Changes...

December has come... the last month of 2012... honestly, I'm nervous. Lot's of things are about to change in 2013. Here's a little reading about that topic:

When winter arrives, the trees must sigh in sadness as they see their leaves falling.

They say: ‘We will never be like we were before.’
Of course.

Or still, what is the meaning of renewing oneself? The next leaves will have their own nature, they pertain to a new summer that approaches and which will never be like the one that passed.
Living means changing – and the seasons repeat these lessons to us every year.

Changing means going through a period of depression: we still don’t know the new and we have to forget everything we used to know.

But if we are a little patient, spring ends up arriving and we forget the winter of our hopelessness.

Change and renewal are the laws of life.
It is best to get used to them and not suffer about things that only exist to bring us joy.

taken from paulocoelhoblog

The remake of Vietnamese spring rolls

Look what me and my mum made

A couples of months ago, I went to Vietnam and felt in love with it's foods! Everywhere I go there, the food is so delicious. The street food, the fast food, and of course the restaurant food. I specially love the food I ate at Ben Thanh Market, Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). I think they have the best food ever! So last week, me and my mum want to remake the famous Vietnamese spring rolls.

Our version of Vietnamese spring rolls

 Well, I didn't get to take a picture of the process because I was to busy to make them. The outer layer was the tricky part. I bought it from the Ben Thanh market. I was dry and we have to dip it in a warm water and it was sticky, so we have to move fast in putting in the raw veggies and the shrimp. I got the recipe from the Internet. I just combine some of the and added to my (poor) memory of how it actually taste! HAHAHA...

Proud mother - daughter

Well, here are the spring rolls! It didn't look really good as the "original" version, but it was a nice try for a first starter HAHAHA... At least I enjoyed our mother-daughter weekend thing =)

Errrrrr.... this is what the spring rolls suppose to look like!

Friends: the side effect

Watching Friends in a not-so-orderly sequences makes me wanna do the TV Show in the right order. So it goes to my 30B30 list. Recently, I've just had the time to start watching it again, since the last time was unsuccessful. I've just finished the whole season one when I started to realize the side effects of watching Friends. Since 2008, I have been living on my own, don't get me wrong, I loved it. But after being put to work in a remote place which is far from any of my friends at 2009, I'm completely ON MY OWN. So watching those six best friends, always seeing each other, taking care of each other or even just joking around, gives me that very bad side effects: I missed my friends! ='(  I really miss having a small gank like that, I used to have one at college, but now, I don't even have a friend to go with after work. It is so depressing. I was okay being alone at all times, but being alone + watching Friends = not okay!

Look how cuddlely they are... I want a gank like this!

So, I still have 9 seasons to go. I still wanna finish the legendary TV show in a sequences. Only God knows how long I could take the side effects. Does anybody have (and still) have a gank like this and still manage the work life these days? Please let me know how?

Am I killing my dream?

Things has happened to me during this few weeks (or months?)... What I discovered is that I'm starting to kill my dreams whether I knew it or not. I kinda notice it today when a good friend of mine, ask me a simple question, "when will my next travel trip be?" and I answered with so much excuses when actually I don't have any trip ahead :'( I don't know what had happened with my head, but I know it is not a good thing. I tried to seek Paulo Coelho's 1 min reading about this:

The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time. The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the Good Fight.

The second symptom of the death of our dreams lies in our certainties. Because we don’t want to see life as a grand adventure, we begin to think of ourselves as wise and fair and correct in asking so little of life. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day existence, and we hear the sound of lances breaking, we smell the dust and the sweat, and we see the great defeats and the fire in the eyes of the warriors. But we never see the delight, the immense delight in the hearts of those who are engaged in the battle. For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the Good Fight.

And, finally, the third symptom of the passing of our dreams is peace. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give. In that state, we think of ourselves as being mature; we put aside the fantasies of our youth, and we seek personal and professional achievement. We are surprised when people our age say that they still want this or that out of life. But really, deep in our hearts, we know that what has happened is that we have renounced the battle for our dreams – we have refused to fight the Good Fight.

When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being.
We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice.

And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons

Words from Petrus to Paulo during The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

The question of moving on

Just a while ago, I got a chance to catch up with a friend I haven't talked to for about a year. After all of that catching up, about our lifes, our friends and all that stuff, comes that bigger question, "Have I move on?". After all the stories about someones promotion, having babies, moving to a new place, going somewhere, have the new business, I kinda felt the urge to ask myself, where am I now? How much I've change since a year ago and sadly, not much had happened. I'm still stuck in that job that I don't like since 3 years ago, I'm still living in this darn town, I haven't had any babies (which is okay for me hahaha), and I'm just still complaining about the same thing a year ago. That really hits me. I haven't moved on from the place I was a year ago. I guess it's a bit of a wake up call. I don't wanna be trapped in the position that I don't like but afraid to do something about it. This year has only two months, I'm trying really hard to figured out what to do to get out of this situation. I just need that courage to move on...

What about you? Are you complaining the same thing that you complained a year ago? Please tell me what to do...

posted from Bloggeroid

Print and stick

After reading some thoughts in Facebook, I decided I like this one, about keeping our life simple. I like, so I print it, then I sitck it! That simple! :)

posted from Bloggeroid

Animal Market

Last weekend, I went to the animal market in my hometown Yogyakarta, called PASTHY, to buy some birds that we will let it go. It's a Chinese custom to set free birds or turtle for good luck. We bought about 135 little birds to be set free.

The birds we bought

The animal market itself is an interesting place, you get to see many animals for sale. I personally don't like the idea of animal in a cage, because it's not want the are meant to be. But it's a very old market and people have done it since a very long time ago. This is some animals I got to capture, we got there a bit to late and lots of stall have been close. There are so much animal you can find, like dogs, cats, squirrel, lizard, bird, chicken, bat, snake, and many more.

Colorful chicks, weird!

Pretty pigeons

Bats that woke up a day time

I bet the chicken outside the cage want his friend to be outside too!

Singing bird

They even sold owls!!! Just like in Harry Potter! Pick your own owl!

Those cute little things...

It's been a while since I have time to go to the mall! Can't believe that happened! It's not that I have to always go there, but once a while will be okay. It's been about two or three months! So this lovely weekend, I decided to go to a new mall, just to check some few things. Actually, I'm doing a little research about opening a shop at the mall. While I'm there, I can't help to buy some few things.


This cute ring


A rabbit headphone plug for my friend


A big flower hair band for my friend's baby girl


This cute belt for me!

Then I bought four plain colored t-shirts to match my new look I'm working on :) Lots of things I want to buy but I didn't :( and then I saw this lovely mother and child thing:



There's just so much cuteness in one day! Hahaha...

posted from Bloggeroid

Quote of the month

It's really a poem rather than a quote... It describes how I feet right now. I read it in one of Paulo Coelho's old post. It's about the feeling of total acceptance. Right now, I don't know where I'm going, but I will follow that guide that is inside of my heart, the one who tells me what to do and where to go. I guess I just need to listen to it more often. 

TED

There not much words to describe how much excited I was when I first saw this movie thriller

TED - The movie

OMG!!! A story about a TEDDY BEAR and it's alive! What more fantasy could I wanted? If you don't know me yet, well, I'm a Teddy Bear lover since I could remember. I have one specific Teddy which I love and have been with me since I was 5.

Three generations and a Teddy Bear

My Teddy has been everywhere with me. The truth is that I still sleep with him/her (?). So seeing TED makes all of my fantasy come to life!! I kinda wish that my Teddy will come alive too, what a wonderful it would be! HAHAHA...

Well, when I was little, I have a dream to take my Teddy to go around the world with me, but since she/he (?) is a bit to big, specially for an adult (ehm..) like me, I decided to bring a model one which is smaller. But if latter on in my life I would move to a another city or country, I would definitely bring my Teddy with me.

Too put off a little bit of guilt, not bringing my Teddy to my travels, I thought it would be appropriate to take him/her with me to see the movie TED which is in theater last September (in my country). So, I took my Teddy in my backpack and brought him/her back to my hometown and we watched TED together! I kinda wanted to buy a seat for her/him, but I guess that's just too much hahaha! Well, thank you for the great creators of TED for making my dreams come to movie! You guys are amazing!

Teddy in a backpack

Me and Teddy (and my mum) watching TED

Well, I don't know how long we will be together. I'm married and still have m Teddy Bear, so I guess that's great, isn't it? My dream is to have a beautiful ending like this:

a happy family and a teddy bear

Fresh start in October

October is already here! OMG! I usually don't really care about this kinda stuff, but now I care so much because of this three reasons:

1. My 30B30 is still a long list to finish to goand time is running against me!
2. I'm gonna be 30 next year! The worst part is that I'm not even close to the image I made for myself as a thirty something woman (not girl again)
3. I don't have any mayor plan (yet) for next year (help!)

So, all of that adds up with the job that I don't like, leaves me freaking out!
To help me feel a little bit better, I bought myself a new small classy netbook! I wanna new fresh start plus I really need one. I love love love my MacBook so much, but since my Macbook has no battery anymore, it's hard for me to move around. Then there's the budget thing, I could not buy another Macbook, so my choice is to buy a battery or a small non-apple netbook. After the pros and cons of everything, I decided to buy a 10 inch non-apple netbook. The reasons are: it is small enough, but not too small, and I love the battery life which is 12 hours (said in the brochure and web). Well, it's not a Macbook, but I'm quite okay with it so far because it's what I needed right now. I know that netbooks are so over right now, maybe this is the last of  it's kind, and people will choose tablets, but this one really suits me! So this is my choice:

It's not an Apple, so it will be a Teddy!

Oppa Gangnam Style!

What a great sensation! The wonder hit dance from Korea really hits the globe! Call me cheesy, but I love the dance! Actually Oppa Gangnam is so much fun! I saw in some of the shows that his style is all about: "dress classy, dance cheesy"! LOL... and just with that, that person got totally famous. I personally think that he's so famous because he spread so much happiness, joy, and fun; and those are the basic universal thing for us human beings, so there's no boundaries of language or culture.

If you haven't seen it before, check this out:

  

This gives me so much idea! I hooked up with a friend to make our youtube gangnam version. Well, we originally wanted I do an exercise to make us healthy, but instead of having a morning run which is hard to do because I cannot wake up early, we decided to do the gangnam dance after work! It's way more fun and healthy because we laugh a lot! To add things up, be bought a gangnam T-Shirt that look like this (still waiting for the delivery :

WELL, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? LET'S DO SOME DANCE! 

"OPPA GANGNAM STYLE!"

Well, all of the pictures and videos in this post are not mine and I don't know the source (e-mail me if you have the properties)

How To Live (?)

Once in a while, rather than watching another Hollywood movies, I like to see some indie European movies. Tonight I found this Poland movie, "Jak Zyc" (How to live?). The question really caught my attention because it's a simple question with a very hard answer. Well, that's what happened with Kuba (Krzysztof Ogloza) when he found out that his girlfriend, Ewa (Anna Cieslak) was pregnant. He use to life in the simple life and in seven months everything was going to change. Because he lost his father in an early age, he felt he should learn the ideal way to live. He seeks advises from his three very different uncles.

For me, the story is more about constantly remembering what we want in the first place. In the process of that searching, there are moments were Kuba just looses the reason on why he was searching for that answer in the first place. I think lots of us do that thing too. We just got caught in the work, the problems, the process, and everything else, including the searching is forgotten. I saw that happening to lots of my co-workers, and I don't want to be like that. Got caught in the comfort nor just the problems that they sometimes just don't know which where to go, but when I asked them, why they willing to this and that, most of them say that they worked because of their families and their dreams, but in reality, the work loads get the best of them and the families and the dreams just fading slowly.

Watching movies like this is a refreshment for me, so I kept being reminded why I still work in the big corporate job that I generally don't like. Honestly, I still haven't had that courage to change things, but a least I work because I love traveling so much, and so far all I earn is for my love of traveling.

One Man And His Campervan

On lazy Sunday mornings, after making breakfast what I really enjoy is watching this fun adventure journey of a man named Martin Dorey and his campervan driving and camping around England. The series is called "One Man and His Campervan". His journey originality started years before when he decided to put all of his belongings in his 1970's campervan and move to a seaside small town in Devon. Now he lives there with his wife, Jo, and two children. One day, he decided to make that campervan journey through out England
showing his love of VW, food, and surfing. His not a chef, but he loves to cook delicious meals for friends he met along the way. I love to image I was one of those friend. It's really nice to eat a simply but fabulous meal, cooked fresh after fishing and looking at the beautiful sunset near the beach with a friend like Martin Dorey :)

Here is a short preview of the first part of his journey:

One Man and His Campervan

New Addiction

After a few introduction of this app from my friend, I soon became addicted to this wonderful app called Pinterest. With the idea of having a pin board right on your smartphone or laptop now I can share my visual addiction of endless beautiful pictures on my social network such as Facebook or Twitter. What a brilliant idea!

Why I love traveling

If somebody came to me and ask me why do I love traveling, maybe I'll need so much time to explain why because there are so many reasons why I love traveling. This includes:
the markets, the new people I met, the culture, taking photos, beaches, sunsets, sunrise, the bizarre food, famous tourist spot, hidden spots, festivals, hotels, hostels, airports, harbor, other people's life, souvenirs, trains, buses, plane, the air, the water, and sooooooo muuuuuch more! I can't explain why in words, but for me, waking up in the morning to another city is so exciting. I just love being in an unknown place, it makes me feel so alive. So sum that up into a 30 second video, I choose "HAPPINESS" for the reason, because it's the root to all of that loving of traveling. I don't know if I'm to late to ask this or not, but please please please kindly "like" or tweet r even just view my video. Thank you so much! I love you guys :)

I made this 30 seconds video to participate in a traveling contest by CNN and Hilton Hotels. 

Sawadika Phuket! Traveling with Mum!

Sawadika! Hello! It's been a long time since my last post... So so sorry for that! My blog got a bit dusty in August because I've been traveling around. This post is about my trip to Phuket - Thailand which I took with my Mum. The travel was on late May which is supposedly not ideal to go to Thailand because of the weather, but I bought the tickets last year with checking it first. But anyway, we got lucky because the weather was quite fine so we could go islands hoping.

We spend our first day by island hoping with the destination, Phang Nga, the one famous with the James Bond Island. It was such a unique experiences since I never saw small islands like that before.

We even get the chance to go canoeing in and out of caves around the islands. I was so much fun!

On one of the island, there's a gypsy sea village, where the people lives on floating houses. Mostly the villagers are fisherman and they have lived there all their life.

At night time, we hit the road to try some street food! This one is like a pancake with chocolate and banana. We also tried the-everthing-grilled, then some soup that I forgot the name of it.

The second day, it was sunny! So lucky! So we when to the famous Maya Beach. It's the one famous for Leonardo deCaprio's movie, The Beach. Well, if you think that it would be quiet and relaxing like in the movie, it is so wrong! The beach was so crowded with boats and people. I think it was supposed to be beautiful if it wasn't so crowded.

And there's time for some scuba diving! The fishes was so colorful and beautiful, but once more, too crowded!

After that, we when to an island inhabited by monkeys. I think that the monkeys are already accustom with humans, so the are not afraid if we took pictures. Some people even give them food and cola which I think was not supposed to be done!

On our last night in Phuket, we went to a magical place called "Phuket Fantasea"! I was so wonderful! And what I meant by magical is really true! Me and my mum were like two 5 year old girls, excited to explore everything. The show was so spectacular! It was a combination of ancient and modern circus, dance, theater, and lots more! I was something hard to describe, so I suggest you see it for yourself.

And before the show started, there's a buffet that accommodates 4000 people all at once! 

This is my beloved Mum! She was so excited seeing exotic fruits that we don't have in our country. Just to make the story short, why I took my mum on a trip and make it in my 30B30 list, it's because all her life my mum worked so hard to get me in school and she rarely took time off for herself. Just by seeing her so happy, it's the one thing I ever wanted! And I'm so sure there will be more of trips like this =)

This is what my mum made for us! Duo bikinis! My mum actually made those T-Shirts! She knew my obsession to wear a bikini in the beach which I cannot do (YET!) hahaha... It was so nice of her :D 

I LOVE YOU MUM!

Quote of the month

Well, this is what I'm trying to do lately:

posted from Bloggeroid

Quote of the month

London Underground

Weekend it is! These few weekends, I've been following "The Tube", a BBC series that shows the life of people who worked at London's underground train system. It was so exciting since I live at a place that doesn't have that kind of public transportation. Well, maybe my town isn't that big to have a complicated train system. What I like about the series is that I could see a different life and it's not an easy one either. There's so much facts that I made note of for the next time I will have a chance to go there, I'll have a bit of knowledge. Some facts I learned: The underground system ended it's service at 12 A.M, so don't go home too late; be careful at Friday nights because it's the most crowded night and there're lots of drunk people; don't stand to close to the platform because you'll never know if some teenage will joke around and make you fall down the platform and got hit by a train (scary, but it did happened quite a lot)! Well, there's many other facts, but anyway, it's a great series because I got to see a little part of London life =)