Souvenirs

What was one thing in my wedding that made me really happy?

Oh, there were some and I couldn't choose one. One of them was having my best friends got excited helping me getting through the process. From cloth to waxing, manicure to guest books, pep talks to sari tilawah. Somehow I have been saved from insanity. Some of my besties couldn't attend the wedding but I know they hardly wish they could. 

I once read a quote that sounds something like this: a true friend is sad when you're at the bottom and happy when you're at the top.

I am very happy that they are happy for me. :)

Plus, I got the sweetest birthday present one week before the wedding here. :D

Some people are missing, but you know I love you. 

xoxo

The Last Date

Time flies and suddenly I'm two weeks away from my wedding day. Everything seems so intense lately, not only the wedding preparation and furnishing the apartment, but also the study. I'm having the mid-term test in the same week as my wedding by the way. No time to waste.

However, I am grateful that the bf and I finally got our great last date yesterday. We decided that we are not going to see each other anymore until the wedding day. For one reason, I think it will escalate the excitement. For other reason, we just simply have no time (remember that my mid-term test is coming up soon).

And what could be a better place to go for our last date unless the place where everything once began two years ago: Sushi Tei Plasa Senayan! And that, ladies & gentlemen, was his idea. That's by far the most romantic thing he has ever done, considering he doesn't like sushi and the traffic was a killer. :)))

So we ended our dating period nicely. Hopefully there'll be much more happiness and excitement in the next stage.

See you on our wedding day, love! ;)

Always Mum

I found this video of a Dad interrogates her little daughter two weeks ago and been amused since. I believe I have watched this video for at least 20 times. It's just too adorable.




When I showed my Dad the video, he told me I was like this girl, always mum mum. :)))

Yea, frankly, nothing in this world I love more than my Mom. :D

Doa Pernikahan

Pagi ini, bangun-bangun saya sudah disambut instruksi dari Bos Besar a.ka yts. Mama. Bikin kata-kata untuk undangan, katanya. Dan yang dimaksud dengan "kata-kata" memiliki dua makna: redaksi dan font.

Dengan turunnya perintah tersebut, nyemplunglah saya ke tiga tas besar penuh contoh undangan yang dengan baik hatinya disumbangkan oleh salah seorang Tante. Bohong deng.
Benar bahwa Tante saya telah mendonasikan segunung undangan. Tapi pagi ini tiga tas besar itu entah ada dimana. Alhasil saya hanya berbekal sekitar setengah lusin contoh undangan saja.

Seumur-umur belum pernah saya baca undangan pernikahan dari awal sampai akhir. Pertama, saya jarang dapat undangan fisik, biasanya juga via SMS, BBM atau Facebook. Kedua, ketika saya mendapat undangan yang biasanya saya baca hanya nama mempelai dan waktu serta tempat acara. Saya ngeh sih bahwa di undangan pernikahan umumnya dikutip ayat Ar-Rum: 21 di halaman depan. Tapi saya hanya membaca sekilas satu dua kali lalu selanjutnya bagian itu selalu saya lewatkan.

Maka untuk pertama kalinya pagi ini saya baca baik-baik setengah lusin undangan pernikahan. Ternyata undangan (orang Islam) itu umumnya memiliki komposisi berikut:

1. Halaman pertama, kutipan Al-Qu'an (biasanya Ar-Rum:21)
2. Halaman kedua, keterangan bahwa kedua keluarga akan menikahkan si Fulan dan si Amir pada tanggal sekian di tempat anu.
3. Halaman ketiga, undangan untuk menghadiri resepsi yang akan diadakan pada tanggal sekian di tempat anu.
4. Halaman keempat, doa pengantin.
5. Halaman kelima, peta lokasi.

Diantara kelima hal di atas, poin keempat adalah hal yang 99% selalu luput dari perhatian saya. Bahkan baru pagi ini saya ngeh ada bagian seperti itu di undangan pernikahan.

Aaaak.

Langsunglah saya google, "doa pernikahan" dan "doa pengantin". Hasilnya, saya menemukan beberapa doa yang indah-indah seperti berikut:

Ya Allah, andai Engkau berkenan, limpahkan kepada kami,

cinta yang menjadikan pengikat rindu antara Rasulullah dan Khadijah Al-Qubro,

yang Engkau jadikan mata air kasih sayang antara Ali, RA dan Fatimah Az-Zahra,

Ya Allah, andai hal itu layak bagi kami, maka cukuplah doa kami dengan ridho-Mu

untuk jadikan kami sebagai suami istri yang saling mencintai dikala dekat,

saling menjaga kehormatan dikala jauh,

saling mengingatkan dikala senang,

saling menyempurnakan dalam ibadah,

saling mendoakan dalam kebaikan dan ketaqwaan

ya Allah sempurnakanlah kebahagiaan kami dengan menjadikan pernikahan ini

sebagai ibadah kepada-Mu dan bukti cinta kami kepada sunah Rasul-Mu

Sayangnya, doa diatas tidak akan masuk dalam undangan lantaran karena satu dan lain hal undangan pernikahan yang akan dicetak hanya akan terdiri dari dua halaman. Poin 2 dan 3 dalam satu halaman, dan poin 5 di halaman lain. Ya sudahlah, saya masukkan ke blog saja. :P

A Quote

Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

I quoted this from a message my best friend sent few months ago. Can't agree more about the statement.

Beauty

In one of final assignments that I did last semester, I presented an analysis of Dove's marketing communication. During my research I found several interesting things.

In 2004, a collaborative research done by Harvard University and London School of Economics and  funded by Dove revealed some facts about how women throughout the world perceived the concept of beauty. Shortly short, according to the authors, many women didn't describe themseleves as beautiful and agreed that media had set unrealistic standard of beauty. Though many opposed the results (which is a common thing for every controversial research), Dove still proceed their next marketing strategy based on those. (In my opinion, since Dove did fund the research we couldn't really tell for sure whether the research was indeed driven to certain direction or not).

Dove then launched a global campaign, which you might have already known, titled Real Beauty. The campaign basically encourage people, especially women, to embrace their own beauty despite of the standard that established by the media. in their ads, they use rather "common people" instead of models. By "common people" means people with any shapes, races, and ages. The campaign got much attention and has been research object multiple times for its uniqueness.

Shortly short (again), my analysis concern more about how the global campaign implemented in Indonesia. Not gonna go in details to that . ;)

One of the most interesting things about this campaign is a short movie called "Dove Evolution" (2006). It was released as part of their campaign to promote self-confidence. Based on several articles, "Dove Evolution" was quite famous at the time it was launched. See for yourself.




While doing the analysis, I remember a good friend mine who is, in my opinion, having a self-confidence issue about her physical appearance, To be perfectly honest, there's nothing wrong with her look.Surely, she doesn't look like those beautiful faces we see on TV but who does?
Not only that she's beautiful, but she's also one of the nicest people I've ever known. She holds a degree from one of the most reputable universities in this country (and believe me, the degree also comes from the most prestigious faculty in that unversity). I never really understand why she often doubts herself while I wish to be more like her.

Going back to Dove Evolution movie, I wonder if it really portrays our standard of beauty? Are women mostly defined by how they look instead of what degree they hold or their attitudes? You can say "no" but I know some people do judge women mostly from their looks.

So, in my attempt to be somewhat wise, I quoted Dr. Seuss to my friend: "those who mind dont matter. Those who matter don't mind".
Say you have droopy eyes, big nose, thin hair, or soft-and-lack-of-characters bone structure like mine, you might meet some people who mind your shortcomings. Those people don't matter or important for you. Because those people who really matter for you are those who don't mind with those because they see beyond your outer qualities. Having said that, I think it's better to stay confidence about ourselves, which I acknowledge as something that is not easy.

As part of their Real Beauty campaign, Dove also encourage women to be confident. They argue that those features you have that don't match the common standard are not ugly, they are just different and there's no reason to feel bad about them only because they are not portrayed as ideal by the media.

I must agree with this point. I often meet women with curly hairs, dark skin, small eyes, or huge body whom I secretly envy because they look very attractive. True story (or 'stories', in this case). One thing these women never fail to have is confidence (without "over" before the word). At the end, I genuinely believe that most people look attractive because they believe they do look good. The rest (and minority group of people) are granted such extraordinary beauty that they don't need confindence factor to be attractive.

The Apartment: Meet the New Occupants!

Aside from school and ReadingWalk, two things that occupy my mind the most lately are the wedding (as I've already mentioned several times before) and.... the new apartment.

It is not exactly my apartment, it's my Bf's. We decided to divide responsibilities (read: debts): he takes care of the place we're going to live in once we get married while I find a way to get us a car (in which I'm not doing very well so far).

About a couple months ago a unit in Kalibata City was finally bought. The former owner sold it unfurnished except for one air-con and a misplaced two-seat sofa. Nice.
Since then I've been developing this excitement to make over the place.

I must say that some time ago I still couldn't accept the idea of living in an apartment. I've always been dreaming to live in a real house, the one that touches the ground. But well, the price in Jakarta is unbelievably insane! Of course you can get cheaper houses if you are willing to shift a little to somewhere almost Jakarta, there are lots of nice suburban neighborhoods. However, oh dear Lord, I couldn't bear the thought of fighting the legendary Jakarta's traffic everyday. Then after some considerations (including the fact that we might not stay very long in Jakarta), I sacrificed touching the ground over the traffic.

The apartment might not be located in the most strategic location. However, it is right across the train station! And I've been a regular user of our beloved commuter line since several months ago. So, I'm very excited about this new apartment.

Back to the topic, despite of our excitement, it took us a while before we finally added some things to (hopefully) our future home, which have just arrived today! :D

Meet the new occupants of the apartment:

1. Standing-cooker
At first, we were thinking to buy a simple cooker that can easily placed on the kitchen set table. But, since I have this weird interest in baking, I asked Bf if we would have some extra space for an oven which I planned to purchase some time in the future. He said we can managed that.

Then long after that, he gave me a link to a product in an online electronic shop. It was a Modena's standing-cooker. You want oven, rite? This one is compact enough for the apartment. We can have this one, he said (gee, even I have forgotten about my wish for an oven at that time). So we do (but we didn't buy it from the online store).

The apartment is not huge, so we need to carefully pick each of everything that we want to put inside. This standing-cooker is about 50x50x88 cm, if I'm not mistaken. Cute and compact, it matches the apartment very well. ;)

It cost 5,9 million including a cooker-hood as bonus. Too bad I don't have any picture of it.


2. Refrigerator
Obviously, refrigerator is a must. We considered a Toshiba and a Samsung. The Samsung looks more elegant and it has a little more space than the Toshiba. But, Toshiba is a Toshiba. On paper, the quality should be over Samsung. But in the end, look and space won. Check it out. :)

This is my favorite part: twisting icemaker!! Can't wait to freeze some water there!

It cost 2,9 million after some discounts. Not bad, isn't it?


3. Washing machine
Many people who live in apartments choose to take their clothes to laundry services, which is understandable. It might not seem very practical to have a washing machine (which considerably needs some space) in a tiny apartment. However, I must say I am a bit old fashioned about this matter. I am sure it's because I see my mom always do the family's laundry by herself that made me believe doing laundry is somewhat a sacred task that you can't easily pass to someone else. Don't get me wrong, when I lived by myself in Bandung, I used laundry service million times. But at that time I was a single. I still am a single now, but when I live in the apartment, I'm pretty sure I'm already married by then. And because I will be married at that time, then I will need to do the laundry by myself. It's not very logical, I know, so never mind.

Anyway, so we got this Electrolux washing machine. Oh, and we got 1 kg of Rinso as a bonus.

The problem was we wanted (and needed, due to space) to put this machine in the balcony. There was no problem with the balcony, I knew for sure it would fit there. The real problem was the door to the balcony. We were not sure if the machine could pass through that.

After some struggling and tricks, we finally managed to get the machine to the balcony! Phew!

This Electrolux machine cost 4,9 million.

After the hard work, we celebrated it with grape juice. :D

**

As I've mentioned, the apartment is not huge. It is a 30 sq meters 2 bed-rooms apartment. We know it would be a challenge to decorate this apartment. Luckily, we have a friend who is an interior designer. He also designed this Never Been Better restaurant in Kemang (whose owner also happens to be our friends too).

Anyway, after some talks and visits, here's the initial design for the apartment. *fingers-crossed*

Let's see how it's going to be in the next several months. :D