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 :)

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 :)

 

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!

 

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!

Terakhir 2015

Sabtu kemaren ketika saya sedang pergi bersama teman, saya menunjukkan posting-an Path di timeline saya ke temen saya. "Eh coba liat deh ini", kata saya sambil setengah tertawa dan menunjukkan layar telepon genggam saya (ja elah telepon genggem.. bahasalu mak)

Dear Path dan para pengguna-nya, kadang kalian suka post hal-hal menggelitik yang ga kepikiran, plus kreatif dan penuh curhat colongan. 

Saya mencoba menelaah kalimat di atas dengan (sok) bijaksana. Segala sesuatu sudah direncanakan dari atas dan sudah ada jalannya masing-masing. Tidak ada orang yang 'salah', yang ada hanya momentum yang tepat. Semua orang yang ada di kehidupan kita pasti mengajarkan sesuatu untuk kita bukan? Pahit, manis, asem, asin, but eventually you learn anyway.

Menjelang akhir tahun ini, sekalian deh saya menuliskan catatan akhir tahun. In a scale 1 to 10, how do you rate this year for you?
Saya jawab ya. (Si mbak yang satu ini emang suka nanya dan jawab sendiri)
Buat saya, tahun 2015 ini saya kasih nilai 9. Kenapa ga 10? Karena satu poinnya mau saya tambahkan untuk pertanyaan: In a scale 1 to 10, how do hopeful you are for the upcoming years? - Sebelas mbak!

Mungkin ketika saya bilang, skor tahun ini untuk saya ialah 9, orang-orang akan bertanya, apa yang kamu capai tahun ini? Kayanya ga ada yang 'kelihatan' di mata orang-orang. Yang kelihatan kayanya cuma si mbak yg tambah gemukan deh. *Oke makasih loh, walopun bener tapi tetep pait juga ya ngedengernya.

Buat saya tahun ini saya belajar kalau kesehatan nomor satu.

Belajar untuk menerima keadaan bahwa kadang situasi yang kita hadapin ga sesusai dengan situasi yang kita harapkan, dan kamu berhak untuk memilih hal yang lebih bikin hati tenang ditengah badai opini orang lain di sekitar.

Belajar memahami value dari lingkungan kerja dan nilai-nilai positif yang bisa diambil. Saya bersyukur tahun ini bisa belajar dari dua perusahaan dengan karakteristik masing-masing, dan bertemu dengan orang-orang yang membukakan mata dan peluang. Berat memang bahasanya. Agak sulit diungkapkan dengan kata-kata tanpa terdengar menye-menye.

Belajar tentang relationship, antara keluarga, teman, pasangan. Dengan banyak ngobrol dengan orang lain, pola pikir kita jadi lebih terbuka dan membuat kita jadi bisa berpikir lebih jauh ke depannya. Makasih banyak dengan orang-orang di sekitar dengan perhatiannya, nasihatnya, nagging-nya, celaannya, encouragementnya dan lain-lainnya. Couldn't be any lucky to have you guys in my life.

Belajar banyak juga dari pengalaman orang-orang di sekitar. Apalagi pengalaman pahit, itu obat yang paling manjur buat belajar.

Belajar kalau if something is meant for you, it will. But if it's not, you just have to let it go and cherish the moment you once had with them. You were lucky enough to have it in the first place anyway. (ini berlaku untuk semua hal! ga cuma hape :p)

Last but not least. Ini paling kece marice hey hey: belajar ngebentuk alis. hahahaha. Pada saat proses pembelajaran, gagal itu hal biasa bukan? Termasuk ketipisan/ kebotakan nyukur alis. Ini proses pembelajarannya paling cepat akibat kepepet.

Jadi dalam kalimat yang lebih singkat: I am happy and very thankful for this wonderful 2015- and I believe you are too!
Jadi saudara-saudara terkasih. Selamat menikmati beberapa hari terakhir di tahun 2015 ini. Jangan lupa siap-siap resolusi 2016 yah!

Hape Hilang

There's always the first time for everything, hopefully there won't be the second for this. *amit-amit

Jadi Iphone 6 saya hilang. Hiks. Sedihnya pake banget. Words cannot describe the sadness inside of me. Oke memang terdengar drama, tapi kalau namanya kehilangan sesuatu yang menurut kita penting pasti ada rasa sedih. Se-plegmatis akutnya Anda, pasti rasa kehilangan itu ada.

Kalau ditanya: "kok bisa (ilang)?", ya sodara-darah, saya juga maunya tu hape ga bisa ilang :D

Kemarin (23 Dec) merupakan hari terakhir saya kerja. Udah seneng pake banget mau pulang. Seperti biasa antrilah saya naek bus Transjakarta yang terkenal padat dengan penumpang itu. Saya masih ingat terakhir saya membaca message Whatsapp di hape, lalu hape mulai agak hang. Ga lama satu bus Transjakarta merapat ke halte dan saya bersiap-siap naik. Hape sudah saya dimasukan di dalam tas. Mungkin karena panik dan sudah mulai merapat mau naik bus, (mungkin) saya lupa menutup resleting di tas, tp saya selalu menyimpan tas saya di depan saya. Selama melewati beberapa halte, saya tidak mengecek tas ataupun hape saya, lalu barulah di tengah2 perjalanan, saya mulai mencari hape saya. Mulainya merogoh-rogoh isi dalam tas, tp ga bisa menemukan sesosok henpon yang langsing itu. Saya mencoba tenang, karena ini bukan pertama kalinya hape saya itu nyelip di tas. Lalu saya mencoba menelpon hape tercinta dengan menggunakan hape kantor saya- dan langsung terdengar jawaban operator "nomor telepon sedang dialihkan". Okay, pada saat itu saya tahu bahwa ini bukanlah sekedar hape nyelip di dalam tas. saya mencoba mengecek history saya. Terakhir Whatsapp saya aktif pukul 5.52, dan saya mencoba menelpon hape pada pukul 6.06. 

Sudah mencoba untuk lock handphone juga dengan program 'Find my Iphone', namun status terakhir hape tersebut sudah offline. Oh mai gat hape saya udah diperdagangkan bebas, semoga dia ga ikut organisasi-organisasi yang ga bener. Cape mikirin 'what if', 'should've', 'could've', ato pengandai-andaian kalo saja lebih hati-hati dsb. Cuma bisa direlain aja sekarang. 

In life sh*t happens and life goes on. Hape memang bukan sesuatu yang tidak bisa digantikan, namun ikatan antara saya dengan henpon saya tidak bisa digantikan begitu saja dengan barang baru. Ada kebersamaan selama delapan bulan terakhir ini, bahkan bisa dikategorikan kecanduan. *oke ini teguran buat diri sendiri

Kalo kembali diingat-ingat, momen ketika kepengen banget beli henpon ini, dengan berbagai pertimbangannya (harga, harga dan harga), sampai pinjem kartu kredit orang. Jadi keinget moment first time unboxing the phone, and the cupu moment adjusting from Android to IOs. Duh jadi mellow. Udah ah ke mo ke mol aja urusin kartu sim sama beli yang rose gold aja (ini ngetiknya sambil setengah ngigo).

Sebagai penutup, marilah kita bersiul ala Mockingjay dan mengacungkan tiga jari kita, sebagai tanda pemberontakan terhadap sindikat copet di kendaraan umum. *lagi kepaitan banget

What does a phone case mean without its phone? *sob

Be the Change!

We can't always change the situation, but we can always change ourselves whether we want to stay in the current situation or not. The video above uploaded is one of the vocal voice saying on how she doesn't like living in Jakarta with the pros and cons until one point she feels depressed. 

Then how to deal with it? You cannot change Jakarta with millions people on it, so it's either you want to adapt with the situation (you know that you are unhappy with it) or you can find a solution for yourself.

Same goes to whatever problems you are having right now. Maybe you are stuck in a job that has no future development for yourself, or in a relationship that you know it is going nowhere. The bottom line is, it's you. You're the one who should be in charge instead of complaining and whining about things that you don't like.

And please, do not wait until you get depressed to make a change in your life. I am being very serious about this :)

Life is Full of Surprise - Part 2

Read the first part of the story here >>>>*click me*

Monday January 12^th, 2015

I made an appointment with Dr. Hong Ga Sze at Mount Elizabeth Hospital at 9.30 a.m. You can google his name and find his website there, he is a general surgeon specialized in breast and head & neck. So in general, the consultation itself was almost the same with what I had before in Jakarta. The doctor asked me on why I came there. I told him about the lump then he asked me to lie down on the examination bed and do the manual examination, then he asked me to do an ultrasound scan and mammogram at the building next door. Well the ultrasound scan I did before in Jakarta, so I knew what was gonna happened during the scan. As for the mammogram… hmm… mammogram is supposedly done to a 40-ish year old woman or something right? (CMIIW) so there it goes, I had my first mammogram at 27 y.o. I’m way ahead many girls then. I tell you what,, it was painful to have your breast pushed into that thing (whatever the name is haha). You can google yourself to know the details about mammogram.

Tuesday January 13^th, 2015

The doctor received my tests results and they discovered that the size of my lump is approximately 4.3 cm. (Wow it grew 0.3 cm after flying across the country haha). In order to know exactly on what type of lump it is, he gave two options, one is to do a biopsy by taking a tissue of the lump to know on whether it is cancerous or not without removing the lump, or two, we take out the lump and do a biopsy from the lump which we already taken. And the doctor suggested to might as well just take it out lar. And of course I am so well prepared to say ‘yes’ to the surgery.

We agreed to have a surgery on the next day. Before that, they needed to take some medical information from me regarding my medical condition, whether I had drug allergies or on other medication. Later on the nurse took blood pressure and this is where another problem coming (woohoo!!!). Turned out that I had a high blood pressure and it was not safe to perform an operation with that high number of blood pressure. The doctor then suggested me to see a cardiologist first.

After lunch I went to Dr. Eric Hong’s office and I took ECG and echo test before I met him. Again, since I am not a doctor, kindly refer to google for your better understanding of these tests. So based on my result, I do have a high blood pressure, and it needs to be treated. Meanwhile as for tomorrow’s surgery, I was given a medicine to lower my blood pressure and it is safe for me to continue with the surgery. The cardiologist itself gave me an explanation about how my heart works based on my test and he also suggested me to take a full blood test and get back to him for the blood test result and my high blood pressure medication after my surgery. Oh boy, I didn’t think that I would end up in a cardiologist office and hearing so much health term in one day.

In the mean time, I just needed to be focused on the surgery for the next day.

Wednesday, January 14^th, 2015

Say hello to one of the biggest day of my life! This is the first time I had a surgery and I don’t plan to have another one, trust me :D

I went to the registration desk and make sure that I completed all the administration needed and the day before they informed me not to eat or drink anything after 7 a.m.  My breast lump removal is a minor surgery and they said that it would only take around one – two hours for the team to perform the surgery and I did not need to stay overnight.  Around 11 a.m. the nurse called me in and I get to stay in my ward. I shared my ward with two other patients whom had different cases, on my right; the patient was going to have eye surgery, while the patient on my left, I didn’t know what he was going through :p

I changed my clothes into the hospital gown and waited to be called to the operation room. I was lying on my bed when the first nurse came in; she greeted me and asked how I am doing. Then she asked about my data such as name and what surgery am I going to have. Then around fifteen minutes, another nurse came in and asked the same question. The waiting was starting to make me a little nervous. Then comes the man whose about to cut me open: my surgeon! Haha. His face was very calm. He greeted me and explained that we’re about to have the surgery in a while and told me not to worry because it was only a small procedure (with big cost *cough*). Then he left me and said: see you in the theatre. Oh man, as far as I know ‘theatre’ is a place to watch a movie, now my knowledge has broadened, thanks to my lumpy lump!

Around twelve p.m. the nurse came and she said that we were ready to go to the operating room. I took of my glasses and gave it to my mom. I have high degree myopia so everything was a blur from the moment I took the nurses pushed me to the operating room until the operation finished.

After I entered the operation room, they put me into the waiting room first; guess the traffic is quite high inside the operating room huh? Then some people started to come and introduced themselves to me, from the nurse that will be helping my procedure, until the anesthetist. The anesthetist was quite friendly and he started to make small talks with me by asking where I am come from etc. I told him that I’m from Jakarta but I previously worked here for almost two years. Not that he needed to know that, but I know he’s trying to comfort me by keep talking to me (or pretended that he’s interested with my story hehe). He also said that later I will be on general anesthesia so I will be in a deep sleep and won’t feel anything, and once I’m awake I might be having some nausea because of the anesthesia. Deep down inside I was encouraging myself by saying: “Bring it on, Doc!” But the all I can say to him was: “okay” *in slow whisper*.

The anesthetist said that we were almost ready to go to the operating theater and just needed to wait for a while. He told me to relax and watch the TV, but since everything was a blur I decided to comfort myself by thinking happy thoughts such as counting how many unread emails by the time I get back to my office (why are you so serious?)

Then the nurse came and she said that we’re ready to enter the operating theatre. She also said that it can be a little chilly there, so if I needed anything I can ask for her assistance. Is it too late to ask for a hot green tea latte?

You know the scene in movies when someone is entering the hospital and the camera started to shoot the face of the nurse and paramedics who’s helping to push the bed into the ICU? That is how awesome I felt before entering the theatre. I am a star in my own movie haha. Okay I think I get too carried away writing this surgery part. Please forgive my lack of focus.

When I got inside, my surgeon was there and he said that we are going to make a cut on my breast to take out the lump. Then using a marker, he drew a line on where the cut was gonna be. Deep down I was like, okay this is funny. He makes scribble on my body part? Haha. He said that once the lump is removed, it’s gonna go to the lab for further examination. Then he said we’re about to start the operation.

The anesthetist then came and greeted me again. He said he’s going to inject the anesthesia and he said that I was going to have a deep sleep. He counted to three, injected something and he said to me to just dream about shopping at Orchard, Gucci, Ferragamo….

Moments later, I was awake, I felt slightly dizzy and the anesthetist asked: “Did you buy the Ferragamo?” Oh my.. I should have told him that I already put all my SGD on the operating table and what is it with him and Ferragamo? I think I get cranky too since I was hungry and thirsty haha.

 My head was heavy and I felt a slight pain on my left chest. The surgeon said that the surgery went well for almost two hours. Everything was okay and I can go back to my ward. The sting on my left chest was all I can remember, so I decided to get some sleep again at my ward.

Around 4 p.m. the nurse came to my ward to check my condition. She said that if I’m feeling better, I can leave the hospital already. She also gave me some antibiotics and pain killer and told me that the follow up consultation will be at Saturday morning. At 4.30 p.m. I was discharged from the hospital.

I took the antibiotics but decide not to eat the painkiller since I didn’t feel pain after I was discharged, or the nausea from the anesthesia. It was so relieving to know that the lump has been taken out of my body.

Saturday, January 17^th, 2015

It’s follow up consultation day. First I had a follow up consultation with the cardiologist. From my full blood test and cardio tests he suggested some medication to treat my high blood pressure. I hate to admit that I had a high blood pressure, since on my last medical checkup four months ago the doctor didn’t mention anything about my blood pressure. I believe that I had a high blood pressure because of this lump-y thingy and some work thing that got into my head, but hey, medically speaking I need those medications L The cardiologist also said to maintain a healthy lifestyle such as exercise and eat less salt. Okay Doc!

Now it’s time to meet my surgeon regarding the follow up consultation. He said: good news! The lab report came out and the lump is not cancerous. The lump is what they called infarcted fibroadenoma.  I don’t know on how to put this term into a simpler word, in my understanding, the blood supply to the lump was cut off and makes the lump bigger than its original size. (Oh please correct me if I’m wrong).  The doctor said he didn’t know on how I got the lump on the first place and on how it could’ve gotten that big. Maybe not all questions need to be answered. He said that I will need to have a check up in the next six months just to make sure that everything will be okay. When I asked him whether there’s any food to avoid, he said: “We don’t believe in those kinds of things. If you wanted to eat anything, just eat, but not in front of your mom.” He knows my mom too well! Haha. He also said that I will need to do an ultrasound scan in another six months to monitor my health. Will do Doc!

So that was the end of my exciting and surprising two weeks. I am so grateful that even though I have to face a difficult situation, God opens many door for me. I am also grateful that I am surrounded by lots of people who genuinely care about me.

I believe that life will take you to unexpected places, meet unpredictable people which will change our lives forever. No matter how hard your situation it is right now, just be grateful and believe that you have a bigger God than all of your problems. He always has the perfect timing for all of us and He makes everything beautiful in its time J

Life is Full of Surprise - Part 1

We always know that time flies, especially when unexpected thing happened in our lives.

In January, I think I had my life in fast forward. Life is fragile, yet it is beautiful with its ups and downs. In two weeks time, I discovered that I had a lump on my left breast, had my first mammography, and went to a cardiologist and being cut open to remove the lump.

This post might be a bit blunt, but sharing about my personal experience hopefully will help some people who are in the same situation.

Friday, January 2^nd, 2015

I was really tired after work on New Year. So that evening I decided to pamper myself at a spa nearby. I had a scrub and massage service then. During the scrubbing process, the masseuse (a.k.a mbak lulur) said to me that she found something irregular on the top of my left breast.  She said that there are a lump on my breast (you know how the masseuse worked, trying to remove every dirt from your skin). Then I touched the lump by myself. ‘Holy crap’, I told myself.  I never checked myself thoroughly like this before. The masseuse said that I should go and check it to the doctor, because we, as women, we never know on what could’ve changed in our body with the hormones and all that stuff.  It could’ve been because I was going to have my period, but I know this is different and my head started to think about all the possibilities on what could’ve gone wrong. I couldn’t even bath or sleep properly since I realized that there’s a lump on my left breast. That’s the thing about your brain. Once it started to get into your head, you need to hypnotize yourself that everything will be fine.

When I went home, I told my mum about the lump and we decided not to discuss about it further more that time, because it was already late - which we all know that it means that we will not have a good night sleep until we surely know on what that lump is.

Saturday, January 3^rd, 2015

At this time my mum and I was also on our second out of three cervical cancer vaccine shots from a doctor. So that morning my dad drove us to get the shots. My dad was curiously asked whether there’s a chance of side effect from the vaccine shots to my body. The doctor said that the vaccine is completely safe. Then when we asked about the doctor’s opinion regarding the lump on breast. He said that we need to test it to make sure if the lump is cancerous or not. And he said in a very casual way. As if it was not a big deal – errr... Then he added about a story on his younger year about a young nurse who was still single and had a breast cancer and she had to remove some parts of her breast. Doc, errr…  You didn’t give me any enlightenment either.

Then I remembered one of my friends had similar case few years ago. She had a lump on her breast and had it removed. Then I started to ask about things to her - the symptoms and the doctors she went to, plus the procedure that she been through.  At that time I was almost sure that what I had isn’t cancerous, but then, I am not a doctor. Even google said: you should go and see the doctor. Do not let Google decide it for you.

Monday, January 5^th, 2015

That morning I decided to go to a General Practitioner whom my friend went to for her first examination. This is the first time I met this doctor. The doctor is quite famous if you are lived in Kelapa Gading (hoho). Then when I met her, she asked about my concern. I told her about the lump and how I (oh, I mean mbak2 tukang lulur) just realized it was there. Then she asked me to lie down on the examination bed, took of my shirts and bra, and she started to examine both of my breast manually (using hands). When it comes to my left breast, she examined it more thoroughly and tried to ‘move’ the lump and to make sure that moves around easily. The Doctor said that my lump is quite big, it is around 4cm and she suggested me to take and ultrasound test at the hospital. She said not to be worry because most probably the lump is not serious, and she also recommended a doctor in Singapore.

So I had my first USG test at Gading Pluit Hospital. During the test, the doctor explains regarding the ultra sound procedure. I always thought that USG is always related to pregnancy, never thought that I had it first for my breast examination. Life is full of surprise!  So from the USG screening we can see that the lump was there on my upper left breast, and yeah, my feeling is a hundred and eight degrees the opposite of a mom seeing her baby on the USG test for the first time. It was tears of sadness instead of joy, and the horror becomes real, seeing that lump, there, staring back at me. *horror music plays*  Same as manual examination from the General Practitioner, the doctor who did my test said that I need to see a specialist or surgeon to make sure about my lump.

We asked some people regarding the best doctor and specialist for this matter, and with certain considerations, we (me and my parents) decided to have a consultation and perform the surgery (if needed) in Singapore.

To be continue in part 2 *click here* :)

Happy 2015!

Hey Y'all!!!

Happy new year 2015!

It's the forth day of 2015 and I'm not used to write or type year ‘2015’. Somehow I still recall that it’s still 2014. Well, we’ll get used to it later anyway.

So what’s up everyone? Excited for 2015? Hohoho… This year I’m not writing any NY resolution on a piece of paper. I tried it last year and it doesn’t turn out really good I guess – I believe most of us are facing the same problem too :p -

I can only say that 2014 has been a year full blessing and learning to me. I am fully blessed for everything that happened to me and for all the people who touched my life and teach me many valuable lessons. People don’t meet by chance, we discover ourselves more through the people we met.

So let’s keep the excitement through the year! Yippie! 

:')

Pasti kita pernah mengalami cobaan dalam hidup. Baik itu masalah percintaan, keluarga, pekerjaan, keuangan dan macam-macam masalah lainnya.

Ketika kita lagi menghadapi suatu cobaan, wajar ga sih kita bertanya: "ya Tuhan, kenapa sih masalahnya kok berat banget?", atau "gila sumpah, gw sial banget bisa kena masalah kaya gini"

Tapi hari ini yang saya ga mau ngomongin soal masalah saya, yang membuat saya termenung ialah permasalahan teman saya - yang ga mungkin saya jelaskan di sini karena masalah privasinya.
Teman saya ini orang yang baik (baik memang relatif) tapi saya ga habis pikir kenapa kok dia bisa dikasi cobaan segini beratnya -sampai2 saya juga susah tidur dan nulis catatan seperti ini.

Apa sih rencana Tuhan dalam hidup dia? Ga ada orang yang harusnya kena musibah sepahit ini, tapi kenapa Tuhan masih kasih kita cobaan spt ini?

Mungkin di Alkitab kita pernah baca kisah Ayub yang diberikan cobaan yang bener-bener dahsyat. Tuhan mau kita setia dan sabar sama dia dalam segala perkara. Untuk teman saya ini, saya cuma bisa berdoa supaya dia dikuatkan. Saya juga belajar berserah juga untuk apa yang terjadi pada hidup dia. Tuhan punya rencana, rencana yang melewati pikiran manusia yang terbatas ini. Tuhan masih sayang sama kita semua, sehingga setiap cobaan yang diberi pasti untuk kebaikan kita smua.

Mungkin sekarang kita blum paham kenapa, kenapa saya, kenapa teman saya, kenapa hal ini harus terjadi, dsb. Kadang hanya waktu yang bisa menjawab. Lalu yakinlah bahwa ada rencana yang indah untuk kita semua :')

September Love

There will always be a two sides to every story. And since it's my blog.. you will hear it from my side. How lucky you are! HA!

Okay anyway in short. I've been single again for this one month. The relationship itself didn't last long and it was my first real relationship (idk why i put the word 'real' in here haha). As well all know, life isn't a fairy tale. It's an ongoing process that we need to continue pass each day. As for my story, it had to end sooner than I thought it would be.

Looking back, one thing for sure, I learned a lot. The most important thing I learned was about to love someone unconditionally. I might be too naive for this, but I believe that nobody is ever lose anything by sharing their love to another.

The list of things I learned could goes on and on. Some of you might have learned it too from your own experience. I believe that most of the time we just need to experience the pain to be prepared to be a better person and partner. One thing that I will always tell my self is to always be honest, especially to your partner :)

As one of my favorite quote say "The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is to love and be loved in return." 
Don't lose hope yet, my fellow single friends, we will get there soon! *grin*

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

我第一次自食其力

This is my first essay on my comprehensive class. The teacher asked us to write about “Your First Time …”, it’s up to you whether you want to write about your first meet your boyfriend, first time dancing in front of the whole country or first time caught stealing things. Hahaha. Since I don’t have any of above experience I mentioned, I choose to write about my first experience living on my own. I asked a friend about the right title I should put on my essay, and she gave me this idiom: 自食其力zi4 shi2 qi2 li4. Literally means to eat off one’s own strength – to stand on one’s own feet.

When my teacher returns my essay she said: “You’re using very good words for the title.” Inside I was like: “haha, I didn’t know it by myself until my friend told me”. Anyway so this is the corrected version of my first essay in here.  Although writing a 200 words essay is quite frustrating for me, when I read it again, I felt like my writing wasn’t that bad anyway. Jia you myself! Hahaha

我第一次自食其力

我第一次自食其力是两年前。那时侯我去新加坡工作。这是我第一次离开父母。

以前我在印尼已经工作了一年，可是我觉得在老的公司没有前途，工资也不多。 所以遇到好机会在外国工作 我好好利用这个机会。在新加坡比以印尼的工赀高，我会省更多钱。可是有时候会觉得很寂寞听不到妈妈的唠叨。自己住的生活也让我学会很多事，要洗自己的衣服，做饭，整理房间， 等等。以前妈妈做的事， 现在我一定要自己做。

工作的时候也有自己的困难。第一次去上班，我听不懂同事的英文，因为新加坡人有自己的口音。 听他们说汉语我更不明白。可是慢慢我习惯了他们的口音。

依我看，这个经验让我学会很多事。我觉得在外国工作不只是为了挣钱，而是帮我了解成一个独立的人。

Welcoming Baby Cleo!

I'm officially an aunt now. My niece name is Cleona Vanielle Tjiptono. She was born on Aug 9th, 2012, delivery via C-section. Weight 3,090 gr and length 50cm. Cleo is the first daughter of my sister and brother in law. It was such a joy moment for both big families since it's their first grandchildren from both. So lucky you Cleo, you're gonna be everybody's little princess!

Thirteen days old Cleo

Right now my sister and bro in law are staying at my parents' house (with me) til my sister is fully recover from the surgery. So everyday I get to see Cleo and watch her grow bigger everyday. haha. Well, it's been 13 days since she was born, but you certainly can see her cheeks are getting puffier. 

I have to admit that I haven't been such a good helper taking care of Cleo. I only like to play with her, talking to her and sometimes sing a song to her (today I sang 1D 'What Makes You Beautiful' hahaha), but when she started to cry and I know that she's doing the 'smelly stuff' (haha), I can only call her mom or grandma to change her diaper. 

Since I'm about to leave to BeiJing within a week and probably gonna come back one year after, she's gonna be one year old when I come back. Ahh... baby Cleo.. Ii is sure gonna miss you. (I want Cleo to call me Ii, instead of aunty, because aunty reminds me of Singaporean Kopitiam aunties :p)

But I believe when Ii come back from BeiJing, both of us are gonna be more awesome than today! So cheers to us, Cleo! (Cleo with her milk, and Ii with her Baileys hahaha)

Dream Sky High: China!

Have you heard about the phrase:

"Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true"

Well, if you haven't heard it before, you should be very wise with your wish cause it does come true! hahaha... at least it happened for me. In this case, I've been dreaming to go study to China since I graduated from high school (2005), but yet haven't got a chance for it. Then sometime last month, my friend posted an old picture of us at instagram. It was on early 2010, she posted on facebook that time with a caption: "Dream sky high: China"

It was one  year after our university graduation, and I've been working for six months in my first real job, yet I'm still dreaming bout China. Then in the middle of 2010, I worked in Singapore for two years, and in the middle of it, me and my other friend been planning to go to China. And now this is it... In less than two weeks, I'll be leaving home once again, to finally do what I've been dreaming since seven years ago. 

It feels good to know that you can achieve something that you've been wanting for so long. The wait is almost over but somehow I'm also feeling anxious and nervous about it. If you asked me, what makes me want to go to China? I might not have a great answer for that. All I know is, I just need to go there. But I also want people to know that I'm also serious to go study there. Just wait and see people :)

You Had Me at “Hello”.

The above quote is popularized by the movie Jerry Maguire. I watched Jerry Maguire long time ago but I don’t remember what the movie is about. Hahaha. I just googled this expression and found out that it was popularized that way. The quote just popped out on my mind the moment this ‘thing’ happened to me.

It was an ordinary evening on weekdays. I was on my way to Jurong Point and I took the 181 bus to get there. When I first entered the bus, the 50 something year old bus driver uncle greeted me: “Hello, ni hao”

I was stunned. My reaction that time was replying him with, “Halo uncle, ni hao”.  Luckily I was still able to reply his hospitality. I was the only one who got on the bus that time. So I kinda feel like an important person :p
 

Then again, when we all reached our destination, he said “Thank you” when we got off the bus. How sweet isn’t he? Instead of the passengers, he’s the one who said thank you. I was really touched by this uncle’s graciousness considering on how people in here usually act. Not that I was being mean or what, but that’s just the reality in here. People are very hard to give their smile to others. So when someone greets you nicely, it’s really a rare occasion. Not everyone gets a privilege like me that time.
 

With only a simple word: “hello” and your most sincere smile, the world is already become a better place (for me at that time). So, care to give your best smile to the world?

Yay for Randomness!

I was already asleep from 11 p.m. and the suddenly I woke up around 1.30 a.m. I don't know for sure what's been going on in my head, but I woke up with a really- really random thought. I think about the cast of sinetron "Bidadari". LOL.

This is super random; my mind is kinda screwed up, just like someone said to me in reply to my midnite tweet. But then again, I asked that person, who made a better “Ibu Peri”,  Ayu Azhari or Marini Zumarnis? Yet that person is still answering hahaha. We are the creature of the night that cannot sleep. We would answer any kind of question if it makes us easier to sleep (that’s what I thought).

Anyway, I think the one of the reason that my sleep schedule is kinda screwed up this past few days is because I get too many information on this past few days.

The first reason is not so good news I think. Although it doesn’t affect me directly, but I affect the way I see the world hahaha.

The way you see someone, how do you think you know someone for so long, you thought you should know them well and then one thing happened and you lost your faith to them. *sigh*. I just wished that I will never have to feel the pain that some of my girlfriends are battling right now; a trust issue, especially towards the man who they would spend the rest of their lives with.

Another thing is, I can surely say that, I have no heart to stay in here any longer. I really can’t wait to get home. Maybe I get too excited because I’m going back home on Saturday (for four days only, not for good), and by far, this is the longest record I’ve been away from home: three months. Hahahahaha

I know it sounds lame, you think: “It’s been three months only, how come she’s making such a big deal about it?”. Well, it’s just when your hearts not in there or in something anymore, you can’t force it. It something that cannot be explained, you just feel it yourself.

They say when your feelings are taking control of your life instead of logic, you cannot argue with that. This time, I think I’ve been lead more by my feelings than my logic. But I don’t want to fight with my feelings anymore. I used to hide about the way I feel; this time I want to let people know about how I feel. I’ve learned from the past experience that I’ve been hiding myself for too long, I didn’t want people to know how I feel. But now I want people to know my fears, my insecurities, and my random thoughts in the middle of the night (please don’t take this too extreme). I just want to be more open to life because I know, it feels so good when you talked about your feelings and not afraid to let it show.

U yeah! Who knew waking up in the middle of the night can be such a milestone for a new more open me? YAY!

Alone but not lonely

I was having dinner by myself on Subway last night when I spotted this one girl also eating alone by herself. She was there before I started my meal, and when I left, she’s still there playing with her iphone. Well I was kinda curious how come she stand sitting there alone by herself for more than one hour (cause I”ve been there for like an hour too). As for me, I don’t really enjoy sitting in a public area alone for more than an hour without any purpose.

It’s an inevitable fact that sometimes, we need to be alone by ourselves. Alone is a fact that you have to do things by yourselves. But please don’t confuse the word “alone” with “lonely”. Lonely is a feeling that you are alone in this world with nobody could care and understand about you. I give you an example, you are on dinner with few of your colleagues, you are physically there but you cannot enjoy your surrounding, you’re mind are wandering into so many different places.

Alone is what I mostly do in here in Singapore such as eating out alone. Though it’s very common to see in here that people are eating alone on the kopitiam or restaurant, but still, I think most of us could use some company. But in the end, if there’s no one to accompany us, what do we do? Not eating because of the fear of the look on people when they saw you eating alone? Hahaha. Come on, if I’ve had done that, I would be a model by now. I’ll be skinny from the unnecessary fear of eating out alone.

I also want to point out that it is also very common for us who used to be alone most of the time to feel lonely. My key to avoid this “lonely” feeling is to bring books, play with your phones or whatsoever. Just don’t let your mind telling you that you are lonely. Also always try to talk to somebody about how you’re doing these days to somebody, through phones, letters, email and whatsoever. It does make a difference. You might be alone, but trust me, there’s always someone out there who would care for you and think about you at this very moment J