The Jakarta trip...

I'm back from Jakarta... work-wise everything went on smoothly, alhamdulillah... but tak puas shopping!! uhuksss... heheh...

This biz trip was a 'kill two birds with one stone' or 'sambil menyelam minum air' as I got to meet two of my relatives who are residents of Jakarta.

I managed to meet up with Tante Ret who picked us (my boss and another colleague begged to tag along) up at the hotel before taking us to (where else?) Tanah Abang for some shopping. We only had about 2 hours to do our shopping on that first day (mana cukup!) before having a very very late lunch at around 5pm...

Thank you, Tante Ret for the great lunch and please excuse my boss and my colleague for displaying such gluttonous behavior!! heheh..

Lunch was @ Rumah Makan Garuda @ Jalan Sabang

A pic of Tante Ret and myself... Tante Ret was leaving for Kuala Lumpur the next day to attend my nephew's wedding which I had to miss!!

The next day, my boss and I stole a few hours after our official visit to Cengkaring to do some shopping in Mangga Dua. Unfortunately for us, we reached there close to 4pm when the shop owners were getting ready to close shop. I got my girls a cotton dress each at one of the shops for RM25 which was a grrrreeeat bargain!

I enjoyed looking at some the pretty ball gowns displayed... would have bought 'em for my girls if they were younger to play dress up! gerrrraaammmm tengok!

...dresses fit for a princess

The see-eee-ohh arrived Friday night for the actual event which took place Saturday morning...

Immediately after the event, my boss and I 'escaped' from our see-eee-ohh who wanted us to join him for shopping at Sarinah... we turned off our phones (jahat, kan... kesian the old man!)heheh... yelah... we had some unfinished business at Tanah Abang, what?

...my boss posing with the telekung I helped chose for his wife...

His wife had texted him earlier saying, "tak payah beli telekung...kat PKNS berlambak..." but I convinced him otherwise... back at the office after the trip he told me, "eh...my wife said thank you so much...she liked all the things you helped me chose for her..." and... they are making plans to go there end of the month to do some more shopping!!! hahaha... p/s to ms hart: memang got hantu la this place!!

After some serious shopping (I was very focused, ok... more focused than when I'm doing my KPI!) we went back to the hotel to attend a dinner hosted by the Minister. The first thing the see-eee-ohh said when he saw us was, "hangpa pi mana tadi" in his signature thick Penang accent... hahaha... ooopppsss...

dinner time... this is me with Ibu Nada, a biotechnologist with the Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology

After dinner, see-eee-ohh ajak sembang-sembang @ the coffeehouse... zzzzzz.... ngantuk (how can one be passionate talking about work on a Saturday night after 11pm, huh?) ... we then saw a glimpse of the Minister there too and told the see-eee-ohh that he should join the Minister (his boss maaa)... but, like us, our see-eee-ohh ngelat from his boss!! haha...

Before we called it a night, the see-eee-ohh pesan... "tomorrow let's meet up after breakfast to do some shopping together". Dengan bangganya I told him, "Dato', I've made plans with a relative to take me do some shopping"... and he dengan tak malunya said, "tak pa lah... we all pi sama-sama..." What???? How to escape like this???

So, after breakfast the next morning, we all went in two cars; me and Kak Emi with her three boys in Kak Emi's MPV while the see-eee-ohh and my boss and the other colleague in another.

I had wanted to go to Pasar Majestic to look at some materials for baju kurung, but the see-eee-ohh suggested Tanah Abang (again???) ... hmmm... what to do, ikut ajelah...

Thus, Kak Emi and I became the shopping consultants for the three men, choosing sarongs and clothes for their family...

I always thought Kak Emi was very pretty... even my boss commented that she doesn't look like a mom of three teenager boys...

There you go... my update for now... the computer is getting to be so slow at this hour pulakkk... more to come...