Starting Over

Many people kind of raised their eyebrows in knowing my latest interest in baking and cooking. I couldn't blame them. I guess only people who are really close to me and know me for a long time could understand this new obsession.

I'm okay with question such as "Hey, what starts this obsession?" or "Why, just realize that you're a woman now?" but the question that I dislike the most is "Preparing yourself to get married?". Heck, what's getting married and cooking / baking got to do with each other? I have a friend who can't cook sh*t but her husband is one of the best cook I've ever known! Do they have a problem? No. Does the husband complain? No. So why should people complains on behalf of unable-to-cook-wives of the world? SMH.

And just FYI, my Mom couldn't cook when she married my Father but she learned. Still, my Dad used to make the best fish-balls I've ever tasted! No msg, no flour, just with his bare-hands. Darn, I wish he can still do that, but alas, it needs power to make fish-balls, believe me, I saw him made them when I was little LOL And sometimes he still cooks for himself even now.

People are also surprised when they find out that I like crafting. Nah... not that kind of crafting that I can make money of but I do like working with my hands, thread and needles. I used to make my own Christmas cards for friends, sew my own pouch (by hand, since we never had a sewing machine at home), make my own picture diary with stickers and such. But they're so time consuming that I just can't do it anymore.

Back to cooking and baking. There is a good reason why I never show a lot of interest on it before. My Mom. She's a good baker to be honest and through the years she became a good cook for us. I was always curious and wanted to learn from her, but I never got the chance too. She said I was a nuisance in the kitchen. She said she hated me hovering over her while she was cooking and baking. The simple snacks I could make from flour and cassava, I learned from my maid who was patient enough to buy the ingredients and taught me when my mom wasn't home. And whatever I made, my mom never wanted to taste even once. So I made it, I ate it.

As I grew up, I never had the confidence to put my hands on recipes or even going near the stove except for boiling water or cooking instant noodles. I felt like whatever I made was going to be a disaster compared to my Mom's. Same as my way of dressing. Until the day my Mom died, I could never dress up myself with my own style nor could I walk out of the house without her approving of my clothing. What she bought or thought look nice, I had to wear, no questions asked. Only after she passed away I gradually changed my whole wardrobe and started dressing according to my own style and liking. At the age of 32.

After she died and no one to cook at home, I started buying recipe books, cooking pasta for my friends who were visiting, even looked into the fridge and mixed stuff that's left in it. Sometimes they're bad (but I still finished them anyway LOL), sometimes they're okay (my Dad didn't mind to eat them) and sometimes they're good (that my friends requested me to cook for them again). But I finally learned that "Hey, I can do this! I'm not that bad!" The more I tried, the more I realized that "Yes, cooking is great, especially when people can actually eat what I cook!" I don't have an oven at home, so I haven't started with baking, but I will very soon, once I got enough money to buy a nice oven :)

I'm starting over.

A month ago, I tried my hands on some no-bake-cake recipes. The Nuttela-cheesecake was okay but the Marshmallow-oreo was a disaster LOL But that didn't stop me from trying. Last Saturday I tried to make my very first mini donuts and my Aunt happened to visit while I was frying them. She said it tasted wonderful! Maybe she was trying to make me feel good hahaha but I didn't mind. She ate 5 of them (or maybe more?) and said the most wonderful thing I've always wished I could hear from my mom: "Would you like me to teach you Grandma's pudding recipe?" It's one of my mom's specialty inherited from my Grandma. I never tasted any good chocolate pudding as the one I always ate when my Mom and Grandma were alive. I'm excited.

I'm starting over.

I'm going to take baking course. I'm going to schedule a pudding-making lesson from my Aunt. I'm going to try more recipes. And I'm going to dye my hair Plum again.

I'm starting over. And it's never too late to start over.

I don't feel bitter anymore about my mom's attitude toward my kitchen interest. If she let me learned from her, maybe I won't be this excited again. Maybe I won't have the drive to try something new. Maybe I won't discover new joys in life in such simple actions as learning to make pudding. But mothers, please let your daughters or sons learn from you. It might be a disaster in the kitchen, you might feel annoyed. But believe me, it will be something that your children treasures when they grow up. Teach them with patience, show them what you can do. And one day they can proudly say: "Hey, my Mom taught me this! How cool is that?"

Lastly, I've posted this in Facebook, but again, please ignore the strangely shaped donuts. Apparently it wasn't easy to create a round-and-full donuts with just two spoons even though you've watched the tutorial in youtube a hundred times!

Hunger Over Picture

Isn't it a trend now to take pictures of your food and post them in SNS? Nice food pictures do attract my attention to try out and find out the taste, some pictures are too blurry to even get an idea what kind of food are those, but anyway! Yes, I do that too LOL

I post food pictures when I feel like sharing a bit of my appetite or when the food taste really good or has really nice presentation that even if taste like mud you still want to eat it cause it just look THAT good.

A few times I ate out with friends and no matter how hungry there were, they took another minute or two to take pictures of their food and post them in their SNS accounts. I just CAN'T. When I'm hungry, I'd go straight for it and when I finished I was like: "I thought I was going to take the food's picture?"

Yeah, my hunger overcomes my picture-taking obsession ^^" 

Fail Case # 1 - Kinokawa, SCBD Sudirman

First thought: "Aw, I like the bowl! So cute, let's take its picture before it got dirty!"

Food came... Wiped out everything in less than 15 minutes and then "Darn! I forget the pictures and the food was great but now I can't show anyone!"

Fail Case # 2 - Itacho Sushi, Bugis - Singapore

First thought: "I'm starving, I missed lunch a few hours ago and what do I do while waiting for my order? Ah yes, taking picture of the drinks first..."

Food came... I think I just swallowed the sushi whole at that time, couldn't even think clearly because of starvation. At payment time: "Gaaaaahh! No pictures again!! I can't brag about the sushi!"

There were more fail cases but again, I must have stored the pictures somewhere I can't remember, pardon my aging brain ;)

Anyway, it's not like I take pictures anywhere, regardless... I don't take food pictures at formal dining definitely or while I'm with office people / the bosses. It just seem inappropriate but too bad some people just don't care.

Do you take pictures of your food too??

Finally... When?

Good news first, my brother is getting married in April 18!! Woohoo!! First wedding in the family... and might be the last if I can make a choice LOL Any bad news? Not really... rather than sharing bad news, I want to share a little of what every singles like me dreaded to hear around a wedding.

Every single time I shared the good news, 99% it was replied with: "Oh, finally! Congrats to your brother!" which was no surprise for a couple of reasons (a) They've been dating for 6 years already and (b) There's really "finally" a wedding coming in our family. And then another 99% will be followed with, "And when's yours?" that made me feel like printing an A4 sized paper, laminated, with the words: "No boyfriend, don't even think of asking me when." in bold red, all CAPITAL.

Then strings of theory of "why you're still single" or "don't give up hope" or even "what's wrong with you?" started as I was just staring into nothing and pretended that I was listening and ready to give them another sheet of paper that says: "Being single is also an option and a choice."

I am not going to rant here and tell you all the reasons of why I'm still single, chose to be single and still happy to be one. Email me if you're curious, I might reply LMAO But the point is, I just don't get why being single is a such a disgrace or such a burdensome state. I mean, hellooooooo I kept hearing of married people complaining about their family or even worse about their spouses. Why would you expect to me to get rid of my singleness when you can't even be happy with your marriage? D'UH!

Anyway, yes I'm a bit excited cause we're inviting a lot of people that I haven't seen in a such a long time for the reception so this could be another reunion for long lost families and friends LOL What a grand reunion! I plan to visit some of the elders to hand out the invitations in the next few weeks and hopefully they all can make it on the D-Day :)

What else? Oh yeah, I will have to accompany my Dad on the stage during the reception; still hope to be able to mingle and have fun with the guests though TT___TT I don't like the material and the color of the traditional dress I'll have to wear, but I don't have a choice, gotta match the future in law's dress. At least I get to wear whatever I like for the Holy Matrimony, oh yeah!

Cleaning Up... My Face ^^

Long time ago I wrote about how I finally hooked-up with make-up. And to be honest, I'm even more improved in applying my own make-up compared by then hohoho Lots of youtube tutorial and  practice even when I didn't actually need to go out with make-up, I did LOL And I felt a bit self-conscious going out without eyeliner bwahahaha who would've thought, eh? :p

But as much as I used to think that wearing make-up is a such a hassle, there's another thing that I felt is more bothersome -- cleaning up the make up from my face! I used to do it the old way: milk cleanser (twice) - cleansing foam - toner. When I was too tired after returning home from a party, many times I spilled the cleanser and woke up the next morning with dirty beauty cotton on my shelf. Then I looked into the mirror and saw that there was still leftover mascara or eyeliner. Sooo annoying!

Then I was introduced with Etude House Pore & BB Deep Cleansing Foam (such a long name ^^). It saved a lot of time for me until I realized it didn't erase the eye make-up and mascara well. In the end, I still had to use Etude House Lip & Eye Make-up Remover and Etude House Mascara Remover. Not only I had to do more, I also had to spend more on them as well! Not to mention that my skin became dry and I had to add another gentler foam cleanser after all of that :(

The most irritating part was when traveling, I just had to waste space in my luggage for those stuff! So inconvenient, especially when I wanted to travel light. I tried several make-up remover tissue, but none actually cleaned up really well.

But browsing beauty blogs brought me to this amazing cleanser: The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Light Oil (yes, another super long name)!

 

I was a bit skeptical when I read some good reviews on it. I wasn't familiar with cleansing oil and to be honest I always thought cleansing oil would be very, well -- oily. But then I went ahead and purchased one, straight from Korea from here for $10.50 / 150 ml bottle. Once it arrived after 2 weeks of waiting, I just couldn't wait to get home and try it out. I didn't regret it. One pump, and it took out all of my eye make-up & bb-cream off! No mascara nor eyeliner residue.

I didn't need to rub my eyelids hard to get rid of the mascara & eyeliner. Just brush on it gently and it'd washed off. The directions on the bottle says no need to use another cleansing foam after this, just wash with warm water and wipe gently with towel. My face didn't feel oily at all, felt smooth instead. I tried using another cleansing foam right after, but apparently it also wiped out the moisturizing effect of the oil.

I was so satisfied with it but then I thought there may be better cleansing oil out there? :) Browsing again... and I decided to try out other brands, and I ordered 2 more.

I used and really liked Skinfood Black Sugar Scrub Foam, so why not try the Black Sugar Cleansing Oil? It cost the same from the same vendor for a 170 ml bottle. I really liked the smell on first pump. Just like the scrub foam, there's sweet smell from the oil, not too strong but it's a bit disturbing while cleaning my face hahaha Result? Just okay for me. Felt a bit dry on my skin, took a bit of effort to wipe the eye make-up, but overall it cleaned well.Oh, this one required another Cleansing Foam after using. Another small effort but still acceptable for me.

And the last that I tried out was Sulwhasoo Gentle Cleansing Oil. It's the most expensive of all 3, cost me $11.50 for a 50 ml bottle.

 

The reason I chose this product was because Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Line did wonders to my skin!  Problem was, it's too expensive for me so I only tried out the trial kit. Still, it's still a high scale brand in Korea, so I thought it would do wonder as well in cleaning up my make-up. I was wrong. The smell was nice, not too oily but it didn't erase mascara & eyeliner well :( I had to add more oil and took a long time gently rubbing on my eyelids to completely wipe them off! But at least it also moisturized my face well and it came in a small bottle, I still could use it for traveling. Maybe next time I should try its Deep Cleansing Oil instead. Hm... will have to finish off the other 2 bottles first LOL

So that's my experience with make-up cleaners. I'd still go with The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Light Oil  when the bottles run out. But maybe there's still a better one out there? Hahaha

Online Shopping: My Kind of Shopping

Yes, I'm into online shopping. All my close friends know that I practically buy anything online for the past 4 years, long before online shops started to trend in Indonesia. From cosmetics, cakes, clothing, shoes, books, music, CDs, electronics, even underwear, I purchase online.

My first online shopping experience was here around 7 years ago. I bought some books and CDs. Imported books were quite expensive at that time and not all books that I wanted to read were available in Indonesia. So I tried to purchase online and found out that the shipping fee was not so bad compared to purchasing the book at a bookstore here. Then I found another place to buy books, sometimes with free shipping, and I kept shopping until I had my Kindle 2 years ago and I ran out of space to keep my books, then I started purchasing e-books.

My fave place for underwear shopping is of course none other than this place. Again, the shipping fee is not as expensive you thought it would be. Well, depends on stuff that you buy also. I always buy stuff from the SALE section LOL much cheaper price, same models with the non-sale items, difference was just the pattern and the season. Sometimes I buy 2 leggings with the same size, same color, same model (Hey, it's only $12 each! And it's 100% cotton!). Even after the shipping fee to Jakarta, it costs me the same amount of money of nice other brands available in Jakarta, if not less. To be honest, I chose to buy them for reasonable reasons: sizing & material. It's a pain for me to shop for underwear in Jakarta! Even if they do have my size, I usually hate the material or the style! So why not spend a bit more for a much better one? And since they're unavailable in stores here, their online store is the best choice for me.

How about clothing & shoes? Am I not worry whether the size would fit me or not? No, because I only purchase the same brands for some stuff and I know exactly what size for which model suits me. For clothing I limit myself to jeans and t-shirts for online shopping. And surprisingly, most of the time the size chart on the web is pretty accurate so even if I purchase a new brand for the first time, it would still fit me. So far I have no complain. Early this year I bought a brand of shoes that I never purchased before, I just followed the size guide before I made the purchase and apparently it fit me perfectly. No complain, really.

And last but not least, cosmetics shopping!! This is where I purchase all my Korean cosmetics!! LOL Yes, some brands have the official store here in Jakarta, but the price is like 3-4 times the original! I understand shipping cost, I understand tax, but 3-4 times the original price is just ridiculous! Not to mention that a lot of time one product can be gone from the rack for a few months, "waiting for shipment from Korea", and I had to use another brand or another product, so annoying. A lot of the nice products are also unavailable in the official store here, so this place is where I run to to get what I need. Since I don't only shop for myself there, as well as for my friends who won't bother shopping online themselves (you know who you are!), instead of being a recommended seller, I'm a recommended buyer there ROFL I buy regularly from several buyers and the price is only like $1 - $2 more expensive than the originals, free shipping and lots of samples! Woohoo! ^^ Spending someone else's money feels great hahaha

Oh, by the way, this place is also where I purchase everything else. From audio cables, earphones, plush toys, batteries, basically anything that can be shipped to Jakarta :p

In the end, it comes down to time saving and money saving for me.

First: I don't have to spend time on traffic and finding a parking spot. Which lately has become such a pain.

Second: I spend money only for what I need. If I go to the mall, it's impossible for me to avoid a cup of coffee or snacking :) Not to mention parking fee which has gone up since early this year.

Third: I can get the most suitable product for me that's not available in this country. Online reviews are important, make sure to read before you buy them ;)

Four: I can send gifts for people I love abroad without spending a lot of money on postage / expedition. A reasonable shipping fee is acceptable enough.

Do I shop online locally? Yes, I do :)

I bought my mobile phone here because of a good discount upon release.

I bought my Skullcandy Hesh Paul Frank Headphones here, cause it's even cheaper than this place.

Those two places are mostly where I shop locally other than cake stores LOL They provide great customer service and I can always track my stuff and make sure they arrive safely and in good condition.

This doesn't mean that I never go out to the mall to shop anymore. Especially when this brand has its end of year sale ROFL Well, I still shop there even with regular prices since the cutting really fits me. I rarely has to do any fitting, especially for pants. Just find my size and pay hahaha

So yeah, I guess I'll still be doing online shopping for a long time... unless we have no more traffic anymore, my size available everywhere and the stores sell my stuff with reasonable prices. Which is... still in a long time :) Until then... don't die on me oh internet connection! Especially not when they're verifying my payment!