In The Beach

Sorry, this was not the beach.
But she positioned herself as if she was.

Beauty in Between

You don't have to look far to find some beautiful scenes in Singapore. I know it's a small country, but you wouldn't even notice that you can actually find them just around you.
So now, let's have a quiz. Guess where the pictures were taken!
You can find the answer here.

Yellow Jersey

Lance Armstrong wins Le Tour de France today and he's wearing a yellow jersey.
Wina was wearing a yellow too.

Multiply HTML Editor, You Suc****

Just wanna complain about the HTML editor in multiply for posting Journal.
I just post my lates journal and usually i will add a picture, at least one picture, in it.
For blogger, i just use the the "Blog This" feature in flickr.com or i just edit the html in blogger to twist the display a bit.
For friendster, i can just copy from the posted blog in blogger without additional editing.
For multiply, it's a little bit complicated. I don't know why, but somehow i have to do additional editing with the html. And in fact, i really don't mind at all to do that. I know html, i can tell you.
But it turns out it's not as easy as i think. It's very inconsistent. Sometimes the html code is displayed.
See this result:

Wina has dinner" height="500" width="375">

So, multiply, please fix this bug! Thank you.
-wawan-

Missing You

Everyday wina will wait for her father to go back from the office. If at about 8 pm i'm not home yet, she will be restless. And as soon as i'm home, she'll be happy again.
Having your own child, frankly, i have never imagined that i will be missed that much.
Wina is in Jakarta now until 3rd of August. And i don't know whether you will believe me or not, she is still waiting for me, and of course, i'm in singapore. So the only way to make her calm is by keeping calling me (Ayah, it means 'Dad') a few times. But unfortunately she sometimes wakes up in the night and is crying a bit. My wife called me, and told me not to miss her much, 'cause it's probably causing how the way she acts. (As the saying goes, "If you think about someone, that someone will think about you too")
Last night I called my wife and talked to wina as well. And she was listening to my voice as if she knew who she was listening to.
And you know, that night she can sleep well, very very well.
So if you're surprised how on earth, a 6 months old baby, could miss her dad so much, don't ask me, i'm wondering it myself.
-wawan-

In The Beginning

DSCN0477
Originally uploaded by winanci.

After 5 years of waiting ... Winanci Zahrawaini Setiawan 2.75kg, 47cm, 1st of January 2005, 16.12 Jakarta time.

In May 2004, we knew that we were expecting a baby. We didn't know, still, whether it's a boy or girl, but we were hoping for a baby girl.
The first pregnancy test my wife had, we couldn't believe it. We had to do it a few times on different occasions. Then it turned out to be a reality. Alhamdulillaah (Thank God) was the only thing we could say, and certainly, that was the only thing we could think of. I mean when a human reaches his (or her) limitation and finally he gets what he wants, it has to be an Act of God. Nothing more, nothing less.

After the first scanning & all the tests, we still didn't really know if it is a girl or boy. And because i wanted my wife to be with her family, i sent her to Jakarta to give birth there.
The doctor there told us that it had to be a boy because the heart beat was like a boy's one.

The due date was January 6th, but unfortunately for us, even for Indonesian people & for the world, the tsunami struck. To help the people of Aceh, our doctor chose to volunteer to go there. And because of that, the delivery had to be done ahead of schedule.

So my wife stayed in hospital since December 30th, and as for me, i was still in Singapore helping the embassy to pack all the things donated for people of Aceh & Nias.
I flied immediately after i heard the news, and reached Jakarta the next day.

Before wina was born, we kept telling her, "Come on, baby, don't put your mother in pain too much and too long!" We expected her to be born on December 31st, 2004. It was mainly because in Singapore, if you were born on this date, usually you will end up being the youngest student in your class :). But, it happened with the best result.

And finally, the moment that we had been waiting for. The baby was born on January 1st 2005. Yes, it's a new year and it's a new life for us. What a time!
Wina, we were praying (and still are) that you will become a sholihah (good) kid, and useful to all the people around you. Remember that the prophet said, "...The best person is one who is best for the people and the most useful person is one who is most useful for the people."

(If you'd like to post your new born baby, you can join flickr.com and join the just_born group)

Wanna be Like Us

DSCN1497
Originally uploaded by winanci.

Wina does not eat much. They say it's because she has exclusive breast feeding since she was born until 6 months old. She likes to eat cheese (of course, we make it very soft before she can eat it), she loves bean curd, and especially she loves everything that we eat, no matter what.
This picture shows the 'best' part of her when she eats, but most of the other part, it's quite a mess :).
What do you think, guys, is it normal?
I think it is. We just have to be patient when we feed her (that's easy for me to say, my wife is doing almost all the work :-P )

Jajanan (just a foodcourt stall, not a restaurant)

Location: Jurong West St. 91, Best Coffee Shop
o It provides Indonesian food.
o there are a few menus, but two to be noticed: Batagor & Ketoprak.
o the Batagor is good (i haven't eaten batagor anymore since quite some time), 7 or 8 out of 10.
o the ketoprak is far from good, but in Singapore where you couldn't find it anywhere, that should be enough, 5 or 6 out of 10.
o for a limited time, there is a 10% discount (only matters if you treat 10 to 20 people) :-P

Do I really look like one?

Most people who meet me for the first time will think that i'm chinese. Do i really look like one? I don't really mind actually. But the problem is that they start talking to me using chinese and unfortunately, i don't speak one.
And since the first time it happened, i always say to myself, "Wawan, learn daily chinese, at least learn how to order a food, or name a price!".
Until now, i still couldn't do that. I might not have the time or i might not have the urge that i need.

Loves to Read

Wina loves to read magazines, books, anything with a lot colourful papers. Well, actually, she's not reading them, but she's playing with them.
She will try to open them, squeeze them, make a mess of it. And for that reason, we never allow her to 'read' the books or magazines from the library, otherwise we'll get a fine for sure.

Again, New

Blogging, sounds simple, isn't it? But it isn't. I mean i had websites, journals, blogs, etc. and none of them was easy to manage.
And when we're talking about blogs, there are a lot of blogs out there. Multiply, Friendster and of course, Blogger. I even set up my own blogs. Installed it and set it up myself (not to difficult though).
And there is also Photo blogs, it's something like Teh Tarik where you mix 'normal' tea & milk, but it's mixing blog & photo sharing.
Anyway what i'm saying is, i decided to create a brand new journal or blog or whatever you want to call it. The reason is that i have a lot of stories about my daughter, wina, and i didn't get a chance to share it (of course if people want to read it). And since i don't know which blog i should use, i decide to use all the mfb (multiply, friendster & blogger). I have flickr & fotki too, but i don't think a lot of people know them.
You might say, "hey, you can't even update one journal, let alone three!". But what the heck, let's just do it.
If i can't update them, so be it.