Coffee Break

Ho hum, it's been a while since I last blogged. So, what's new with Taiko Tari?

1. My SCHENGEN visa for Greece and Germany has been approved! Yeah!

Visa has always been a painful issue for one who travels. For an Indonesian like myself, I need a visa to go to most countries in the world. The only countries that I can travel without bothering about it would be: my home country Indonesia, Japan (since I have the residence visa and reentry permit) and any other ASEAN countries (thank goodness for ASEAN).
I'm always particularly saddened whenever some friends embarked on a last minute trip to some exotic destinations. How fun that would be!! I have always wanted to do this, but logistically disabled by the foe of passport origin.
You know what, above anything else, this is one of the main reason why relocating to Europe would be an attractive option to me. Once I have an address in any country in Europe, then I can start traveling across the historic continent at the drop of a hat.

OK, enough ranting. I am very very grateful that my visa is approved and I'll get to go to visit historic Athens and later on beautiful Heidelberg. :)

2. I'm finally in the low period of 2 weeks!!!Hip hip HOORAY!!!!!

Overworking is sometime unavoidable. That's just the way life is, and because work is work. Today I finally submitted a huge research report. My mind is finally free to wander on its own again. What a relief.
Is it time to party yet? Unfortunately not yet. I have to put my nose down into 25 papers that need marking for the ESOMAR Qualitative 2006 conference. I think RB from ESOMAR is about to wring my neck since I'm about the last two persons who are behind schedule for this. OK OK, I'll do it from tonight. I've got 4 papers down, 21 more to go. Hmmph.

3. In conjunction to point number 2, this means that I have a fair bit of time to PLAAAAAYYYY.

So, dear friends and families, if you're in town and have sometime to hang out, CALL ME! Or do you forget my number already? ;)

4. Mainichi Ohatsu まいにち「おはつ」!!

That is the title of a song that is playing in my head non stop now. Oh dear dear. Last Saturday I went to NHK's All Japan Elementary School Choir Competition to cheer my little Japanese sister Hiina. There were 15 schools from different prefectures. The compulsory song that each of the choir had to sing is called Mainichi Ohatsu.
Suffice to say, after 3.5 hours of listening to the competition and 16 repertoires of this particular song, it's EXTREMELY difficult to think of other songs to play in your head when that one persisted.

5. Oh la la... it's coffee break time!

Must recharge myself with a nice cup of Cappucino and prepare my fun auntie hat.
In approximately 1.5 hour I have a playdate with darling little Ella. She is 8 month old and an avid crawler. Mamma and Pappa have a date to celebrate Mamma's birthday. So this means it's date time for Ella Bella with auntie Tari.
The first time I babysat her, she was only 4 months old. Any problems could've been resolved by putting her into the babybjoern, where I would carry her around and sing while swinging.
But now she's 8 month old and weighs almost twice as much. I doubt that even a taiko drummer shoulder like this auntie got will last 3 hours. The trick? Crawling game. Maybe. Fingers crossed that she won't realize it too soon that none of her parents are around. :)

Babies are gifts from heaven, especially a peacefully sleeping beauty like this one.