New Year

New Year. Nothing changes really, but it's a nice occasion for us to step back a little from our lives and evaluate. I think it's good to have milestones like these among our busy - and sometimes robotic - days. It's a good time to think back of the year that just went by - did we become a better person? How many resolutions have we forgotten along the way? What must we improve in the upcoming year?

One thing I intend to do is to start writing more regularly on this blog again. This seems like a good time to write again. And why not write some reminders for 2009:
- Read more. Finish reading the bible.
- Discover more music!
- Stop splurging on Zara and Converse.
- Stay positive... because The World is Just Awesome.
- In relation to the above point, try more new things and visit more new places.
- Study photography.
- ORGANISE, ORGANISE, ORGANISE!!

Weekend in Semarang

I never feel that I belong in Jakarta. However, upon being back to Jakarta from my weekend trip to Semarang, I actually felt sort of - I don't know - at home. Semarang is a lovely and quiet small town, and it's nice to visit, but I know that I'm a big city girl.

We went by train and I felt admittedly nervous. I've only been on trains abroad, and the transportation in Indonesia is rather sketchy. But I was up for a new experience so there we were. The train was better than I thought, probably because we rode on executive class, and the journey was smooth. I like how we got there, sat down, and depart - unlike flying, where there are so many things to do before you actually get your arse flown. The only downside I suppose was the length of the trip - although you can actually look at the view as compensation, but it sores your body after a while. We departed from Jakarta's Gambir station at 10.15 and arrived at Semarang's Tawang station at 16.40.

We took a sightseeing car trip but there were only few places that our chaffeur could point out. The appeal of the town is how old it is, and how little things have changed. Well, except for some growingly abundant advertisement billboards which ruins the sight of the town. There's even this huge billboard right in front of Toko Oen, a restaurant that's been purposely kept the way it was when it started in 1936. It was an outrage!

But oh, Toko Oen itself is extremely lovely, antique and comfortable. I could sit there for hours, thinking of how many people have been there in the 72 years of its operation, how many people ate the same food I did, and what's going on in their minds while they sat there. I love old buildings and Toko Oen is an indulgence of old time atmosphere! They even cover up the air conditioners with old style cabinets to preserve the nostalgic feeling. Lovely! Then we went to the Candi hill area, but unlike in the old days, we can no longer gaze down upon the city - newly built houses block the once lovely view. A bit disappointed, we headed back down and did what we always do in Jakarta - mallratting.

Out of curiosity, I went to Mal Ciputra. It looks EXACTLY like its twin in Jakarta, only it's half the size! Heck, probably even a quarter. It was like looking at a toy model! The inside is similar as well, it's nothing to write home about. But it's already one of the biggest buildings in town. It's just the uncanny similarity is so funny. I suppose there's another mall, DP Mall, but we didn't bother.

The most impressive tourism object that I visited was however the Sam Poo Kong temple. It was built to honour Zheng He [look it up] and it was way grander than my expectations. I was a bit reluctant to visit it, but when I got there I took a look at everything! I even almost took a picture wearing traditional Chinese costumes - I kind of regret I didn't. Next time I visit, I will.

There's another building I will visit next time I get around to Semarang: Lawang Sewu. Apparently it's famous for being haunted, and I had no idea until the chaffeur told us about it. People can actually tour inside for something called the Horror Tour! Needless to say nobody in my party was interested, and I didn't feel like doing the tour alone, so...! Anyone up for it?

It was a great weekend full of new experiences, and I'd visit again should the chance arise. It also made me realise a lot of things, probably putting things in perspective, which is why I love travelling so much. See you again Semarang!

Jakarta Great Sale

Why do people [men] stereotype women as shoppers? During the Senayan City midnight sale, I saw as many men shopping eagerly. I went with my friends who were all male, and the male section of Debenhams was just as crowded as the female section which I visited with my family a day before. On the day before I felt pity for the men who seemed obviously bored in the women's section, but when I was in the men's section, I saw bored women sitting around waiting. The young ones [girlfriends, I presume] were tagging along with their boys, helping them pick shirts and jackets with a loving look in their eyes. Ah, to be young. But the older ones [wives, I presume] sat down unamused while their men perused bargain bins.

It was part of the Jakarta Great Sale, spanning from June until July, as part of celebrating Jakarta's anniversary. Last night there also was a midnight sale at Plaza Indonesia, but due to bad experiences finding a parking space on even regular Saturday night, I refrained from going. But oh - best of all - Zara's on sale as well! Me and my friend Rosa literally ran towards the store when we saw the sign!

Anyway, it's been a great sale and you can really find good stuff with great price if you look really good.

Claudia's Self Improvement

Ananya

I never think much about showering. I thin it as just an act of cleaning up myself and - sometimes - a waste of precious time. Yet, I have to do it twice a day.

So, it was a delightful surprise when I received a The Body Shop gift set, the Ananya series of shower gel, body milk and eau de toilette. The smell is rather perfume-like, with sweet tones. Plus, they feel great on your skin. The scent of the shower gel alone lingers for hours, it's a good pick-me-up throughout the day to know that you at least smell good.

Besides, The Body Shop has a great concept of trading and protecting the planet. I might start visiting to pick up some more things there.

It was then that I realised, that having a good shower gel might just be the simplest way to pamper yourself twice a day. I mean why not, better indulge yourself while you're at it, right?

Shoe-aholic?!

I'm over my shopping budget for May, but I've been looking for a pair of high-heeled Mary Janes for soooo long. I actually want something plain black and shiny, but this pair I saw at Charles & Keith are close enough:

And then of course, I fell in love with the Converse Coolette Wedge. I mean, how could I not?! Besides having a strange fanatism towards the Converse brand, the Coolette Wedge is all I could possibly want in shoes: it's black, canvas, sleek, simple yet unique, feminine, high-heeled, and got that Converse look. It's one of the rare items that I see and just go, oh, that's made for me. And when I tried them on, they felt super snug and comfortable [as Converse shoes always are]. Oh and there's a bonus of free t-shirt. I just *had* to buy them.

Thank goodness May is ending and it's time to reset my shopping budget. Teehee.

Red Dash Pink

This one's a rather simple one to make: a stripe of light colour crossing your dark coloured nails.

1. First step of all, as always, apply basecoat.

2. Apply the light coloured polish - in this case it's nudish pink. Always apply the light colours first to contrast with the darker colours. This time I chose a colour that's very close to my natural nail colours so that in a glimpse it'd give the effect that my red polish had been smeared off in the middle.

3. After the light layer is reasonably dry, apply the dark layer. First, apply the part that's wider at the bottom and polish diagonally all the way to the edge of your nail. It takes focus and accuracy to run the brush straight, so take your time. Avoid metallic textured colours that show your brush strokes; choose plain or finely glittered [dusty glitter kind]. With these you can polish slowly and carefully with smooth result. Also, don't use too much polish on the brush - just use a little to create the diagonal line. You can always fill the rest later if it ends up being too transparent.

4. Using the dark diagonal layer as guide, apply the other dark layer side, running the brush parallel with the slant of the first dark layer side. As in the first layer, take the time to create straight lines first, then filling the rest afterwards.

5. Let dry. If possible, use only 1 coat of dark layer, but most likely the nail surface would still look uneven - the dark layer would naturally look raised. So take the light coloured polish again, and run lightly once between the dark layers - just to even out the surface.

6. Apply top coat.

It's really not that difficult!

Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate

Aside from The Sims, my other favourite game series would have to be Mystery Case Files. The basic idea of the series is to find hidden objects in a picture of a scene, which is not as easy as it may sound.

The Madame Fate game is the fourth release of the series, which I just finished tonight, and thought was worth sharing/recommending here. It has improved a lot compared to the previous releases [Huntsville, Prime Suspects, and Ravenhearst] - the pictures are more beautiful, the items are harder to find with some extra twists, and the puzzles are more insanely mind boggling. I guarantee it will keep you playing for hours out of curiosity! It does also make you feel challenged to do your best to solve every puzzle and find every object. With the previous games, I could play casually while eating chips and listening to music - but with this one, it takes extra concentration. As soon as I get sleepy or tired, even the slightest lack of concentration already results in failure to play the game 'properly'.

This is definitely one good game to exercise your brain, you can almost feel it spinning while you play - and I can't wait to play it for the second time, even if only to beat my previous time.

London Skyline Time-Slip Photos

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7355753.stm

This fascinates me for more than one reason: It's a neat and original idea, it's in my dream city, and looking at it makes me love life. I'm loving life so much right now to the point of regretting not savouring every minute more intensely, although I already fairly do day by day.

Time-slip. That's a fact that we take so much for granted, since time is always slipping away. When you look at these kinds of time-slip photos, fast forwarded ones, it makes you realise that life is indeed too short.

So the idea of the project is that it takes pictures of London skyline every 5 seconds from a few angles, which results then can be viewed from inside the 'drum' that houses the cameras. You basically can rewind through the photos by walking around in the drum - around the available monitors, or just closer and further from them, to change the image. I SO hope to visit it, but well, I guess I must make do with watching the video above.

What you DON'T do

We may feel that we'd never do anything to hurt anyone... But, the scary thing is, we can hurt people by something we don't do!

My friend is hurt because of things her friend didn't do. That friend of hers doesn't even think that he's wrong. I got hurt because my colleagues forgot to include me in an admittedly trivial thing. A lot of us hurt our secret admirers - or even our steady partner - without even knowing it. We might hurt a kid by spontaneously showing more affection towards her cuter sister. We might make someone doubt themselves by not giving compliments to their artwork. We might dampen our inferior's spirits by only correcting their mistakes and never praising their jobs well done.

Hurting people is easier than we might think, and we've got to be careful.