Cough in the act

I've been coughing for almost a week now. I ate antibiotics and half bottle of cough syrups and I have no idea when this coughing will be over. Usually in the night time, the cough is getting worse. Bah...

Anyway, I can only pray that my cough will get better soon, as for today, I wanted to cheer myself up by drinking bubble tea, the hot one. So after work, I went to a bubble tea store and ordered a hot honeydew milk tea. When the employee asked me what do I want for the topping, I was actually thinking about having some pearls, but then I decided grass jelly would be much suitable with my condition. Then after the drinks was served, I just realized on how silly I would be if I ordered pearls as the topping.

Lucky I ordered grass jelly topping huh *singlish accent*

Anyway I didn't know how did my cough story end up with a bubble tea review. haha. I ordered the normal sweetness, but I guess since bubble tea is normally came up with ice or cold, it was too sweet for a hot drink. The bubble tea did cheer me up, but I think my cough is getting worse right now hahaha.

Okay lah people *another singlish*, I better go to bed right now. Hopefully with enough sleep and medication I will recover soon!

Cheers,

Abeth

Kiyo's 1st Birthday Party

They say (please define the word 'they'), a child's first birthday should be celebrated. It's almost like a- must thing to do for your children. But let's just be honest, is there anyone of you still remember how does it feel when you were one year old? Yeah.. me neither. But anyway, birthdays, at any age is a celebration - I think. A little (or big, you decide) celebration (and cakes) won't hurt anyone.

So right now I'm gonna share some pictures during my niece's 1st birthday on August 2013. Lately she's been an object to some of my blog posts haha sorry niece. As some of you might notice, party nowadays are getting pretty and prettier. The decorations and dessert table is very important in creating a memorable party (let's admit it, we're gonna share those party pictures on social media anyway), so I think that my niece's 1st birthday party is very cute and 'picture sharing worthy' (please excuse my made up word). It is a 'pin-wheeled' theme birthday party at Frais Patisserie, the place is not big, but it gives you a homey feeling once you're inside the place. They sell many selections of yummy pastries and cakes.

 The dessert table

 Not just a regular marshmallow. It's marshmallow with ribbons!

Macaroon tower. Isn't it cute or what? 

 Label and wrap your own mineral water and viola!

The birthday girl and the narsis aunty.

I think that the pastel color combinations are really cute. At first I felt very bad trying to eat those desserts because I would ruined the dessert table, but desserts are supposed to be inside your tummy, not just for decorations. Hahaha... If there's anyone of you wondered, "did you guys only eat dessert for the birthday party?", the answer is "no", we had nasi tumpeng for lunch. Nasi tumpeng was put on the other table, and no one took a picture beside the nasi tumpeng, we prefer to take pictures around the dessert table area (sadly true haha). 

So have you guys been to a kid's birthday party nowadays? What do you think about themed party like this? Do you guys enjoy it? So right now, after Engagement Party, Bridal Shower Party, Wedding Party, and Baby Shower Party, you're gonna need to save some ideas for your kid's first birthday party. So plan ahead guys! :p

Let's raise our cupcakes and make a toast!

x.o.x.o

Abeth

Growing

For me, every time I see my niece, I am constantly reminded of how time flies. I was still working in Singapore when my sister was pregnant, and then when she was born, I met her for only three weeks then I went to Beijing (link here). Earlier this year when I came back from Beijing for winter holiday, she's already five months old. Now, when I'm back for good, she's one year old already (click here). I still remember small she was when she was born, she looked so fragile to me I didn't even have a courage to held her in my arms haha.

My niece is one y.o. now and we're admiring our own reflections haha

A child's growth, it's so easy to notice. You can physically notice the difference. But what about us? So called adults, or young adults? Do we change a lot too? Let say in two years time, what had changed in us? For me, I had some physical changes, from long to short to long hair again. I also managed to develop some skill in grooming my face (make up LOL). Managed to travel further than any of my other family members. But that's the physical, it's noticeable, anyone can see it. But how a bout our physiological? What about our values, point of views, way of thinking, do they change too in all these time?

I personally think that it is harder for ourselves to see the inner changes inside of ourselves. For me, it is easier to know on what's changing in us physiologically by hearing others' opinion about us, then you can decide whether what they think is suitable for you or not. I personally love to hear other people's story, especially if it's related to me (not just gossip -who doesn't love gossip anyway- but facts too).

I gave you one example, I don't want to judge someone (but I think I just did :p), but this is a value that I hold till now. One of my friend starts to smoke, which I never thought that this friend would ever done it- at least in my ideal kind of world (fabricated on my mind). I think that smoking is a useless habit and I hate the smoke. I don't want to hate the smoker, I just hate when they're starting to smoke. I didn't tell anything to that friend of mine that I disagree of what she's doing because I believe that we already know the consequences on what we're doing, come on, we're more that a quarter century old.
Few days passed and I was just chatting with another old friend of mind and I told her that one of my old friend started a bad habit which is smoking. These two friends didn't know each other, but this old friend told me, "if physically you can see your friend started a new habit, who knew on what other changes from this friend that you can't see."

Her comments startled me.. We are always changing and growing as a human being. Don't know whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, you're the one who decide it. Just like my niece, she's not only growing physically, but her ego also started to built up. Maybe as an adult, our physiological changes is not as noticeable as a child since we tried to control ourselves in front of people. But my friend's opinion made me think that there's gotta be something physiologically different from me than who I was in two years ago. The question is whether I am brave enough to admit it myself and to show it to the world.

Nah.. I think I'd rather play safe hahaha...


Cheers!

Abeth

Link - 10 Things Every Girl Should Know That School Won't Teach You

I would like to share a link from Michelle Phan's blog, here's the link.

For those of you who doesn't know who she is, you're only one click away to know about her. Google will give a better explanation about her than me. But in short that she started with uploading make up tutorials on YouTube and now she's a business woman, thanks to the internet (and of course she works hard for it). I admire her passion and dedication to what she's doing and she seems to really enjoy it. She loves to share it with the world, and I am inspired by her. She's around my age and I can see that she's really doing a really great job on her career. I follow her Instagram account and waiting each week for her new videos on YouTube, though most of the time I only watched the video and felt mesmerized by her make up skill (oh so envy). It seems like doing make up for her is like breathing for me, so natural, effortless and easy. While me? I'm still struggling to draw an even line for my eyeliner everyday haha (but I keep getting better!).

Anyway what I shared on the top of this post is an article she wrote about life and the lessons that you get by going through it. I believe that writing those type of article is harder than doing a make up tutorial video. It's something that you can write by experiencing it, going through it and always trying to find something positive on no matter hard life's gonna give you. She wrote it in a non-whiny way and making it an inspiration to many of her fans. So thank you Michelle for the article.

I think that most of her viewers/ subscribers are younger than my age (25+ ahem), so she write the article specially for younger girls, but I believe that once in a while, a little reminder for us (men and women) will give us some refreshment of what's in life for us. For me personally, I think that the point that most of the time I forgot because of my routines and daily chorus is Appreciate the little things. Sometimes I tend to focus on the troubles and worries of my life, not knowing when to stop and just enjoy the situations around me. It's like: count your blessings everyday- trust me, you will feel very grateful on the little things that you have.

So cheers to everything that we have not learned from school, but we'll survived through it in real life anyway. Just like the article said - We are stronger than we know!


Great days ahead for us!
x.o.x.o

Abeth

Estetikasisasi*

Baru saja malam ini saya dan ayah tercinta pergi makan ke salah satu restoran kwetiau (kwetiaw or kuetyaw?) terkenal di Kelapa Gading. Sebut saja namanya kwetiau A. Lalu dibelakang huruf A ada -kang-nya (lah ketauan dong namanya cyiiin).

Dalam rangka iseng2 plus sok eksis pengen nambah posting di social media, saya fotolah kwetiau goreng yg dimasak dengan arang tersebut. Inilah hasil jepretan saya. TARAAA!!!

Sehabis jepret kwetiaw dalam tiga kali shot, saya berminat untuk langsung update di Path, tapi kok rasanya aneh ya... ke restoran, makanan dateng malah foto dulu trus kudu lapor ke orang2. Jadi saya urungkan niat saya karena perasaan ga penting2 amet toh apa yg saya makan. 

This world doesn't evolve around me gitu loh. Walhasil saya makan dulu lah. Sambil menjauhkan diri dari hape selama makan. I think it's a bad habit to continue checking your cellphone during dinner time - and I admit that I need to stop that bad habit.

Sesampainya di rumah, langsung menikmati weekend ini dengan leha-leha browsing di hape, lantas saya sudah siap mengupload foto. Pilihannya mau upload di Instagram atau Path. Lantas setelah banyak pertimbangan (apa juga yg ditimbang ya oom?), hati saya memilih untuk ngepost di Instagram. Setelah pilih foto, ngecrop dan tambah filter, saya merasa tidak puas dengan foto yg saya ambil. Tapi saudara2 boleh percaya boleh tidak, kesalahan bukan terletak pada fotografer (saya sendiri) ataupun pada kamera (henpon baru nih cuy *sombong dikit dong*). Rasanya ada yang kurang dalam foto ini.

Setelah dikilik-kilik (bahasa apaan sih ini?) dan perenungan secara mendalam, menurut saya, yang kurang di foto di atas terletak pada penataan makanan di atas piring tersebut. Coba Anda perhatikan lagi gambar di atas. Mungkin kalo dibandingkan dengan istilah anak TK, seperti mewarnai di luar garis. Kalo istilah dandan, pake blush on di seluruh muka instead of pipi doang.  Bayangkan udang-udang berserakan di piring Anda. Ada yang di bawah, arah timur tenggara, selatan barat daya ga ada sih, intinya si mas koki langsung menaruh kwetiaw yang baru matang ke atas piring, tanpa memikirkan estetika penyajian dari makanan di piring tersebut. Mungkin banyak juga yang ga peduli tentang hal ini (kayanya cuma orang kurang kerjaan yang menghabiskan waktu buat ngeblog soal ini), tapi kalau Anda mau ngepost makanan di social media tapi ga ada nilai estetikanya, mending jangan deh ( mi opinian personal). Masih banyak postingan tetangga yang gambarnya lebih cakep-cakep dan bikin ngiler. 

Sebenarnya memang yang namanya makanan, ya bukan untuk difoto. Tujuan utamanya yang penting enak, tamu senang, dan lain kali dia kembali ke restoran tersebut. Tapi yaaa menurut saya ada nilai estetika dalam penyajiannya ga rugi kan? Kalo difoto cakep dan diupload ke social media, bikin orang-orang lain ngiler, kan lumayan tuh. Promosi gratis. Tul ga?

*Estetikasisasi: this word is not exist in real world.