Irza Playing DrumMania: "Almost Easy" and "Concertino in Blue"

In addition to his weekly drum lesson at the School of Music Clef at Suntec City, Irza also loves to play DrumMania, the drum simulation game which can be found at many arcade centres in Singapore (and Timezone in Indonesia as well). His skills in playing the drum simulation game is quite good now, even better than me when playing certain songs. When he's playing it, usually other people will normally gather and watch him play.

I managed to take some videos of him playing the simulation game. Apologise for the low quality of the videos since they were taken using my daughter's mobile phone camera. I also didn't manage to record the full songs because I needed to take the picture silently, since the arcade centre actually doesn't allow anyone to take any pictures, let alone taking videos. :)

The drum simulation equipment he's using was the latest one, DrumMania v5: Rock to Infinity.

Almost Easy:

Concertino in Blue:

Kastengel ala Indra and Inka-Irza

Following last year's success in making kastengel cheese cookies, I made the same cookies last Saturday afternoon to celebrate this year's Hari Raya Idul Fitri, before we went to the KBRI's buka puasa event.

Following exactly the same recipes as last year, I mixed 200 grams of margarine and 50 grams of butter with 2 egg yolks, and then manually mixed them with 350 grams of plain flour and 200 grams of shredded edam cheese. After shaping, I put egg yolk and shredded cheddar cheese as toppings before putting them on a tray and bake them inside the oven under 170 degree Celcius temperature for about 20-30 minutes.

During the kastengel cookies making procees, I got help from Inka and eventually Irza who also wanted to join the fun :), while my wife helped us to bake them.

Before someone is asking :), no, I don't take orders. :) I'm only making these cookies for personal and family consumption only... :) :)

More pictures can be found here.

Irza's Jam Session with Kemejas

To practice for his upcoming concert at his music school next month, Irza had a very fruitful jam session with my friends from Kemejas band last Sunday. Thanks to om Renatha (bass, guitar), om Audi (bass, guitar, keyboard), om eRBe (lead guitar) and tante Fika (vocal) for helping Irza in practicing his drum. :)

Other than Won't Go Home Without You (Maroon 5), which is the song Irza will be performing during his concert next month, we're also covering some other songs, such as Smooth (Santana), Carnival (The Cardigans) and Sweet Child O'Mine (Guns N' Roses). Other than the Maroon 5 song, the other songs were not actually planned and Irza haven't practiced them yet but fortunately he can follow and cover them quite nicely... :) Unfortunately, we didn't manage to cover Cokelat's Bendera, which was requested by tante Fika, since Irza really was not prepared to play that song.

Irza was really having a great time. He was a bit disappointed when the two hour period was over and is looking forward to the next planned jam session this coming Sunday. :) Hopefully, at that time, om Sandy and tante Detta also can join us. :)

Again, thanks friends for your time and effort in having the jam session with Irza and helping him to practice. :)

Weekend Trip to Johor

Two weekends ago, we drove up to Johor for a short weekend getaway, to celebrate our 9th anniversary as well as testing my new GPS receiver to Malaysia.

We stayed at Cinta Ayu All Suites Hotel [ note: Cinta Ayu, not Cinta Laura :P :P ], a nice apartment-type hotel located in the vicinity of Pulai Springs Resort. This resort is located on the outskirts of Johor Bahru, along the main road leading to Pontian.

Although the resort is meant more for golfers (since it's surrounded by two 18-hole golf courses), it also provides quite good facilities for families as well. Other than the hotel's swimming pool which is located on the second floor, we can also use the main resort's facilities, including the swimming pools which have nice views over the golf course and mount Pulai. One of the swimming pools is also equipped with a slide, which Irza enjoys very much.

We chose a 2-bedroom type of apartment for S$170 per night, which is booked online from AsiaTravel and includes breakfast for 4 persons. The 1-bedroom type is also available for S$128 per night. The breakfast is provided at the Cinta Terrace restaurant and the food is quite nice. There's also a spa facility at the sports centre, and the price is quite reasonable. Quite worth the value for money, in my opinion.

We were not only making use of the hotel's facilities, but also made some side trips to couple of locations in and around Johor Bahru, either for food or sightseeing.

On Saturday (12/4) afternoon, we went to AEON Tebrau City and had lunch at the JUSCO food court located on the second floor. This was our third visit to this biggest shopping mall in Johor, and other than the food court, we also went there for the amusement centre for the kids (which is located just next to the food court) and, of course, the Breadtalk bakery shop and its popular spicy chicken floss buns, which is halal in Malaysia.

In the evening, we visited Danga Bay and had dinner in one of the BBQ seafood restaurants there. The food is superbly delicious, and the price is surprisingly reasonable.

We had our dinner in an alfresco seating environment, with trains passing by giving amusement for the kids. We actually could ride the train however we were not able to find the location of the station where we could buy the ticket and board the trains. :( The kids were disappointed for not being able to ride the train. Will have to find the exact location of the station when we go there again. Anyone knows? :)

On Sunday (13/4), after checking out of the hotel, we went to Gunung Pulai and since the main recreational forest park is closed, we went to a less-visited attraction spot located south of the main park. My GPS told me that there is a waterfall on that spot as well, however when we went there we couldn't find it. Just saw some parked cars and some food stalls, and some locals having a bath in the river there.

Another thing I would like to share is that now we do not have to fill in the Malaysia immigration cards when we pass through their immigration, making trips to Malaysia much easier now.

More pictures can be found here and here.

Sentosa Flowers 2008

Another part of our CNY holiday itineraries in Singapore, on the first day of Chinese New Year, we went to Sentosa to visit the Sentosa Flowers 2008 event in the morning, prior to our visit to Aa Duddy and Teh Ellen's place in Tampines for a reunion lunch. Sentosa Flowers 2008 is an annual flower festival held at Sentosa, spanned from Imbiah Lookout to the Beach station.

Having visited the earlier Sentosa Flowers 2007 last year, I found that this year's festival is a bit disappointing. The "blooming" quality of the flowers is not as good as last year's event. I feel that last year's event is more blooming with more variety of beautiful flowers throughout the Imbiah hill. Nevertheless, for the first-timers, this event is quite worth for a visit.

It opens between 9am and 10pm, until 17 February 2008. The admission to the event itself is free, although of course you would still need to pay for the entrance fee into Sentosa ($2) and the transport ($1 using Sentosa Express or Sentosa bus). I would suggest you start your journey from the entrance near Imbiah station. From there, you can explore the flowers park around Imbiah Lookout before heading to the Merlion, and passing through the Merlion Walk all the way to the Beach station.

I agree with Mbak Susan that the best time to visit the event is early in the morning, not only to avoid the hot baking sun, but also to avoid the crowd as well. Different from last year, now they open until 10pm every day, so it might be a good idea to come in the evening.

More pictures can be found on my wife's Multiply site here.

Related links:

• Sentosa Flowers 2008
• Lunar New Year - 7 Feb 2008
• Sentosa Flowers 2008

Festive Street Stalls at Chinatown

As I have mentioned here (in Indonesian), this is the first of our itineraries in enjoying Chinese New Year holiday in Singapore.

Wednesday, 6 February 2008, on Chinese New Year's eve, I got half day off from work. After picking up my kids at Clementi (my wife is attending a gathering with her friends there), we went to the Chinatown area, just to see the hustle and bustle of the street stalls around Pagoda Street and Temple Street during Chinese New Year's eve.

Since the Chinatown area would be closed to traffic in the evening, we parked our car at The Central in Clarke Quay, and we took the North-East Line MRT train to Chinatown.

Both Inka and Irza got themselves some CNY-themed souvenirs from the market.

More pictures can be found here.

Housewarming Event at Om Bagus and Tante Luki's New Residence

On a nice Sunday afternoon, we went to Anchorvale in Sengkang, north-east of Singapore, to attend a "housewarming" event at om Bagus and tante Luki's new residence there. The food is all wonderfulicious, with the hosts preparing sambal goreng, fried chicken, tekwan, siomay for lunch, with all the desserts such as fruit jelly and watermelon fruit cuts thrown in.

Inka and Irza were very happy playing with all their friends there, both in the house and at the playground outside the block. Irza even took some pictures of the event, together with other photographer-kids Kanaya and Fresha. All the three little photographers were using their respective parent's cameras, and they ended up taking pictures of each other. :) :)

Irza, as well as Kanaya, were fond of and a big fan of Naurin, tante Lenny's baby daughter. That explains why Irza took quite a lot of her pictures. Irza were also taking pictures of om Yuwono who were trying to take pictures of the three little photographers. :) :)

Well, some of you might asked, why Irza prefers to play with the girls (especially pretty girls like Fresha or Kanaya :P :P) rather than with the boys? :) Because Irza always tend to fight, and not play, with the boys, hahaha... Which reminds me or another thing, sometimes Irza refers himself as a "playboy". Of course, his definition of playboy is "a boy who likes to play...."

More pictures during the event can be found here, while the pictures taken by Irza (which some of them has been cropped and edited by me for your pleasure viewing) can be found here. Other pictures can also be found here (thanks to Mbak Ati).

Another Trip to Sentosa

We are not going anywhere for holiday during this school holiday season, since we already went back to Jakarta during Hari Raya festival last October. Therefore, last Saturday (23 December 2007), I took Inka and Irza to Sentosa for a short half-day sightseeing.

We reached Sentosa at around noon, and after parking our car at the Beach carpark, we took the yellow line bus straight to Dolphin Lagoon.

There was a promotion for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents only, the combined Dolphin Lagoon and Underwater World admission fee is only around $13 for adult and $8 for child (compared to the usual $19 for adult and $12 for child). Inka and Irza also attended the "meet and greet" session with the dolphin after the show, where they had the chance to touch the dolphin.

After the show, we took the red line bus to Imbiah Lookout for lunch. The red line bus we took is an open top-deck bus similar to the Hippo bus, so Inka and Irza were having the great time enjoying the view from the top deck of the bus.

We had our lunch at Sarpino's Pizzeria, located in Imbiah Lookout. After lunch, we took the blue line bus to Siloso beach bus stop. Our first stop is Fort Siloso. We took the Fort Siloso tram from the tram stop near Underwater World to the entrance of the fort complex at Fort Siloso Square. Inka and Irza were having a great time playing at the playground and explore the tunnels there.

Our next stop after Fort Siloso is Underwater World. The entrance fee has been paid together with the entrance to Dolphin Lagoon, so it's a waste if we skipped it. There's an interactive pool where we can have a close encounter and touch stingrays. Inka and Irza were also having a great time in the acrylic tunnel inside the giant aquarium.

From Underwater World, we took a leisure stroll along Siloso beach, before going back to the Beach carpark using the beach tram. Unfortunately, the tickets for the Songs of the Sea shows has been sold out for the day, so we had to skip it. Will schedule to watch the performance another time later. :)

More pictures can be found here.

Inka's 8th Birthday

Inka was having her 8th birthday on 11 December 2007, and we celebrated her birthday by inviting some of our Indonesian friends over for BBQ gathering at our apartment's BBQ pit and club house, on Sunday evening, 16 December 2007.

My wife ordered the birthday cake from her friend Syanti, and the theme of the cake is dinosaurs, Inka's favourite creatures. More pictures of the birthday cake before delivered to us can be found here.

Similar to Irza's BBQ birthday party last August, we ordered the bulgogi chicken satay and black pepper beef satay from Seoul Garden. For this event, my wife also ordered the famous Braddell satay from Hany, which is a hit for the kids. My wife also made her special home-made macaroni schotel.

Some of the kids also had the chance to swim at the swimming pool, which is located just next to the BBQ pit. Unfortunately, it was raining near dusk, and we had to move the party to the club house, which is located behind the BBQ pit. The kids were also having fun playing piñata.

Some of Inka and Irza's friends who came include Aidan, Hanan and Haifa, Marsya, Fazil, Naira and Fauzan, Annisa and Nadia, Nadira and Adam, Titis, Zahira, Ivan and Rayna.

More pictures can be found here.

Irza's Graduation and Concert Day

Last Sunday (18 November 2007), we attended the PPIS Kindergarten's Year End Graduation Ceremony and Concert 2007, at the auditorium of Spring Singapore building, Bukit Merah Central. PPIS Kindergarten is a kindergarten where Irza is enrolled in the past couple of years, and it's managed by the Young Women Muslim Association. One of its centres is located in Bukit Batok, only 5 minutes drive away from our current residence.

Abhy, the son of Iko and Hera, one of our neighbours, is also enrolled on the same school. This year is their last year in the school, since starting next year, both of them will start studying in a primary school, which is also near our residence, Bukit Timah Primary School (BTPS). BTPS is also the school where Inka is studying at the moment.

Irza and Abhy were being dropped off at their school at 8am in the morning, since they were taking the school bus from their school to the venue in Bukit Merah Central. We (myself, my wife and Inka) went together with Iko, Hera and Kanaya, and we reached Bukit Merah Central at around 9:20am, 10 minutes ahead of the schedule. This is for us to get the best seats, especially for me and Iko to put our tripods for our cameras. :)

After attending the event, we went to Far East Plaza on Scotts Road, near Orchard, to have lunch together with Iko, Hera, Abhy and Kanaya. We intended to have lunch at KFC there, but the place is full since it was during busy lunch time, so we instead went to Long John Silver's and had our lunch there instead.

More pictures during the event can be found here, while the pictures at Long John Silver's can be found here. Some other pictures can also be found here, thanks to Tante Hera. Her article with regards to the same event can also be found here (in Bahasa Indonesia).

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Yesterday, on a nice Saturday morning (3 November 2007), I took Inka and Irza to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve to find a place to play badminton. The nature reserve is located very close to our home, only around 5 minutes drive. The entrance to the nature reserve is on Hindhede Drive, which is located just opposite the Courts store along Upper Bukit Timah Road.

This is not the first time we visited the nature reserve, and myself, Inka and Irza had climbed the hill to the top before, which is reputedly the highest point in Singapore at 164 metres above sea level. However, even though the journey to the top was quite exciting since we needed to pass a shady rainforest, but the view from the top of the hill was disappointing.

So, this time round, we decided not to climb the hill again, and instead we went to the Hindhede Nature Park near the entrance to the nature reserve. The nature park is a hit for Inka and Irza since there's a playground with swings, slides and suspension bridges near the Waringin Hut. The slides are unique since they are both long slides going down to a valley. Inka and Irza are also having a great time with the slinger at the picnic area. We also played badminton at an open space near the picnic area.

We also went to the Lookout Point, which is overlooking the Hindhede Quarry, a massive wall of limestones near a pond. Inka and Irza actually also wanted to go up the hill again but the sun was already going up quite high at that time, so I'll guess we'll have to come back again later...

We used to see quite a lot of monkeys even at the base of the hill near the carpark, but yesterday we didn't see any. I'm not too sure what scares off the monkeys but I saw quite a lot of new house and apartment constructions near the base of the hill and that might contribute to the lesser number of monkeys around the area. Pretty sad...

More pictures can be found here.

Mid-Autumn Festival by the River

Last Saturday (15/9), after breaking our fast for the day, we went to the Central, a new shopping mall which is located just above the Clarke Quay MRT station. Our destination was the Mid-Autumn Festival by the River, which is located behind the shopping mall, along the bank of Singapore river opposite the G-Max reverse bungee site. There are many lantern showcases being displayed along the riverbank, spanning from behind the Central shopping mall until the Read Bridge. There are also some other lantern showcases at Hong Lim Park, which is diagonally opposite the Central on the other side of the shopping mall, but we didn't visit the area.

The lantern displays will be there until 30 September 2007. It opens from 5pm to 11pm on weekdays, and from 3pm to 11pm on weekends, although it's actually best to enjoy the displays after the sun goes down. The best part, it's free :) so it's quite well worth visiting this event, especially comparing to and considering the $12 (for adult) and $8 (for child) entrance fees you need to fork out to visit the Lantern Festival 2007 at Chinese Garden. Of course, the displays here are not as big and comprehensive as the one in Chinese Garden, but since it's free, what can you expect? :)

More pictures can be found on my wife's Multiply site here.

NDP Preview 2007 at Marina Bay

On Saturday, 28 July 2007, after attending the BTPS Fun Day and Open House in the morning, the whole family went to Marina Bay in the late afternoon to evening, to attend Singapore's National Day Parade (NDP) Preview.

From Millenia Walk, we walked towards Marina Square. Just outside the Marina Square, we needed to queue for security checks, before we proceed to the makeshift stadium located opposite Marina Square and next to the Esplanade, facing the floating stage on the sea. We collected our goodie bags before proceeding to the staircase and went up to find seats.

There are many types of show being staged, not only on the floating platform but also around the bay area, such as dragonboat race, paratroopers jumping from helicopters and landing on the stage, fighter planes flying above, defense display show and, last but not least, the fireworks display.

More pictures can be found here.

BTPS Fun Day and Open House 2007

Last Saturday (28/7) morning, I took the kids to Bukit Timah Primary School (BTPS), which is Inka's school and Irza's future school as well, since we have also registered Irza onto the same school as well, during the phase 1 of the registration exercise.

We went there to attend school's Fun Day and Open House 2007. There are lots of activities which the kids can participate in, including many types of games (provided by the students for the students).

To play the games, we would need to use coupons which were being sold for 20 cents per coupon. Some games only require one coupon, some others require two or three coupons. Best of all, there are prizes given to the kids depends on the result of the games being played.

More pictures can be found here.

Pasar Malam and Fun Fair at Woodlands

On Sunday (20/5) evening, the whole family went to Causeway Point, the biggest shopping mall around the north of Singapore, at Woodlands. Our destination is the pasar malam and fun fair, which is located at the open field opposite Causeway Point, near the Woodlands MRT station.

The fun fair itself is a makeshift theme park operated by Uncle Ringo, the leading amusement park operator in Singapore. However, even though it's only a makeshift theme park, you can find quite a lot of big and thrilling rides, similar to those found on permanent theme parks like Genting or Dunia Fantasy. There's even a very big (or giant?) ferris wheel called Euro Wheel, although of course you cannot compare it with Dunia Fantasy's Bianglala or the new upcoming Singapore Flyer. :)

The only downside is the ticket price, which is quite high. They sell it on a per-token basis (the token is actually a ticket) at S$2.50 per token, and most of the rides will require 2 tokens (or 2 tickets) per person, including children. Some more thrilling rides even require 3 or 4 tokens per head. Meaning, each ride will set you back from $5 to $10, per person. Very expensive.

Inka and Irza tried the (a bit slow) roller coaster and the pirate ship. Inka also tried the Sky Rider, which is similar to the Spinner ride in Genting, which is her favourite. However, this Sky Rider ride is spinning much faster than Genting's Spinner! No wonder why the minimum height limit for this ride was 125cm, which Inka was just reaching. For your information, the minimum height to ride the Spinner at Genting is only 107cm. I had to calm my wife who was very shocked to see that Inka was whirled that fast. :) Luckily, she was OK.

There's also the bumper cars! Definitely Inka and Irza's favourite. To ride these bumper cars, we had to buy separate tokens at $5 per car (not per person), and each car can take 2 persons. I rode the bumper car with Inka, while my wife shared the car with Irza. We really had fun! :) There are also some various games stalls where you can try your luck to win the prizes.

Just opposite the fun fair, nearer to the Causeway Point shopping mall and the Woodlands MRT station, there's a very big pasar malam where you can buy lots of stuff at cheap prices. Those include VCDs/DVDs, accessories, and of course, food and drinks, including the famous Ramly Burger. :)

More pictures can be found here.