Rundown of recent events

October 28th 2004...
two weeks since my last entry!

Well, here's a rundown of some significant events:

Saturday, October 16 2004: Not much to say, except it has been exactly four years since I've encountered a certain pretty girl during a concert at Gedung Yamaha (Jalan Gatot Soebroto). Over the years I've got to know her, she unrealizingly brought quite an impact to my life.

Tuesday, October 19 2004: My girlfriend's 22nd birthday! It was quite a day for both of us. A memory I will always remember, not just because of the significance of the date, but also because of the consequences of my actions and the experience I learned through it. Well, should I divulge futher details? Refer to file 'Tanya Nysan'!
Thursday, October 21 2004: Although Tanya's birthday were two days before, I gave her my present today. It's a book about fruits. She's surprised to received, but she likes anyway. Actually, she wished I'd give her a set of puzzles. Perhaps next time.

Saturday, October 23 2004: Picked up my Dad at the airport. He's been back from Singapore, and he brought lot of experiences and photos from his recent travels.

Monday, October 25 2004: It's been the certain pretty girl's 18th birthday. Well, she happen to be studying the same university as Tanya so I took the opportunity to come by at UI and visit the pretty girl's faculty. We manage to find her (well, actually Tanya spotted her first) and I gave her a gift. A CD album titled 'Seasons' Stevan Pasero. note of importance: the food at the Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Universitas Indonesia still have much to desire tidwit note: the first time I've noticed that Kristina Heryawati wear braces.

Well, basically that's a rundown of what been happening.

Oh yeah, I recently came across a nice website that had several links to some good game music. It's at http://soundtracks.mixnmojo.com

-Arvin N. Chandra

My Father's 51st Birthday

HAPPY 51st BIRTHDAY, DAD!
I want you to always know that I'm proud to be your son and to have you as my father. You've been a great mentor in my life and for that I am eternally grateful. You've done so much for other people and though things may not always go as you expected, know always that anything done in His name never goes into vain! Be joyful and grateful always Dad!
Sender:
+628********
Sent:
11-10-2004
22:29:49

A Busy Friday

Phew! What a Friday.
Wanna know what I've been doing?

• Guitar lessons with Rainer Wildt at his house. The lessons started a bit late becuase Pak Rainer asked me to look into his daughter's computer. Apparently he tried to install some racing games but couldn't execute a few of them. Well, I think I manage to make a few games playable without messing Reni's desktop. Riddle me this: Why is a guitar expert asking a psychology student to tweak his daughter's desktop?

• Teaching guitar as an extracurriculer activities for 10-12 year olds . I'm teaching at SDK VI (which is pretty near my home) from 12.30 - 1.30pm. I get paid for Rp.75,000 for an hour per week. I kindda enjoy the activity, although teaching kids that age in suc a limited time and space makes me sigh.
  I have a pupil name Devina Purba, a sixth grader. Her guitar skills are much better than the rest of her class, thanks to her taking guitar lessons at Yamaha Gatot Soebroto. Funny thing, her teacher, Arthur Sahelangi, is the same teacher I studied with before I moved to Pak Rainer.
  Note: So I become a guitar pupil in the morning and a guitar teacher in the afternoon.

• I'm now taking a computer course on web design at Computrain (www.computrain.edu). It's the first time outside school I took a computer course. During my highschool days I learned DOS, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase and QBasic. Nowadays those programs are hardly used, but my skills in DOS are the ones that thrusted me to know computer as much as I do now. You know what? I actually miss the good ole' DOS days. C:> anyone?
  Note: Two of my old schoolmates are working at Computrain. Frans Gomedi is a full timer, while Erwin K. is a part-timer.

• Oh yeah, I should mention that I called Putri today. It's been quite a while since I've last chatted with her and I can say that today's chat was quite enjoyable. Interesting.

My story about love...

From the desktop of Nathanael Fraix

From time to time there lot of things in life that are worth mentioning. On this occasion I just want to mention a bit about my past. More specifically, my past feelings with members of the opposite sex. People would say that I ain't much of a shy person, and frankly I do enjoy the company of beautiful women.

I've fallen in love several times, and been rejected in nearly all occasions. It's been six years since I've first confessed my feelings toward a girl, and since then my love life been like a coaster ride.

Honestly, I wouldn't know what I'd be had I not met, knew and fell in love with Tanya. She's been a real blessing in my life, helping me discover more about my strengths and weaknesses, as well bringing me closer to God. It is the knowing that we both love God more than we love each other has been the foundation of our relationship.

I'll explain more later.

Sleeping over my car

From the desktop of Nathanael Fraix

Whew!

It's been quite a week today.
In my last blog I mentioned that my cousin Ernst was having a birthday. We celebrated it last night at steakhouse in Gading (namely Mel's steak).

But let me give you a rundown of what happen last Wednesday night:
Tanya asked me to drive her to a certain hospital in Jatinegara (namely R.S. Mitra Internasional a.k. R.S. Mitra Keluarga) where she wants to check up with a certain doctor (namely dr. Teddy). The purpose of the check up is for verification purposes only. I don't know why she had to go the that doctor at Mitra hospital is practically the other side of the city from her home (which is at Kota) aside the fact that people say he's good and he knows his stuff. Anyway Tanya got the appointment number 14, and he practices from 6 till 9pm.

We arrived at the hospital on 7, and I went through the hospital's parking lot twice to find no parking space so I decided to exit, pay my parking fee (Rp.1500) and search for a vacant space nearby the hospital. My choice of parking space was the lot in front of a Christian bookstore name Kalam Hidup. It's just next to Dandy bakery and Bakmi Keriting restaurant where my aunt frequents before. Settling and turning off the car, I left my blue Mitsubishi Kuda Grandia locked and settled and head towards the hospital hoping that the parking attendant won't be upset by me.

There was the routine registration purposes/looking for the doctor/where's the doctor stuff, and at 7.30 we waited and waited in the waiting room (it's about to get boring from here) and noticed there more guests waiting for the same dr. Teddy. Fortunately on of the room's TV sets was showing a satellite channel of HBO, which was showing a cool action movie starring Russell Crowe (with his handsome charming look) and Denzel Washington (with a rugged hardened look). It was a nice movie with good performances from Crowe and it ended around 8.55pm. By then the doctor still hadn't appeared we were beginning to get hungry.

"Let's find some food," I said to Tanya.

We walked back to my car and hoping to find the Bakmi Keriting still open. It wasn't. Neither was Kalam Hidup store. They closed on 8. Worst of all, the owner of Kalam Hidup usually chain his fences to prevent any vehicle getting in or out with my vehicle being one of it.
There were two cars still behind the store's inner gates, and the owner was apparently gone. The locals told me that the owner is going out for a while, and will soon be gone. They expected him to return by nine or ten pm.
I waited... and waited.

Even Tanya accompanied me and waited till it was midnight.

It was very... toughening experience. By the time it was midnight I felt that I had to take Tanya home, but I also couldn't leave my car (which technically was not my car but my dad's office's) so I made her promise to go home on a cab by 1 am. When it was 1 am she still waited with me and we spent the night talking a lot and fighting local mosquitoes.

We waited longer and longer till the sun rose up around 5.30am, and one of store workers carrying the keys arrived and let us out by 7am.

We got back to my home very tired and spent. Try sleeping in your own car with lots of mosquitoes running around.

But I never felt sure or grateful knowing that Tanya really accompanied me through that night, and didn’t complain much about.

I know she probably was a bit guilty, knowing that me driving her to the hospital led me to that... but it was a real experience that night of September 29 2004.