Happy New Year!!!

11:54:00 PM

HAPPY NEW YEARRRRR :D!!!!!

A few days late, i just got back from our family trip to Yogyakarta/Solo last night-extremely tired (and puffy. Traveling makes my limbs and fingers swell, i have no idea why-water retention is a total B!) and in need for a few days' worth of rest but i can't postpone greeting y'all a happy new year so here i am!

My extended family at new year's eve gala dinner in Best Western Premiere Solo

We're used to both loud and quiet new years' celebrations, and this year... It's both loud and quiet *LOL*. We were at a party-sort of... Solo style *don't mean to sound condescending, but it's just a bit different than what we're used to* but only three of us (hunny, L and i) waited til midnight so it's sort of quiet... In the middle of all those noises, that is!

Anyway, i feel like 2016's really going to be the best year ever! Just gimmie a few days to get back to my normal self and start to really enjoy the new year...

We're actually going for another trip (adults only, this time round) in a week, so.... I can safely say that i won't be blogging about this Jogja/Solo trip for a while (so many previous trips in need to be covered yet *sigh*) but here's a short summary of it! Most of the pictures were already posted in my Instagram tho!

L and i on the train to Jogja

As train rides are usually COLD (freezing, even), i wore that black sweater since i don't do very well with cold. Turned out that we got a carriage with broken air conditioner -____-. The other carriages next to ours were fineeeee, but ours felt more like a freaking sauna. Complaining brings nothing but empty promises (L even overheard one staff telling his colleague when he told his supervisor he was told to let it be because they couldn't careless WTF Sancaka, you're on my black list!). I did some investigation and found same complaints from others weeks before-that means they got the same complaints for weeks and really couldn't careless WTF!!!!!

Btw, wanna a hear disgusting story? I don't wash my new clothes-and i only wear (and pack) new clothes in this trip-including the black sweater i was wearing. Problems with cheap clothes? Yea... Sometimes the die bleeds-badly. Thanks to the sauna-like train ride, i was sweating considerably and the black die bleeds-i was a black woman for a few hours under my sweater, alright!


At Grand Zuri Hotel Yogyakarta-at last! Couldn't be more relieved for finally being free from the friggin hot train!

We went to Parang Tritis beach right after, as i know we're going to be sweaty and dirty anyway i decided to keep wearing the same clothes (plus i packed very lightly and don't have any spare clothes WTF) :p. I smelt like sweet soysauce LOLOLOL combination of the new clothes, my body mist and sweat! More pictures and stories of our time in the beach in another blog post. Dunno when

L has a thing for trendy eateries, we originally wanted to have dinner at Raminten (we ended up going there for lunch the next day) but it was 8.30 PM (with 3 kids under 9 who hadn't eaten) and the queue was like... 2 hours' worth so we had to go somewhere else. This is where we ended up, Madame Tan restaurant-again more pictures in another blog post haha

Day 2 : Finally got to try House of Raminten, here we are with their signature boobie mugs (the one on the left is actually ours, we bought it from the souvenir store). Rather interesting place (no need to repeat that more pictures will be available in another blog post, right?) but quite possible where...

I got this *cry* huhuhu :(. I have no idea what those are. Probably bugs' bites. Or allergy reaction. Maybe there were ticks in the lesehan, but there's also a possibility of bugs in the sheets :(. They're still there now, looking worse (all blackening up and all) *sigh*. Hopefully will heal soon...

Like some true blue Asian, we spent the afternoon shopping at a mall :p. Then it was time for some hip and trendy fresh milk at Nenener's *LOL*

We spent majority of our time in Yogya... Eating *LOL*. A true culinary trip alright. We had a bit of a different type of food for dinner, steak! Yum! Picture taken before the steak arrived and my mum freaked when she was the blurry black figure at the back (who clearly is a waiter), convinced that it was something supernatural -___-

We're going to Solo the next day, but we stole some time to go to Malioboro (actually our hotel is located in Malioboro, just at the end of the street side stalls) to do some shopping.

L and i squeezed our fat asses in the small becak *sigh*

The becaks and dokars all charged outrageous prices for the ride back and L kept on stopping to bargain-but in the end we walked the entire way back *LOL*. It really wasn't that far actually. Stopped by real quick for a pic with the colorful, iconic statues. Oh, i promise that's not a giant camel toe, i had to bend my knees to avoid shielding the statues entirely and my wide legged overall created that unflattering illusion ZZZ

Then we drove (well, our husbands did) to Solo... I was quite happy when we checked in the Best Western Premiere hotel and saw that the room's quite pretty but my happiness didn't last because it became very apparent that they were not ready for explosion of guests >.<.

Service was horrible (nobody picked up when we tried calling the receptionist AND housekeeping), i found stains in the sheets (hey, i'm not paying over 1 mill for stained sheets!) and so were others because they even ran out of fresh linens due to complains WTF, getting into lifts are impossible because there were soooo many people and not enough lifts and then i found blotches of dried blood on my room and the bathroom. Most possibly's someone's menstruation blood WTF. Best Western Premiere Solo please step up your game it's so lame!!!! #annoyed.

Anyway. The room rate for the 31st included gala dinner

The theme was Casino Lokal and dress code was long dress *LOLOLOLOL*. Who the hell brings long dresses when they travel. Not me -___-. But my matching set looks pretty awesome anyway :p

The gala dinner dragged on for HOURS, it was getting super boring pretty fast. The grand parents and the kids retired to their rooms early, then three of us found the DJ and open bar outside :

Where they served free beers, we go. Although they were so badly diluted that it took me the entire glass to feel slightly warm (i'm not a very good drinker). Here we listen to the DJs, watch some people dances (and laugh at them. Hey, they had some funny movements!), admire (and getting scared because the debris actually fell on us) fireworks and count the clock down to 2016!

We spent the first day of 2016 Batik hunting (and later, shopping at a mall nearby our hotel). Would've done more (preferably something cultural) but most places were closed due to the new year...

Went to Kampung Batik Laweyan

It really has some vintage, awesome spots for photos!

I spent more than i ever expected i ever would for batiks. These i actually bought at Yogya tho, and a lot more not pictured

Asked my Little O for a fake candid pic and stared at each others eyes, his reaction? "Staring contest??? Let's!"

My dad bought some batiks at Yogya and promptly left it somewhere in the mall *sigh*, i just realized that i inherit my possessive nature from him. Hunny bought him a new, nicer batik at Laweyan and his mood improved immediately. Definitely strange like me. This sparked some jealousy from my mum *LOL* so hunny bought her a dress for Xinjia. Who knows there'd come a day when my parent actually asked me to buy them clothes?

I felt a bit bad for Little O because the point of us having this trip is because we can't bring him to our trip next week-but it seems like the adults were having a lot more fun than him. He told me that a true holiday should consists of zoo and museum visits-plus a lot of sleep. So i decided to stole some time before we go back to Surabaya the next day to Pura Mangkunegaran (because we've been to Keraton last time we were in Solo).

Eek was being irritating as usual tho. I should ask L if she minds me getting him some electric doggy collar so i can zap him whenever he's being annoying? LOLOLOLOL

That covers about all! I do have a lot more stories about this trip that i'm gonna go in detail in (yes, you know it) other blog posts, i just want to keep y'all updated for now!

Gotta go now, TTYL!