Friends Reunited : Makan di Remboelan Indonesia Soul Resto, Plaza Senayan

Last Sunday I met my best friends that I haven't met since 1,5 year ago. They are Ajeng and Freshty. We were in the same Management Trainee program at one of the private banks in Indonesia on 2008.The thing I love the most about the program is how my eyes opened wide to see the business in another perspective, and of course, the friendships. We spent 6 months together on the program and after the program ended, we live in the same house until I got married on 2010. 

In the first three months of the program, Ajeng and I shared the same room. Ajeng and I used to asked for a white thick blanket because the weather is always cold in Puncak, Bogor. And we used to wrap ourselves in the blanket like a caterpillar. And so that's why we called it the caterpillar blanket. Hahaha..

Ajeng and Freshty were the only MT friends I had on my wedding day. I held my wedding at my hometown, Tasik, so that many friends couldn't come because it's quite far from Jakarta. But they did come. Thanks, girls :).

The last time we met was when my Bebe turned 1 at 2012. Many things changed since then. Ajeng and Freshty had moved to a new workplace, and I had moved to my new house. I missed them a lot and fortunately we could arrange time to meet up on Sunday at Plaza Senayan.

Ajeng, Freshty, Me.

Ajeng :).

We met up at a restaurant named Remboelan Indonesia Soul. The place was pretty cozy and it has a round design, seems like it wants to utilize some unused place to something really good. I think the food was so-so, but I like the place.

Look at the ceiling! :).

The restaurant has a round shape and you'll need to walk using the stairs as you can see
at the right bottom of the picture.

Can't stop being narcissistic when you are with your girl friends ;p.

Freshty :).

Me.

We just found out that we can use the touch screen information board as photobooth and we can send the pictures to our e-mails. More and more pictures, then :D. This is the picture I got from my e-mail :)

By the end of the day we got into The Body Shop store. And guess what? We can have 20% discounts on the new BB Cream if we use Simpati and redeem 20 Simpati points. And another fun thing was, we can have the Love Your Body card from The Body Shop though we didn't shop IDR 500.000 or above. We only need to buy the new BB Cream. Yeay!! Plus, we got vouchers too!! I don't know if this program is still available, but if you want it maybe you should hurry up and don't forget to ask how to the shop assistant ;p.

Love Your Body and vouchers from The Body Shop.

I will update the BB Cream review later, so stay tune yah :p. That's my stories for today. Have a nice day everyone!

Wassalaamualaikum.

Independence Day : Serunya Merayakan Hari Kemerdekaan

Assalaamualaikum,

A few days ago we had some competitions and games held in our neighbourhood to celebrate the independence  day. There are ping pong games, eating kerupuk, volley ball, chess game, and so on. 

It was fun to have many friends from our block gathered in one place and enjoy the games. Unfortunately, I brought my camera only on Sunday morning, so I don't have the whole pictures of the event. Here are the pictures I took that day.

We had some cute spectators too :),

Wassalaamualaikum :).

Bloggers Meeting Up!

Assalaamualaikum,

Hi Girls, how's your weekend? I had a fun week with friends. It's Monday already and I have many stories and photos to post! Hehehe... but I'll post it one at a time.

So last Wednesday I met up with three blogger friends at CITOS. I just love when bloggers meeting up. I met Yeye, Ayu, and Bu Pipit. Bu Pipit is actually lives at the same neighbourhood with me and we went to the same Islamic studies so I meet her every week at the very least. She was the one that I know Kumpulan Emak-Emak Blogger (KEB) from and we sometimes hang out together. 

I met Yeye and Ayu at the Road to ASEAN Blogger Festival 2013 at the Indonesia Foreign Affairs Ministry a few months ago. We have nearly the same age and we are all new moms.

It's funny when we were meeting up because we're all have little kiddos. We shared stories about parenting, blogging, instagrramming, and not to forget the diet. Hahaha... 

From left to right:
Yeye, Ayu, Me, Bu Pipit (in front of the aquarium. Our kiddos love the big fishes and lobsters in it :D).
These pictures were taken by Yeye's phone and they are courtesy of bemzkyyeye.com

That day, Yeye shared how to make infused water from fruits that is soaked into water in a jar, exercising and healthy eating. Yeah she inspired me to eat more fruits and drink lemon water. I've read the healthy food combining thing for years ago but didn't do it. But then I saw Yeye and many friends in instagram starting to eat well. And with people around me promoting healthy life, I just can't help to start looking at myself.

On the other hand, one of my friend's husbands died a few days ago and I think it woke me up. And that questions remains, asking me, "What if die? What if I got sick?" 

Now I'm feeling that I want to be in a better health for my daughter. I mean, I know people dies when their time comes. But I'd like to keep myself healthy to be able to always be there for my kids. 

So it's been four days now I eat a bunch of fruits and a glass of lemon water (a slice of lemon soaked in the glass of water) for breakfast. Still cannot do it many times a day but I hope it gets better. I'm trying to avoid unhealthy food or lessen it. Thanks Yeye for the inspirations :*.

It's fun to have new friends. Seruuu! Let's meet up again girls! :D

Wassalaamualaikum.

BFF

A few weeks ago I accompanied my sister looking for a dormitory house. She was accepted in PAAP Program Majoring Marketing Management Padjadjaran University and so she's officially a college student now. Congratulations neng! :D

Going around and about in Unpad Dipati Ukur and Jatinangor reminded me of my college life with my dear best friends: Nisa, Yogie, and Epoy. We were studying journalism and many times, we have to gather for the news for every project and assignment. Sometimes we're together, and sometimes there's just two or three of us. 

We all live in the same dormitory except nisa. But Nisa came to our place and sleepover very often so that really doesn't matter. Hehehe..And last but not least, we have Vetri too. On the third year she moved  to our dormitory and so we all became close with her. All of us love watching horror movies, especially the Japan horror movies. 

Nisa always says that horror movies is good because it has a catharsis function. It makes us excited when we got the movies VCD/DVD, scream out loud together when we watched it, it makes us feel relieve when it ends, and then we forget the problems we had. We fell asleep at the middle of the night and we all got up late at the next day. 

I remember that night when we were going to watch horror movie and Nisa came to my room to use the bathroom. You know, back then, she has a long black straight hair. That night she has her hair loose, untied, and we were chatting while she was washing her face. I was fine until she used that facial foam all over her face and still talking to me. With her hair loosen like that, and with face foamy and white too. I'm just a little scared to talk to her because she looks scary. Hahaha...

So I ran out of the bathroom and screamed "Huaaaaaa!!!!" And, unexpectedly, Nisa ran out of the room too because she thought I saw something scary in the bathroom! She didn't realize that she was the one who looks scary in the bathroom! Hahaha

I pushed her away and said "Huaaa!" Because her face is still foamy and I was scared. But Nisa still think that I saw ghost or something and she demanded that I told her what I saw. Hahaha.... Dodol... "It was you Nisa, it was you, with your long hair and foamy face. You scared me! Just go and wash your face!" Haha... and we laughed together.

Talking about Japan horor movies, I like them, but I just can't help the beginning of the story that usually took to long. I usually fell asleep 15 - 20minutes after the movie started :p. But then got up if the ghost came out or I just continued to sleep. 

And there was a time when we watched "The Ring" or "Ringu" in Japanese. That night, Vetri was sitting behind me grasping the blanket and cover her face  screamed and shook my shoulder any time she felt scared, Nisa was sitting behind me too and she was nearer to the door, you know, sometimes we scared of the door when we watched horror movies for a stupid reason that the ghost will come to the room by opening the door first. Hahaha... 

Yogie was sitting next to the wall, holding her pink piggie pillow to cover her eyes and I was laying beside her in front of the TV holding the, I don't remember what.

We played the VCD on a portable VCD player that was connected to Yogie's TV. When the ghost, Sadako, was began to come out of the TV, we were all panicked and screamed, holding everything we could hold and cover our eyes with them. And then, suddenly, my feet accidentally kicked the VCD player and the pictures was gone. Yep, the very tense scene and the cable was unplugged.

We were all too scared, except Yogie, of course. Hehehe. She reached the cable and plugged it to the TV. And guess what? The first scene we saw was the full screen face of Sadako and we again screamed very loud. We all tried to cover our eyes. With blanket, pillows, someone's shoulder, but when you seen it, you cannot unseen it, right? Hahaha... it was stupid. But you know, many times, we're not afraid to do stupid things with our best friends. We just know that we always be friend :).

Another stupid thing we did was this picture below. One day, I bought a cute notebook. In the shape exactly like like one of the four cards below. Nisa, Yogie, and Epoy decided too do something silly with the notebook. They whispered to each other in the classroom and giggled like little girls talking about something funny behind my back, saying that it was a secret and I will know when they are done. 

It turned out that they wrote 100 things they know about me. I, myself think, "Man! how did they do that?" Hahaha...

And so we made the 100 things testimonies about each of us. It's pretty amazing that we know 100 facts or just stupid comments about each other. Some are true, some pretty close to true, and some we wrote just to make a fun joke. 

And then, Epoy, if I'm not mistaken, had an idea to make it bigger, to make cute cards from it. We edited them and we printed them. Here they are,

Of course some testimonies are no longer relevant today because it's been about 10 years now since we made them. Hahaha...I miss you all guys :*

Inspirasi Hijab Outfit : O Is for Orange

Assalaamualaikum,

It's Sunday night already and it's a little hard to gain more spirit after such a long holiday. Well, wherever we are I hope you and I will have extra energy to start the week in a good spirit :). Aamiin..

This is my OOTD for today. I'm combining pale colours, pale grey and white, with the orange scarf. I found the scarf about three or four moths ago and in love with the colour. Ever since I bought it, it seems that I'm trying to mix the scarf with as many as colours that I have in my closet. Hahaha... Just a splash of orange made my face look brighter so instantly.

Scarf - KIVITZ
Mullet Top - Simply Mii
Pants - The Executive (old)
Wedges - GOSH

Wassalaamualaikum.

Iftar

Assalaamualaikum.

Hi guys, how are you? It's 3.21 am now and I've been awake from 1 am to import some pictures and edit them. Hmm...I've been busy these last two months, and I miss blogging. I miss taking pictures with my camera and I miss blogwalking too. I miss everything I love and instagram was pretty good but I love my camera more. So happy that I can still awake right now to enjoy blogging. Because I usually fell asleep so easily. Hehehe..

Anyway, how was your Ramadhan? This year, Ramadhan felt different for me. I felt like I'm enjoying it and feel more peaceful. I hope I can make it through the next Ramadhan. And I hope I can keep the peaceful feeling from now on.

So, last Ramadhan we had an Iftar in our neighborhood. We always love iftar with our friends, don't we? We had an open tent set up near the kids playground and so we enjoy the air outdoor. We set our Maghrib prayer together in jamaah too and had a session about Ramadhan topics. I captured some moments during the event :). Here they are,

Foodie... 

Smile!

Left: it's not harmful to be narcissistic :D
Right: Mrs. Rusiah while setting up the food.

Happy faces :).

Mrs. Wiwik and the cute Osi :).

More narcissism :D.

Cute Nazma in colorful outfit :).

Mrs. Tami and Mrs. Widya and Livia

Eyes to the camera please :D. 

Do you recognize these faces?

Mrs. Widya and daughter with Mrs. Indri with son :)

It's always fun to spend time with friends :).

Driving with Toddler : Bagaimana Mengemudi Saat Si Kecil Tantrum

It's been a pretty long time since I was thinking of writing this post. Well, finally I'm doing it. I've been driving my own car since February 2013. I have driving license since 2007 but I didn't have any guts to drive on the main streets. My parents encouraged me to learn to drive since I was in Junior High School, when I was about 13 years old. It didn't worked out. On 2007 I took a driving lesson again (that's how I got my first driving license). My Mom said I'm the biggest daughter and so I needed to be able to drive. Well, I still had no guts. I just didn't have that guts without my instructor sitting next to me. I once drove a car with my father at a narrow street and I think I drove too slowly. The cars behind me keep honking and I was panic. I stopped the car in the middle of the street and begging my father to drive  -_-". It was stupid. Hahaha...

So my mother had an idea to have another instructor to teach me to drive, and this time, using our own car. After I finished my lesson, my father put me to the test. He sat next to me while I was driving. I was pretty good actually. I drove the car as far as 3 kilometers away from our house until, my review mirror hit a pedestrian. Luckily, I drove slowly and my father catch his hand so quickly that he didn't fall. After that incident, I never tried to drive again until early this year when we have our own car.

I asked my Hubby to buy an automatic transmission car than the manual transmission with three pedals. This time I was determined that by the month of May, I would be able to drive to busy streets because my sister was going to have the SPMB test by then and I'll need to be there for her. 

So, long story short, I finally find my way to be confident to drive to main streets. I was surprised myself because this time I drive with my Bebe and in a city much busier than Tasik. 

But of course, driving with a toddler can be troublesome. You need to have many tricks to keep them sitting calmly in their seat. We have to be careful too with the tricks, otherwise it will get worse. I remember when I caught in a traffic jam and she was bored. I handed her a 250 ml milk packed in cartoon with straw. She enjoyed it at first, but then she decided to play around with it and she squeezed the milk cartoon. The milk was just burst everywhere in the car and she kept saying, "Ma, It's wet. Aiya basah (Aira basah)." OMG I was just overwhelmed and I can't believe that she couldn't stop saying that she was wet. Maybe she felt uncomfortable with the wet clothes. Alhamdulillah I made it to get home safely.

Since then, I tried to have only water in the car. If she asked for another drink and play around I will stop a while to make sure that she don't do that. If she's eating something, like donut or bun, for example, I cut them into pieces before I give it. I usually give her the piece one by one, usually when I stop at the traffic light.

When she asked for ice cream, I give her ice cream in cups and I will stop any time she had enough ice cream or need to drink water. But she's so much smarter now. She can take and put her drink to the cup holder herself.

Another problem with my toddler was she sometimes got cranky when she's sleepy. I usually bring a pillow and put it next to her so she can lay her head on it. And I gave her my tablet so she can watch her favourite baby TV videos. It usually take 5-10 minutes for her to fell asleep when she's already sleepy.

Some events occurred beside those things while I'm driving. But the first thing I need to do is to keep concentrating even when she cried hardly and just stop a while when it got worse. I recalled the time when I went out to shop with my friends. My Bebe was sleepy and she got cranky. But she somehow feel uncomfortable to sleep and just want to be hugged by me. We were far away from our home and there was no other to drive. So then I hug my Bebe along the way while I drive with me and my Bebe, both wearing seatbelt and drive slowly. 

Above all, I think the most important thing to do while driving with toddler is to keep calm. There are always be surprises but keep concentrating is the best advice. And just stop a while when your toddler insist to have something to drink, to eat, or if she/he just want to take off her/his shoes. Safety is the most important thing when driving with toddlers.

Eid Mubarak!

Assalaamualaikum,

I'd like to say Eid Mubarak to everyone of you who celebrate Eid Al-Fitr :). Selamat Idul Fitri, Teman-teman! Mohon maaf lahir batin ya :).

I know it's a little bit too late, but lately I used instagram more often rather than my DSLR camera. So I want to share some photos from my Eid day.

We celebrate the first day of Eid with my hubby's family in Bandung.On the Eid day I wore my old outfit, mermaid skirt and pink top to match my Bebe's new pink sarong and white kebaya :p

In front of Mesjid Agung Kota Bandung

Pinky Mama, Pinky Bebe.

Bebe got Koko Krunch from her new friend.

On the third day of Lebaran, we went to Tasik to visit my family. We stopped by at a cafe to buy some cappuccino and donuts. The beverage was buy one get one free from 6-10 am, Yeay! :D. 

Early breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.
The coffee was one buy get one from 6-10 am :D.

We went on and there were some traffic jams but only in some spots.

Taking silly pictures when we got into traffic jam during mudik :p.

Only about 30 minutes after we took the photos above, My Bebe asked me to rub her forehead gently and then she vomited :(. We stopped a while to clean her and change her clothes, and she fell asleep along the way.

We were arrived at Tasik at 10 am and decided to buy bakso. Seriously, if you visit Tasik, you must try the Mie Bakso. There are many delicious warung bakso in Tasik. Bakso H. Oding, Sari Rasa, Mas Jaro, and so on. This one below is Bakso Mang Komar, located in Jl. Empangsari. The price was IDR15,000 including hot tea. It has  home made noodles, prawn seasoning and fried onions and it's yummy.

Bakso Tasik. Mudik is not mudik without Bakso Tasik.
This is Bakso Mang Komar and there are many recommended Emang Bakso in Tasik :D.

So that's some stories of my Eid and mudik. How about yours? I hope you all have a happy and blessed Eid :).

Some Old Favorites

Assalaamualaikum. 

Hi guys, how are you? I was just arrived at my home in Tasik. Yesterday we drove from Depok to Cimahi at 2 am and today we drove from Cimahi to Tasik at 3 am. Mudik (it's when people go back to their home to meet family and friends before Eid) is tiring, but it's always fun to have a longer holiday to spend time with our dearest families. There were traffic jams at some spots, but alhamdulillah we're arrived home savely. Are you going mudik? If you are, I hope you arrive home savely too :).

Yesterday I took some photos of my OOTD. This outfit is my old favorites. I got the scarf about 3 years ago from one of my office mate. I love the turquoise color and I mixed it with my Nabilia summer top (old).

Scarf - Gift from my office mate
Top - Nabilia
Wedges - Gosh!