Believe in Your Dreams

Today is the last day of 2015, means tomorrow will be a new year. Some people say new year means new hope, some people may write their new year's resolution. I usually write my resolution to be a better person and I also write some dreams that I wish to be come true. One of my dreams since I was a kid, is to continue my study in one of the world top university with full scholarship.

To achieve that dream, I already applied and got Letter of Acceptance from several universities, (one of the university professor even asked me to take the PhD program instead of the master program), I also took IELTS and got good grade, I wrote my CV completed with several relevant experiences. My GPA also good enough for scholarship application. (During the first year of my undergraduate study, I got sick and all my grades felt down, and I got a very bad GPA. I even created a list of grades score I need to achieved to reduce that gap. I was scared because bad GPA means say goodbye to scholarship. Finally, when I was graduated, I was able to get the grade that good enough to apply for scholarship). Besides that, I also got good recommendations from my Professors in IPB and from my boss at office, but those were not impressive enough for the scholarship committee to choose me as an awardee. In this recent years, I already rejected 7 times for my scholarship application, some of them even not called me for interview.

I felt down when I was rejected for the 7 times. I keep questioning my self "Am I not qualified enough?" People around me keep asking when will I depart for my master study, which makes me feel ashamed because years has passed but I still could not get it. Some people even said "maybe that's not your way, you should give up, why are you so insisted to continue your study?"

But I am lucky, I have people around me who keep supporting me in achieving my dream. My mom, who pray for me, inform me if there is a scholarship opening, sometimes she also reviewed my application before submitted. My father, my brother, my best friend, and even my boss also supported me to achieve my dream. They said if there is a will, then there is a way. My boss also said "it just, the time has not coming yet, keep trying, keep praying, I believe you will make it someday"

 I want to quotes Kang Joo Eun word from Korean Drama, Oh my Venus:

"If I believe, I can do it. Because I believe, I can do it."

Edinburgh This Is Home

Edinburgh, this is home

Edinburgh, This Is Home is the first sentence I read when I came out from Edinburgh International Airport, Scotland, UK. While, actually the sentence was and advertisement from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), the national bank of Scotland whom produces Scotland's money.

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland Kingdom, a part of Great Britain. Many people still doesn't understand that Great Britain or United Kingdom is not just England, but a union of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.  UK's flag, the Union Jack is a combination of Scotland's flag, the white and blue, and England the white and red.

A souvenir shop decorated with 4 flags including Brazil's flag because at that time the World Cup was ongoing at Brazil

Edinburgh is a small town with buildings that look like castles. Walking around in Edinburgh feels like walking in a town in a fairy tale. Harry Potter's fans should know that some settings in the Harry Potter series was inspired from this town.

Crown Office

Cafes, Restaurants, and Shops all have the similar architecture

An iconic church with red painted door

The tombstone in the center of this picture belongs to Bobby the dog

One of the iconic places in Edinburgh is a graveyard, which called as Greyfriars Bobby. Bobby was a Skye Terrier who guarding his owner graveyard for 14 years until he, himself died. In front of Bobby's tombstone there was lot of flowers, also presents, such as teddy bear, from (maybe) the tourist who came by. I call Bobby as the Hachiko of UK :)

Traveling to Edinburgh is not complete if you didn't visited the Edinburgh castle. I was so lucky, when I visited Edinburgh castle, June 2014, there was a wedding ceremony (I guess they was from the royal family). It was so fun to saw a celebration in the street and saw people wearing dresses with hat, just like the royal dressed in the movie.

The building with pale lime green color is one of the halal restaurants in Edinburgh

If you are a Muslim, halal food is not hard to find. The majority of halal food restaurant served in Edinburgh was Pakistani and Arabian food with super large portion, you may share it with your travel mate or eat half and take away the rest. It save your money. There is also a large mosque, not far from the city center.

Entering The University of Edinburgh feels like entering Hogwarts 

If you love to visit museum, there is National Museum of Scotland, a museum with the largest collection I ever visited, there is a natural-related section, transportation, multinational culture, including Javanese traditional wedding, the history of communication. One day was not enough for me to look over all of the museum's collection. Visiting this museum was fun, plus no ticket needed (it's free!!!).

For you nature lover, you may visit the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, which is much smaller than the Bogor Botanical Garden, but still interesting to look at.

If you visited Edinburgh in a very short time, you may also use the tour service via Double Decker which you can find everywhere in the city. They also provide horror tour, if you are interested.

I recommend you to visit Edinburgh soooo much, it was so fun, it was so pretty, it feels magical, and it feels like home. 

Interior Design Ideas from FishNChef

I love beautiful interior design sooooo much. While people usually take pictures of food when they come into a restaurant or cafe, I prefer to take pictures of the interior design, wall decoration, and furniture.

Interior designer was one of my dream jobs when I was a teenager :)

Here are some beautiful interior I spotted  yesterday at FishNChef, Bogor:

Outdoor wall decoration

Unique furniture

Sexy Audrey Hepburn pink couch

Rough textured red wall and wall decoration with quotes

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Spread Kindness!

One of the kindest person I ever met, the one who took care of me when I was a little, got a surprise this christmas!

Spread kindness, because kind people are blessed :)

Critical Eleven

Critical Eleven  adalah sebuah novel karya Ika Natassa, yang terkenal akan karyanya Antologi Rasa, yang-katanya-akan segera ditayangkan di layar lebar. Awalnya saya ragu saat mau membeli novel ini, saya kurang tertarik karena saya bukan penggemar chick-lit, tapi melihat reviewnya yang bagus di Good Reads dan desain sampul buku yang menarik saya akhirnya memutuskan membeli buku ini.

Novel ini mengisahkan romansa antara Tanya dan Ale, yang pertama kali bertemu di pesawat dan kemudian memutuskan menikah. Mereka pun mulai menghadapi permasalahan di pernikahan mereka. Novel ini menarik karena selain mengisahkan cerita dari sudut pandang Tanya dan Ale, membaca novel ini juga membuat kita bisa merasakan kehidupan sebagai kelas menengah atas Jakarta. Kesibukan di pekerjaan, hangout dengan teman-teman di cafe dan bar,  juga menceritakan tempat-tempat makan terkenal di Jakarta seperti ketoprak Ciragil, Ajo Ramon, sampai Mandala Chinese Restaurant. Di novel ini juga diceritakan tentang hubungan Ale dan Tanya dengan orang tua mereka, saudara mereka, juga peran sahabat di kehidupan mereka.
Di halaman terakhir novel ini, Ika Natassa melampirkan quotes tentang travel, yang membuat saya tidak sabar untuk memulai perjalanan saya berikutnya.
Membaca quotes tersebut membuat saya ingat salah satu pertanyaan teman saya, kenapa sih kamu suka sekali traveling?
Waktu itu jawaban saya:
Because travelling makes me realize that I have people whom I love and love me back. Travel is discovering, exploring, accepting, and sharing. 
Dan dengan pergi kita akan selalu punya alasan untuk pulang.

Share a Coke

In these few months, Coca-Cola is conducting a Share a Coke campaign strategy, worldwide, including in Indonesia. The Coke cans and bottles have a special packaging with your name written on it (if available). The coke company also provide the Share a Coke with BFF, Bro, etc. for (probably) them who could not find their name.

But how about some people have a really unique name and want to have the Coke packaging with their own name on it? The Coke company now (I don't know when exactly they start this), start a new Share a Coke campaign, where people can choose what's written on their personalized can (as long as they did not use it for their own promotional media). Last Saturday, I went to a supermarket in my town, and I found the Coca-Cola stand that offering this. And here is my personalized can with my own name.

I am not an expert in marketing, I never studied marketing nor working in marketing area. But, I think this is a great marketing idea. Now, in the Social Media era, having a personalized can with their own name, will encourage people to share it on their social media (including me). The company then will get free campaign from their customer who will voluntary ask other people to share a coke with them. The customer's friends on social media then (if interested) will try to find their name (or buy the personalized one) then also share it on social media, like a domino effect. How about you? have you find your name and share it on social media? 

Happy National Batik Day!

October 2, 2009,  Batik received Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity from UNESCO. Since then, October 2, was celebrated as Indonesia National Batik Day.

Batik is a combination of two javanese words, amba which means writing and titik which means dot.
Batik itself made by creating dot by dot on a sheet.

I remember back then in August this year, when I visited the Danar Hadi Museum in Solo. This museum got an award from TripAdvisor as the number 1 of top things to do in Solo. And no wonder why, visiting this museum was a really fun and educating experience. The ticket price was Rp 35000 for public (including foreigner) and Rp 15000 for student. Here are several things I learned from the 'Batik 101' class at Danar Hadi Museum:

Batik Keraton

This type of batik was popular in the 17th century. In the past, the batik maker only used natural coloring agents, example the brown color was from tree bark, while the dark blue (it is not black) was from indigo leaves. The three colors of batik (blue, brown, and white) are the symbol of Trimurti (Brahma, Wisnu, and Siwa), a symbol for the high class. While the other colors symbolize the lower class.

Because of the natural ingredients used for coloring, to keep the quality of the batik, this museum did not use camper but only use natural materials, such as white pepper, to prevent damage from the insects and to keep its color. The batik also should not be folded, because it will be easier to broken. The air freshener also using natural ingredients: such as kembang ranting, rose, jasmine, and pandan. The guest also not allowed to take any picture to prevent the light from the camera irradiate the batik collections.

Batik Patterns and The Meaning Behind

Kemben Tengahan, is a batik, that used as a kemben. But the unique side of this batik is there is a 'tengahan' or literally center that made from silk. This kemben only used by the empress, while the concubine kemben is not decorated with the silk.

Satrio Manah and Semen Rantai used for wedding proposal. Satrio Manah used by the groom to be while the Semen Rantai used by the bride to be. The Rantai (chain) pattern means that the bride to be already tied  to the groom to be.

Dodot Ageng with Parang Barong Pattern is for the King and its family only, usually used on big events such as wedding ceremony. Common people should not use this kind of pattern if they wish to visit the palace, but they may use it outside the palace.

Dodot Alit is a batik with gold pattern, they put the gold by sticking it to the sheet using white eggs. This batik is for the prince and princess.

Tambalan is a batik with patchwork pattern. This batik is one of my favorite from the collection in the museum. This pattern actually intended for single man  who are looking for a woman to be his wife. There are 100 different patterns on this batik. While the batik for the single woman who are looking for a husband, named Parang Cantel, with cantel (hook) pattern.

Jogja vs Solo

Since the split between the Jogja empire and the Solo empire, they have some different rules for the etiquette of using batik. The use of jarik for example, Solo Jarik  is sloping from the upper right to the bottom left, while the Jogja Jarik  sloping from the upper left to the bottom right. From the color, the Solo Batik has a darker color than the Jogja Batik for the white color.
Kawu is a batik with sugar palm fruit pattern. This pattern means to remember they origin or 'eling'. This pattern used by the abdi dalem' or courtier in Solo, while in Jogja this pattern was used by the nobleman. The owner of this museum is a descendant of the courtier of the Solo empire.

How to Make Batik

Besides looking after the wide collections of batik, and listening to the friendly guide. You can also learn how to make batik in this museum. If you coming to this place in the weekdays, you may see the real process of making batik. But sadly, I came here on holiday, so I could not see the live demonstration. But, I still can learn a bit about how to make batik.

First, you need to provide the materials, such as mata kucing (cat's eyes) made from damar tree sap, animals fat, paraffin, wax, pine tree sap, and microwax (which was not used in the past).

There are about 7 (such as kelowongan, tembokan, and kerokan, sorry I forgot the rest) steps to make batik! I always think that creating a batik is simply use a canting and draw the pattern you like on to the sheet. If you think the same, then you are completely WRONG!!

First, we need to draw the pattern, then continue with Kelowongan, the process of  covering the part that need to be protected on the coloring process using a canting (I always think that all the cantings are no different, but AGAIN, I was WRONG, there are a lot of canting with different size used on the process of making batik), after that, we do the Tembokan, a process of soaking the-not-so-soon-to-be-batik sheet into the coloring agent. (Note: If we use the natural coloring agent, this process will took longer time, because we need to soak it several time before we got the desired color). After this, the uncovered side will then change colors while the covered-with-wax will stay white. The next step, the kerokan process using a thin-tin-plate, to remove the wax. But now, they no longer do the kerokan, instead they boiled the sheet to remove the wax.

I always being told that batik tulis can be identified by the pattern that can be seen on the both side of the sheet. And the secret is because they drew it on the both side. And how long the time to make a complete batik? It can took up to 1 year. Wow! No wonder the price is so high.

How about Batik Cap?

Batik Cap as its name, was made by using a cap (stamp), to draw the pattern on the sheet. This type of batik is easier to made, that's why it is cheaper and faster (than batik tulis) to made. Batik Cap was first invented in the 19th century. But at that time the tool was not made from copper.

Printed Batik

The mass-produced Printed Batik, which is so common nowadays is actually not a batik. Because it was made not by membatik process. This is actually only a textile with batik pattern.

Batik Indonesia

In the Indonesia independence era. The former Indonesia President, Soekarno asked to create batik design which named Batik Indonesia so there will be no gap between the below and upper class.

Batik Tiga Negeri

This batik was named Tiga Negeri, because  the coloring  steps of producing batik conducted in three places, Solo for brown, Lasem, which identical with Chinese ethnicity, for red, and Pekalongan for blue.

Batik with The Influence of Foreign Culture

Batik Belanda

Batik Belanda or Dutch Batik is a batik with western pattern such as flowers, animals, horseshoes, fairy-tales (there are Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, etc.). The color of the batiks also follow the western taste. Even tough these batik was designed buy the foreigner, but the one who doing the batik process is the Javanese, usually from the coastal area. These type of batik also have a signature of the pattern designer. Since this batik was 'made' by the dutch, the ones who wear this type of batik also the dutch. They used this batik sheet as sarong, because Indonesia weather is quite hot.

Chinese Batik

No. This is not that cheap textile with batik pattern produced in huge scale from china. Chinese batik is not quite different, from the dutch. The different is only this batik have Chinese pattern, such as dragon. And typical Chinese color such as red.

Batik with influence of Islam 

Since there were a lot of trader from Muslim countries came to Indonesia in the past. They also influenced the batik patterns. This type of batik patterns only consist of leaf and flower, if there is animal pattern they have no eyes.


That's a little information about batik I got from my an hour visit in Danar Hadi. If you ever visit Solo, I recommend you to visit this place. I even rate this place a 5 stars on TripAdvisor.

Happy National Batik Day!
 Proud to use batik (or at least textile with batik pattern) :)

The 100-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared

I just finished reading this book, and I can say that I was really entertained. This was also the first time I read a book in this (laugh-out-loud) genre. The story is about Allan, a Swedish centenarian, who started his journey in his 100 birthday. In his unusual adventure, he met several people (and animals) who then follow him in his journey. The novel also told the stories of young Allan who not only met important world leaders such as Truman, Stalin, Mao, but also contributed in the world important events. Allan had traveled the world (from Soviet Union, United States, China, North Korea, and Indonesia!), learned several languages, and hold several (fake) foreign passports.

Jonas Jonasson, a Journalist and an Author of The 100 year old man 

life. to the fullest.

Are you living fully?

Have you thought about what it means to live fully? and whether or not you're doing it?

My company, Abbott, is asking A MILLION PEOPLE to share their stories. Our mission? Finding out what living fully means to you.

I have shared what it means to me and I am asking you to join me.
Go to www.lifetothefullest.abbott to take a short quiz or tell your story.
When you're done, feel free to spread the word with your friends and family on social media channels or via email.

Thanks for helping me start this movement for living fully today

Have a Break at MomoMilk Barn

Bogor is a city that famous with its culinary, especially with cafe for young people. One of the must visit cafe in Bogor is Momo Milk Barn. Momo Milk Barn is located at Jalan Kantor Pos, near the SMAN 3 Bogor.

This cafe is specialized in milk products. There are lot variants of milkshake, such as chocolate milkshake, blueberry milkshake, mint milkshake, and the premium variants such as nutella, hershey's, and the most famous one Matcha KitKat Milkshake. 

They also have kinds of fresh milks, yogurts, teas, coffees, juices, and smoothies variants to choose. For the meals menu, they provides noodles, fried rices, pancakes, toast bread, fried banana, also pastas.

Last weekend, I tried the bread toast. This bread toast served with cheese and chocolate sprinkle as its toppings. The unexpected things is they put corns inside the toast. The taste is quite good, but the minus thing is the bread isn't toasted enough, so it tasted like a non-toasted bread with cheese and chocolate toppings. I also tried the Hot Tuna Spaghetti which was tasty, but too hot for my taste (they used cayenne chili). 

The chocolate pancake I ordered was served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

The pancake texture was soft and thin, I usually prefer thicker pancake, but the taste was quite good,  

The mix-berries yogurt looks pretty, the taste also good (not too sweet and not too sour) but you need extra ice cube for the yogurts, because the temperature of the yogurt they served is too warm.

The Matcha KitKat Milkshake tasted good. although it is not quite different with other matcha milkshake. but I like it.

For all of that 5 menus, I spend around Rp 125.000 

The wall of the cafe decorated with barn-related tools

What I like about this cafe is the interior. they designed the cafe with barn theme, and the plus point, the food didn't take too long to served. I went here on Saturday afternoon. Although I need to queue on the waiting list because all the tables are full, but I didn't need to wait for too long to got my seat.

The minus thing is the temperature of the meals served, to cool for the food and too warm for the beverages (except for the milkshake).

Overall, I think this is a good place for young people who want to have a group meeting with their friends. 

You Raise Me Up

Last May, my mom had an oration speech as a professor. Her student created a video based on my mom's photos compilation of people who help her since she was a student. The video started from the day I was born until earlier this year. My mom said that she was very lucky to met people like Debbie, Joanne, and the others, who took care of me and help her a lot while we were in the USA. My mom always said that they are not just a friend, but they are our family. Watching the video is kinda make me sad, because it reminds me about Debbie.

What I remember about Debbie

While I was in the USA, I used to live with Debbie, in her home, with her children. That days my father was in the Philippine, while my mom was in her final year. Because my brother was still a baby who needs full attention, Debbie asked my mom to took care of me, so my mom could focused on her thesis. Not only cooked me food, and gave me presents, she also gave her love to me as if I am her daughter.

After moved to Indonesia, We still send letters to Debbie, especially during Christmas and New Year. Until one day (year 2000s) our letter was send back from the USA, there is a note that Debbie is no longer lived in her previous address. 

Later in 2010, my mom went to USA and tried to contact Debbie, but then she got a news that Debbie passed away. We were very sad. I always imagined that someday I will meet Debbie again, but now she is gone.

Thank you Debbie for raised me up, for your kindness, and for your love, you will always in my heart.

Celebrating Indonesia 70th Anniversary at Surakarta

This year Indonesia celebrating its 70th Independence Day, and I got a chance to celebrate it at Surakarta (Solo), Central Java.

I have never been to Solo before, so I am quite curios and interested to stroll around the city, which is one of my favorite type of travelling. I went to Solo by train from Gambir Station, Jakarta. It took about 8 hours to Solobalapan station.

The first destination I visited in Solo is Danar Hadi Museum, an ancient batik museum which exhibit hundreds batik collection. I choose this museum because the location is not far from the hotel where I stayed in 8 minutes by walk. This museum also listed as the number 1 must visit tourism object in Solo by tripadvisor. And yes, this museum is pretty cool. I can say the guide explain very detail about the batik history and the collection is amazing.

Ayo Kerja!

What I love the most about this city is the wide pedestrian (unlike other cities in Indonesia), the pedestrian also completed with pretty chairs and lot of trees, so even if you are walking for the whole day you will not feel hot.

The other interesting spot is Triwindu antique market. Since I really love unique and vintage staff, I spend hours here just for looking around, there are quite lot of vintage stuff sold here such as radio, phone, charcoal iron, pretty plates and lamps, masks, old coins, stamps, statues, even old photos of common people in black and white.

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I love this street light design so much

Sadly, since August 17 is holiday, lot of shops and restaurant are closed. Also most of the tourist attraction/ museums are closed by 2- 3 p.m. So, I didn't get to visit all of the attraction I have checked on my to visit list. I also didn't visit the palace, because it was already closed at 3 p.m.

I actually planned to visit Taman Sriwedari to watch wayang orang show. But since it was started at night I didn't have enough time because I haven't pack my suitcase.

People gathered for flag ceremony

Ice cream street vendor

I am so into vintage designs

I am so into pretty packaging. If there are two products with the same function, I could choose the one with prettier packaging even tough the price is higher.
One of packaging design that I love is vintage style. Here are two of the recent items I bought with vintage packaging design:

Kellogg's Vintage Tin Packaging

Since I was a kid I always be a fan of cornflakes cereals. I usually didn't really like the packaging,
but some times ago, when I went shopping groceries, I found the corn flakes with this packaging.
I am so happy, because it is petty and you can reuse it.

The Balm lip & cheek cream palette "How 'bout them apples?"

At first I am not sure to buy this because the price is quite expensive (Rp 650000). Plus, I am not a make up fan, who collect lots of make up with various brand, type, and colors.  But the cute packaging plus the great discount makes me cannot resist, and in a few minutes I already click OK and purchase this online.
I am a bit disappointed because the staying power of the lip cream is not good. I never try this as a cheek cream, because I prefer a powder blush as my cheek blusher (but most of the reviews said that the cream palette looks better and stay longer when you apply it on your cheek than on your lips).
Overall I was so happy when this product arrived, because the colors are pretty and the packaging is even prettier :D

1000 steps to Grojogan Sewu

Last Monday I got a chance to visit Tawangmangu, Karanganyar, Central Java. This place can be reached in an hour by driving a car from Surakarta. There is no public transportation option to reach this place, so I suggest you to rent a car to reach this place.

What is the interesting thing to see in this place?

Well, people usually come to Tawangmangu to see the Grojogan Sewu Waterfall, or should I say Sewu Waterfall, because literally 'grojogan' is the Javanese terms for 'waterfall' while 'sewu' means 'a thousand'. It was named 'Sewu (Thousand)' because to reach this place you need to step on more than a thousand stairs (or 1250 stairs as written on its exit gate)

What else?

Here, you can also see monkeys, a lot of, a long the way to the waterfall. But you need to careful, because the monkeys are a bit aggressive, especially if they noticed that you bring food and/or beverages (except for mineral water). 

In the middle of the area there is also a swimming pool. 

There is also flying fox that you can ride, if you wish, children are also allowed to ride it, all in a relative cheap price Rp 11000 (less then a dollar!) 

How if I did't want to use the stairs?

There are horses at the front gate if you think you didn't want to use the stairs. The price for a horse rent is Rp 100000, quite expensive though. But, I suggest you to use the stairs, because for me that is the most interesting part of this tourism site.

What to eat?

There are not many choices in this area, but there are food stalls, or can I say small restaurants, that sell rabbit satay and chicken satay. 

More suggestion?

You may check the strawberries field not far from this area. You may also pick the fruits by your own, then you can pay for kg of the fruits you have picked.

Or you may also visit Telaga Sarangan (Sarangan Lake) in Magetan, East Java, like I did, it can be reached in less then an hour driving.  The view from Tawangmangu to Sarangan is refreshing because we need to go across the Lawu Mountain to reach it. At Telaga Sarangan, you may ride the horse or the speed boat around the lake, all at RP 60000. Another interesting thing here is the market which is quite crowded but content to look around.