I suck at interviews. I feel so pessimistic now. I'm not expecting any good news from IRD, but I still pray for God to give me a miracle..


At night Dianny, Nara, Ardya, and I went to KBRI to break the fast together. Unlike in the previous years, this time there were pretty much a lot of people there (but of course a lot of them left after dinner. What losers, maunya makan doang). De toute maniere, j'suis etonnee car mon ex etait la. Il a l'air mieux que jamais, mais n'importe quoi. Il ne m'interesse plus, et je ne le veux plus dans ma vie meme comme des amis, car il n'apporte que des mauvaises memoires. Toutefois, je ne le deteste pas. Bagaimanapun juga, jauh mendingan yang di England lah, hehehe..

BTW kemaren gua mo apply buat graduate position as an auditor in Deloitte London, tapi eeh ternyata udah tutup application-nya! Dulu gua niaaat banget kepengen apply buat itu, tapi anehnya kemaren pas tau kalo pendaftarannya udah tutup, gua cuma ngerasa gondok doang, bukannya kecewa ato apa gitu. Mungkin karena gua nyadar kalo motivasi utama gua untuk ke London adalah supaya gua bisa ketemu Adam instead of really wanting the opportunity to work there. Anyway, Adam itu temen kecil gua dari Jordan yang sekarang udah jadi co keren 'n baek banget lagi! Moreover, he's a very devoted Muslim, what more could I ask for? He lives 2 hours from London, tapi dia bilang dia bakalan visit gua seandainya gua bener2 pindah ke London. Aih aih sweet bangeeet!!

Labels: Daily Ramblings

Went to class today.. bla bla bla.. and after that I went window shopping to Supre before going to the bank. When I was at Supre, I saw this really pretty skirt so I tried it on. It was black, knee-length with a big bow tied on the left, and it looked really lovely on me and suited me a lot! It's different from any other skirts I've ever seen, and I just fell completely in LOVE with it!! Yet the price was $55..

So my angelic side told me, "you CANNOT buy this Dessy.. you need to save!"

Of course my devilish thought won't let me leave the store without that skirt. Therefore he urged, "go on Dessy.. buy it.. you really wannit dontchu?? Go on.. a single huge spending in a month won't hurt."

"No! DO NOT!!" the angel fought.

I hesitated for a while.. then a wonderful idea popped in to my head.

"You guys, please don't fight. I'll settle this nicely," I calmed both the angel and devil inside me. "I won't buy this skirt now."

"Horraayy!! I win !!" shouted the angel, while my devilish thought frowned malevolently.

"However," I continued, "if I succeed in the job interview tomorrow, and if in the end I will be offered the Tax Investigator position at IRD, I WILL buy the skirt to award myself for the success."

"Ha! I WIN!!" the devil exclaimed victoriously.

My inner child chuckled and said, "No silly! I'M the winner here."

Oh, but I did buy a cute, chunky bracelet from Equip. It was originally $14.95 but I got it for $3. What a bargain!! I also met Sherly in the store, then somewhere near Wholly Bagels in Willis Street I saw Randi and Priza. I continued to walk to the Cozy Cake Shop and bought two slices of raspberry cheesecake for breaking the fast. I luuvv cheesecake! I just can't get enough of it, hehe, but Espressoholic's white chocolate cheesecake is definitely the best!

Labels: Fun Times

Here I am at uni looking miserable. I've been lacking sleep quite recently, due to uneasiness in my head that kept on bothering me. There are tons of things that I need to sort out ASAP, and I've only sorted out a few of them.

Anyway, last night I broke the fast at Kania's house. My lazy bro couldn't be bothered to come so I had to lie to everyone and tell them that he couldn't come because of a headache. I finally met Om Ferry there. Om Ferry is an old friend of my dad's, and here he is in Wellington for a few days for work purposes. Back then in Jordan, his family was soooo close with mine. My dad and he were more like hangout buddies instead of work colleagues. My mom and his wife were a clique. Their daughter, Anya aka Nia, is the most devoted Harry Potter fan I've ever known (she's read each book at least 10 times!!) She used to play a lot with me and got along really well with me and my bro even though she's 5 years younger than me, and she used to sleepover at my place VERY often.

Hmm what else.. oh yeah I got some new stuffs from my mom via Om Ferry. Wheee!! Thanks mom!! She got me 2 new pairs of cropped jeans (although they were longer than what I expected -- my mom probably couldn't believe it when I told her that I'm into shorts and mini skirts right now) and HEAPS of accessories (I only asked for one or two necklaces, but oh boy she bought me tons of them, plus earrings)!! She also wanted to buy me Christina Aguilera's latest CD (Back to Basics) but she said it was like Rp100.000 or something, which wasn't worth it so she didn't buy it. Well, it was still cheaper than in NZ, but with Rp100.000 I'd rather get a few cute tops or something. Besides, I could just request the CD from the Wellington City Library, borrow it, then copy the songs into my computer, muahahaa!! (well well well, talk about piracy!!)

Ramadan is finally here. Hope we can all get the best out of it. I'm committing myself to becoming more religious this time. Inshallah I'll be able to accomplish that, and that it will continue in the future. I've just eaten a meal to prepare myself for the hunger and thirst that I'm gonna face during the day. I don't make myself bloated, cos bloated ain't good. Thank God sunset is around 6 PM these days, unlike the first time I came here where the sunset was at 9:10 PM!! Oh yeah, for the first time in my life I'm going through Ramadan without my whole family! That sucks But I'm sure I'll get through it just fine.

Anyway, unlike in the previous years, this year I'm getting tons and heaps of Ramadan wishes!! From my friends in Indonesia like Likta, Ardi, Sisi, Fifi, Foy, Echi etc.. to my friends in NZ like Nara, Harridz, Fahmi, Hana, Yessy, Rania, Fereena, Rohymas, etc.. as well as from my Jordanian friends like Maysa and Adam! Thank you so much you guys, it means a lot to me! Hope you guys are having a pleasant and fulfilling Ramadan too

From now on, my blog will have lots of pictures of celebrities that I admire! As for this entry, it's all about GEMMA WARD, my favourite supermodel! Hehe. I like the fact that she's one of the most versatile supermodels I've ever seen, she has porcelain-smooth skin, she has that unique alien-doll look that nobody else can resemble, and she's so successful from such a young age!! I think she's 18 now, but when she was 16 she already modeled for high-fashion labels like Yves Saint Laurent, Prada, Gucci, Versace, Chanel, and she even replaced Kate Moss as the face of Burberry and Calvin Klein's Obsession Night perfume. Oh, what I like most about her is that she's so naturally pretty and hasn't done any plastic surgery at all. I wish all supermodels can be as real as she is.

Labels: Celebrities

Last night I did NOT sleep at all to finish my French essay. I could have finished it early and have a few hours of sleep. However, it's amazing how ONE phrase in the essay question can have an impact on what you've already written. At about 4 AM last night, I realised that I misunderstood the meaning of "l'equilibre de l'individu". I thought we were supposed to write about how we can strike a balance between individuals in the society.. but then I realised that the phrase means "STABILITY of an individual (i.e. of oneself! Not between one another in the society!) .. which meant that the 350 words that I'd already written was ALL wrong!! Therefore I re-wrote the essay all over again. I came to the point where I was about to give up, because I thought I couldn't think of new ideas anymore (especially at 4 AM!!) I thought I should just ask for an extension, but then I managed to finish my 500 words essay by 10.30 AM. The most annoying part of it was checking for the grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, and spelling mistakes!

Anyway, at 2 PM I was supposed to do some private tutoring for Yessy and Ardya, but my mind was just full of hallucinations due to the sleepless night. Besides, I had to do handle some urgent and important stuffs that my dad told me about. At 4 PM I met up with Sherry, a great fun-loving friend of mine, in town for some shopping then we spent the rest of the night in her apartment. It was a really great night, especially as I haven't seen her in ages!! We talked, laughed, talked, laughed, watched Shark Tale, and she cooked some fried rice and this really delicious spicy green Thai curry!! Yummm!! We intended to go out for coffee afterwards, but we didn't think there was any more room for coffee, he he

Labels: Fun Times

Finalement!! I'm so relieved my 2nd auditing presentation is over. No more presentations for the rest of the year, woohooo!! I couldn't believe I talked way too fast during the presentation. I got an A for it. However I could've done better!! We were a great team though. Deepti did the best out of the group. Lauren did pretty well, and I envy her cos she already secured a job for next year at Martin Jarvie! As for Nick.. well, he had a mark taken off for cursing the whole time while presenting. I'm quite surprised about that.

Right now I'm feeling very dizzy. Headache is taking over me. Yet the torture is not over. Tonight I have to do my French essay. I've only brainstormed a bit on it, but it's due tomorrow. Hwaaa!!

In the mean time, I hope you're all having a great day. Can't wait to go straight to bed when I reach home!

Actually I hate posting 2 entries on the same day, but this news is too good to be true! I've just checked my cellphone and there was a miscall from an unknown number. It reached my voicemail, and when I opened it, it was actually a representative from Chandler MacLeod (an HR consulting firm). She said that the IRD people are interested to have an interview with me!! Alhamdulillah.. That's awesome! I truly wasn't expecting this, cos I really thought I did badly in the psychometric assessments that I wasn't gonna make it to the interview stage! I don't wanna fail this interview like I did with KPMG, Audit NZ, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte a few months ago.. Inshaallah I'm going to nail it this time.. Pray for me you guys..

Labels: Job Hunting

Cada vez que hay lluvia de mar, cantan cien gotas al azar. Justo asi se me rompe el cielo. Junto a ti, sin mi voluntad de no escuchar un corazon que me envuelva en lazos la ilusion de no sentirme sola.

Oh ven..!! Desnudate! Revela tu presencia de una vez. Ven y llueve en mi. Inundeme a morir dentro de ti..

Relajate. Viajar por mi piel. Estudiame. Rompe el silencio. Mirame de cerca y haz de tu pasion la religion.. que me dominara hasta el fin, y me persiguira hasta a preferir el brillo de tus ojos

Me sigues a donde quiera que voy.. me quibras a pedazos con tu voz.. me tienes como agua al mar...

Lagi iseng nih.. gak tau kenapa tapi gua demen banget keeping track of what time it is in my friends' places. Misalnya nih, sekarang >>

Me in Wellington: Monday, 2:50 PM
Leila in Amman: Monday, 5:50 AM
Adam in Huddersfield: Monday, 3:50 AM
Maysa in Modesto: Sunday, 7:50 PM
Abz in Toronto: Sunday, 10:50 PM
Muneer in Damascus: Monday, 5:50 AM
Emi in Sydney: Monday, 12:50 PM

Hmm mana lagi ya.. sejauh ini sih itu aja yang gua inget. Sekarang di Jakarta jam berapa ya..?? Tuh kan gua aja lupa beda berapa jam JKT ama Welly!! 5 jam atau 6 jam ya.. huhu.

Anyway, this afternoon we were given our final assignment for French. We have to write a 500-word essay for this upcoming Friday. Bummer!! What the hell am I gonna write?? *sob sob* In addition to that, I have an Auditing presentation on Thursday, AND another Auditing assignment for Friday. Aaah, life is good! <-- sarcasm. Oh well, at least I've finished my Spanish essay that's due on Wednesday.

I started my day by waking up VERY early at 4.30 AM to write up my SPAN112 essay. Then at 9-ish I went to Newlands for sports and grocery shopping with my bro. At 1.30 PM, there were already heaps of people when we arrived at KBRI for BBQ. Adek gua sampe bilang "buset, panjang banget yang ngantri, kyk orang kelaperan yg udah berhari-hari gak makan!!" Hahaha, that cracked me up. Anyway, the friends who came, the food, the atmosphere, and the weather: they were all great. Afterwards we drove to Oriental Bay for gelato (and some ocean breeze), then Espressoholic was our final hangout destination and we were bloated by coffee, chips, wedges, garlic bread, and ... interesting ghost stories!! Yum!!


When I reached home, Tash (my neighbour's cat -- she looks so big now!) was on the doorstep of my house! She didn't run away from me at all like she would normally do. Instead, she came towards me, jumped up to me, and rubbed her head against my hands. She's sooooo cute!! So I immediately reached for a box of Whiskas and fed her (yes, I do have Whiskas on my grocery list even though I don't keep a cat, he he he).

Anyway, a few minutes ago I looked for the exam timetable cos Nara said it was out already. I CANNOT BELIEVE that my Auditing exam is on the 21st of October!! It's not even on our first week of the exam!!! I really hoped that we'd have it on the 2nd week of the exam or something, cos we need plenty of study time for it. My COML303 exam is on the 24th, which doesn't look good either. Oh noooo.. this is BAD.. REAL BAD!! I NEED, MUST, KUDU, WAJIB, HARUS, belajar mulai dari sekarang!! But my assignments are getting in the way.. hwaaa!! Oh well, one good thing about this trimester is that I only have two exams, cos my French and Spanish papers are all internal. But still! Aaarrgghh..!!

Labels: Fun Times

Last night was the final show of Rockstar Supernova. I'm soooo glad that my favorites (Lukas the skunk, and Dilana the witch) made the TOP TWO finalists. They're both extremely talented singer-songwriters: Lukas with the killer voice and Dilana with the hot, raspy pipes. I'm so happy that Toby wasn't in the top two. Just cuz he's Australian he thinks he's ALL THAT, and he's the only contestant I never liked (I have to admit, however, that I'm a fan of his original song). So anyway, in the end.. Supernova chose.. *drumrolls*.. LUKAS!! Yay!! I didn't mind whether he or Dilana was going to win. BUT, I do believe that Lukas IS the best person to front the band. I was mesmerised by him ever since he sang Radiohead's "Creep". Nobody in the world could sing that song better than him. GO LUKAS!! xoxo


Anyway, this morning at 9 AM I had a psychometric testing at IRD. Man it sucked, I think I didn't do well in it! First of all we had the verbal reasoning test, and OMG the supervisor was typing so loud on the computer and it goddamn frustrated me cos I couldn't concentrate!! Then there was this guy who finally stood up and asked her to stop typing; she said "Okay" but then she continued to type noisily! Luckily nothing disturbed us during the numerical reasoning test (yet some of the questions were so hard). I doubt that I'll make it to the interview stage.. all I can do now is pray for God to give me a chance.. *kalian yg pada baca please doain gua juga ya.. hu hu..*

Labels: Celebrities

About two hours ago I checked MySpace and read a bulletin posting from Joanne, my Jordanian friend who's now in Montreal, Canada. She said that she was in her computer class and there was this guy who came in and started shooting around like crazy!! Then a few minutes ago it was in the news here on TV3 and I was like "OMG!! Joanne was in there!!" They said that 2 people were dead and 19 got injured. Thank God Joanne's okay. But still, I couldn't believe that this actually happened to someone I know! Why would anyone repeat the Columbine High incident?? I'm just relieved that she didn't get hurt, and I hope this incident won't traumatise her severely.

Labels: Poetry

OMG, this is too stressful!! I'm giving up doing my COML303 essay that's due tomorrow noon. There's no way I can write a good "critical discussion" in one night (and with no sleep at all)!! I don't even know what to write, and not to mention those annoying referencing techniques that we have to comply with. I'm flagging this assignment! I'm glad I'm not the only one, cos Andrew (a friend of mine who's been in the same class as me since Year11 in high school -- can you imagine that??) is flagging it too!

We have three assignments for this course but we're only required to do two, and only the two best marks will be added together to make up 15% of the final grade. There's absolutely NO WAY I can get a good mark on this essay if I'm doing it sleepily with my thoughts flying everywhere (plus, I'll only make myself sick by tomorrow afternoon). Thus in the end I might have to do the other two assignments anyway. Oh yeah, the good thing about the next two assignments is that they're not essays! Horray!! They're more of a legal problemsolving type of question. In addition to that, at least I'll have more than 1 night to write up my answers . Oh, if you question me why I've only just started my COML303 essay.. it's because I had a test AND another assignment due yesterday.. and not to forget that the band practices last week (both at KBRI and a few self-practice sessions at home) had wasted a lot of my study time (but hey, it WAS fun)!

Oh yeah, am I cursed against learning Spanish or what?? A few weeks ago someone stole my SPAN112 textbook, and this morning I couldn't find my Spanish dictionary anywhere! It can't be lost!! I don't think I ever brought it to uni or anywhere outside home..

Alright then, I'm off to bed now. Oh no wait, my brother's making me a cup of tea. So yeah, it's tea then sleeping beauty mode is on!!

Today when I came home, I reached for an envelope from Audit New Zealand (I applied for their graduate recruitment some time last week). I found out that it was a rejection letter, saying that I didn't get through. But whatever, I already expected this as I'd already applied for a similar position a few months ago but only succeeded til the psychometric testing and case study presentation. However, the good news is, yesterday I got a call from IRD, saying that they wanted me to attend a psychometric testing on Friday morning. Wish me luck on this one!

After throwing the Audit New Zealand letter to the trash can, I opened another letter which was from the Electorate Office. They're so stupid!! A few months ago they kept on sending me the electoral enrolment form, and telling me that I must be registered in the electoral roll and that it was required by law to do so. I ignored their letters back then, but because they kept coming I finally bothered myself to fill in the enrolment form. However, today I got a letter from them saying that because of my immigration status, I'm actually not entitled to be in the electoral roll. Silly people.

Anyhoo, I'm probably not gonna sleep tonight as I have an essay due tomorrow noon, and I still have about 1000 words to go. Say goodbye to the sleeping beauty .

Labels: Job Hunting

I saw this picture a few days ago and I instantly thought "Wow!!"
TomKat's baby daugter, Suri Cruise, is without a doubt the most bewitching baby I've ever seen. To me, her features are very alluring and appealing: her combination of pale skin complemented with black hair and blue eyes is so uniquely beautiful! From the photo, you can see that she resembles both Tom and Katie a lot. There's no doubt that she's TomKat's real baby and not a fake one, lol. She's interesting, and she'll grow up in the public eye for sure .

Labels: Celebrities

Last night (a few hours ago to be exact), there was an Indonesian Cultural Night event at Opera House Wellington. This year I'm only performing in the band as the keyboard player, whereas in the previous years I sang in the band AND performed traditional Indonesian dances.

I think our band performance was quite good despite a few technical malfunctions. It sucks now that the event is over cos there's nothing else that I can look forward to . In addition to that, I haven't got a call from IRD for next week's psychometric assessment. This afternoon I called the recruitment agency but they said that someone from IRD's supposed to phone me. Oh well, I guess the IRD people aren't that interested in me .

Anyway here are some pics taken after the show was over:

Labels: Fun Times

A lot of my Indonesian friends and family back home always told me to never eat while standing or walking. They said it wasn't polite, especially for a girl to do so. However, I don't like to follow cultural traditions whatsoever, so I never listened to them and I would continue eating while standing up or walking around.

Interestingly, today my Spanish tutor told the whole class that there is a psychological reason why everyone should sit down and have a proper meal, rather than eating while standing or doing other things at the same time. She said that if you eat appropriately (ie. on a dining table, with food served properly), the brain will register the fact that you're eating and having a good meal to fill your stomach. Therefore, once you're full, then you're full. On the other hand, if you eat while walking, standing, rushing, or studying simultaneously, your brain will not record the fact that you are eating. As a consequence, you won't feel like you've eaten enough, and you tend to get hungry all over again .

Now I know why my brother's always hungry, even after he ate 3 servings of mie bakso, a McChicken combo, an orange, and a few bars of chocs: Cos he's always doing something else while eating, dammit!

Apparently Bali, Indonesia's most beautiful touristic island, is undoubtedly a preferred romantic destination for A-list celebrities like Christina Aguilera and British supermodel Kate Moss.

In November 2005, newlywed Christina Aguilera spent a romantic honeymoon with her husband in Bali. They had a private villa there with an amazing view of Jimbaran Bay. They were also spotted canoeing together. Check out this site for more pics.

In mid-August this year, Kate Moss flew on a private jet to Bali with her family and friends for a special wedding with Pete Doherty. They planned to get married in a traditional, spiritual, Balinese style wedding. Sadly, drug-addict Pete failed to show up for the wedding ceremony after he was ordered into a rehabilitation clinic. Poor Kate. The whole world knows that she shouldn't have fallen for him. I guess supermodels don't really have a full-on glamorous life after all .

Labels: Celebrities

Is the world turning upside-down on me or what? It's just that I saw my test results for Commercial Law (COML303) and Spanish (SPAN112) today, and I thought I was gonna get a good mark in ComLaw and a not-so-good mark in Spanish, but it turned out to be the exact opposite! I couldn't believe that I got a really high mark for my Spanish tests (alhamdulillah), but unfortunately I got an unsatisfying mark for ComLaw .. Oh well, perhaps I shouldn't be so optimistic after all, and that I should just expect the unexpected.

Anyway today is Sophie's 1st birthday *yaay!! happy birthday little darling!* Sophie is Mila's and Mas Dwi's first child. I'm usually not that keen on babies and little kids. However Sophie's an exception. She's got that extra appeal that makes me drawn towards her. Damn, I don't even have a pic of her on my computer and digicam. Once I do, I'll definitely attach one to this entry .

Labels: University Life

• Thank you God for reuniting me with Deborah Senouvor, one of my best friends in 7th grade in Jordan. Ever since I left to Indonesia in 8th grade, I kept in touch with Deborah for a while, but when she moved to Ivory Coast we lost track of her. Her email closed down and I guess her letters didn't reach Indonesia. Since then, nobody knew how to contact her, until now!
  
• Thanks to Tom who created MySpace, the networking site where I tracked Deborah.
• Last but not least, thanks to Deb's brother who made her join MySpace. At first she thought it was useless but thank goodness she joined.

I truly miss Deborah! Leila, she, and I were best buddies in 7th grade, and if only we could reunite again one day, face-to-face, it would be more than a wonderful gift to me!

Labels: Friends