A Little Of Life Update

Hello, there.

I'm not sure anyone would notice, but the whole month of March I didn’t post anything on this blog. It wasn’t because I was busy traveling. I was busy working. Yeah. I joined the 9-6 force, once again.

The job started on March 1. I’m not gonna mention the name of the company here, but it is a media that revolves around design. I can’t say I’m enjoying it 100% (just yet), but it is something I need to do at least for now. I do like the fact that it opens my horizon on design, and potentially helps to increase my knowledge on running a business and my skill in treating people. The down side is, predictably, I don’t have a flexible schedule anymore, let alone to travel. Even a weekend getaway feels tiring, just thinking about it. On weekends I'd rather lay low at home or just wandering around in town a few hours.

Enough about the new job, I also did something new in March. I joined the Women's March with my friend Lala. That's the first time I joined this kind of protest/demonstration kind of thing. It's relieving to see many people, including men, care about the women's rights. But some of the statements on the posters were questionable for me.

View from the roof top of my office.

Playing tourist in Jakarta, walking from home to Menteng.

Women's March Jakarta, 2018.

Not a fan of Dilan movie, but I like the statement on the poster.

March was also about my birthday. Diyan and I had been curious about Henshin Restaurant & Bar that sits on top of The Westin Jakarta. It’s in Jakarta’s tallest building, Gama Tower, and only a walking distance from our place. So that’s where we had my birthday dinner. Some reviews that I had read weren’t accurate, especially about the price. We spent twice the amount that some reviews had written, and we weren’t going lavish. The food was enak and the sajian was interesting (my octopus tentacle was soft and Diyan’s duck was cooked for 24 hours!), but to be honest I thought it was overpriced. 

However, I think food is not all they’re selling. After all, I did go there because of the height! After our roof top kafe experience in Kuala Lumpur, now the restaurant on 67-69 floors. Jakarta looked so pretty and fancy at night from up there. Would I go back to Henshin? Maybe only for a drink at the kafe and the scenery. They have juice and tea too among the wide array of alcoholic beverages.

(Also read: our 4^th anniversary dinner in Plataran Menteng, last year).

The semi-outdoor kafe at Henshin, on 67th floor.

Tea with a view.

The restaurant was kinda dark, my pictures of the food totally failed.
So here, the view from the restaurant on 69th floor.

The birthday celebration didn’t stop there. The yearly Piscean night took place a week after at Teddy and Maesy’s place. As usual, we head a very hyggelig night consisted of a chocolate cake, presents, laughs, discussions, and hot tea.

Diyan bought me “Live Lagom” book as a birthday gift. Yeay! After “The Little Book of Hygge” about a cozy concept from Denmark, this time it’s the living well concept from Sweden. The illustration wasn’t as cute as the Hygge book, and some parts felt too motivational and self-help-ish. It took me a while to finish it because I had to squeeze in time for reading in between deadlines among others.

By Vira Tanka is still going. Naturally I’m having a hard time running it now that I have a day job, but it’s exciting to see the new designs picked up better than I thought. It just goes to show that I need to come up with new designs, ones that are more relevant to potential buyers, more often. I still need to find out how to manage my time well. Err, I mean, how to manage myself well to fit the time.

One of many books about Lagom.

Flowers for the birthday girls.

The black Wamena Coffee neck scarf.

The cream Wamena Coffee scarf.

The Jakarta scarf, worn by Maesy while having her Jakarta's ketoprak breakfast.

As if my hands aren’t tied enough with the job, the business, sketching projects and Indohoy, on April 2^nd Diyan brought home a kitten. He was alone, wet, skinny and meowing for help outside our place. Now he’s a healthier, cheerful and feisty kid running around our living room and likes to eat a lot. It breaks my heart every time we have to leave him alone at home, and coming home is something I always look forward to. I hope we can be good pawrents for him. His name is Fistiki, it means pistachio in Greek. I just fell in love with the word ‘fistiki’ since the first time I heard it in Thessaloniki, it just sounds super adorable. It suits him well.

Having Fistiki around also means we will only travel out of town if we really really have to. So we’ve been playing tourists in our own town, which only needs a few hours in a weekend. Walking to nearby places, trying the new busway route, some simple stuff like that. Even that, I’d be wondering how Fistiki is doing when we’re not home.

Fistiki the curious.

Now clean and healthy.

 * This post was supposed to be up about a week ago, but only now I can squeeze in the time to post it.