Nat King Cole - Smile

A great song from Nat King Cole, full of meaningful lyrics that each of us must remember during our best and worst days...

smile... though your heart is aching
smile... eventhough it's breaking
when there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
if you smile through your fear and sorrow
smile... and maybe tomorrow, you see the sun come shining through for you
light up your face with gladness
hide every trace of sadness 
although a tear maybe ever so near
that's the time you must keep on trying
smile... what's the use of crying
you find that life is still worthwhile
if you just smile...


*thanks for my dear friend, Olip, for introducing me to this lovely song

Lunch Bag + Wristlet

Here comes another finished birthday gift project!

Pheww... July has been such a busy month~~

It's a not so fortunate coincidence that 3 of my good girl friends having their birthdays in the same month as I do, it made the month that I wished to be the most relaxed and that can give me a chance to reflect on my life so far and plan my future plans, be one of the busiest month of this year...

Nevertheless~ every time I finish a project, I can feel a surge of happiness flowing inside me, and the thought of giving a one-of-a-kind gift for my good friend makes the time and energy worth spending!

So this is my last finished birthday gift project... *drum rolls*

lunch bag

wristlet

the finished set!

I made the lunch bag on the courtesy of the tutorial in Pink Penguin - Ayumi's blog.
As for the wristlet, I found a tutorial for zippered card pouch in Craft Passion, and it became the base idea to  make this wristlet.

Lastly, I hope my good friend love this set as much as I do! :)

Hong Kong - Cosmo Mongkok Hotel (Tai Kok Tsui Hotel)

When I was doing some research for my HK trip, I often came upon comments or remarks on how small hotel rooms in HK is. I can't say I was surprised to see such comments as I also heard that HK is full of shoe-box flats.

So when I arrived at Cosmo Mongkok Hotel, the first impression that I got was that the hotel building is very slim, and tall...

It is right at a corner of a crossroad - a busy one I must say - with its main entrance facing the the other corner of the crossroad diagonally. While based on my experience 4 or 5-star hotels would have a grand and fancy entrance, that is not the case with this hotel.

I was not impressed.

Especially during our visit, they were renovating the Receptionist desk, and the temporary desk was just a small study table cramped with two laptops for two ladies receiving guests.

While we were waiting for our turn - the hotel was pretty busy - we were guessing how big our room would be. Do note that this hotel building is SLIM *I even think that my previous apartment (ard 100 sqm) is even bigger (square-meter-wise) than this hotel - hmmm, okay, maybe this hotel is a little bigger*

Our room was a Quad/Family room that can occupy 4 pax.
Friend A guessed that our room would occupy the whole floor. *a very positive guy*
Friend B guessed half of the floor. *not so positive guy*
My guess: "nah, it would be much smaller than your guesses." *one pessimis, ehmm, realistic fellow...*

And the winner is.... *drum rolls*
ME! ME! ME!!!

Our room was on 24th floor, and there were many rooms other than ours.
The room was divided into 2 separate rooms, one with single beds, a small pantry, a small desk, and a huge TV; the other room is a double bed and a direct access to a bathroom with bathtub.

fast fact on our room - taken from the hotel's website

The reality: the single beds room

The reality: the double bed room

Day view - right after the rain

Night view

Despite the initial less-than-impressed feeling I had for this hotel, I had to give a compliment for the hotel porters that helped us with our luggages, they were a bunch of helpful fellow. They attended to us right after we got off our taxi, really took care of our luggages well, and every time we were coming or leaving our hotel, they would straight away open the door for us. Though I've stayed in many (ehem.. few) 4-5 star hotels, I still think that their service is higher than average.

PS: breakfast was average with less variety of food compared to hotels in Yogyakarta (which are also 4-5 star hotels).

Hong Kong - HKIA and AREX

My Hong Kong trip was actually on 19-22 May 2012, but I only got the chance (or being less lazy than usual) today. So I'm gonna split the story of my HK trip in a few posts just to avoid a lengthy post *I never, ever like a lengthy post*

So I have one word to describe HK Airport, and it is HUGE!
Okay okay... that may have been an exaggeration on my part since I live in Singapore and the airport here is also quite huge (it comprises 4 terminals, how can it not be huge?!?!).

BUT! The reason I got the feeling that HK Airport is huge, was due to the number of open areas in the airport, and sooooo many ways leading to different gates, which got me a little bit confused, honestly. And that confusion lead me to missing the chance to take photos because I was busy finding the right way to the darn Immigration!!!

*Ladies and gentlemen, another drama-queen action just took place, please do ignore*

Anyway, right after the Immigration, you will pass a small hall where you can buy Octopus card (it's a card that stored cash value used to ride public transport - buses, MTR, etc), and also AREX tickets (Airport Express).

And since I travelled with 2 other friends, we bought a set of 3 AREX tickets (there's discount if you buy more than one - return tickets are not considered as two separate tickets unfortunately).

Then off we go to catch AREX!!

HKIA - arrival hall

the way to AREX platform right by the Arrival Hall

Inside AREX - neat looking seats

Inside AREX - compartments to place luggages

Inside AREX - cool looking progress lights to
give hints of distance of each stations

Kowloon AREX Platform - trolleys are available

can't resist not to take a picture of
a cute Angry Bird cake!

BoA 보아 - Only One

I may have mentioned in my earlier post that I have a thing for k-pop (which sometimes I feel more like a guilty pleasure than sensible one -_-...)
Anyway, it's just a part of me that I must accept. Hee~

So today, as I was browsing my frequent-visited websites, I saw a new post on BoA's new music video - Only One - that was recently released.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of BoA, I always think that she debuted when she was in a very early of age. At the age where she was supposed to be having fun and carefree and having no worries on anything happen in the world, there she was, dancing and singing on stage, building a career while most of her peers were studying in school or just playing around with their friends.

But I guess, things have turned great for her. She has a great career as a singer/dancer in both Japan and Korea, she did try to debut in US, but I suppose US audience was not that into her - tough luck!

All in all, I have no strong opinion about her in any way, until I saw Only One.

And boy oh boy... She is one of the best dancer I've seen in K-Pop world (that I know so far)!

Her movement is fluid, powerful, and yet still gives a hint of feminine touch. She is a petite lady, and yet she can move in a way that can match the masculine dance of the backup dancers very well. It gives a nice contrast.

The choreography indeed looks complicated than the usual K-Pop dance, and also looks kinda tiring to be performed live, so I'm curious how she's gonna pull it off on stage.

Her comeback stage is scheduled this weekend (if I'm not wrong), and I'm looking forward to watch it on YouTube.

Metal-Framed Purses

This week has been extremely busy due to finishing Birthday Gift projects for 2 dear girl friends.

I gave the gifts on Saturday and I'm so happy that they like it!

1st set of Purses

2nd set of Purses

This is actually the first time I made a purse using metal-frame and luckily, they came out quite good. Yay~

On an even brighter note, when I met one of my girlfriends in a cafe to pass her the gift, the patrons of the table next to us stared at the red mama-purse (the bigger one), and she asked me where I bought it. Whoaaaa... I'm so incredibly touched and proudly told her than I made them myself. She seemed impressed and complimented that the purse was pretty. I'm so happy that my hard word was acknowledge by a stranger. My girlfriend also teased me saying that maybe I can start making a business out of it. Heehee~

Jogja Trip - Sheraton Mustika Resort and Spa

Finally, we've reached the last leg of Hotel Hopping!

What can be seen from the road is just a huge signage with the hotel's name on it, and to reach the hotel building, it took less than 1 minute drive or a few minutes walk.

The unique thing about this hotel is that it is actually at a side of a hill or something, so that the lobby is actually the top most floor and the rooms are at the floors below, either facing a garden, or mount Merapi.

a statue of a dancer in the lobby

We booked a Merapi view room, and were brought to a room on 4th floor (the lobby is at 7th floor). HOWEVER, once we reached the room, I opened the door to the balcony and all I could see was a tall tree right outside the balcony. So I asked for another room and given a room on 5th floor, and right at the center, giving us an unblocked view of mount Merapi, as well as the swimming pool.

the room - it's showing its age

A beautiful swimming pool - taken from lobby

Just a glance at the room will tell you that this is an old hotel. The design was of the hotels built in the 90s, the varnishing of the wooden furniture had been peeling off, the door to the balcony needed a repainting work due to worn out by weather. It's a little bit difficult to believe that this is still a 5-star hotel just by looking at the condition. Maybe since it's part of Starwood hotel chain, it still maintains its standard so that it retains its 5-star class? Well, I'm not well-versed in hotel related stuff, but seeing the elevators were being upgraded, I do hope they were upgrading the hotel's facilities.


The breakfast in the morning was not quite as expected from a 5-star hotel. I gotta say that the breakfast in Royal Ambarrukmo Hotel was definitely the best among the three hotels.

We took a stroll to the swimming pool after breakfast, and it was as beautiful as how it was seen from the lobby. I read that it was built similarly to Taman Sari Water Palace, which explains the classic Javanese style of it.

the gates to the swimming pool

Taman Sari swimming pool

Taman Sari swimming pool

 A nice surprise was waiting at the back of swimming pool, as there were bunnies!
Yes, they were real and alive rabbits!

bunnies!

I love furry animals in general, so when I saw these bunnies, it was a real delight! :)

So, overall, Sheraton Mustika Resort and Spa was a little bit of disappointment, especially after staying in such nice hotels, it was such a huge letdown. Thankfully, the bunnies kinda helped lifting the mood, tee-hee...

Sheraton Mustika Resort and Spa
JL Laksda Adisucipto KM 8.7
Yogyakarta 55282
Indonesia
Phone: (62)(274) 488588