Monday, November 25, 2013

What’s On The Catching Fire Book That’s Not In The Movie

Oh my God, that’s all I can say! It’s freaking great! It’s as great as the Hunger Games movie, I really enjoyed it. I was too excited to see Catching Fire and decided to reread the book again! So yes, I watched the movie in its premiere and I loved it to the max. In fact, I think I’ll watch it again, of course right after I finished reading my book. And I just did! So this may contain spoiler ahead! Haha..

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This is a fanfiction poster I found on fanpop.com. And this just reminds me on the scene where Peeta and Katniss kissing each other deeply. It’s sweet and sad. Except, maybe there’s no bikini. lol. But overall I love this poster.

So what we find in the book that’s not there in the movie?

- The story about Bonnie & Twill who run away from District 8. They meet Katniss on their way to District 13 and they give her the sign of District 13's existence.
- Katniss' feeling to Peeta is more obvious in the book, she starts to care but questioning her feeling.
- The photo session of Katniss' wedding gowns, there are about 6 gowns in the book actually. Imagine if they put that scene in the movie, there will be so many awesome and unique dresses.

- There are no scenes in the movie that told us that actually Peeta is using a fake leg, he lost his leg in The 74th Hunger Games. Capitol gave him a leg surgery and he can walk normally with it.
- In the book, the author describes how Haymitch won the 2nd Quarter Quell, also Peeta and Katniss watch the show about that.
- In the book, it's revealed that Peeta draws the painting of Rue in the floor on the judgement day, but Katniss doesn't see it. While in the movie, Katniss sees the painting of Rue which makes her angry.

- There are some differences in the game arena. Beetee who's healthy in the movie when he meets Katniss' carier, is actually wounded in the book.

- In the book, it's actually Finnick who helps Katniss getting out from the sound of Jabberjay, not the opposite. There's no Jabberjay that copying Gale's voice in the movie.

- At the end of the game, it's actually Enobaria whom Katniss want to shoot with her arrow, not Finnick, until she realized what Haymitch said, "remember who your real enemy is".

- Beside, no parachute with breads inside that's actually a code for rescuing the contestants.

No explanation about this or that in the movie. That's why i said that the arena scene is too fast. Well, for me there are some details that are missing in the movie, specially details in the game arena. It can be more interesting and explaining if they can put the whole book in the movie. Haha. But still, i'm a die hard fans of Hunger Games!

“Mockingjay is gonna be awesome!!”

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Anyway, do you know that Katniss' wedding dress is designed by Tex Saverio, an Indonesian designer who's famous with his masterpiece for Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian.
I personally saw his creation in more wearable dress when my sister's friend getting married. And it was super pretty. He's genius. I want him to design my wedding gown too. Haha.

And seriously, I can’t wait for Mockingjay! Well, eventhough the Mockingjay is the most boring between the 3 books, I still want it to be a movie! Also the ending of Catching Fire is totally mad hanging. I couldn’t believe that they leave us hanged like that until I read my book again, and yes, they portrait it perfectly. It’s the ending, “Katniss, there’s no 12”. The end.

I can’t believe that we have to wait for another couple years until we can finish the Hunger Games Saga, because Mockingjay is gonna be divided into 2 parts and they’re gonna release it on November 2014 & 2015. Gosh, it’s still so long, I’m totally old at that time. And I’m gonna be that mature woman who’s still freaking crazy about The Hunger Games. ;)

 

xoxo,

asn

Monday, November 18, 2013

Food Journal, Love, Life

I’m too tired to separate my blog entry into one tiny story, so I will just combine it all together. Haha. So, it’s gonna be a long post again. There’s nothing new in my life in the past couple weeks. I went eat a lot, made a documentation of the foods I ate, which is actually the point of this blog post. Sometimes I feel like I’m kinda ‘alay’ to snap all of those foods one by one, lol, except maybe it’s what those food journalists and critics do.

See, the problem in my life is that I love food so much, but in contrary I committed myself into some so called diet named OCD which forbids me to eat a lot and often. Well, I’m not that committed actually, I cheated a lot. Haha. But people said I got more skinnier lately that’s why I don’t want to leave the OCD, so I still do it but not regularly. I’m planning to do it again daily so it will cut off some of my fats more. I heard and read that OCD is somehow bad for your health because when you don’t eat in a long time, your body doesn’t produce the insulin hormone, and when you eat it will produce. The extreme condition when the insulin level in a low period and then suddenly goes high, this can make you get a diabetes, people said. But what happen when Moslems are fasting, they do the exact same thing, so it means that fasting is not good? But I’ve read that fasting is actually good, well maybe not for your whole life. I’ve searched some other method for diet called 5:2 diet, so you have 5 days to eat like you usually do, and the rest 2 days you have to cut off your meals into 1/4 of your regular meal. So a woman like me needs 2000 calories in a day, I can have it in that 5 days, but for the other 2 days I can only eat 500 calories per day. That’s the rule. But how am I supposed to count every calories I eat when I don’t have a diet catering or a personal trainer or a chef to cook for me?! Haha. It just really hard and I have to spend too much effort on that. :| Anyway, what kind of stupid people who wants to make a food journal but afraid to get fat?? Well, I guess it’s me. Lol. I’m definitely jealous of all the people who can’t get any bigger no matter how much they eat.

3 weeks ago I went to Dian’s wedding party in Bogor and I got the chance to meet my old friends there. Friends from university and also from my high school. Yup, Dian went to the same high school and uni with me so we kinda know each other quite long. Well, they aren’t really change at all, still the same shape, the same language, the same style. But I was glad to meet them, kinda bring me to the old good memories when I didn’t need to be stressful about work because I got a great job as a basketball manager back there in university, something I loved to do. Well, I ate Dead by chocolate cake at Dead By Chocolate café in Bogor, which is taste pretty good. It looks like a lava cake except that it’s square and the melted chocolate doesn’t come out from the inside because it’s actually put in the layers of the cake. The cake itself tastes really sweet like almost too sweet for some people (lucky I am a big fan of chocolate), but the vanilla ice cream is actually balancing the sweetness of the cake. Too bad it melted too quick and they didn’t give enough ice cream for that big cake. I also bought lots of ‘roti unyil’ (some bread specialties from Bogor), but I couldn’t stand the queue. Ugh.

Anyway, congratulation to Dian & Warta, may you both have a great future life and a wonderful family and live happily ever after. God bless! :)

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I really love the dress I wore that day, it’s simply the best buy of the year. Here I give you the big picture. I bought the dress like months ago and never worn it because there wasn’t any occasion for that. I love the printing on that dress sooo much, and also it has a low back cut. Well, why I told you that it’s a best buy dress? Because I bought it in a half price sale and it’s less than 400K! *big grin*

IMG_1910     ootd : Dress | Suite Blanco || Shoes | Bershka

2 weeks ago I went to Grand Indonesia for another Saturdate with of course the two and only Julia and Evan, my two single friends. Haha. Yeah, we’re not desperate single people, we’re so ready to mingle, except where are the guys?! More about this later in this post, hehe.. We had dinner in Ninety Nine, my plan to had cheap dinner was failed. Ugh. And I was disappointed with the service in Ninety Nine, they are quite famous and expensive restaurant but the waiter that served us that night was a bad ass. He wasn’t a trainee but he was really dumb not to put my order in the computer. He also didn’t know the name of some menus, gave us wrong name. It wasn’t really crowded that night but they were really lame. Fortunately I had the courage to ask them about my dish and he just realized that he didn’t put it up in the system. Unbelievable. Well, luckily what I ate that night had a good taste. I love the mashed potatoes in my dori fillet, it blends perfectly with the lemon sauce. The dori fillet is fried with almond coat and it tastes good too! Big enough for dinner course. My ice lemon is so refreshing, worth to try! My friends ordered the regular dishes like salmon fried rice and babi rica-rica (pork) fried rice. The salmon fried rice however is delicious. It’s just too ordinary for a 86K meal. The cake in the picture is banana caramel cake, not a big fan of banana so I can’t really commented on it, but my friend said it taste so-so.

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We tried this nitrogen ice cream for dessert time. It’s a new place in Grand Indonesia, named Ron’s Laboratory. Well, it’s now a mainstream dish just like bubble tea or red velvet, people are curious about the nitrogen ice cream. While actually I don’t know how the nitrogen has a thing to do with the gelato. Perhaps it’s the smoke in the production area? The decoration for the kitchen is actually quite unique with the drawing at the glass and the chalkboard, but they didn’t put enough chair for the customer. It was a full packed inside on that day and people didn’t suppose to stay too long there. The waiters also dress up like a laboratory worker and use a goggle too so it’s really unique. Anyway I tried the dark chocolate one (of course) and my friend tried the avocado. Well, it’s a 3 scoops ice cream with not so fabulous taste, so 50K is expensive enough, right? Lucky we came in the opening season so we got 20% discount. And by the way, the ice cream melted very fast. Don’t know if it’s because of the nitrogen factor or not. Anyway they have coffee and sorbet too, haven’t tried it yet though.

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The last couple weeks, I’ve been treated a very good lunch. Went to Crab Paradise with my boss and my customers, it said they are the real authentic Thai food. So I’m really curious to try the curry crab, I expect it to be as good as the crab I ate at Kodang Talay, but it turned me down. It’s just really different, too much spices, too much curry, it tasted like a curry only. We tried the fish cake like in the picture below and it’s a lil cold and not soft, too dry, I don’t know, I just don’t like it. We ordered a seafood hotplate in order to buy some vegetable, but what we got was bloody much squids and prawns and another seafood without much vegetables inside, just see the pic below and you’ll understand. However, I like the cumi telor asin and cumi saos pedas, they tasted perfectly salty and spicy, love love it. The kepiting saos Asia pedas was actually good too, the sauce was much better than the curry sauce. Anyway we also ordered the tom yum, what’s the meaning of eating in Thai restaurant without a tom yum right? Well, for me personally it is too sour, I still prefer the tomyum in Mama’s Kitchen Mangga Dua. Overall, Crab Paradise is kinda like a family restaurant and the place is also really big for an office event or family event.

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If you go to Marugame Udon in Mal Taman Anggrek, you will definitely eat a bowl of udon with maybe some tempura to accompany the udon. I’ve ordered a bowl once (forgot the name) but it tasted good. I like it. Well, couple weeks ago we tried the super big bowl. It’s not even a bowl actually, it’s kinda like a giant bamboo basket with udon inside it. Luckily u can ask your friends to eat that together because it’s seriously super large. The udon itself already had the salty taste but they gave us the broth with ginger which I initially thought as garlic, stupid me. So then I put it all and it taste like ginger, hell yeah. Lol. But it still tasted good actually. This super big basket is only 85K and you can share it with 5 people. I shared that it with 4 people and I was more than full. Worth to try the sensation! Haha.

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Lobstar! Finally, I got the chance to taste the grilled lobster which I’m really curious about. I really want to try Loobie Lobster at the first place but my friends kept telling me that this one tastes the same and much cheaper than Loobie. So last week we had our lunch there, I ordered the whole platter for me and my friend. It consists of two little lobsters and fried calamari with rice and sambal. First, the plus point of Lobstar is that they have so many choices of sambal like sambal korek, sambal matah, sambal dabu-dabu, etc. And I can’t choose another sambal than korek. Now for the taste, I think they put too much butter in the lobster so it just tastes like a butter, and it’s hard to eat lobster with spoon and fork anyway. I couldn’t really eat the head part of the lobster too even when I used my hand. The calamary wasn’t really crispy and tasted like flour, this is the effect of watching Masterchef where there was fried calamary pressure test and the contestants failed. I mean, it’s as simple as fried calamary but turn out it’s hard to deep fried it and still make it tasty. As for the sambal korek, wasn’t really spicy for me and more sweet. Not good at all. Overall the taste of the lobster is so-so with kinda acceptable price. 95K for the whole platter and 60K for the half platter. They also have another combo that gives you dori fish and giant prawn. For now I’m just really curious about Loobie Lobster, I want to try the original one.

lobstar

For some cheap weekend dinner, we went to Nasi Gila Gondrong last week. It’s super super cheap like only 15K and tasted really good. Nasi gila is the mix of sausage, meat, meatball, egg, with spicy sauce specially for me and some kerupuk. It is good, you should try! But beware, don’t choose another number, choose Nasi Gila 81 Gondrong. This foodtruck is at Jalan Besuki near Taman Menteng and open after 6pm. But late night they maybe move to Taman Suropati, so look carefully. I really couldn’t have enough of it, in fact I miss this food already!

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ot         ootd : Sweater | Cloth Inc || Skirt | Pull and Bear || Wedges | Bershka || Necklace | F21 ||

I really love this yellow sweater and I don’t know why. I’ve worn it like 4 times in a month. Haha. Do I look fat in that oversized sweater? Because sometimes I think I do. Well, talk about the love for the food, I think it’s quite long since I talk about my love life. No, I still don’t have a boyfriend right now :( , but I think I’m open to some possibilities. I find that man now is becoming more interesting than ever and I’m ready to begin a new relationship. Ahaa! Yup, I’m finally and completely moved on from him. Yay!! It was already quite long time actually, right after the dream of another man at one night. I was shocked that I can dream of another man when in fact I never had any contact with this man in couple months and he’s my friend and he has a girlfriend in real life, so there’s no way I will be with him, like ever. But he got into my dream! And it was the turning point. I dreamt about my ex earlier and it made me super confused about my feelings because I did hope too much. But then I realized that the dream was meaningless (since I could dream about another man), I just thought too much about it and it made me embarrassing and humiliating myself AGAIN in front of him. Like I made some stupid confessions that I was still into him for a year even though we had no contact. Like, really?! What was on your head?!? My friend told me that what’s supposed to go, you can’t hold it. Just let it go and believe that I deserve someone who appreciates me. Thank God I’m finally realizing my stupidity this whole time. :)

Well, I hope you enjoy this super long post with my nonstop rambling. Haha. Till I write again! Ciao! ;)

____________________________________________________

Ninety Nine : Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, East Mall, LG Floor, Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 1, Jakarta.

Ron’s Laboratory : Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, West Mall, 5th Floor – ED2-12B, Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 1, Jakarta.

Crab Paradise : Komplek Greenville, Jl. Ratu Kemuning Blok BK No. 1, Jakarta Barat.

Marugame Udon : Mall Taman Anggrek, 3rd Floor.

Lobstar : Komplek Greenville, Jl. Mangga Raya Blok H No. 1B, Jakarta Barat.

 

xoxo,

asn

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Food Journal : Moovina

It was another Saturdate dinner with Akun and Jubel. I actually needed to go to some ordinary place but they took me here instead! Moovina. Yup, this is another fine dining kind of restaurant with a lounge inside too, it’s in Plaza Indonesia. Moovina is basically divided into 2 floors, the upper part is Mezzanine @Moovina, it’s darker and more like a lounge with a bar area, they also have the smoking area here, and a private room to gather with your friends. It’s more modern with open kitchen concept. The lower part is Dolce Moovina, this is the one for fine dining, more cozy I guess because it has a garden theme, just really nice. They have an outdoor area also but I didn’t see it at that time.

When you see how the waiter and waitress serve, you’ll notice that it’s kinda a high class restaurant, the way they treat you is different. The uniform is nice. They were actually slow at first, they didn’t bring us the menu until I called them first. I don’t know if they didn’t see us because it was really dark or what, because we were taken to the table by one of the staff, then why didn’t she take our order too? Well after that they were just really helpful though. Helping us nonstop with our photo session. Lol.

Our orders were Chicken Cordon Bleu with Aglio Olio Spaghetti, Jon Dory Fish with Mashed Potato and broccoli, and also an Apple Pie for dessert. For a recap : it’s SO-SO. My chicken is not worthy for that expensive price. It’s just as same as 40K cordon bleu, really. And my spaghetti was really salty. Even though I love salty food, it’s just felt too much. And some of them felt like a lil bit uncooked. I don’t know. The dory my friend ate was good enough but not special, the broccoli was tasteless. I liked the apple pie though, not overcooked and not too oily, the caramel is not really sweet.

They actually have many choices of fine dining menu, start from 60K to 500K, with the choice of steak, wine, cocktail. It’s a perfect western and international dinner for you who love it. Don’t forget to make a reservation before, because it can be real full in the weekend. Eventhough Moovina has a really big space, I couldn’t find a non-smoking seat last Saturday. Well, maybe a seat at the lower floor will be better. Overall it’s a nice place. But will I come back here again? Maybe, for the atmosphere, not for the food.

 moovIMG_1631  *below picture is taken from berrybenka.com

If you see my picture above, I feel like I’m skinnier now (yay!). See my thigh there, feel like SNSD’s thigh huh? lol. But my cheek cant lie, it will not get less chubby. :(

Moovina : Plaza Indonesia 3rd & 4th Floor #06 || Ph. 021 2992 4567, 021 2992 3999.

 

xoxo,

asn

Monday, October 21, 2013

Food Journal : Le Quartier

Finally! I’m back again with some food journals. Recently I’ve been going to some fine dining places with my besties, 3 single people going on a saturdate night! Is it sound sad or relieving? Haha. I went to some awesome restaurant or café actually but I didn’t think to blog about it since I’ve been in a long hiatus period here, so there are no pictures and it will be not interesting to tell, so I’m gonna pass but I will snap more pictures after today.

My first review is gonna be Le Quartier, a French Restaurant in Gunawarman street, right beside Loobie Lobster (which I really want to try!). Alright2, focus on the subject! We actually wanted to go to Altitude but then some bad reviews made us change our mind. After some debate we decided to go to Le Quartier (I am a hyperbolic), which was turned out to be a great idea because the food was delicious! I’m not a food critic but I do love good food! Well, the bad thing about Saturday night here is that it was fully reserved, so we didn’t get the table. We ended up sitting at the bar that wasn’t really comfortable to eat. I googled some about this restaurant and they actually have a very unique painted wall there and I didn’t have the chance to take a picture of it.

So what we ate that night was a stone-baked pizza for the appetizer. We ordered white ham and truffle. It is a thin pizza with a lot of pork meat at the top (you can see the picture, I aint lie when I said LOT), a very tasty mozarella (I could feel it melting in my mouth) and there’s green pea pesto under the pork which is perfectly seasoned and also pine nuts. Well, I didn’t taste the truffle though. But I think it was the best pizza I’ve ever tasted. Of course with quite high price. For the main course we ordered an angel’s hair aglio olio with grilled prawn, seared baramundi with lemon butter sauce, and a grilled double chicken breast. The aglio olio was super tasty, but I think they used too much oil in the plate so it’s kinda too wet for me. But it tasted good and spicy (actually spicy means tasty for me, lol). And I got lil surprised because actually the pasta didn’t have any topping, I paid extra 50K for that 3 prawns! ugh! Or else you can choose chicken for the topping. Haha. The seared baramundi was damn good too. I tried a lil and everything tasted in perfect balance. Will order it again for myself next time. The breast chicken was just another chicken. Nothing’s really special about it, except the super size. Actually it’s a bit tasteless without the blackpepper sauce, and it’s originally came without sauce.

Beside the dinner menu, they also have a breakfast and lunch menu! So great right? They also have a great service. Just don’t forget to do the advance booking, specially in the primetime.

Untitled-5-15-3  5-2  ootd : tanktop | F21, short | Zara, blazer | Zara (similar), shoes | Bershka


Le Quartier : Jalan Gunawarman No. 34, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan ||

Ph. 021-72788001

 

asn

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Trip to Thailand–Bangkok

Boarding to Bangkok in the afternoon…. My hotel in Bangkok was Siam Swana (book through Agoda, again). I saw the rating in Agoda and it was fantastic. It was a modern room but really small, specially when there were 4 people inside the room. They don’t have an elevator either, I know it’s only a 3 floor building, but still, we had heavy suitcases! Andddd they didn’t provide breakfast. Luckily, there were lot of streed food near the hotel, and also 7-11. You can always have your breakfast there. Haha.. There’s a sushi restaurant in front of the hotel and it was good. Open at 11 am. What I love about the hotel that it was super close with the BTS station (Ratchathewi) so I could go everywhere easily. And the BTS system in Bangkok is really easy to read, I didn’t lost at all. But before, I googled all of the places I visited detail, how did we go there, which station we went up, which one to down. You must arrange it. 

I met my old friend, Denis, and he took us to Asiatique Mall. Kinda ruined my itinerary because I planned to go there the next day after temple visit, haha. We went by taxi, however he said when you go with group of friend it’s better to take taxi than BTS because it still cost cheaper. But I tell you, sometimes the taxi in Bangkok are mafia, they didn’t want to use the taxi-meter! Well maybe if you can speak thai they will treat you differently. Asiatique is an open air mall which have lot of stores from clothing, snack, home decoration, gadget accessories, and of course lots of restaurant. I went there really late so I didn’t see all of the stores, but I tried the best curry crab here at Kodang Talay! well, maybe the 2nd best because the most famous one is Somboon Seafood but Denis told me that it’s super expensive. But it was damn delicious, the sour and spicy fish was also good, loveeee it! Aaahh, it makes me wanna go back there again, just to eat the curry crab. But I just found out that there’s Somboon Seafood in Jakarta, haven’t tried it yet though. There’s also a giant wheel there and we took it, just tried everything.

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Went to Madame Tussaud Bangkok to open the 2nd day! It was literally a camwhoring time, haha.. Nah, we had chicken rice for breakfast near the hotel. Taste good enough, enough for breakfast time. After Madame Tussaud we went to Chatuchak Weekend Market, which is pretty far from the city. Very very big market with lot of stuff sold here, it was tiring and killing my feet! I only bought scarf and case for my iphone, and some souvenirs for my friends back home. What we did there were eat and eat, because foods were cheap and taste good! We went for shopping again at night, went to Platinum for some cheap fashion and Siam Paragon for the expensive one! Haha. I actually don’t really like going to over crowded store like Platinum or Chatuchak because it will only make me confuse on picking the clothes but I did buy 3 skirts here! Hahaha.. I just suddenly found the store where the uncle sold only skirt there. 170 THB each! Dumb me, I forgot the name of the store, I think it’s on 3rd or 4th floor. I also found the store where they sold replicas with cheaper price. I couldn’t bargain anything there, too lazy to do it, and they already marked the price. Different price when you buy retail and wholesale.

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3rd day was temple day! it was crazy hot and a crazy long journey. Went there by BTS and then took the Chao Phraya boat and hopped off to Wat Po. Then walked to Grand Palace, which was actually quite far! I recommend you to take tuktuk, even when they say it’s only behind Wat Po. I could barely walk. Wat Po was big, and Grand Palace is much bigger. I only went there for quick sightseeing and camwhoring. The hot weather was killing me. Bring an umbrella with you everywhere. It’s a must on travelling! After a long walk in the palace we took taxi to Khao San Road, I heard that it’s the tourist place, lot of restaurants and bars. And suddenly it’s raining! A blessing in disguise again, because I need a really long nap for my legs. lol. We went back to the harbour to take a boat across the river and went to Wat Arun after and enjoyed a lil sunset there. We went to MBK at night, had dinner there, and again bought some thai snacks to be brought home. It was a crazy long day but very lovely. We closed the day with a thai massage!

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The last day in Bangkok we went to Jim Thompson House. It was a museum of Jim’s family, the house was built with a nice architecture and the collection were from all over the world. Beside visiting the house itself, they also have the silk store inside, there are bag, clothes, scarf, pouch, and so many more. The silk are pretty with of course an expensive price. Last, we visited Terminal 21, which actually has more stuff than the other mall I visited, there are also local designer collection there, so many styles to choose. Too bad we only had very limited time. 4

My overall trip to Bangkok was awesome, I missed visiting the Ancient City and maybe a lil hiding attraction and place to eat in Bangkok. I planned to go to Cabbage & Condom, Patpong, Erawan Shrine and Lumpini Park, but didn’t have enough time to go to those places. Maybe at the next visit. I will exactly back to Terminal 21 and Platinum for clothing search, but not Chatuchak. And maybe do some party at my next visit. Haha.. Nah I didn’t go to Pattaya because I didn’t think any interesting attraction there beside the floating market and the ladyboy show. I already had that experience in Phuket before. Beside, an Australian couple told us that there are lot of mafias there. Not safe and not that good. Anyway, I saw lot of people there who are changing their gender, woman dresses up like a man, and vice versa. Thailand is crazy wild and free! Well Thailand is unique in its own way, you have the culture to see, the shopping, and also the beaches. Love it!

 

xoxo,

asn

Trip to Thailand–Phuket

Been a long time since my last time blogged about something here, and yes, I’m kinda moved into another blog. Haha.. But it’s only for my personal satisfaction to write what’s on my mind freely, without worried of getting caught talking about things I shouldn’t write here. But for now, let’s just focus on what I want to write here! So my last post was in August which was about the celebration of my 25 years living on earth. Life has been good to me so far, I’ve moved on completely from my last ex (yay!) and things got crazy at work. But my best moment was the trip to Thailand last September. I’m kinda make a good planner after all, and we weren’t really lost there. Haha.. It’s gonna be a long post :)

So I did make my itinerary long before my departure to Thailand, I was searching for some cheap flights, hotels, anything that wouldn’t make me bankrupt. Haha. I looked for a nice but cheap tours in Phuket and got one that turned out to be really nice. His name was Chai, I got his information from tripadvisor, and I can give you his email to reach : yok_ktb@hotmail.com. I did every conversation through email and finally ended up on whatsapp. I ended up booking every tours and attraction through Chai because I knew it would give me the best price, much discounts, just don’t forget to bargain. Lol.

Me and my 3 other friends arrived at night on Phuket and we were picked up by Chai himself with a 10 seats car, he provided us his hotspot before we could buy simcard there, so it was a lil help for all of us who are a soc-med junkie. We checked in into our hotel, 88 Hotel (booked thru Agoda). It’s a super cheap hotel with a large room and pretty clean. I think it’s worth the price. But the breakfast was standard, don’t expect too much. We got some local dinner near the hotel, it’s a noodle soup with that special thai’s herbs. That pic below was the view outside my window room, and yeah we had a balcony.Untitled-5

My 2nd day in Phuket was a trip to Phiphi island, which was not real good because it was raining and the sea water was high so we couldn’t hopped into some islands. And our boat was in full packed! Way too crowded and people wanted to puke because the wave were crazy. We then stopped to had some snorkeling before we went to lunch. The snorkeling spot was pretty good, except the gear wasn’t that good, couldn’t see the water clearly. The buffet menu was standard, I don’t really enjoyed my phiphi trip. I preferred a more private trip. Well, we finally landed at Khai island, where we could do swimming or just sunbathing, but it was the best island, the water is crystal clear and it’s really pretty. I wish I could stay longer there. It felt like heaven. We finished the trip around 4 and then got back to the hotel. We bought some snacks at the traditional market near the Jungceylon mall before we had our dinner there. Lots of food there! Pork everywhere, with very cheap price. Yum yum! We went to Simon Cabaret at night, to watched the ladyboy show, which was pretty interesting and also entertaining. Just beware when you want to take picture with those ladyboy, make sure there’s no other ladyboy around you orelse s(he) will ask for money too. We took a tuktuk and walked around Bangla Road after, crazy night life out there.

Untitled-3-2Untitled-3-1

My 3rd day was another sea tour, this time we went to Phang Nga Bay area, which is famous for the James Bond island. Another tour picked by Chai, but this time it’s really different. It was private, there were only 11 people in the boat, and we went to more destinations than yesterday. We hopped in and off to some islands, and then went to an ice cream cave, went for canoeing, and had a much better lunch at Panyee Island. Except the beach that we went for some swim wasn’t as pretty as in Phiphi. The tour operator name is Rattanachol. And it was really good and not as expensive as the number 1 travel in tripadvisor, thanks to Chai. We had dinner beside our hotel tonight, and it was good enough too. Basically I’m fitted into almost all of thai food because it’s spicy, so I had no problem with it. We went to Phuket Fantasea this night, it’s kinda unique show because it combined the traditional wayang, circus, magic show, drama, and all. It’s just too expensive I think for a show like that. It is even more expensive than our sea tour! Crazy!

1

Our schedule in Phuket before heading to Bangkok was pratically doing the city tour. We rented the car from Chai for half day, and it already included the driver too. Beach to another beach, went to couple view points to see Phuket beaches, before finally headed to Big Buddha and ended up in gem factory. Yeah, you really had to go there because our driver insisted to go there, it’s kinda a tourist gift shop. You know, the jewelry were pretty, specially the earring I saw, it’s a square earring with ruby and diamond inside. But yeah it’s damn expensive. But don’t worry they also had cheaper version of everything, silver, pearl, souvenirs. Anyway, don’t forget to go to cashew nut factory! It’s famous in Phuket! We got a lil problem with the car, so we should stop for a while in a car workshop. But because of that we managed to have a brunch at Pizza Company, the famous pizza in Thailand. Hihi, blessing in disguise.

1Untitled-5

Once again, I booked every tours and attractions from Chai, also the car rent, that’s why I got cheaper price. And I will definitely use his service again when I go back there. I love my trip to Phiphi because there is Khai Island. But I recommend you to go with private trip (ask this to Chai, but I think it will be more expensive) and maybe go to Phuket in sunny season. It is too bad that we couldn’t enjoy Phiphi since it’s super pretty. If you have more time in Phuket, you can try the elephant trekking, ATV, or maybe shooting. And maybe you can visit more islands beside Phiphi and Phang Nga. My friend said she had amazing time when she stayed in Phiphi (I’m interested!). But maybe I will go there again with my spouse! haha.. See you real soon in Bangkok trip! :)

xoxo,

asn

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Quarter of A Century

Yup, i'm reaching the quarter of a century in my life! It isn't that old right??;)) 

It was a blast on my birthday. I feel loved and greatly blessed. My mom and brother were still in Jakarta so we had a family lunch on my birthday for the first time since i was here. Went to Raa Cha, ate my favorite First Love cake. Late night, i suddenly had a surprise from my cousin and my friends. They came to my kost and gave me cake and did naughty thing to me. I felt happy though :D thank you for the dark surprise! 

Got another cake from my friend who's still in Jogja, it's kinda funny cake that comes with great packaging. I post the photo here, the not lego cake from Colette & Lola, a new cake shop in town. Again, i'm surprised. They cared a lot.. Hihihi.. And got another cake from my BDP family members, as usual. I find my BDP members are like my family, we're like talking without filter, act silly, i just enjoy my time with them :)

I'm so happy that i know lot of my friends care about me, a simple yet sweet thing. Even the very least thing like a greeting from Facebook, i think it's also kinda sweet because they spent their precious lil time to write it on my wall.

As for me in this 25 years of life, i'm so thankful to God that i have a healthy and happy life, also great family and friends, a good job, and thank You for standing beside me everytime in my life. Even though things got a bit rough last month, i could handle it. Maybe i'm kinda rare person who has a less stress. But that's a good thing! haha! What i want for the future? Still the same, to be closer to Him, to have my future husband in this year, to have a better career, to be successfull, to be more mature and a better human being. 

Amen.





Xoxo,
S

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

People Changed

Hey dear readers, I saw so many examples of how people changed 180 degrees lately. Sebut saja orang ini namanya Bunga, Hari, dll.. Hahaha.. Dalam bayangan gue ketika gue berteman ataupun kenal sama mereka2, ga mungkin mereka jadi kayak sekarang ini. Let's see... 

I have a childhood friend, yg kita sebut Bunga. Bunga ini dulu cukup pintar, cukup serius, dan alim. Alimnya emang ga banget2 tapi ya alim aja. Tapi dia cukup extrovert sih. Dan sekarang dia jadi pribadi yg agak ngerock, tatoan, rokokan.. Yah pokoknya hal2 yg ga pernah ada di pikiranku sebelomnya, she becomes like that. Totally changed. 

Sekarang si Hari ya, gue sih yakin dia itu maho. Secara kerjaannya aja kan makeup artist gitu ya. Dan sejak kecil aku kenal dia ya dia emang gitu. Emang pembawaan dan segala2nya menunjukkan kalo dia melambai. Melambai itu pasti maho ga sih?! Hahaha.. Okey, what's shocking was that he just engaged to a woman. Bener2 loh gue shock ga nyangka, dengan cablaknya gue langsung nyeletuk, "ngga sama cowo kan?!" I mean, how could this happened? Ini pencitraan kah? atau sarana utk membahagiakan orang tua? Atau emang selama ini dia normal? Ga mungkin sih.. Opsi ketiga jelas ga mungkin. IMPOSSIBLE. 

Contoh ketiga ya si manusia labil yg tidak mengerti dirinya extrovert atau introvert. Perlu sebut nama ga ya? Hahaha.. Yah intinya sepanjang gue kenal dia, he was fun, crazy, silly, bubbly.. Gue inget banget gimana dia act like a wadam pas mas2 di coffee bean itu manggil nama gue dan dia yg jalan ambil minumnya. Bahkan si mas2 itu ampe ketawa ngakak ngeliat ulahnya. But then he would turn to serious when he had a conversation with his dad, i can sense that he really respect his dad (mungkin menjurus ke takut kali ya). And with his mom, there's more laughter and funny things. Karena nyokapnya juga orang yg seru dan lebih extrovert. Nah, entah apa yang membuat dia berubah 180 derajat, gue gak pernah ngerti apa yg terjadi di negeri seberang dan apa yg bikin dia kayak gitu. Yang jelas, dia introvert, menutup diri, mengucilkan diri, gak tau lah apa namanya soalnya ga liat langsung. He just changed.

Pengaruh lingkungan sih pasti ya merupakan salah satu faktor dr perubahan ini. Apalagi buat kasus nomor 1 noh. Gue sih ga judging si Bunga itu buruk, i even want a tattoo, cuma kalo yg bagian cewek ngerokok sih agak ga bisa diterima sama personality gue, apalagi diumbar2 di depan umum. Kalo kasus no 2, ga tau dah triggernya apa, bisa aja memenuhi permintaan orang tua sih, yah asal jangan sampai nyakitin calon istrinya ajah.. Pencitraan atau pura2 atau fake atau apapun itu bahaya men! Merugikan orang lain apa lagi, lebih bahaya! Kalo case nomor 3 berdasarkan info dari nara sumber adalah karena tingkat stress yg memuncak, dan tetep ga bisa diterima oleh akal sehat gue. Aneh aja gitu krn menurut gue sumber2 stressnya itu biasa2 aja, sepele. Tapi ya mungkin kapasitas orang dalam nerima masalah kan beda2 yah..

Well, emang bener sih orang yg banyak tertawa dan senyum itu sebenernya menyimpan banyak kepahitan dlm hatinya. And they feel insecure that people may hurt them again. Jadi ya cover it is the best way. 

Hahahahaha.. Entah opini gue ini relevan atau nggak, valid atau nggak :))


Xoxo,
S

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Until We Meet Again (Part 3-end)

We hanged-out, we talked, we kissed, and that's all we do last couple weeks. I was head over heels falling for him, and I had no courage to ask him about his girlfriend, although he told me their story. Until one day in my apartment, he made a pass at me, trying to move to the third base.

"I can't, I can't." Aku menepis tangannya yang sedang berada di bawah bajuku. Mason terdiam dan kembali ke posisi duduknya. "I know it was wrong from the first time. I can't be with someone who has a girlfriend, Mason."

"But I have no love for her anymore. It's just a matter of time until she's back here. You know I've fallen for you."

"It's not that easy, Mason. I don't want to be the reason you broke up with her. Aku nggak mau merusak hubungan orang. Walaupun mungkin ini udah sedikit terlambat. Tapi ini lebih baik sebelum kita melangkah kejauhan."

"No, no, you're not." Mason memegang pipiku dengan kedua tangannya dan meraihku ke dalam dekapannya. Aku berada dalam pelukannya, lengannya yang besar, yang sudah merawatku dengan baik selama beberapa minggu terakhir. "Don't ever think it that way, Cas. It's all my fault. Aku yang udah janji sama diri sendiri bahwa aku akan membicarakan hubunganku sama Tere, tapi dia selalu sibuk keluar negeri dan aku gak pernah ada kesempatan untuk membicarakan hubungan kita secara langsung. Dan aku juga nggak pernah nyangka kita akan ketemu di acara UNICEF itu. And this is all just happening, this is the real thing Casey." Mason mencium kepalaku dan ini membuatku semakin berat untuk melepaskannya.

"I feel it too, okay. But I just can't continue doing this. I feel guilty all the time. I think this is a goodbye for us." Mason menatapku tajam, namun tetap diam. "I'll be in Austria next week, I'll be there for 2 weeks. Aku rasa itu waktu yang cukup untuk kamu meluruskan semuanya." Aku menatap dalam-dalam matanya, kemudian membelai rambutnya. Kuletakkan bibirku di bibirnya, hangat dan basah, dan lidah kami pun saling menyesuaikan ritmenya. Aku tidak menyadari bahwa air mata menetes di sudut mataku. Cepat-cepat kuhapus dan kusudahi sesi ciuman terakhir ini. "Until we meet again."Aku tersenyum dan Mason mencium kembali keningku, kemudian dia pergi.

 

∞ ∞ ∞

Until We Meet Again (Part 2)


Malam itu datang, my big night, aku akan mempresentasikan program kerja yang sudah disepakati bersama oleh tim dari UNICEF Indonesia, di depan perwakilan masing-masing negara peserta, disertai dengan dinner formal. Grand ballroom Hotel Mulia tampak cukup penuh dengan meja-meja yang disusun setengah melingkar menghadap ke panggung.Little black dress sudah melekat di tubuhku dan aku cukup percaya diri dengan penampilanku saat ini. Please don't make me fall in stage, please don't make me fall in stage.

"So, as soon as we see that this shelter care program worked in several areas in Indonesia, we know that this program could be a breakthrough for the unlucky children here. Of course, we still need some improvements especially on recruitment area, but we already opened an online submission and thank to God, there are still lot of people here who still care about these children's future." Presentasi memasuki bagian penutup yang kemudian dilanjutkan dengan video kegiatan shelter care yang sudah berjalan selama 6 bulan ini. Para delegasi tampak mengangguk dan kemudian memberikan tepuk tangan meriah setelah berakhirnya video itu.

Acara dilanjutkan dengan makan malam disertai dengan iringan musik klasik di panggung. Uhuk!! Aku tersedak ketika aku melihat ke arah panggung. For heaven's sake, that man in black tuxedo, the man who blows the saxophone, it's him! Mason. It's been 3 months already and we haven't had any contact after. Dia hanya mengirimkan SMS sekali, memberi tahu bahwa Charlie sudah keluar dari bengkel. And that's all. I have no intention to continue our conversation.

 

Aku sedang menunggu lift ketika kurasakan ada tangan yang menepuk bahuku. Oh, that's the charming guy.

"Hei Casey, that was quite a stunning performance there," katanya sambil menyeringai.

"Well, thanks." kataku tersipu malu. Aku bisa merasakan pipiku sedikit memerah. Pintu lift terbuka tapi aku masih sibuk dengan beberapa khayalan di pikiranku.

"You coming?" Mason memegang tanganku sebentar sebelum dirinya memasuki lift. Aku tersentak kaget dan kemudian ikut memasuki lift, tepat berdiri di depannya. Lift cukup penuh mengingat beberapa delegasi juga berniat naik ke lantai atas. Aku bisa merasakan hawa tubuhnya di belakangku, kami benar-benar dekat, beberapa kali punggungku menyentuh bagian dadanya. Di lantai 3 lift terbuka kembali dan aku semakin terdesak ke arahnya. Kali ini sudah tidak ada jarak di antara kami. Tangannya menyentuh bahuku, menjaga agar aku tetap tegak berdiri. Aku bisa merasakan seluruh tubuhku dialiri listrik, 'it's been long time since I felt this way', kataku dalam hati. Tanpa kusadari tiba-tiba sebelah tangannya yang menganggur menggenggam tanganku yang terjatuh di samping tubuhku. Aku tidak bergerak, juga tidak balas menggenggamnya. Tangan yang besar itu hangat menggenggam tanganku. Aku tidak bisa bernapas, perjalanan menuju ke lantai 20 benar-benar terasa lama dengan adanya Mason di belakangku. Akhirnya lampu lantai 20 menyala dan kami berdua pun keluar dari lift. Aku mengambil barang-barang di kamar 2009. Baru kusadarai bahwa Mason menungguku di luar kamar. Bahkan dari tadi aku tidak menyadari kalau dia mengikutiku.

"Mason? I thought you going somewhere," kataku terbata-bata. Aku tidak bisa menatap wajahnya karena pasti wajah ini akan langsung memerah melihatnya. This is crazy, I feel like a teenager again.

"Nope, I was waiting for you." I can't help not to stare at him and I find him smiling at me.

"Jadi kamu bukan mau mengambil sesuatu di lantai ini?"

"No, I saw you at the lift, and I decided to follow you up here." What the?! I'm kinda shock but I hold my face steady. "Here, let me help you with that stuff." Mason pun mengambil barang-barang dari tanganku dan berjalan kembali menuju lift.

Kali ini hanya ada kami berdua di lift. Kami berdua berdiri di ujung belakang lift, saling berpandangan, namun tidak ada kata-kata yang meluncur dari mulutku. I'm just speechless.

"What?" akhirnya aku memberanikan diri membuka suara. "Why are you staring at me like that?" Mason tertawa, benar-benar tertawa kali ini. "And now you're laughing at me!" aku memukul kecil lengannya.

"I find you really are interesting, and I can't believe I'll meet you again. Here." Jeez, I'm speechless again, still staring at his handsome face. "How did you get here?"

"With my friend, Rosie." jawabku singkat.

"I guess you wanna tell her you're not coming back with her. I'll take you home." Aku mengangguk.

Suasana sedikit mencair di dalam mobil. Mason menceritakan tentang pekerjaannya dan karirnya di musik klasik, dan aku bercerita soal pekerjaanku. Kami sampai di lobi apartemenku dan kejadian itu berlangsung begitu cepat. He kissed me, and I kissed him back. And every tension in my body just gone.

 

∞ ∞

Until We Meet Again (Part 1)

Brakkk!!

"Mati aku", kataku dalam hati. Di depanku ada sebuah mobil sedan yang sedang berhenti dan dengan bodohnya aku baru saja menabrak bagian belakangnya. Aku menarik perseneling ke arah R dan aku melihat penyok di bemper belakang si sedan. Pemilik mobil itu keluar dari mobilnya dan menghampiriku dengan pandangan marah. Pria, 30 something, and good shape of body. Aku pun segera beranjak keluar dari mobil.

"Oh geez, I'm so sorry. It's my fault. Let me take care of your repair cost." Si pria tidak sempat berkata-kata. Dan oke, dari jarak dekat ternyata dia sangat menarik.

"It's okay, but you need to be more careful next time", suaranya berat tapi tenang.

"Maaf ya, aku benar-benar ceroboh. I'll take full responsible of your car, okay? Anyway, I'm Casey",kataku mengulurkan tangan. Si pria menjawab uluran tanganku dan memperkenalkan diri. His name is Mason. "Well, I need your number. Tapi sekarang aku lagi gak bawa handphone atau kartu nama, so please write it here." Aku menyerahkan kertas dan bolpen ke tangannya. "Thanks, I'll call you soon." Aku pun bergegas masuk ke mobil dan meninggalkan TKP.

Seminggu berlalu setelah kejadian itu dan aku benar-benar lupa akan peristiwa tabrakan di hari itu. Secara tak sengaja aku melihat mobil penyok di jalan dan aku baru teringat kembali. Aku pun menelepon Mason sepulang kantor.

"Hallo? Mason ya?"

"Yup, siapa ini?"

"Hey sorry, aku baru bisa telepon kamu sekarang. Ini Casey, the one who broke your car last week."

"Oh, hi, I thought you forgot about me."

"Sorry, it's not that I forgot. Can we meet up? I need to see you ASAP, before this guilty feeling killing me. Haha."

"Well, okay. Where?"

"PI aja deh. Aku udah deket. Uhm, let's meet up at Starbucks."

"Okay."

Singkat cerita, kami bertemu di Starbucks, dilanjutkan dengan dinner, beserta seluruh percakapan konyol malam itu.

 

"It's nice to see you, Cas." Mason tersenyum hangat sambil mengulurkan tangannya. Aku pun menyambutnya. Dan ringtone Moves Like Jagger tiba-tiba berkumandang. Oh, that's his.

"Hey beb, aku lagi di PI ketemu temen. Yep, I'll be there shortly. I know. Okay, bye." Mason menutup teleponnya. "Sorry, that's my gf," wajahnya tersenyum, tetap tenang.

Damn it! He has a girlfriend! I scream inside my heart. I found this attractive man out of nowhere but he's taken already. That's such a bad luck. Errrr….

"Yaudah, sana buru-buru gih… Mason, I hope Charlie is fine." FYI, Charlie is the name of his car.

"Don't worry. Thank you. Til I see you again."

 

∞ ∞ 

Ma ma Ho ho

I believe God creates us different and unique from each other. Question is : does God create a homophobic? Or is it just a life style?

I dont think the homophobic is disgusting or something, cuma aku selalu nggak habis pikir aja kenapa mereka bisa kaya gitu. Dari mana asalnya? Trauma masa lalu kah? Gagal dalam percintaan dgn lawan jenis? Atau apa? I do believe in God dan menurutku ga mungkin Tuhan menciptakan seseorang yg ditakdirkan homo. This is still a big question of mine..

Ada lagi istilah transgender, dimana manusia bisa berasa seperti terjebak di tubuh yg salah dan mereka sangat yakin sampai2 merubah penampilan hingga kelaminnya. Bukan berubah jd bencong tapi bener2 berubah kelaminnya! Dan aku masih tetep ga habis pikir dari mana asal muasal semua ini??

Aku pernah denger bahwa sebenernya semua orang tanpa kecuali bisa memiliki jiwa homophobic, that's why people can also be a bisex, cuma ga semua orang membibitkan jiwa yg salah itu dalam dirinya. Ya mungkin itu tadi, ada peristiwa2 yg shocking yg jadi pemacu jiwa homo itu untuk muncul ke permukaan.

Tambah lama dunia tambah kebolak balik, para gay itu udah ga malu2 lagi buat go public. Apalagi di jakarta kaya gini, udah super explisit. Mending kalo gay tuh gentle2 atau gimana ya, ini kebanyakan menye2 melambai cyin! Pegang2an tangan, jalan megol2, ngomong menye2, for God's sake you are still men! Ini untuk gay pria. Gay cewek juga banyak kali ya, cuma kita lebih jarang ngeliat aja.. Padahal tanda2nya mah udah jelas banget, asal dia berpotongan cowo dan udah full pake baju plus bergaya cowo, udah hampir 90% ni orang lesbong.

These whole gayish things are just unacceptable for my conscious mind and soul but it's really inevitable in this day. Satu pertanyaan penting : sebenernya mereka mau gak sih kembali jadi normal??

Percaya gak sih kalo bisa ada gay yg terus sembuh jadi normal? Normal beneran dan bukan pencitraan ya, krn kita tahu banget kalo cowo gay itu bisa pencitraan dan bisa tetep married dan beranak bareng cewek. Banyak loh gay2 yg punya anak dari istrinya tapi akhirnya memutuskan utk being gay. Ada juga yg memilih punya surrogated baby. Aneh2 lah…

Sayangnya pria2 gay kebanyakan ganteng! Ganteng pake banget! Hahaha.. Sekarang kalo ada pria ganteng yg tampilannya necis dan bersih, trs jalan dengan segerombolan pria lain, itu langsung patut dipertanyakan! Hahaha.. Kalo menurut seorang temen yg straight, males banget kali kalo hrs ngumpul bareng sama gay. Tapi on the other hand aku juga punya temen straight yg memiliki beberapa temen gay, atau jangan2 dia mulai ikut2an being gay?!? Oh noooo… Hahaha..

Pantes yah wanita2 jaman sekarang banyak juga yg belom punya pacar, including me! Gimana dong stok cowo berkurang, cowo kalo nggak penjahat kelamin ya gay! Well well…. This world is getting insane! Hope you dont follow that trend!


.xx.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Okay, before you get bored, i wanna tell you that this post will not related with the same-titled book. Hahahaha…

Aku cuma mau menuliskan beberapa opini, dan mungkin seputar keberuntungan dan ketidakberuntungan. Bukan ketidakberuntungan sih, tapi ketidakadilan dunia. Hahaha, sama aja sih sebenernya..

Jujur, sebenernya aku cukup jealous dgn orang2 kaya yg hidupnya seneng2 mulu. I know that jealousy is the most evil crime after arrogance, but you know kadang aku pingin banget bisa buang2 duit kayak mereka, kayak gak dipikir gitu. Beberapa orang bertanggung jawab atas seluruh kemakmuran itu, sementara beberapa orang gak wise menggunakannya jadi kesannya kayak wasted gitu. Let's say, for me money is really matter. Money cant buy happiness, but can buy lot of things that make us happy. Itu faktanya. Ga usah munafik deh. I'll be really happy if i can buy all the things i want, that bag, this shoes, those clother, the jewelery, trip to every destination i want. It's gonna be awesomeeee!!

Nah sebenernya semua ini kembali ke parents masing2 sih, beberapa orang tua gak seroyal itu juga sama anak2nya, mereka tetap juga menyuruh anak2nya untuk bekerja keras. As for me, dari kecil aku ga pernah diberi harta bergelimpahan. Mau minta sesuatu aja harus ngerengek2 banget. Dan tetep ga semua yg aku inginkan bisa aku miliki. Barang2 branded memanggil manggil, tapi tetep aja gak ada yg kebeli. Trip sekeluarga paling jauh cuma ke Bali dan Lombok. Baru pertama kali keluar negeri di tahun 2010, di saat aku udah berumur 22 tahun. But i'm thankful to that condition. Dan aku menyadari kalo aku emang gak berasal dari keluarga kaya, tapi susah juga sih nerima kenyataan kalo kita gak sekaya itu. Apalagi kalo kita berada di komunitas orang2 kaya. Untungnya aku punya temen2 yg sangat baik, gak sombong, bahkan royal banget. Yang paling sedih adalah ketika aku belum bisa mewujudkan mimpi kuliah di luar negeri, bahkan mau coba keluar kota aja ga bisa. My mom could only pay my tuition if i stayed at my hometown. Bahkan biaya kuliah waktu itu dibantu juga sama tante. =(  Sedangkan beberapa orang yg bisa kuliah di luar negeri menyia-nyiakan kesempatan itu, kuliah gak diselesaiin. Life is just unfair.

You know, there are some of my friends that are really lucky. Kuliah di London, Aussie, atau keluar negeri setiap liburan. Gonta ganti gadget terus, keluar kota setiap minggu, beli baju setiap minggu, ke salon selalu. Dan mereka gak perlu kerja keras untuk itu semua! Sering aku berpikir, kayaknya dia nggak kerja, dari mana dia bisa dapet barang2 mahal itu, tas 15 juta, sepatu seminggu 1 yg harga satuannya misal 800 ribu, dan laen2nya. Mereka nggak kerja, for heaven's sake!! Dari mana sih semua uang2 itu, ortu atau pacar? Hahaha, aku kerja dan aku gak bisa beli barang2 branded kayak mereka yg ga kerja. Yeah, jealousy, my bad… Ada juga kasus lain misalnya dalam hal cari pekerjaan. Punya orang tua yg memiliki pengaruh juga bisa mendatangkan suatu keuntungan. Either kalo dia punya perusahaan, atau dia mengenalkan kita ke perusahaan temennya. Kalau ortu punya perusahaan, otomatis salah satu anak bakalan mewarisi, apalagi kalo udah perusahaan gede yg tinggal running doank. Untuk yg bekerja di perusahaan temen ortu atau keluarga sendiri, mereka ga perlu test, bisa mendapatkan posisi yg lebih tinggi tanpa perlu melewati tahapan yg normal, dan otomatis pasti mendapat gaji yg lebih besar. Pokoknya banyak kemudahan yg didapat dalam hal pekerjaan, tinggal apakah mereka mampu perform atau nggak. Malu juga kan yah kalo udah direcommend sama kolega tapi ternyata otaknya kosong.

Well, beberapa orang lahir dgn best privileges, which is their wealthy parents, sementara yg lain hidup dalam kondisi sangat tidak beruntung. Pada akhirnya semua dilihat dari bagaimana kita memandang hidup kita sendiri. Manusia tidak akan pernah puas, that's so true. Orang orang kaya tidak semuanya juga merasa bahagia. Everybody has their own problems. Yang penting adalah kita bisa terus bersyukur pada apa yg ada di depan kita, maka seluruh rasa jealous kita ataupun pikiran2 iri itu tidak akan ada, dan hati akan terus full of joy juga. Right??:)

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have."


.xx.