Twice in a year, usually on certain months, there will be a specific scent roaming the air nearby my neighborhood.
His name is Sam, and he has durian plantation. When it’s durian season, he will put all of the year’s harvest to his truck and sell it directly to folks in Kuala Lumpur, just like many other farmers.
The original price for his Musang King durians was RM 60/kilogram (roughly US$14-15.) Since I arrived in the evening, he wanted to sell it all out so he offered me RM 50/kilogram. Pretty awesome.
Durian is one of the prides of Southeast Asia; and for Indonesian and Malaysian folks, durian is part of delicacy. And you can’t go wrong with durian; durian is not that kind of “…eeeeeh,” fruit. No. You either love it or loathe it.
Back in December, we decided to have a week-long trip to Indonesia, specifically to Jakarta and Purwokerto (my, hm, I want to say it as ‘hometown’, but it’s not exactly my hometown. I was born and raised in Cilacap, Central Java — and my parents moved to Purwokerto back in 2005 when my dad retired.)
It was interesting, mostly because our daily schedule has changed tremendously — me with having full-time work and now we need to plan everything ahead. Even back in November 2019, both my husband and I had to discuss our 2020 business trips and ensuring one of us are there to handle the house and the kids ?
So we decided to go back to Indonesia on December 20. And as usual, there are not many pictures ? (serious question, folks, anyone has tips on how to take pictures during vacations? I found it’s hard for me because I usually forgot stuffs or not quick enough)
Rey on her Trunki bag, being pulled by Wira — it’s one of our attempts so we won’t have to carry her in our arms every time
My father-in-law lent his car to us (“I didn’t use it that much anyway”) so on the next day after we arrived in Jakarta, we went to Purwokerto by car. We expected the traffic won’t be super bad, although there were lots of lorries and trucks carrying God-knows-what throughout the island’s northern route (this route is actually really popular among truck drivers because the roads are not as treacherous as its southern counterpart.)
It was pretty fun, mostly because the kids are such city kids through-and-through and KLites (?) so they never actually saw trucks carrying living chickens or livestocks. When Ari pointed out, “Wira, look at the cattle on the truck!” Wira’s first retort was, “you are lying” then “WHOA!” We also pointed rice fields to them; “this is where your food came from” and they got so confused when they unable to see shallots when we passed shallot fields in Brebes, Central Java, because, “mum, those are grasses! Where are the shallots?”
A tip when traveling with kids: Prepare lots of food. A lot.
Rey is that kind of child, well, person, who got really really cranky when she got hungry or sleepy (Ari commented Rey is basically mini-me) and when she started to answer every single question with, “no,” it means she’s cranky and she needs food or sleep.
We stopped several times along the highway road to get some rest and meal. I personally quite glad to see the toilet cleanliness has improved a lot. I remember when I was still in school, toilet cleanliness was such a big topic at that time. Many people commented and protested about it. It sounded so trivial, but I’m glad we had that kind of talk because now we see so many improvements.
It has been a rainy journey too. I’m glad things went quite fine during the trip. It was quite a stark contrast with Kuala Lumpur as we greeted with warm days when we arrived.
Purwokerto, December 22 – 24
We didn’t explore the town as much as we wanted because of some reasons. Mostly due to tiredness and the weather has been quite cloudy so we decided just to stay at my parents’ house. The kids had a blast harvesting mangoes from the front yard and Wira commented that now he knows how it feels to be Upin and Ipin when harvesting rambutan.
Jakarta, December 25 – 29
We met our good friends when we were in Jakarta. Our tremendous thanks to Alderina and Tommy for hosting us a dinner while we catch up and gossiping ?
Jay and Dwi joined the merriment too, with Dwi’s lemon-curd soufflé (delicious!)
And this is when the unexpected happened. We are expected to go back to Kuala Lumpur in December 27; until Wira started to vomit several times and we had to admit him to the nearest hospital.
I kind of dislike taking pictures of medical patient, so, well…
The paediatrician informed us that Wira’s symptoms were bacterial infection on his tummy/gut. It’s actually one of the very common issues happened on children raised outside Jakarta — as ‘pretentious’ or ‘obnoxious’ it sounds. Ari conveyed his friends’ sympathies and well-wishes from his cycling group in WhatsApp, and one of them commented his child, too, got the same issue. “We live in Bali, and one time, we went to Jakarta for a vacation. My kid got the same infection like Wira’s.”
Now, we might wondering, how was Rey, then?
This girl gulped down two bottles of Yakult and in the middle of asking for the third when Ari told her no (and matched with Rey’s stubbornness and refusal of rejection with equal, “NO. REY WANTS.”) And it happened almost daily during our trip, so you can imagine what kind of gut Rey has on her tummy. I commented, “kuman aja sebel kali ya liat Rey” (“even the germs and bacteria would be annoyed with Rey and decided to leave”)
This case reminds me of a similar case happened during my teaching years. We had several Korea students for our exchange program back then, and one day, most of them got ill. My students commented that their Korean friends got ill due to salmonella infection. “Apparently it’s from the egg they consumed in the canteen, miss,” one of my students informed me.
Now, the uni canteen served hundreds of students every day, and only the Korean students that got ill while the Indonesian students looked really jovial as usual. Realizing they have different entire universe with galaxies and black holes on their tummy, my students tapped their tummy and commented proudly, “our stomach can digest many things.”
(I remember one time I had lunch with my students and one of them ordered this Himalayan amount of rice and, I kid you not, equally impressive amount of deep fried chicken skins. “Do you want some, kak?” I shook my head and smiled nervously with, “no, thank you,” as I could feel impending clogged arteries.)
Even though the infection was not super serious and recognized on its super early stage, both the paediatrician and us felt it would be better if Wira admitted to the hospital so we could keep a close watch on him while he’s recovering.
Thankfully, it was only for one night. Right afterward, the paediatrician gave green light to discharge Wira from the hospital and we can go home in December 29.
Taken at Lot 9, Bintaro
Moral of the story: Don’t forget to get your daily dose of probiotics.
I’ve been neglecting this blog for quite some weeks now, despite my intention to do daily blogging. It’s pretty easy for me to forgot about blogging, I guess — just last night I realized, “wait, I can just post this on the WP app!” So, yeah, slightly expecting Mobile Developers team hunting me down with pitchfork.
Anyway, the Happiest New Year for you all! I was so confused why folks around me got so reflective and solemn as January 1 approaching when I realized it was the end of a decade too. I personally couldn’t say this decade is better or worse, mostly because each year and each decade has their own adventures. During my years as a housewife (circa 2014-2018ish,) I battled a bit of mental issues and learned how to accept things, specifically, on how I accept myself.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
I felt, and still feel, like the acceptance process was quite a process in itself. Sometimes, I feel like, “no, this is not the best version of myself,” and some times, I looked into myself and wondered if hey, things are good enough and I am good enough.
In the end, it feels like a bit of knowing your limit right now. You know you are awesome (I know I am, and I know you are ?) but today you are not feeling awesome and that’s totally okay; awesomeness can wait tomorrow.
So! New year usually means some kind of resolutions, and I… don’t have any resolutions. Mostly because I don’t know how things will turn out ? I mean, who could predict I would apply as a Happiness Engineer back in 2018 and started my work in Automattic early 2019? And 2019 has been such a year. Such a year. There were times I cried in front of my laptop, feeling inadequate and completely stupid. There were times I threw my fist to the air and yelled, “YES!” when I found a workaround for tricky issues. There were times I juggled my schedule, energy, and time between working hours and personal time. There were times, and still are!, I received so many hugs and encouraging words.
However, I found myself listing things I want to do in 2020. I want to be able to take care of myself better — on physical health and mental health. I’m still juggling between handling my energy for working hours and personal/family hours, and there are some things I have been neglecting. I’m still looking the best way for that, though. I’m still holding to ‘A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind’ and I’ve been looking for some inspirations on Youtube. This is one of my favorites.
A bit of confession, though; it’s really really hard for me to do exercise in the morning ? I feel like my energy should be preserved in the morning because, damnit, handling kids early in the morning — and one of them is Rey — takes another level of energy. Let alone working Support afterwards.
I’ve been doing before-bedtime yoga, though ? I haven’t feel any tremendous changes, but it’s all about process so we’ll see. If you have any suggestions or tips in exercising, feel free to share it!
I don’t and won’t going to say 2020 will be easier or a smooth ride because, hey, who knows. Hopefully, I would always have the strength, courage, happiness, kindness, and patience as I navigate many years ahead; I do wish the same goes to you all.
Happy New Year. Here’s for a year of dancing, singing, and generally being awesome.
Earlier today, our office Slack channels went abuzz with Spotify Wrapped 2019.
It was a memory trip. Early 2019 was Spotify’s ‘Evening Jazz’ on repeat, then it started to move to lo-fi by the end of 2019.
I would recommend you folks to listen to Ilya Mann if you like slow jazz (although there are only two of his original works on Spotify: ‘Inner City Drive’ and ‘Halfway’)
If you like upbeat cute music, you can check Lullatone.
How about you folks? Feel free to share your top musician/artist and your favorite songs throughout 2010-2019 ?
This is my personal blog, so anything goes. Everything written here came from me, and is not a reflection of my family or the place where I work (although, to be fair, I’m a housewife now, so the things written here are not reflections of my throw pillows on the sofa.) While things here are generally PG-13, I must remind you that I’m an adult, which means some topics might be too heavy for younger readers.
:)))) Samaaaa. Sekarang ga pake browsernya dulu, hahah