Moving Out, Moving In!

Akhirnya! Setelah sekitar satu bulan apartemen kami resmi on sale, ketemu juga dengan pembeli yang cocok.
Huge and big THANKS to Rangga for referring us to his in-laws who ended up to be the buyer! 

Proses balik nama memang belum beres lantaran pihak developer yang akan menjadi perantara transaksi mendadak cuti bersama dari tanggal 23 Desember sampai 6 Januari (grrr...). Tapi pembayaran sudah dilakukan 50% dan kunci sudah diserahkan, jadi insyaallah Januari nanti tinggal pelunasan dan penandatanganan dokumen saja. Amin!

Karena kami belum juga menemukan rumah yang cocok untuk dibeli, sementara ini kami putuskan untuk menyewa unit lain di Kalibata City juga sembari menunggu kelahiran (which is due in 3 weeks!) dan meneruskan proses pencarian rumah dengan tenang. Bertekad membereskan segala urusan sebelum lahiran, jadilah minggu kemarin ini saya sibuk pindahan dan beres-beres apartemen baru. Canggihnya, minggu lalu suami ada kerjaan di Bandung yang berarti proses cari tempat baru dan pindahan sebagian besar saya lakukan sendiri. Well, nggak sendiri juga sih soalnya dibantu sama si Mbak Karti dari tempat Mama dan adik-adik saya. Hihihi.

Ternyata ya sodara-sodara, pindahan saat lagi hamil besar itu dapat mengakibatkan pegal-pegal akut dan linu-linu badan! Dulu waktu kandungan sama masih di trimester kedua, saya suka meremehkan gerakan-gerakan yang dilakukan di kelas senam hamil, seperti buka tutup telapak tangan. Apa sih efeknya gerakan seperti ini? Ternyataaaa, di saat-saat ini gerakan-gerakan sederhana seperti itulah yang membantu saya survive rasa sakit otot-otot di sekujur tubuh setiap bangun pagi.

Apartemen yang baru ini memang kami sewa dalam kondisi full furnished sih. Jadi saya benar-benar cuma meletakkan barang-barang di tempatnya saja. Biarpun apartemen kami dulu kecil (yang sekarang juga sama), tapi ternyata banyak banget barang-barangnya. Butuh waktu dua hari untuk memindahkan barang-barang dari apartemen lama ke yang baru. Padahal sebagian barang-barang juga sudah kami ungsikan ke rumah orang tua masing-masing beberapa hari sebelum pindahan.

Here's how our new apartment looked like before everything is put in order.

Udah macam kapal pecah! Pening rasanya berada di dalamnya.

And this is how it is now.

I like our old apartment (way) better, but it's not bad either. Semoga menjadi rumah yang menyenangkan selama 6 bulan ke depan! :)

On Sale: My Apartment!

Setelah hampir 2 tahun menempati apartemen di Kalibata City, akhirnya saya dan suami memutuskan untuk pindah! Sedih juga sih meninggalkan rumah (as in 'home' rather than 'house') pertama kami ini. Soalnya sudah cukup banyak effort yang dikeluarkan untuk mendandani si apartemen hingga jadi seperti sekarang. Hampir semua pernak-pernik di dalamnya kami pilih sendiri, so there's a little story in every little piece. Tapi, setelah mempertimbangkan banyak hal (termasuk cita-cita saya punya tiga orang anak. Hahaha.), kami akhirnya putuskan bahwa waktu yang tepat untuk menjual apartemen ini adalah sekarang.

It has been a very lovely home for both of us but now it is time to build a lovely home for our family (including the one kicking my belly right now and hopefully two more in the future :P ).

Yuk mareee kita mulai tur-nya...

Nama Apartemen: Kalibata City
Tower: Borneo
Lantai: 5
View: Tower Cendana
Harga: Rp 400.000.000

LIVING ROOM

Ini adalah ruang tamu / ruang makan / ruang TV / ruang serbaguna. Cushion sedang dalam proses pembuatan (sudah telanjur dipesan sebelum kami putuskan untuk menjual apartemen), nantinya di atas bangku berbentuk L itu akan ada bantalan nyaman warna coklat tua dengan corak garis hijau pastel. Di bawah bangku sengaja dibuat rongga-rongga supaya bisa dipakai untuk menyimpan. Maklumlah, ruangan apartemen kan terbatas, jadi harus memaksimalkan semua celah. Hehehe.

Seluruh bagian lantai kecuali kamar mandi dan balkon dilapis parquet.

Jam dinding dan stiker burung ini dibeli dalam satu paket. Salah satu pernik yang akan saya kangenin. Meskipun yang memilih modelnya suami, I think they are really adorable and I really love them!

Karena saya dan suami sama-sama doyan baca, maka jadilah kami buat rak buku ini (biarpun akhirnya rak yang tengah dipakai untuk memajang foto dan mainan-mainan). Oya, FYI, semua furnitur (kecuali rak TV) dibuat khusus dengan material multiplex sungkai jadi memang agak bulky tapi kokoh.

Berbeda dengan furnitur yang lain, rak TV kami beli di ACE, jadi tidak berbahan multiplex sungkai. But it works just fine sih menurut saya.

KITCHEN

Husband is a foodie and he likes to cook (thank God!). Jadi dapur merupakan salah satu bagian yang paling penting buat dia. Saya sih ikut aja. Satu-satunya aspirasi saya ketika membuat kitchen set ini adalah oven. Konon ceritanya dulu saya bercita-cita baking setiap minggu.

Anyway, kembali ke kitchen set, dindingnya berbahan granit supaya tidak masalah kalau tergores pisau. Gambar-gambar di karung goni itu hasil buatan Daus, teman sekaligus desainer interior yang membantu kami menata apartemen ini. Saya sendiri sangat suka gambar-gambar Pacman merah itu. Hihihi.

BATHROOM

Kamar mandi di apartemen Kalibata City memang kecil tapi fungsional. Tidak banyak yang kami tambahkan di kamar mandi kecuali gantungan handuk, rak kecil untuk peralatan mandi dan lapisan hitam di lantai itu. Saya tidak tahu itu namanya apa, tapi lapisan itu membuat kamar mandi jadi kering karena kaki kita tidak langsung menyentuh lantai.


BALKON

Sama seperti kamar mandi, balkon juga seuprit aja. Biasanya outdoor unit-nya AC ditaruh disini. Karena saya ingin bisa cuci baju sendiri, maka jadilah mesin cuci juga ditaruh disitu. Bagian atasnya dipasang pipa kecil untuk menjemur baju.

BEDROOM

Sama seperti bangku di ruang tamu, dipan di kamar tidur juga dibuat berongga di bawahnya untuk tempat penyimpanan. Bed lamp sengaja disediakan di dua sisi karena saya dan suami kadang suka baca buku sebelum tidur. Oya, please note bahwa kasur ini tidak termasuk barang yang dijual, soalnya ini pemberian dan kami sudah pewe di kasur ini. Hehehe.

Lemari menggunakan pintu geser supaya hemat tempat. Di bagian atas lemari sengaja dikasih ruang lagi untuk menyimpan tas, kopor, dsb. Di dalam lemari bagian kanan ada meja rias yang bisa dibuka, sayangnya saya lupa fotonya ada dimana.

STUDY ROOM

Kalau desain asli dari apartemen Kalibata City, ruangan ini adalah kamar tidur kedua. Tapi karena saya banyak kerja dari rumah, akhirnya ruangan ini dijadikan ruang belajar sekaligus tempat shalat. Teteeeup banyak rak-rak yang bisa digunakan untuk penyimpanan. Aduh, keliatannya berantakan ya? Saya sudah ragu mau memasukkan foto yang kedua, maluuuu....

***

All cards on table, enaknya di Kalibata City adalah lokasinya yang strategis, dekat banget ke stasiun Duren Kalibata (apalagi dari Tower Borneo, tinggal ngesot), ada mal di bawah apartemen, jadi kalau mau makan, belanja kebutuhan sehari-hari sampai karaokean tinggal turun. Sisi kurang enaknya adalah parkir mobil yang lumayan penuh. Kalau motor sih nggak masalah karena tempatnya masih banyak. Kalau mobil, harus pintar-pintar mengatur kapan pulang supaya kebagian tempat parkir yang enak.

Harganya masih bisa nego gak?
Ya, bisalah dikit-dikit. Hehehe.

Kalau tertarik, silakan kontak saya di email floresiana.yasmin@gmail.com. Kalau tidak, ya mohon bantuannya ya untuk menyebarkan informasi ini ke teman-teman. Hehehe.

Have a great Monday, people!

The World My Son Will be Born Into

Dear son,

Soon you will be born into this world (insyaallah, if God permits). We, your father and I, are very excited to welcome you. Not one day goes by without us talking about you and talking to you (I read that you can hear sound now). The happiness is beyond words.

However, as a soon-to-be-mother, I have my anxiety as well. Do we have enough saving for your future? Am I going to make a good parent? Can I give you the care and attention that you need? The list is endless. One of my greatest concerns is about the world and the people that you're going to meet here. Let me tell you why.

This world that you're going to live in, my son, sometimes can be very deceitful. Things are not always black and white and, speaking from my own experience, there will be times when you are no longer know whether you are on one side or the other. As much as I love you, sweetheart,  I am afraid that I am not strong and wise enough to constantly tell you right from wrong. Nor is your father and anyone in this whole wide world. People are flawed, sometimes we get greedy, pompous, envious, and malign. Now, I am not saying that we are bad all the time, no. People can also be really generous, compassionate, kind, and forgiving, but you should know that humans have those two sides in them. While you need a life guidance that can consistently show you the right path, you should not depend completely on humans on that matter for we are lacking that kind of persistency quality. Instead, take the words of The Most Gracious Allah that you can read from Al-Qur'an and learn from our Prophet Muhammad's hadith.

The tricky part is, in your journey you are probably going to meet certain people who say that they are moslems yet conviniently twist the words of God. In the name of freedom, they embrace part of Qur'an that are relevant (for them) and defy those that are not, and they loudly speak about it. With their flashy degrees and fancy words, these people look and sound intelligent and sophisticated. Whether they actually have read the Holy Qur'an cover to cover or had the wisdom and capability to make and spread their own interpretation of Islam, that I doubt it. As mentioned in the first 7 ayahs of surah Luqman in the Qur'an:

1. Alif Lam Mim
2. Inilah ayat-ayat Al-Qur'an yang mengandung hikmah,
3. sebagai petunjuk dan rahmat bagi orang-orang yang berbuat kebaikan,
4. (yaitu) orang-orang yang melaksanakan salat, menunaikan zakat, dan mereka meyakini adanya akhirat.
5. Merekalah orang-orang yang tetap mendapat petunjuk dari Tuhannya dan mereka itulah orang-orang yang beruntung.
6. Dan di antara manusia (ada) orang yang mempergunakan percakapan kosong untuk menyesatkan (manusia) dari jalan Allah tanpa ilmu dan menjadikannya olok-olokan. Mereka itu akan memperoleh azab yang menghinakan.
7. Dan apabila dibacakan kepadanya ayat-ayat Kami, dia berpaling dan menyombongkan diri seolah-olah dia belum mendengarnya, seakan-akan ada sumbatan di kedua telinganya, maka gembirakanlah dia dengan azab yang pedih.

Your mother is nowhere near a perfect moslem (yet, I hope). There are still many aspects of my life and behavior that are not in accordance with what they are supposed to be. I must say, for me at least, it is not easy to completely liberate myself from all of the temptation to deviate from the guidance.  However, my dear, don't let it be a reason for you to turn your back on what you commit to believe in. Don't let it be a reason to justify opposing the truth only to suit your needs and comfort.

So many wishes I have for you, my son. One of them is that I wish that you will have the wisdom and fortitude to tell right from wrong. May God gives your father and I the strength to raise and educate you to be one fine moslem.

Selective Arguing Habit

I think it wasn't long after we started dating when he, my boyfriend (now husband), complained mentioned about how I seemed to always try to argue, about everything and anything that he said (which reminded me of Corrine Bailey Rae's "Like A Star", btw)

Those who know me well know that I don't like conflict. When someone says something that I don't agree on, often I just let it slide in silence, as if I don't hear it, or a low and short 'humm', as if I am in the middle of thinking about other thing. I do this quite a lot. I think I am just too lazy to get into any confrontation.

There are some exceptions, of course. One is when the subject is important for me. The other is when the person is important that I wish to keep him/her around for long. In the latter case, I think it is essentials for him/her to know me as my true self.

Even in the beginning of the relationship with my husband (then boyfriend), I could tell that I want and I will make this one works. So when he told me about my challenging, if not arguing, habit, I noticed that it was because he was already important to me and I wanted to keep him around for a very very long time, if he could accept me as who I truly was (and am), Fortunately, he did (and he does).

And exactly one year and 5 days ago, we had our first "argument" as husband and wife.

What did we argue about? Something frivolous that I can't recall.

Happy 1st anniversary! Love you to the moon and back and even more...

Need A Win

There's this hilarious episode of How I Met Your Mother where everyone argued about the fastest way to get to some restaurant downtown (I think) and they ended up racing down to prove their point. Turned out, everybody was in need of a win for different reason (well, except Barney. Haha.).

Yea, kinda in need of a win too here, now. =P

Kuesioner

Bantu perusahaan lokal untuk menjadi lebih baik dengan mengisi kuesioner ini ya. :)

http://bit.ly/RtQEdK

The Nice-to-have

Some years ago I asked a good friend of mine, "how do you know what you really want in your life?"

At that time I had just finished my undergraduate study and found myself overwhelmed with things I planned for myself next. I wanted to continue my study I wanted to have a career in a multinational company. I wanted to establish my own business. I wanted to get married before I reached 29 and have 3 kids then. And also some other things that I couldn't recall now. Shortly, I wanted everything.

While I was anxious, my friend was pretty certain with his life plan. I could say that because I knew that he had turned down some offers that other people would kill to get for things that he thought were truly matter.  "Don't you worry that you're going to regret it one day?", my other question.

To my latter question, he responded, "no, it's not something that I really want", which led to my former question.

I was, and probably still am, a kind of person who thinks I want and need everything. My friend back then advised me that I should find out which ones I truly want and which ones that are only nice-to-haves. For example, everyone would love to have a private jet but only a few who truly want a private jet. Sure it's nice to have one, but does it motivate me to work hard? No, not yet, at least.

Another example are my red high heels. I told myself, "yes I want those" but never successfully bring myself to buy them. I finally had them though, someone gave me as a gift. Am I happy that I have them know? Of course I am! Though I only wore them twice since. First, I am not that daring to wear red high heels everywhere. Second, they hurt like hell! Honestly, my life would be just as fine if I didn't have them. If they are stolen, I won't be rushing to buy another pair. Hell, I might not!

My Crocs, on the other side, are a completely different story. I'm may not crazy about the design but I need them. Even on my worst day, at least I don't have to worry about my feet. In Indonesia, those pair of rubber are not cheap though, escpecially the ones with a slightly decent style. In fact, I bought the ones that I have now at the same price with the red high heels that I always want yet fail to purchase. Somehow, I could always put aside some money for Crocs. If my Crocs are stolen, I could see myself rushing to the mall and buy another pair within a week.

 If I think about what my friend said about the nice-to-have back then, those red high heels are probably a good example. Something that I want to have for "buat punya-punya aja". However, of course at the time he told me about the nice-to-have things, I didn't fully understand what that meant. Don't think I have fully captured it now too. Hahaha.

Nevertheless, after a few years of bouncing around from one thing to another, I could see how true what my friend said then, which is not everyhing that I think I want is truly what I want. It took some time for me to understand. Some people that I know, found out what exactly  they want to do in their lives, took it out from the merely nice-to-haves, and focused on what really matter. Amazing.

As I quote my friend, there's always gimmick that may disctract you to do other things. I, personally, think that the most alluring gimmick is the thought that it is a one in a lifetime opportunity or it is something that everybody else wants.

You know a quote that goes "20 years from now you'll regret things that you didn't do instead of things that did"? I don't really buy it. It's not choosing between doing or not doing, it's always choosing doing something instead of doing another thing. It's not about working or not working, but more like working or sleeping, working or spending time with your kids, working or studying.

Back to my question years ago: "how do you know what you really want in your life?". I don't know for sure yet, but I think one way that you can do is to ask yourself: "are you gonna be just fine without it?"
If your answer is "yes", you might want to drop it and focus on those that really make your life worthwhile, because you are neither young nor live forever.