A Hot Minute

Feels like it's been a hot minute since the last time I've posted an outfit post. In fact, the last one was over a month ago. That's crazy! For a blog that started out posting outfits every other day, this feels very strange, somehow. I guess I just have been very pumped to talk about the environment lately—while the motors are still running—but I'm missing a laid back #OOTD right now. One of the things I'm feeling very conscious about is how my hair seems to grow at lightning speed. Before I know it, it'll probably go down to my shoulders—and I ain't ready for that yet. That's why, I feel this desperate need to wear a variety of outfits while it's still pretty short. I've been meaning to wear a hat with this hair—and not another boater hat—because I want to see how it looks. It feels like—again—it's been too long since the last time I wore a felt hat on my head. The whole outfit itself feels way too simple for my taste—where are all the crazy patterns and bold colours?—but it's nice, for a change, don't you think? Don't count on me to wear something like this more often, though.

Swapped shirt // old dress // hand-me-down purse + socks // thrifted hat // MKS shoes // photos by Uli

These photos were taken last week, during the long weekend, when my best friends Gina and Uli and I had an impromptu sleepover and tons of food. It has been a great while since the last time we hung out like this. My original plan was to catch a film festival in the city—with a co-worker—but it fell through at the last minute. Can't say I'm not glad about that. For someone who has the tendency to make her life feel and look as interesting as possible, doing tons of unique activities and attending loads of quirky events feel very important to me. However, of course, 24+ hours with your best friends—even just grocery shopping, hanging out at a coffee shop and taking Buzzfeed quizzes—can really be very fulfilling on its own. Granted, of course, we had such deep, meaningful conversations at the same time—one of my legal highs, you know. We exchanged ideas, experiences and laughter on several aspects of our lives. It really shows how different and similar we all are—and how having these different perspectives can help us solve our conflicts. Don't you think?

Waste-Sorting in Indonesia: What, Where and How?

Last year, specifically in August, as you may know I have started transitioning into a zero-waste/low-impact lifestyle. It has changed my life in such a profound way, particularly in four different aspects: purchasing, consumption, transport and waste. In terms of purchasing, I have become more selective about the products that I buy—especially influenced by its packaging. In terms of consumption, I become more aware of what I actually use and how I use them. Transport-wise, I try to choose my method wisely to truly cut down my carbon footprint and be more efficient. Lastly, with waste, aside from substituting a lot of materials, I also start to thoroughly sort my waste and deposit them at the waste bank. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me basic questions about it as it is a complete mystery to her—and probably to so many other Indonesia citizens too. It's inspired me to write down all I know about waste-sorting in this country into a blog post. Hope this helps!

From Trash to Cash

I made these paper bracelets to make the event felt a lot cooler than it was :')

Yesterday at work, a co-worker and I hosted a trash-related internal event. Come to think of it, it was kind of insane, to have practically only two people in the committee—not going to lie, I was stressed out of my mind. Basically, the event goes like this: we find a field near the workplace that is filled with garbage, we collect all that waste and give them to the waste bank. Simple, right? Yeah...in theory. It turns out to be much harder than that—especially given the Indonesian bureaucracy. It's even harder to try to organise the people at work to gather at the same time—a negative Nelly not helping, of course. But we finally managed it. Already at the start, the event was delayed—due to some under preparation on our part and other issues. We should've started at 1PM, but ended up starting at around 1.30PM. There were a total of 28 people from work joining the event and we divided them into 6 groups. We distributed trash bags, masks and gloves among them and led them to the field on foot—it was only a 3-minute walk away. The field, by the way, is like an aviary kingdom, with numerous chickens, ducks and one King Turkey.

Photos by my beloved boss Mas Indra

Here's where things started to go horribly wrong: as we reached the field at 2PM, it started raining. At first, we powered through—all the groups were free to roam about the field and gather all the trash that they could get their hands on. It wasn't long, before the drizzle turns into quite a windy rain. Needless to say, we had to cut the event short—from the original 75 minutes of trash collecting, to 20 minutes and then to 5 minutes—and we headed back to the office. While the participants helped themselves to fresh mango mixed with dragonfruit juice my partner provided, the committee weighed the trash bags to determine which group got the most garbage. The total amount of garbage collected in the span of 5 minutes alone, by the way, makes up 26.5kg. How insane is that?! Afterwards, we announced the winner and rewarded them with some cool prizes—ahem, stainless steel straw set, ahem. It was around 2.35PM when the whole thing ended. Truth be told, my partner and I still need to sort the waste to be picked up by the waste bank—but that's a tale for another day.

Thank you to everyone at work who participated and supported our event!

We're definitely still new at this so it was all over the place, but we'd love to do this again more regularly. Of course, we'd love to have your support then too. 

Zero-Waste Grocery: Saruga Packfree Store

Last week my sister and I were finally able to visit a packaging-free, bulk grocery store in our town. Ever since we started going low-impact/less-waste, we've been wanting to have a grocery run without packaging. A bulk store allows that, because they supply household objects free of packaging—you will need a reusable container to store your purchase, which will either be provided by the store or you can bring one from home. Unfortunately, it has been close to impossible, since bulk stores are not abundant in Indonesia—especially in our area. That is, however, until we find out about Saruga, a small packaging-free, bulk grocery store in Bintaro—and we suddenly have an urge to pay a visit.

What strikes me first as we arrived at the store is how homey and cozy the place is. It is relatively small, but with quite a wide selection of products. They provide numerous seasonings, several kinds of grains, tea, coffee, pasta and even cereal. There were also plenty of toiletries and cleaning supplies, including bar soaps, detergent balls, liquid shampoo and skincare products. The products are all arranged very neatly, easily accessible and visible from the moment you walk in. It looks really beautiful—not unlike family-owned grocery stores in small towns that you see in movies. The shopkeepers were also kind enough to let us me take so many photos around the store.

Here's what the process looks like: first, you need to weigh the container you will use to store your purchase. If you haven't got one with you, they provide some pouches and jars of various sizes. Second, you are free to explore the store, take a good look at all the products and put as much as you like into your container. Third, give them to the shopkeepers to weigh and pay the total amount at the cashier. They take cash and debits, I believe, although we used cash when we were there, so we can't really confirm the availability of their non-cash transaction options.

This time my sister and I didn't purchase a whole lot. She bought some Toraja coffee beans, while I bought some Red Moon tea leaves and a lemon citronella bar soap from Sanubari. The tea tastes as close to Rooibos as I've ever gotten in this country—it smells mildly spicy and tastes relatively sweet. The soap is still put on hold, though—but I'll update you on it. Also, I forgot to bring jars from home so, for the tea, I purchased a small one there for less than Rp 10.000,-. They have them in up to 4 sizes, as I remember. I'm not sure about the pouch, because we brought our own.

To sum up, I absolutely love this place. Just one visit and I already see myself coming back time and time again—there were so many things I'd like to have purchased, once my stock runs out. I really highly recommend coming here sometime. They don't sell fruit and vegetables, though, so it's probably not going to be a store you visit every week or so. Have you been to a bulk store before? Share your experience!

P.S: The next day I found out that the founder recognised me and has been following me on instagram for a while. Oh wow, what a small world! Thank you for that and for this store. 

I'll definitely return.