GASTRONOMY

Moody Morning at Asagao

11:45:00 AM

It was a quiet yet bright morning when I start my day. As I usually working away on Friday, me and my working partner (her name is Alin, and I guess she’s going to be happy if I mentioned her name here) are willing to look for is there any good coffee shop to finish our tasks. So yeah, we decided to go to Asagao Coffee Shop that is located in Northern Serpong.


I personally arrived at 10 AM so there was no customers yet, I guess. So yeah, it was a pretty good first impression at this Japanese themed coffee shop. They put the whole menu at the front of the space in a squared looking blackboard, nicely done with cute chalk illustration as well.


As I arrived here, they still put the Christmas theme and I had my ecstatic moment looking at the mini Christmas tree they put as a gimmick in each tables and I found it that it’s pretty cute at the moment. The space itself is pretty narrow, but there’s an interesting space where the sunlight comes in and it creates a nice shadow, complete with industrial like space finishing.

I had an iced Americano at first. And I can say that they create a pretty good coffee. Eventhough I can taste the acid but when I put some portions of sugar, it blended pretty well. Meanwhile my friend had her Hot Latte, and I had the chance to sip hers. The latte are pretty well blended, yet just a bit slushy but so far it tastes good.

As the time flies and I think I need additional companion, I ordered their signature menu, the Kori Kohi. Kori Kohi is basically a glass of coffee milk. But the coffee is modified into numbers of ice cubes form, and a glass of milk in another glass. What you can do is to pour the milk towards the coffee cube and mix it well until the coffee cube melted. And surprisingly it was pretty good as well.

Basically, me and Alin loved this place as we stayed around 6 hours finishing our tasks and the crews were quite nice. Good music, good ambience, good pillows, good mini Christmas tree as well. Oh, I was thinking to bring one of them home, though. But no. Better not.

TRAVEL

Broken-hearted Tombstone at Pulau Onrust

3:38:00 PM

It was a cloudless morning when I arrived at Pulau Onrust, one tiny island located at Kepulauan Seribu Selatan, around 15 kilometers from Muara Kamal pier. Just like the mainland Jakarta that has lots of stories to tell, who knows that this island has a lot of stories on the past as well.

As my guide told me that this island is covered with mystical air, I already prepared myself if something might happen during my visit. One tale that is interesting for me to share is the tombstone of Maria van de Velde, a beautiful young Dutch women who lived at Pulau Onrust.


Van De Velde committed suicide because her Dutch boyfriend did not come to the island at the exact day of their wedding. And visitors can take a look at her tombstone located on the back of the island. Yet her tombstone is carved with a poetry about Van De Velde’s love story.

Around 300 years after her death, local people who stayed at the island believed that they sometimes see the Van De Velde’s spirit walking around the graveyard with her beautiful gown, as she might still waiting for her late groom to come with.


As it’s a historical tale that the guide told me, I experienced something interesting during my visit. My camera focus went blur couple times when I tried to take a photograph of Van de Velde’s tombstone, and I set my camera focus in auto, not the manual. Later the guide told me to “ask” for her permission. And after I did that, I surprisingly able to take her tombstone photograph.

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A humble submission about historical story of Jakarta for @iwashere_id 's upcoming event: Portuguese Trail.

PHOTOS

2017 New Year's Eve

9:19:00 PM

Couple years back, I do spent my New Year’s Eve catching fireworks at the capital city because I don’t think I’d go out of town during the date. This year actually a bit different than previous years because there’s no car free night event around Bundaran HI or Monas, and I just browsed the news at the afternoon that there’ll be no event on that. So I am thinking to keep a spot to Old Town (Kota Tua) area in West Jakarta, accompanied with Irwan, my gym buddy.
We arrived at Kota Tua around 8 PM, and there are all humans at the center of the piazza. All peoples gathered there waiting for the fireworks. They’re like all sitting on the cement floor. It was pretty chaotic but I guess we handled that well as the time clicked pretty quick to the midnight.. And finally, the fireworks are shooting towards the bright night sky.


For me, I kinda see that fireworks could be a good symbol for a shimmering hope. That is why I always love fireworks. I thanked 2016 for all lessons learned. Because I do have some goals to achieve this year. And I am willing to hang a quite big hope for it. And not to forget that, give me a little luck and I’ll conquer the land. Please be good, 2017.

LIFE FOOTNOTE

LIFE FOOTNOTE #02 - FAREWELL

2:26:00 PM

It was a quiet Christmas day as I tend to go alone and explore how the city became pretty nice during the Christmas scene. And yes, we’re at the edge of 2016. Another year, another experience. And personally, I guess I would take 2016 as a year to learn about anything, about everything.

I learned how to communicate. There’s never in my life I would think to take public speaking in a whole new level, because I know that my capability is far from there, and I am not going to be comfortable doing that. But this year, I wanted to break my fear in public speaking. And surprisingly, it works. It was a huge barrier here inside me to be able to talk in front of numbers of peoples. At the first time, I went to the toilet couple of times. I had panic attack. But I realise that I am the only one who can control those explosions I have inside. So yeah, let the rest be a history.

I learned how to deal with peoples from past. Yup, I used to know this person around 5 years ago. But as this going to be a bit personal, let’s call this person as “Neptune”. Neptune is basically a mutual friend between me & my long time memory. Neptune came to my life in the right time at the right place.

And I realised that I have an unfinished business with my stolen past. So in short, Neptune is the key to my stolen past. Because my memory locked the door forever. So I couldn’t open the door. Even until Neptune came to my life and I know that Neptune is the key to the locked door, things are not changed. I realise that even a right key cannot open a broken door. So yeah, just let it be an unfinished business.

I learned how to set the goal as high as it could ever be. Because I started to be able to see that a goal is actually an honest pray in disguise. It’s actually a self reminder for myself as well. If you have one exact goal, aim high. There will always a way. No matter how fast or how slow. Because if you ain’t aim high enough, you may gain the same proportion as what you wish. So you better make it high, reach high. The wind is going to be hard but it’ll worth the pain, I believe.

I learned how to accept myself. At the very basic, I am back to what I wanted myself to be like. So that is why I decided to go back to my bald head. And yes, some people like, some people don’t. But I’m okay. Being comfortable with myself is the first thing that is important for me at the moment because I spent most of my life being judged at my body image, my hair, everything. I know the judgements won’t stop, but I just wanted to tell myself to stop listen at the negativities.

I learned how to not panic in a hard situation. Mom had mild stroke 2 weeks before her birthday earlier this year. Dad was on duty overseas. It was 2 AM midnight and it was me & my Mom, just two of us. She screamed loudly in an inarticulated voice and that time I realised I'm in trouble.

I asked help at social media in order to calm myself that I'm not alone, and in hoping that someone would help. And I realised it was one difficult situation, knowing that I am struggling dealing with anxiety. It was really hard.
Today, Mom gets better and she made me a bowl of spinach corn soup. She just told me that it is quite long time she hasn't do a bowl of dinner for me. I directly felt bad for myself because it's like she's the only woman who give her support in what I'm doing.
But I often forget her because I'm chasing thing that I knew that I might not going to get it. She's second to none for being the only woman I can put my trust with. There's a time she told me to follow my heart. But lesson learned, Mom. You were right.

I hope 2017 will do something good for me-- for us.