Yellow Tea Cup :: B4nch4’s Daily Stuff

30 Desember 2009, Indonesia kehilangan Gus Dur, Presiden RI ke-4. Terus terang, saya tidak pernah melihat sosok Gus Dur sebagai politisi karena sebagai pemimpin, ia selalu tampak tanpa embel-embel, tanpa agenda, tanpa muslihat tersembunyi, bicara, mengkritik & bertindak apa adanya, sesuai yang ia yakini benar. So politically wrong?

Pada masa jabatannya sebagai Presiden RI, Gus Dur yang dikenal sebagai “pejuang kaum minoritas”, meninggalkan kesan yang mendalam kepada IBC (Indonesian Born Chinese) dengan menjadikan Imlek sebagai hari libur nasional. Sebelum disahkan sebagai hari libur, kami para anak-anak IBC selalu bolos sekolah untuk merayakan Imlek, yang sebenarnya bukan masalah bagi saya (saya bersedia bolos kapan saja ^^”). Setelah dewasa, saya bisa menyadari bahwa apa yang dilakukan Gus Dur itu bukan hanya sekedar memberi tambahan hari libur di kalender, namun lebih merupakan suatu gesture ACCEPTANCE, an open hand bagi para IBC, sesuatu yang tidak terasa dalam pemerintahan sebelumnya.

Gus Dur juga dikenal sebagai seoarang Visionary pluralist, senantiasa memperjuangkan Agama & Perdamaian, baca salah satu artikelnya disini . Sayang, jadinya ia malah sering mendapat TUDUHAN MIRING, coba aja cek link2 popular di google tentang Gus Dur: gus dur masuk kristen - 44.300 hasil, gus dur yahudi - 102.000 hasil, gus dur selingkuh - 63.000 hasil, gus dur murtad - 24.500 hasil, gus dur dibaptis - 13.100 hasil.

Hmm? Apakah memang sebegitu sulitnya untuk mempercayai seorang pemimpin / pemuka agama yang menunjukkan secara publik bahwa ia menghormati agama lain dan senantiasa memperjuangkan kedamaian antar umat beragama?

Anyway, yang jelas saya prihatin dengan siapapun yang menjadi panitia public relation nya Gus Dur. I can totally imagine this conversation between them. PR guy: “Pak, saya menyarankan bapak untuk tidak terlalu kontroversial soal agama-agama ini pak. Entar popularitas bapak menurun, ga ada yang vote!” Gus Dur: “I’ll say what i want, gitu aja kok repot”. PR guy: “omaigat” *tarik-tarik rambut*

Ya, Gus Dur mungkin memang bukan sosok politisi ideal, tapi ia jelas adalah sosok manusia idealis yang memperjuangan apa yang ia percayai. So, farewell Gus Dur, i believe you are going to the place reserved for the good souls.

Ah! The end of an old year and the birth of a new year. It almost seems like life comes a full circle every year, with each circle, we grow fuller, wiser, smarter, and happier (hopefully).

With my fuller, wiser, smarter, and happier 2010 self, I’m GOING to:

1. Work smarter, manage my time better, more discipline;  and ultimately double my income last year (Hah!)

2. Buy an iphone 3G as an reward if financial target achieved

3. Write A book (preferably a novel)

4. Doing more charity, paying more attention to people in general & put an effort to be a little more sociable.

5. Learn to balance life. Yoga perhaps?

6. Live Greener. Be more aware of environment issues & doing my part to help.

Well, one can try.

As Oprah Winfrey put it - “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”

Happy New Year 2010 All ^^

I always enjoy going for spa treatment every now and then, but just the other day i realized that i only go for the same old treatments every-time i went, namely: facial, body scrub and occasionally, body mask.

So yesterday when i decided to try this new spa place near my apartment, i decided to try out some new treatments too! Since i don’t really like being massaged, i go for the arm & leg waxing instead.
This is really my first waxing, so I’m not sure what to expect, when will the hair grow back? when it grows back will the hair becoming thicker?  longer? coarser? is it HURTS?

well..it hurts alright, but it’s an “ouch!” hurt, not an ARGHHHHHHH@!%&^ hurt. The spa attendant told me that normally the hair will grow back in 1-2 months, and waxing will not cause the body hair to become thicker, longer or coarser. God, i hope so.

They have hot waxing & tube waxing so I’m trying both. This is the tube wax…

And this is the hot wax, applied with some kind of spatula, one small sections each time, in the direction of hair growth.

Before wax cools, firmly press strip to wax in the direction of hair growth. Smooth the strip with your hand.

To remove strip, peel it in the opposite direction of hair growth, in quick move. This is where the Ouch!!! come. Whatever you do, DO NOT pull straight up!!! If the area stings it can help to apply pressure on immediately after the strip removal.

To remove excess wax, they spray some sort of unscented oil.

DONE!

Despite the many Ouch!!! moment, I think i do enjoy my smoother arm & leg ^^

“Would you like to try our Brazilian wax next, miss?” Er… maybe in my next life ^^’

Beauty World
Mangga Dua Square Lt 2 Blok C No.39
Jl. Gunung Sahari Raya No. 1 - Jakarta Utara
+62-21 6231043

Went fishing last weekend! One day J suddenly decided that he needs a hobby so he came home with a bunch of fancy fishing equipments and and insist that we must go on a fishing trip asap. So we did.

After doing some research from some fishing magz, we booked a boat that took off 4 a.m from tanjung pasir (around 33km from my apartment in kemayoran - pretty far and hard to find!).

Anyway don’t get fooled with the pretty pictures of tanjung pasir above ok! Ollie took that pictures with her fancy camera so everything basically just looks magically better. The real tanjung pasir where we get on our boat is so frikkin’ unchic! Dirty, smelly and full of pantless fishermans (don’t ask why they are pantless).

Once the boat set off, evertyhing seems so much better - Oh how i love the ocean wind!

Check out my PINK fishing stick (is this how people call it or there is a technical name for it?) with a matching PINK fishing reel! Eh, I’m not a crazy pinky madwoman. It’s just all fishing equipments looks so technical and manly, so when the shop attendant asked me what kind of stick & reel that i want, i suddenly got this urge to claim my femininity. “Just got me the pinkiest stick you got on the house, Mas”

I think i really do enjoy fishing…

But the combination of the wind & sun on my skin, the peaceful sound of the ocean and quietness makes me half sleeping most of the time

or busy taking pictures with the girls

and EAT! We didn’t get a lot of fishes (despite of my lucky hat, i only got one fish *cry*) but enough for our lunch.

We marinated our fishes with sweet soy sauce with chilies, smashed garlic and lemon juice, wrap it with aluminium foil and have it cooked until it’s done. We brought canned sardine and abon sapi along just in case we didn’t get any fishes.

It was a superb lunch =) argh! just thinking about the food makes me can’t wait for the next fishing trip

Fishing tips: if you like me who can not afford a yacht or at least a boat with seats, better bring folded chair or little pillow to sit on, because i just found out that sitting on a hard-vibrating-hot wooden deck for 12 hours straight, is bad for your ass.

All photos were stolen from here