Summer 2016

When I was a bit younger than this (ehm..) I had a dream to see the world. 'See' in here means that I would be able to visit places that I've never been before. I never had a specific destination that I wanted to go. I don't have a bucket list on which place I had to go- just some random thoughts such as "it would be nice to see the sunset in Santorini" but no action yet to make it happen. Unless saving images of Santorini with the blue roof church on Pinterest counts haha.

Then this summer, I was beyond blessed and lucky to have an education trip from my company to Russia and Scandinavia countries. It's something that I've never ever dreamed of before. Last year I didn't even know what are Scandinavian countries, let alone thinking about visiting those countries.

So on the next blog posts, I'm going to share lots of pictures from the trip. It's a fifteen days of trip, visiting five countries, and in this route we had a chance to use kinds of transportation from airplane, bus, trains, ferry, overnight ferries, subway metro. 

Each countries has their own beauty and story to tell. So hopefully I won't be as lazy as I was when writing my two weeks vacay to NZ. haha. It took more than 3 months to finish :p

Diet Mayo Pasti Bisa!

Suatu hari sekitar tiga minggu lalu, Nyokap melihat teman gereja terlihat jauh lebih kurus. 

Dan seperti kebanyakan nyokap-nyokap, penasaranlah nyokap akan rahasia langsing dari teman tersebut.

Lantas dengan semangat sang teman menceritakan cara yang ditempuh untuk dapat menurunkan berat badan secara efektif hanya dengan 13 hari! (semacem janji-janji manis di iklan televisi, ditambah kata 'DIJAMIN' di belakangnya)

Dikirimkanlah satu foto via WA ke hape saya. Foto tersebut berisi panduan menu makanan selama 13 hari untuk dapat menurunkan berat badan sebanyak 5-10kg, tergantung pada metabolisme badan masing-masing.

Menunya bisa dilihat di bawah ini- asli, tanpa diedit

Untuk tujuan utama diet mayo, efek samping dll-nya, saya ga akan bahas banyak di sini karena saya yakin banyak sumber-sumber yang bisa lebih dipercaya dibanding curhatan saya :D

Kalau saya sendiri tujuan utama diet mayo ialah penurunan berat badan, tiap orang beda-beda kan motivasinya ya. 

Sudah baca kan menu makanan di atas? Buat saya, selama menjalani diet mayo, bukan menahan lapar yang paling sulit. Yang paling sulit ialah bosan akan menu yang monoton. Sebenarnya bisa dikombinasi dengan mengganti jenis makanan dengan porsi yang seimbang juga. Ketika memasuki minggu kedua dan mulai mengulang menu, rasanya benar-benar udah bosan dan makanan jadi susah ditelan. Napsu makan hilang. Lidah terasa pait. Kangen banget rasa manis, asin dan rasa-rasa yang dulu pernah ada itu (eh keterusan baper)

Kalau Sabtu sama Minggu gimana? Masa ga boleh cheating dikit? Jawabnya adalah: GA BOLEH *galak*

Kalo cheat ulang lagi dari awal - gw sih ogah - walhasil selama dua weekend saya berhasil menemani orang-orang makan enak, mulai dari bento, sushi, nasi padang, chees chicken, kwetiau goreng, es duren, junk food, puas... saya liatin doang. #sayasetrong

Nah, ketika habis selesai 13 hari diet gimana dong jaga pola makannya? Katanya sih.. katanya... kalo bisa malam makan paling lama jam enam sore dan ga usah banyak2 pula. Toh malam hari kita tidak butuh asupan kalori sebanyak ketika pagi/siang. Itu sih yang saya denger. Boleh lah cari sumber yang lebih terpercaya.

Saya sendiri turun sekitar empat kilo setelah 13 hari diet mayo- plus efek samping wajah saya yang biasanya gampang jerawatan, jadi lumayan bersih.

Hari pertama ketika bebas dari diet, rasa makanan menjadi berbeda. Lidah kita butuh beradaptasi juga setelah 13 hari dikekang dari rasa-rasa yang tadi saya sebutkan. Perut kita juga belum terbiasa makan dalam porsi yang normal.  

Sekarang berat badan saya sendiri sudah naik 1 kg setelah mulai makan normal. Ya wajar lah ya, namanya dari porsi dikekang, lalu pelan-pelan porsi kembali normal, walaupun porsi makannya belum sebanyak sebelum diet mayo ya. Maunya sih ga usah makan banyak-banyak lagi. Jauhkan diri dari cemilan :D

Jadi menurut saya apakah diet ini patut dicoba? Rekomen banget- kalo istilah kecenya  “Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn't mean to take” , bukan sekedar buat nurunin berat badan, tapi lebih ke mendisiplinkan diri kita, dan membentuk pola makan kita. Kita jadi lebih aware akan kebutuhan tubuh kita.

(Oke, quotenya emang maksa, tapi saya suka quote-quote-an jadi kudu dimasukin di atas)

You are what you eat - ini bener banget. Jadi man teman, mari kita lebih bijaksana dalam memilih makanan yak :)

Time After Time

Listening to Rod Stewart's "Time after time", 

is as if i was watching the final scene of a romantic comedy movie. A happy ending one of course. A montage of a relationship from the beginning until they main characters tying the knot. 

What good are words I say to you?
They can't convey to you what's in my heart
If you could hear instead
The things I've left unsaid

Time after time
I tell myself that I'm
So lucky to be loving you

So lucky to be
The one you run to see
In the evening, when the day is through

I only know what I know
The passing years will show
You've kept my love so young, so new

And time after time
You'll hear me say that I'm
So lucky to be loving you

I only know what I know
The passing years will show
You've kept my love so young, so new

And time after time
You'll hear me say that I'm
So lucky to be loving you
Lucky to be loving you

* This is what happens when you get carried away after attending your friends wedding :D

D-rama

There is this one Korean Drama that everyone's keep talking about right now. It's called "Descendants of the Sun". Girls love it, it's very popular - not only on my Path timeline, but you can google some articles about how popular the series worldwide. 

Since some of the people on my social media started to talk about it, of course it makes me curious about the phenomenon. I don’t really follow the K-Pop or K drama to be honest. I think Lee Min Ho is the only name I can recall right now if you asked me the name of the Korean star that I know – thanks to Luwak White Coffee. So I was wondering, what makes this soldier - doctor love story so famous and makes everyone keep buzzing about it each time the new episodes air? I asked one of my friend who’s keen about this drama, "Should I watch this drama too?"

She answered,” No, don’t. You’ll get too carried away (Baper – bawa perasaan) once you watched this drama.”

But then, just like most of us do when we are told not to… I did watch the drama.

I watched it the first time last month during Nyepi holiday. The next day, I confessed to my colleague and said, “I have led myself into temptation, now I’m gonna have to watch until the final episode”

So there it is, 16 hours of drama later, I finally finished watching the 16 episodes of it. The story made me laugh, cry, feeling loved, feeling the tension and suspense on each different scene. It has a good back story plus beautiful Greece scenery. What’s there not to love? You can find many online streaming links to watch it.

But does it really makes me too carried away?

Luckily, I have passed that moment of being too carried away by drama series. ‘Meteor Garden’ in 2001 has made that damage to me before. *smirk smile

Cheers,

Abeth

Lucky Me

There are estimated 7.4 billion people as per March 2016 - and each one of us has a different story to tell. Every people is unique and has their own path in this life. We might feel like some people have an easier life than another, well, it's arguable. I believe that each one of us has a personal struggle in our own lives, despite on people saying how easy our lives compared to theirs.

I happened to be lucky enough to hear many stories from people around me. I may not be a good public speaker, but my talent in listening is not so bad. As years go by, the main topics in our life has changed. In my early 20s, life was as simple as graduating on time, and had a good job in a company. Little did I know, in my late 20s, life is much more complicated than that. You started to think deeply about your choices, in relationships, career, investment, or even the simplest one, your food (because trust me your body isn't that young anymore :p)

The more you interact with different types of people, the more you broaden your knowledge and it helps to understand more about yourselves too. I may not be a (very) socialize person, but at some point I also believed I have drawn a few (or some, but not many) people into sharing some of their stories. Luckily, sometimes I get more than just a story, I get to listen to their secrets too (HAHA). Well, if the word 'secret' here is not meant like it's a 'dirty laundry' (or it is...) but it's more like a personal thoughts / information that you just don't share with someone. And of course -it has to be shared with someone as special as me. *wink wink* -Okay you are allowed to not continue reading this blog post due to my excessive self loving.

Trust me, whoever shared their 'secrets' to me and read this blog post, I can guarantee that I'm a good keeper - if I want to share your secret, I'll make one special blog post under your name spoiling all of it HAHAHA

 

So often, after hearing their stories - well explained from A to Z- this person will ask about my opinion. Usually I would carefully chose my first few words. If I'm not familiar with the topic, let say, 'marriage' (yep, don't ask), my first few words will be: "This is hard. I've never been in your position but in my opinion bla bla bla...."

The amazing thing is, after being the listener for many stories and from many experiences, I can make one conclusion: most people already figured out the facts and consequences about the 'thing' that they did or planning to do.

They just need someone to share their feelings and thoughts. 

They valued my opinion but my opinion is not gonna change their decision. They disguised it as an open discussion, but what they needed is more of encouragement - or in simple bahasa Indonesia: Sukur-sukur kalo pemikiran kita sama.

Despite of that one conclusion I had. I feel very blessed to have an opportunity to listen to so many life stories. I am also very grateful that my opinion is valued by them.

I can say that, I learned a lot from the experiences and thoughts that those people shared. 

I have also learned from each story that each of us carries our own 'baggage'. There's not one life's that is easier than other. It might seemed easier on the surface, but everyday we are facing our own kind of battle. 

So, cheers to us and to many stories that will come! Or if you're lucky, I'll be the one whose telling you my stories :)

 

Leap Year

Say whaaat!
It's February 29th. Something that happens once every four years. Shouldn't we make something memorable for this rare occassion? Like sleeping before 9 P.M. I guess. Hahaha. Well admit it, it's a rare thing to do for us to sleep that early. Most of us has just arrived at home at 9 - from work ofcourse, not from that newly opened bar accross the street :p

Anyways it's always cliche to say this, but geez these two months was fast. Can't believe that tomorow is March already. But it has been a great two months, I felt that I have learned a lot so far this year and I can't wait for another great things that will come in front of me -seriously I have no idea what will happen but I just believed that blessings are ahead for you and me!

So this is just a random notes anyway. Hope you had a great day and see you tomorrow, March! *wink*

How I Spend mah Money

This is how I spend my money lately- beli lipstik!

Setelah iseng2 beberes kamar dan tempat make up, alhasil berhasil ditemukan sepuluh buah lipstik yang tersimpan di berbagai tempat. Saya yakin sih masih banyak perempuan yang punya koleksi lipstik lebih banyak dari ini, tapi buat saya ini rekor terbanyak yang saya punya.
Umur lipstik yang saya punya berkisar antara satu tahun sampai satu hari (pamer terselubung baru beli lipstik baru). Bagi orang yang bingung, kenapa sih bisa punya lipstik segitu banyak? Perasaan lipstik warnanya sama-sama aja, kalo ga merah, ya pink.

Percayalah, saya dulu juga berpikiran seperti itu. Sama seperti pemikiran "semua rasa kopi itu sama, pahit, tinggal bedanya mau pake gula apa nggak" - sekarang saya udah bisa bedain rasa kopi kok :)
Entah dimulai dari mana, saya mulai menemukan kesenangan baca-baca review orang tentang lipstik. Dan beruntunglah di jaman sekarang banyak orang-orang rajin nge-review dengan niat. Foto-foto produk dan wajah mereka yang keceh pas pake lipstik tersebut bikin tambah ngiler pengen ikutan punya lipstik yang mereka review. Makanya saya berterima kasih pada blogger-blogger jaman sekarang. Niatnya pake banget kalo review.

Nah karena udah kadung ketauan punya banyak lipstik, skalian aja ikutan kasih notes tentang lipstik yang saya punya. Kalau untuk packaging awal ketika baru dibuka dari kotaknya dan 'jatohnya' di wajah seperti apa, harap digoogle sendiri aja, karena saya yakin banyak gambar-gambar referensi (yang jauh lebih bagus) yang bisa lebih menggerakkan Anda untuk membeli barang tsb.
Oh iya, sebagai referensi tambahan, warna kulit saya NC35

Nah, kalau di atas ini Colourpop Lippie Stix. Dia punya tiga tipe, matte - sheer - satin finish. Tapi entah mengapa sekarang baru saya sadari, kenapa saya cuma tipe matte doang. Kenapa ga kepikiran buat coba yg sheer sama satin finish. Jeleknya colourpop ini ialah emboss hologram tulisan merknya cepat hilang (bukan saya yang kasar nyimpennya loh :p). Warna yang saya punya: Lumiere, Brink, LBB.

* Lumiere: warna nude pink, mirip2 ama warna bibir aseli saya. dan ini termasuk warna yang paling ngehits buat seri ini

* Brink: warna nude orange. cakep buat sehari-hari

*LBB: warna vampy cenderung ke magenta gelap. paling cakep kalo lagi pake baju yang ada nuansa ungu-ungunya. Cuma kadang kalo saya lagi ga pede, suka saya campur dengan warna fuschia biar ga gelap-gelap amat.

 Kalo tiga lipstik ini, termasuk kategori ngehits dan bestseller dari tiap tipenya. Yang paling kiri Colourpop Ultra Matte in Bumble, yang tengah Sleek Matte Me in Birthday Suit, dan yang paling kanan Bourjois Rouge Velvet edition in Nude-ist. Ketiga-tiganya termasuk warna yang "aman" buat dipakai.

* Bumble: warna teracota - merah oren yang cakep banget dan langsung bisa bikin muka jadi seger. Ini sekarang salahh satu warna favorit saya. Formulanya juga nyaman di bibir dan ga berbau, cuma masih suka nempel di gigi sehabis pengaplikasi-an. Ini very recommended banget warnanya *kasih emoticon hati tiga biji* - tapi sayang emboss tulisan di tubenya cepet ilang :(

* Birthday Suit: warna nude pink. Warnanya cakep juga, cuman harus diimbangi dengan make up mata, soalnya nanti kalau tidak jadi pucat wajahnya. Untuk formula dan pengaplikasiannya sendiri, suka nempel di gigi (jangan lupa cek gigi abis pakai lipstik ini) dan bikin bibir kelihatan kering dan keriput. Butuh usaha ekstra juga untuk memberihkannya pake make up remover

* Nude-ist: warna nude pink namun lebih terang dan tidak sepucat Birthday Suit. Masih oke dipakai kalau mata lagi 'polos'. Lipstik seri Velvet edition Bourjois ini lagi hits buanget belakangan ini, walaupun sebenarnya dari taun lalu udah keluar, tapi susah banget dicari di counter. Kebanyakan online shop-pun menjual dengan harga kisaran IDR200rb-an. Saya sempat tergoda untuk beli online, dan sangat amat galau mau beli warna yang mana karena semua orang bilang bagus semua (ini dilema luar biasa bagi pecinta lipstik). Sampai akhirnya kemaren saya iseng-iseng main ke Sephora, dan ajaibnya ada stok di counternya. Bersyukurlah saya bisa membeli dengan harga counter IDR188rb. Untuk formulanya sendiri, agak berbau (wangi sih, cuma bagi saya bau2nya ga enak hehe).

Nah ini empat yang terakhir, janji. hahaha. Kiri kanan - Makeover Ultra High Matte in Champagne Rose - Loreal Color Riche Intense in Viva Red and Touch of Amaranth dan Wet n Wild in Cherry Bomb.
* Champagne Rose: Warna pink orange yang cakep (oke deskripsinya subjektif sih ya). Tapi warnanya emang bikin wajah cerah. Sebenernya Makeover sudah mengeluarkan banyak warna baru untuk seri ini, saya udah tergoda banget buat beli Envy dan Baby Bombshell, ditambah lagi diskon 20% pas saya mampir ke Watsons. Untungnya saya masih ingat kalau saya habis beli 2 lipstik dalam sebulan ini. Dan saya ingat2 lagi lipstik ini ada baunya dan formulanya terasa 'berat' di bibir- tapi kalo soal warna bener deh, cakep2 semua.

* Viva Red : warna merah cabe. Ini setelah mencari-cari review dari banyak web, mereka bilang sih warna ini warna merah yang netral dan lumayan aman - tapi setelah beli masih kurang pede buat pakenya karena cukup terang menurut saya. biasa suka saya mix dengan warna lain biar ga ngejreng2 amat.

* Touch of Amaranth: warna pink fuschia. Ini warna seru banget! bikin seger banget dan banyak yang komen bagus pas saya pake. Kaya di bawah ini pas saya pake - tuh kan, ujung2nya pamer muka juga :p

* Cherry Bomb: seperti namanya, warnanya mirip warna cherry. Kalau saya pakai, kadang saya merasa seperti 'abis makan orok' haha. Bibir jadi gelap dan penuh misteri (halah), makanya biasa saya ga berani langsung pake lipstik ini tanpa dicampur. Saya selalu pake Viva Red dulu, baru deh ditambah sama Cherry Bomb. Jadi deh warna merah marun yang mevvah!

Pesan penutup dari saya, life is short to only wear the same color (of lipstick) everyday *racun tapi bener*. Jadi jangan terlalu bimbang dan kelamaan mikir kalau mau beli lipstik- biasa ujung2nya ga jadi beli wkwkwk. Baca review seperlunya aja. Kalaupun misalnya nanti warnanya kurang cocok, bisa dicoba di-mix dengan warna lipstik lainnya. Yuk mari kakak kita hunting lagi mau beli lipstik yang mana berikutnya!

Ciao!

KFC

What is love?
You can google the definition of 'love' and find many answers to it.

I believe that each of us have been encountered with love. From a simple form such as "I love this song, I just don't know why, it speaks to me", til the complicated one such as "I love you til death do us part". Love does grow and it's all beautiful and yet most of the time it is dangerous once you are blinded by it. It makes you questioned your rationality sometimes and most of the time we let our emotion wins over rationality.

As I developed my knowledge as an adult, I've come to understand that love comes with a great responsibility. I'm talking about the love relation between people (not to confused with my love to KFC). Take some time to reflect about your relationship with your partner, parents, children, friends, colleagues. When you say you love them, it means that you are care enough about them just as much as you care about yourself. You wanted them to have at least the same amount of joy and happiness you had. Their happiness is the same as important as yours and often at some point, you forgot about yours and put them in the first place - and there it goes... the pain of loving when sometimes in the process you forgot about loving yourself too.

Love is a process. A process to a better understanding about yourself and others. Love is universal and can be found everywhere. Love is you, opening up yourself to others and to be care enough with each other.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

The Year of Monkey!

I just spent 10 minutes browsing on the internet about Rabbit zodiac's luck this year. haha..
Anyway Happy Chinese New Year! It's the time of the year again where you gather with family and friends, sharing what's been going on for the past year and sharing your plans and hopes for this coming year. Well, it sounded like a 'regular' new year gathering, but in my family, Chinese new year is more celebrated and anticipated than the new year marked by Gregorian Calendar.

Anyway I heard that this year is gonna be a relatively good year for Rabbit. (Yeay me! and you, if you happened to be born in the year of Rabbit too). I was only focus on the positive, I don't want to read the bad fortune haha. So isn't great to have a positive spirit on this Monkey year? Maybe I can start over on my Gregorian Calendar new year's resolution. haha.

So this year I am still given hong bao by my families - some of them are around my age and they already have babies- . Sometimes it feels weird because I'm 29 this year and people who gave me hong bao also gave their hong bao to my one and three years old nieces :/ meh. -but I still keep their hong bao anyway - (come on guys, in this kind of economic situation, how can you say no? :p)

Once again, Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐，恭喜发财，身体健康，万事如意 
You can google those han zi if you dont know what it means - or ask Mark Zuckerberg (d*mn he's good at Chinese!)

366 Days

Who writes their new year's resolution two weeks after the new year day ended? haha I did!
Somehow I already got this list of things on my head since last year but too lazy to write it down.

I'm writing down the list below. It may not be too specific, because if it was, it's gonna be a 5000 words essay- believe me, I can do that :p

Here you go:
1. Be Happy
To be a more positive person - because happiness is accepting what you have right now and not to comparing on what other people have. You don't know how does it feel to be in other's people shoes anyway.

2. A better time management
Whether it's with families or friends- trying to have a better quality time. As for myself, having to chose a wiser activities, instead of browsing on the internet (read as: less social media addiction)

3. Eating right
Hate to admit that this body needs a better nutrition and more workouts.

4. To love myself more
Self respect dude! :D

5. Be open to new opportunities.
Okay there are no explanation for this part. It stated very clear I guess. :p

So there you go! This 2016 is going to be more than great for us I believe. I also write daily about things that made me grateful each day. So by the end of this year, I'm gonna have at least 366 things to be thankful for. Hope that I'm not sounded to excited in this post. haha.

Wishing you a wonderful 366 days this year!

Book Selection

It has been more than 6 months since I read the book: Selection by Kiera Cass. I bought it for Lebaran holiday and it turns out that lebaran holiday isn't long enough to me to finish one book. (read: lazy me)

327 pages and 24 weeks later

So I'm pushing myself to finish reading this book on the year end holiday and now I am proud to say that I've finished reading this book. (it's not a smtg to be proud of actually haha) Well, it shouldn't be that hard to finish this book because it's has a 'light' theme. Teenage love story with a princess-to-be dreams (Guweh banget - like say, fifteen years ago). Will I read the second and third novel? Hmm.. I think I'm gonna skip those novels.

Maybe someday they will make a movie based on this novel series like Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey. I'm trying to hold my tongue (or keyboard in this case) about those novel adapted movies. I'm afraid something very mean will come out *wink.

Just like Twilight series, no matter how awful the movies are (I'm a fan but it is really awful haha), there's a guilty pleasure for you to watch all the movies. In fact, today I just heard on a radio, a song from Twilight soundtrack played that somehow reminded me about the scenes on Twilight movies. It think that it will happen the same way for this book -if they were ever made a movie about it.

As for me, I think I'm gonna need a better book selection to read this year too :)

Oh anyway this is the song from the Twilight movie that I heard earlier. It was a pretty song that will make you swoon every time you hear it. This one should be on your wedding playlist. Cheers!

The 'Hit Pan'

For anyone whose not familiar with the hit pan term, here is the definition:
Hitting pan is a term used with make-up. It happens when product starts to run out and you can see the bottom of the container. Applies to shadows, blushes, and powders.

So clearly you gotta really love this product and use is many times in your life and you just can't imagine that there's another product that can replace the memories you had with it. HAHA
I started to learn to use make up when I had my first job. It was an eyeliner introduced by my colleague. And then learning to use the proper make up continues til today.

For anyone who is keen on make up. They must have heard about Urban Decay Naked Palette. It says to be the holy grail for every make up artist and to be on every make up junkie wish list. I don't think that the review about the palette is overrated. I tried several brands of eyeshadow and so far it is the best color and most wearable that I had. Therefore I present you the 'Hit Pan' of my Naked Palette - well, it's only on the highlighter color only.

Ta-da!

It's been four years since I bought this palette and I think two years is the shelf life of an eye shadow. But this one I think I'm gonna keep till all of the colors hitting pan - hopefully not any damage will happen to my skin HAHAHA. Just kidding. There will be times when I would have to say goodbye to it (and buy a new one :p). A good make up is a good investment anyway!