parties, family, badback, and back to school

The busy days in Surabaya are now far gone, I'm back in Beijing and will be checking out my class schedules later on today. Yoichiro is somewhere up in the sky, on his way here again at the moment, and I'm hoping all goes well with his job here, because I know he tries more than hard enough.

I had, for the first time, attended a wedding of which the invitation had come with my very own name formally written on it. It was Yunita's older brother's wedding, and the four of us who went (Siska, Koim, Devia and me) had a whole table to ourselves because we got there rather late. Gran's party went smoother than I expected; it was a huge project for all of us, and Mum chose not to hire any professional event organisers. This was actually a good thing, since we all could work together and take part in organising and thus carry on a bit of responsibility in making sure everything is well planned.

For Gran's ninetieth, our whole family could at last be together at one place and time. The only ones missing were Kak Yo and baby Grace-Louise in Hongkong because she was too young to travel. I had a great time hanging out with my cousins and their families, taking them around Surabaya; even hanging around Carrefour was heaps fun!

Somehow home was not home without a great dog running around it and suspiciously barking at every visitor. Since Crazy died last year my parents have looked around for a new puppy, but only found the right one to be 'Bilo' the golden retriever. That's how his name is written on documents, but we all think it sucks. So, renaming the puppy has been a controversial subject for the last week in Seruni. Up until now I still hear no firm resolution to how the poor guy would be called.

Looking through my pictures folder and reflecting back on the times that had just passed by, I felt a overwhelming wave of awe for Gran. The MC of the party had asked her how she felt on her birthday this year, and her reply was a giggle and two words in Indonesian, both meaning "happy". I think for a human being to just turn ninety and still have such health conditions is an amazing feat by itself. Still, the more important notion to remark was the fact that this huge family she herself raised, the people we all are today, have come from the mere genetic codes in her deoxyribonucleic acid. She is, without doubt, an exceptionally successful model of the human specimen. Having all her DNA pieces coming together to be with her at the same time, I guess she has every right to be very pleased about that.

By the day before I had to head back to Beijing, things around the house had calmed down; most of everyone had also gone back home. I had a nice evening flight (they're the best!) and spent a few hours at the new Changi terminal, though I would much prefer Hongkong airport in terms of their free internet. There was nobody queueing behind me, but there was a 15-minute timer which annoyingly disconnects me in the middle of messenger conversations! Re-connecting 4 times already make up more than an hour; you'd realise how much chatting literally steals time from you.

Beijing's weather seemed to get milder as I first got back. But a sudden cold day caught me by surprise; because I hadn't worn thick enough clothes, I woke up with a sore waist the next day. The person at the massage parlour told me my body had 着凉. It was my first time to get a professional massage, and prior to this, I never knew of the so many cracking noises a body could produce. They recommended me to try out another thing called 八卦儿. My back was full of colourful circles, ranging from different shades of purple to reds and blues. Now they are mostly gone, with the exception of some badly bruised banana colours remaining.