This was such a long-awaited day. I'd been missing Galih so much and wanted to celebrate my birthday with her, so when she proposed tonight as our little get-together as I was making Luis' itinerary last month, I jumped on the opportunity and saved the date.
Fun fact: Did I tell you his schedule was already full before he even stepped on Indonesian soil? Hahahahaha, for real!
Venessa was supposed to collect us before lunchtime, right after she finished her morning French class. However, she got held up at work last night till 3 am --which was INSANE!-- and had to skip her class, so Luis and I went to have lunch first and she'd pick us up afterwards. While waiting for her to arrive, we went to the mall to check on a few things, then I randomly asked Luis to accompany me to the newly open Body Shop booth in the department store cause Aunt Elizabeth gave me one of the perfumes in the most recent season and I enjoyed it a lot, so I was thinking of getting another one. However, they sold out on it and I wasn't interested in buying anything else from them; dessert time it is then.
She arrived on time. Although the appointment was for dinner, the location was far away from our areas, hence the early start of the road trip. But apparently the road was clear so it gave us more than enough time to check out IKEA as suggested by Venessa. I liked a lot of things, it's been an awfully long time since the last time I pursued my home interior design hobby, I should take up on the books that have been sitting in the corner of my bedroom. It was a necessary trip to start putting into consideration on which kind of style and vibe we'll want our house to have, hehehehe.. Luis and I specifically loved one showroom they set up. It was not big at all, 31m2 if I'm not mistaken. We just absolutely adored the way the rooms were divided and the furnitures were placed that the unit didn't seem cluttered at all. A perfect start, we'd figure. Look at us playing adults and all! :P But it was such an interesting experience I would recommend to my friends and family (if they haven't been there, hehe, since I was so late to the game). Venessa's presence was just the cherry on top, I loved having her around as I was debating on a thing or two.
By the way, not only did we do the full round, we also managed to eat again, hahaha. Venessa and Luis had the famous Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes with gravy and lingonberry jam and I had fat slice of very yummy chilled apple pie. Good thing we still wanted to drive around, check out Venessa's parents' new house, and wait for Galih, so we had time to feel hungry again, hehe.
It wasn't until I reviewed the photos that I realized we three dressed matchy-matchy, hihihi.. Navy blue combined with heather grey is just perfection. Especially when the background is also within the theme:
Galih and Mas Yogi, her serious boyfriend, apparently arrived at the dinner place earlier than we did, thankfully they didn't mind cause they needed to work on something anyway. Upon greeting me, Galih was already ready with my birthday present which I barely could wait to open. It was from Body Shop. It was the fragrance set I was looking for in the mall earlier today but sold out.................... Hahahahahaha, now you know why we have been best friends for more than 10 years! They know me almost too well.
Leaving the coffee shop, we had no idea which restaurant we should pick for dinner as there were quite a lot. The place itself was new and super scenic, of course I had to take photos every 5 centimeters, haha, joking! But we did take tons of pictures indeed. :D Beautiful open area, great weather, lovely companion. Dinner hadn't even started and I loved the get-together already.
I finally decided on Chakra, a restaurant with the best outdoor view within the complex in my opinion. It didn't hurt that Venessa said her friends also recommended this place a few times to her. I found the name deceiving, as Chakra led me to think it was an Indian restaurant, not Western that it is, but it's okay, food was good and the ambiance was romantic so I couldn't really complain. Halfway through dinner, a guy Venessa had been seeing came to join us, his name is Timothy, a Chinese-Canadian badminton athlete currently training in Indonesia. He wasn't our favorite person (hahahaha, even Venessa agreed to this!) but he was the reason why this night was historic to us: it was the very first time in our friendship history that all three of us were in a relationship! We always felt it was strange too that we had never been taken at the same time, but tonight we broke the record. :D
What also made me happy was how normal Mas Yogi reacted around Luis. English is not his strongest suit but unlike other people, he really did make such a huge effort in communicating and getting to know Luis. I highly, highly appreciated that. It just made me like him even more! I can totally see us hanging out for a really long time.
After desserts and a grocery trip, the day came to an end as Luis and I had to go home since my parents, magically, still had a curfew for us. But it wasn't that annoying, considering how happy I was that I got to hang out with literally my two best girlfriends......... whom after the years have never grown tired of taking bathroom selfies with me, hahahahahaha! Love them!
