Rezeki umrah.

Tahun lalu saya sempat nulis postingan ini. Bahwa tempat pertama yang wajib saya datangi kalau punya duit adalah Mekkah di Arab Saudi.

Allah memang maha baik. Akhir Februari lalu, saya dan suami diberi rezeki bisa umrah ke tanah suci 😅. Alhamdulillah. Pengalaman ini juga bikin saya percaya sekali rezeki itu memang sudah diatur sama Allah. Kalau dipikir-pikir, pendapatan kami berdua sepertinya sama aja kayak tahun sebelumnya. Malah, awal tahun ini suami harus bersabar tertunda gaji karena anggaran daerah belum disahkan (sampai sekarang, hehe). Tapi bonus dari Allah datang tahun ini. Ini memang panggilan, jadi kita yakin saja rezeki di masa mendatang itu sudah dijamin sama Allah asal percaya dan mau usaha. Mau tunda sampai gajian juga (agar lebih secure), kalo dipanggil sekarang dan dimudahkan, ya alhamdulillah kan 😁. Kalo kata Karim, anak saya, alhamdulillah tak henti-henti.

Semoga rezeki ini bisa kami balas dengan lebih taat kepadaNya. Amien ya Rabbal’alamin.

2017, mengajar.

2017. Tahun pertama saya mengajar di Prodi Perencanaan Wilayah dan Kota, Unsyiah. 

Ini pengalaman baru bagi saya karena selain harus banyak meng-update ilmu, saya juga harus belajar soal metode dan pendekatan mengajar untuk mahasiswa. Tentu berbeda kan ya, mendidik siswa sekolah dan mahasiswa. Menurut saya, mereka butuh fasilitator saja dalam mencari ilmu. Tapi, seiring perjalanan mengajar, ternyata mereka perlu banyak ‘disuapi’ juga agar tidak melenceng, hehe.

Saya masih belajar menjadi guru. Mencari pendekatan-pendekatan agar mahasiswa saya tidak ngantuk, agar mereka terpicu untuk berpikir dan beropini, bukan sekedar menghafal definisi. 

Semoga 2018 saya ber-progress menjadi guru yang lebih mumpuni. Amien.

2017, memilah sampah.

2017. Tahun pertama saya memilah sampah di rumah, sekaligus mencoba composting dengan metode takakura. Konsisten? Tidak, hehe. Saya punya satu keranjang takakura yang disiapkan dengan susah payah. Sempat cukup rajin juga merawat takakura agar tak berbelatung, membuat cairan mol, menjaga kelembapannya dengan menabur sekam, dll. Tapi seiring sibuk yang cukup menyita waktu, akhirnya begitu takakura penuh, saya beralih ke biopori. 

Biopori jauh lebih mudah. Tinggal melubangi tanah sedalam kira-kita 60-100cm, kemudian masukkan sampah organik ke dalam lubang. Tutup dengan daun-daun kering agar tidak bau. Saya juga menabur tanah/sekam agar tidak berlalat. Sampai sekarang, kami punya tiga lubang biopori yang lestari, hehe. Lestari ini maksudnya berkelanjutan karena bisa digunakan terus menerus. Dalam jangka waktu satu bulan saja, lubang yang tadinya penuh bisa diisi kembali. Tanah di lubang juga mulai menghitam, pertanda cukup subur dan sampah berubah menjadi kompos.

So far, saya happy dengan proses memilah dan mengelola sampah di rumah, meski masih terbatas sampah organik. Minimal, saya ikut mereduksi sampah yang harus dibawa ke landfill dan turut memperpanjang umur TPA. Jika produksi sampah rumah tangga per hari itu 4 kg dan 3 kg diantaranya adalah sampah organik, at least kami sudah mengurangi 90 kg sampah organik per bulan. Wow… Dipikir-pikir, langkah kecil ini baik juga ya. Apalagi kalau dilakukan banyak rumah tangga. Pasti jumlahnya menjadi sangat significant. Sayangnya, kami belum mulai melakukan benchmarking pengelolaan sampah ini. Seharusnya jika ingin melihat progress dan menentukan target tertentu, benchmarking menjadi dasar yang baik.

Nah, tantangannya tinggal sampah anorganik. Terus terang, usaha kami minim sekali dalam hal ini. Kami punya reusable bags untuk berbelanja, untuk belanja dapur dan belanja groceries. Agak sedikit gampang menolak plastik saat grocery shopping, tapi tidak untuk belanja dapur… 😂😂😂. Tas daur ulang saya secara dominan hanya menjadi tempat menampung belanjaan kecil-kecil yang sudah ditaruh di dalam plastik kecil-kecil juga 😂. Belum lagi kalau saya belanja spontan dan lupa bawa tas belanja. Terpaksa pakai plastik lagi. Akhirnya, plastik masih banyak tersimpan di laci dapur kami. 

Tantangan lainnya adalah tempat pembuangan sampah anorganik. Usaha memilah sampah belum didukung oleh pemerintah kota yang secara sembarangan masih mengumpulkan sampah tak pandang jenis. Semua terhambur menjadi satu, organik, anorganik, bahkan sampah berbahaya seperti bekas baterai, dan lainnya. Sedangkan kami tak konsisten juga mengantar sampah anorganik ke tempat pengumpulannya. Akhirnya, memang masih bergantung pada pengumpul sampah kota. Yah, minimal sampah kami memudahkan pemulung ketika memilih sampah.

Meski banyak tantangan, yang mana dapat diselesaikan secara bertahap dan inkremental, hehe… di tahun 2018 ini, kami tetap ingin meneruskan aksi pilah sampah di rumah ini. Meneruskan composting dengan biopori dan takakura, Serta bisa diet plastik lebih ketat. Tentu, niat saya tahun ini bisa melakukan benchmarking sampah. Setidaknya menjadi data eksisting produksi sampah rumah tangga kami.

Week 34. Meet my pets.

I decided to jump to the current week of 2017. Haha… I have to admit that I fail the 52 blog challenge 😥😥. 

So… week 34.

I don’t have any pet. I don’t like pet of any kind. Not that I am heartless. It’s just I had bad experience with pet.

We had a cat at home when I was little. I was very close with the cat I would sleep with the cute little creature. We were always together. Until… It scratched my back when I was having breakfast. 

Dog? I am afraid of dog. Haha. Our family had a dog before and I was fine with it. Not after the exhausting experience I had with dogs. I was walking in front of my school when I saw a group of dogs sitting peacefully in the school’s yard. I thought they would do no harm. I was super wrong. They started barking as I stepped onto the school’s gate and chased me. I spontaneously ran and ran and ran away. They were so close I thought I would die. Then I suddenly stopped because I was very tired. I gave up and kneeled down. Surprisingly the dogs also stopped. Maybe they thought I was going to pick some stones, I wasn’t sure. A teacher came out from a classroom and saved me. It was during non school hours btw, that was why nobody noticed I was being chased.

So, yeah… I always try to avoid dog as possible as I can. The phobia had reduced a bit when I lived in Australia where dogs are very common in the street. But to have it as a pet? No, thanks.

Week 16. My biggest fashion accessories.

Haa… This one is easy 😁. Because I rarely wear accessories. Not even my wedding ring as I am allergic to metal, including gold.

The only accessory I wear is my watch. That’s it. No earrings, no necklace, no rings. Oh, I wear brooch just to pin my headscarf. 

So, two. A watch on my left hand and a brooch on my chest to pin the veil.

Week 15. Time management.

I am not a very organized person. See how I handle my 52 week blog challenge? 😂😂. Not proud!!

I am not that busy as well. I just have to admit that I don’t have a good time management. I wish I’d be better with this.

In order to arrange time wisely, I have to understand my roles in life, haha. First of all, I am a wife, which means I have to spare my time with my husband to build a stronger and more firm relationship. Then, I am a mother of my son. He’s still a toddler and doesn’t go to school yet, so most of my time is dedicated to this little person. Although I have my own little family, I am also a daughter. I do have to spare some times for my family, especially as mom and dad are getting older. Plus, I am also a human who needs to fulfil my existence. I want to work, I want to volunteer, I want to hang out with friends, I want to seek and share knowledge, and sometimes I want (need) to be alone. 

How to manage that? Uhmm… I don’t care, really. Hahahaha. Most of the time I just let my day go with the flow. Of course I make plans but I don’t really let myself frustrated if any of the plans failed or unfinished. I simply ask for an extension 😁. I am not a CEO or anything, so nobody cares anyway. 

However, I have priorities which, obviously, are my family and home stuffs. Everything else are just the small things I am trying to fit in between the big important things. 

Anyway, here is my tipical day…

 1. Wake up at 5.30am (or around 5ish) to pray shubuh and read Quran. I usually open my laptop after that, to work a little before the sun rises. Sometimes I put on early alarm, around 3ish am when I am closer to deadline, to work. Once in two days, I go out for my morning jog. When it’s not jogging time, I continue working until 7.30am :mrgreen:. That’s about the same time I would finish my 3-5km run.

2. I cook for more or less an hour, which includes cooking for breakfast, lunch, and dinner altogether, haha. I prepare light breakfast such as bread, fried rice, fried noodle, or roasted potatoes and chickens (light, for Indonesians 😜). I immediately start cooking after breakfast with the family. When I don’t have to go in the morning, sometimes I only prepare for brekkie and cook lunch and dinner later at 11am. 

3. We clean the house while letting K watches TV. I usually put dirty clothes to the washing machine and sweep floors. Hubby would clean the bedroom and mop floors. Our house is tiny so it only takes less than an hour to clean everything 😄. We normally finish the morning ritual at 9am, except in the weekend when our to do list is longer than the usual (includes cleaning bathroom, sweep spiders on the roof, clean water pumps, etc). 

4. Hubby leaves the house for work. I would play with K, do the colouring, drawing, reading, anything he likes. We even go to the library or play ground if we’re too bored at home. If I have to meet people for work, or to attend seminar/workshop, I take K to my sister or mom. If I only have to go to office to report, or other not so important stuff, most of the time I would bring K along. My husband is pretty flexible with times as well, so in case I couldn’t be back at lunch time, he could manage time to take care of K for a bit. 

5. K would nap after lunch, for about two hours. Good time for work 😁. But…sometimes I also take a nap, haha. 

6. K wakes up at around 3.30pm. We bath, we watch TV, while waiting for Abi home (abi=dad). We would go around for sight seing with abi, then. Sight seing in here means riding motorbike around the nearby areas. Sometimes we do grocery shopping during this hours. Often, we go to my parents’ house. Basically, afternoon is free time. I usually arrange meeting with friends, community groups, within this hours. 

7. After Maghrib (sunset) to sleep time, we usually just stay at home. I would iron clothes while watch TV. K would play with abi. 

8. K sleeps at around 9.30pm or 10pm. This is usually a good time to catch up with hubby. When I am not too tired, I would work for about 2-3 hours before sleep. Otherwise, I just sleep right away and work earlier in the morning.

Basically my life revolves around K. I have to schedule things according to his activities. I only spend maybe around 5 to 6 hours for work, working from home. Most of the time, I am a mother and housewife 😁.

Week 14. My favourite book.

Reading has always been a great pleasure for me. I read anything… Even the shallow kind of book like teen lits, haha. However, I don’t really have a particular book to be claimed as favourite.

I have some favourite authors, though. Here are my top three. I would write more, if I have time 😜.

1. Paulo Coelho

I started reading Coelho at high school. My first is The Alchemist. Have you ever heard the phrase, “when you really want something, the universe always conspires in your favour.”? 

His words… Which I love.

Imho, his writings are dreamy, pensive, and insightful. Not just in The Alchemist but in all of his books. The keywords of his fictions are mostly the same; about one’s own destiny, about rising above failure, and about the unity of the universe. I’ve never got tired of reading them, though. I keep on adding more Coelho’s on my book shelves. Zahir, Witch of Portobello, the Winner Stands Alone, Aleph, Eleven Minutes, Bridal, Veronika decides to Die, by the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, the Fifth Mountain, are some that I’ve enjoyed. I still have some of his I haven’t read yet. But, I will :).

2. Haruki Murakami

When I was working as a radio announcer in Malang, a friend recommended me Norwegian Wood of Murakami to read as we listen to Beatles’ Norwegian Wood 😁. He said the book is awesome.

Turned out… Yes, I absolutely loved it. After that book, I follow up with The wind up bird chronicle, Kafka on the shore, After dark Roman, Blind willow sleeping woman, After the quake, and the most recent one I read, the 924 pages of 1Q84… Haha. The longest fiction I’ve read. Amazing I could finish it in between parenting plus working from home hours :mrgreen:.

I love Murakami for his witty writing style; surreal, bittersweet, mysterious and unpredictable. His fictions have things in common (see pic), which I also love. Everytime I read Murakami’s I always could relate the similarity with his other books.

Murakami never fails :mrgreen:. He’s the master of symbolism, all summed up in this bingo chart. Took the pic from http://www.sometimesraw.com/?p=2927

3. Khaled Hosseini

I’ve only read two of his books, which are Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Although I haven’t followed with his other books, I found those two heart wrenchings and heart warming at the same time. I think his writing is so vivid and alive, driving your emotion to the nerve. Both books explore the life of a misfit in a war ravaged in Afghan society. Both books are about love, courage, and humanity. 

Done. Three for now :).

 

Week 13. My favorite month.

APRIL for sure.

It’s my birthday month. 

We have the best weather in April. Not too hot, not too rainy. Same applies in Australia… It’s autumn in April, a bit cold but not too much. The best is April in Italy, Spring 😁.

April is not mid year. So it’s actually the right time to remind myself of the annual targets. Contemplating on mid year would be too late because half of the year has already gone by.

😍.

Week 12. Social media phenomenon.

Unlike my husband who avoids any kind of interactions through social media (he only uses instant messaging applications), I am quite an active social media users. I have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Although active only on those apps, I engage pretty regularly in socmeds. Not that I post everyday, though, haha… I enjoy the likes and comments, the loves, and the attentions. Of course 😁. Plus, I love how we can stay connected with our loved ones, old friends, though we’re far away.

However, thanks to my old fashioned hubby, we limit times for gadget at home. Part of it because we want K to have screen time as less as possible. Then, it’s good for us to have a more quality time together, too. When we go out, we don’t check gadget for every five minutes. Another reason why we don’t really have many pictures together as we tend to enjoy the moment rather than posting it to the socmed. Have you seen people dining in and not looking at each other but staring at phones instead? Then they talk when they want to take selfie or wefie, hehe. I have.. thousand times. And we definitely don’t want to be those kind. 

Sometimes I find socmed annoying, too, especially during the leader election in which people updated their political and religious rants. I actually deleted and unfollowed some annoying friends because of this. I can stand people who updated their not-so-impressive life for every an hour or the cringeworthy photos, but not those who mumbled on politics and become judgemental to the opponents. Hey, I could be one of them, you know, haha.

Really, if you have something to say, please be careful. I know it seems that we have more freedom of speech nowadays but I guess if it might be too sensitive for other people, be mindful. I also have my lesson learnt. I had a bad experience on socmed I become very careful now before posting any protests or negative comments.

So, once upon a time, for a week in a row I attended several sip and see parties thrown by parents who just had baby (we call it aqiqah, here). Apparently, the current trend in my city is to provide pretty and artsy dessert table full of sweets, cookies, and cakes in an event. Just like the usual sugar bars in western weddings or birthdays. However, different to my experience in other places, the dessert tables here were only meant for decoration instead for feeding. There was even a sign to warn guests not to select and sample the cutie stuffs at the instagram friendly table.

At a friend’s house… I, being the logic person who thought food served on the table were supposed to be freely tasted by guests, took a cake and enjoyed it. My friend, the party thrower, gave a surprise look but didn’t say anything. I found out about the sign later when I was about to leave, when i heard a child asked for a cookie on it and the mom said “No, see the sign, we can eat other cakes, okay?”. I thought, o my God…hahaha. I just ate one. No wonder the table was still full…haha.

All right. Until… I posted my opinion about the weird phenomena of acehneses’ not-for-guests-dessert table on facebook three days after I attended the last sip and see party (I didn’t mention any names, just general). I didn’t mean to hurt my friend’s feeling, of course, but i guessed she was irritated by the status. She left comments on it, but then the status became crowded with negative comments, by my other friends unmutual with this particular friend of mine, towards the unusual dessert table’s function 😅. Honestly, I am very much in accordance with the comments 😂… but I also realized that I was being insensitive to my dear friend, she’s one of my closest friends in high school. I didn’t want to loose a friend, so I quickly deleted the post (to avoid more negative and sarcastic comments coming) and sent her a sorry message. She didn’t reply, indicating she was hurt, for sure.
From there on, I try to be careful with anything I am about to post. I will think twice.. to be more sensitive with others’ feeling and avoid judgemental comments.

Anyway, I am fine with that friend now. We’re talking again, although I would understand if there is any different attitude towards me. I would understand if she might not want to share some personal stories or events with me anymore. I took my comeuppance. I was being bitchy on social media… And I almost lose a friend 😥.

So, have you had any social media phenomenon?

Cek kesehatan.

Menjadi tua itu pasti. Menjadi sehat itu pilihan. Ya kan ya kan…😁

Berhubung umur sudah di kepala tiga, maka health screening menjadi wajib deh dan lebih sering kalanya. Terutama untuk kita-kita yang makan ga pake mikir, duh… khawatir. 

Kebetulan, bulan ini, si mama harus cek ke dokter di Penang. Yasudahlah, sambil menemani, saya daftar untuk general checkup dan konsultasi ke obgyn di hospital Lam Wah Ee. 

Hari pertama, kami tiba di Penang sekitar pukul 1 siang. Langsung menuju RS dengan jasa jemputan RS, gratis. Sebaiknya memang kabarin RS deh kalau akan berobat kesini, bisa via email atau telepon. Selain hemat ongkos transportasi, menghindari nyasar juga kan.

Tiba di RS, langsung daftar ke klinik dokter. Mama ke dokter bedah, saya ke obgyn. Pilihan ke obgyn dulu, menimbang hari sudah siang dan registrasi untuk check up sudah tutup. Saya pun dalam keadaan belum puasa. Jadi, sambil ke obgyn, saya registrasi online untuk health screening besok. 

Hari Senin itu ternyata peak day di RS. Meski antrian di registrasi tidak terlalu panjang, tapi antrian di klinik ampuuunn dah, bikin lemes. Kita sempet makan siang dulu di cafeteria hospital, shalat dhuhur dan ashar dulu, tapi masih belum dapat giliran 😂😂. Si mama bisa ketemu dokter sore itu juga. Saya? Jam 9 malam aja ketemu nya!! 😥😥. Udah sempat cari penginapan dulu setelah mama selesai, makan malam, baru balik lagi. Antrian saya nomor 58, daaann disana masih ada yang nomor 65 sodara. Ckckck…itu dokter tidur ga sih? Saya pilih dr. Lau Soon Yen karena hanya dia yang available hari itu, hehe. Untungnya oke sih orangnya.

Hasil dari obgyn, alhamdulillah, sehat. Tindakan untuk saya hanya tensi darah, cek berat badan, dan pelvic ultrasound. Rahim clear, telur-telur juga baik, lingkungan rahim bagus. Hanya tidak dapat dipastikan kondisi saluran rahim, apakah ada yang tersumbat atau tidak, karena tesnya (tes HSG) harus dilakukan setelah saya menstruasi tapi sebelum ovulasi. Sedangkan waktu itu, saya sudah mulai ovulasi 1-2 hari (duh, padahal pas banget ya buat bikin anak nih, haha). Anyway, so far so good lah. Saya memang ingin memastikan bahwa saya sehat karena belum hamil juga selama periode 2 tahun ini. Sudah 3,5 tahun sejak kelahiran anak saya (asumsinya setahun pertama bayi, saya belum subur karena menyusui intensif). Kami pun tidak pakai alat kontrasepsi apa pun. Meski belum berencana request program khusus untuk hamil, kami ingin pastikan saja bahwa kami baik-baik saja. Suami memang belum ikutan periksa, tapi segera lah. Oya, untuk referensi, biaya yang saya keluarkan untuk pemeriksaan ini RM 149 sudah termasuk biaya registrasi dan ultrasound.

Pulang ke penginapan, makan lagi…haha, kan mau puasa buat besok. Trus tidur. Kami menginap di flat dekat RS, kira-kira 300 meter. Jadi, tidak pusing cari taxi atau bis untuk mobilitas. Harga penginapan di sekitar RS cukup terjangkau, mulai RM 40 jika bersedia sharing kamar mandi hingga RM 65-70 untuk yang lebih privat. Hotel juga ada yang dekat, saya cek Hotel Pingsa punya rate RM 95/malam.

Hari kedua, mama masih harus CT scan dan lainnya. Saya nongkrong di health screening department. Pagi sampai siang itu full tes macam-macam, dari pipis, diambil darah, chest xray, ECG, periksa kondisi fisik, abdominal ultrasound, sampai timbang berat badan (lagi), cek tensi darah, tinggi badan, dll. Saya pilih paket screening yang essential. Ini paket yang moderate dibanding basic dan enhanced. Saya merasa belum perlu stress test gitu ya, jadi ambil yang tengah saja. Harga paket ini RM 446 sudah termasuk biaya registrasi.

Siang, pukul 2.30pm, dijadwalkan result keluar dan konsultasi ke dokternya. Kebetulan saya nerusin puasa sekalian hari itu, jadi siang saya menemani mama saja.

Yak, dari jadwal jam 2.30pm, ayo tebak jam berapa saya ketemu dokter? 

Jam 4.20pm!! Kzl… Haha. Mana hp mati dan ga bawa bacaan. Mati gaya dah.

Yang saya ga suka dari RS ini adalah ngaretnya bisa warbiayasak gini. Lain-lain sih cukup puas, meski beberapa perawat dan ECG operatornya cukup kejam, haha. Iya, masa pas saya ECG, dese main asal cabut itu tempelan yang kayak handiplast, yang untuk di tempelin kabel-kabel. Berbulu woy… Sakit kaliii.

Results: alhamdulillah, sehat. Semua normal, kecuali berat badan dan kolesterol tinggi. Kalau sudah ketawan kolesterol tinggi, baru menyesal dan jaga asupan makanan 😂. Semoga belum terlambat ya. Dianjurkan untuk menghindari makanan berlemak dan daging merah. Trus olahraga teratur. Oke lah dok. Olahraga sih saya lumayan rutin ya. Seminggu lari 3x minimal 3km dan rutin workout pake aplikasi 30 days workout challenge selama 7-10menit, hehe. Makanan sih yang susah dijaga nih. Berat badan saya harusnya turun lagi sekitar 4 kilo untuk mengejar range BMI ideal.

Selesai urusan cek ricek badan, kami pulang ke penginapan. Istirahat. Besoknya pulang 😁. Doakan kami sehat selalu ya. Semoga yang mendoakan juga diberi berkah serupa. Amin.