Beautiful Flower

Beautiful Flower
from country living website

Friday, October 29, 2010

Tomat Bersahabat dengan Cabai

Tomat adalah buah favorit saya. Eh bentar, buah atau sayur ya? Tomat itu buah, saudara-saudara, karena saya sudah menemukan referensinya di Yahoo! Answers ^_^ Memang si tomat ini sering ada di tukang sayur, makanya banyak yang bingung menyebutkan tomat ini sebagai sayur.

Okay, back to laptop, eh salah, back to tomat ^_^ Dalam cuaca yang tidak menentu (baca: ekstrem) seperti ini, kadang tidak mudah menemukan sayur dan buah yang kita inginkan. Kalau ada, mungkin harganya bisa lebih mahal dari pada biasanya. Nah, sudah beberapa minggu ini saya ingin membeli tomat di supermarket/hypermarket sekalian berbelanja yang lainnya tapi tidak ada stock. Kata staf yang di sana, mereka sudah order tapi belum dikirim dan itu bisa jadi karena pengaruh cuaca yang ekstrem akhir-akhir ini. Huuu…kecewa deh, secara saya juga belum beli tomat ke pasar di deket kos atau ke abang sayur yang suka mangkal di taman sana. Dan akhirnya tadi pagi saya sempat mampir ke lapak tempat si ibu yang jadi langganan saya beli tomat. Saya beli 1 kilo tomat, ¾ kg buncis, dan 1 ons cabai. 

Kenapa saya suka tomat? Hmmm…tidak mudah untuk dijawab. Apakah karena tomat itu bermanfaat (sangat bermanfaat) buat kesehatan kita? Atau karena saya sering melihat papa saya ngemil tomat dengan gula kemudian saya jadi ikut-ikutan? Sebenarnya saya tidak suka memakan tomat begitu saja atau dicampur dengan gula seperti yang papa lakukan. Saya suka tomat yang dicampurkan ke dalam mie, sambal, atau dimakan sebagai lalapan bersama lauk yang lain. Kalau jus tomat saya juga suka, the point is that I like tomato a lot! ^_^

Bicara tentang sambal, tentu itu berkaitan dengan cabai dan selera masyarakat Indonesia yang (sangat) akrab dengan rasanya yang pedas dan menggugah selera itu. Beberapa hari yang lalu saya beli pecel lele dan minta sambalnya 2 bungkus. Nah, sambal pecel lele itu menggunakan tomat, juga ada sambal – sambal yang lain (maaf saya hanya tahu sambal terasi dan belum sambal yang lain karena belum pernah membuatnya tapi sering memakannya hehe…). Wah, rasanya enak! Dan saya semakin jatuh cinta dengan tomat tentunya ^_^

Jadi, kenapa tomat bersahabat dengan cabai? Apakah karena mereka bisa membentuk Mr Smile seperti di foto? Hehe…itu hasil keisengan saya siang ini di kantor ^_^ Tapi yang pasti, tomat dan cabai sama – sama bermanfaat buat kesehatan kita asalkan jangan berlebihan ya makannya, nanti perutnya panas kalau kebanyakan cabai. Kalau kebanyakan tomat saya belum pernah tahu efeknya apa. Lagipula, makan buah dan sayur kan perlu dikombinasi dengan yang lain juga supaya memberikan manfaat bagus buat kesehatan kita.

Okay, it’s time to go home now and put my tomato in the refrigerator to keep it fresh until the next day ^_^ Have a great weekend yaaa (karena ini ditulis pada hari Jumat 29 Oktober 2010 hehe…)

Monday, October 18, 2010

Thai Coconut Roll (with natural banana)


From the ancient annals, episode 40, national library edited version, the story stated that…



During the age of King Narai, Portuguese Marie Guemar (Thaw-thong-geeb-mar), wife to Constantine Falcon (Ork-ya-wi-chai-yen), served as Head-Chef in the royal dessert kitchen. Specialized inmaking dessert from eggs known as “foreign dessert”, she taught Siamese to make various kinds of desserts made from egg yolks, including Thong-yib, Thong-yord, Foy-thong, and Thong-muan (Thai Coconut Roll). The word “Thong”, which means gold, carries the message of delicacy, prosperous, and fortune. Soon after, the exotic taste and the unique aroma of egg yolk desserts led to a necessity of propagating the recipes. Over a short period of time, Egg dessert was widely produced by civilians.

Thong-muan is one of the earliest royal desserts which reflect the delicacy and tenderness of Siamese lifestyle. With this knowledge, Srifa has carefully selected the best recipe of Thong-muan, which is rich in nutrition and comes in many new flavors. Certified by GMP and HACCP, Srifa guarantees hygienic production and packaging process.

Srifa’s Thai Coconut Rolls (Thong muan) With Natural Banana are made from finely selected ingredients, flavored with fresh banana and supplemented with black sesame. With the company’s intention to produce quality products, we guarantee the finest Thai Coconut Rolls that are tasty, rich and flavor full.

Those are the narration that put in the box of the Thai Coconut Rolls which I received from my boss this morning as “oleh-oleh” from Thailand (oleh-oleh is something that you receive from family, friends, or colleagues when they return from holiday or something like that). He was taking leave for 10 days with his family in order to spend together while his older’s son school had a holiday.

As it said that they guarantee the tasted are rich and flavor full, yes indeed!! I like it!!! Nyam nyam nyam hehehe… I think Indonesia and Thailand have some similar food, either the main course or the snack. Hmmm…wondering to know more and this time I shall go there for a hooollliiddaaaayyyy!!! Hahahaha…

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Gedubrak!! Ouch!!!!!! Malunyaaaaaa!!!!

Cuaca di Jakarta akhir-akhir ini memang aneh. Kalau para petani menghafalkan musim hujan itu terjadi pada bulan-bulan yang mengandung kata “ber”; seperti September, Oktober, November, dan Desember. Tapi sejak bulan Juni kemarin hujan sudah mulai turun dan itu tidak terduga datangnya. Kadang pagi sampai siang cuacanya cerah ceria, eh tahu-tahu hujan. Haiiiiyaaaaa….musti selalu sedia payung nieh di tas, karena payung itu akan berguna di segala cuaca ^_^

Dan buat aku, hujan itu membikin jengkel selain membuat basah (apalagi kalau hujan disertai angin kencang, wuih, percuma dah pakai payung juga tetep basah). Belum lagi jalanan jadi lebih licin, khususnya di sekitar taman yang ada di seputaran kantor. Kalau jalan juga musti kayak putri solo karena lantainya basah kena cipratan air dari sepatu atau payung orang-orang. Nah, soal jalan pelan-pelan memang bukan keahlianku dan untuk itu aku sudah kena akibatnya.

Kejadiannya sudah bulan lalu tapi masih kuingat sampai sekarang karena selain bikin sakit badan juga bikin malunya minta ampun dah :D Hari itu pagi-pagi sudah mendung dan mulailah hujan turun menjelang siang hari sekitar jam makan siang. Sudah was-was (jadi bikin males) nih musti bawa payung kantor yang segede itu untuk beli makan siang dengan resiko nabrak payung orang lain yang lebih kecil (horeee payungku lebih gede hehe…). Mencoba menelepon delivery, tapi no telp-nya rusak (mungkin karena terlalu banyak yang telepon minta delivery juga) dan akhirnya hujan sudah reda sekitar jam 13.30 plus perut ini sudah protes minta diisi sehingga aku memutuskan untuk keluar kantor cari makan siang. Berpikir untuk mau beli makan di kantin belakang Starbucks yang harus melewati tegel-tegel putih yang licin. Berhubung sudah lapar, otak sudah tidak mikir lagi musti ganti sandal supaya tidak licin dan tetap memakai sepatu sandal yang putih. Berjalan pelan-pelan sampai ke ujung pintu, membuka pintu yang connecting ke parkiran, dan gedubrak!! Waaaadoooooowwww….. saya kepleset dan jatuh! Hahahahaha! Suaranya keras banget dan berhubung masih jam makan siang, jadilah saya tontonan orang-orang yang ada di situ, ouch!! Maluuuunnyaaaaaaa!!!! Untung aja lantainya sudah tidak basah sekali jadi bajuku masih terselamatkan (karena kalau kena air blusku itu akan gampang sekali basah dan aku tidak pakai blazer pada saat itu). Bapak cleaning service yang di situ membantuku berdiri sambil bilang, hati-hati donk Bu… Ya ampun, Pak, ini juga sudah hati-hati, tapi sepatuku licin nih (dalam hati ngomongnya karena masih kaget, malu, dan lagi konsentrasi berdiri biar tidak kepleset yang kedua kalinya hehe…).

2 atau 3 hari kemudian baru terasa siku sebelah kiri agak nyeri karena mungkin aku pakai untuk nahan berat badan pada waktu jatuh. Thanks God tidak sampai kena kepala ^_^ Well, welcome to rainy season and always be careful with your steps wherever you are ^_^

Setelah dicek, ternyata memang bagian bawah sepatuku sudah licin cin cin...pantesan aja kepleset gampang banget huuuu.... Semoga bisa ditambal dengan sol baru supaya bisa dipakai lagi karena bagian-bagian lainnya masih bagus, cuman bawahnya doang yang perlu di-update. My dear shoes, I hope you will accompany me much longer :)

8 (long) hours at Jogjakarta (chapter 1)

8 (long) hours at Jogjakarta (chapter 1)

Wrong title I guess, it should be 8 (short) hours hehehe… 8 hours seem like a time that needed for a sleep, a good enough sleep as advised by the doctor to adult person. But for me, September 1st 2010 could be the one of unforgettable day in my life because I only spent 8 hours at my own hometown.

It’s something that I didn’t expect at all. That night I was going to withdraw money from my ATM and then suddenly I forgot the pin number. I tried one, failed. Second try, failed again. And then the third chance, sorry, I didn’t make it. How I could totally forget my pin number? Don’t ask, I even don’t know the answer until now. It’s so silly yet unbelievable so that caused me to fly to Jogjakarta only for taking care it.

I was a little bit upset with the bank; why they said that the system is not online so I have to go back to the origin branch of my account to take care of it while perhaps they can do more effort to solve my problem. Well, I didn’t want to argue more with them so better I finish it at the soonest before the Lebaran holiday started. So I booked the ticket right away after some weird discussion with my boss to take a business leave for my issue, and then my journey to have 8 (long) hours at Jogjakarta shall begin at 2am of September 1st 2010.

Yes, I woke up at 2am because worry that I could not catch up the plane and need to avoid the traffic jam during the way to the airport. This is Jakarta, everything can happen, and better I arrive there early and wait for the plane than worry for being late because I’m still trap in the traffic jam. That decision also came after asked advice from 2 friends with considering about the way to get to the airport with the taxi. Never been in a taxi for such early morning and thank God the road was quite and lots of big truck that accompanied my way at the toll road to the airport.

I also thank God for the good taxi driver who drove me that morning, he’s kind of a friendly man so it’s good to be warm welcomed on that morning. One thing that surprised me also on that morning is that the small road to go out from my boarding house to the office was locked by a gate. I never realize that there’s a gate right there since I moved to the new boarding house in the middle of May 2010. Day by day I pass by the road and I never see the gate. Well, finally I found out that there is a gate and they close it every midnight until morning. So that morning the gate was still close and I had to do a little bit acrobatic activity to get pass the gate ^_^

Early morning at airport was quite shocking too. I saw the airport was already crowded with passengers who were ready to check in and fly. Even though there were also passengers who had a little bit exercise in the morning by running through the way to the gate of the plane because they were late. What a moment! No wonder sometimes the plane is late because they have to wait for the other passengers that still on the way. But I enjoyed that morning scenery to keep me awake during the waiting time for my plane *big grin*

to be continued...

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Elang yang Luar Biasa

Ternyata, Elang adalah unggas yang umurnya paling panjang didunia !
(copas dari milis)

Umurnya dapat mencapai 70 tahun. Tetapi untuk mencapai umur sepanjang itu seekor elang harus membuat keputusan-keputusan yang sangat berat pada saat umurnya mencapai 40 tahun.

Ketika berumur 40 tahun, cakarnya mulai menua,...paruhnya menjadi panjang dan membengkok hingga hampir menyentuh dadanya. Sayapnya menjadi sangat berat karena
bulunya telah tumbuh lebat dan tebal, sehingga menyulitkannya pada waktu terbang di angkasa.

Pada saat itu, elang Cuma punya 2 pilihan, yaitu menunggu kematian atau mengalami
proses transformasi yang sangat menyakitkan sepanjang 150 hari !

Jika ia memilih untuk melakukan transformasi, maka ia harus berusaha keras terbang keatas puncak gunung lalu kemudian membuat sarang di tepi jurang dan tinggal disana selama proses transformasi berlangsung. Pertama-tama, ia harus mematuk-matukan paruhnya pada batu karang sampai paruh tersebut terlepas dari mulutnya, kemudian
berdiam untuk beberapa lama menunggu tumbuhnya paruh baru.

Dengan paruh yang baru tumbuh itu, ia harus mencabut satu-persatu cakar-cakarnya dan ketika cakar yang baru tumbuh, ia akan mencabut bulu badannya satu demi satu.
Satu proses yang panjang dan menyakitkan yaitu ia harus menunggu selama lima bulan, baru bulu-bulunya tumbuh kembali. Lalu dengan paruh dan cakar dan bulu-bulu yang baru, elang tersebut akan menjalani 30 tahun kehidupan barunya dengan penuh semangat!
…..Kiiiiiiiiieeeeeee..ee..e.e.e.e..ee……KKkkkkk …...!!!

Sahabat, seperti keputusan elang tadi. Begitu juga dalam kehidupan kita, kadang kala kita harus melakukan suatu keputusan yang sangat berat untuk memulai sesuatu proses pembaharuan. Kita harus berani dan mau membuang semua kebiasaan lama yang mengikat, zona nyaman kita. Kita harus rela meninggalkan perilaku lama agar kita dapat memulai terbang lagi menggapai tujauan yang lebih baik di masa depan.
Atau kita lebih memilih untuk "mati" secara perlahan karena prilaku2 usang yang akan menghambat seluruh proses perbaikan untuk masa depan kita, semuanya ada ditangan kita masing2..

Tetap semangat dan menyemangati :)
Kiiii…iiiiiii..i.i….eeeeeeeee..ekkkk…kkkkkkk..kkkkkkkk ………….!!!!!!!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Beautiful Rainbow as the marvelous present for 8 hours at Jogjakarta

Oh my gosh! What time is it? 2am? Ups, are you kidding? This is the world record that I woke up at 2am and could not go back to sleep again. Is it because I was nervous that I could be overslept and be left out by my Lion? Hahaha… I guess so. And yes it was the earliest time for me to wake up in order to prepare myself to catch up my morning flight.

With a little error condition in my stomach and very sleepy eyes, finally I arrived at the airport and wait for the plane at the boarding area. I almost fell to sleep again but I could not and just enjoy the situation around me. I wonder how people can still choose early flight; because it’s cheap? For some persons yes, because sometimes the cheapest flight will be the early morning and the late night flights. When we do online booking to get the cheapest promo ticket, not much that we can choose ^_^ But for me, it’s just because I need to arrive at Jogjakarta at earliest time so I can finish my issue and still have some time to meet friends before go back to Jakarta.

Well, I did it ^_^ I am still quite amazed how I woke up that early, then had the short 8 hours at Jogjakarta, and go back to Jakarta in the same day without any tired feeling at all, the trip was safe, everything run as what I expected, and just thank God for beautiful rainbow ^_^

The rainbow accompanied me on the way back to airport with Liana who was taking me at the back of her motorcycle. Thanks a lot for the ride, Li, I’m so glad that I had the meeting with you during my short trip at Jogjakarta ^_^ I hope we can share more stories at your boarding house ya, not because you have offered your room for me to stay (thank you in advance, Li, glad to hear that hehehe…) ; but also because I can learn lots of life lessons from your stories; I appreciate your time to meet me, Li ^_^

I almost cried seeing the rainbow; not just because it’s so beautiful beyond words, but also because I was so overwhelmed by the greatness of God. Also some sentimental feeling that I was on the way back to Jakarta when I wanted to stay longer at my hometown to see my brother and his family that I could not meet yet because of the limited time. Ups, hehehe… I’m so sorry for that :( The rainbow was very close that I thought I could touch it even grab have those colors and put them in my body as my jacket…hahahahaha what an imagination! :D Because I don’t have any camera and the situation that time didn’t support me to take a picture, so I looked at the rainbow quite long, took a picture of it with my eyes, and keep it in my brain ^_^ Thank you, God, for the marvelous present! You are awesome!

*picture taken from country living website

Monday, August 23, 2010

Unforgettable 3 hours at the night of Monday August 23rd 2010

Oh my gosh! Gimana caranya ya berkomunikasi dengan anak expat keturunan Thailand? Yang besar lumayan bisa bahasa Inggris meskipun belum lancar, tapi paling tidak dia bisa mengerti apa yang aku bicarakan. Tapi yang kecil ini, dia pure anak Thailand lho… Kalau buat anak seumuran dia di negaranya sana, dia sudah pintar berbahasa. Tapi buat aku, wah musti mikir dulu kalo mau ngomong sama dia.

But I know one thing that I was learning from AGC Promise Land Children Church; if you are sincere and willing to go into the same level with kids, it’s easy for you to go into their world without any hindrances. We will talk the same language and that’s what we called ‘love’ ^_^ so, let’s work in out, gals! ^_^

Actually this is not the first time I met both kids. My boss has already brought them to office when they came at the first time to Jakarta last year with his wife. And up to now, they have been coming to office and get along with all of us. They are like the other kids, especially boys. They like to teasing each other, running, screaming, drawing, and playing around. So welcome to the screaming world! hahaha…

Like I guess, there could be screaming and teasing during the 3 hours. But never came in my mind that it would cost my forehead to be hit by their one of their toys and its hurt!! Huuuuaaaaa… I almost cried because the tennis racket hit my forehead so strong because the youngest kid played with it near my head (swinging it around) :(

But I could not cry because his face was quite cute when I spoke to him in English that he has hurt me with his racket and I don’t want to play again with him. Hahaha… I think he understood my conversation that time because I was showing a very sad face while holding my forehead that was hit. I guess he was showing his sympathy too, hehehe… what a boy! ^_^

Well, 3 hours was quite short actually because most of time we were doing many activities, such as watching TV, playing Lego, eat cookies, reading books, and finally drawing. Like I said earlier, the language that we used was love at most of the time. It’s because the older one is not so fluent in English yet, and the youngest is very fluent in Thai. So when the young boy talking in Thai, sometimes his brother was trying to explain the meaning to me and then he could not and just give me a big grin hahaha… And when I wanted to ask the young boy to finish his cookies, I asked his brother to tell him. So we played translation games actually wuahahaha… LOL! :D

But you know, kids are still naïf and they have sincere heart. If they see that the adult person is caring and loving, they can easily get along with him or her. When I came there, I got a warm welcome from the young boy who hug me and said “P’ Yulia!” ^_^

Unforgettable… :)