Merry Christmas!!

Toba trip!

yeah, on 8-11 Dec we went to lake toba for a short getaway. and an additional agenda: celebrating my birthday.

it was a great one, i received 3 cakes! by far, it's the most cakes i received on my birthday. hahaha

i love the view at samosir island, it's so greeennnn and soooooo tranquil. feels like in LOTR set. hahaha. it turns out i don't need to go to new zealand to get "almost the same" view in LOTR :p here are some of the snapshots

The lake is sooo huge, i think it's normal for ppl long ago to misunderstand it as a sea. it's pretty clean, considering the standard of cleanliness in indo haha.. at least at the samosir side. from the parapat side, it's not so clean after all.

because we passed by sunday during our trip, we went to HKBP church, per my friend's suggestion. the sermon was conducted all in Batak language, from the start to the end. i can guess some of it, luckily hahaa. and the church member made an effort to read Bible passage in English for us, thinking we can't speak Indo :p appreciate the effort though hehe.

oh! and because it's near christmas, they started to have some choir performances. Batak ppl are famous for their nice voice, and turns out it's true! too bad the video i recorded was not so good in quality, so i won't upload it haha.

 and here are more views on beautiful lake toba! and samosir island!

King Sidabutar was one of the famous three Kings in Samosir island. other than that, i don't really know the history of King Sidabutar, because there is no local tour guide to give us a bit of historic explanation about him :(

nah, this one is a picture of a "round table" where the past ruler (one of the three famous Kings, i forgot his name..) and his advisers judged a criminal. the house in the backgournd is the traditional Batak house. only the house of the Ruler has a bull's head hanging on the door frame. underneath the porch, there's a prison where the criminal was jailed for one week. on the left of the so called "round table" was a huge tree where they consulted with the spirits.

during that time, only 3 crimes were considered worthy of prison sentence.

1. sex offenders (rape, etc)
2. murders
3. false testimonies

the sentence for petty crimes such as thefts were not so severe, the criminal would only be subjected to slavery for a certain period of time. whereas those who committed the 3 above crimes would be jailed for one week and executed. usually, the criminals had supernatural abilities which would make them difficult to be killed, BUT on certain day they were weak. for that reason they were jailed for one week to let the rulers know which day was his weakness day. after consulting with the spirits and reached an agreement, they would execute the criminal on the day when he's weak.

throughout the prison sentence until the execution, the criminals were treated like animals. the location of the prison was on the same level as the shed for flocks, which was underneath the main house.

on the execution day, the criminal was laid on his back on a stone. then the executioner/priest will cut his skin to test whether his supernatural power was still there or not. after they're sure his power was no longer present, the executioner beheaded him. after beheading him, the criminal's heart and liver were taken and eaten, just like they ate animals'. according to the tour guide, they no longer viewed it as cannibalism, because they had treated the criminal just like animals because of his crime. the criminal's body would be thrown to the lake and his head would be thrown to the forest. for one week, the villagers were not allowed to fish on the lake to avoid contamination by the criminal's remaining black magic / supernatural abilities.

the execution MUST succeed. failure would lead to the execution of the executioner, by beheading him. that's why it's important to make sure the criminal's power was no longer there to protect him from death.

this was practiced until Nomensen came. when he came, no black magic worked on him. because of that, Batak ppl were saved and since then on they worshiped God. great is our God!

okay, that's a bit of history on the 2nd King we visit. i found it pretty interesting haha. i'm looking forward to our next getaway!!!! i'm bored of singapore  ㅠ.ㅠ

random..

yesterday, smt stupid happened hahaha

*wanna open blog site to update
me: (thinking in my head) "eh.. mm.. harr... what's the web address of my blog???"
*searching google to find my own blog.. and can't find it @.@

lucky chrome now can sign in to your google account, and on the top bar in the google search, you can click "blogger" to access your blog. lalalalala...

*stupidd... muahahhaha

...
and there's an anomaly i realized lately.

one morning, my sis woke up late and i gotta put in all the clothes i hung outside the previous night. i was thinking, for sure i'd be late. only to find that i finished showering way earlier than usual and still reached office early.

another morning, i woke up and finished showering as usual, thinking i'd be able to reach office on time. only to find i reached office late.

and i don't know the reason why.

Blessings

A video testimonial a friend of mine shared last month:

click here

When it seems all hope is failing

And alone you are standing

Keep persevering

For it might be

His mercies in disguise

foodiesss (and other thing)

hehe for the past dunno-how-many months, we've been tasting a lot of dessert places. the most visited one is......

tadaa!!

honeymoon dessert!!!

at one time, we went to this dessert place for 4 consecutive weeks! sampe uda nyoba sgala macem mango desserts available in the store. hahaha

lately, soya bean pudding is gaining fame in singapore. so i tried once, from lao ban. hmmm.. just so so... (maybe bcos i don't really like soya bean curd haha)

and... when my surabaya friend came here, we tried one dessert place. very ulu, near leban cafe. i forgot the name :P anyway, the waffle ice cream is nice hehehe.. too ulu, so if by chance we're eating around leban there, maybe going to drop by again.

and and... just last sunday we went to Charlie Brown's cafe. the dessert serving was small compared to the price :( but anyway, we were too full, so we didn't really care hahaha.. they draw snoopy's characters on the cakes and coffee foam! i like it :P

cute righttt.... niat bener. tp ada cetakannya lah pasti hahaha.. left: lava cake (nice!); right: oreo cheesecake (just so so..)

and and and... my sister and i went to watch NANTA show hohohoho.. when i was in 4th year, my korean language teacher recommended us to go and watch NANTA because it is very famous in korea and USA. at that time, no money, so don't bother to look for the show hahaha.. now, got a bit of money, so just try :p and it's good! 

ergh.. a bit blur.. zoomed too much :p

they mix all sorts of performance inside. they have magic show, ballroom dance, acrobatics, comedy, pantomime, etc. however, the main performance is still the korean traditional percussion music (사물놀이), though not using the traditional instruments. they use kitchen utensils! and it's actually a musical, so they have a story going on. the story which unified the whole performance is about 3 cooks trying to prepare a wedding banquet within a limited time. BUT, the incompetent head chef's nephew is going to be working with them. for complete story and description, can read here

well.. if there's a new interesting musical, surely we're going to watch again, as long as the price is still within budget :p

I AM SOOO GOING TO BUY ONLINE!!

yeah, from now on, i'll buy my facial care / bag / dress (maybe) online!! much cheaper!! haruummphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.............. (╬ ಠ益ಠ)

masa beli barang di toko harganya ampir 2 kali lipat harga online. roarrrrrrr... and i've bought like 3 times from the store. arrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... very very very very frustrated. MY MONEEEEYYYYYY... give me back my moneeeyyyyy :'(

haizz... gotta save up more from now on. so many expenses lately. holiday, gg-back-surabaya trip, my facial care. roar. if only my face not so sensitive like it used to be :( i won't have to spend so much on skin care :(

well.. at least i stop spending more from now on. if i realize even later, i think my regret will be much bigger. hahaha

relakan.. relakan... (ngelus dada)

hello work!

yeah, finally i came back to the working community again after a longggg hibernation :p

i've just been started working for 3 weeks. so far still good. a bit blur here and there, but okay lahhh.. a bit boring, coz not much to do. but the good thing: no need to OT, so i still can give tuition hahah..

okay, on my first day, i got a surprise.. not a surprise welcome party or something like it, but a surprise in how my 1st day in PS was very similar to my 1st day in SM. here are the similiarties:

1. the name of my colleague right in front of me is Pauline and she's sitting facing me.
2. i sit 2 rows in front of my direct boss and he can see my monitor.

i was like.. err.. how can this be.. haha

anyway, i still enjoy it. a lot of break times haha..

live life to the fullest! *random talk*