An Oldie but Goodie

 Kedai Kopi Tenong

Yesterday I had a day off work—after staying up all night earlier this week for a corporate event—and decided to use the chance to catch up with one of my buddies. We decided to meet up at this coffee house in the midpoint between both our houses—just so you know, our houses are actually quite far apart. It was one of the first ones to come up when I searched a place to eat at the area, organising it in a ascending order of price range (lol). What I didn't expect was to find such an antique-laden, local-tasting coffee house and/or restaurant—with a pretty good price range too. Fun fact: It derives its name from tiffin boxes—tenong means tiffins in Javanese, apparently. It is adorned with tiffin boxes on pretty much every corner, it's immaculate. There were a lot of vintage motorbikes too—which are just bloody awesome! I absolutely love how they arrange the counter too, really cute and homey-like. I ordered their Nasi Goreng Shirataki Kampung—which consists of rice-substitute made out of tubers—and I think it was rather tasty. I'd like to return again someday.

Thrifted shirt + loafers // Book of Deer dress // outfit photos by Iqbal

Now, about my friend Iqbal. We haven't seen each other in months, so it was really nice to catch up. As is usually the case when I hang out one-on-one with someone, let me sing praises of them. He's starting a new project now and he thought I could probably help him out. In the end, however, he ended up teaching me more about things relating to it (lol). We always have a ton of laughter when we get together—his sense of humour is one of the few that I've always truly enjoyed. Often, however, with friends like this, you never get past the surface; with him, it's different—or maybe it's my age. It was very rejuvenating to be able to have a great balance between comedy and deep, stimulating topics. I feel like Iqbal is a really sincere guy—when he does something, he does it with meaning. It may not always last very long or work out very well, but he rarely half-asses anything. It always makes me want to root for him. So here's for you, buddy! I wish only good things for you.

Menstrual Cup: Six Months Later

Back in August 2018, I started to transition into the low-impact lifestyle. It's been quite a fast transition, what with substituting a lot of things with compostable or less-waste options. From straws and cutlery to toothbrushes and produce bags, my life has started to look so different from what it once was. However, it took me a month before I made the biggest change yet—switching to menstrual cups. You see, menstrual cups aren't a new concept for me. I've known about them for at least a whole year beforehand, but hadn't tried it for two reasons. One, I didn't know there were some ways of acquiring them cost-efficiently in Indonesia. Two, the concept of them frankly scared me a little bit. That being said, I was determined to reduce my waste production by at least 50%—and fuss-free, no less. So I got one—thanks to my sister—and six months later, here we are.

Business Casual

Starting last December, I became an intern to a startup company called Jojonomic in Jakarta. I'm not usually one to share personal information you could use against me—please don't!—but I really believe in what this company strives to do. In short—because this isn't the main point of this post—they are working towards promoting and supporting a work culture, in which everyone can work from everywhere and still be easily monitored by their employers. For more information, feel free to check out their website—or shoot me an email ;) Now, let's talk a little bit more about me—because isn't that what a blog is for? I've been quite enjoying the office life, which is a first for me. Everyone is pretty kind, friendly and a whole lot of fun. My favourite moment so far, to be honest, would have to be my turn in their weekly sharing session—in which I talk about plastic waste. The CEO himself commented positively and asked for my suggestions. I started seeing co-workers sporting stainless steel straws and the catering at work has changed dramatically to abandon single-use plastic. There's still a lot of room for improvement, of course, but I'm super, super thrilled to know that people still listen to me at times.

Old t-shirt + socks // hand-me-down blazer // borrowed skirt // thrifted loafers

Okay, so that's one thing off my 30 Before 30 List—a low bar, I know, but a surpassed one nonetheless. Office life was so different from what I imagined to be. I think it's great that I first experienced it at a startup—and a quite wholesome one, no less—because a gigantic corporation would probably give me culture shock from the easygoing freelance lifestyle I've been so used to. This experience, however—if nothing else—affirmed my initial decision and determination to go freelance for life, if I could be so blessed. One of the best perks of having an office for work, though, is the numerous outfits I could choose to rock everyday. And, for once, I can actually use the term "business casual" correctly—and not feeling like I'm just playing pretend the whole time. Ever since I found this blazer in my Stepmom's wardrobe—and deliberately moved it to my own—I've always wanted to wear it in a semi-casual way. Since I can't really wear it with shorts to work, I've opted for my sister's skirt instead. I've worn half of this outfit to as an event committee before and was determined to recreate it at some point. So here it is. What do you think?

Comic Frontier 12 Prep with Gogoprint Indonesia

Today is the day! It's finally time for Comic Frontier 12! If you don't know what that is, it is an anime/game convention held here in Jakarta. Aspiring illustrators from the city and across the country all gather to open a booth and sell their creations. You can find a variety of illustrations there, whether fanart or original, ranging from the Japanese pop-culture, to American/Western one and even Indonesian aesthetics—a.k.a. "kearifan lokal." If you follow my Instagram, you might've known that I opened a booth at Comic Frontier 11 last year and this year I'm going to do the same. For this opportunity I've decided to come up with a few new designs. However, I'm really bleeding money at the moment and it feels quite impossible to come up with a budget for this shindig. Luckily, Gogoprint Indonesia contacted me a few months back for a chance to collaborate. I thought it would be a good idea to show you a little bit of my preparation for this convention.

The first thing I did, obviously, was plan out what I want to sell and design them accordingly. I was starting to run really low on business cards as well, so I thought it was a great chance to shake things up—you can see my old one here. The items I wanted to get printed consist of name card, postcard—both of them double-sided—and stickers. After the design process is done, it was time to place my order. This is where it gets a little bit tricky.

TBR: Mini Loots from My Best Friend

Among my best friends, Uli is probably the only one who loves to read as much as I do—or, you know, close enough. We often share stories about books that we love and find that we also share similar interests in numerous titles. And, because of that, we often trade books. She tends to borrow books from me and I tend to borrow books from her. We stop by each other's house quite often that we can borrow a truckload at once or little by little and know we can always do it again. The other day, by pure chance, I managed to stop by Uli's house after an event, and I used that chance to borrow some of her books—it was perfect timing too, because I've just finished the previous book. Since this year I'd like to take it rather slow, I thought it was fine to only do a mini haul. Here are the books that I picked.

Moon Over Soho

by Ben Aaronovitch

Five years ago, I read this book called River of London—it was borrowed from a library. It's taken quite a long time, but I can finally continue on the series and read the sequel. It's all thanks to Uli's interest in reading the series last year. She has since, however, found problems in the series, so had donated the first book. She kept this one for me and—though I have forgotten most of what went on—I decided to try it out again. The story revolves around Peter Grant, the new addition to this police force in London—if memory serves me right—who has to face spiritual and/or mythical beings in his day-to-day. That's pretty much all I remember. Can't wait to dig in—and see if I still like it.

A Little Life

by Hanya Yanagihara

Oh gosh, this one is a big one—both physically and content-wise. As you can see from the cover, this book might actually give you a head- or heartache. Uli herself—and many other readers—has given this book major trigger warning. As far as I know, the book tells the story of this character who has depression and suicidal tendencies. According to Uli, this book is pretty...detailed in its description of what the character goes through. Also, it takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions, just as our main character keeps on going back and forth between joy and gloom—to the point that it actually exhausts the readers. I wouldn't recommend it to people who actually do have depression—or worse.

A Brief History of Seven Killings

by Marlon James

Having seen this title being read by someone on Goodreads, I was quickly attracted to this volume on Uli's shelf as soon as I spotted it. The title itself is absolutely intriguing and the cover doesn't really uncover a lot. Now, upon reading the back of it, knowing that it's based on a real event, set in Jamaica and written by a person of colour, I am ten times as excited about reading it than ever before. It is basically based on a little-known attack back in 1976 at Bob Marley's house—wounding him, his wife and his manager. It just makes me think that there was a little shady cover-up going on around this incident—which, I guess, I need to read to find out. Can't wait!

Bloom

by Estée Lalonde

Ah, a Youtuber book. There's got to be one, right? Full disclosure: to this day I have never read a Youtuber book before—not even John Green's. No hate, no prejudice—I just haven't wanted to actually spend money on one. A few years ago, one of my favourite Youtubers (at the time), Estée Lalonde, published a book—and it turns out Uli loved her too. I was interested to find out what her book would contain, but not enough to want to buy one. So, when Uli said she bought it, I was ready to just borrow hers. This, by the way, felt like a lifetime ago somehow, because I feel like the Youtuber in question has since changed so much, that I barely recognise her now. It's nice to read her words from way back when.

Okay, yeah, as you can see on the right sidebar of this blog—if you're reading this realtime—I am currently reading some other book. Until that book is over, unfortunately, I have to put aside the books in this post. Hopefully, soon I'll be able to flip through them. Not going to lie: I'm only very excited to read 50% of the books in this pile—the rest are okay, but I don't feel like I'd be missing anything if I don't read them, somehow. I think you can tell very easily which ones go into which category. As per usual, I wasn't well prepared and was quite distracted when I was at Uli's place, so there are probably a lot of titles I wish I could have borrowed too. Well, there's always the option of going back, right?