on each other.

Is it your uniform? ha ha ha...

Making a boat with the newspaper...

look who's just watching and doesn't help his partner

Okay, one-two-three... Halo... halo Bandung..

Come on, help me....

We got the prize...!

Do you want to know how it feels to be a celebrity?

Junior High Reunion at Omah Sendok

St Antonius' Junior High class of 1989-1992 reunion.

The place is Omah Sendok, Jakarta Selatan.

It seemed that this place is one of the favorite place for reunion, because there were 3 reunion events here on the same day. We share the pool-side with one the alumni of SMA 53 class of 2000 (oh no... we're much older..) and one other reunion event in the main building.

These are the girls....

and these are the boys...

These are the-A-class 

The-C-class

Our spot.  The pool's photo is the view.  Just across the pool is the SMAN 53 Reunion spot.

Photo with Indira, before she left.

Christmas Holiday - Day 2

All our hotel rooms were twin beds room.  So, in my room, I shared the bed with Renni, and Nico was using the other bed.  One time at night, I suddenly heard a 'bump', I looked at Nico's bed. It was empty, so he must have been fell. So I waited to see if he would cry.  But unexpectedly, he stood up, put a big grin on his face, climbed back to the bed, and continued his sleep.  I just could not help to laugh if I remember this incident.

Morning activities

In the morning, Nico was waking up early, about 5.30 (I wonder if he remember the falling experience).  He was very excited, using the binocular to see some monkeys at the tree accross the street from our room's window. Then he ran outside to see Yudhis, who was already waking up too. After a while in Yudhis' room, he went to the other side to wake his aunt up.

There was not much in the morning plan. We freshened ourself, then went down to the breakfast area. After breakfast, some of us went to the swimming pool while the others to the parking area to fly the kite.

For Nico, it was his first 'real' swimming experience (discounted the playing at the pool-side in our apartment at Kelapa Gading when he was only a few months old). At the beginning, he was excited but also afraid to go in the pool.  But when he was accustomed to the water, he started to enjoy playing in the pool and splashing water.

 Yudhis and Vitvit played with the slide

 Water splashing

 Shower after swimming

Check-out and Lunch

At about 11am, we packed our things and ready to check-out from the hotel. Still, the check-out process took us some time. Then we proceed to our next check-point: LUNCH.

We went to Bandar Djakarta, which is just beside the hotel.  It is a seafood restaurant, where you can choose your own food -fish, shrimp, shellfish- before they are cooked for you.  This restaurant is very well placed.  The atmosphere is just right.  You can smell the sea while you are eating since it IS very close to the open sea.

 Choose your own seafood 

 Posing in the restaurant

After the lunch, we took a ride in a boat.  There are two boats available for the visitors of Bandar Djakarta restaurant. The boat will go with a minimum of 6 person on board, since there were 12 of us, we took one boat just for our family. It was just a quick round, but we could really feel the wave when the boat took us to the open sea. A really great experience!

 

Preparing to board the boat

In the boat

Closing the holiday

The boat trip was our last activity in Ancol.  After the trip we all got back to the cars and left Ancol.  The next and last stop to close the whole holiday trip was Pondok Indah Mall.  It was chosen because it is just located in our way home.  From the mall, we went on separate ways to our own home.

Christmas Holiday - Day 1

Our family started the christmas holiday today. The plan for this holiday started from the beginning of this year. The original plan was going to Bali, but since the economic crisis hit Indonesia and increase all costs, the plan changed.  

First stop : Kite Museum

There were three cars that used for this trip, one from Parung, one from Bintaro, and one from BSD. Our first destination, and also the rendezvous point, is the Indonesia Kite Museum located at Jl. H. Kamang Pd Labu - Jakarta Selatan.  

In the museum, the guide showed us the video of the story of kites around the world, then we were taken to see the sample of kites.  There were so many forms of kites from Indonesia and the whole world, even in form we had never seen before, like the form of a ship, chariot, and bicycle.  There are also kites that looks like cylinders, and a very small kite which only about 2cmx2cm!

 Different kind of kites from around the world

  Very small kite!

After we saw the kites, it was time to join the workshop.  We made our own kites!  The museum guide showed us how to make our own kites, while the smaller kids colored the drawings in smaller kites.  These activities proven to be a lot of fun for all of us.  For the children it was even more exciting since they might have never seen a real kite before.  After we finished making the kite, it was time to try it.  We all tried to fly the kites, but none of us was successful.

 Coloring and creating kites.

 Kids trying to fly the kite,

We also had our lunch in the museum.  We brought the food from home, so it was plenty of food for all of us.  We even have some leftovers to take to the hotel.

The hotel : Mercure Ancol

The next stop was the hotel.  We got some rooms at the Mercure Hotel in Ancol area.  It is a holiday season now, so almost all the rooms in the hotel had already occupied. Luckily we had our reservation a month ago and we could get four rooms for our family.  But since the hotel was considerably crowded, it took some time just to check-in and get our keys, and took a short rest.

Night activities

It was not clear what was the original plan for dinner, but the final decision was going to Pizza Hut located not very far from the hotel. Some pizzas, chicken wings, salads, spaghetties, and soup sure made our stomach full.  Even Krisna and Nico who were just had their afternoon meal at the hotel still enjoying the dinner.

After dinner, we went to visit the wedding of a family of a friend. Then we planned to go to the 'Kota Tua', but since the children had already exhausted and they were falling asleep in the car, we just drove back to the hotel and decided to called it the night.

Christmas Mass at St Ignatius Church - Atang Sendjaja Airforce base

Saint Ignatius L church located in Atang Sendjaja Airforce Base, in an area known as Semplak, which is an area close to Parung.  This year, the christmas masses for the catholic people in a large part of Bogor District area was concentrated in this church.

Actually there should be another Catholic churches in this district.  But their activity had stopped for this christmas time, since there are rejection from -what so called- the surrounding citizen.  Some churches also 'under supervision' of the Religious Community Communication Forum (or FKUB - Forum Komunikasi Umat Beragama) who tells these churches to stop their activities.  This problem had arose from the last Easter time, when some people came to one of the church and forced the church to stop the Good Friday mass.

So, this St Ignatius church is the one that was still having massed this christmas.  That's why there were so many people in every mass.  All the 'indoor' seats had already taken even about 45 minutes before the mass begun.  

But all the masses had running well this year, thanks to the security provided by the airforce personnels. 

Christmas in Parung

This year, we spent the christmas in Parung, just like last year.  Nico was picked-up by his auntie two days before christmas, while I and Renni went on the 24th.  We stay on Nico's grandma's home. There were increase of activities can be seen a day before christmas in the house, which mostly were the cooking.  

Christmas Eve

At night, on christmas-eve, after we all went to church, the children were playing with fireworks... lots of fireworks.  Nico and his cousins and friends were playing and running around in front of the house, holding and throwing the fireworks. They played until exhausted. On about 10pm, Nico got back into the house, cleaned up, hit the bed and went to sleep almost instantly.

So, after the kids went to sleep, we started the 'santa's job'.  Wrapped the presents, put on the name of the receiver on the presents, and arranged them under the tree.  And then hit the bed.

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, everybody got busy. We all prepared ourselft to go to church. Nico, who was not going on the christmas eve mass, was also joining the mass for christmas morning, since it was the 'children' mass.  All the children were bringing a present for the infant Jesus.  

We were going for the 9am mass at Atang Sendjaja's St Ignatius church. After the communion, the children were queue for the blessing, and then went to the nativity scene to present their gifts.  After the mass, every child got a goodie bag!

Opening the presents

The kids could not wait to get home after the mass.  They knew that the presents were waiting under the tree. So, as soon as they got home, they were looking for their name on the presents and opened it.  They all seemed excited, even though they didn't get all of their wish list, they were all happy. Even the dogs have their present!

Christmas feast

What everybody waiting for were the christmas feast.  It would not be christmas without the christmast feast. At this time,  there were no diet applied :)  Since the relatives could not came for some reasons, there were an abundant supply of foods, so we could bring them home :D.