Sunday, August 28, 2011

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid


Talk about holiday, I've got 9 days of full holiday to live with! YAY! This is the first day, and it didn't really started out well. I was sick this morning :( Such a bumper! But after wasting half the day trying to recover (using my super power to recover fast HAHAHA..), I ended up having a quite pleasant afternoon with my family. I guess I just missed home after being away to long :P And to end this day, I watched a nice cute movie, "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid".

This movie is from the novel "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney. I love the novel because I has cool simple doodles in it! The novel has 5 series now, and the sixth will be out next November. This is a funny and entertaining story. The story is about a kid named Greg, trying to live out middle high school. And if that's not enough, having a dysfunctional family would made it a complete disaster! LOL... I won't tell much about the story here because you should see it for yourself!
Here's a quick look of the movie:



Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho


This book is one of those book where I read it in a slow pace because I want to feel the journey rather just reading a story. The journey itself is not only the travel that Paulo took a long the Road to Santiago but also the journey in finding what he desires in life. I guess that this journey holds a very important place in finding his true passion, and I hope I will too.

Basically, this book is about Paulo's detailed journey across Spain along the legendary road of San Tiago. This road have been traveled since Middle Ages. It's like stepping into the unknown to find something that matters much for him. What fascinates me about the journey is that he didn't know what he would face and what task he should do. Paulo was given some impossible tasks, and he didn't know what to expect nor how it would be done, but he did it anyway. From there, the way to do it will reveal itself. It's like the saying "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear". Everything will come clear if you aren't afraid so much with the unknown and start to do something to get what you desire.

It really is like what happens in daily life, specially in our adulthood. Adulthood is like freedom that is given to us, but it also mean that everything is unknown. We will be lost in this life if we don't know what we want. It's like getting in a taxi without knowing where to go. After we know what we want, the unknown will always haunt us, and that is part of the excitement in the journey. If one thing is sure about life, is death itself. So other than that, everything else is unknown! What can be done is fight the Good Fight. The Good fight is the one that’s fought in the name of our dreams.


I've been thinking much about finding my true passion lately. I'm starting to get an idea, but it's not clearly yet and it's been bugging in my mind for quite some time. I believe that if we really want something, the answer to find it will reveal itself to you. Something that I learned from this lovely journey is that I have to know what I will do if I get what I desire. I never thought of that before and was quite surprised. I never really think of what I will do if I get what I dreamed of, and don't have a clear idea of that (yet). It kinda made me realize, maybe that's why I'm not close to getting what I want. So now, I'm starting to make that a clear idea, and trying to understand what I will do after I get what I dreamed of.

I hope that someday not far from today, I will make a pilgrim journey too. Something that never crossed my mind before, but now became something I considered in my to do list.
By changing the way you do routine things,
you allow a new man to grow inside you.
~Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Quote of the month


If you already know what your dreams are, what to do next? Pursue it? Well, it's easy to say it, but is it really that simple?

A lot of people often fail to pursue their dreams, not because they don't know how to get there, but rather not having the courage. I think that courage is like the fuel in pursuing our dreams. The way to get there or "the tool" will present itself if we have the fuel to start the engine. This is something that I considered a lot lately, do I have the courage to pursue my dreams?

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

My Debut On Canvas

Finally I got a 24 hours of me time! It's a national holiday on a Wednesday, so I choose not to go home and have a me time instead. Actually I really need it after lots of things that's been going around this couple of years.

I decided that I would make a painting on canvas, something that I always wanted to do but never did. It's the 12th on my 30 Before 30 List. The first one I crossed on my list! I have bought the painting supplies and canvas months ago, but never started 'till now. I'm not familiar with painting on canvas with acrylic paint before. I'm used to watercolor painting, so this is something new.

The canvas I bought was mini-sized. Trying something new like this, I think I'll try from the small size first. I had two square-shaped canvas. My concept was making a painting of a beautiful night. I love to see stars, specially when I'm outdoors and around me was so dark. The stars would be more bright and beautiful if you look it from a very dark place. It's a wonderful feeling and I want to express that on canvas. And the owl, I love that creature! It's like, there's so much wisdom that they can see in the dark of the night. I'll call my painting "Dark Night". So here's my painting:


Painting on canvas with acrylic paint was definitely not easy (it's my first time ever!). It's so much different with watercolor painting. Actually the experience was so much fun! I love making new colors and it was so easy. I got the "feeling" of creating the color I wanted right away. It's different with watercolor paint where sometimes the color we mix doesn't turn out the way we wanted. A little note for me is: I should prepare more brush (so much more) because the brushes was not easy to wash so I need it as much as the colors I will use in my paintings. I haven't really got the right technique yet, so for this one, I have to practice more and make more paintings!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Harry Potter oh Harry Potter

Finally! The final movie of the very long years of Mr. Potter! I kinda feel a little bit sad -that's how I feel every time I have to end something. I remembered the first Harry Potter movie, I was still in college! Me and my friends had to take a train to another town! At that time, the theatre at our town was closed due to a fire accident. Actually our town used to have 4 movie theaters. But, after a fire accident that burn two of the big theaters, people started to be afraid to go to the other two, so both was closed-down about 4 years before the first Harry Potter movie. So no watching movie in theaters for a very long time! Thanks to Harry Potter, we really went to that town only to watch Harry Potter then we went home! HAHAHA....

A year after that, before the second Potter movie, the new shopping mall had a theatre so we don't have to go far away just to watch a movie! It went on for years, where I always watched Harry Potter on the theatre because DVD ain't just enough. Until this final Harry Potter, there's trouble again. Our government somehow decided to banned every western movie! Oh no! But it was a coincidence that I went to Singapore at the time Potter was playing! So I get to watch the final movie of Mr. Potter at another country! HAHAHAHA... What a long journey it has been! I guess that's a very good ending of a very good decade of Harry Potter :)

If you look at the movie posters, look how he (Potter) has grown! And I told my friends (whom I watched the first movie with), look how we got old! HAHAHAHA...

note: At the beginning of August, all western movies are allowed (again) to be played in the theaters of my country. Thank God! Can't wait to see Cars 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2 :)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

A Trip To Singapore (again)

This is my second trip to Singapore and it's not a kinda of adventurous trip. I considered it as a second honeymoon (the first one was in Bali). I got to spent 5 days there. YAY! So it's time to have fun.

I went to "The Jungle of Madagascar" in Universal Studio to meet King Juliens. After all, he's the king you know LOL! I had one whole day to spent in Universal Studio. It was so much fun! My favorite ride was The Mummy Ride. It was so AWESOME! The ride was in a dark place so you wouldn't know the tracks and it's not only moving forward, but it can stop, move backwards, dan even spin around. So cool!

My second highlight of this trip was going to Singapore Zoo and met the real King Juliens. What I love about this zoo is that most of the animals are keep loose. It's really a great experience to be so close to these wonderful creatures.

The animals are keep in the man-made habitat and it really looked like the real habitat that I saw in the Discovery Channel. This is the white tiger, the real king of the jungle. He's just so lovely!

After the Singapore Zoo, I went to the Night Safari which was beside the Singapore Zoo. Just by walking through the connection door I got there before it's opened. The Night Safari opens at 7 P.M. until 12 A.M. It's not a place for flash photographers because flash lights can harm the animals. I was a bit angry with this guy who was keeping taking pictures with flash even though he was reminded a few times by the guard! I think the Night Safari was the best part of my trip! I love the show where the animals are so close to us. This picture is a huge phyton snake, hidden in a box bellow the bench where I sit. So cool! Then the white owl fly above us, and some other animals that was passing through a wire above the audience. The safari itself has a walking track and a tram ride track. The walking track was so much fun because the bats are flying everywhere! The the tram ride was also cool because it's not a closed tram, but it's opened-air one, so animals can approach you! What an AWESOME experience! :)

I also went to Jurong Bird park because the advertisement of this place was quite huge and it's everywhere. Well, it's a beautiful place and the birds were beautiful, but I'm not a fan of bird watching. You'll need half a day if you want to see the whole place because it's quite huge. You can also feed the birds by donating SGD 3. It's just a lovely park.

What I love to do in a travel is to discover other culture, so I went to Little India. The place was so colorful with flowers and saris everywhere! I bought an India top (the fabric is so beautiful!) and I got to try some India food made by Indian. I tried the prata bread with the curry and lamb. YUMMY! The Indian in the place I bought the food don't speak much English and I lack of knowledge of India food, so we got this really large portion! But we finished it anyway LOL!

Then, it's Chinatown! And it's all about food and souvenirs. This place is a nice place because they still take care much of their heritage. To find souvenirs you have to go to some shops to compare the prices, because if you're in a hurry, you'll get the price almost twice the price in the other shop. What I like here were the scarfs. It's so pretty, light weighted, useful, and it's not expensive!

In Chinatown, don't forget to try "the century egg". Well, this is new for me! I tried the century egg porridge. The egg was black it has spots. It tasted like an egg (it's an egg after all! HAHAHA...) but the texture was a bit different. Well anyway, you should try it for yourself! :)

NOTE: Just a note for you single people out there, please please please help yourself by having your first ever honeymoon right after you got married! Don't postponed it because it will be different. You don't have to go to a far away place if you don't have the time nor budget, but you can consider somewhere nice where you can spent time just the two of you alone! I always say this to my wed to be friends. Trust me!

Monday, August 1, 2011

In Singapore

I was lucky having a lot of travel this month. I got 5 place to go starting from the end of June until the first of August. It's now my last day in Singapore and my last trip too, so I've got lots of stories to tell!