Thing, sometimes, never goes easy when it comes to target and working under pressure. You are targeted, pushed to achieve certain goal, and assessed by quantity you compile within certain time line. It usually occurs in private sector, like in my company.
I feel it’s pretty much harder for me and my team when the goal is set by the high level management without compromising the condition in the “grass root”. In the name of company’s image, and many times bench marked with the competitor in other countries, we are forced to work harder. It should be dependent on how we see that target, as a challenge or as a barrier. Even week by week we should report to our management how the progress goes far. They always say that more than half of our roaming business is highly reliant on what our team achieve. Okay, we accept that challenge.
It’s never been this tough before, before my director was replaced by the new one and she said” I don’t wanna business as usual”. Then, the target that was set in early of this year is rectified. Our target is doubled.
Sometimes, challenge is never easy for me when I reach the boredom in my pursuant of target. I can’t just work as usual as I have to push my effort even harder. Every time I get to the office, all things I am thinking are related how to achieve the target and make creativity to reach it. I just can’t work in conventional way. It indeed requires out-of-box thinking. In our first quarter this year, we’re failed to achieve the targeted additional roaming partner. The second quarter started this April, and I never want to miss chance that I can make it and say to my boss ” I did it my way”.
Another thing, besides the detox, I wish I can accomplish this year is joining an English speaking club. Those two were actually targeted last year in my resolution, but failed to be done. This year I start to gather some people who are willing to practice their English speaking capability through a speaking club.
The concept was discussed profoundly with Mas Chandra and Mas Apri, both are instructors of an English institution in Jakarta. They were very enthusiastic with my idea as the club that they founded is decayed. From them I know that it’s not easy to build a speaking club in conventional way. I mean you just can’t gather them up in a venue like in class, especially when the participants are working. Weekend is also a bad choice of time as they will prefer going to mall or entertainment center rather than gathering with pals practicing their English.
Departing from their shared experience, we came up with a concept that this speaking club will be held after hour, when people choose it’s better to stay somewhere while waiting for the traffic jam. The day picked is Wednesday and the time is 7 PM. Afterward, the place is tentative but definitely in a place situated in mall or entertainment place. It can be cafe or something else.
With that concept, hopefully we can, at least, gather 15 participants who will continue committing their presence every Wednesday night. The topic can be anything interesting as long as it can “provoke” participants to speak up. And though a relax ambiance of cafe, instead of confined-class room, hopefully people will feel relax.
Anyone would join? It starts this May 6.
I love cooking. That passion has been growing since I was a little girl and continues clinging to my heart until now. During my teenage, my mum always asked my hand on the kitchen. In the process of assisting my mum, I learned step by step the basic skill of cooking. Slicing, frying, peeling etc.
My mum loves cooking, which skill she inherits from my granny. Because of her wide networking, she knows many people form different backgrounds. Then she sharpens her cooking skill and develops her knowledge on recipes from other provinces. That’s why since I was a child, I have been used to eat food which is relatively different from other friends. My mum is an expert on cooking bubur manado, ayam rica, botok, pepes aceh, rendang, rawon, ayam bakar bumbu rujak and many others food I can’t list.
Besides learning from my mum, now I love googling to find unique recipes. I enjoy preparing the menu for my hubby and cooking her fave dishes, such as bebek goreng, ayam penyet, tuna fettucine, shabu-shabu, tahu telur, or pecel. Technology is undoubtedly very helpful in this case. It takes no time to find recipe of green tea frappucino, my hubby’s fave beverage. From googling, I know how to make strawberry mousse that I will be cooking in the near time. However, what my mum has taught to me is the principal thing as that’s why I can cook and apply all recipes I take from google.
My mum keeps dreaming to run a restaurant where she can pour her passion on cooking fully. I know that she never has that chance unless she resigns from her current job. Mum is a very hard-working woman that she won’t feel enough of retiring her self after her tenure.Because of that, I guess she will seize her dream and make it true.
What about me? Now I start compiling all recipes which have been practiced so that in the future I have a capital to start my own business. My hubby supports my idea a lot. He wishes that we could manage a unique food place at Jogja. Both of us have worked on the concept of the restaurant. Just wait for the right time to launch it.
I see the similarity of interest between me and my mum. We both love cooking and dream to have our own restaurant. Maybe next, I will share this passion as well to my children:)
Not many people whom I meet who dare to dream and seize it until they get what they really want. Alin is the one, a big dreamer and a hard worker. I never doubt that she obtains what she dreams as she consistently improves her self quality.
I know her since I was in a senior high school. We were from a same senior high school, but she is two years younger than me. Then we also went to the similar college, with a same concentration, International Relations. I never thought that she had a passion in journalism until I heard that she was the runner up of Liputan 6 goes to Campus. From a best friend of her, I knew that Alin had prepared all of her plans, including becoming a professional journalist. She kept practicing reading news in front of mirror, ensuring she would be delivering good intonation in front of camera.
Once graduating form college, she started her career as a journalist in the metropolis city. Despite her achievement, she started all from the very beginning, until she joined a tv station which broadcasts a qualified news program. I often found her reading the news. Little bit surprised as she looked different on the screen.
Now she’s in USA attending VOA fellowship for six months. “Wish me a good job, mbak, because if so they will extend my fellowship for another six months”, she said when we had lunch at City Plaza. I encourage her to apply for a scholarship in journalism because I conceive that she’s more than deserved to get that for she’s smart and hard worker. Her best friend, Mya, said that Alin is a big dreamer and a hard worker. I couldn’t agree more about that as it’s clearly obvious from her.
Good luck Alin. I am looking forward to hearing another achievement from you:)
Ups…if you’re one of Liputan 6 viewers, you must be familiar with the anchor Juanita Wiratmaja, It’s her anyway
What children wear is disposed by the parents. That statement impressed me upon my reading on an article in national newspaper last week. It enlightens the phenomenon nowadays where children fashion becomes a business, particularly in big cities such as Jakarta. Popular brands, previously working on only adult market, now are embracing new field, accordingly children market. Not to mention the name of the brands, I am sure that they are well known.
Children, of course, don’t know if the apparel they are wearing is branded or not. Parents who know exactly about it. They don’t have any right to decide what is suitable for them and sometimes parents think they know what’s the best for their children. In such condition, they can’t explore what they want. When parents give more spaces for their children to explore what they want to choose and wear, it will give an opportunity for children to trigger their creativity.
Well, it’s just an intermezzo. Principally I haven’t had any idea how to be a mother as I’ve never been there. And I am afraid that I will be one of them, parents who under utilize children’s creativity.
My status on Facebook this morning intrigued some friends to comment. Okay let me explain why I wrote that statement as my status. It started from a chat with a best friend several days ago. She’s in the crossroad whether to give a man, whom she’s not in to, a go or be patient for another one, she’s longing for.
My friend concedes to me that she chooses being patient for her Mr. Right instead of forcing her self to give her heart to a man she does not love. I have two say that both men have bright future. They have what women require from a man as their life time companion, materially speaking.
She keeps her heart to a man who’s has not shown sufficient clues that he’s also in love with my friend. While the other man has said the three words to her, I Love You. “Life is to short to love with just anybody” she says. In her waiting for the significant other, her Mr. Right, I know that she doesn’t want to push her self further with the man whom she doesn’t have heart to. She wants no regret later and thinks that the smartest way out is managing herself to answer question” when will your turn” in every occasion she encounters with old friends or after presenting wedding party of colleague.
She’s not the one who faces such condition. I have several friends who also have similar circumstances. The question starts when we graduate and find a job. Okay, you have a job then what? Don’t you want to move further? When will you get married. And still many other questions emerge. That also happened to me years ago. Now, I never have that kind of question any longer. And I am so overwhelmed that I don’t live my life with just anybody, a settled man who’s willing to marry me, but a man that means a lot to me. And next question is, “What about baby??”.
Layer by layer, I put them on the pan.
The first layer, then I applied tomato pasta with the minced meet and smoked beef. Ups, I didn’t forget to give oregano leaf into it once cooked.
Next, again, I put another layer of lasagna, which previously boiled, in which I mixed some spoons of oil into the water so they wouldn’t stick together.
I added creamy sauce, made of low fat milk that I cooked with cheddar cheese and pepper powder. It was just like making creamy soup where I fried flour with the butter.
Okay then I put another layer, then laid the tomato pasta, the creamy sauce, consecutively until the tray was full.
Finished with the layers, I prepared the oven, turned it into 150 degree. I took the pan into the open and set the timer. It was around 30 to 45 minutes. I saw the the topping, which was full with chess, melted.
And the good smell came around. It was just baked perfectly. But I couldn’t taste it directly as I had two guests to be the first taster.
Not long after that, the awaited guest came. I served the pan and let them tried first.
Nervous, I expected their comment.
“Delicious, Mbak Thea”
Then I stared to my hubby.
“It’s delicious, Hun”.
I was flattered.
In the morning before leaving for the office, I prepared some slices of Lasagna to be brought to the office. My hubby said,
“Don’t bring all of them to your office. I wanna some more”
Okay hunney. Then I left half of Lasagna with him.
“So you can cook Lasagna?”
“Is it really your first-baking?”
“You can run business, then”
Those are their comments.
In the Yahoo Messenger, my hubby said,
“I got drunk because of your lasagna. It’s just really delicious”.
Voila…my first Lasagna and it’s nice:)
We know that love can make people do things unbelievable for it. Just like what I watched last night in Kick Andy show, which invited couples who had their marriage wedding in unique way.
A couple from Surabaya held their wedding on ice skating arena. Even the MC was forced to have regular exercise months before so he could at least walk above the ice. What was not less unique when an artist, Iskandar, proposed his wife. He gave an old bike and dual band radio as “mahar” (wedding gift). The wedding ceremony was held in river while they were doing rafting and continued with off-roading passing the merapi. What a wedding!!
When planning wedding for our selves, my hubby and I didn’t think anything unusual. We just wanted it as smooth as can be, and of course it won’t cause rejection from my parents as they preferred it ran by code( read; pakem). The planning itself successfully made our emotion ups and downs. We faced many unexpected things. Budget which abruptly swole, just to mention one of it. We designed the wedding by ourselves with help and contribution of some family members. It’s just never thought before that we could do such things. Again, love can make people do anything.
It’s like I were in the top of the world. The place where beauty and nature combine perfectly. It also answers my curiosity of what people keep saying that it’s indeed a really tranquil place, where my friend, Nora, thinks that God has given too many stars above it’s sky. Bromo and it’s surroundings.
Plan has been set. My trip there isn’t only me and my hubby. Instead, we go with with other five friends. People call that I have another honeymoon, but I call it a reunion with old great friends. Too much work and study, of course we need a great vacation. The choice was swinging between Bromo and Lombok. Lombok is too far and needs extra time while Bromo is relatively near. That’s why we choose Bromo.
To get to Bromo, we took train to Surabaya, where Sasti welcomed us warmly. Hot tea, snack and delicious fried rice were served for our hungry tummy. She’s lovely, isn’t she?. Then the trip should be continued to Probolinggo and Cemoro Lawang. It too about two-hour-bus trip to arrive at Probolinggo. If you plan to go to Bromo, from bus station of Probolinggo, you have to take Bison. Bison is a call for a 12-passenger car that serves Probolinggo-Cemoro Lawang route.
Along the way to Cemoro Lawang, the scenery is very beautiful. The rain was pouring down on the half of our journey. Right and left, we could see greeny valley with tall-sturdy trees. Getting the higher altitude, palms are scattering everywhere. The temperature got cooler. We tightened our jacket. One hour passed and we arrived at Cemoro Lawang.
Cemoro Lawang is the common place where tourists like us rest before go to Taman Nasioanal Bromo-Tengger-Semeru. Arriving around 4 pm, not much too see there as it was raining. We stayed at local’s house. Besides homestaying like what we did, tourists can also find lodging around Cemoro Lawang. The fare varies, ranging between 200 thousand to 500 thousands. Homestaying is much more price-friendly. For a house with four rooms, we only paid 400 thousand.
Tummy needed to be fulled and we searched food after settling our carriage in to the house. There’s a food stall who served more choices of food than other. The food? Not bad. The price? Pretty much expensive. But what you can expect more in a place where delicious food is a luxury?? We prefered paying more expensive to get the tastier one, thought it broke our backpacking principle.
In the night before going sleeping, we stared at above and watched so many stars. Beautiful. It’s just a blessing for us who rarely see stars as we never have clear sky in the polluted city like Jakarta.
Alarm was set. We had to wake up at three in the morning to catch the sunrise. The experience of catching the sunrise was more like off road experience. We got in to hartop, an old jeep car with huge machine capacity, that took us in to a place where sunrise can be seen. The path was so damn rocky in several spots. Wooww…what a experience. We bumped in the car where cruised the pre dawn to the sunrise place.
Unexpectedly! There were many people arrived before us. We thought the spot would not crowded. We went wrong. It turned out that the gate to Taman Nasional Bromo-Tengger-Semeru are not only Probolinggo and Malang. But many people also depart from Pasuruan. Well, it’s paid off with great sunrise, even not too clear because of the cloud. And the eruption of Semeru, which my hubby said occurred in every fifteen minutes. And again, with good pics and good models like us. No offense:p
After sunrise, we went to Bromo crater. The hartop went down from the sunrise place and took us to the sand desert. There are two ways to reach the ladder to see the crater. First, walking and second, taking horse. Walking is free and taking horse needs 75 thousand rupiah. We chose walking. It’s not about price actually but to measure how fit us and know our endurance:D. People believe that the number of the ladders isn’t precise, meaning no one knows the exact number of the ladders. Maybe it’s around 200-250 ladders.
After Bromo crater, my friend, Yanto, suggested us to see the savana. He said that it was very beautiful. Actually it’s not included in a package we took. Therefore we had to pay 75 thousand because of the extra trip. It turned out worth-seeing as it’s so drop-dead beautiful. Had Peter Jackson seen this place, Lord of The Ring would have been taken in this place and not in New Zealand. It’s like I see a scenery which I often see in the calendar. The land is flowery, yellow and purple. The valley is green and gives calm into sould. Just like it very much.
I don’t know any other word to express my feeling to that place but heavenly:). You should go there.
I should know what’s in mind of person who said that toothache is much better than heartache. As long as I know, toothache leaves nothing but pain, not only on the teeth themselves, but also at head. At the end, it brings toothache and headache at the same time. Perfect!!But if I have to choose, heartache or toothache, better not each one of them. I prefer to stay healthy, both psych and mental:p.
Generally speaking, tooth is not only functioning aesthetically. It helps us to cut and bite the food we eat. The delicious pizza won’t mean anything if we can’t eat it. In short, tooth is very important as it’s related with the most important activity in our life, accordingly eating.
Two common problems about tooth are caries and plaque. Maybe some of you have ever experience bad caries that it causes swollen gum. It must be very hurt when chewing. The worse, I ever heard, is because tooth nerves are continuing to other nerves and organ in our body, such as kidney, they can harm the other parts too. The open-decayed tooth is a gate of the gems and bacteria to get in to other parts through the tooth nerves.
Departing from awareness that tooth health is a must, Ogi and I visited dentist yesterday. It’s a plan which had been delayed for weeks actually. Yes, both of us we’re lazy to go to the dentist and chose to go other errands in weekend. But no again yesterday. We had to. And the result, I got caries in four teeth. Ogi had the same number too. What a shame!!!
Unlike Ogi who was willing to go to the dentist as he felt hurt in his teeth, I felt nothing. My intend was just having minor checking on my teeth and didn’t expect that they were in trouble. No pain, no hurt, but it turned out that they were sick. The caries would have been worse just in case we didn’t check it. Thanks God we went there!! Finally.
As the dentist suggested ” Have a regular checking every six months will help us to monitor our tooth health”, we will go there in June or July. It should really work on us!