Let’s shuffle it all, and pack up this life again

I really want to share my recent travel experiences when visiting several places in Sulawesi. Unfortunately, my body seems still tired 'til now, so every night after getting back from work, i fall to sleep quickly. Maybe next weekend, I’ll try to write it in detail :). For now, I want to share this picture as one of souvenirs I got from my travel. Yeah, for me, photo is the best thing that can be a souvenir from every travel I had. A photo can speak thousand of words, hehe...

Hi Sunset, I Love You... (^o^)

Btw, this evening I watched and listened many times to a cool song called “Shuffle It All”. It’s an old song (1992), taken from the first and the only album of an American rock band "Izzy Stradlin and The Ju Ju Hounds" (Stradlin was ex guitarist of GNR). This rock song is very easy listening and nice to hear, especially when we feel bored of something, hehe... as we can hear from its lyric :). Here are the first 3 phrases of the lyric:

Boredom saturation
It's a never ending clue
Isn't just to fill the time
When there's nothing else to do 

She drove on out of New York

She had enough insane

And drivin' just though Texas two days

She ended up in L.A. 

Shuffle it all

Shuffle it all, yeah

Shuffle it all

Pack up your life again
..................

Off We Go!

Hooraaaayyyy…… “the very very long weekend” finally comes! This Thursday and Friday are holiday, and of course, I don’t wanna waste this special moment running away without do something fun. Yes, I’m gonna go on vacation to one of beautiful places in this lovely country, with some of my friends. Our flight is in the next 6,5 hours.

For a short (3-7 days) travel or vacation, I always bring these stuffs: my favorite PUMA cabin luggage, my lovely EIGER small bag, my NIKON Coolpix P7000, and of course my XPERIA mobile ^^.

Inside the luggage :)

Puma cabin luggage, Eiger small bag,
Nikon camera, and Xperia mobile

I’ve had the PUMA luggage since mid 2009, bought it online via UK ebay. When I was staying in London, I used to use it for weekly grocery shopping, hehe... really convenience. 

In term of traveling purpose, this light luggage has been used to many places. If i list them down, it will be like this:

-          10 days Europe travel (Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, and Venice) in Oct 2009,

-          3 days Northern Ireland travel (Belfast and around) in Nov 2009,

-          3 days Bali travel in May 2010,

-          7 days Vietnam travel (Saigon city and) travel in November 2010,  

-          3 days Singapore travel in September 2011,

-          4 days Lombok travel  in November 2011,

-           4 days KL & S’pore travel in January 2012,

-          3 days Bali travel in April 2012.

-          And now, it’s gonna be used for 4 days travel to one of famous and beautiful tourism place in my country (the place or city name will be informed later :)).

I guess, it's the same as you guys, I never forgot to bring my camera in every travel I had. Since last November 2011, I’ve used Nikon Coolpix P7000. My first digital camera was an old Sony Cybershoot T-1 camera, bought in early 2004. After that, in Dec 2008, I bought Canon Ixus 82 IS, and it’s still being used ‘til now. 

The Nikon P7100 is quite special for me. There's a story behind it, a bad and also good story  :). In November 2011, I’d had a plan to buy the latest Nikon prosumer camera, i.e. Coolpix P7100 (successor of P7000). Because the price was quite expensive for me (maybe not for some people), to buy this P7100, I needed to save money for about 2 months, September to October, hehe… :P. At that time, the price was still about IDR 4,7 mio. Unfortunately, exactly in early November, just couple days before my travel to Lombok, something bad happened, about IDR 3 mio of my money was “gone” (-__-). It’s gone for buying “unused” airplane ticket and paying “unused” hotel rooms. After this bad thing happened, I tried to forget my dream buying a new camera (hehehe… my money was only about 2 mio left at that time). But then… something NICE was coming. My senior, he had Nikon P7000 bought in July 2011, and he only used it twice since he bought it. He offered me to buy his camera in very affordable price. I almost didn’t believe it… :). Hohohooo… my senior was very very nice . Although I couldn’t have what I want (P7100), I’m quite happy to have this P7000, hehehe… Thanks my senior, Thanks GOD (^_^).

About the mobile phone, this gadget is the most important thing, both in daily life and traveling. Especially in traveling, don’t ever forget this! Seriously... (I’ve been there, hukshukshuks, and it was so stressful and suffering not to bring it, especially when we’re being a single traveler). Since early 2011, I’ve been a fan of SE XPERIA Android mobile phone. My existing Xperia Neo-V is the second Xperia I’ve ever had. The first one was Xperia X10, but it’s gone last Januari in Changi airport area. Since I really like it, I bought another Xperia to replace the missing X10. Hihihiii…. Xperia girl.

Another thing that must be brought for travel is a small bag. I really love this green Eiger bag. It’s very light, the size is fit to my small body, and I can put many important things inside (wallet, tissue, lotion, cologne, lip gloss, face powder, "kayu putih" oil, and hand sanitizer). And yess, I’m a fan of Eiger stuffs. In my opinion, Eiger stuffs have great quality, with very affordable and reasonable price.

So, those are the important and must-have “material things” in every travel I have. And of course, after we’re ready with them, don’t ever forget to prepare our physical and spiritual (mind, heart) condition. Keep praying to GOD for the safety of our travel.

I really really hope this travel is gonna be so much fun, safe, and always under GOD’s protection. Amen…. 


And I hope, your long weekend is gonna be fun as well, guys (^o^).

Cheerful Saturday with Cooking, Singing, Dining, and Shopping

Cooking?? Me???  Seriously??

YES guys, I myself was so surprised about this. Usually, if I say “I cook”, it means I (only) fry beef sausage, fry chicken nugget, or fry an egg. Yeah, it’s just frying that kind of food. And also, I hardly do this. Mostly, I always eat outside or use delivery service. But a miracle just happened this Saturday, out of the blue…. In the morning I made “Choco Truffles”, and in the afternoon I cooked “White Mushroom Soup” for my lunch.

I searched the recipes from the internet and bought the materials from a local store near my place. Hmm, I just found out that it’s not difficult to make both of these favorite dishes. What I need to make the soup were only several types of onion, white pepper powder, salt, a little bit sugar, and chilly. To accompany this mushroom soup, I fried my favourite Kanzler Beef Sausage and “Tempe”. And to make my lunch merrier, I invited my close friend, Tomtom, to come and have lunch together.  He said that the soup was good, but he then suggested me that if next time I cook this soup, I should reduce the sugar. Hmm… I understand the actual meaning behind his words, he wanted to say that I put sugar too much on the soup, hahaha… ^o^.  Although it’s not perfect, I was so happy. My friend ate a lot and we both finished all of the dishes.

White mushroom soup, fried tempe, and fried beef sausage

For the choco truffles, it’s the second time I made it. The first time was made last Sunday (it’s “Oreo Choco Truffels”), while this time was “Marie Biscuit Choco Truffles”. I love chocolate so much, that’s why choco truffle was chosen as my first “snack” trial experience. (Btw, to be honest, last October 2011, I planned to make choco truffle for my best friend’s birthday. But then, things between us were gettin' worse, so no choco truffle at that time, hehe…). 

My Choco Truffle :)

OK, let’s continue the story to my cheerful Saturday. 

After having lunch, we then enjoying blueberry yogurt and the choco truffles for dessert, while watching TV that was showing about the evacuation process for the victims of Sukhoi aircraft crash. It’s really sad to have this air crash tragedy. Praying for those victims and also the families they left.

@Inul Vizta

In the evening, at around 16:00, we went to a karaoke place. Before leaving my place, I tried to contact my other friend, lovely Debo, to ask her joining us karaoke. If she and her boyfriend could join us, then it would be much more interesting and fun, for sure :). Unfortunately, I didn’t get reply from her, so it’s only me and Tomtom who went to karaoke.  We sang a lot of songs for two hours. It felt so great and silly, both of us, haha… I was even singing with my feet standing on the chair and moving my body freely, as free as I want.  My voice? Yeah, it’s so ugly… but who cares? Hahaha… :D. 

Btw, my friend Tomtom has a very good voice actually. When he was at the university, he was joining a student choir. Even though his voice is very good, but he really can “understand” my voice, and he just kept smiling when I was singing so loudly & messy with my ugly voice :P. 

(Later, not long after we finished karaoke, Debo contacted me back and told me that she was sleeping when I contacted her. She really just had a very long sleep that evening ^^).

After karaoke, we went to a kind of bar & restaurant called Aphrodite, to have dinner. It’s the first time for me to come here, while Tomtom went here several times during weekdays (after office hours). He said that the situation of this bar & resto is quite different between weekdays and weekend. From our experience yesterday, coming to this bar & resto on weekend is really not recommended for teen or youth people. Yeah, we’re a little bit disappointed coming here last Saturday. But however, we still enjoyed it. The food is good enough and the place is very comfortable. We spent about 2 hours here, talking many things, about our works, friends, and so on.

Chicken Piccato Milanese & Carrot-Orange Juice
@ Aphrodite Bar&Resto

When we left my place, we first planned to have karaoke and watching a movie called “The Dark Shadow”. Since we finished our dinner at around 9 PM, we cancelled the movie. It’s too late to watch it, and I was almost sleepy as well. We then continue our activity by just a short shopping at Farmers Market, in Epicentrum; buying some food, beverages, and fruits. I was so lucky that here I found something I’ve been looking for in the last couple weeks, i.e. the “Sparkling Red Grape Juice”. This drink is lovely and alcohol free :).

Going karaoke, watching movies in cinema, or having dinner outside are not really "something", because i do those things very often. But cooking.... it's really really something special and new for me. I really hope that i can continue learning how to cook, and trying many more foods, from the simple ones to the difficult ones.

Wish me luck!!! Gambarimashoouuu.... (^o^).

Sadar Nakal, Akhirnya Pasrah dengan Pilek ^0^

Sebelum berbagi cerita tentang pilek, gue pengen mengucapkan duka cita yang sedalam-dalamnya untuk semua korban yang meninggal dalam kecelakaan pesawat Sukhoi Superjet100 di area Gunung Salak, Bogor, hari Kamis lalu (10 Mei 2012). Semoga amal ibadah semua korban di terima Allah SWT, dan keluarga seluruh korban diberi ketabahan, kesabaran, dan kelapangan dada dalam menerima musibah ini. Dan untuk semua tim yang terlibat dalam proses evakuasi dan juga penelitian pasca tragedi ini, semoga kerja keras mereka diberi pahala yang setimpal oleh Tuhan; dan semoga semuanya bisa berjalan lancar sampai identifikasi para korban selesai dilakukan dan penyebab kecelakaan bisa diketahui. Amiin Ya Rabbal ‘Alamiin.

Baiklah, back to my personal story J. Gue emang “nakal” dan rada susah diatur. Sudah tau kondisi tubuh lagi ga fit, tapi tetep aja gue “berkeliaran” sepulang kerja. Senin malam, maen bowling di Spincity, EX Plaza. Selasa malam, pergi nonton the Avengers 3D di Blitz Megaplex, Pacific Place. Rabu malam, gue ga kemana-mana, tapi ada sedikit “party” di kamar gue dengan dua orang temen, makan malam rame-rame (delivery ke kosan) dan ngobrol-ngobrol sampai menjelang tengah malam. Dua orang temen ini yang beberapa malam lalu nganterin dan ngerawat pas malam-malam gue ke rumah sakit itu (ceritanya di sini).

XL Bowling Club, pas kebetulan ada coaching session dari senior-senior yang udah jago :)
(SpinCity, eX, 7 Mei 2012)

Kamis pagi, tenggorokan gue sakit dan gatel, tanda-tanda mau pilek. Kamis malamnya itu, seharusnya gue cek darah dan ketemu dokter lagi, untuk mastiin gue baik-baik setelah tragedi “migren dan mual-mual parah” itu. Tapi gue serasa males ke rumah sakit. Udah gitu, ada temen yang minta ditemenin nonton The Avengers 3D IMAX. Mana 3D IMAX adanya cuma di Gandaria City mall pula, jauh amiiir dari posisi kantor kita yang di Mega Kuningan. Tapi demi dia dan kebetulan juga gue belum pernah nonton yg 3D IMAX ini, gue bela-belain pergi juga ke GanCy, setelah nyelinep pulang kantor jam 5 kurang 10, hehe. Kebetulan, ada 1 temen kantor lagi yg join kita, jadinya kita nonton bertiga. Cuma lucunya, kita bertiga duduk nyebar, karena ga dapat tiket yang sebelahan, haha… saking banyaknya yang nonton. Gue duduk di kursi C1, temen yg satu di E1, dan yang satunya lagi di E33. Sepulang nonton, kita makan di Solaria yang udah hampir mau tutup. Gue makan bakso kuah dan teh tarik hangat, buat “menyegarkan” tenggorokan yang lagi terasa ga enak itu. 

Oya, ini bukan pertama kali gue nonton satu film sebanyak 2x. Sebelumnya, gue pernah nonton Battleship dan Transformer di bioskop sebanyak 2x. Pas yg Transformer, nonton yang 2D biasa sekali dan 3D-nya sekali. Kalo yang Battleship, selain karena gue memang pengen nonton 2x (karena gue suka pemain utamanya, ), kebetulan juga ada temen baik yg sedang perlu temen nonton waktu itu. Jadi, kita nonton bareng, berdua, saling menemani, hihihii.. Yah, intinya itulah fungsi berteman, saling menemani dan melengkapi satu sama lain ^^.

The Avengers 3D, twice.... :)

Jum’at malam-nya, bareng dengan 2 orang temen, duo S (S yang satu cowok, S yang satu cewek J),  kita pergi makan malam di resto Thailand yang ada di Grand Indonesia, JITLADA. Kita makan malam dan ngobrol-ngobrol sampai restorannya siap-siap mau tutup, hehe… sekitar jam 10 kurang gitu. Abis makan, kita pergi ke apartemennya  S (yang cewek) di Sudirman Park, dan ngobrol-ngobrol sampai jam 12-an malam. Temen S (yang cowok) pulang, sedangkan gue jadinya nginep di apartemen S yang cewek itu. Pulang ke kosan Sabtu paginya, sekitar jam 7.30. Dan tentu saja sodara-sodara, pilek gue semakin menjadi, bersin-bersin terus, dan idung meler… hukshukshuuuks. Alasan gue pulang pagi-pagi dari apartemen temen gue pun dikarenakan gue takut pilek ini nyebar-nyebar ke dia, kan kasihan, hehe…

Friday nite dinner with my friends Duo-S
(Jitlada (Thai resto), Grand Indonesia mall)

O ya, hari Sabtu ada sesuatu yang amazing dari gue. Apakah itu? Hehehee… gue MASAK. Iya sodara-sodara, gue masak beneran, bukan sekedar ngegoreng sosis, nugget, atau ceplok telor. Dan ini berlanjut ke Minggu siang tadi. Meski hanya masak sederhana dan bukan kategori masak makanan yang rumit-rumit, tapi ini tetep SESUATU banget buat gue. Yah, semoga menjadi awal yang bagus lah supaya ke depannya gue semakin rajin belajar masak J. Cerita tentang masak ini gue tulis di postingan selanjutnya yaaaa….

O ya, mulai Senin malam besok sampai  Rabu malamnya, gue berjanji…. TIDAK akan keluyuran dan bermain-main lagi. Setelah pulang kantor mau langsung pulang ke kosan dan istirahat, supaya pilek ini bisa cepet sembuh dan kembali fit. Gue harus segera fit lagi, HARUS! Kalo ngga, acara long weekend nanti (17-20 Mei) bisa berantakan. I’ll go somewhere, a beautiful place out of Jakarta, out of Java island. Mudah-mudahan semuanya berjalan lancar, menyenangkan, dan selamat tiba di tempat tujuan, selama di tempat tujuan, dan juga selamat sampai kembali pulang. Amiin Ya Rabbal ‘Aalamiin…. (^o^)