Malacca – KL trip for #aaultahtrip – Day 2

10/5/15.  The second day in Malacca was spent to stroll around the old heritage city. We were out and about around 7 am – without breakfast  – and the sun was up and bright already. I must remember that this city is close to the sea and just like any sub-tropical places, the area was humid, hot, and rain often came at that time. Our first stop was Famosa Fort. I and my wandered mind was imagining the time when Malacca was protected by fort and nations who colonized the region.

Fomosa Fort

We also saw Istana Kesultanan Melaka – from outside -, because there was an event for children at that time and we were unsure if we were allowed to access the palace, and saw some museums that were still closed at that early hours.

Next destination was St Paul Church. The hike to St Paul Hill where the place located was really something for me, us actually. The church – more like rumble of one – now houses old Portuguese tombs. After huffing and puffing, we finally saw Malacca from above and it was beautiful. But the rain poured and we had to wait for it to go for awhile.

Climbing St Paul Hill. Huffing and puffing.

I killed the time by taking pictures and reading each one of the tombs, imagining what caused their deaths, especially when the deceased was young or women. It was also interesting that they were many cats there!

However, surrounded by old tombs, in high old rumbles of church at that high place, and all by ourselves – and stray cats – was eerie.

Hubba with old tombs as the background

Moreover,  after waiting around 20 minutes apparently there was no chance the rain would stop. So we just braved the rain and went down the hill. By the time we arrived at where we started earlier, the rain had slowed down. We went back to the hotel and had breakfast. We pretty much stuffed our face as the spread was excellent, a typical continental breakfast if you may say.

And then the rain started again.

We braved the rain again to get me a pair of sandals (because my shoes were soaked) , as well as to get a small folded umbrella and raincoats at a nearby shopping center. Around 12 noon we checked out and walked quite a distance to check in to Sayang Selalu Guest House. The place was cozy, the receptionist was very friendly and nice, it had everything we needed, including iron and ironing board, bathroom was communal outside our room, breakfast was decent and free (bread, coffee, tea, various of jams and butter, toaster was available), plus there was a cat lounging around, entertaining my husband who is an ailurophile. However, as a hijabee, I found it ‘less convenient’ to go to the restroom and had to cover myself. Moreover, the lack of windows gave me this suffocation effect. It is just me, really. The price was very affordable though. People who have no problem like me should try to stay in this place.

Sayang Selalu Guest House

After setting up everything in the new room we were out again to explore Jonker Street, Malacca River, Stadhuys and spent the last noon at Museum of History & Ethnography.

We took a break under a huge tree near the museum and ate muffins and breads I sneaked out from breakfast buffet at Hatten Hotel.

We had our meals at Dataran Pahlawan Megamall. Tom yam noodle for me and omelette fried rice for the husband confirmed the fact that we are not culinary adventurous people. We were then back to our guest house and rested our feet after such a long walk.

Thus, the end of day 2.

Malacca – KL trip for #aaultahtrip – Day 1

Around September 2014 AirAsia had a promo for flight to KL, Malaysia. I was so eager to try because I had not been to this country before and husband and I had not had abroad trip together since we got married. So I was so pumped! I bought the tickets for May 9 as it was his birthday and I want to make a family routine to get away somewhere on our birthdays. We planned to explore Malacca on the first and second day, and enjoy KL on the third day before we went home at the fourth day.

Alhamdulillah, we got a free voucher to stay a night at Hatten Hotel in Malacca from my cousin and for the second night I book a room at Sayang Selalu Guest House via Agoda. For a night at KL I booked Summer View Hotel via AirAsiaGo based on its location near to KL Sentral.

9/5/15 – Our flight was at 6.25 am. We left the house at 3.30 am because I had trouble to pay airport tax and our meals via CIMB Niaga on the previous day. AA did not receive my payment until a few hours before our flight despite of my call of complain to the bank. They said I needed to wait 3 days before they sorted my case. Dear me! So I must go early to the airport to deal with it. Thankfully, my problem was solved without having to pay the tax and meal cash at the counter. Since we arrived before subuh, there was plenty of time for us to walk around, watching mute TV, lounging around in the big cushiony chairs and all. Our flight was on time, and I was glad we ordered in flight meals because I was so starving, we did not get the chance to have anything to eat that early morning. We had Nasi Lemak and Roasted Chicken. They meal were great, enough to fuel us until we arrived at Malacca. Like seriously.

Upon arriving at KLIA 2, the husband got internet data from Digi, while I bought data plan Rp250k from Telkomsel. At the end of our trip, I suggested to get yourself local internet provider.  We went to get our bus tickets to Malacca. We took StarMart Express and the ticket booth was in one floor beneath the arrival floor. I forgot how much we paid, but I guess it was RM25 – 30 is per pax. While waiting the bus departure the husband got me a bar of Cadbury chocolate and Pokka milk tea as he saw I was getting jittery and anxious because of something.  Those two things are my bad mood medicine.

We got into the bus at around 11 am and the seats were barely filled in. I guess there were only 6-7 people in the bus. The bus seat was spacious, with air con and the trip was only took around 2 hours and along the way there were palm oil trees every where and almost none traffic jam! My only pet peeve was the movie the driver played was local movie, which was not really good and totally weird.

We arrived in Melaka Sentral, which is a bus terminal and took Panorama Bus no 17 (fare: RM 1.50) to Stadhuys, which is a big red church building in the  city square. We then proceeded to search Hatten Hotel with the help of Google Maps. But from my experience, what really helped was actually asking people around. Ha! On the way to the hotel we stopped and took pictures at some of points.  Man, I cannot remember where we stopped and took pictures. This is because the event was months and months back. I really should write about it sooner.

This is what we saw after we took off from Panorama Bus, Stadhuys

We checked in the hotel around 2 pm. The hotel was nice, great facilities very spacious and luxury. We took a rest for awhile before we went out again to look around and find something to eat. The hotel provided us with fruit basket, chocolate.

For people our diner as two non-culinary-adventurers  was lame. We ate at KFC in the mall next to the hotel. Yeah..i know, we are boring people. At least they are different KFC with rice similar with nasi lemak with strong smell of lemon grass and sweet chili sauce. We then walked around the area of Dataran Pahlawan, sight seeing and all. The weather was very humid, the rain came and go. We walked and walked and konked off.

This is the end of day 1 in Malacca.

Dataran Pahlawan near to Hatten Hotel at around 9 pm.

Some notes from last year

A new year! And there was almost nothing I wrote in 2015. Oh well. But for the sake of documenting life I want to share something such as:

In October 2014 we moved out from the rental house in Pamulang to a smaller rental place. The place is more like a studio but with backyard and outside kitchen. We manage to place the stove inside because I am afraid critters and all will barge to my cooked food.The place is so close to my parents’ but it is not in the same housing complex. This also gives many benefits.

The work has been crazy as always, but I am grateful for everything Allah places in front of me.

We took a short get away to Malacca, Malaysia in May 09 – 11. We call it as #aaultahtrip. It was great experience as it was the first abroad trip we took together. I have been planning forever to write about it but you know..

We have a plan to explore P, My in May this year, Insya Allah. The tickets have been bought but nothing else have been prepared, such as hotel, itinerary and new currency.

We exchanged gifts for our 2nd wedding anniversary this year. More gifts for me as my birthday close to our anniversary! I intend to make this our routine small meaningful habit that excites us once a year, besides our easy traveling times.

In last December, We also had an opportunity to get another getaway to Bogor for a day to explore Bogor Botanical Garden and stayed at Sahira Boutique Hotel. It was fun and tired. Of course. I need to make a point to write about it.

One of my aunts from my father side passed away in December. Another reminder that we are belong to our Creator and every living thing will back to Allah.

In term of personal life, one of big changes in my life is my brave decision to leave pakaian ketenaran or syuhroh and embrace the new me with big khimar and gamis. I might look strange at work, but it is okay.

One thing I feel is that I do not feel the need to follow muslim fashion anymore. I am now free from wanting the trend and it was really liberating. I used to feel tired because I was determined to join in the wagon of the latest kind of pashmina, hijab style, pants and all but now I prefer plain gamis.

There was a point in my life this year that turned my to be less attached to dunya and make more efforts to prepare life after this. My efforts have been up and down, being consistent is no doubt a hard work. I fell often times and betray what I have known, learn and believe but I also strive to get back to the track again. I am merely a human being anyway,  I try my best to be better everyday, knowing that jannah is my reward Insya Allah, amiin.

Perawatan akar gigi, yang berujung dicabut juga :|

Melanjutkan cerita mengenai proses perawatan gigi berbulan-bulan lalu, setelah sekitar sebulan setelah odontektomi saya ke dokter gigi praktek klinik deket rumah. Klinik iDentist ini dipilih berdasarkan hasil browsing dokter gigi di Pamulang dan website klinik ini muncul paling atas. Being a digital people, saya coba untuk buat janji temu di website. Sayangnya saya tidak ditelepon balik atau email saya juga tidak dibalas. Jadilah saya tetap harus telepon klink iDentist untuk bikin janji temu.

Sepulang kerja diantar suami saya ke klinik ini. Bertemu dengan drg yang kelihatnnya cukup senior, Drg Arini. Setelah gigi diobservasi, dan seperti yang sudah diperkirakan sebelumnya saya harus menjalani perawatan akar gigi. Setelah gigi dibersihkan, dibor-bor, Bu dokter kemudian melakukan proses yang disebut mematikan syaraf gigi. Sounds fierce but it was not that bad actually. Sebelumnya bu dokter menanyakan apakah saya sedang hamil muda karena proses ini tidak bisa dilakukan jika pasien sedang dalam kondisi tersebut. Setelah diberi obat sedikit dan ditutup dengan tambalan sementara, akhirnya saya bisa pulang. Dengan janji temu seminggu kemudian.

Ya tapi…dua hari kemudian tambalan lepas. Balik ke bu dokter dan ditambal lagi dengan proses selanjutnya yang kurang tahu juga diapain. Kayaknya gigi yang bolong itu diisi sesuatu dan ditutup lagi. Dipesankan untuk kembali lagi seminggu kemudian.

Dan..lepas lagi aja 3 hari kemudian -__-. pas balik ke bu dokter dia cuman diam, agaknya bingung juga kenapa bisa lepas.

Beliau kemudian seperti memasukkan jarum ke lubang tersebut, sambil terus melihat ke hasil rontgen gigi. Dan anehnya, masih sakit. Hmm, dia bingung, saya apalagi.

“Dicabut saja ya bu? Daripada bolak balik tambalan lepas, sementara lubangnya juga sudah dalam. Masih sakit pula” Saya diberikan kaca untuk melihat gigi yang soak tersebut. Dan diih sereem! Saya keluar ruangan nanya ke suami because I needed some moral boost and he said if it was for the best than do it.

Then the sick tooth was pulled out. Bu Dokter menyuntikkan bius dan kali ini entah mengapa lebih sakit dari pada waktu disuntik untuk odontektomi. In seconds, literally in seconds, gigi bermasalah itu berhasil diambil. Again, I had to endure another after effect from tooth extraction, but this time the recovery time was quicker. Dua hari kemudian, a piece of bone, sepertinya bagian dari gigi yang dicabut lepas. This is confused me as is that even possible? I googled about it like there is no tomorrow and apparently it is a common thing. Some suggested to wait for three months to get it out, some said it will be absorbed by the body.

Until today Alhamdulillah, there is no painful effect from the ‘left over’ tooth.

Cerita di balik odontektomi

Menjelang akhir bulan puasa lalu, sekitar 5 hari sebelum Lebaran, saya menderita sakit gigi yang lumayan parah. Sebagai catatan, saya bisa dibilang tidak pernah sakit gigi parah yang membuat tidak bisa tidur atau pusing. Gigi saya lumayan terawat dan masalahnya selama ini hanya gusi/gigi sensitif. Saya merawatnya dengan menggunakan  pasta gigi untuk gigi sensitif dan non deterjen dan lumayan rajin floss.

Tapi sakit gigi saat itu, sangat, SAKIT! Ngilu, cenat-cenut, kaku dll semua dirasakan di gigi belakang rahang kiri. Saya sudah curiga penyebabnya adalah gigi geraham ke-3 yang tumbuh setengah dan miring pula. Ini pasti biang keroknya. Ditemani suami, sehabis buka puasa saya ke dokter gigi cantik yang praktek di Mydents clinic dekat rumah. Dr Fani namanya. Setelah dicek, bu dokter mendiagnosa bahwa gigi geraham ke-2 saya  di’tumbuk’ gigi geraham ketiga sehingga  geraham ke-2 tersebut bermasalah – mungkin berlubang-, tapi dia tidak bisa memastikan karena si gigi geraham ke-3 ini menghalanginya. Sarannya waktu itu adalah segera rontgen gigi panoramic dan bikin janji dengan spesialis bedah mulut untuk memastikan tindakan selanjutnya. Dan saat itu saya sudah tahu, that’s it man, i have to take odentectomy. Saat saya mengkonfirmasi kekhawatiran saya, bu dokter pun mengiyakan. Beliau menyarankan saya untuk rontgen di RS Sari Asih Ciputat. Saya diresepkan antibiotik untuk mencegah infeksi dan penahan rasa sakit yang ternyata tidak digunakan. Anehnya beberapa hari kemudian rasa sakit berangsur-angsur berkurang selama gigi tersebut tidak digunakan excessively. Mungkin karena antibiotik yang meredakan infeksi? Entahlah.

Besoknya saya rontgen di RSSA, Prosesnya cepat, pendaftaran dengan menyerahkan surat rujukan, kemudian langsung ke bagian radiologi dan dirontgen. Alatnya lucu. Saya berdiri dengan mengigit alat rontgen tersebut, lalu ada semacam scanner yang berputar di kepala. Tidak sampai 5 menit, proses selesai. Operator kemudian print hasilnya dan selesai. Biayanya kalau tidak salah 145K plus dengan registrasi.

Waktu itu saya bermaksud membuat janji temu dengan spesialis gigi/bedah mulut di RSSA. Kalau saat itu harus odontektomi so be it. Saya harus mudik ke kampung suami Lebaran ke-3 dan seminggu setelah Lebaran ada outing kantor ke luar kota. Saya ingin semuanya beres sebelum agenda tersebut. But alas, no avail. Pak dokter di RS tersebut – Drg Dwi Ariawan SpBM- sedang cuti.

Fast forward to tgl 16 Agustus, berbekal hasil rontgen dan keberanian yang sudah bulat, saya ditemani suami ke RSSA lagi. Ternyata pak dokter sedang tidak praktek tetapi ada penggantinya, Drg Eky yang juga SpBM. Setelah konsultasi, melihat hasil rontegen dan cek gigi, pak dokter mengkonfirmasikan bahwa I did need odontectomy. Saya tanya bisa hari ini, he said yes then naik lah saya ke kursi pesakitan.

Takut? Tentu saja, I had never done this before, tapi saya lebih takut penyakit lain yang mungkin timbul dari keadaan yang tidak beres ini. Seingat saya pak dokter suntik bius dua kali. Nyeri sedikit but still bearable lah. Kemudian saya diminta menunggu sebentar sampai gusi, pipi, bibir kebas. Saya tidak merasakan apa-apa setelah disuntik bius kecuali tekanan dari bor, tang, dan pipa sedotan liur/darah. Perasaan kebaslah yang bikin saya merasa sangat tidak nyaman. Sekitar 20 menit kemudian pak dokter mengeluarkan gigi biang kerok tersebut mulai menjahit gusi dengan benang hitam. Setelah selesai saya disuruh kumur-kumur dengan cairan betadine. Menurut dokter, gigi geraham ke-3 saya sudah rapuh, gigi yang ditabraknya pun sudah rapuh, sehingga gigi tersebut pecah. Besar kemungkinan saya membutuhkan konservasi/perawatan syaraf gigi geraham kedua tersebut jika ingin mempertahankannya.

Operasi selesai, dan dengan muka separuh kebas dan mati rasa – which was so uncomfortable – saya dan suami pulang. Sebelumnya bikin janji temu untuk kontrol dan buka jahitan minggu depannya. Tidak ada pesan tertentu dari pak dokter, unlike cerita-cerita yang saya browsed di Internet. Biaya konsultasi, tindakan operasi dan obat-obatan untuk odontektomi di RS Sari Asih sekitar 2,1 000k. *mirispegangkartuATM*

Sebelum pulang ke rumah, saya dan suami nyetok jus asli dari tukang jus, sereal, es krim dan susu kedelai. Saya baca-baca di internet kalau sebaiknya makan/minum dingin, dan tidak minum dari sedotan selama proses penyembuhan setelah operasi tapi karena saat itu tidak tahu, minumlah saya jus alpukat seenaknya dengan kapas yang masih digigit :)). Dipesankan untuk minum obat sejam setelah operasi tapi karena saya susah menelan, sementara sebelum minum obat harus makan, obat baru diminum 2 jam kemudian dan akibatnya saya sempat merasakan maha sakit nyut-nyutan :(. Tapi alhamdulillah bisa masuk roti, jus alpukat, sedikit es krim dan beberapa sendok indomie telor milik suami saya. Yang sudah dingin tentunya.

Alhamdulillah sepanjang malam nyerinya masih bearable. Saya rutin kompres rahang dengan bungkusan kacang polong yang memang ada di freezer selang-seling 15 menit sekali. Mulut memang penuh dengan liur dan darah, tapi ditelan sajalah daripada bolak-balik ke wastafel meludah. lagipula kebanyakan meludah menghambat penyembuhan. Saya juga bersyukur tidak ada pembengkakan massive seperti yang banyak diceritakan orang. Bengkak dan nyeri sedikit pada hari ke-3 dan 4. Tapi most of the time I was fine. I could bear it. Saya bahkan masih bisa ke Taman Bunga Nusantara besoknya karena mama ulang tahun dan pengen kesana. As long as minum obat, it will be fine.

Waktu benang dicabut seminggu kemudian daerah tersebut masih tender dan dokter memang bilang masih merah. Hal itu normal karena proses penyembuhan baru seminggu. Dan dengan dicabutnya benang bikin jauh lebih nyaman di mulut walaupun proses cabutnya sakit dan after effectnya juga lumayan sakit. Lumayan bikin saya bengong bentar di kafetaria rumah sakit sambil ngemut minuman dingin untuk meredakan nyeri :((

Jadi untuk yang harus melakukan odontektomi, please don’t be afraid. Prosesnya tidak sakit dan tidak lama kok. Memang agak merepotkan karena sesudahnya harus jaga makan/minum dan tidak boleh telat minum obat, tapi daripada di masa depan muncul penyakit lain gara-gara gigi geraham ke-3, mendingan sekarang dibereskan. Sampai sekarang ini – dua minggu lebih 2 hari setelah operasi – saya masih menunggu a pass untuk ke dokter konservasi gigi untuk beresin gigi geraham ke-2 dan daerah situ juga sudah digunakan untuk mengunyah. Lubang gusinya memang masih menganga dan dokter bilang butuh sekitar 1-2 bulan untuk benar-benar menutup. Kadang-kadang juga kalau kebanyakan ketawa atau makan makanan keras seperti kacang daerah kiri masih ngiluuuu. But overal the recovery process has been smooth dan I am ready for the next journey of my tooth repairement process. Halah macam mobil aja di repair …

Sekitar 10-15 setelah odontektomi. Kebas dan pasrah.

Cerita Lebaran

Okay, so this is maybe obsolete story to tell because Lebaran was almost a month a go but I want to preserve the memory of it here. So here we go.

This Lebaran the husband and I agreed to spend the first two days at my parents’ place and on the third day we would go to Sukabumi to spend the next five days at my in laws’ home. Aa’ and I performed Eid prayer in the basket ball field in my parents’ housing complex, along with my family. After the prayer, we asked for forgiveness to each other and ate dishes my mother had prepared before; ketupat, bumbu ketumbar, soto ayam, opor and tekwan. Around 11 am we went to my aunt’s place in Bekasi. The trip to her place took quite sometimes because every Lebaran, the business district in Central Jakarta will be so quite but suburbs will be packed. We stayed there for hours in my father’s side big family reunion before we went back. One thing to notice is some people commented how my husband is slimmer and ‘brighter’ and asked how I ‘did’ that.

Ha, very funny. I just includes him into my eating habit, like no fried food, especially from street vendors, have only a cup of coffee a day, fruit vegetable smoothie almost everyday. But in turn, I also get into his habit of eating out almost every day, especially at night when we are too tired to prepare dinner. Such a bummer because this clearly contributes to my extra meat :(.

The second day we went to my cousin’ place in Krukut because her mother is my mom’s eldest sister and she temporarily lives there. So it was another big family reunion. Almost everybody was there. After that my family went to my eldest uncle in Tebet and spent quite some times there. We had sup buntut made by my cousin’s hubby. I did not have it anyway because I don’t eat that but my husband said it was very good.

 

The mudik story – naik kereta api ke Sukabumi

For me mudik story during Lebaran season had ceased since many years ago. I used to go back to Belitung or Bangka where my dad used to work but after awhile, seeing the exorbitant airline prices, not to mention all the trouble to get them, my parents decided that they will fly to Jakarta instead to see their children. Win to win solution for all of us. We were a very practical family, we still are by the way.

Now that I am married to a man who was born in Sukabumi but actually is descended from Central Java heritage, mudik becomes another story. We knew we must mudik though we also aware of the well-known crazy traffic jam to the city. Transportation has always been a big concern to go to Sukabumi. So we decided to try on train instead. That was our first experience taking train to Sukabumi. We checked the ticket availability online at PT. KAI website, and proceeded to get us return executive tickets  Bogor – Sukabumi – Bogor. The process to get the tickets was easy! I paid the tickets with CIMB Clicks and in minutes I get the confirmation email for the tickets. The confirmation letters were in PDF file and I had to print them out to exchange them to real tickets at the station windows at least one hour before the departing time.

Oh, we bought tickets for 30 July and back to Bogor on 4 of August, so it was not *that* high season dates.

My brother, mother and two aunts took us to Bogor, Stasiun Paledang to be precise on the day. We only needed to exchange the print out of confirmation emails to the return tickets and that was it! I still cannot believe how easy it was to obtain the ticket. Well, of course at the station many people still tried their luck to get the day ticket, which was of course sold out. The only complain is it took kind of forever for the ticket girl to print out the ticket and people who seemed could not decide which hour of ride to choose.

The train we took was Pangrango Executive Class. Our car was nice enough, the seats were reclining ones but our seats were jiggly, i don’t know why. There were power outlets for passengers, movie was available, there was official snack seller and security guys. The process to get in the car was okay, a bit rushy because people of course were scurrying their butts – i don’t know why – because the train will of course wait for the passengers. Before getting on the car PT KAI employees will check the ticket and ID so be sure to prepare your ID because some people didn’t and that will create immediate line behind.

I loved the ride to Sukabumi. The view was great; paddy field, river and mountain. Not all of them are clean because man, I have no word for moronic who throw rubbish to the nature.

We departed at 01.25 PM from Sta. Paledang Bogor and arrived at Sta Karang Tengah at around 3 PM. We walked for minutes to the main street and took angkot to my in law’s house in barely 10 minutes.

Di kereta

Di perjalanan

I salute PT KAI for the train service. I think the online service is very helpful, easy and quick. Moreover, the payment method is varied. This makes it easy for mudiker like us because frankly, taking land transportation like bus or driving own car are out of question if we want to go to Sukabumi. For sure we will take train if we want to go back to Sukabumi again.

First Ramadhan with him

I have been wondering months before Ramadhan how on earth I would be able to take care of the meal plan, keep the house, work 9 to 5, and of course wake up for saur by my own, in my own place. I know there would be lack of sleep and sleep deprived me is not a pretty view. The husband kept telling me just relax, don’t think too much about it as he will be happy saur just with ceplok telor and rice.

Yeah right.

So far, approaching the middle of Ramadhan I am so thankful – Alhamdulillah – we have never missed saur time though we need three (3!) alarms to wake us every 3.30 AM, 3.45 AM and 4 AM. The meal plan that I created beginning of Ramadhan was a waste. I never use it even once. Every meal I cooked so far has been based on my mood and availability of produces and ingredients. The first saur was a disaster. I planned to cook semur telor as it is a fail proof recipe I have made so many times but I don’t know what happened that night. My semur gravy was kind of bitter. So the husband just laughed and said he would be fine just with the hard boiled eggs and rice. I made us fried rice, which was not that tempting as it was made from brown rice but we survived.Another must have menu is vegetables and fruit juices. Every saur we will have combination of red spinach-carrot-broccoli-banana-mango-apple-pear blending juice.

But iftar or buka puasa is another different story. I cannot afford to brave the crazy traffic to go home before buka time, so most of the time – or all the time – who am I kidding? – I break my fasting at work, while the husband at home or at my parents’. My office provides buka snacks for us so I am lucky to be able to get pastel, risol or other gorengan. I keep a stash of dates, biscuit and raisin in my desk and often bring fruits like steamed bananas, manggo or papaya for buka.

So far I have cooked quite  variety edible meal for us and Alhamdulillah we are still healthy. Our easy simple menu include: sayur bening bayam, tumis kacang panjang + tahu pong, sarden with a twist, bakwan jagung, omelet tahu sutra+korned, makaroni ayam panggang, mun tahu, ayam teriyaki, spicy spagetti tuna, nasi goreng ayam, dadar jamur, kari ayam+kentang+wortel.

Well, of course there have been times (multiple!) when I am so bored with our menu and tired of cooking and asked the husband to get a take out from our favorite eateries such as ayam penyet, gurami saus padang, gurame asam manis, nasi goreng ikan asin, ramen and katsu curry. And going to my parents’ place is a great alternative too as my mother most of the time cooks delicious food during Ramadhan. From what I learn so far – in term of logistics – from this first Ramadhan are:

• Just take it easy. The most important thing is to know my limit. No body will get upset but myself if I cannot prepare complete meals for us.
• Prepare everything and put them on fridge. Get the leafy veggies cleaned, get the carrot chopped, peel and slice the fruits and put them in separate containers for easy juicing.
• Cooking rice right before going to bed and waking up to a kitchen full of nice smell and fresh steamed rice are worth it.
• Share the works. While I prepare our saur the husband will make us teh tarik + honey, or peel and slices fruit for us. He also washes the dishes afterward, if he remembers.

So far I am just glad we have never missed saur, I am happy we have a chance to tarawih together, though I always buka puasa at work, I believe we can make it during the weekend when I get prepare him proper iftar dishes.

Having my own household

….is interesting! Since I have been wanting to manage my household forever, so when the opportunity came to get out from my parents’ place to settle on our own, I rejoiced it gratefully. It has not been a bed and roses everything beautiful journey, obviously, but  let’s just focus on what we have and grateful for. And moaning about the not so great things we face so far.

-edited-  I learned that it is better to just deleted this part where I went bla bla bla complaining about our landlord and neighbor.

Anyway, aside from the *crazy* neighbor, I must say living just the two of us is interesting if not fun. I enjoy every moment of it. There are a lot of things to adjust with but we manage so far. Having a husband who is very understanding and work from home also helps a lot. I learn every small thing, tid bits and habits of my husband. Not all of them are understandable and meet my expectation – well of course, but we are working on it. I also now have my own kitchen. I have been preparing my lunch ever since I lived with my mother so I don’t have any problem with it. I am so grateful that my husband’s willing to try anything I cook. I don’t cook anything fancy but I must include vegetables and protein in every meal.
Some tips I learn from managing my own household while working 9-5 are:

1.  Get the technology that helps. My husband and I Alhamdulillah afford to get us digital washing machine so I can wash my delicate clothes in delicate mode, no more hand wash for my ciput and delicate hijab. It saves my time and my sanity.  I got two blenders from families as wedding gift and has been using ever since to fix us everyday juice and smoothie in literally seconds!
2. Get your produce delivered. I thankfully have a friend who owns an organic vegetables and fruit business. I ordered for us and my parents every week and with 10k shipping cost, I think it worth the money.
3. Delay to have (for now) unimportant furniture. We must have a dining table. Not only my husband uses it for his working desk, as his computer table is occupied by his PC, but this dining table is the center of our house. Living in the smallest house ever doesn’t require us to have a sofa. We just have a carpet in front of TV, so no sofa and coffee tablet for now. The house looks neater and tidier and less stuff to dust.
4. Share the house chores. We share a lot of house chores. I will sweep the floor and the husband will mop it. I will do the laundry and he hangs them afterward. I prepare the breakfast and he irons my working clothes. I cook and he washes the dishes. Although he works from home and has more leniency in term of time, there are moments – of dateline – when the husband just cannot be bother to fill up the Pure it water purifier, or remember to take out the clean laundry and hang them. It’s okay though. Baby steps.
5. Be more understanding. I keep telling myself that this marriage is two heads with two backgrounds and habits merge together, not in a short term of period but for life (insya Allah amin ya Allah) so I keep telling my self that negotiate in life, be flexible, don’t sweat on small stuff. So if he forgets to take out the laundry, that’s okay, if he cannot find time to mop the floor because of his boss keeps revising his work then be more understanding.

We still need to learn more about living as a family. And that’s okay because we have a lifetime for that, insya Allah :)).

Just …wait

We only can take one step at one time.

Solve and finish one problem before we can take another approach to expand our life.

So right now, let’s wait until this ‘one’ is settled , but do not procrastinate,

Until we can map our problems and walk our talk

Together, yes.