Ngawi

Several weeks ago, my friend Anggi took me to her father's place in Ngawi. Before the journey, she talks a lot about the place, telling how beautiful it is. I was pretty excited, but I won't lie.. at first its all about the train trip.. I mean who doesn't like train??! I know how it is oftenly late, or sometimes you have to be extra careful with your bags and stuff, but, come on..every modes of transportation always needs extra precaution. right?..riight?.. yah. Well for me, train is always the first option. There's always something about this nostalgic and romantic feeling in it.. and sometimes you ended up being so melancholic, and can't  not thinking about your life and your goal for happiness and,  jeez..what have I done with my life... 

Okay snap! Cut the train blab. Here. Pictures

So we arrive, and its no longer about the train (duh), the place is indeed beautiful. It feels like I'm going to my uncle's or grandma's house, you know like the song.. Its a very soothing and relaxing place, the kinda place where you just stop yourself for being stressed out or worried about work, or carrier, or meetings, or gas price, or  have you locked your house, have you turn of the stove, have you unplug the electricity.. I'm blabing again right?..yeeeah.

It's a great place, great people, and I've met this super size angel called Lanang, hahaa.. he is Anggi's little step-brother. He ask (and a bit force) us, to come with him catch some (very) little fish. And while we walk, he'd be like "I think this is the right place! Okay stop! Come on, you guys are so slow! Here, take this!" and we're just "Okay..." I think I'm a little scared.. In the end, we call him 'Big Boss'.  Oh, and Anggi's step-mother cook us some insanely delicious food, I was totally in heaven. Its definitely a beautiful time, too bad I can't stay long there. But hey, its only 3 hours travel (not to mention by train, yiay..). I hope I can go there again soon. There are a lot of place I haven't visited there yet . So be prepared for more posting about Ngawi! 

Love

Kiki

Simpang Banyak Julu

On April 6th, I was planning to participate in Pasar Kutu Bazaar, it's one of the part from Kopi Keliling exhibition. Me along with the other participants were expecting to make something inspired by coffee, so I start to open my picture files from my latest research trip in Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra, and fortunately I was placed in this village where almost all of the people there,  earns money from planting coffee. Name it, Robusta, Arabica I had it all. As a coffee lover it was indeed a heaven on earth for me. I even had chances to taste what so called the most expensive coffee in the world; the real and authentic Luwak coffee.. twice.. oh yeah, in your face, hey people whom pay 300.000 IDR for a cup of one. Ha!  *big grin

So people, let me introduce you, to one of the most  beautiful and peaceful place I've ever been; Simpang Banyak Julu. 

Simpang Banyak Julu is located in the end of the road, it is adjacent to the forest and hills. Forget your cellphone, there are no signals at all there, no probs for me. You have to drive by motorcycle 30 minutes up to the hill for signals, and it only appears in certain places. 

For me, when you go to some places, sometimes its no longer only about the place itself, but the people in it. 

Before I went there, many people warn  me about the strong and hard character of the villagers, well I don't say they were wrong, they do, but behind it, they were such a humble and great people to be with. I've met my heroine there, the amazing lady, whom insist that I should call her Umak, which actually means 'mother'. She appears in the third and fourth picture, I promise I'll make a special posting dedicated to her.

Meandwhile, I hope you enjoy some snaps I get from there. Adios!

Oh yeah, I'm still going to remind you, if you're in Jogja, don't forget April 6th 2013, I'll be at Pasar kutu bazar, in the opening of Kopi Keliling. Kedai Kebun, from 3 PM till 11 PM. See you there..

Love

Kiki

Pal!

Beware girls, there's a new boy in town, he could grab and ripped your heart in second! 

But if you fine with that, call me. Maybe we can arrange some matchmaking plan, with good deal off course, hahahaa.. ;P

Can you believe it... Aksan is almost two years!! Well actually it's still five more month (we had a very close birthday!). Lately his obsession towards cameras are getting bigger, and it could became a huge problem when Lila or I have to shoot our latest product, cause he will cry and beg so he can be the one who shot it. But what can I say, he's the little prince, and talking about this prince, his favorite pal, which is ME (no, its not a subjective thing, he really does say it ;P) just can't say no, even when it means we have to delay our photo shoot for several hours. :(

Nesting

Some studio update

About a week ago, my room was finally finished it renovation, so I finally move all of my stuff and start to tidy up the place. But, thanks to my lazy butt, even after a week it seems like I could never get it together. The problem is certainly because there are things I still need to make it more neat, like I still need to buy some nice container for my fabric, also some shelf, jars for my sewing appliances, and off course a pinboard! Not to mention a desk lamp...
Nope, I'm just lazy, that's the problem. 

Oh, by the way, the cat sketches and the wood painting were from my dear friend Atit. Amazing talent. If you wanna see more of her work, go see her shop.

Love 

Kiki

Companions

There is one moment in my life when I finally realize that, I'm not that good in 'living with people'.. I mean it's not like I wish to live in a secluded mountain where the only friends I have is some mountain goat or a wolf pack..geez.. But, the idea of having to keep yourself from annoying or to be annoyed by someone and must have a highly tolerance with it.. it's just..dull. I mean, c'mon we've done that in a whole days, and then we back home, we have to do that again, my.. 

I must say, when I move to Bogor with my sister, and frequently living in Jakarta, with my mother and my sister's and brother's family (no, this is not the same sister, oh yess we're a big family indeed) after almost a decade living alone, its been a quite shock adapting again to the 'communal living'. I must say I'm not pleased by it.. Off course I'm happy that I can be near my mom, but that's a different context. Perhaps I should get myself a cat.. No?

SO, what's the correlation of living alone with this post.. Well, contextually there's none (he..). This post actually just want to tell you some of the things I'm obsessed with lately, and have become a really nice companion during my 'alone but not lonely' night.. whatever.

The Fight Club! I've watch the movie in a gazzilion years ago, in a laser disc! My brother rented it, I'm not quite sure that I understand the whole movie at the time, but that last scene just caught my breath. About a month ago I bought the book, and just can't stop being obsessed with it's every single page. I watch the movie again, and damn.. This is my #1 list for 'the most bad ass movie of all time'. 

Sherlock. Oh yeah.. This one's definitely a bad ass too. Loooove this BBC version of Sherlock Holmes. Everything just purrrfect. I've lost words, just watch it yourself, and for you who then finally  love it as much as I do (seriously you can't beat my love to this thing) I must say you have a great taste then.. ;p. The serial gave me reason to live, which is; waiting for the season three. Yess, it's just THAT good.

I don't know how many of you knows the show, but for you who don't and craving for some good laugh, seriously dude, forget the OVJ, Mr Bean (I talking about the re-re-re-re-run episodes) or even local news. This show is the one you should run to, go stream, download it, or watch per-scene in youtube, anyting, keyword: 'Whose Line is it Anyway'. This show is sick. All hail for the most talented comedian artist there and also Drew Carey the brain behind the show. Here's one of the episode with Robin Williams as a guest star, that almost kills me for suffocating myself.

And now, we're moving on to the audio treat. Here is one the most extraordinary singer ever, Fiona Apple. Fiona Apple is one of a few musician that I follow their career, it's because she's just that AWESOME. Her voice and her insane music are some of that stays pretty long in my playlist. Have you heard her new album? Genius!

I always think Annie Lennox was probably one of a descendant from the Amazon women. I mean look at her.. Well, I don't follow her as much as Fiona Apple or Feist, but lately I've been hearing her music again, a lot. I don't know, there's always something nostalgic and empowering about this lady's voice.

Call me cheesy, but the year I've spent in Bogor, for some reason I don't know, I've become obsessed with the talent competition reality show. Name it, American Idol, The Voice, The X Factor, Q Viva, So you Think You Can Dance, Got to Dance, I'm almost thiss close to watch Dancing with the Stars..(phew..) 

Well this guy over here is one living proof that there are actually REAL artist that found in the show. I love him even when the first audition. Josh Rajcik, he's the runner up in the X Factor USA 2011. I kinda glad he didn't became the winner, if he does, probably right now he's already became this one pathetic robot in TV. Right now he is reportedly  doing his first major record, can't wait!

Here's one of his amaaazing performance, singing one of my favorite song.

And on the visual treat, everybody.. Seamus Gallagher. I'm totally in love with this boy. He's smart, have an amazing sense of humor, a great sort of bitchy attitude, off course a great talent, and he's only 17! He's everything I wish I was when I was 17, (in a boy version). His work recapturing today's pop culture, his political view, not to mention his bittersweet journey of his age. Go see his tumblr, you'll understand what I mean. And I like the fact that he's very open about his sexual preferences.

There you go, hope I give you some good references. Meanwhile, there, I leave you with some of my favorite works from Seamus Gallagher

PS: the first picture actually the picture of my homemade ginger tea, and guess the surprise I found in the ginger slice.. there's a tooth in my tea!! Ha! I mean how many chances that you have a sliced ginger that look like a tooth?. And look, I've shoot it in an instagram-ish kinda style, whoa I'm such a hipster.... 

Okay, I'll cut the crap. 

So, bye then!

Love

Kiki

The Life of Tea

There's always something heartwarming-ish about tea. For me, tea is always reminds me of the warmth feeling that I get from my mom. She would serve me a cup of tea in like, any occasion, such as every morning before I go to school, every time I feel sick or I got ill, anytime I went back to Jakarta from out of town and vice versa,  or anytime when my family are gathered in our childhood house. Tea is also her first option to serve whenever there's a guest in our house. She believes that in some way tea will give you the energy, and also some comfort feeling to stay strong and relax at a same time. Its also sort off her way of giving a piece of her heart.. I miss mommy..:(

So, last Saturday, my friends and I are having a trip to Solo and we went to Solo International Tea Festival. A tea festival.. can you believe it.. Its definitely a heaven for all the tea addict out there. 

Well, I considered myself as a coffee person, rather than a tea person, but since tea have been really close in my life and my family, and I always fascinated by the culture surrounds it, so I really enjoy our adventure there. We got to taste different kinds of tea, and kinda challenge our sense to differentiate many kinds of tea variation from different brand. WHICH...I must confess, in most of the product, I just.can't.tell. any difference.. And whenever we feel surrender, we just nod our head and agreed to any words the 'tea master' says..*pssst.. Oh, my poor sense..

By the way, here's a few snaps

- Some tea variation, I just pictured four of them, believe me there are still a lot of them

- Rose tea. too bad they didn't have any tasting sample, baaaad decision.

- Some sample of tea grounds after it been brewed.

- Some of the beautiful tea packaging. By the way, the guy in the 'Solo Tea' packaging, Jokowi, the former Solo city Mayor, whom now is the new Governor for Jakarta, is actually came that day! If not because the crowd people surrounds him, I won't notice at all.

- This tea device definitely caught my eyes.. Its so pretty, I wanna buy them all, I don't care if I will use it or not. Off course I eventually did not buy them, at.all. They're pretty expensive.

- The festival were took place in the city hall. I agreed,  the room are beautiful indeed.

The festival held from 13th untill 15th of October. I also have some other snaps from our trip in Solo that I wanna share. But I guess I'll share it in different post later on.

Love

Kiki