Time floated away

(Bryce Soderberg of Lifehouse, Arthur's Day, Jakarta, Indonesia. 4th Dec 2010. A version with colours more vivid is cross posted on my deviantarts page. Variations of the pic will be published in the January issue of Nylon Guys Indonesia)

His voice is raspy as he sings along to the radio, and hums fill the gaps where he doesn't quite remember the words. It is all she hears, driving 13o km/h down the highway. He turns to her and smiles, all soft and sweet and girly. She wants to tease him, but instead she grins. And for a moment he is blinded.

Tomorrow brings threats not yet delivered. But they have no prior knowledge, and for this one moment in time, their lives are perfect.

And they are in love.

Whaddap ma hommiiiieeesss!

Said in my accent, it sounds kinda.. off.

Anyhoo.

Relaxing on a gorgeous Saturday morning with a steaming mug of hot cocoa. Wish I had something stronger to lace it with. Mmmm.. *cough* Where was I? Oh yes. Sun. Sun is shinning all bright and pretty, the water in the pool is glistening deliciously, and it's just begging me to come on and take a dip. And where am I? I'm blogging in my parent's air conditioned room, because I really don't want to go to my untouched, super duper messy, shipwreck of a room.

Why am I blogging?

Because apparently I don't do enough writing at work.

No that's not it..

Because I can..! I'm reveling at the luxury of being able to do what I want to, when I want to. Oh the joy of weekends! That, and I have a laser-tag game to get to in about an hour or two. Baby cousin's birthday! I say 'baby', she's 10.. And she's turning into quite the little terror. I love her to bits, but I didn't own that much make up till I was.. 11? 12? Haha. I was going to say 15, but then I realised I started to wear nail polish and make up to school everyday when I was 12.. That stopped when I came back to Indonesia *waves fist at oppresive schools around the country*.

So really we're not all that different. But wait! I didn't have two super awesome 20-something cousins when I was her age. Ah well.. Hugs baby girl, you're all grown up..!

I realize I'm rambling.

But Saturdays are warm and soft and safe. You can't help but be a little wistful, and ramble a little, spitting out every single thing you can think of.. And really, this whole writing out my thought as-they-come-by thing is uber nice. Maybe not for those who end up reading it, but certainly for me.

Yes, my thoughts are really quite inconsequential most of the times.

You should feel lucky that I'm just rambling and my brain isn't serving up some inane questions that I have no answers too. It does that a lot. The significance of cheeseburgers in friendship for instance..

No. I won't go there.

I think I shall go forth and shower now.

Ciao! Adieu! Goodbye dear hearts!

So. Feckin'. Tired.

I think I'm starting to develop this bad habit of enjoying my job just a little too much.

I'm swamped. I run around all day, calling people up, setting up interviews, setting up photoshoots, looking up prices, looking for stock photos.. etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

An (un..?)fortunate side effect is I've begun to have favourite.. things. Chairs, lamps, designers.. etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It feels quite bizarre to be walking along and then suddenly coo at tiles. I coo. At tiles. I'll say it again - I coo at tiles.

This may be my exhaustion taking over me, but I just can't stop laughing at this fact..!

And this.. this is my favouritest most favourite chair. I want one so bad..!

Eames Eiffel Plastic Armchair.

But this being tired thing is ridiculous. I have no time for anything.. And it's stand-up comedy DVD season! I MUST FIND SOME STAND UP DVDs SOON!

Oh heartbreak!

Isn't it just pretty? Just absolutely gorgeous? I want my Furrow eco friendly leather bag in navy blue (yes, that's the name..*wails*). A seller going by the name of Hoakon/Helga at etsy sells these absolutely breathtaking leather bags from repurposed materials, old leather jackets reimagined into pretty bags, with pretty linings (yes, also repurposed if possible.).. Eco friendly, and pretty, and durable! What more can a girl want?

.

Unfortunately mine got lost in the mail. At least I think it did.

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It's been a month, but I'm not giving up! I'm going to go over and see if they've kept it for some insane reason.

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I've never had problems with shipping as I have purchased many, many things from etsy (okay so 10 isn't exactly 'many', but yes.), but lately the Indonesian post has been.. shall we say.. 'moody'? 'PMS-ing'? Point is, this is my second shipment that's gone weird. Grrr.

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Wait. Third. Counting a shirt and Twix(es?) the wonderful A sent me. I also want my shirt and my Twix!

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I'm not exaggerating by tagging this post as 'the horrible feeling of woe', as this is extremely woeful to me. My heart is breaking at the thought of not getting this wonderful bag.

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No. I'm not a drama queen.

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*sulks in a corner*

lucky break for the lucky b*tch

I'm one of those annoying people who always manages to land on her feet, gracefully, in a pair of gorgeous Louboutins, not a hair out of place, not a drop of sweat on my face.

Well figuratively. Because in person, I'm rather ungraceful. I have two left feet, and my idea of landing gracefully is just about managing to stay upright, with my limbs intact (my knees have a nasty habit of dislocating itself).

But I digress.

A long time ago, when I was a wee highschooler, I wanted to get into English Lit. or Interior Design. My mother dissuaded me from English Lit. because 1.) I knew most of the lecturers from the faculty of the uni I wanted to get into. 2.) Not only did they know me, they were also my babysitters, as mum had a habit of dragging me to work so we can spend time together. And 3.) She thought I'd get frustrated if asked to dissect books and/or authors I love (I don't see why, we do this anyway!)..

And Design.. Well.. My brother went into Product Design. He managed to drill into me that Product Design was way cooler than Interior Design. And one day I sneaked into his room while he was working and realized I didn't burn for it the way he did. My brother was (and still is) a cranky person when forced to do what he doesn't want to, so to see him so.. happy and excited bent over a pile of papers, surrounded by books.. Well. I knew it just wasn't for me.

But all I wanted to do was write. All I ever wanted to do was write (and be an archeologist, but that's another story all together)..

So I chose Product Design. And put 'writing' to the back of my mind. I didn't get accepted though. D'uh. (I can't draw or create for shit).. Luckily I had International Relations as a back up plan. Well not so much a 'back up plan' as a 'I-accidentally-applied-because-my-friend-said-it-was-fun' kind of thing.

When I saw what would be in store for me, I was terrified. And absolutely horrified. Economy? Law? Politics!? It just wasn't me.

So imagine my surprise when I enjoyed the classes. I was still crap at economy, and barely managed to pass those classes, but I was surprisingly pleased with all the subjects that contained 'law' in the names. A's all around for law. And politics.. politics was fun. The analyzing, the poking and prodding.. FUN. I ended up loving it.

It took me a while to graduate though, and yes, at one point I was so frustrated that I wish I never touched politics at all. But hey - I got through it.

Then comes work.

I stumbled into a job as an editor (slash photographer, slash stylist, slash art director, slash anything they can make me do, they'll send me off to do it).. Met some amazing people, got into a truckload of interesting situations.. And lamented the pay.

Anyone who works in the media in Indonesia will confirm how shit the pay is. Especially for fresh grads.

But I was writing for a living! WRITING. And get this - I was working in an interior design magazine! How frakkin' awesome was that? 15 year old me would be so impressed. And 9 year old me would just be shitting herself. WRITING!

The thing is, I worked two magazines, the interior design and the other one is a men's fashion magazine. I never thought I'd be into fashion, especially men's fashion.. But it really is fun! And I don't know if I should be proud or ashamed of the fact I can recognize the brand of certain bags, and the season in which they came out.

Yes. Well. Anyway. Here comes the super duper lucky b*tch bit..

My ex-semi-boss dude recently 'migrated' to another magazine, and I went along with him. With a pay increase.

Super duper lucky b*tch indeed. :)

My new job starts in November. So wish me luck dear hearts. I'm living my dream.

Things I learnt in uni..

I wrote this ages ago, but I never got around to posting it.. So here goes! Enjoy!

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Move in with people you don’t really know. Because it might be hard to stay friends with someone once you move in with them, but it’s inevitable that you befriend the people you live with.

Pay your bills on time, and move out before your lease runs out.

Establish lines very early on. If you don’t like sharing, it should be known from the start.

Thin walls and thin floors make for funny stories.

Being drunk in public is never as fun as being drunk in your own place.

Midnight talks are reserved for those stories which involve the opposite sex. And the absence of at least a shirt. Oh yeah, you know what stories I’m talking about.

If you can’t drive, don’t be a bitch to the people who can. Seriously.

Roadtrips should be short and sweet, and the routes never repeated.

Know when to walk away, and when you should open your mouth and call someone out on their own bullshit. Pick your friends carefully.

Painting a room is always fun. DIY brings people closer together.

Don’t get stuck in one ‘circle of friends’, jump around and meet as many people as possible. You won’t feel obliged to be nice to everyone that way, and you’ll have this awesome group of friends you can’t wait to introduce to one another.

You don’t need to be friends with someone from the beginning, and you don’t have to know every single detail of someone’s live to adore them, and think of them as your best friends.

Good friends tell you things will be alright. Awesome friends tell you that you’ve been a complete idiot, and things are shitty because it’s your own fault. So get off your fat ass and do something about it.

Leave when you need to. Come back when you’re ready. People will understand.

You don’t need to spend three days on an assignment as long as what you’re writing is structured, and gets to the point straight away. (I rarely meet the target amount of words. Mine are always missing 500 or so words. And the only time I got a B was when my Granddad died.)

Pick a subject to be sucky in, and then excel on the others.

Noodles are delicious. Especially when eaten with eggs, cheese and corned beef. But eating it every meal time for a week will get you sick.

Midnight runs for food should be appreciated. You will never have as much fun, eating out at ungodly hours as when you’re in uni.

IKEA is a bad place to eat “cookies”.

Good boyfriends make awesome exes. Shitty boyfriends should be drowned at sea.

Sugar highs are really as bad as getting drunk.

Food always tastes better when you’re fighting over it.

You should skinny dip at least once. Hot springs are better than normal pools.

That's Life Coffee

So today I did a quick photo shoot of That's Life Coffee, a cool place owned by kak Arris who's a friend of my brother's. Look up his blog - it made me melt. I wish I could create stuff like that.

ANYWAYS.

I've been hearing about That's Life for a while now. First from my brother (obviously), and from my friends as well, as they seem to regularly hang out there. And for some reason or another, I've not found time yet. Until today.

image: MINE. I took it! Will appear on the November edition of Home and Decor Indonesia, in the Food Notes section.

Oh oh oh. It was perfect. Small and cosy and warm and friendly and just.. lovely. The decor was neat, unpretentious and pretty. I did a long slow exhale the moment I stepped in. A really happy long slow exhale.

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to capture the atmosphere, but I think I did a pretty good job. And a huge part of it is because of Aldy, the designer that works with me on the mag. He did a fantastic job editing! Don't the pictures just look perfect? I have the biggest EVER smile on my face right now.

image: again, MINE. Kthxbai! :)

The food was good, the price affordable. And the coffee - exactly the pick me up I needed. And the cherry on top of it all? I absolutely adore how the pictures have turned out!