The Red House

After finished reading Mark Haddon's work A curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I wait for Haddon's other books. I like his witty way in elaborating every piece of a family. When I found The Red House having a 30% discount at Aksara bookshop, I directly bought it.

But after struggling for the first 50 difficult pages and started to doubt my ability in dealing with English literature. I finally gave up finishing Red House, a story about eight members of the family  and how they react during their mother's death. Perhaps the author changed his way of writing and telling stories and I am  not accustomed to it. 

One thing I love about my all-time-favorite author, Haruki Murakami, is the way he tells his stories. I always know his style. It's actually just a simple way with simple words but never fail in capturing my attention. 

A Weekend Getaway: Sentul

Playground at TumbarJinten Restaurant

We spent our last weekend in Sentul area. Arrived there during lunch time, we directly headed to Tumbar Jinten Restaurant. It's a nice place with a good food.  

Feeling happy with a happy tummy, we continued checking  in at Harris Hotel Sentul. It's a simple modern hotel. I love their color. It's orange. You can find orange everywhere. The wall, their bolster in the bedroom, the hotel sandals, the sofa even the staff's' t-shirts color. Such an energizing atmosphere. The hotel is really kids friendly. There are lots of activities to do. But the best part is the hotel's pool. All kids will love it. The girls were busy swimming, playing in the playground and dropping by at the kids club. The hotel also provide free bike if you want to go biking around the area.

The hotel location is also accessible. For our dinner, we decided to drop by at Ah Poong. Since it's saturday night, the place was quite hectic. We had a quick dinner and left the area soon. I think it's better to visit this place in the morning so the kids can do lots of things there such as boating or just playing in the eco-park.

An orange classic car at Harris Hotel

Checking out on Sunday noon. We tried to find a not-so-crowded place for lunch. Finally we arrived at Taman Budaya Sentul. Enjoyed lunch at Kopitiam Oey while the girls couldn't take their eyes off the pony ride, the flying fox, and the playground. Yes, there are a huge park here. It's heaven for the kids. Too bad we arrived there on a hot sunny day. Therefore the girls couldn't really explore the area. Never thought that Sentul could be one of the alternative places to spend with kids. Sure we'll be back. Next time we should be here early in the morning thus the weather is still friendly enough for the girls to play outside. 

Hidup Sederhana

Title: Hidup Sederhana

Author: Desi Anwar

Publisher: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2014

288 pages

Membaca itu kegiatan soliter tetapi sekaligus jauh dari kesepian. Kegiatan sederhana yang membuka pikiran kita ke kompleksitas dan kemungkinan yang tak terbatas; suatu keheningan yang membawa kita ke perjalanan-perjalanan di luar yang dapat kita bayangkan."

--Hidup Sederhana by Desi Anwar.

People are expert in making life complicated. We fill the life with hope, worry and fear. We blame the past, we worry about the future and disregard our present moment. We fill our life with materialism. We buy everything and hope those things will turn into happiness but in the end we feel nothing. Just an empty feeling.

In Hidup Sederhana, Desi Anwar delivers her simple idea about life and how to deal with it in a simple way. As the author said in the introduction, "...bila kita menyederhanakan hidup, kita akan memandang hidup secara lebih jernih dan akan lebih menghargai keindahannya. Hidup menjadi sebuah perjalanan yang paling nikmat dijalani bila kita menyadari pemandangannya yang menakjubkan. Ketika Anda duduk bersandar seraya menyeruput secangkir teh, bahkan ketika kita bergerak ke arah tujuan kita." 

The book is a compilation of author's writings. Simple topic accompanied by beautiful pictures from all over the world and also touching quotes here and there. I have lots of favorite topic in this book, some of them are: Jalan Kaki on page 40, "Dan saya menikmati berjalan-jalan di atas tanah berselimutkan daun-daun kering ini, mendengarkan bunyi gemerisik di bawah sepatu saya. Saya juga senang menendang-nendangnya, yang membuat dedaunan kering ini bergemeresak dan berhamburan di udara yang berangin. Dan merebaklah aroma musim gugur di udara, menebar keharuman bumi." So poetic and sincere.

Other example on page 217 about Kebahagiaan, "Tampaknya kebahagiaan itu bukanlah memiliki apa yang kita inginkan, tetapi menginginkan apa yang sudah kita miliki. Kebahagiaan bukanlah suatu keadaan yang harus dipenuhi seperti rasa lapar yang perlu dipuaskan, melainkan keadaan bersyukur, doa syukur atas karunia makanan yang disantap."  

Since this book is a compilation, you don't have to read it from the first page until the end. Just choose any topic you are interested in, read it slowly, digest every idea while sipping a cup of tea and in the end the words there will inspire you. As a wrap, when you finish reading the whole book, you will have a new perspective of life and have a new way to live your life to the fullest. A must read.   

Check Desi Anwar's great website here.

A Sweet Escape

Out of the blue the idea of escape from Jakarta for awhile hit my head and I just popped it up to my three friends and to my surprise, they all had positive response. Haaa..I though they will reject it since they have to work and Wednesday is absolutely not an option for a sudden break. I guess we all just have something in common.  Ladies, love you all !!!

We went to Dusun Bambu in Lembang. This place is quite happening now. I though it's going to be not so crowded in the middle of the week but I was wrong. We arrived there at 12 pm and planned to have lunch at their Cafe Burangrang and you know what they said it's already fully booked. Oh my gosh, I can't imagine the crowd on weekend.  

We finally went to its market and bought some other food while enjoying the fresh air, the cloudy atmosphere, ah…it's just too good to be true. Extremely peaceful. I always amaze to see how Bandung and Bali people create lots of different awesome places to stay and to eat. They just never run out of new ideas and creativity. Just like this Dusun Bambu, every corner, every inch is crafted well. Love it all. Perfect recharge before we go back to our daily routine. 

Adultery

Title: Adultery

Author: Paulo Coelho

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2014

261 pages

"If married people, for whatever reason, decide to look for another partner, this does not necessarily mean that the couple's relationship is not doing well. Nor do I believe that sex is the primary motive. It has more to do with boredom, with a lack of passion for life, with shortage of challenges. It's a combination of factors."

--Adultery by Paulo Coelho

Being greateful is not always easy. People keep comparing their life with others. Easily envy others while they actually never been in those people's shoes. Let's meet up Linda, the lead character in Paulo Coelho's latest book. Linda is a 31-year-old woman who has a perfect life, a solid and stable marriage, a loving husband, sweet and behaved children and a good job as a journalist.

But one day, a routine interview with a famous writer changes everything. The writer tells her about the meaning of happiness. This discussion turns Linda's world upside down. She starts to question the routine and predictability of her days.

Her life is even getting more complicated when she encounters Jacob, her ex-boy friend from her adolescence. Jacob is a succesfull politician now and during the interview something happens. He ends up arousing something in her she hadn't felt for a long time; passion. 

I think this time Coelho delivers his idea in a simple way. Easy to absorb yet it still comes out with new insights. And if you love beautiful quotes especially about husband and wife relationship, you will easily find it at almost every chapter.

One of a very touching statements from Linda's husband on page 213 of Adultery:

I controlled the jealousy I feel because of you, and I am happy with that. You know why? Because I always have to show I am worthy of your love. I have to fight for our marriage, for our union, in ways that have nothing to do with our children. I love you. I would endure anything, absolutely anything, to always have you by my side. But I can't stop you from leaving me one day. So if that day comes, you are free to leave and seek your happiness. My love for you is stronger than anything, and I would never stop you from being happy. 

Yay…Ikea is Here

Just arrived home and met a courier who delivered me a catalog. Not just an ordinary catalog but this one is Ikea 2015 Catalog. It's hard not to fall in love with this Scandinavian furniture and stuff. Their products are just awesome. Only looking at the catalog already inspiring me a lot. 

If in the old days, we had to fly to Singapore to visit their store (even some of my friends went to Singapore only to check Ikea's latest product). But no worry, Ikea finally arrive in Indonesia. As of October 15, they were officially open at Alam Sutera, Tangerang. Can't hardly wait to browse around the place.

Dee Lestari: Gelombang

Actually I am in the middle of finishing Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling's latest book The SilkWorm until today I got the book I have been waiting for Gelombang by Dee Lestari. I remembered I finished Dee's previous book Partikel within one day. No wonder if my excitement and expectation towards Gelombang is so high. Moreover I am truly addicted to her writing. Hope this one  won't disappoint me as well. I guess I have to put aside Cormoran Strike's murder case for awhile  and drown myself into Supernova's series.