Every Ending is A New Beginning

Or is it 'a new beginning requires an ending'?

Anyway, this past 10 months has taught me many things I could never get from school alone. I'm going to miss everything, but it's good to know that they're within my reach.

Can't wait to start the new chapter in my life.. ^_^

Bedog Arts Festival

This morning, our maid told us about this festival held in the studio near her house. The studio is now very large. A few years ago, they bought the land & the spring by the river, previously owned by my maid's family. The price was not too high, but things like that always happened. You know lah, the case of low bargaining power.

Aniway, we (my sis & I) went there this evening. Today's programs were seminar about 'Art, Environment & Community', movies (children, environment & Opera Jawa), and also a dance called Mawar Dance. (mawar=rose)



Okay, call me blind of artistic value. But I did not understand what the dance was about. It started with two half-naked women making out, like lesbo couple. Then one woman left the stage. The remaining performer danced what looked like some random yoga moves (in my opinion). Hohoho.. The men watching that must had been very.. aroused. ;D It was nice though, despite no music & unknown story.

I did not see the Opera Jawa movie. Mainly because I have to get up early tomorrow and it was cold, for my shirt was pretty thin. Since the place was near my home, I didn't think to change or grab a jacket. To be honest, I was wearing my pyjamas.. ;p

Maybe I will visit the fest again for the closing ceremony.. I think with better publication, they could have attracted more people.

Harvest Time: Melon

Last week, when visiting one of the assisted farmer group in Lendah, Kulonprogo, I saw the field was full of balls of melons. Yumm.. Some of the melons were scattered on the road, half-eaten by the farmers, or maybe local people, thus making the air so fragrant with melon scent.
That's one thing I love about Kulonprogo: clean air, except on the main inter-city road. On the village, people often sun-dried their spices on the road. You could smell vanilla and cloves as you passed the road on your way to Samigaluh.

There were few people selling melons on the road. Later I found out, they were selling melons rejected by the distributor. Small part of the melons were spoiled, maybe because of insects or improper handling. Otherwise, they were perfect. Since I was dying to taste it, I bought one anyway, despite those little flaw. It was really cheap!! Only Rp 5000,- each. When I got home, I found that it was really sweet & nice. I wished I'd bought more.. ^o^

Menoreh Green Land

My TPHP friends,
I'm really sorry I didn't upload this brochure earlier. I hope this will provide enough information for our Makrab. If you found the map confusing, please see the self-made map I sent via email. And if you found that map even more confusing..just go ask the locals. Don't bother me to make another map.
I'll see you there on 16-17 August. ^_^
***
Menoreh Green Land is the fund-raising unit of PPSJ (Pusat Penyelamatan Satwa Jogja = Jogja Wildlife Rescue Center). So while having a vacation, we could actually help to save the animals. Isn't it great?


***
More about PPSJ-Menoreh Green Land:
PPSJ dan Menoreh Green Land
Bandung students learn from farmers in nature, cultural tour
PPSJ (the Centre of the Rescue of the Jogjakarta Fauna)

Keroppi Lunch Kit

I found this thing in BSD mall, during my last visit to Jakarta. I love it because it's compact and green! The spoon, fork & chopsticks are extendable. Recently, I found a matching Keroppi lunch-box in Ambarrukmo Plaza. But it's an old stock, scratched in many places. So sad.. :(

Gurita Bento

Gurita = octopus in Indonesian language

***

For today's bento, I made tomato red rice with chicken frank, broccoli & bean sprouts.

To make tomato red rice, you need: red rice (or brown rice), 1 tomato, garlic, butter, oregano, tomato ketchup.
Heat butter in a pan, add chopped garlic and chopped tomato. Add the rice, tomato ketchup and oregano. Season with salt and pepper.

I used soy sauce for the gurita eyes & mouth. The broccoli was yellowish, but that's all I could find in the fridge.



***

I remember when my bro was still in kindergarten, he wrote something in the wooden edge of a whiteboard, so it couldn't be erased. I saw the word as 'burita' and asked him, "What's this? Your teacher?"
I thought he meant to write Bu Rita (or Mrs. Rita).
"No, silly. It's Gurita."
The 'G' really looked like 'b'. And now, as a second-year university student, his handwriting is still as bad as 13 years ago.. ^_^

Eggplant Spaghetti

Another thing that I love about my working place: the people are so generous! Whenever we made a visit to their place, they always give us something (hey, we didn't ask!). Sometimes they would come to the office, bringing their harvest goods. One beautiful day, a farmer group came with a very large sack full of Japanese eggplant. Yippee..!!

Have I told you that I love eggplant? Well, let me tell you again..
I LOVE EGGPLANT!! ^o^
I love to cook them into Indonesian cuisines: sayur asem, sambal terong, lodeh, terong tauco (Is it truly Indonesian recipe? I just improvised the japanese miso eggplant recipe from Harvest Moon games), etc. or foreign cuisine such as moussaka , tempura & ratatouille (which my brother hates).

One of my favorite is Eggplant Spaghetti. It's very easy to made. Basically I just used everything I could find in the fridge and didn't follow any recipe.

Here's my recipe for Eggplant Spaghetti:
Boil the pasta until al dente. Set aside.
Chop onion and saute until tender. Add chopped tomato & eggplant. Add the pasta. Season with salt, blackpepper, and oregano. Voila!!

hmm.. I think I did miss something..

what the heck..
The key is IMPROVISATION, my friends. So improvise!

Alien Mouse Bento

All that bento blogs (such as Bento Corner and Adventures in Bentomaking inspire me to post my bento too. I haven't got a husband (let alone children) whom I could make bento for everyday (like Tokiwa aka Mrs. Bentocorner). But sometimes I make it for my own lunch.
Yeah, just for my own.. My mom, dad, lil bro & sis can take care of their own lunch.. :p

First, bento saves money. Second, you can really choose what you're having for lunch. I mean, really, working in a small town doesn't give you many choices for your lunch menu.

So this morning I made Macaroni&Cheese. Well, it's not macaroni actually, it's angel-hair spaghetti. I didn't use Mac&Cheese from Kraft which is relatively expensive and not available in the mini-market near my home.

Here's my recipe for a quick homemade Mac&Cheese:
pasta (about 125 grams), boiled until al dente
100 ml milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 slice cheddar cheese (I use Kraft)
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon Bumbu Kentang Goreng Indofood Rasa Keju (french fries seasoning --you can only find in Indonesia, I guess) :D

Heat butter in a pan. Add milk and Bumbu Kentang Goreng, bring to boil. Add the pasta & cheddar cheese until the cheese melts. Add flour to thicken. Voila..

You don't have to use Bumbu Kentang Goreng Indofood Rasa Keju if you like. I use it because it gives the taste and appearance of Kraft Mac&Cheese.
You can skip the use of cheddar cheese too, using only Bumbu Kentang Goreng Indofood. But it won't be as cheesy as if you use one.. *obviously..*

At first, I wanted to make my bento looked like Ultraman, just using the bread & cherry tomato for the eyes. But then my sis told me there is no way it resembled Ultraman.. so I add another cherry tomato for the nose. And here it is..

Alien mouse bento..

As I Walked Out One Evening

Recently, I watched the movies Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. They're old movies (from 1995 & 2004 actually), and I just LOVE them. (thank you for the recommendation, Mas!)

One of my favorite scene is when Jesse read the W.H. Auden poem to Celine with his sonorous & sexy voice.

And I thought, the years indeed run like rabbits..


Can you guess where this picture was taken?

Pretty Kebaya

Since 2006, there's an annual event called Pekan Budaya Tionghoa (PBT; or Chinese Cultural Week) in Yogyakarta, held around the time of Chinese New Year. It's a very nice event and I'm glad to be able to participate on the very first event. Although sadly I didn't come to PBT 2007 and never heard of PBT 2008.

These kebaya were displayed on PBT 2006. They're private collection of Apip's Gallery (Afif Syakur). The kebaya & batik were very old, from 10 to 100 years old, and almost all of them are handmade!

Look how pretty they are!


Me & my friends during PBT 2006:

Wiras, Bay Vety, Me, Dewi.

Oh, gosh! I looked so.. fat! T_T But hey, I swear I'm not overweighted.. yet.

FROGURT

Wow.. It's been months since my last posting. Things had been pretty busy here. I got a job in the neighbor town, about 40 minutes ride by motorcycle or 1 hour by bus. So when I reached home, I was too tired to play computer, except to watch some movies.
My job is quite interesting. I'll write about it later.

A few days ago, I was browsing & organizing my old files from school. I found a folder titled ProDev, containing pictures from our Product Development class, about two years ago.

There was a project to make a product from a certain ingredient. My team was assigned to make a product from dairy commodity. Here's what we did:



It was being judged, and we won the 2nd place.. YEAY!! (there were 2 runner-ups though, I forgot which team) The winner was Click!, Chocolate coated Brem (confectionery from fermented rice). Chocolate seemed to be a favorite of the judges, I guess.. ^_^

Teletubbies House

This is the new settlement from the Domes For The World Foundation in east Yogyakarta, built to relocate a village destroyed in May 2006 earthquakes. The old village name was Ngelepen, thus the new one was named New Ngelepen. *creative, huh?*

We (me, my siblings, my Aunt & Uncle; my parents were tired) visited this village last year. The village is quite far from my home (in west Yogyakarta). We had to stop and asked for direction so many time, but many people were unfamiliar with the village's name. Finally we asked this old farmer guy, "Excuse us, Sir. Do you know the way to Ngelepen, the new dome-shaped settlement?"

"Huh? Dome? What's that?" He seemed confused and he didn't understand what dome (or kubah in Bahasa Indonesia) means.

Then my sis from inside the car said, "Asked him where the Teletubbies house is!"

Amazingly, the old farmer told us right away in detail. It wasn't very far from where we were. So we learned that the popular name of the village is Teletubbies House.

I wanted to post the pictures but then I forgot in which computer and which folder did I keep the files. Well, it was in sub-sub-sub-folder.. *no wonder I couldn't find them*

And no, we didn't see Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa & Po.

Mom & Kids

This is the collage I made for Mother's Day, when I was still in Primary School. Mom placed it on the wall outside her room. It's been years and I thought I had to photograph it before the time completely ruins it.



Yep, that's 9-months-old me and my mom. My parents apparently hadn't teach me how to smile back then..

Sekaten Night Market

Sekaten is an event held annually in Yogyakarta to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad. However, in the present it is not so much a religious festival for it has becoming a typical night market. The Gamelan Sekaten still goes on show for a week, from 6-12 Maulud (the third month of Javanese calendar).

For this year, I had made 2 visits to the Sekaten. First with my brother, watching dolphin show. Yeah, it was quite embarrassing for us. Most of the adults watching the shows were parents escorting their babies.

The next visit, I went with my 2006-community-service friends. It was like a reunion, just like the old days, although only 4 people showed up. We tried the 'Haunted Kingdom'. It was disappointing. The 'ghosts' were not scary at all. We had fun though. I wish we could go there again next year.

Snoopy's Summit

From left to right: delegate from USA, Peru, Holland, Finland, Yugoslavia, Indonesia, New Zealand.

I found this dust-covered Snoopy toys this morning while cleaning the book rack. It's been years since the last time I touched them. They're 1999 McDonald's toys--Snoopy World Tour 2. I collected them when I was a secondary school student in Singapore. Nine years ago, and I still remember the queue to get these Snoopys (although the queue was not as long as the Hello Kitty craze). Being away from home & family, my homesickness was somehow cured by the Javanese Snoopy.
Too bad I only managed to get 7 out of 28. See this blog for the full collection.

The Procraftination Dresses

I just made this dress quite recently, about 2 weeks ago, although I bought the material years ago. I used my OWN pattern.. Yeay!! The material is slippery so it was more difficult to sew.


This was made around November. I just followed the pattern from an old Kartini magazine. Turned out I picked the wrong size so it's too big for me. Adding a belt doesn't help much.. :(


I got the batik print material from my best friend Itha when she returned from Papua. The material is cotton, so it was easier to sew. I love the Cendrawasih birds motif too. I also used pattern from Kartini magazine. I made this wrap dress in early 2007. My favorite among the three dresses. :)

I'm Back!

It's been two and a half months since my last post. I've been busy doing my lab work & final paper. And finally, I'll be graduated next Tuesday. Yeah!!
Mom gave me a sewing machine as graduation present.

I already made a dress. I'll post it soon, along with the other dresses I made with the old machine (the result of my procraftination).
Write to you soon.. ^_^