in another attempt to organize my blog (which i'm sooo wanting to move to different engine, since blogger will no longer supports ftp publishing soon), i ended up reading many of my previous posts. it's funny how loose and unmindful the way i wrote back then. i could go on and on describing about what i did that day or that weekend. and it seems that i always found an exciting thing to write about everyday.
then i went on reading until my present post.. it felt so.. different! i write more careful now, more serious and mostly around the same thing.. my daughter or family! wow, have my life become so boring?
maybe. after all, i'm not the happy-go-lucky single girl living in the busiest city with all the time in the world. these days, my time is about rushing to get my work done so i can be home and be with my family. even when i'm actually doing nothing .. as long as i'm with my family.
i remember, a single friend told me a while back. she hated how her no-longer-single friends have become domesticated and only talk about family or kids. on and on and on. i promised then that i wouldn't want to be that way, ever! but i can't help myself because my family is now the center of my attention, the center of my activities. i do have other things to do, my personal goals, my personal things, but somehow it's less important and not so fancy to be discussed or even to be blogged about. maybe i'm getting matured. when i really need to think about what i need to write, because i don't want to either spill too much info or giving out something unecessary on the internet. while back then, i couldn't care less. i write what i want to and i don't have to explain myself.
it's funny how i can see how my life has changed and myself maturing from my posts in blog. i do want to go back there, write about anything. but somehow, it's not as easy as i thought. my network has become very 'small' compared to when i was still in NYC and writing my hearts out. back then, only a few of people in my circle know about my blog, and most people i interacted with on the net, are just my virtual friends.
these days, my virtual friends have become my real life friends. and my real life friends also the people i would interact with on the net. there's no borderline anymore. for example, i'm having an argument with a friend. back then i would write it here and no one would know who i'm talking about. now? if i do pour my heart out, it gives people something to talk about, virtually and in real life.
are bloggers now - in her or his own right - a celebrity? i think so. after all, a social network sites like facebook or twitter, shows that everyone has a fan and a follower. therefore, you are a celebrity (with your own paparazzi & fans), in your own world.
anyway, as for my writing.. yes, i miss those days when i faced excitements every day, but i wouldn't trade my (boring) life now for anything in the world. i'm grateful to be where i am now.
ps: i also realized that my passion for writing has been exalted because i read less nowadays. as soon as i picked up that hobby back, i can't seem to contain my brain to start writing. hopefully, this will mean i would update more. who knows? one can only hope! :)
in the beginning of this year, i made a resolution this year that i wanted to push a limit on my personal achievement in health. i'm someone who appreciates health and i was raised in family who is very health-conscious. eating healthy snacks & foods are something that is very important for my mom and somehow, i followed her footsteps. as for sports, my parents and brother always excel in it and somehow i'm the only one in the family who was always labeled as "non-sporty". even though i actually joined softball team and was chosen to be part of the junior team for DKI Jakarta back then (which i finally discontinued cuz i was more concerned about my final tests.. what a geek, rite? huff... ).
i think i was always excel in sports whenever i decide to, but i never really put it as my priority. i never really won a medal or sports competition while my brother (who played badminton then later focus more as a tae-kwon-do athlete) and my parents (in golf) who brought home plenty of trophies (especially mom). while me? i'm not an individual player. my sport was always a team sport (softball) and even though my team won many times, i never got to take any trophies home. but i did take home medals for academic competition. i guess i WAS (and probably still..) a geek! :P
over the years, i engaged in many sport activities, but never for the competition reason. i was in it because i want to be healthy. from kick boxing, yoga, pilates, water aerobics, swimming, i tried them all. on and off, i always find myself in the gym. as much as i want to be as skinny as a model (not!), i was more concerned that my body is toned and healthy.
so after i gave birth 20 months ago, i knew that in order for me to get rid of the flabby arms & tummy is by working out. even my doctor told me so. last time i visited him for a pap smear, he insisted that in order for me to get my tummy back, i have to work out. one of them is setting a personal challenge of participating in a endurance track early this year, cycle singapore. i managed to bike 21km in the event and i was so happy i can take that list off my new year's resolution.
towards the end of the year, a friend asked if i want to also participate in the singapore marathon. this will be my first marathon and i only wanted to take part in the 10KM run, just to get a feel of it. i wasn't sure at first, in fact i almost backed out at the last minute. i was excited during registration 3 months ago but due to my busy schedule in between work and apartment-renovation and moving, i didn't manage to train intensively, heck, i didn't manage to train AT ALL! a week before the marathon, i decided that i will not be going. but then i changed my mind, cuz i think it would be good for me to know my limit. who knows this will be the start of many marathons ahead? tho i didn't manage to train this year, i will need to make sure that i do it next year.
so, there i was running my first 10K marathon at singapore marathon event... and I MADE IT TO THE FINISH LINE!
i found that it was a lot of fun to run on the track that i would never be able to do on foot on a regular day. the view was awesome and the weather was perfect! my running buddies also there to support each other. and i found that so many people joining the event were very inspiring, like the girl in the wheelchair or the mommies who ran with their kid in tow.. or the whole family who took part in the event! inspiring!
since the first time i started playing around with make-ups, for some reason, i'm more of a sucker about skin care than the make up itself. yes, i do like playing around with the color palettes every now and then. i had my moments of picking up any cute and colorful shade of a lipstick, gloss, blush, eyeshadows, etc. then i got bored. especially when i started having pimples all over my face. then i got more worried about my skin instead of the make up. i got rid many of my unused make-ups when i moved back to jakarta from the US. since then, i prefer to look for the best skin care instead.
i always believe that any make up will look good if the medium is at its best quality. meaning, if you have a good skin care, any kind of make ups will look better on you. so, religiously, i spend more time taking care of my skin than applying the make-ups.
i stumbled upon different kinds of beauty tips for skin care on the web and i thought i'd share it. see if i have, at least, followed half of the tips listed. so here are the "Top Ten Skin Care Tips" :
1. Do not get carried away with flashy cosmetic labels it is better to understand your skin type before trying products and recipes. you should select a skin care that is suitable for you. sometimes, you do not need any expensive or branded skin care because most of the time, you can probably get away with the drug-store items. for example, i chose garnier products for my exfoliator rather than clinique brand. i find that both has similar results and i can save money with just getting the cheaper version.
2. Follow the goodness of "water therapy". what this means is that you should drink a lot of water as it naturally helps to get rid your body of toxins. i admit, i'm not one who would drink a lot of water. but i tried to be. in fact, i have an individual water dispenser next to my desk at work. the dispenser gives out an exact amount of 8 glasses of water. so that means, i have to finish the water in the dispenser every morning! well, yeah, i sometimes fail to do this. i change the water every other day. but to my defense, i do drink 4-5 glasses when i'm not at my desk (ie. lunch or dinner time). so i think it should be enough.
3. Cleansing is very important and should be done on a regular basis. often dirt and grime tends to accumulate due to the harsh environmental factors on the skin, making it dull and lifeless in the course of time. dirt and sweat also causes acnes and blackheads which make our skin look ugly.
i had a fair bit of experience from this when i first moved back to jakarta after spending a long while in the US. the air in jakarta is very polluted, lots of dirt and due to humidity, i sweat a lot too. so when i found that my face starts to have small acnes (almost) all over the face, i started to worry and went to my favorite dermatologist. she, then, told me about the importance of cleaning my face. and since i live in a place with more pollution than before, i should change my facial cleansing ritual by spending more time to "dig" the dirt out of my face and not just "soaping" it. the laziness, i also have to kill. and the ritual must be performed everyday, no matter what. soon after, my face clears up (of course with the help of intense therapy of facial treatment) and the pimples never came back again. yay!
4. Do not scrub or exfoliate too hard. you should be gentle with your skin and it will smile with health. :) i believe that no good would come from overly doing anything. so do it with care and just as its needed.
5. Moisturize whether you stay outdoors in the sun or indoors in air-conditioned rooms, your skin is prone to getting dry, so hydrate your skin from time to time by applying moisture. if you have oily skin, it does not mean you have to avoid moisturizer, however, you should consider of applying it mildly. i have a combination skin. oily in the t-zone and pretty much normal to dry on the rest of the face. so applying moisturizer for me is quite tricky. but i always apply them because i know i spend most of my time inside the air-conditioned rooms. so i apply it mildly around the t-zone and a bit more on my cheek and especially, my neck! gotta make sure those wrinkles wouldn't form too soon ;)
6. Use sunscreen protection same with moisturizer, you always need to put on your sunscreen, no matter what. sunscreen protection will guard you from the damaging UV radiations when you venture out in the sun. however, don't think that they won't get you if you're inside the room. the UV radiations may come and find you from through the windows, so put the sunscreen on even if you're inside the house. so always put it on and also make it a ritual to reapply. oh wear sunglasses too, to protect your eyes when you're outside.
7. Excessive smoking and drinking can be very harmful for the skin. well anything excessive, as i said, is never be good. but for this case, i think it's much better if it's none at all. i suggest you quit smoking and cut down on drinking. i don't smoke and i also don't drink. but i used to be around people who do. definitely not good for my health or my skin.
another thing to avoid .. coffee! should try herbal tea instead. well, this is quite hard, even for me! although i'm not a heavy coffee drinker (i only drink 1 cup a day, sometimes two), but i still do prefer coffee than tea. but as long as i don't excessively drinking it, i think i should be fine.
8. Physical exercise is vital for having a great skin. it's having the sweats out and leave your face glowing with good blood circulation from the workout. i gotta admit, i don't do this often too. but i try my best. especially that i need to start my training for my first marathon at the end of the year.
9. Too much stress is bad for your skin. so make sure you get adequate rest. yoga is a great way to relax and delays the aging process. remember to eat healthy too.
well, with a baby girl around who's still breastfeeding, it's quite hard to get a good resting time. but i do try my best. and i definitely eat healthy cuz i need to pass on the good stuff to my baby.
10. Treat your skin to a facial to rejuvenate it. the facial must include a massage to improve blood circulation and promote the growth of new cells. and THIS is the only one that i haven't done for a very loongg time! if i were to live in indonesia, i bet i do this regularly. but here? i chose to ignore it and use the money for something else cuz it's so expensive to have a facial here. but i must not compare the prices to those in indonesia. and yes, it's long-due but i really do start having facial treatment on a regular basis.
simple, eh? on top of the 10 tips, there's one more thing that i do religiously now. applying my eye cream, day and night!! it's so very important for me, especially that it's a luxury for me to have my beauty sleep. having a dark circle seems to be a default look on my face. so i really start taking care of my eyes and put different kinds of eye cream to reduce and slow the wrinkle process as well as to brighten up my undereye. i'm on borderline obsessed to eye creams now. i've tried so many of them, maybe i should start writing a review for it :)
early on when fashionesedaily has just started, i instantly became addicted to it. i learn lots of new things from other women in the forum, especially the info on pregnancy and taking care of newborns, besides other women issues like make-ups (of course!), clothings, skin cares, etc. when hanzky, the founder of FD, made me the moderator of the forum, i couldn't say no. little did i know that it became something that i still do dearly everyday, two years down the road. as part of the team, i'm definitely proud to the success that they have accomplished so far.
in FD forum, there's a thread called "Today's Outfit" that has been evolving from just a post of the cloths to wear or wore that day to a whole other medium to share one's look! a thread that encourages the members to show it's narcisstic self and the style that they carry. i went on it a few times myself .. well, cuz i love playing dres up! and i know tons of other women do.. so that's why this thread is very popular among the members. the editors even have their own post every week to show their outfits.
so when i was trying to organize my files in this web recently, i stumbled upon all this pictures that i have taken and posted since two years ago in "today's outfit". i found it amazing how my body and style have changed (or not!) and in between there are plenty of pictures during my pregnancy too. so i put up a collage .. and wishing how i love to be back to my old figure! *sigh*
here i was after i moved to singapore. i don't think i was pregnant yet in the first picture.
these were when i started showing off my baby bumps and still managed to dress up to work and later, with big belly. i gave birth on 1st of april and i think i stopped taking picture of myself soon after feb '08. though i was still vibrant and do lotsa things, i just didn't think i looked good on camera anymore.
two and half months after i gave birth, i was called in to work because my boss had resigned. so i had to cut off my maternity leave short. the first two pictures below show how i still carried baby fats after giving birth.. and the rest shows how my body changes.
honestly, i didn't think that i could pull it off, losing weight after giving birth. but subconsciously, i did. i still think i have a few more kilograms to lose, but for now, i'm happy with my weight as long as i'm healthy, and my baby is too.
i was tagged by rani in facebook. didn't want to start writing in facebook, so i figured i'd post it here.
and i'm tagging whoever's reading this... yep, that's YOU!!
==============================
1. i have a typical javanese name and 100% minangkabau blood.
2. my parents gave me 4 names and no surname - a common thing in indonesia (the no-surname part) but it's quite troubling when you are not living in indonesia. to make it short i use my last name (literally) as my surname, leaving the two middle names as letters only. damn confusing! this is also one of the reasons that i'm still contemplating of adding my hubby's name to mine.
3. i consider myself a self-learner. most of my skills are self-learned, including driving and cooking.
4. i spent most of my childhood in borneo island (mostly in east borneo). i moved to jakarta when i started my junior high school.
5. i learned finance hands on. my parents had to move back to borneo when i was in the second year of high school. they left me and my younger brother in jakarta by ourselves, guarded by my aunt. but practically, i was already living by myself cuz i had to take care of my younger brother (had to drive him to school everyday) and took care of financials while mom was away, usually a month at a time.
6. that experience (no. 5) prepared me to live by myself in foreign country after high school.
7. i purposely flunked my UMPTN test. i saw no point of passing it when i knew that i already decided to have my education abroad.
8. i took care all the preparation by myself to be able to study abroad. i only asked 1 major help from my parents, to finance my education and accommodation while i was there (obviously!). mom refused cuz she didn't want me to live so far away. thank God she finally came to her senses.
9. i went to utah state university in logan, utah during my first year of college. majoring in accounting. that was the first time i step foot in US soil. i went alone (with some friends i know who would go to the same university), my parents didn't come with me. in fact, they never visited logan to this date.
10. i changed my major to finance after the first year of college, along with the university and the city i live in. i moved to providece, rhode island because i thought i would have more working opportunity if i lived closer to big city. i added a second major in marketing on my third year of college.
11. i lived on and off in new york city during 1997 to 1999. fell in love with the city and that led me to move there permanently after i graduated from college.
12. new york city is the city i live in the most years in my entire life .. for now.
13. it took me a week to decide that i'm leaving new york city. quite a short period, but i thought if i kept on thinking, the outcome will change again. 3 months later i was on my way back to indonesia, a week before that, i almost had a change of heart and didn't want to leave. but i already gave up my apartment, my job, everything. i only have 2 suitcases with me, so i just HAD to leave.
14. i went on a road trip with a dear friend before i left USA. visited the southern states. in total, i have visited 27 states.
15. i have 3 driver's licences from 3 different countries. they are all valid.
16. i arrived in jakarta at 27 years old, single and unemployed.
17. i truly believe that God 'made me' go home to meet my husband. you see, i once interviewed by a subdiary of the company that i'm working now. didn't get the job because i only held a student visa then and the company could not sponsor me for a worker's visa in the US. from that day on, i swear that i would try and join that company one day. before i went back to indonesia, i thought of moving to singapore instead. i even looked for a way to become a PR without landing a job yet, so i can avoid jakarta in the first place. at the end, i finally moved to jakarta, had my first job interview at the company i'm working now, but ended up working for another place where i met my husband. a year later, i moved to the company i'm working now to a better position than the first one offered. less than two years, i fufilled all i wanted in the first place - working for "this" company and live in singapore.
18. i never been to europe aside from the transit period in frankfurt on my way back and from indonesia, but i love to travel. nor have i been to africa. although i want to visit different places with my family, at least one new place every year. i got to travel to many different places before i got married. but now that i have a baby, it may be on pause a little.
19. i can't stand being in a crowd. it makes me dizzy and out of breath, even passed out. it happened once when i was in the traditional market when i was young and several times during subway ride in NYC. that's probably why i don't really like to be in a mall, especially in a crowded one.
20. i had 7 stitches on my chin when i was in 6th grade. i passed out in the middle of the asphalt school yard, while standing tall during pramuka ceremony. fell flat on my chin. the marks are still there, of course, but it's not the one under my lips. that one was just a scratch i got when i rode a motorbike. no stitches were done.
21. i never ski-ed ever. i went straight to snowboarding and never wanted to try how to ski.
22. i went to woodstock in 1999. camped out with my friends and brother for 3 days, no shower. listened to music under the stars and stood all day watching live concerts. one of the best experience i had.
23. i am more of a nature girl than a city girl. i'd rather do outdoor activities than going to malls. after all, i did grow up in borneo island where my backyard was filled with trees.
24. i don't like window shopping. i only shop what i need.
25. i paid my way through graduate school. it took me 3 years to finish, because i was working full time to pay off the tuition and my living expenses. that was a tough period, but i'm glad i went through it, though now i think that grad school is sooo overrated.
in another attempt to organize my blog (
since the first time i started playing around with make-ups, for some reason, i'm more of a sucker about skin care than the make up itself. yes, i do like playing around with the color palettes every now and then. i had my moments of picking up any cute and colorful shade of a lipstick, gloss, blush, eyeshadows, etc. then i got bored. especially when i started having pimples all over my face. then i got more worried about my skin instead of the make up. i got rid many of my unused make-ups when i moved back to jakarta from the US. since then, i prefer to look for the best skin care instead.
