Friday, July 8, 2016

Jalan Jakarta

Hey!
How are you doing?
Such as common way to start a post on blog, but yea who cares.

First thing first, I would like to say taqabbalallahu minna wa minkum, may Allah receive our effort and prayers in Ramadhan, forgives our sins and grant us a super happy life ahead.

Maybe this post would be only understood by Indonesian readers, since we(Indonesian people) have such us unique, confusing yet exciting culture for Eidl Fitr. And what makes it perfect is that every province, even region seem to have their own culture for Eidl Fitr, you know, this makes me feel proud somehow for being Indonesian. And after all, Eidl Fitr is not something that is only celebrated by Moslem here, but also people with other religion, no wonder almost 85% people here are Moslem. We share food, gather after praying Eid and forgive each other.

One of those culture that I will share to you is about “Mudik”. Mudik itself stands for “Mulih sedilik”. The words came from Javanese, means “Go home for awhile”. By that meaning, actually the word “mudik” is not supposed to be something that we can do in Eidl Fitr, right? But back then in 1970’s, Jakarta with more than 70% urban people, they only got long holiday just before Eidl Fitr until after Eidl Fitr. So, that’s why, those urban people do their “Mudik” thing and this phenomenon was spread all over region then soon or later it became culture.

That was a little story about Mudik. The rest you can browse it, Google is there waiting for you. This is my 3rd Eidl Fitr that I don’t do “Mudik”. Before I always celebrated my Eidl Fitr, in Yogyakarta –my grandpap’s house, I would stay there for almost a week before Eidl Fitr, and spend 2 or 3 days in Solo –my grandmam’s house. Those times I always took the road trip with my uncle’s car. I tell you what, it’s tiring, exhausting, aching, but I don’t mind to repeat it all over again. Just imagine, you would do a road trip for 16 hours if you’re pretty lucky, but 2 days if the traffic’s screwed. My record for road trip from Jakarta to Yogyakarta; the fast one was 16 hours and the longest one was 1, 5 days. But since 3 years ago, I always celebrated my Eidl Fitr here in Jakarta, I feel both sad and happy. Sad because I couldn’t gather with my big-big family, happy because Jakarta in these days is quiet exciting yet a little bit frustrating –even it’s not like the usual day. Why? Here are the reasons:

#1 you must know like all the curses you always heard when you’re on the road, or the bells that almost broke up your ear. Those things are frustrating, to me actually. And I almost never heard it in these joint holidays. I know Mudik is not only good for your family but also for some people’s ear.

#2 In the usual day, you should or you must go 2 hours before you’re late to somewhere where the distance is 7 kilometers, and you don’t need to go that early now, because you can go there with only 30 minutes. Crazy I know. This is heaven.

#3 Go to somewhere new, explore the city, go to the city park, I know Jakarta is a dilemma kind of thing, after its beauty and its ugliness, the crimes and the hard work, the traffic, the urban and the high living standard, I think now is the time where you can be you and really “Enjoy Jakarta!” My advice; take a public transportation, it’s quiet comfy now –Just remember, when was your last time taking Transjakarta from Blok-M to Kota with only 10 passengers? Now is the time dear. Take your map, don’t be afraid to get lost, got no friend to walk around with? Just go.

#4 Let me think about any other word that can substitute Jakarta, hmmm that must be patient. Even in these lazy days, Empty Street, for you taxi users or any other online public transportation, well, you should be patient more and more. Because nowadays, they become so rare that you want to eat yourself. One hour and 30 minutes for one available taxi to come, it’s not a joke.

Eidl Fitri is not only talking about Mudik, Opor Ayam, Ketupat, and else. It’s also about gathering with your family to strengthen the relation between one to another. And somehow you would go to your uncle’s and auntie’s nonstop for a week. There are some stuffs that I cannot leave my house without. Here they are:

Things to Bring!

#1 I usually use a sling back for going out.
That because my mom ever asked me, nope, I mean instructed me to put off my backpack and change it to sling back, because I look alike someone who wanted to go to school.
#2 Notebook and Pen
Inspiration can across your mind in the way you never expected before, that’s where I would write everything, what I see, what I think, what I listen to, maybe about the next post, about the organization, college, etc.
#3 Purse
Most important thing to bring when you go out.  Put it safely, and never bring lots of money wherever you go, but that doesn’t mean you don’t bring no money at all. It’s actually not only about the money (this sentence remind me to an old song), but also other cards that would make you frustrating when you lost it.
#4 Cellphone
Who doens’t need this? Calling parents. Replying important messages and emails. Killing time. Browsing. Maps. Ordering Ojek. The rest you can mention it better.
#5 Power Bank
In case it’s emergency and my cellphone is running out of battery.
#6 Headset
In case some people around you are annoying, you can punch them in the face or you need to relax a little while, escape from the reality, this one could help.
#7 Charger
I never used my power bank if I could find any terminal, that’s why I bring this.
#8 Glasses
I’m not a kind of people who always wear my glasses, but I always bring this just in case my eyes are tired and it helps me a bit.
#9 Tumbler
To keep me hydrated. 2 litter in a day is a must! and to reduce the use of plastic bottle. #SaveEarth
#10 Flashdisk
My sister just gave it back to me, and I haven’t taken that out of my bag.
#11 Matte Lipstick, Long lasting Lipstick, and Lipbalm
These three things are my moodboosters. Long Lasting lipstick help your lip color to stay like that even you’ve eaten Opor Ayam for 2 portions. Lip balm prevent my lip from a dry lips, it hurts, to suddenly feel the taste of the blood and you realize your lip is bleeding because it’s too dry.
#12 Cajuput Oil and Maag Liquid Meds
Maag is suck. You know that.
#13 Hand Sanitizer
I’m not that kind of everything-must-be-clean girl, I just don’t like something’s oily in my hands.
#14 Tissue
Because my alergic can come to me, whenever it wants.

That is all, my sharing time is finally over. Thank you for reading, forgive me for my bad-bad-bad English and grammar. Thank you for following my blog posts so far, hope you enjoy it and could take something’s meaningful from it. And.... since it’s still in Eidl fitr, forgive me if I misbehaved, too careless, too literal, too emotional, the rest you can mention it better. Just hope that you would say it not only in your mouth but also accepted by your mind, and your heart.







Happy holiday, Happy Eid Mubarak!

Monday, July 4, 2016

Ramadhan's Gift

So we’ve finally arrived at the end of Ramadhan this year. For God’s sake, the time flee too fast. This is one of those feeling that has been rewind over and over again every year when this holy month came around and went on just like that, leave us thinking, “have we done the best of us to pray, to do something good or............not?”

There were too many things that I put on my to-do-list at the beginning during this month back then. To read and recite the Holy Qur’an, finishing book –some books actually, sharing ifthar, and so on. But, my bad and undisciplined personality make it hard to reach them all, so I could only focus on some stuffs not all of my targets, here I’m trying to deal with it, and forgive myself –actually also hoping that God forgive me.

What I believe is that there will always be at least one thing to learn during the Ramadhan every year. This year, this Ramadhan is another learning phase for me; they’re about new stuffs, and some about my old stuffs which were still hanging around my head.
Like, this year is the seventh Ramadhan without my dad. Thank God, for making time flee so fast, so it doesn’t feel hurt at all. No. It hurts, but just not that hurt. So I just feel like he was going somewhere, for business, that’s it. Where actually, he was going home. You know, this time I think God just try to teach me to really take time to deal with it, not just go with the flow not taking any minutes to thinking of it, and feeling everything is okay, when everything is really not.
And there were too many conditions which tried to give me some kind of enlightening, so I learn that sustenance, luck, fortune or whatever they say, is not something that is only about money, wealthy, gold or every artificial thing. It could be something like a willing to help, health, the oxygen you breathe; it’s just too far-ranging that people can easily forget. You know how media nowadays works, they told us about how happy supposed to be, and we were all delusion about it, unconsciously following the trend and fake reality.

While happiness is that simple like when you give what you have, you know, it gives us –or me, such as special feeling when you share something. And of course, forget all of those standards that our society makes.
To give a little celebration for I don’t know what, I was making a Baked Fusilli for dinner. Actually, I wanted to make Chicken Lasagna back then –thanks to my friend Avisena and her post which were encouraging me to make it, but when I looked for the ingredients, I found no lasagna, so I bought fusilli instead. It only take about 60 minutes to make it, so if you’re not in hurry, you can try this, make it as dinner, or even your side dish for your Lebaran Day. Let’s break the recipe, here we go.



Here's the look of the Baked Fusili 

The Ingredients
  • 250 gr Chicken fillet
  • 3 Sausages, cut into small pieces
  • 2 carrot , cut into cube
  • 1 tomato, cut into cube
  • Tomato pasta / sauce
  • 1 onion, slice
  • 2 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon meizena
  • 300 gr fusilli
  • 200 ml chicken broth
  • 3 eggs
  • Butter
  • Mozzarella (optional)
  • Salt, sugar, pepper, for seasoning
  • Aluminum foil

The Steps
-          Boil the chicken fillet in the boiling water to get its chicken broth, set aside
-          Set aside the chicken broth, take the chicken and cut it into cube, set aside
-          The making of Bolognese Sauce
Ø  Sauté the onion with two tablespoon of butter until it smells good, put the carrot, sauté it until its color changed. Put the chicken and the sausages. Pour the tomato sauce, you can also use the tomato pasta, and put the tomato.
Ø  Pour ¾ chicken broth into your soon-to-be Bolognese sauce.
Ø  Take ¼ of the chicken broth, mix it with one tablespoon of meizena, and pour it to your sauce. Wait until its texture is perfect.
Ø  Last but not least, add sugar, salt and pepper for seasoning.
Ps. I never quantify the number of tablespoon that I took for these ingredients in every time I cook; it just goes by my instinct, lol. You know cooking is about feeling right?
Ø  After it all mixed up, set aside.
-          Boil the fusilli into boiling water; add some salt, until it’s expanded and tender. You can add 1 tablespoon of oil during the boiling process or after the boiling process, so it’s not going to be sticky when it’s done.
-          Spread butter all over the aluminum foil, put the fusilli, grate mozzarella, add more fusilli, and add some eggs and the last grate more mozzarella on top.
-          Baked for 15 minutes, and voila!

Your Baked Fusilli is ready to serve: 9


Have a good time with your family, spread lots of love!