I was doing my usual mindless scrolling on Twitter when I saw KLa Project’s tweet about their song “Yogyakarta”.
Terharu dengan #nyuyokarto ala @Pinot, kembali membongkar kenangan. Pulang ke album Kedua … Siapakah yang masih menyimpan album KLa? Kaset, CD atau punya tembang Yogyakarta dalam playlist? Pamerin dong! Bikin postingan lalu tag disini ya ? …#pinot#pinotski#klaproject2022pic.twitter.com/Ll1YCyBv1k
KLa Project is one of the seniors in Indonesia music industry. Their songs and albums holding legendary status among Indonesians.
One of their songs is “Yogyakarta”. Yogyakarta is a special district/area in Indonesia, and Indonesians usually associate Yogyakarta with “memories”; from fond memories to bittersweet ones. Apart from being a district, Yogyakarta is actually a city too, and the city is the topic of the song. Yogyakarta is special in many senses. It still upholds the traditions while the city keeps moving through urban development here and there. In its own ways, Yogyakarta holds mythical feelings of fleeting moments.
For Indonesiamatticians, this song is memorable. We sang this song one morning, one of those days during the company’s latest Grand Meetup in Florida, back in 2019. There were only a handful of us at that time in Automattic. There were only five Indonesians, me included, in Automattic. We are a tight-knit group, thick as thieves. We promised to sing this song again when we meet on the next Grand Meetup — then, you know, pandemic and all that. Now, whenever one of us mentioned this song, it always replied with groans and some frustrated text, “DANGIT WHEN THIS PANDEMIC GONNA END.”
We were jetlagged, it was 5.30 AM in the morning, none of us had our coffee or tea yet, some even haven’t slept since the night before, I woke up with barrage of messages on the Telegram group “OI! WAKE UP! WE ARE HAVING JAM SESSION!” and one of us, Eric, struck a chord followed by impromptu singing by Hafiz. Akeda and Ezra followed with guitar and bass.
For 4 minutes, “Yogyakarta” was heard in Florida, United States, sang by a bunch of sleep-deprived Indonesians. For 4 minutes, it became a memory.
We have been following a food blogger/vlogger from Malaysia, Ceddy, and he’s recommending the char kuey teow on this place.
Bonus: The food is muslim-friendly.
A bit of note, Penang folks are not joking when they said their food is delicious ?
There is this… joke/anecdote about food peddler. The more unfriendly the seller is, the tastier the food is. The logic is: The seller doesn’t have time to be nice. They need to cook right away to serve the queue.
With Bee Hwa, that’s definitely the case. Not unfriendly, but as soon as we sat, the service staff asked with a rushed tone, “okay. Want what?” (“What are your orders?”)
We ordered three char kuey teow and one white curry mee for Rey (she hasn’t able handle spicy. We are working on it.)
And char kuey teow they delivered. It has subtle char taste (fire/charred) with enough spiciness but not too much and you can definitely taste the shrimp and the fish ball.
The glistening sparkles you see were not oil. It was the sauce filled with yumminess.
On a first glance, the portion might look smaller than usual char kuey teow. Don’t get fooled, it gives you a nice, satisfied full tummy afterwards. Wash it down with teh ais, and Penang’s hot weather no more.
I’m letting Rey’s face when eating white curry mee does the talking.
Definitely a must-have when we are visiting Penang for our next vacations.
Working outside the home terrifies me. As soon as I started in Automattic, I found myself attached and depended on my external monitor. I have been enjoying the wide and spacious view of everything that I’m working on — it feels like ”I have the powah”-moment. This is something that I can’t achieve when coworking, so I always feel really hesitant of doing coworking.
Enter Monday. I was working at home as usual, doing my own thing (a.k.a. getting confused with some formulas on Google Sheet) when I felt the floor rumbling followed with a loud noise as if someone is tearing down a brick wall.
And that’s what actually happened. My neighbor is doing home renovation — it just started — and one of the main tasks is Tear Down A Goddamn Wall.
I couldn’t work with the noise. Even noise-canceling headphones can’t handle it. I’m having weekly meetings and I don’t think my colleagues are signing up to join the Home Improvements Orchestra.
Thus, the coworking journey. I looked for options on KL area, and I found one: Regus
I’m interested on Regus because they are worldwide. Meaning that, you can use their service no matter where you are as long as you are the member. I found it really neat because Automattic requires the staffs to travel and having meetups. Regus makes it easier for the team to set coworking space and it would help the team checked the list faster. A bit of disclaimer, this is not a sponsored post. At all. I don’t even remember I ever got sponsored post here (Fenty Beauty, my doors are open here wink wink nudge nudge.) I checked coworking options in KL, and Regus happens to be the one that interests me.
I actually planned to start coworking on March, but the noise getting unbearable so I decided to use their service on the next day. I took the private office daily booking option for Tuesday to see how coworking is all about and how it feels.
My first impression was: Professional. It looks so office-like, and it gives me multiple feelings.
The pro: It feels like office. The whole area gives me this… ”Alright, let’s do this”-mood and I really enjoy the privacy and the quietness. Finally I work with office attire and not my usual /wp-admin shirt with some shorts.
The con: It feels like office. For someone that has been working from home for 3 years, this is quite a jump physically and mentally. My brain keeps going in work mode (because the surroundings looked like office area) and I got seriously tired at the end of the day, plus a headache. Price-wise, Regus falls into the more expensive side. I would definitely recommend Regus if you are looking for setting up virtual office or long-term coworking.
But yeah, the pros outweighs the cons. Definitely much better than listening to someone drilling and hammering walls for hours.
The private office size is 9 metres square and it has a couple of storage drawers, two desks, and two telephone units. For some, it might look so bare and spartan. For me, it’s just enough. The Internet speed is pretty stable too, so I honestly don’t have anything to complain. I did notice 1-2 connection drops when I had 1:1 with my teammate, but not super significant.
As for my issue with external monitor, I’m using my iPad as my second monitor. I’m glad Apple makes the connection is easier (you only need to plug USB-C cable and connect it from the menu bar and call it a day) so I can be a bit at ease. The screen size is still smaller than my usual external monitor, but it’s definitely better than nothing.
Pandemic-wise, that’s also the reason I’m using private office space. I tried minimize contact on public areas and I always eat takeaway lunch on my desk (I feel this is one of the reasons why my brain has trouble in taking a break) and not on the pantry area.
How about you all? Have you tried coworking, or perhaps you are a pro in doing coworking? I’m actually having problems in maintaining my energy (the tiredness and headache at the end of the day is no joke) and I want to know if there are any ways to alleviate it.
