Rindu

Aku rindu..
Siang penuh jelajah ke kota seribu cerita, taman rahasia dan gang-gang tua,
Percakapan panjang tanpa akhir di tempatmu menghabiskan waktu sendiri dulunya,
Bergelas-gelas kopi dan teh yang menemani menyatukan mimpi kita,
Sentuhan ringan di lengan  setiap waktu bersama,
Usapan sayang di punggung yang tak akan terlupa,
Dekapan hangat di malam-malam panjang hingga pagi datang,
Bahkan pertengkaran di saat aku dan kamu memanjakan ego kita,
Sedari tadi, aku sudah rindu..

Mystery

some stories are better left untold
some actions are better left undone
some truth are better left unexposed
some words are better left unspoken
some wounds are better left unhealed
some question are better left unanswered
some emotions are better left unexpressed

Blinded

Aku hanya berdiri

Karena kau minta menanti

Perlahan melepas mimpi

What do you want me to be?

Another shape that is not me

Finally you’re down on your knee

Maybe i’m the one who can not see

Setidaknya sekarang aku adalah  diriku sendiri

Hati

Aku terus berlari

Entah kapan berhenti

Bimbang tak bertepi

Apa yang kucari?

Aku pun tak mengerti

Hanya bisa menari

Hidup tanpa matahari

Mengingat tautan jemari

Sekarang tak ada lagi

Life after You

You..
The one asking me to walk together
Want me to go stay with you forever.
I was the one walking to you instead,
You're not moving from where you stand.

Devastated, broken and lost
All i see was black and grey.
So far from what I was known most
So close to fade away.

I tried making peace with the heart
Collecting shattered pieces only God knows where.
But everyone knows its just like pulling dart
There are always holes left everywhere.

It might take all years long
To be back to the shape i know
To finally get along
To forget the wound and sorrow
To go after what i long
To achieve the dreams i grow

Now i stand on my own again
Free from all the pain
Because nothing will stay the same
Especially my life, after you..

Ragu

Teruntuk kamu
yang mencuri cium di bibirku
Aku tak menyesal malam itu

Teruntuk kamu
yang membuatku terpaku
Aku yakin itu tak semu

Teruntuk kamu
yang memacu degup jantungku
Aku masih merindu

Teruntuk kamu
yang larut dalam duniamu
Aku ingin bertemu

Teruntuk kamu

yang menyusupi hatiku
Aku mulai meragu

Teruntuk kamu
yang terpaut jarak dan waktu
Aku mungkin menunggu

Think! Then Write..

When in doubt, write!
That is what i always tell myself. To be true there are so many things that bother me at this current time that its become too complicated to put it in writings (I know I know, another excuse).

Why write? because you have to separate things that haywire in your mind into a tidy structure, story after story should be segmented so you could find which one distract you the most, for me its plenty. These are some of them:

Getting my Bachelor
In the end of 2011 I failed the D IV entrance test, now I'm not really sure if I should give it another try or just apply to another university here. I'm also still not sure what major to take: management or accounting. Accounting would be applicable later, but management sounds interesting, especially because I will meet accounting subject less >.<

Moving out

Earlier last month, we moved to the new office building, which is a bit further from my boarding house compared to the previous one. So far, the additional distance had already made me late twice. I'm starting to think to move out and find a boarding house which is closer to the office. The thing is, I'm happy enough with my current room, it's spacious, comfortable, clean and cheap, not to mention i had it painted violet! I'm not sure there's another place that offer a room with the same facilities at the same bargain. Maybe i need to search from now..


Confrontation
Lately there are some people that are really disturbing, the way they behave and talk are not pleasant. Its just really amazing how such person can make someone feel uncomfortable or even worse, hurt without realizing it, and i mean amazingly disturbing. Well, as one of those who are affected, i actually have the willing to confront and tell directly what i (or we) have in mind, but then again i thought the person might take that as an offensive gesture, and it can get worse when it is taken as a way to create conflict, i don't want that. The problem is, the unpleasant feelings remain..

There are other things that I'm not really sure of, but let me worry about that.. Its too much to share though, for now.. ^o^

Anyway, at this particular time, i really miss most of my friends..

Bitter or Sweet?

Recently i stumbled upon this old saying:

"Make your words soft and sweet for you may have to eat them later"

We are social creatures, we interact with other people through communication, most of it orally. We sometimes can not control what we say to others, there are good things and bad things as well. Good things we say, whether we really mean it or not, always bring a good responses and make people who hear it fell good. in the other hand, when we say bad things, intentionally or not, we make people feel awful and sometimes hurt.

It makes me realize that the way i speak to people isn't always in a good manner, i also speak bad things to others, what worse is sometimes i speak bad about other people too. Eventually i - want it or not- have to deal with the consequences: i have to accept when people speak bad about me, or they say rude things to me. It hurts, i know.. But then again we always need to experience the pain to know that we don't want it, and others don't either.

I'm not saying that we have to sugar-coat everything we say, at least it would be a lot better if we say everything politely and think about what we're gonna say before we say it. But what about this, when a friend really need an awakening slap in the face? Well, easy.. Just tell the truth, but please don't be rude. (haha, it rhymes ^o^)

Yeah, i know that we are all human, and human make mistakes, but that doesn't mean we're allowed to make every single word that come out of our mouth as poisonous as the viper's venom.


I guess the moral is that we really have to watch our tongue. Well let me put it this way: if i have to eat my words, i want it as sweet as chocolate cake..

let's eat 'em up!!! ^o^

I Accept The Challenge

"Good morning, people! Who's up for a challenge? Let's be original for a day! Can you handle a day without RT-ing other users' tweets? :D"

That is kak mahir's twit that inspired me to challenge myself, yes i want to be original..

Anyway, it is actually fun to tweet anything that comes up in your mind without RT-ing others, though it is very understandable to re-tweet other people's twit especially when we're having the same thought or opinion. Sometimes we feel like: "this is exactly what i wanna say", then we just re-tweet it. Actually there is nothing wrong with that, having the same thought/opinion with anybody else is not a crime right?

Okay, talking about originality in the context of tweeting may sound lame, but lets bring it to the wider context, the case of plagiarism is no different with re-tweeting. The only thing that makes difference is the intention. Those who re-tweet just wanna show that they have the same thought with the one whose twit they re-tweet. In plagiarism, the plagiarists definitely want other people who read it to think that it is their original idea.

See, it comes to me that even if people have the same thing in their mind, the way its is being expressed will be vary, depending on the people's characteristic. Everyone is free to express what's in mind. I'm starting to think that the issue this time is no longer the freedom of speech/expression, it is the originality. So why don't we try to express whatever it is in our mind, with our own way.

Life will be more beautiful with lots of colors no?

The Man Who Sweep The Patio

In some fiction, the stories, usually start with people who haven’t known each other but in some point start to notice that the other person have a particular habit, or signature outfit, or certain personality, or anything else that attract his/her attention. Now, this story is nothing like that. I know this particular person for almost 5 years now. At the beginning of our friendship the first thing that caught my attention is not the fact that he's a good basketball player in campus (to be true, i didn't even know he was), it was the missing connection between his full-name and nickname. It took me some times to realize that "Dhani" is the way others call him, Badia Ahmad Burhani. From the beginning we shared a lot of stories, but then again lately something tickles me. I started to notice this habit let say around 10 months ago. He’s doing it every Sunday morning or afternoon while having me on our weekend calls.

He always says, “I don’t like to see it dirty, full with dry leaves ”, then i will ask him to do it later. Then he will start telling me how fast those dry leaves cover up the patio while only 2-3 days ago the maid clean it up, and he doesn't like it. Its all up to you my dear, but for me you’re always a man who loves to tidy up almost everything, including the patio Yes, I really have to admit for this particular habit, he’s way up there on level 9-10 while I’m only on level 6-7. Oh come on, who would think to paint his own room only to get the sense of satisfaction, or cleaning the bathroom while no one else in the house want to do it. Not many man would do this, maybe not even women. Well at least i have less thing to worry on my future, hopefully i will always have someone i can rely on (especially on tidy up everything).\^o^/

So ladies and gentlemen, here i present you: The Man who Sweep the Patio.

My beloved man..

and he's still looking good while doing it

Here Comes The Bride

At this time of the year most of us probably receive a stack of nicely designed letters, beautifully engraved in smooth and thick papers, sometimes with pictures, and sometimes (well, most of the times) also comes via internet. Yes ladies and gentlemen, you're thinking what i think, those are Wedding Invitation.

so beautiful right? they might be your future invitation

The consequence of receiving these many invitations is a lot. The down-side is that you might not be able to come to every single wedding party, especially when it takes you to fly to another island, even though you want it so bad. The up-side is that if you manage to come to these parties, it become an opportunity to do a brief-traveling all across the places you haven't visit before. Plus you got the chance to meet your friends whom you might not meet in quite sometimes.

What i like from a wedding party is the essence of the party itself which is to share the joy and happiness and gratitude to everyone, in return, all the attention and happiness and everything are also dedicated to the bride and groom (well,mostly for the bride), so basically everyone is happy.

Aside from that, I personally think marriage life will be a lot different with single life, or life with parents and siblings. Not that i have personally experience that, but you can simply tell by seeing those who already married. I don’t have problems with people getting married, in fact i want to get married, a bit later though. I am truly happy seeing my friends happy but then again my question would be: does happiness caused by marriage? For some people maybe it does, meanwhile for the others it doesn’t. But then again who am i to measure one’s happiness.

Maybe after all it's the wedding party that make people happy at the first place..

Rp 50.000

What does a Rp 50.000, - bill mean to you??

For most of us, it might be a quite small amount to spend daily, mostly for meals, or snacks, or gas for our bikes/cars. Some of us maybe even use it for going to the cinema, and still not enough.. In other occasion, we even need a lot more than that to dine in a fancy cafe or restaurant.

For an old man, who's still trying to sell newspaper at 8 in the evening to anyone he met, with such a desperate and tired face, that amount means a lot, yes a lot. That is the amount he need to buy medicines for his severely ill son.

What i'm trying to say is that for many of us, i'm sure, Rp 50.000,- is an insignificant amount. Its already fly away from our purse without us even realizing it. But for some people out there, who might be not as lucky as we are, this amount sometimes means a lot to them, and i believe many times we forget about it. We spend so many time mostly complaining about what we don't have, or about our job, or basically about anything that don't meet our expectation, that we forget to be grateful of what we already have. We easily forget that there are many people who don't even have things that we're complaining about.

All of us need to be reminded once in a while.

Munch munch..

Earlier, i have told about my hobby of trying foods right, too bad i only have several pictures here. These are some food i tried last time i was in Jakarta (not from the restaurants i've reviewed before):

Pesto Chicken Wrap
[The Canteen by Aksara - Plaza Indonesia]

Short overview: cozy place, pretty pricey, huge portion (both foods and beverages), wide variety of cocktails, and of course delicious, in other words: worth every penny.

Macha Latte
[MOF Japanese Sweets and Coffee - Plaza Indonesia]



Salmon Sandwich
[MOF Japanese Sweets and Coffee - Plaza Indonesia]



Red Bean Paste with Macha Ice Cream
[MOF Japanese Sweets and Coffee - Plaza Indonesia]

Short overview: very unique, offers various type of Japanese dessert, ice cream and other foods and drinks, felt always wanna come back and try others.

Grilled Chicken Panini
[Panini House - FX Sudirman]

Short overview: great service, nice place, yummy, better go for the main course rather than dessert, good choice for a medium-price restaurant.

That's all for now, wait for the next report when i'm back in Jakarta. Why Jakarta? of course because there are a lot of foods that i haven't tried there. I'd be very glad if any of you can suggest me restaurants, cafes or foods to try.

Till then, i'm gonna save my money for the next culinary trip.

Jakarta Culinary Experience

Java Jazz Festival is coming closer, its starting less than two weeks from now, this makes me very excited. Well, what excite me the most is not because the event itself, but I guess more to the fact that I’m gonna meet lots of my friend there, those who spread all over Indonesia. Another thing is because I’m gonna be able to find foods that I’m longing for: baked rice, tortellini, hot macha chocolate cake, green tea latte, baked salmon sushi, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, red mango frozen yoghurt, waffles and pancakes. Wuuaaahhh, I miss those foods so much. Not to mention about the others that I want to try..

Stay in several city for quite a long time makes me realize about one thing: no city in Indonesia can beat Jakarta in the terms of the variety of foods it offers.

Speaking about Jakarta and foods, here are the top rated restaurant in Jakarta based on the popularity taken from one of the website:

1. Sushi Tei, Plaza Indonesia
My favorite sushi restaurant, it is one of the restaurant that i frequently visit when in Jakarta. The restaurant provide a wide variety of sushi, from the original rolled sushi to fusion sushi. Not only that, it also serves other kind of Japanese food, like tempura (fried veggies, or seafood served with sauce); ramen , soba and udon (Japanese noodles), shabu-shabu, rice-based dishes and many more. There are also various kinds of drinks and desert. What I like is they have free flow of hot/cold green tea . My favorite menu are baked salmon roll and salmon salad sushi.

2. The Duck King, Plaza Semanggi
3. Tony Roma’s, Jl. Wahid Hasyim 49;
Specialized in ribs, people say it is most famous for the ribs with barbeque sauce.
4. Satoo, Hotel Shangri La
5. Syailendra, Hotel JW Marriot
(I’ve never been to these restaurant before mostly because of the very expensive prices that I couldn’t afford, so can’t really give review on them)

6.Burger King
The best burger in town among the fellow fast food competitors, though a higher price as the compensation. The whopper portion is very big for me so I usually order the singles, and of course the onion ring.

7.Ming Seafood Restaurant, Setiabudi Building
(Never try this one as well, and to be honest, not really interested on trying it..)

8. Bakmi GM
This restaurant seems to be always full at any time at any branch. If you go to PIM you’ll get what I mean, since its always crowded with lots of people queuing to be seated and enjoy the bakmi no matter what time it is, but usually it gets more crowded on meal time.

9. Pancious
Huge portion of pancakes or waffles, with a wide variety of salty and sweet topping, you name it. For a very reasonable price, this restaurant win the competition among the pancake houses. You can freely choose to have one, two, or even three stacks of pancakes or waffles, original or chocolate, or the combination of them. The restaurant also serve several kind of pasta, try the fried mushroom fettuccini. Another additional value for this restaurant is the free flow ice tea and the menu book that completed with recommendations. I love the chocolate waffles plus original pancakes with blueberry and cheese topping, so divine.

10. Java Bleu, Jl. Cikini Raya
A French restaurant that I finally tried the last time i was in Jakarta for Java Jazz Festival, i went there while waiting for my friend on their reflexology session. I ordered Baba au Rhum which was home-made bread with a very soft texture marinated in rum then served with ice cream that you can choose, at that time i wanted mine with vanilla ice cream. Another treat i gave myself at that time was Hot Chocolate, always comforting, so tasty and thick but not too sweet. For those who like chicken then you have to try the Grilled Chicken Breast, very tender and juicy, comes with a mix of salad that's not really typical with other restaurant. Now i have to agree with my friend that this restaurant is worth trying despite the pretty expensive price

11. Poke Sushi
Just another sushi outlet. Not bad but not outstanding as well..

12. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
This is one of the café in town where I and my friends sometimes hang out for talks over coffee (tea or chocolate for me)and cakes .The hot chocolate is nice, the cakes too, though for the quiche you can find a better one somewhere else with that price. For those who love tea, try the Chai Latte or Green Tea Ice Blended. For those who into coffee might wanna try caramel frappucino or the hot vanilla latte.

13. Nasi Uduk Kebon Kacang
(Such a shame for me of never been to this place while in Jakarta. People say that this is the original version of nasi uduk and simply the best one. Next time I go there I must stop by at this place)

14. Bakerzin
I’ve been to this place only twice, and as far as I remember it has a very good tiramisu and pasta. The foods are good but they come with more expensive price. The tea serving is very unique, you’ll be given the teapot and the tea leaves and the herbs or flowers. That’s from what I could vaguely remember. The hot chocolate is also very thick and yummy...

15. Cork & Screw, Wisma Kodel Rasuna Said
16. Pisa Café, Menteng
17. Segarra, Pantai Karnival Ancol
(Again, I have to say I’ve never been to these places as well. First because 2 out of those 3 restaurant are pretty far from where I lived while in Jakarta, as for Pisa Café even though I sometimes passed by but never really had a chance to drop by and try something. There were several times I wanted to try the place but then again its so crowded so it ended up with me trying another place)

18. Pepenero Cucina Italiana, Menara Karya
The first time I tried this place is on last year’s August for a very late lunch (nearly early supper) with several friends directly after we arrived from Surabaya. After that visit, this restaurant directly becoming my favorite Italian restaurant, a huge bunch of thanks to Joan Wicitra who recommended and introduce me to this place. It serve the most various pasta that you can hardly find somewhere else. The pasta are divine, so far I always enjoy whatever I order there, but some of them come in a very big portion like Tagliatelle alla Bolognese and Tagliolini Neri al Salmone (black pasta with salmon in cream sauce). My favorite is Tortelli in Salsa di Grana (pasta with meat, spinach and cheese stuffing in cream sauce). The pizza here is the thin-crust, it tastes very good but I somehow think that its gonna be better if they are more generous with the topping, haha. The restaurant also serve free starters and a wide variety of mocktails and other drinks.

19. Beautika, Hang Lekir 1
(Serve variety of foods from Manado. People say this is the most authentic one you can get in Jakarta so you don’t need to fly away to Manado to get the same taste. The thing is I’m not really into Manado food so I never tried this place. Maybe I should go there at least once, maybe later, I don’t know when..)

20. Gourmet Garage, Kemang Raya 68
(Another sorry I have to say for not being able to give review about this place. There was this one time on a chronicle to find nice Indian food, I and my friend Motti passed by this place. The name and restaurant architecture was actually made our curiosity awaken but then again the “highly exclusive” atmosphere we felt at that time and the “its just another western meet eastern restaurant” thoughts made us stick to our plan, Indian food. But then again probably later I should stop by to see whether what we thought at that time is true or not)


There are several restaurant that I’d like to recommend even if its not at the top 20 list. They are: Hong Kong Café for oriental and Hong Kong-style foods as well as the desert, Ya Udah Bistro for American-European foods, Amigos for Mexican foods, Ganesha Ek Sanskriti for Indian foods, Fish & Co for fish and chips and huge portion of modern seafood-based cuisine, Pan-O for various kind of pancakes and NYDC also Secret Recipe for the cakes.

Actually restaurants or cafés are not the only places you can find culinary experiences. There are a lot of street-side warung where you can find good foods and most likely with cheaper price but probably not as cozy as restaurants. I enjoy both anyway, but then again its all up to you to try anyway in exploring the rich culinary that Jakarta offers .

Writing about this makes me feel the urge to be there again and try foods and cakes and drinks at places I haven’t been to. Well, wait for me there Jakarta, I’m gonna make the best use of my time and enjoy the never ending culinary experiences that you have..