I Feel Bad About My Neck

"I Feel Bad About My Neck"was written by Nora Ephron. She's a director, a producer,a script writer and also a novelist. She wrote the script of "You've Got Mail", "Sleepless in Seattle" and "When Harry Met Sally". She got Academy Award nominees for Best Original Screenplay of "When Harry Met Sally", "Silkwood" and "Sleepless In Seattle".

This book is an intimate collection of Nora Ephron's articles. It's her real life experiences. It consists of 15 (fifteen) short stories. Started with "I Feel Bad About My Neck". Talking about woman's neck. Nora represented women feeling about their necks. Almost all women having problem with their necks. They're ashamed about them. Some of the women covered their necks by wearing turtleneck sweaters.

Necks are really big problems for women. According to the doctor, necks will change when you reach the age of 43 years.And that's it. We can do make-up to our face, hight lighting our hair, do botox, etc but we can do nothing when it comes to our necks. We can do something to our face but our necks will never lie.

Other stories are also very entertaining, talking about cooking, parenting, hair do, houses, family, etc. Most of the topics are very interesting and easy to read. Nora wrote her stories in a simple and funny way. Reading this book make you feel like having lunch with a close friend. It flows comfortably. Grab this book and I'll promise you'll enjoy it till the last page.

Bandung

I was in Bandung for one day business trip.
Meeting. Rumah Mode. Bumbu Desa. Heritage. Cascade. Cisangkuy. Prima Rasa. Batagor Kingsley. Well.... so standard, not special.
But, still, browsing around Bandung in a rainy Monday morning turned out to be FUN.

Gunung Pancar & Desa Gumati

Last weekend, my family and I went to Gunung Pancar, Sentul, Bogor. It's a hot spring.

You'll be amazed to see the scenery here, the place 's surrounded by pines trees, since we arrived there in heavy rain, so it's really cold and foggy. Still, on the way up here, you'll see the Sentul City view, the trees, the rice fields and the rivers.

It's a hot spring, so we could spend hours in the water without worrying about being frozen or got influenza. The ponds also covered by plastic roof, so you won't get wet if the rain fall out there. Even I let my daughters to stay in the ponds for quite sometime.

The hot springs had been divided into small ponds through piping. So you'll be able to pick where to stay and swim. It's really relaxing. After that you may continue with massage or joining the hot water therapy.

The hot spring was arranged by a middle aged woman, called Uwa' Lis, she manages a small warung, you can eat and drink here with reasonable prices. My favorite is fried cassava (singkong) and milk bandrek. The menus really meet the atmosphere. Cold weather combined with hot meal. It's heaven. They also prepare heavy meal such as rice, lalab, fried gurame fish/chicken, meatball and noodles.

On our way home, we saw a billboard of Desa Gumati, Cafe. Resto.Gallery. Resort. Located at Jalan Desa Cijulang No. 16 Bogor. We followed the directions and here we were at a great place. It's really cozy. I loved it. It offered beautiful panorama, scenery and fresh air. From this resort, we could enjoy marvelous scenery, from nature, the river, waterfall, lake, rice field and forest.

It has a wide variety of facilities, just name it, they have, cafe, resto, outbond, spa, health massage, swimming pool, jogging track, playing ground, delman track, completed also by meeting room and comfortable room to stay overnight.

Go there, you'll enjoy it. I promise. We really had a good time there.

Shame On Me

This afternoon. All alone. At ITC Kuningan. I just wanted to eat at Pizza Hut. I entered the restaurant. Ordering the food. Enjoying my lunch. Eating my smoke-soy-spaghetti bite by bite. Then, I finished it all within 10 minutes. Leaving my chair and walking out of the restaurant.

Suddenly, I heard a waitress called (I thought) somebody else, "Mam, wait...!!!"
I looked back and saw her there with a bill on her hand, she said, "sorry Mam, you haven't paid yet!!"

Oh....my gosh.....help me, I was so ashamed that I thought I'd better commit suicide.

What's happened to my brain? Overloading???? Reducing???? Stop working????

Whatever it is, today I just feel so HUMILIATED.

An Old Man & A Birthday

Last night, on my way home, on angkot, I met this old man, he was about 65-70 years old, look very tired. There were only me & him, since my home is in pelosok a.k.a village, no wonder why other passengers had already got this angkot off while me still had to stay in it. We both kept quiet, busy with our own minds.

Time passed by, my home was getting near and I was ready to get off the angkot, suddenly this old guy took his cell phone out of his pocket and the conversation started like this:
The old man : "Hallo Aan, this is Bapak, I am alone, your mother is sick, I am already close to your home, it's about 15-20 minutes more. How are you? Is everything ok? Well, Aan, happy birthday."

It's only a very short conversation, but I didn't know I just felt really touching by this man's words. He traveled so far just to visit his son on his birthday, how sweet.

Well, parents, they never change, even if we have already reached maturity phase (a.k.a uzur bow!!!), they still treat us as their small children. Perhaps, it's just the nature of being parents. We can't stop thinking about our children, protecting them, caring for them, and all in all children are everything.

As a mother of two daughters, I can feel it. I want to get involved in all important moments in my daughters life and wish them all the best.

Dedicated to my lovely parents, I am lucky to have you both, thanks for everything.

So Little Time, Too Much To Do

So many things happened, to be confirmed and done:
1. Both of my daughters were sick (me??? becoming a panic & stressful mom, as usual);
2. A-three-day-seminar (not so bad actually);
3. Cooking for Najla's schoolmates ( cook??? so...not me!!);
4. Welcoming the relatives' visit (hey...they postponed it);
5. Dealing with goodies bags & birthday stuffs (complicated & tiring);
6. Photo session @ Lightbox studio (desperate to match all family's members schedule);
7. Meeting with supplier in Bandung (checking & rechecking the schedule);
8. Interview session @ consulting office (should I go there???);
9. Open house @ TK Seruni (decorating the classroom);
10. Birthday party @ orphanage (teaching Najla that not all people as lucky as her);
11. Birthday party @ Najla's school (sharing the happiness with her classmates & teachers);

Dear God, grant me the good health, so I can take part on all those important moments, amien.

Seminar

I'll be off for a moment.
I have to attend a-three-day-very-boring-compliance-seminar @ BTMU Jakarta.
Kindly pray for me not to fall asleep there.

Eleven Minutes

Just finished reading "Eleven Minutes", a book written by Paulo Coelho. He's one of my favorite authors. He was born in Brazil and has become one of the most widely read and loved author in the world. Especially renowned for "The Alchemist". He has sold more than 85 millions books worldwide and has been translated into 63 languages.

This book talked about sex. Can sex be sacred? An unflinching exploration of the length we go to in our search for love, sex, and spirituality.

Love only caused suffer. That's what Maria, a Brazilian girl who thought that she would never found her true love in her life. A guy who she met by chance in Rio De Janeiro promised her to become a famous actress in Switzerland, but it turned out to be big lie. In fact, she had to be a prostitute in order to survive. This kind of job really took her getting far from her true love.

One day, a young man who was an artist, Ralf Hart, entered Maria's life. Maria got the chance to choose between stayed in her dark life or left it all behind for the purpose of finding "the light in herself". Could Maria unite not only physically but also her mind or even her soul to a place where sex is considered as a sacred thing?

I love this book. According to Paulo Coelho, life is a journey. I always feel inspired by his books. Try to read his books and you will discover more about the world.

Holiday

Yes...it was holiday, Lunar New Year came, accompanied by heavy rain all night long, cloudy atmosphere, but still I pray to have more prosperous life through this coming year.

Najla's school, TK Seruni, exchanged the school day. All students must come on Thursday, while Friday will be considered as holiday. I took her to school by ojek (attention: it's not owjeg...kenapa gue jadi chincha lawra? hehe...). She's so excited having me as her company, usually her grandma who takes her to school. After she entered her classroom, I joined the parents meeting in other classroom. The agenda of the meeting was to prepare the program on TK Seruni's Open House which will be held on Saturday, March 1, 2008 (yay.....it's Najla's 3rd birthday). Beside that, the principal also invited a psychologist who shared a lot of thoughts, inputs ,solutions, etc....on parenting stuffs. It's really interesting. Wish we could get this kind of opportunity more often. It's useful.

In the afternoon, having nothing interesting to do, finally I decided to visit Cinere Mall (a small-and-standard-mall-but-full-of-visitors). I came across a new photo studio promotion. They offered limited family package for only Rp 250,000,- we'll get 20 pictures in 4R album, a CD, 2 (two) costumes for parents and kids, it's quite cheap, right??? Since I don't have any family pictures (in the studio) yet, well why not try it? I registered my family and wait till the studio contact us. Can't wait to have that chance.

Books

A lot of books at home. At the office. In my bags. In my book racks. Everywhere.....but having no time to read them.

When I was still single (it seemed like so.....long a go), I could finish 2-3 books a day, but now, even a thin book needs a week or a month to finish, aaaargh........

Dear God, is my read ability getting slower (well...I am not young anymore) or my daily activities getting more and more??????

Now, I follow my hubby's habit, just buy the books, keep them and read them when the time comes.

February

Time flies, it's February already. The raining comes again , maybe welcoming the coming Lunar New Year, February 7, 2008.

It is still one month to go before Najla's 3rd birthday (March 1, 2008), but my mind has already full of a lot of ideas to celebrate her birthday. Contacting her school teachers and asking about having birthday party at her school, looking for goodies bags at the best-goodie-bag-seller-in-town which is ITC Ambassador since it is close to my office ( I am a member there due to my very often visit, he...he), in fact I had ordered the goodies bags ( I know it's too early, he...he), now I still browse here and there to find the birthday's stuffs, such as the hats, the balloons, the candles, the invitation cards, the birthday cake, and the like. Sounds like having a huge birthday party, he...he..well say that I am just an over-excited mom when it comes to my children stuffs (all moms do the same, don't they?), not only their birthday stuffs but also their dresses, their story books, their toys, etc....etc... No wonder that our small home becoming smaller with all those children stuffs.

Well....Najla is 2 years and 11 months today while Nayzea is 13 months (she's still learning how to walk and talk well). I remembered 2 (two) years a go, when Najla was 13 months, I got my 2nd pregnancy, my doctor said I had to stop breastfeeding her, I was so sorry at that time. But thank God, she has grown up as a strong and cheerful kid, easy to make friend, easy to remember songs, yeah she's just a singer wannabe, love singing very much. Nayzea has grown up not as big as her sister did when she was her age, but still I am grateful for all, moreover, to date I am still able to breastfeed her, hope I can do it for two years.

Becoming a mom is really something.