Dream Interlude

Dibalik kesunyian di kota Changshu

2007-05-15T06:25:00.000-07:00

Kota kecil ini dibangun untuk mendukung industri garment dan otomotif di china, terlihat dari banyaknya jumlah pabrik tekstil berikut industri kecil pendukungnya membuat kota mungil ini seringkali berselimutkan kabut kelabu dari asap industri. Dalam beberapa bulan selama musim panas, hari-hari dihiasi langit biru cerah dengan gumpalan awan putih bisa dihitung dengan jari.

Malah mendekati pertengahan musim panas, kabut tampak semakin menebal disertai dengan asap hitam disana-sini, dikarenakan para petani biasa membakar ladangnya secara masal untuk musim tanam berikutnya. Keunikan kota ini baru dapat ditemui di sela-sela kesibukan di pemukiman penduduk asli atau "hutong", di tepi-tepi sungai yang menghiasi kota dan di mulut-mulut pasar tradisional. Berbagai macam jajanan pasar yang menggiurkan. Mulai dari yang paling umum seperti gorengan, kue-kue kering, sate, sampai gerobak penjual bebek yang menjual berbagai jenis bentuk makanan dari bebek - sate bebek, leher bebek bumbu pedas, ceker bebek saus kecap manis, paha bebek panggang, bebek goreng gurih, lidah bebek, hati bebek goreng, sayap bebek panggang.....

Di musim dingin lebih banyak penjual sate dan barbekyu, di musim panas para penjual beralih menjajakan gorengan. Walaupun tidak ada tempe goreng ataupun combro seperti penjaja gorengan umumnya di Jakarta, bakwan atau bala-bala dan tahu goreng banyak sekali terlihat. Yang unik, para pedagang disini menyediakan lebih dari 6 macam saus yang berbeda untuk dicelup begitu bakwan keluar dari wajan panas-panas. Hmmmm, pilihan jatuh pada kombinasi saus cabai dengan saus coklat gelap yang ternyata perpaduan antara kecap dan tauco.

Berbagai macam pilihan, bakwan, tahu, sate pangsit, sate panggang.....

Fried cake, sejenis martabak dengan campuran bayam & daun bawang

Timbunan kue-kue kering, manis dan gurih

Morning Ritual

2007-04-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

A decent cup of coffee to start the morning is a necessity. But a kickass cup of coffee made to perfection with thick silky layer of foaming milk, followed by bitter sweet freshly brewed coffee perfect to the last drop is an absolute bliss which can also be a bless to start the day. Only certain places can make this kind of coffee, from personal experience, Illy coffee outlets are among those few. I was about to mention Starbucks, but recent visits to a couple of their outlets proved otherwise. Mind you, their coffee now tends to be overbrewed and slightly bitter.

Since we live in nowhere land where it's practically impossible to get out and find these things, we resign to having our own coffee machine. Our home brewed coffee proves to be the best, even better than coffee from the hotel. It's quite easy to make those heavenly coffee, actually.

First thing is, of course, the coffee - freshly ground one, not one of those instant coffee *yuck, just throw them in the dumpster please.....* I personally prefer Illy or Douwe Egberts. Second choice would be Lavazza and Excelso (I think Kalosi Toraja is the best one).
Then the milk. They've got to be fresh and cold! Non fat is supposedly making a better foam, but it makes the coffee less kicky lacking the richness of a full cream milk. This is when it gets a bit tricky. Foaming a milk takes a lot of practice. If the machine is too hot, the milk deflates, if the steamer is too deep, you get big bubbles. By surfing right on the surface of the milk, you'll get those perfect thick silky foam.
Here're some tricks to steam the milk

Hooked on the cute reapers

2007-04-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite movie to watch in my spare time, just to get back into my quirkiness then get on with the day. Although the title of the movie may put off some, this movie describes our most avoided topic a.k.a death in a strange, peculiar, quirky way giving it a new meaning to 'dealing with deaths' .

These grim reapers are assigned to handle 'accidental deaths' only which are mostly rather goofy actually; like a man who died choked by a candy on his daughter's birthday, or a newly wed couple who both died before they even stepped out of the church, or a grumpy old grandma who got squished under a garbage dumpster.

The first CD was the story before George, died after being hit by a flaming toilet seat fell from the sky, out of MIR space station. The rest of the story is about her coping with her undead - death, as she couldn't move on to the 'tunnel of lights' like the rest of dead people do, instead she had to stay with the living, but working for death. Her daily routine involves getting post-it from Rube which contains detail of the next person to die ETD (estimated time of death) and location where she has to be before death takes place. She has to tap them and release the soul, sort of a knock on the door before it hits you.

........George Lass is an 18-year-old girl whose life seems to be going nowhere. She is not motivated to do anything, including being a good person or a bad person. Bad people are punished by Man's Law, and good people are punished by Murphy's law. Under her mother's insistence, George is forced to get a job, which did not last long.

All of the reapers are all, like George, people who died with unresolved issues, and aren't allowed to go to their final destination until they have learned the lessons they failed to learn in life. Their job is to take the souls of people who die before they die. They don't do the actual killing. Gravelings, are the ones responsible for setting up the deaths.

The undead can interact with the living (though they can't die again, but apparently they can feel pain.) Unfortunately, it isn't quite a free ride.
George doesn't want to be a grim reaper, but has to fill an unspecified quota of souls before she is done. She is slowly accepting her role, though she can't believe she has found meaning in her afterlife.... **Article from DLM Review

Grim Reapers: (Wikipedia:) Death personified ~ Death has been personified as a figure or fictional character in mythology and popular culture. Because the reality of death has had a substantial influence on the human psyche and the development of civilization as a whole, the personification of Death as a living, sentient entity is a concept that has existed in many societies since the beginning of recorded history. In Western cultures, death is usually given the name "the Grim Reaper" and shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe, and wearing a midnight black gown with a hood.

Jajanan di Changshu

2007-04-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Beberapa hari lalu sempat jalan-jalan keluar karena udaranya udah lumayan menghangat. Akhirnya spring sampe juga disini, biarpun terlambat dan kadang-kadang cuaca masih nggak jelas - masih sering mendung, hujan dan berkabut tebal. On the way ke RT Mart, tebak coba gue ketemu apa di pinggir jalan? Tukang gorengan!!! Aaaahhh, udah segini lama tinggal disini, baru nemu kemaren itu.

Sering sih gue nemuin gerobak ibu-ibu yang mangkal di depan supermarket atau di tempat2 rame. Biasanya gerobak datar tanpa atap yang memajang deretan kotak-kotak plastik berisi berjenis-jenis sate ayam, bebek, tahu atau sosis dengan marinate macem-macem. Disampingnya ada pemanggang sate - bukan wajan. Tapi ini wajan!!! Berarti ada yang digoreng dong.... Dengan semangat gue deketin gerobak si ibu. Bener aja, gorengaaannn...

Macam-macam gorengan..... ada bakwan & tahu juga loh!

Tahu satu porsi seharga RMB 1 = Rp. 1100,-
udah pake saus siram plus irisan cabainya

It's Crayfish season!

2007-04-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Feeling a bit adventurous today, we walked by the aisles in Auchan supermarket this afternoon and passed by a bucketload of chinese crayfish on the fish section - apparently in season now. I have never cooked them before but their appearance is quite intriguing, surely challenging to cook. I wondered if the green curry sauce which I had in Auckland served with green lipped mussels can do. I decided to buy a handful to try. Upon a closer look, I noticed that these things didn't swim in water, instead they sort of walked on one another's back, had really really dark shells with tiny scorpion-like claws. Eeeekks!!! That put me off for a moment.....

All the 15 crawlers arrived safely at home. Mike helped to clean their guts simply by pulling their middle tail off - alive. Oef! Please, enough of this 'cruelty' - just dump them in the boiling water, will ya? After 5 minutes of steaming they looked almost edible enough ......

Freshly steamed chinese crayfish

Jiangsu province, where we live now, is quite famous for crayfish - which are also known as 'mini lobster' because of they're only as big as a thumb, with 3/4 of its length is the head. When in season, all local restaurants served them as a special offer - we just had the Hairy Crab season in last winter. Locals usually cooked them in light chili curry sauce.

It turned out that the green curry of our choice was a perfect one. I added a dash of coconut milk for the taste and sprinkled thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves. It tasted and smelled beautiful.

View Recipe Here

Toasting away by the lake side

2007-04-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

Got up late that morning, like always :D, feeling completely refreshed. Since we needed to get internet access in late afternoon, we decided to hang around in the city center. There're rows of cafes right across the lake, but it seemed that the crowd were attracted to something else. Large billboards bearing colorful photographs from around the world with a little description below were lined up along the park. Wait, there's something else..... a few local artists placed blocks of tiles in the park, some sort of "walk of history", dating back from 1800 up to 2007..... Quite an interesting touch.

It was still 3 more hours to midday. Got plenty of time in our hands and we decided to spread our blanket on a carpet of fresh lime green grass by the lake. What a great spot! Chilled white wine in a glass, a plate of sliced cheese & smoked salmon. Perfect! We're all set for the afternoon. I've never realized how much I miss the sun. How warm it felt brushing against my skin. Hmm, toasty!

Lazying under the afternoon sky, giggling, sprawling, breathing in the breeze coming in from the lake. Aaaahhhh..... Luv spending days like this with you, babe.

Day 6 ~ Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu

2007-04-06T01:01:00.000-07:00

That afternoon, we rushed down to Queenstown to watch a rugby match; Highlanders vs Chiefs. I thought it would be an interesting thing to do, at first, never seen a live match before. Once I went to the Bronco's in Denver Colorado, but that was a long time ago, and I barely remembered anything of the game.

It was pretty small in comparison to other live sports I'd seen. Ha, that only one game, of course. In short, I lasted only about 10 minutes. It was too cold, too uncomfortable and I was too grumpy to enjoy the game. I'd rather stay inside the van having wine and cheese. There's this great brie cheese we got the other day. Yummie.

Trying to get out of the park after the game was a bit ridiculous, almost an hour and half we were stuck there. Finally when we got out, we headed directly downtown Queenstown. Streets and alleys were totally full of people that afternoon. It was very touristic though, there were a couple of Indonesian student groups went shopping in the same souvenir store we were in. Babe was in a rugby craze mode - so it was REALLY important for us to find the nearest sports bar to catch the next rugby game on TV.

Let's just say he got his rugby and I got my nice dinner. Too bad no photos. It was almost 11pm by the time we're done. Too late to get a spot in holiday park. We drove around finding nothing. Luckily babe decided to go by a lake side in Frankton. It was a great choice!

It was tucked away from the crowd, great view of the lake and the next morning we woke up to the family of ducks swimming nearby. They joined us for breakfast, sort of, fighting for bread crumbs leftover. At one point, the ducks got too friendly and started to follow Mike around, begging for more crumbs. I thought I'd join them for a swim, although Mike tried to convince me that the water was still freezing cold at this time of the year.

I made a bet with him, I said I'd swim. It wasn't a bluff. He called the bet and said he'd put his money on it. Hehehhe, and guess who lost? I did jumped into the lake. It was like an instant brain freeze, only this went throughout my whole body. It was FREEZING COLD!! The coldness numbed my mind and the rest of my system, I just automatically swam quickly across and back, while the other campers on the other side obviously saw me jumped in. I heard them laughing. The best thing after the swim, was sitting in the sun with a warm coffee in my hand. Mike made it for me....

Day 5 ~ Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook

2007-04-06T00:25:00.000-07:00

It was such a beautiful drive, stopping here and there, lots of coffee and wine. New Zealand is just an amazing land with so many untouched nature's beauty. Everything is still intact, well kept, the river is so amazingly clear with light turqoise color resulting from the melting glacier of the surrounding mountains.

First night on the road, we parked in a holiday camp by Lake Tekapo. It got quite chilly in the evening, good thing that the camper had a good heater inside. It felt awkward at times travelling with a full kitchen and a toilet at the back of the car. Hot coffee or chilled wine is just two steps away.

The next morning we stopped by at a salmon farm along the way to Mount Cook. Let me tell you, fresh salmons off the river are just awesome!!! A full plater of sashimi that we shared looked positively beautiful, fresh, vibrant orange color and those thin slices were simply melt in the mouth. We met a few other asian groups who went absolutely crazy over the salmon platter.... the japanese, thai and chinese.

After that refreshing but yummie lunch, we continued along the road to Mount Cook. The landscape got more breath taking, those backdrop overlapping mountains were sooooo beautiful. Massive spread of untouched beauty right in front of the eyes the whole time.

Day 3 ~ Wellington to Picton

2007-04-03T23:01:00.000-07:00

We're off to Wellington by plane from NPY. It was such a tiny neat airport. Something about the angle of the sunlights, created such a nice feeling about the airport, getting ready to board that twin engine plane. Almost movie-like, you know, when it's almost the end of the movie and the audiences are swept through an awesome scenery of sun lit airstrip with bright blue sky as a backdrop..... Ah well, maybe it's the foolish romantist in me that's talking.

Spent a night in Wellington. The city has a lot of water around. Not the kind of city I would like to live in. Auckland maybe, NPY could be a bit too quiet for us, but we both love Arrowtown.

The next day we started off early around 8am. After grabbing a quick bite of pastries and strong coffee down @ Coffee Bean, we rushed off in a taxi to catch up the earliest ferry to Picton. We got in just in time... phew! Ferry was a bit too long and I wasn't really in the mood to be excited - coffee hadn't kicked in yet. Besides it's still too early.

Got off Picton around noon to pick up the train tickets. We had around an hour before the train arrived, so we had a time to explore a bit of Picton. Hmmmfff, already craving for real asian meals, lunch was a bit of a disaster. Kiwis food are still way too bland for me. Second option would be fast food joints, KFC or McD, which of course don't exist here.

I've never sat this long on a train before. This by far, the longest train ride I've ever had. TI was a 5-hour ride. Whahahaha.... thank God my babe was there with me, otherwise I would definitely have gone insane hearing the entire conversation of the two groups sitting behind us - a German old grandma who loudly shared the story of her life, which was very very very long... she hasn't finished when we got off the train. The other one was a group of Americans *you know how loud they can be* sharing their "amazing" travel stories, always topping up one another. I felt like I'm tuning into one of those "marathon amazing race" program on AXN.

At one point I reached the "I've had enough of this" and just tuned out completely, they're voices simply become incomprehensible gibberish. Christchurch was the last stop. Whoa, finally! Train ride was interesting but I wouldn't do it again, no thanks! Now, this is the city that seems livable.

The next morning were a bit easy, we didn't get up until late. No tight schedule. All we needed to do was to pickup our campervan at Maui, near the airport. We got the 4 berths campervan, a bit more space than we needed, but kitchen was just perfect!!! Full cabinets of cutleries, pots, plates, bowls and glasses. Tiny fridge that fits just enough for the road. The next thing was stock up for the road.

South Island, here we come!

Day 1 ~ New Plymouth

2007-04-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

This is the beginning of our trip to the south island of New Zealand. First stop was Dad's house in New Plymouth. It's been quite a while since the wedding in Bali, October two years ago. Nice to see him and Helen again.

The neighbor's cat I remembered last time, was still there. He used to be so huge and healthy though. Dad said he barely comes over anymore, he seems a bit sick and has lost weight. Helen still cooks delicious lunch and dinner as always - she adds a special touch to food decoration adopted from Rumah Bali. Hehehe....

It was a relaxing two day at New Plymouth.

Oleh-oleh dari Inner Mongolia

2007-03-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

Main street of the "moslem area"

Dari sebelum kita berangkat, sudah diwanti-wanti kalau disana bakalan jauh lebih dingin dari kota kecil tempat kita tinggal, bahkan lebih dingin dari Beijing. Malah ada yang bilang sekarang lagi musim sandstorm di Mongol sana. Perjalanan dengan pesawat dari Pudong Airport di Shanghai memakan waktu hampir 3 jam. Nyatanya sebagai gerbang Mongolian grassland yang terkenal itu, lumayan banyak juga turis yang berkunjung. Kali ini kita satu flight dengan group turis dari eropa. Begitu pintu pesawat dibuka, disambut dengan udara dingin yang kering dan bau khas batubara - karena ternyata Hohhot memang salah satu penghasil batubara dan masih banyak industri kecil yang memakai bahan bakar batubara. Ciri khas kota di China memang. Sama seperti Harbin. Hasil jalan2 diluar tanpa pelindung mulut & hidung bisa membuat lubang hidung jadi hitam.

Nggak ada badai pasir saat kita disana, mungkin belum waktunya. Katanya sekitar bulan April, saat musim semi. Hohhot ternyata lebih besar dari yang kita bayangkan. Jalan2 besar, gedung-gedung megah, stadium olah raga yang 3 kali lebih besar dari yang ada di kota Changshu. Wah, pemerintah sini jor-joran banget kayanya.

Sweets anyone?

Malamnya acara dinner, kita diajak ke salah satu resto yang lumayan terkenal katanya. Chinese food ala moslem. Loh? Ternyata di daerah situ sebagian penduduknya beragama Islam. Bener2 kontrast dengan arsitektur gedung disekitarnya, karena di salah satu sudut kota dengan latar belakang hamparan gurun yang luas, satu jalan utamanya dihiasi dengan arsitektur gedung2 bergaya islami. Papan nama dan jalan ditulis dalam 3 karakter - chinese, mongolian dan arabic. Wah, cantik banget......

Ada Apa Dengan Cina

2007-03-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

Tumpahan rasa kekesalan .... *maaf ya jangan tersinggung* ini cuma observasi sepihak, selama setaun lebih tinggal disini dan dari segi pandang gue yang kadang-kadang agak rasis kalo kepepet karena pasti mikirnya "Gila, jelek-jeleknya orang Indonesia, kita masih diajarin sopan santun"

This is China, man!

1. Upon entering a restaurant or any public places, completely ignore the rest of the world. If anyone greets you warmly, ignore the f*cker and walk past him/her rudely

2. Queuing is for suckers. Shove and push whenever you can - or someone else's gonna take your place.

3. Taxi regulations, refer to number 2 above. If someone stops a taxi in front of you, rush to get in. The taxi driver will stare at you blankly anyway. Try to keep a straight face when the other person is glaring and cursing at you from outside.

4. In supermarket, ensure you take note on other people's shopping items - make sure you're making a point by walking closer and checking out into their trolleys. Blank facial expression is a must while doing this. You can spit on the floor afterwards for extra effects.

5. Staring bluntly at foreigners is considered polite. Turning to your friends next to you, whisper and giggle while looking back is a sign of friendship.

6. Standard shopping outfits are pajamas, baby dolls and all of those funky looking bedroom clothes. Don't bother combing your hair, people will stare at you coz you look 'too different'

7. Ignore any attempts from foreigners to explain to you that they do not understand chinese. Laugh out loud and give them a whiff of that killer garlic breath of yours and continue jibbering.

8. Standard photo posing for chinese are the two finger 'victory' sign. Even kids at young age learn to do this so well

9. Take loads of wet tissues when travelling. Those public toilets always run out of tissue somehow. Lucky if you get squatters, some of them are just a wide split on the floor with no running water to flush. Pray that you don't see 'leftovers' when you walk in....

10. Blaring music is cool. Wherever you are, whatever you sell, you gotta have defeaning music on speakers. All trees in the park and in nature should be fitted with speakers and flickering lights. That's how nature should sound and look like.

**Dari pengalaman pribadi......

When the Goddess become matchmakers

2007-03-12T16:51:00.000-07:00

This is something I've never heard before "Temple of Matchmaking Gods" .... Interesting enough to check out. Strangely, somehow the place looks familiar, I'm quite sure I've seen similar photos before...Initially I wasn't really looking forward to this trip. Wuxi, an hour or so drive from our place. So what, it's going to be one of those so-so touristical places crowded with hundreds of people making a total mess everywhere. So typically chinese. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that we'd be travelling in a big group of americans plus a few of the hotel's staff, which are quite a fun crowd. After there're several of long stay guests I am quite familiar with. Shouldn't be that bad.

First stop would be a lake, Taihu Lake. My thought was "another not-so-special lake spot that the chinese are so crazy about" and I was right. It was a plain boring lake with greyish cloudless sky and nothing to do. Entrance ticket costs RMB105/pax included the ferry across to Fairy Island. *yippee...NOT* Again, as I've mentioned in my previous posts about the description of some god-knows-where supposedly tourist attraction in china, do not believe 100% what they write.

Quote : "........The Taihu Lake is characterized by its picturesque natural scenery. The Turtle Head Islet, Fairy Islands (The three-Mount Island), the Three Kingdoms City and Water Margin City etc. are all the spots that worth a visit in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province..... "

Honestly, what ARE these guys ON?? But then again, most of these reviews come from a gov website or travel agent. Yeah, well....

After like a 25 mnts ferry across to Fairy Island - with what looked like 500 other chinese, we got there. As this is supposed to be the place where they produce fresh water pearls, we saw many clam shells along the lake shore, some were as large as the palm of my hands.

Ancient remnants of Taoism dotted a few spots in here. Some are quite interesting for photo objects. Just to let you know, it's very difficult to shoot an object here in china, as there's always some smart-ass trying to get into your shooting range. Mostly would prefer to stop and gape when you decide to press the button. Mind you, the chinese are quite known for subtlety....not!

A simple lunch to end the lake tour. Cold cuts of bland steamed chicken, seaweed pickles which were quite disgusting, dark soy fried fish, baby shrimps, stir fried tofu & crab meat, and a couple of other fish dishes which were quite edible. A few guys who seemed unfamiliar with this type of dishes looked quite uneasy, obviously they're first timers in china. Without missing a beat, Mike and one of the guy said that in chinese culture, guests of honor usually have the fish' eyes and head. First timers in china are considered as 'guest of honor....'

I couldn't believe they pulled this off together. The guy actually swallowed the fish eyes without blinking. We tried so hard to keep a straight face when he did it, but I just burst out laughing when he commented that it was quite tasteless, but kinda gooey, then someone answered "Oh, it's probably the eye socket...."

I think he lost his appetite for the rest of the afternoon. Oh yeah, I didn't know americans could handle spicy food better than the kiwis. The handy travelling size bottle of my 'sambal ABC' from mom went around the table that afternoon

For more photos of the trip, click here

Do you believe in soul mate?

2007-03-07T00:59:00.001-08:00

** I've kept this article in my old journal a long while ago, adopted from one of sites that I frequently visited - James Redfield or Cayce.

Every individual that you have encountered or will encounter is your soul mate. Each human is a soul that has voluntarily entered Earth school in order to experience certain circumstances and to contribute certain gifts. It is a path that you have chosen - and that everyone you have met or will meet has chosen.

Your challenge is to determine how you will relate with the millions of soul mates that you will encounter in the course of your lifetime. The relationships that you now have are with fellow souls. The relationships that you will form in the future will also be with fellow souls. Relationships illuminate parts of yourself that need healing - e.g. parts that dominate others, try to please others, judge others, or exploit others. Changing your relationships will not heal those parts. Changing the way you perceive things will.

Changing relationships without intending to change yourself is like changing the actors on a stage. The play continues - only scenery and actors are different. But when you heal this part in you, the play changes. You will no longer need abusive relationship, or no longer need to dominate other or be submissive to another. That part of your journey is complete. Other new paths are now open for you to explore and learn....

" Your soul mates are not your saviours. They are your fellow students in this earth school"

Antara Brandon dan Bambang

2007-03-04T00:28:00.000-08:00

Ini kisah seorang istri yang kesabarannya hampir habis menghadapi kebiasaan sang suami yang nggak mau ambil pusing menjaga kebersihan rumah. "Dia sama sekali nggak perduli rumah mau berantakan kaya apa, sementara saya dibesarkan di lingkungan yang sama sekali beda, semuanya serba teratur rapi pada tempatnya". Sudah berbagai macam nasehat dari teman2nya yang menyarankan trik-trik dalam menghadapi tingkah laku pasangan yang bikin cape ati. Beberapa anjuran yang paling jitu yaitu :

Trik 1 : Ngalah Aja Deh, emang dasarnya laki-laki dimana-mana sama aja
Sumber : Nyokap - hasil dari 40 tahun pernikahan
Daripada ribut nggak jelas, mendingan kerjain aja semua sendiri. Memang sih trik ini kedengeran jadoel banget a'la Stepford Wives, jadilah selama 3 hari aku mengerjakan tugas2 membersihkan rumah, buang sampah, cucian dsb - sepulang dari kantor!

Hasilnya : rumah bersih, tapi tetep jengkel. Aku ini istrinya atau 'Inem'nya sih? Mungkin trik dari nyokap udah gak jaman lagi dimana peran istri bukan lagi sebagai tukang bebersih di rumah - tapi sudah sebagai partner, bagi tugas sama rata. Sama-sama kerja di kantor juga kok!

Trik 2 : Cuekin Aja
Sumber : Kakak - sudah 7 tahun nikah
Trik nomer 2 dijalankan selama seminggu, rumah dibiarkan berantakan. Ternyata gampang juga ya! Seminggu berjalan mulus tanpa ribut-ribut dengan suami. Sampai satu hari saya mengundang teman-teman *yang sebelumnya sudah dikompakin soal aksi mogok beberes ini*. Ternyata mengena juga trik ini. Suami menegur saya sambil panik beberes "Bisa2nya kamu bawa teman padahal rumah berantakan kaya gini". Aku cuma tertawa "Berantakan apanya?"
Hasilnya : Berhasil! Tapi kok rasanya bersalah juga ya memakai reverse psychology macam ini.

Trik 3 : Mogok Servis
Sumber : Teman - *frenemy itu maksudnya friend-enemy gitu?*
Gampang kok, tinggal bilang NO - tapi terus terang aku nggak gitu sreg dengan cara ini. Terlalu manipulative. Ternyata cara yang paling tepat bicara terus terang kalau kita merasa pembagian tugas rumah kurang adil. Solusi bisa diupayakan bersama. Yang jelas kaum lelaki itu memang agak kurang sensitif kalau hanya diberi sindiran halus atau sinyal-sinyal nggak jelas, musti bilang terus terang "Aku nggak suka A karena ini dan itu"

Secara suamiku sendiri juga suka agak kurang tanggap sama hal-hal seperti ini. Aku suka sindir memanggil dia dengan nama-nama yang berbau jawa. Tadinya dia sempet tersinggung karena disamakan dengan laki-laki jawa, yang manja & maunya diladeni aja, tapi sekarang udah enggak kok........ Iya kan Bambang?

**Article is adopted from The Nest online magazine

Lantern Festival

2007-03-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

Lantern Festival this year falls on March 4. It's a national carnival to welcome Spring after a long dark cold winter. The other two major traditional festivals in Chinese are Spring Festival and Mid-autumn Festival. The celebrating activities consist of three parts: the daytime Huahui (lively and jolly celebrations), the nighttime Denghui (display of various lanterns) and eating Yuanxiao (sweet dumplings made of glutinous rice flour).

Huahui is held at daytime and mainly on famous streets or in big temples. It's made up of various entertainment activities including yangko opera, stilt walking, landboat rowing and the most fabulous lion dance which, accompanied by the clamors of gongs and drums, always gathers the most spotlight on the site.

Denghui is held at nighttime and it's where Lantern Festival gets its name from, a festival to appreciate various lanterns. Lanterns will be made into various shapes, the lotus flower, the aniseed, the dragon and so on. Yuanxiao to Lantern Festival is the same as dumplings to Spring Festival. It is sweet dumpling made of glutinous rice flour. Traditional Yuanxiao stuffings mainly are hawthorn white sugar, mashed Chinese dates pine nut and sweet bean paste, which are enriched in modern society to include cream, chocolate and so on. Yuanxiao is available at various supermarkets. Long cherished Yuanxiao brands include Daoxiangcun, Gongyifu, Yixinfu and so on.

**More on Lantern Festival photos & facts

** Source from China Daily

Green Fried Rice

2007-02-25T01:54:00.000-08:00

Ide sebenernya terinspirasi dari masakan nyokap, ikan sepat cabai hijau. Kalo pas nyokap masak ini, kita jarang banget nggak nambah. Kombinasi bau gurih cabai hijau dan daun jeruknya itu loh. Jadilah, acara dinner tadi malem, nasi eksperimen ini jadi salah satu suguhan. Ternyata sukses!

Masaknya gampang banget kok, yang udah sering masak nasi goreng dan sukses, pasti bisa bikin sambil merem. Preparationnya sama dengan bikin nasi goreng, tapi bumbunya agak beda sedikit.... Sebenernya gw udah biasa masak tanpa resep, jadi rada susah kasi ukuran tepatnya. Dikira2 aja ya.

Porsi nasi untuk makan 2 orang

Bumbu halus:
* Cabai hijau besar 7-8 pcs
Cuci bersih & buang bijinya supaya nggak pedes. Kalau mau pedes bijinya jgn dibuang
* Bawang putih 4 siung besar
* Tomat 1 pcs
* Maggi rasa ayam 1 cube

1.) Bumbu dihaluskan lalu tumis dalam 2 sdm minyak sampai harum
2.) Masukkan nasi yang sudah matang
3.) Aduk rata, tambah garam, merica
4.) Terakhir banget masukkan daun jeruk yang diiris halus2 memanjang.
5.) Bisa dihidangkan pake ayam goreng atau kering kentang... lebih bagus sih pake piring

One Day in Hangzhou

2007-02-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

Liburan Imlek disini berlangsung agak lama, sekitar semingguan, at least 10 hari sesudahnya pun masih banyak kantor2 yang libur. Denger2 dari cerita temen2, Hangzhou katanya lumayan juga buat jalan-jalan. Sedikit refreshing liat danau dan spring yang katanya udah mulai disana, sementara Changshu tempat kita tinggal masiiiih aja gerimis dan temperaturnya dibawah 5 derajat. Brrrr..... Sedikit info tentang Hangzhou, kota kecil di provinsi Zhejiang, sekitar 2 jam perjalanan dari Shanghai, dan 2 jam dari Changshu. Populasinya sekitar 6 juta orang *Biasanya gw nggak terlalu peduli sama urusan populasi..... Tapi waktu kemarin jalan-jalan ke danau, ada kali tuh setengah populasi penduduk yang juga jalan2 ke danau*

Oh iya, gw juga belajar untuk gak percaya dengan kata2 surga di fast facts google search waktu nyari info tentang satu kota di China. Menyesatkan tuh fakta2nya. Ngaku-ngaku aja sebagai "the most well-known and popular tourist destination on earth"....... In reality the most interesting thing you can find is either a man made lake (like in Suzhou) or this so called famous gardens and parks (like in Changshu). Which tourist in the right mind would fly across the world to visit a lake or some gardens??? *gilingan banget gak sech, kolam aer mancur pizza man di Sudirman aja lebih bagus*

Untungnya Hangzhou agak mendingan dari perkiraan. Pemandangan di sekitar West Lake (Xihu) lumayan laaahhh.... cantik juga saat sunset. Selain jalan-jalan ke West Lake, di sekeliling danau memang banyak banget tea houses - salah satu specialtynya Longjing Tea yang memang asalnya dari Hangzhou. Longjing lumayan enak, tapi jenis yang lainnya belom kepengen nyoba karena menurut gw rasanya mirip kaya rumput laut!

Local signature dishes yang sempet kita cobain malemnya enak banget dan definitely an addictive material. West Lake Sweet Vinegar Fish yang juicy karena sang ikan setelah di-marinate, di-steam sampai lembut banget trus dilumuri gravy cuka coklat kental yang rasanya gurih asam menggigit dan manis. Hmmmm. Bikin ketagihanlah pokoknya. Cuma, tulang-tulangnya agak ribet makannya. Kalo nggak mau tulang, bisa minta dibuatkan ala Sweet & Sour aja, yummie juga kelihatannya. Mereka ambil ikan2nya langsung dari tambak di danau depan restauran. Jadi masih fresh banget! Nama Inggrisnya fresh-water grass carp, nama Indonesianya gw gak bisa inget... yang jelas dulu waktu kecil gw sering banget makan gituan. Bukan ikan sepat, bukan ikan gurame, bukan lele, duuuh, apa ya???

Satu lagi yang katanya signature dish, Longjing Shrimp, udang di stir fried dengan bumbu minimalis dan ditaburi teh hijau. Rasanya...... agak hambar kalo menurut gw sih. Bukan pencinta masakan udang minimalis sih, at least musti pake cabe atau di-asam manis.

Spring udah mulai dibagian dunia sini. Weeping willows udah keluar tunas2nya, juga cherry blossoms yang kecil2 kaya kancing tapi wangi banget. Foto2 masih gw update, belom sempet kepegang secara malem ini gw 'dipaksa' masak dinner buat boss nya Mike. Hiiiihhh....

Xihutiandi - scenic garden surrounding the lake with great cafes to soak the evening sun and sip a great cup of coffee.

Must-try signature local dishes from Hangzhou:

West Lake Sweet Vinegar Fish, Dongpo Pork, Beggar's Chicken and Shrimps in Longjing Tea

Restaurant LouwaiLou

30 Gushan Road, Solitary Island

West Lake Side

Ph: 0517-7965416

** Resep Sweet Vinegar Fish bisa dilihat disini

Chinese New Year

2007-02-18T02:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.... Gong Xi Fa Cai.
Udah dari jam 5 sore tadi orang2 disini mulai rame pasang petasan dan kembang api. Nggak tanggung-tanggung mereka kalo main petasan loh. Ngalah-ngalahin petasan menjelang Lebaran di Jakarta. Kita punya petasan renceng cabe rawit yang namanya memang sesuai dengan bentuknya, kecil2 tapi suaranya dahsyat nyebelinnya. Trus ada juga petasan banting, belom lagi petasan yang disundut satu2, petasan irit kali ya..... bunyinya sama juga bikin sakit kuping.

Lain di Jakarta, lain di Cina. Lebaran cina pertama kali dilewatkan di Beijing. Petasan bukan cuma mainan anak kecil seperti di Jakarta, disini hukumnya wajib pasang petasan, termasuk owner2 hotel berikut direktur-direktunya. Ukurannya juga nggak tanggung2, bukan rencengan lagi, tapi sudah gulungan yang dikemas segede ban mobil!!! Ya ampuuunnn.... Cara masangnya juga nggak digantung, tapi diletakkan di tanah, trus ban petasan itu digulirkan panjaaaaaanggggg kira2 bisa 5 - 7 meter.
Itu baru petasannya. Belum kembang apinya.

Jadi inget jaman kecil dulu, kembang api dikemas di bungkusan dengan 10 tangkai kembang api yang cuma seukuran tusuk sate. Disini kembang api dikemas segede-gede ember. Gue pernah beli di market, ternyata seember itu beratnya kira2 5KG, 10KG dan seterusnya. Makin besar, makin lama sampai kira2 20 menitan baru habis. Dan itu suaranya lumayan berisik....

Kebayang aja deket2 tengah malam di Changshu sini, orang2 udah pada mulai semangat pasang kembang api dan petasan tanpa berenti. Tiap pojok rumah, atap2 gedung dan jalanan, semuaaaaa pasang beginian. Halaaaahhh..... gimana mau tidur nech??

Foto2 di bawah diambil dari jarak yang deket banget, secara ada orang pasang pas banget di depan balkoni apartment kita.

Dinner @ En Japanese Resto Plaza EX

2007-02-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

Appetizer - Melt-in-the mouth Deep Fried Oysters

Assorted Skewers: shiitake mushrooms, sweet marinated eel
(unagi), chicken, beef and fish

Grilled Salmon, main course

Vanilla Ice Cream on a bed of puffy crispy bread

Chic bar dengan Japanese fusion sepertinya lagi seru-serunya di Jakarta. Gue sih dari dulu taunya cuma Blowfish aja - konsep pertama makan cantik yang dikombinasi dengan bar, tapi harganya gila-gilaan mahalnya. Huh, bikin bangkrut kalo makan disana.

Tapi karena kita lama tinggal di daerah 'pedesaan', jadi agak haus dengan yang berbau fusion food. Udah lama banget kita nggak sempet ke tempat2 seperti ini. Tempatnya & deco nya lumayan, pas di seberang Hard Rock Cafe. Service juga ok, mbak2nya sabar banget nungguin kita order makanan, padahal sambil becandaan melulu. Cuma yang bikin agak nggak sreg di mata, kok ya di restoran Jepang yang konsepnya modern minimalis, ada chandelier segede2 gaban ngegantung pas di depan hidung??? *higs, keselek*

Makanannya oke banget, bener2 melebihi expectation kita berdua. Enak banget, dan presentasi yang cantik bikin kita ngalah buat harga. *maklumlah, kita berdua emang pecinta presentasi makanan cantik.... dan rasa yang oke dong* Agak mahal sih, tapiiii ambience dan experience nya sepadan kok.

En Japanese Dining Bar
Plaza Indonesia, EX Center 2nd Floor
Jl. MH Thamrin Kav. 28-30
Ph: (021) 31990207

Warung Nikmat Kuta Bali

2007-01-30T19:19:00.000-08:00

simple lunch menu for Rp. 8000,-

Pertama kali dikenalin warung ini dari Mia, adikku yang saat itu masih tinggal di Bali, dan jadi tempat tongkrongan favorit kru Garuda plus turis2 Jepang yang kadang2 suka agak keterlaluan jiwa jurnalis nya. Warung Jawa sih sebenernya, mungkin cita rasanya agak terlalu manis buat kebanyakan orang Bali.

Pilihan makanannya banyak, tipikal warteg gitu deh, cuma lebih bersih dan kualitasnya jauh di atas warteg2 umumnya kok. Satu porsi nasi campur dengan menu pilihan dari kira2 20 sampai 25 macem menu - kira2 Rp. 7000 sampai Rp. 15,000 (itu kalau yang porsi dagingnya dobel). Enak kok!

Mulai rame sekitar jam makan siang. Dan biasanya banyak yang sudah habis sekitar jam 4-5 sore. Jam 6 pasti udah tutup. Enaknya sih dateng lebih awal sekitar jam 11 siang gitu. Menu favoritnya ayam bakar - rendangnya juga enak kok.

Warung Nikmat
Jl. Bakung Sari - samping Hotel Bakung Sari
Di seberangnya supermarket Supernova

Drops Restaurant at Casa Suites Legian

2007-01-28T11:13:00.000-08:00

Cinta banget sama makanan disini. Chef nya orang Bali asli - tapi katanya pernah ditraining 2 taun di Belanda. Taste & flavours nya pas banget, presentationnya unik... lucu.....Gue sampe terus2an pesen sate campurnya, karena dihidangkan di dalem batok kelapa dibelah plus sambel matahnya yang supeeeerrrrr enak! Duh.... jadi bikin lapeerrrr

Sate Campur komplit

Bebek Betutu lengkap dengan sambal matah

More on Drops Restaurant and Casa Suites in Legian Bali

Jurus jitu memilih kursi strategis di pesawat

2007-01-25T17:24:00.000-08:00

Orang yang sering traveling dengan First Class, pasti nggak pernah pusing dengan urusan seat di pesawat. Tapi yang biasa jalan-jalan dengan tiket murah, duduk di kelas ekonomi dengan jam terbang melebihi 6 jam - saat high season lagi - urusan tempat duduk bisa sama pentingnya dengan urusan hidup & mati. Masih untung kalau dapet mas atau mbak yang baik saat check-in. Kalau tidak, siap2 berjuang mempertahankan ruang dengkul dari penumpang di depan yang berniat membuat kursinya sedatar papan cucian, sementara sikut-sikutan berebut armrest dengan penumpang sebelah. Halah, mana masih 12 jam perjalanan........ampuuuunnn

Ada beberapa tips buat memilih kursi yang lumayan strategis, walaupun tidak 100% bebas gangguan menurut pengalaman saya. Yaaaa, namanya juga kelas kambing.

Seat configuration untuk B747 - kursi strategis 30 ABC dan 30 HJK
Berikutnya kursi 44 ABC dan 44 HJK, lalu 55 ABC dan 55 HJK

1.) Kursi yang paling strategis : Exit Row Seating, tepat di sebelah pintu emergency, karena ruang dengkul dijamin paling luas - lebih luas dari ruang dengkulnya pilot loh. Kalau mau ke toilet nggak perlu melewati deretan dengkul tetangga, atau dorong-dorongan kursi dengan penumpang di depan. Cuma, kursi ini paling susah didapet, harus diminta saat check-in.

Menurut aturan FAA & FAM seat ini di-reserve untuk ABP (able bodied person) yang bersedia untuk dijadikan relawan saat darurat; kalau evakuasi, nggak bisa kabur duluan, harus bantu penumpang lain lah. Syarat utama harus sehat fisik dan bersedia jadi relawan. Tapi setahu saya, di SQ, banyak penumpang2 dari business class yang suka booking seat ini saat mereka kehabisan favorite seat di business class.

Hati-hati: daerah sini kadang-kadang suka jadi tempat parkiran meal cart, lindungi dengkul!

2.) Jangan ambil kursi yang paling belakang, karena biasanya tempat duduk tidak di desain untuk recline penuh karena terhalang oleh dinding pembatas, selain juga bersebelahan dengan toilet yang biasanya berjumlah lebih banyak dari toilet di depan. Dijamin nggak akan pernah sepi pengunjung. Tambahan pula, kursi belakang itu dekat dengan galley atau dapur yang juga jarang sepi dari kegiatan nyiapin makanan/minuman plus tempat ngerumpi cabin crew *hehehe, pengalaman soalnya bikin ribut di galley.......*

3.) Usahakan ambil kursi yang agak di tengah menjauh dari bulkhead, karena biasanya bulkhead seat - deretan kursi paling depan yang berhadapan langsung dengan tembok pembatas - biasanya di-reserve untuk bayi & anak balita (yang kemungkinan bakal rewel sepanjang penerbangan). Biasanya row kedua dan ketiga dari depan juga termasuk deretan favorit tuh buat tempat balita. Jadi ambil jarak aman dari tiga rows itu.

4.) Oh ya, boarding pass itu cuma berlaku saat boarding aja. Setelah pintu pesawat ditutup, cepet-cepetlah cari kursi strategis. Tapi hati-hati jangan sampai pramugarinya liat, bisa kena marah loh & disuruh balik lagi. Kalau flight nggak terlalu penuh, cari deretan kursi di tengah dengan 4-5 kursi sebelum penumpang lain liat. Cepet2 didudukin, tas/barang bawaan ditaro di ujung satunya lagi sbg tanda daerah teritorial sudah diambil alih, sebelum penumpang lain ikutan mengklaim juga.

5.) Kalau beruntung bisa dapet beberapa kursi sekaligus, saat berbaring usahakan posisi kepala jangan menghadap aisle. Meal cart yang wara-wiri itu lumayan juga rasanya kalau sampai mampir di jidat.

6.) Tips terakhir, kalau masih nggak nyaman juga, cari kursi kosong lain atau minta bantuan cabin crew dengan alasan kursinya rusak atau apalah *namanya juga usaha*. Biasanya alasan keamanan atau kesehatan lebih diperhatikan daripada alasan kenyamanan. Kalau bisa bicara langsung dengan chief cabin atau pursor nya.

Seat configurasi untuk lebih lengkapnya bisa dilihat di SeatExpert Website

Leisure walk on one Saturday morning

2007-01-20T19:10:00.000-08:00

We both woke up a bit late today, really late round 11am. Clear day but still too cold to get out and do stuff. Yeah, like there're anything to do here anyway. I wasn't in the mood for preparing breakfast, so we'd just pop by the hotel for a quick lunch.

The weather was crisp cold but still slightly bearable to go for a short walk. I sort of excited to try out the new camera. And there're quite a few photo ops on the way - like this funny looking curly cabbage-look-alike that had been planted since the beginning of winter. Not edible apparently, just part for decorative purpose in the parks. I think they look amazing this morning, especially with last night's drizzle, all dotted beautifully in strands of pearl-like morning dews. They look amazing! Anyone knows what it's called, pls let me know.

We took the back alley of the hotel which is a local residency area. Farmers mostly, have massive vegetable plantation in front of their houses. These people really know what they're doing, the vegetables look absolutely delicious!

And so the world disappears....

2007-01-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning to find the world had vanished. The fog was so thick, we could barely see anything out there. Still freezing cold, below 5 degrees C. Should be getting a bit warmer later today, but still won’t make me want to go out and do stuff. Gotta get up to get brekkie ready for B. See ya later!!

Can you take me higher......

2007-01-17T01:34:00.001-08:00

Maybe it's not so bad after all. Maybe deluding myself is part of the deal in self development, spiritual growth, coping with life.... or whatever you wish to call it. Paaaak, nyesel saya nggak ikutan MJH nya bapak. Hiks!!! Feel that I have so much negativity in me right now, can't quite put a finger on it, but it's there. Tired of people's ignorance and rudeness. Tired of being expected to be culturally sensitive while the rest of the 'world' stay ignorant. Bunch of bulls. My mind is already soaking up the sun in a beach in Bali, melting away in morning meditations while listening to the birds chirping away, sound of the rolling waves nearby. Melting myself in nature. Filling up my entire being with blissfully pure energy. Whoa.... hope I could view things from a better perspective upon my return.

Something that I really miss while being away. I do believe that places have different energy which somehow drive the behaviour of the people. This land in particular, lacks of depth, people walking around without prayers in mind nor believe in 'miracles' in life. Colorless. There's life, but there's no spirit. Just an empty case walking around breathing. How can you call that Life? Stripped out of all its magnificence, grandeur and mystery to merely mediocre task of getting through the days fulfilling physical and emotional's thirst. So unfair knowing that you owe that much to Life. I don't have to change it. I owe them nothing. I am watching and learning. It's suffocating. A break means getting away to a place where I can breath, sync and re-attune. I'm tired. So tired of all this. Let me breath....

Mongolian Chicken

2007-01-16T14:39:00.000-08:00

I was slightly in the mood of creating something, enuff with photoshop thingie, maybe cooking? After went through the fridge I found this weird looking mongolian chicken bought from Auchan the other day. The name caught my curiosity instantly. Hmmm..... what sort of chicken would it be? juicier? succulent? fat free? special herb marinated? As soon as I unwrapped the packaging, I was disheartened finding a handful of tiny chopped whole chicken with bones, and I mean w.h.o.l.e including two tiny feet, gizzard, liver.... and head with half closed eyes. Gaaaccckkk!!!

Back in my country, people don't mind bones in their chicken, but usually not chopped to the size of sugar cubes. That small, eh? Perhaps the idea is bite and spit, cut them small enough for one bite and just spit the rest out. Typical chinese though. After getting rid of inedible parts and adding some more decent chicken fillet, I started cooking them. The broth tasted so similar to the strong spices in Sczechuan hotpots. Not too bad at all. Here goes......

Bali, here we come!

2007-01-16T04:36:00.000-08:00

Countdown 10 more days to go ...... He's a lot more excited than I am, kept talking about the things we're gonna do. So many things, so little time. Most importantly, the two persons I need to see will be there too. Long lost friends. Oef, it's going to be quite an experience. Hahaha, I could feel it already. Reiki re-attunement, meditations - hopefully on the beach, will do some quiet heart to heart talk without anybody knows what's going on. Giggly. The mischievous kid in me would be wanting to get out again.... Ssshhhhhh! Hihihihi......

Okay, car already booked, hotel - done but looking for a better location still. This time we're going to have some exploring to do in Seminyak - *uhm, Paul Ropp still there I hope*, Ku-de-ta, what else is there? Jimbaran beach for bbq seafood dinner of course, and burying our feet in the white sand of Dreamland beach in Uluwatu. Aaaaahhhh, sounds like heaven!

Then Jakarta, all family thingie. Talk to uncle this, went to visit auntie that, catch up with Seal over coffee or whatever..... hahahhaha. Gotta remind mom about the passport thing. Will have to get it ready in time.

Menerabas "tembok api" di Cina

2007-01-14T17:04:00.000-08:00

Urusan jaringan internet yang sempet keganggu karena gempa di Taiwan sudah selesai harusnya. Tapi blog gw masih aja terblokir. Yang tadinya dengan nyaman bisa dibuka dengan browser Firefox tapi bermasalah dengan Internet Explorer, sekarang malah nggak bisa dua-duanya. Seperti umumnya orang yang lagi 'nyandu' gue dengan semangat cari jalan gimana caranya supaya tetep bisa update postingan-postingan baru. Tanpa sengaja, gw ketemu beberapa site yang menganjurkan untuk ngecheck apakah blokiran disebabkan dari proxy di tempat gw. Dasar iseng, gw check juga sambil penasaran mana mungkin sih. Hasilnya positif. Nggak ngerti sebabnya apa. Yang jelas kalau browsing lewat p.s tersebut pasti loadingnya lama dan berakhir dengan "404 Page Error". Setelah dicoba lewat p.s. lain kok malah lancar2 aja? Oke, berarti gue harus ambil jalan alternatif.

Yang jelas gw yang tadinya nggak tau banyak soal aliran alternatif ini mendadak jadi belajar banyak banget - sampai akhirnya nemu program 'shapeshifter' yang menurut gue bener2 ultimate discovery. Pinter banget yang bikin! Halah. Dengan program ini gw berhasil bolak-balik masuk site2 yang terlarang disini.... biasanya berhubungan dengan media & politik. Hmmm, lagi2 masalah sensitif. Gue masih heran sensitif apaan ya, hari gini masih pake acara filter2an gitu loh. Nggak jaman banget! H*ck3r skarang udah pinter2 kok. Selalu ada jalan alternatif.

Anyways, filter2an gw bahas karena ternyata emang beneran ada disini. Fakta? Google ngelisting smua site yang ngebahas ini - berikut bypassnya. Ah, indahnya dunia h*ck3ring. So, kalau internet di kantor atau sekolah dipasangin filter, jawabannya ada di google. Carilah cgiproxy sebagai jalan alternatif. Beres! **hmmm, berapa lama ya postingan ini bisa bertahan sebelum nantinya kena 'dor' lagi??? hehehehhe

Si Kitkat - nyobain kamera Nikon coolpix yang baru. Ternyata detailnya oke banget!!

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

2007-01-13T13:24:00.000-08:00

Just something I need to share

Blind criticism is crap. Anonymous and cowards leave this sort of criticism.

The point is, generally people don't like being criticized. This may be different if it's meant to be a constructive comment. Some people may consider it but would prefer not to make it public. Book authors never include negative reviews or critics on the front cover of their books. There's never been any negative writings about painting in the art exhibition catalog.
There's simply a different forum to channel these sort of things.

I just don't understand that there're people who think picking on others is the best way to learn about differences. I think it's a selfish statement that does nobody any good but ego boosting. Try turning the mirror around for once. Yes, I object negative comments because there're people whose lives are miserable enough to spend time and energy throwing negative comments at others, seeing the world from the half empty glass.... instead of half full.

Out of place

2007-01-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

While the rest of the world is moving forward, I feel like I'm just standing still, half conscious or perhaps pretend not to see what's going on around me. Hybernating? Or simply ignoring. I don't care, honestly. Deep down I feel like I still have a lot of exploring to do in this place, weekend adventures and a few days off to another part of the country. But when? How? Don't have the energy to plan all of this. Mike would've said something like "I'm all booked up until the next couple of weeks.... Try next century"

One thing I noticed recently was how much frustration I've had about this place. Didn't even know I had so much bitterness until yesterday. Was surprised myself but quickly thought, what the hell, they don't understand me anyway. Maybe this is also what has kept me from coming back to check up on the girls at the hotel. Enough of this please. Let me have something else on the shelves. Difficult to say, probably a mix of rock-bottom frustation, anger, bitterness, mental suffocation and inability to change the problem at hand because I AM NOT THE FREAKIN' DRIVER ANYMORE!!!! I have no control over these things and I have VERY LITTLE tolerance level at this point. Not now. Not today. Ask me some other time. Thank you.

The man is gone now.

Funny how we see things from different perspective, I mean Mike and me. He saw a broken man walking out of here. They'll never be able to see eye to eye. I, on the other hand, see a man with visions who strives hard to achieve them. Along the way, he's made a couple of others to see it too.

I still think it's important to have him walk out of here proud, of what he's created along with all of the significant impacts brought to the city, as he promised long time ago. Some people may not have the ability to look up with the intention to be better, instead they look down comparing themselves with those down below and thought "This can't be right". It's light-years-ahead concept that we have in hand and now you're telling us you want the stone age simplicity??? I really don't understand.....

Update dari kantor, bikin runyam

2007-01-11T20:54:00.000-08:00

Udah hampir sebulan gw berenti dan tutup mata dari kerunyaman dunia perhotelan di sini. Tapi tetep mau nggak mau input2 dan gosip hangat terus aja mengalir nggak berenti. Mau gimana lagi, Mike yang tiap hari cerita kebete'annya ngadepin boss nya yang lepas tangan & gak perduli dengan operasional hotel, karena merasa kedudukannya diutik-utik owner dan akhirnya resmi dipindah tugaskan ke negara lain oleh HO, anak F&B yang selalu bikin kasus dengan anak HR yang asli alesan sebenernya nggak penting banget..... cuma gara2 waktu Fire Drill minggu lalu, HR yang udah dibriefing bolak-balik sebagai penanggung jawab lantai dasar; termasuk kantin dan seisinya, storage room, butcher room, pastry kitchen dan HSKP department berikut Laundry Room yang rata-rata staffnya agak terganggu pendengarannya stlh training selama seminggu... HAH??? APA??? BARUSAN NGOMONG SAMA SAYA YAH??? *katanya sih karena suara mesin cuci & dryer raksasa disitu*

Hasil Fire Drill, semua tamu di kamar berhasil dievakuasi, prosedur evakuasi yang dinilai efisien oleh Fire Bureau China, seluruh staff berhasil dievakuasi - kecuali seluruh staff pastry kitchen berikut David, dept headnya, yang masih sibuk ngadonin croissant di dapur. Fire alarm di dapur mereka mati, dan HR lupa mengevakuasi staff kitchen. Jadilah mereka skarang berantem dari minggu lalu. Halah!!! Tapi emang HR di hotel kita antik banget. Sukur deh training mgr nya bulan lalu baru ambil sertifikat training di Shanghai, jadi sekarang udah bisa training orang. *Ini gw masih gak ngerti kenapa bisa di-hire yak?*

Boss gw juga lagi tebar pesona kata anak2. Biasanya kalo morning briefing galaknya kaya singa. Gw yang saat itu kantornya masih sebelahan sama ruang briefing, bisa denger kalo briefing udah mulai - dahsyatnya berasa dari cuma megang tembok aja.... Dan dia gak malu-malu ngeluarin segala kata mutiara penghuni kebon binatang. Yaah, itu sih masih belom ada apa2nya. Kalo udah dipanggil khusus ke ruangannya... itu yang seru, biasanya nggak lama pasti ada surat resignation dari orang yang dipanggil. Anak-anak sehotel udah pada tau semua. Tapi akhir2 ini dia berubah banyak katanya, ada acara morning briefing sambil breakfast, gak pernah ngeluarin warning letter lagi, briefing juga katanya udah agak manusiawi. Ooooh, ternyata lagi direview performancenya sama HO. Hahhahaha......

Sementara spa gw apa kabarnya? Agak gimanaaa gitu rasanya, gw gak tega mampir. Pasti anak2 gw pada berkaca-kaca gitu, mukanya polos kalo ngomong "I miss you..." padahal bahasa Inggrisnya belum tentu bisa bikin satu kalimat penuh. Ngomongnya pake hati, gw pasti ikutan nangis deh. Halaaahhh!!! Nggak nyesel gw ngedidik anak2 ini, yang penting mereka kerja pake hati dan udah ngerti service lah at least. Padahal mindset & kebudayaan mereka beda banget, yang penting kuantitas - bukan kualitas.... jadilah kerja a la McDonald, nggak pake feeling, yang penting cepet.

Customer relations sama dengan lemparan pertanyaan2 basi yang sudah dihafal luar kepala ke tamu dan minta isi formulir komen. Gak responsive sama sekali dengan kebutuhan tamu.

Guest contact sama dengan "Good morning, how are you" dan pasang senyum. "Plek" titik. Kalau tamunya cerewet dan malah ngobrol, gelagepan lah dia, karena di buku gak ada contekannya dan emang supervisornya belom ngajarin sampe situ.

"Beneran loh, gw pernah nguping briefing gaya militer yang umum banget di restoran2 lokal sini. Pegawainya dibarisin berjejer, trus didikte pertanyaan2 dalam bahasa Inggris serentak nge-beo "Good morning, how are you?" "Fine thank you, how are you" "This way, please" Kaku banget!

Common sense juga agak susah diterapin disini tadinya. Biasa dilatih gaya tentara mungkin ya, apa2 harus ada komando dari atasannya, tamu yang minta gak akan digubris.

Di restoran:

"Mas, laksanya tolong jangan pake udang ya. Saya alergi udang"
Laksa dateng lengkap dengan udang dan kulit2nya berikut kumisnya.
"Tadi kan saya bilang gak pake udang......?"
"Tapi di menu ada udangnya kok!" sambil nunjukkin tulisan di menu

Di Spa:
"Maaf pak, kami tutup sebentar lagi"
"Iya, tapi saya belum selesai, baru dipijet kaki sebelah kiri nih"
"Kami tutup jam 10 tepat. Kalau mau booking besok lagi silakan"
** ini hasil training roleplay yang salah tempat, karena seharusnya buat tamu yang datangnya pas mau tutup
"Emang gak bisa tunggu 15 menit aja sampai saya selesai?"
"Maaf, tapi manager saya bilang jam 10 harus tutup"

Di lobby:
" Minumannya udah dingin nih. Bisa ganti dengan yang baru nggak?"
" Boleh, tapi kena charge tambahan ya"
" Belum saya minum kok ini, saya cuma minta ganti dengan yang panas"
" Iya, tapi kena charge double pak"
" Bisa saya ngomong sama manager kamu?"

This is for my mom!

2007-01-10T01:27:00.000-08:00

Pieces of myself from the past. Thank you mom for your unconditional love to make me the way I am today. Take it to the next level, it's not about what I know or don't know, it's about how I should answer to Life.

When I refused to go to school, coz I was afraid of the world outside
You sat through the class with me, in that tiny red wooden bench made for dwarves - cutting colorful papers and singing along with a bunch of midgets. I still can't believe the sort of things you had to put up with.....

When my thirst for stories & adventure was more than bedtime reading
You taught me how to read. I got my own first 255-page book when I was 5 yrs. It was that "Little House on the Prairie"

When I had my first crush
You bought me a diary - that one with 'pacman' pictures, rainbow pages and a lock? Remember, mom?

When you were called to the principle's office one day because of my first crush story.......
You listened to the whole story and thought it was cute ** I was in 2nd grade and just proposed to a boy in my class, Brett, to be my fiance, with a dummy gold ring. Everyone in school knew about it.

When I hated my sister coz she followed everything I did
You told me about sharing and nurturing ** .... and it works mom, I had managed 14 staff. Thank you :-*

When I failed that scholarship for the AFS Student Exchange Program
You still thought I was the best!!! ** Was one of the only 2 candidates left for posting in Japan - just me and him, and all they told me was "Now, it's just how much you are willing to pay your way in, because the other candidate's parents are willing to pay so-and-so" .... remember that, mom?

When I had to choose between school or work
You told me to do what I think is best. You'd be behind me all the way

When I told you I made up my mind to take an overseas job for the first time
You were sad, but still encouraged me to pursue my dreams

From then on I start to live 'away' from you, pursuing my dreams
.... but you're always there, supporting me, waiting for me in our old house so I would always have a HOME to come back to.....

LUV YOU MOM!!!! YOU"RE THE BEST

Mystic Odes

2007-01-09T22:40:00.000-08:00

Our death is our wedding with eternity.
What is the secret? "God is One
The sunlight splits when entering the windows of the house.
This multiplicity exists in the cluster of grapes;
It is not in the juice made from the grapes.
For he who is living in the Light of God,
The death of the carnal soul is a blessing.
Regarding him, say neither bad nor good,
For he is gone beyond the good and the bad.
Fix your eyes on God and do not talk about what is invisible,
So that he may place another look in your eyes.
It is in the vision of the physical eyes
That no invisible or secret thing exists.
But when the eye is turned toward the Light of God
What thing could remain hidden under such a Light?
Although all lights emanate from the Divine Light
Don't call all these lights "the Light of God";
It is the eternal light which is the Light of God,
The ephemeral light is an attribute of the body and the flesh.
...Oh God who gives the grace of vision!
The bird of vision is flying towards You with the wings of desire.

** Mystic Odes - Rumi's Poetry

Life is about choices

2007-01-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

Another weekend in Shanghai. This time we came to see another property which had been in contact for a while. An invitation to spend the weekend experiencing the hotel is not a bad idea at all. After all we both need a break anyway from the routines. It was surprisingly quiet on the road that we reached downtown in 90 minutes.

The rest of the day was spent leisurely within the hotel. The western restaurant outlet seems a bit run down, a lot of unused space, musty, limited old-fashion selection of European menu and a bunch of rude staff chatting away amongst themselves. Last option was the Japanese Teppanyaki which was unfortunately also not as we expected. Way overpriced! Gotta do some thinking about this babe! Sure that this will be a good chance to measure yourself.

The next day we were informed about the new clothing & souvenir market , Ya Tai Xin Yang, near the Science Museum. And it was only 10 mnts walk from our hotel, with shortcut through a park. I wish that we knew about this place long ago - mom would've went absolutely crazy with the stuff they have here. Amazing selection of bits and pieces..... Found branded shirts and a couple of neckties for Mike - which we're sure are the real thing, the whole plastic wrappings with every details, linings, tags are all with the same brand and no spelling mistakes. Either it's the real thing or it's a really good copy...... which I doubt because the material feels soft to the touch. I think it's real. Unbelievable, I don't think I could find anything with the same quality anywhere in Jakarta.

Antara Gua Sha ( 刮痧) dan "Kerokan"

2007-01-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Kebiasaan bawaan dari Indonesia emang susah hilang. Salah satunya tradisi pijat dan kerokan. Tempat pijat & spa masih bisa dicari disini, menurut gw sih lebih bagus tekniknya karena mereka kombinasi dengan tuina, pijat ala chinese, yang lebih ke deep tissue massage and lomi-lomi. Kalau therapistnya agak kurang pengalaman emang agak kasar jadinya, tapi banyak independent spa spt Dragonfly (*tempat favorit kalo lagi mampir ke Shanghai) biasanya tekniknya sdh dikombinasi dgn Thai massage, agak lebih halus lah.

Masalahnya, kalau masuk angin ini yang parah. Mau kerokan dimana? Sementara gw nggak terlalu sreg sama cupping. Aneh ajalah, nggak biasa! Konsep "masuk angin" buat Michael kedengeran absurd banget. Mana mungkinlah, dia protes abis-abisan dengan logikanya. Ternyata logika bubar dengan artikel dari TCM bahwa orang china percaya dengan konsep masuk angin..... Huahahahhaha.

Chi yang terganggu alirannya, bisa jadi penyebab salah satunya ya masuk angin itu, yang nggak jelas sebenernya flu, migren, mual, panas dingin, atau apalah.... pokoknya nggak enak badanlah. Berhubung badan udah bener-bener nggak karuan rasanya, gw panggil salah satu therapist ke apartment.

Agak kaget juga waktu ngeliat dia bawa perlengkapan 'kerokan' ala china. Kok tau-taunya sih kerokan tanpa penjelasan penuh sebelumnya? Bentuknya mirip sendok sepatu, atau semacam sisir serit - tanpa seritnya dong, dari tanduk. Kalau kerokan ala Indonesia biasanya berakhir dengan design 'tulang ikan' di punggung, sementara "gua sha" nggak pake design khusus, dimana aja yang kira2 masuk angin. Bisa merah sepunggung-punggung, fokusnya sih di sepanjang tulang belakang.

Sangking gak peduli, hampir gak inget kalau gw sekarang tinggal di China, dengan kebudayaan & teknik pengobatan tertua di dunia. "Gua sha" ternyata sudah dikenal hampir 2000 tahun yang lalu ternyata. Hmmm, orang Indonesia lagi pada sibuk ngapain ya jaman itu?

Oh ya, buat para Newbies Kerokan, bisa lihat Teknik Kerokan Untuk Pemula dari Hericz. Ancur banget ...... :D

Fast-forward that please.....

2007-01-02T00:29:00.000-08:00

A brief online chat with an old time friend from Jakarta has been a real inspiration. I may do something about taking up this hobby thing into something serious. She has, as always, been a busy girl doing a lot of travelling for her work, even busier now writing her own book, contributing to a couple of lifestyle magazines in Jakarta, co-authoring for a curator, part time teaching in university, developing website concept and online class on web designing. Wooo-hooo!!! You go, gurl!!! Life is speeding fast. Hang on and enjoy the ride....

As she asked me how I was doing, lemme tell ya, life moves on a much slower pace in this part of the world. Life is just impacting you in a different way, sort of naggingly slooooow and you have that sensation as if you're trapped in a box. But then she said the wisest thing "Sometimes life is meant to be enjoyed in a slo-mo"

Sometimes I miss that crazy hours of work in Jakarta, endless meetings & sales calls, and promo planning - with a little help of 'inside info' from the media friends, hehehe, thanks guys, for whatever I was involved in at that time. Waaaaah, I really miss this frantic pace. And the coffee talk with Nyoman, Indah, Sil.... just connecting with REAL people. Well, will be back in Jakarta by early Feb, hope will be able to catch up with them.

This evening we happened to watch a dvd, Adam Sandler about him having enough of putting up with loads of ridiculous things in his life and found a magic answer to end it all - a 'universal' remote control. He thought he's in full control of his life by skipping parts of his life, until finally he realized that there was nothing at the end of the rainbow.... I just noticed the title afterwards, it's called "Click"

This manipulative world

2006-12-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

Just got this article from my sis, which somehow suits well with my current situation. I've been wondering whether a mind set of other person can harmfully affect someone - or whether this jibberish really exists? Well, I guess it does. So it's true that it's important to have other people's belief (or support in this matter) as it sends you a positive energy to achieve the best result.

How others manipulate us daily without our knowledge

You meet some people any given day who fill you with pleasure and joy of life. You feel comfortable and agreeable with them. Their energies are radiating, they just merge with yours, you feel pleased, content and healthy.

On the other hand you meet few others that fill you with anguish, anger, frustration and their mere mention can fill us with rage, sadness, disgust and very unhealthy feelings. They literally make us sick by their very presence in real or in our psyche or mind or soul. This does happen to all beings every single day on any plane. This whole process does occur on a subconscious level of mind, where you feel the vibrations but you don't really notice consciously or you simply do not or can't do much about it.

Most of the conscious acts of our daily life are well thought, planned or improvised but they are approved by our self-knowledge, experience and current state of mind. However the unconscious acts of daily life are hidden under an opaque glass of memory bank, which is like a fixed deposit that you cannot access constantly; because they are programmed very carefully. Many of these acts by unconscious part of mind are automatic, happen without much effort on our part. When they are pleasing we enjoy them. When they are not pleasing we are altered and their strong impact is noticed through images & reflections we see in OTHERS whom we have to inter-act with. This unconscious act of reflection leaves deep impression on conscious mind and suddenly we feel it on our physical body. The impression of such acts on body is usually very negative and they leave us from minor headaches to serious alterations in metabolism to life threatening dysfunctions.

How to deal with these negative and threatening images? The root cause of these programmed acts is our past experiences of this and other lives that is called upon as soon as we SEE a person related or associated with that act.

The acts in reality are like throwing stones on a silent, quiet, placid lake of mind. Waves created by such turbulence are shapes of our emotions that are activated by such acts. Example, fear, a very inherent built-in emotion resides in deep layers of mind but it is only activated when we are to see or feel some old programmed act reflected in a current act or person or event.

For example, lets say, you get shock waves through your mind and body upon seeing a long, sharp knife or a creepy animal. The act of FEELING fear is activated within us. The fear was already residing but it was quiet, dormant but upon seeing the images of knife or animal - it gets awakened.

Although merely an image it activates a sleepy programmed memory of some past experience. Likewise all negative people who we interact with; activate and alter our sleepy emotions, which can actually hurt us very seriously, only if we KEEP that image in our storage. If you just concentrate for few seconds, face it, and do not accept it, your mind will repel that image and it will be out. If however out of fear or disability or lethargy, you keep viewing the image, it will keep altering you and soon it will convert in a headache or panic or stress. If it only focuses on a particular part of the body, that area will be affected and will cause grave damage.

If you become strong, resistant and do not accept the negative image not suiting you well, it will not affect you and this way you can remain in good shape and nothing will affect you. Since this entire episode is on subconscious level, we don't usually give it much importance and ignore it; but if you become aware & alert, you can face it, reject it, repel it and get away from such damaging interactions.

In order to live in this world, you are bound to meet people from all walks of life. Each person you interact with, from the closest to a stranger, has his/her own history. They see you from THEIR eyes; experiences. They view you through colors of their own, not yours. Hence consciously or unconsciously, if you meet some unpleasant people, deal with them without accepting their deep images so that their interaction does not alter or activate your inner dormant feelings. You need to develop & practice on this matter, soon the IMMUNE system of your soul will be hardened like the skin of a turtle, and thus not letting an evil person affect you ever, saving you from bad moods, ill health and consequent disasters. The key of not activating your inner emotions is in your hand. By ignoring you give that key to others. Once you do that you can't expect much. Giving away key leaves you unsafe, vulnerable and weak. Control the keys.

In a different light

2006-12-26T21:58:00.000-08:00

This made us miss celebrating xmas with friends even more......

Let me try once more to describe this in a different light. Christmas is celebrated as a big festivity with friends in here, it seems that the concept is well accepted, although it has lost its r*ligious meaning somehow, but still won’t miss the fun with all xmas feast, eggnogs, roast turkey and brandy snaps …. *that’s quite a Kiwi thing though. Mike is crazy about those delicacies*

I was pleasantly surprise to learn that in the town where I live in, people are quite adaptive somehow to this ‘western culture’. Mike shared with me the other day that he hesitated to start a promotion on christmas dinner thing, concerned on how the market was going to react. Well, they LOVE these things. First dinner was a success. The second one, coming soon for 350 seats, all sold out. What amazes me, was that these guys had only 3 weeks to launch it and made a success. In a small town like this, very impressive, babe! Well done! Honestly, I’ve never imagined that I would be part of an authentic christmas celebration in a local way. It’s uniquely Changshu, what their perception of what christmas should be like.

I think I’m getting to learn a bit more about them. The hotel lobby was full of little “elves” - those angelic creatures with wings and white stockings, bunch of kids wearing Santa’s little helpers outfit with clown’s face painting…… a bit of here and there, actually. But, they were quite cheerful and giggly.

Hotpot Project

2006-12-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

Berhubung disini udah masuk winter dan cuaca sering nggak jelas, bisa mendung seharian tanpa matahari dan temperatur ngedrop mendekati nol, atau ada matahari jrueng tapi teteup gak ngaruh lah, dingin aja..... orang banyak yang masak hotpot di rumahnya. Di supermarket jadi banyaaaaakkk banget dijual bumbu2 hotpot, segala merk, berikut hotpot set yang siap masak, kemasan lengkap bahan-bahannya, sayur / daging berikut bumbu. Tau sendiri gw udah lama give up semangat masak gue, sejak bumbu2 Indo kiriman nyokap ludes. Masak sendiri kalo kangen makanan Indo, kalo pengen makan chinese atau yang lain mendingan mampir ke hotel lah. Udah bikin kotor dapur, ribet macem-macem, cuma dapet satu macem masakan. Sutralah. Tapi bumbu hotpot yang dari supermarket bikin pengen nyoba. Kayanya seru banget kali ya, kaldunya yang merah nyala mengkilat, pake udang, pake enoki mushroom, tahu, sluuurrrpp.... Sooo, siang kemaren jalan2 beli bumbu hotpot. Setelah jadi, manggil Mike buat jadi kelinci percobaan. "Cobain deh, ini rasa baru, ada kimchi nya loh" Mike sengaja mampir dari kantor, seneng dong dimasakin "Tampangnya kayanya enak" Tapi begitu dia nyobain....iiiihhhh mukanya yang langsung berubah gitu. "Enak kok! Kamu sempet nyobain gak tadi?" "Enggak lah, aku nungguin kamu dulu nyobain" sambil cekikikan "Idih, pantesan. Nih cobain sesendok......" YAK, ampunilah diriku yang suka jahil iniiiii..... asinnya gilamak!!!! Mana MSGnya satu truk kali tuh.... Busroooooottttttt Mike ngakak nggak berenti. Duuuuhhh, udahlah nggak usah pake masak. Ntar malem kita dinner di hotel lagi aja ya? Hiks... hiks.... Hotpot Project - Day 1 judulnya : Ghaghaaaaalllllllllll

20 Things about Me

2006-12-04T16:59:00.000-08:00

1.) Favorite seat in classroom: last row, corner, where total privacy is guaranteed

2.) Dream in colors; although sometimes involve flying and time travelling

3.) Comfort zone means books, coffee, writing/drawing tools within reach and lots of colorful cushions around

4.) Hate celery, reminds me of my grandma's kiss

5.) Best shopping day is sitting in the largest bookstore with endless rows of my favorite topics, thumbing through the pages for hours

6.) Images, feelings and words have distinct tastes and textures to me

7.) Reconnecting with nature means breathing in the nature around me and melting within it, total silence, listening within.... or swimming with the waves - feel the power when they crash me to the ocean floor & lift me up immediately to the surface.

8.) A mushrooms and tofu freak. Give me more of those......!

9.) Recently adopting an expensive habit - champagne orange in the afternoon.

10.) Have a mortal fear of going broke (yeah and point no. 9 is not really helping at all) and a claustrophobic.

11.) Have an affinity with Native American culture & history

12.) Convince that I met my husband in a dream 4 years before I actually met him in person

13.) ....... also met the three children (boy, girl, boy) in that same dream

14.) Have a secret promise to somebody that I haven't been able to keep up to this day

15.) Name stuffed toys and diaries. Eugene, Navajo, Bob & Klover, Vino Pesca, Kittekat

16) Think that chilies are main course, not condiments

17.) Don't laugh, but giggle. No photos please, I got bad teeth

18.) Look up to those people with principles, doing things for the right reasons with passion. (* I love you heaps, baby!*)

19.) Listening to Linkin Park now. Double thumbs up!

20.) Final truth, mind is a powerful thing, but can be deceitful. Think what you want yourself to be. But somewhere inside, you'll always know it's only a "stage act".

Please stop the world and let me weep

2006-12-03T22:48:00.000-08:00

The brunch was called off, got up too late. Spent the entire morning lazying around on the warm sofa watching news and AXN. Kitkat was enjoying her sunbath nearby - stretching, yawning and purring loud.

There's a subtle melancholy in the air, and I know he felt the same way too. We spent the day together, grocery shopping to Auchan, heart to heart talk, mellowed out in couple massage at the spa, dinner at JJ's and more cuddles. But this feeling stayed on ...... forcing the view of a bigger perspective of human interconnectedness.

I'm not looking for consolation, I'm not looking for answers nor hear the right-or-wrong values, I'm not looking for contradiction nor approval. I've always had this question about who we are. Nothing more than accumulated perceptions gained in a lifetime.

"Mom said that "this" and "that" is bad for you" "Uncle X likes to draw. I really like his paintings" "Mom used to tell me stories about grandma how she loved cooking & that she was a forward thinker in her time. Great grandma apparently had the same qualities, she was a progressive thinking lady in her time, landlady of a vast plantation in West Java and a great horseback rider"

"Grandad was a great linguist, self taught in Italian, Japanese, Dutch, English and Latin"

** Today, I am all of those bits and pieces of qualities and perceptions which I thought is ME. Perhaps this will help me to understand myself better - and the rest of the world. I remember a story from my childhood, Hans Christian Anderson collection about The Ugly Duckling, how you grow up thinking you are what the society think you are. Not because of who you really are.

How sad it is to hold on to something that doesn't really exist, that deluding perceptions of who you are. Perhaps we all need some kind of comfort zone to measure ourselves against the harsh perceptions from the society we live in. Constantly struggling to be accepted. Constantly defending the illusive Self, pride, status, feelings...... It's exhausting - and I think it is so unfair that we have never been given the chance to break this away world of perception. It is sad.

Living in Jordan

2006-03-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

Backposting - October 1997

These days were one the best days in my travelling experience. Signing a one year contract to fly with Royal Jordanian Airlines, were practically the first batch from Indonesia, ever. There were only 6 of us: Deisy, Daru, Rachma, Tieneke Herman, Dhidit and myself. Silly fun looking bunch of newbies to the middle eastern life. Really excited!

Initial training took almost 2 months, in the mean time, we were accommodated in a hotel nearby the airport, Queen Alia, apparently there were only two international hotels in the city. Training was a blast, we had so much fun as everything was totally a new experience for us. The hotel life got a bit boring after a while, at one point, we got so sick & tired of the same food after trainings so we decided to befriend the hotel chef who finally let us to go into the kitchen to cook our Indo foodstuff.

Tieneke & myself on the way to ballad for some grocery shopping

Apart from that, we still thought the main attraction during sunday brunch were watching the local women jumping into the swimming pool complete with their black yahala dresses and face covers, and the most annoying part of evenings was to slammed the phone on anonimous s*x phone calls - arab men for sure. Just disgusting!!! Bored girls tend to do silly stuff. One night we decided to have a drink down at the bar with the pilot cadets, which to our surprise turned into a nightmare. We were told off by the hotel management, they wouldn't tolerate any crew misbehaving in the hotel.... *we're not even officially 'crew' yet* and from that day on, two sky marshals were assigned to monitor what we do in in the hotel after coming back from training and ensure that we return to our own rooms.... like we'd even thought of doing something else.... iiih, plis deh!

Spending the night at the Dead Sea on my birthday, just the five of us

Then FINALLY, time to do our Check Flights - to be certified as an active Flight Attendant. Ooooh boy, couldn't remember where we flew to, it didn't matter anyway as you wouldn't even have a chance to look out through the window ..... or even breathe. Still remember my check flight supervisor was Susan Zelvo - known as the "dragon lady" - not sure about the "lady" part though, she looked and sounded like a man. When she put you to test, she does that passionately, won't leave you alone. Give her one wrong answer, she'd come back to you with a hundred more...... Just a total nightmare! We all passed.At that time, we all flew this Boeing 737 and L1011 Tristar. These aircrafts are considered flying junk these days. Too old. Lucky if you can get them to take off. Even back then, Tristar were known to have problems with their cargo doors that tend to open accidentaly while airborne.....

Our home in Marj Al Hamam - Amman, Jordan, about 15 mnts away from the airport

Thankfully, we were given enough training salary to move out of the hotel and rent a house immediately. We fell in love with a beautiful house up on the hill in Marj Al-Hamam area. Fully furnished and we all shared the fee - except Dhidit who decided to move in with her newfound boyfriend, whom I think she dumped not long afterwards. She loved her freedom too much...... Ya ampun Dhit, inget nggak loe?

Flying was fun, sort of. We preferred to fly rather than staying in home-base. These long layovers were just the best!!! 4 days, 7 days, 14 days... if you're lucky. Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Amsterdam - and most of the smaller cities in God-knows part of Europe I have never even heard before. Where the hell is Klagenfurt?!?

Klagenfurt stopover, on one of the charter flights. Delayed for 6 hrs of
technical problem a.k.a pintu kargo macet lagi bouw. Tristar emang biasanya.....

PS: Ketemu juga, ngubek2nya di German, ternyata Klagenfurt itu di Austria.. whoops!

Losari Coffee Plantation Honeymoon

2005-10-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

Off we went to Yogyakarta on Oct 6 and decided to stay for 2 days there after a hectic week with the family and wedding bits. LOSARI is supposed to be a luxury retreat to the high end, similar to the boutique resorts like Aman and Begawan Giri . It' s nice to find that there're only us with another Italian couple stayed at the time, so pretty much we had the resort to ourselves. We were actually invited by the owner, Mrs. Teggia previous owner of Amandari resort in Ubud.

Originally a Dutch coffee plantation built in 1928 with a spectacular club house - all well kept to the smallest details, nestled in the middle of 20 hectares coffee plantation surrounded by 8 volcanoes. In short it was a wonderful stay. We were spoiled rotten with spa treatments, massages, bath rituals and excellent cuisine. I found their 'traditional massage' concept very interesting. The mattress is placed on the floor and we were asked to have a steam bath first. The therapists, apparently were called from the the local village. Two very old ladies appeared, very genuine, told us what they do for a living - *mind you, they were in the middle of cooking for their grand children when being called in for the treatment* Their massage knowledge has been passed down from generations. Wow, talking about authenticity of traditional massage!

The best part is their house blend coffee - grown in their back of the house plantation, along with other spices and mushrooms! Plantation tour is part of the program suggested - followed by a quiet lunch in Java Red, their restaurant overlooking a breath-taking view of the plantation. Excellent food, I overheard the chef previously worked for Aman.

Leyeh-leyeh di bale bengong nonton sunset.This is the day bed where we spent the evenings together watching sunset while sipping afternoon tea. They also have that delicious Losari coffee, ginger tea, warm herbal drinks on the display table and lots of lots of cookies.... yummie!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

2005-02-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

It's been weeks ago since Bambang called to see if we'd like to join him on a 2 day trek to Baduy Village. The last time I camped out was about 20 years ago, with the school in the Safari Park. This should be interesting.... Didn't think Michael would say yes to this kind of things. "Are you sure, babe?"

Apparently we got a VIP treatment, drove in a separate van with Bambang & his Japanese journalist. The other group, from Nature Trekker, took a larges bus. Felt like an endless trip, almost half of the day spent in the car, so we felt quite relieve when finally got there. A clean tiny village of several houses, a mixture of a humble modernity with traditional way of life. Saw a couple of 'baduy luar' in black outfit, barefoot.... *hey, they're speaking my language*

Lunch was simple but filling. I was just concern with Michael if he could cope with all this, but so far he was quite okay. The hill that we had to climb seemed waaay waaaayyyy to steep. Not with our bulky backpacks. Thank God angels sent down from heaven. Hahahaha, these baduy guys we saw earlier were actually here to help us with the bags. Porters!!! Who would've thought. Rp. 10,000 is the only currency they know. Everything is ten thousand. Kewl.

Ooohhh, the village was awesome. Very clean. Eye-soothing greenery everywhere, clean fresh air, although a bit cool, made me craving for a bowl of bakso. Yaaahhh, dimana nyare getoaaannn.... After a short briefing, we went downhill to rows of houses closer to the riverside. Our hut was the one with direct access to the river. Us - and another 8 girls. Mike went very quiet as soon as we settle down - no bed, no mattress, no toilet. Whoops, didn't I tell you before we were going very basic? It must've slipped my mind. These people don't live in comforts and so alien to technology. So don't expect electricity ya. Poor thing you.
I had no idea that these were quite a big deal to you. I actually had a great time bonding with my new girl friend dipping, bathing and brushing teeth in that river..... until you told me later on that you saw someone took a big dump upstream. Grooo-hoossss!!!!

Dinner was quite interesting - tiny bits of dried fish with rice. Too spicy for Mike. I think his 'adventure' was already over hours ago.....mosquitos' feast, hard floor, no pillow, boys next door singing at the top of their lungs - all night. I felt so bad when I woke up the next day seeing him struggling so hard to adapt. He never said a single word of complaint. Thanks babycakes for putting up with this. Luv ya