Love Here, Love There, and Love Everywhere: Part 2
So you want to know what actually happened to me on Valentine’s Day? Glad that you asked. Read more to find out…
In the morning woke up and had my breakfast. I did wake up early enough. Then I took my medicine, one pill of antibiotics, and one of painkiller. Then I started up my computer and practised my flying skills at Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight. I finally completed the Flight of the Vin Fiz, one that took the actual pilot 82 hours (over the course of 84 days) but took me 42 hours instead, due to the extensive use of GPS that made course plotting a so much easier task.
Here’s a summary of the flight:
In 1911, 32-year-old Calbraith Rodgers took off in his Wright EX biplane from Sheepshead Bay near New York City. He had no instruments, no maps…just power from a 35-horsepower engine and two chain-driven pusher propellers. On November 5, Rodgers landed at Pasadena, California. In this flight, you’ll take to the sky in a Piper J-3 Cub to re-create Rodgers’ adventure: the first crossing of America by air.
My flight was actually done over several sessions, most of which were running at the speed of 16x or 4x. (I love simulators…) Of course, landing and take-off were run at 1x.
In the afternoon went with Mum and Dad to Sukabumi, where I was supposed to have the mini operation. Unfortunately, a sign was posted in front of the dentist’s door: “Dentist on vacation. Back in April”. Bummer.
Never mind, at least I could go visit my grand-aunt there, right? Wrong. She wasn’t around as well. So Mum, Dad, and I went back home. Bummer.
In the night I watched AFI, and saw a tight competition between the contestants. Ok, this section might not make sense to most of you. If it doesn’t, don’t worry. Probably only Indonesians who watch Indonesian TV stations would understand anyway. Feel free to skip to the next section if you’re lost.
— BEGIN AFI SECTION —
There were two sections in today’s concert. The first was just a normal one, where the contestants cover other singers’ songs. The second was where each contestant was given a new song to sing. The songs were composed and arranged according to each of the contestant’s character.
Veri was obviously the first, with his abilities and his low profile, which apparently what the fans like about him.
Second was Mawar, with her easygoing attitude and not-so-bad vocal quality.
The third, fourth, and fifth positions saw a fluctuation as Kia, Ve, and Rini kept on switching positions.
It started with Kia, Ve, and Rini in third, fourth, and fifth respectively.
Ve was having having serious problems with today’s songs as she deemed that her vocal character didn’t suit the songs. The week was actually a week of low morale for her as she also kept on getting scolded by Mbak Bertha, the Vocal Class Instructor. It went so bad that she even cried over it at today’s Diari Akademi Fantasi episode. Diari Akademi Fantasi is where viewers are given a half-an-hour to an-hour peek into the contestants’ life in the hostel, shown once everyday.
She sang the first song quite badly that she dropped to fifth position at the end of the first section.
The second was worse. She seemed to have lost her confidence, and sang the second song very badly compared to her ‘normal’ songs, in my opinion. I could almost see her crying as she sang the song, and probably almost did when the commentators gave their comments.
Kia and Rini, however, sang their songs very, very well.
Somehow, Ve’s and Rini’s supporters came to the rescue and just before the end of the second section, Kia was the last, followed by Ve and Rini.
Another strange thing happened. Kia’s supporters were back. He shot back to the third position, and Ve was second last. Rini had to be eliminated for this week.
Ve was almost (probably was) crying when Adi Nugroho (the host) was about to read the name of the person to be eliminated. Adi played the drama further by first saying “To all supporters of Ve…” before continuing with “… you can now feel at ease… because Rini is the one who has to go home today.”
I have a feeling that next week would be a bad day for Ve. She might get eliminated if her performance stays low like this.
— END AFI SECTION —
In the night I went online after 11 PM Western Indonesian Time, which translates to past midnight Singapore Time. That’s a little too late for a proper Valentine’s Day wishes. So I didn’t wish my online friends a Happy Valentine’s Day. As for Indonesian friends, I only had one online on ICQ; I couldn’t sign in to MSN Messenger yet. There were two on MSN Messenger, actually, but the other one went offline just before I went online on MSN.
So that’s it for today’s events.
As a reference, you might find the following resources helpful:
- Akademi Fantasi Indosiar - The Humming Bird’s Diary entry
- Love Here, Love There, and Love Everywhere - The Humming Bird’s Diary entry
- Akademi Fantasi Indosiar - The Website