Zodiac and Personalities, What’s Yours?

Siapa yang suka baca ramalan bintang?

Ayo ngakuuu :).

Aku suka lho.

Dulu kalau baca majalah (sampai sekarang juga masih sih), salah satu bagian yang aku suka dan jarang terlewatkan adalah ramalan bintang.

Terkadang, meskipun tidak selalu mengerti isi ramalannya, aku suka berpikir lama dan panjang untuk mencocokkan ramalan bintang yang kubaca.

Apa benar sebentar lagi ada kejutan manis dari teman dekat? Atau hati-hati jaga kesehatan? Atau jangan larut dalam kesedihan mendalam dan move on. Seringkali bacanya sambil senyum-senyum ngga jelas. Apalagi biasanya di akhir tahun juga suka ada bonus ramalan bintang dan nasib kita di tahun mendatang berdasarkan bintang.

Although I don’t know whether they still have this interesting section in the magazine or the newspapers, and I don’t really believe in it, I do enjoy this fun side of astrology. Well, I know nothing about astrology (I suppose it relates to something much more important) as a matter of fact but I am aware of zodiac and the fun fact surrounding it, including personality traits of people under certain zodiac.

Now let’s talk about it!

To those who have known me for quite sometimes, they might agree to the proposition that I am self-confident, outspoken, lively, talkative and a bit emotional. Really?

Let’s see.

Banyak juga yang bilang kalau aku bawel, berisik dan galak. Juga PDnya ngga ketulungan dan terkesan ambisius.

Hmmm.. I guess I have to agree on that.

Aku memang suka banget cerita dan 

I also love to  initiate something and lead my group in a way. I like to do things fast and usually require others to do the same.  I tend to be impatience, but I can be patience on certain things that I have set my heart for. I can be moody but mostly I’m bubbly. Some might think I constantly seek for attention and I do love being under the spotlight.

And I love purple... although it has nothing to do with anything :).

Can you guess what my zodiac is?

Anybody has similar traits as well?

Those saying I’m a Leo, then you got it right! 

Beberapa orang yang mengamati aku dengan baik sering langsung menebak bintangku Leo, karena katanya sifat-sifat Leo sejati ada di diriku. Well, terlepas dari benar atau tidak, aku sendiri sering melihat banyak sifatku yang sama dengan orang lain tapi bintang kami berbeda. Kalau aku cek di google, beberapa tokoh dunia yang bintangnya sama dengan aku antara lain Barack Obama, Madonna, Neil Armstrong, Jennifer Lopez, dan Arnold Schwazenneger.

One thing for sure, aku sih ngga begitu mengasosiasikan karakter dengan bintang. Yang penting aku tau mana karakter baik yang perlu aku pertahankan dan karakter yang kurang baik yang harus aku kurangi.

So, what’s your zodiac?

Do you know your best personality traits?

5 Awesome Books for your Teens

Who loves reading books here?
I do!
And I try to make sure that my family loves them too.

I do have a big collection of books and I have to admit that I do bring them wherever we are moving. So you can imagine those boxes of books I have from places we’ve lived before. When we were in NYC, books were so easy to find and some of the are super cheap, as we can definitely but the second-hand or preloved ones. No wonder we brought back 10 big boxes of books to add to our collection.

And now, allow me to share 5 awesome books for your teens.

Being a mom of 2 teenagers (one is teenager-to-be actually), I’m trying to make sure that they have good quality reading materials at home. Let’s find out what’s on our list.

Harry Potter series

J.K Rowling’s fantastic works are definitely on top of the list!

Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are three teenagers with out-of-this-world lifetime experience that makes you want to enroll to Hogward School of magic right away. We’re not the only ones being spellbound by their adventures as millions of people are joining the band.

I spent my university years reading the complete series of this book and I keep them all. From the Philosopher’s Stone to Deathly Hollow, I passionately read the stories page by page, trying to relive those scenes in my head, until the movies were out.

Now my kids develop the same habit or reading and bring Potter’s books here and there.

I have the complete collections in English, Bahasa Indonesia and the pictorial series now, although it is only up to the 3rd book, the Prisoner of Azkaban.

The kids enjoy the magical world filled with wizards, creatures and unthinkable imaginations! They also learn many good (and bad) attitudes as well as family values and determination from these books. Have fun exploring the other side and have a magical journey!

Percy Jackson series

Rick Riordan’s wild imagination about the life of demigods ,- that is the children of Gods and humans,- in Half-Blood (now you know why they name it like that) Camp is really fascinating. They do live like us humans and among us as well, but they get this bonus of attracting and engaging monsters (luckily we can not see them thanks to the ‘mist’) who are trying to destroy the world or simply being revengeful. So say hi to centaurs, satyr, nymphs, wind spirits, ghouls, cyclops and of course, the gods and goddesses! Not only that we learn about the names, the characters, the history and myths, as well as those interesting lives of Greek Gods and their complicated affairs (believe me, they ARE complicated), but we also learn about courage, friendship, leadership, perseverance, loyalty and good hearts.

We started reading this as the first book, the Lightning Thief, was listed in Bo’s reading list on the 6th Grade. They even had a special tour to the Met museum, especially the ancient Greek section, to find some artifacts and figures mentioned in the book. It was really fun! I guess starting from there we got hooked by Jackson and friends’ adventures. We now collect and all the complete series, with the final battle of the Last Olympian takes place in New York City!

Riordan has written so many interesting series including the continuation of Percy Jackson’s adventures with the Roman Gods, then another adventure with the Egyptian Gods. Really interesting!

Laura Ingalls series

How I grew up with Laura, Mary, Carry, Grace, Pa, Ma and Jack!

To those born around the same years as I do, Little House on the Prairie or Laura Ingalls Wilder series must ring a bell. Beautifully telling us the stories and adventures of the pioneering family in the early years of the US independence, Laura and her family shared some wonderful family values that they held dear despite the tough and harsh journey they have to go through as they moved around from the Big Woods to DeSmet, where they finally resided.

I wept with them when the whole family was sick and Mary ended up blind or when Charlotte, Laura’s doll was found wasted on the mud by some spoiled girl.

I shared the joy when Laura became a teacher at the very young age and when they diacovered a lovely swimming spot aby the Plum Creek.

And I was curious when they started making snow sugar or smoked beef from Pa’s game.

I also enjoyed reading the Farmer Boy, Laura’s dearest husband childhood story.

My kids showed similar fascination as I introduced that adventurous life of Laura and her family.  I hope they managed to read the complete stories.

The Land of Stories series

Now this is another series you should not miss!

What a twisted plots of all those legendary and classic fairy tales we know since we were kids!
Chris Colfer is a darling genius!

Remember him from Glee TV series? 

Never thought he is a super talented writer as well.

Again we embarked on the journey of this series from Bo’s reading list in the 5th grade. Fascinated by the first book, the Wishing spell, we now have the complete series as well, up to the 6th book. And reading these series is super fun, as it completely changes our perspectives about all those traditional characters in the fairy tales. I don’t wanna spill the beans but apparently villains are not always that bad! So go get the book and prove it yourself ;).

Diary of the Wimpy Kids

I guess this book is famous enough, at least at the US, as I have seen many of the school students reading it at quite a young age. The adventures of Greg Heffley and his brothers, Rodrick and Manny, as well as his best friend, Rowley, are Hilarious. This book is more like an elementary student diary and I like the fact that Jeff Kinney, the author, put so many interesting sketches and hand writing notes in the book. 

Bo et Obi enjoy all those mischievous adventures, but at the end of the day there will be good messages highlighted from all those events. I do enjoy reading it as well so we can diacuss further about the stories and what the kids learn from the stories afterwards. It was certainly a fun experience.

There are so many incredible books out there that you kids may or will definitely enjoy.
Those books will be great gifts as well!
Now...Tell us about your favorite book or books!

What makes you love them?

What's in my bag?

What's in my bag? pic: pixabay

What's in my bag?

Interested to know what are the must-bring items in my bag?

Can you guess what are those?

Here's another interesting question we have for #BNP30dayChallenge 2018

Lima benda yang ada di tasmu.

Apa sajakah itu?

To begin with, I always use big, big bags.

Small bags, unfortunately, do not fit me.

Not only because I have a towering figure (another way of saying obese :)) , but also because I always have a lot of things inside of my bags.

I just don't know why I have so many things inside but those are the things I need on daily basis. And 5 is such a small number in this case.

So, let's see what we have in my bag

SMART PHONE

This is a must! 

Pokoknya ngga bisa deh yang namanya hape ketinggalan.

Well, I don’t want to sound like a gadget freak but every thing is in my amart phone now. Contacts, works, drafts, photos and even my electronic wallet. So you can imagine how important it is LOL. I might forget my wallet or my money I still can tolerate it. But leaving my smart phone? A big No No. Oh, and one more thing, I always bring my phone with its charger and cable. I big package we have here. 

WATER BOTTLE

Stay hydrated is the best option for me who is traveling around on daily basis and mostly in the middle of the day. And Indonesia is hot, hot. Commuting in the middle of the day, even with online transportation and cars, still make me easily thirsty. So, water bottle has to be inside the bag. All the time.

I usually bring my alkaline water feom home and keep some at the office. Nowadays, we have many choices of bottled alkaline water so I’m good.

COSMETIC POUCH

Here is THE most entertaining part of my bag.

Why? Because my cosmetic pouch is like the world of its own.

Pasti tau kaaan Lena-a. Karena memang isinya banyak aja hehehe.

Aku suka masukkan at least 4-6 lipstick at the same time, walaupun ngga semuanya full size karena Aku juga punya banyak yang travel size dan imut gitu. Terus ada bedak, mini perfume, eye liner, eye shadow (mini), highlighter, sisir mini, hand lotion, dan cotton buds plus tapas. Tuuuh..komplit kan hehehe.

Yang ngga ada make-up remover aja, karena akan selalu sabar untuk bebersihan di rumah biar afdoe.

WALLET

Well, wallet is important as I put all my carda in there. I don’t always bring cash but I have all my cards, including my ID, driving license, insurance card, credit cards and more. 

Jadi bukan uang di dompet yang penting, tapi semua kartu identitas yang perlu dibawa setiap saat.

HAND FAN

This is one of the latest addition to my bag.

While in NYC, I never bring hand fan in my bag.

Sejak pindah ke Indonesia, aku sering banget kepanasan hehehe. Yah wajar lah, arena suhunya memang hangat-hangat kuku begitu.

Jadi daripada mati gaya karena kepanasan, kapas di tangan sering beraksi.

Untungnya aku punya beberapa koleksi kipas yang lucu-lucu, jadi seneeeng bawanya.

That's the must-have items in my bag.

What about you?

Benda wajib apa yang harus ada di tasmu? Share yaaa.

See you on the next post..

ASEAN BLOGGER FESTIVAL INDONESIA 2013 #1

What an amazing gathering....

Rasanya memang woooooooow berat kalau kumpul dengan bloggers :D.

Not only that you instantly have great friends, new and old.
You also get new followers and great chats, membuka wawasan baruuu. Belum lagi dapet free products dari sponsors, free wifi!
and ALL THE FUN in the world.

Seruuuu kaaan :D.

Last night , we had a excellent welcoming dinner at amazingly beautiful traditional and historical house of the Mayor of Surakarta, Loji Gandrung

Loji Gandrung....elegantly standing since 1823

Lovely place indeeed.
You should see how elegant Loji Gandrung is.
Yang telah tegak berdiri sejak 1823.
Kebayaaang kaan....
No wonder banyak urban legend yang bilang kalau ada noni Belanda yang suka say hiiii to people (lucky me I didn't see her :D).

Makanannya? 
Guess what!

All those yummy food from Solo! the famous culinary collection from the city of Surakarta certainly swayed me away....

Nasi Gudeg ceker, mie godog, selat Solo, risoles solo, danish kelapa sukseeees mengenyangkan kita semuaaaa...

nasi gudeg cekeeeer...yummy beraaaaaat :D...

mie godooooog yang kondaaang :D...

si danish kelapaaaa :D,,, 

Belum lagi minuman segaarnya.
Sayangnya aku ngga kebagian karena sibuk ngeMC ama Agus Lahinta, my dear friend from Gorontalo...... 

Dan hiburannya pun ngga tanggung tanggung lho. 
Ada Himpunan Artis Musisi Kroncong Indonesia (HAMKRI) sukses menghibur dengan koleksi lagu - lagu cantik mulai dari Dongengan ala Solo, Bengawan Solo, Jembatan Merah sampai Besame Mucho and the Autumn Leaves.
Pokoknya juaraaa deeeh :D....
Apalagi ditambah sumbangan suara emas Pak Walikota dan Pak Dirjen Kerjasama ASEAN, H.E. I.G.A Wesaka Puja, who happens to be my CHarge d'Affaires di PTRI Geneve dan Dubes RI untuk Vienna, Austria

All in all, it was an enjoyable, memorable gathering.

VIVA ASEAN BLOGGERS.... 


And I'll come back soon with more souvenirs from ABFI 2013 :D...