Waktu Aku Kecil

Di postingan sebelumnya kan diceritain kalau aku pindah dari Kemanggisan (sonoannya Slipi) ke wilayah pinggiran Jakarta Barat-Jakarta Selatan nih ya. Dan walau masih kecil banget pas pindahan ke rumah baru aku masih inget banget masa kecil jadi anak baru di wilayah ini. Namanya juga daerah pinggiran Jakarta ya, aduh daerah ini dulunya cuma diisi sama orang Betawi. Tadinya anak kota eh tiba tiba jadi harus beradaptasi sama bahasa bocah bocah Betawi. Tapi ya namanya anak – anak ya bok, cepet lah soal adaptasi mah masalah cetek.

Jadi, ada beberapa bocah Betawi yang jadi temen maen. Namanya Ipan, Tubi, Subur, Ita sama Dedek. Dedek sebenernya bukan anak Betewong, dia campuran Semarang-Padang. Ipan dan Tubi itu sodaraan sekandung. Subur dan Ita itu sepupu mereka. Rumahnya 200 meter dari rumah aku. Emaknya Subur, namanya Mpok Moer. Kerja jadi tukang cuci di rumahnya Dedek. Babah nya Ita itu kakanya emaknya Ipan dan Tubi, namanya Bang Gerom. Emaknya Ipan dan Tubi namanya Mpok Isah. Kerja jadi tukang cuci di kompleks. Mpok Moer juga punya anak gadis, aku manggilnya mpok Yatim, umurnya kira kira 5-8 taun lebih tua dari aku deh.

Nah gitu deh, waktu aku kecil aku nih anaknya klemar klemer. Ga bisa maen, bisanya ngegambar di rumah, corat coret apa gak nonton acara anak – anak. Nah bocah bocah Betawi ini maenannya hardcore. Maenan tanah, mblusuk mblusuk ke kuburan nyari kecapi, nyebur ke comberan apa gak ke empang nyari encu (anak ikan), nyari kodok, masuk ke sumur (iya sumur yg dalem itu) kalo maen petak umpet, trus suka nyolong rambutan di Gang laen. Hihihi, aku shock juga tapi lama lama ikutan maen juga. Si Ita ini anaknya aneh banget, judes dije trus ga pernah mau pake celdam. Jadi pake rok doang tapi ga pake celdam. Trus suka nyakar. Ipan dan Tubi nakal biasa cuma Ipan suka gangguin anak cewek..bete. Subur anaknya males maunya tiduran, kalo maen gundu dia sambil tiduran. Makan sambil tiduran, trus kalo jaga petak umpet dia juga tiduran di pohon jambu. Maleess banget!! Aku lama juga sih maenan sama bocah bocah ini, dan nyokap geleng-geleng karena baru aja beberapa bulan pindah logat aku jadi berubah jadi logat Betawi kalo ngomong. Sampe suatu hari pas makan siang, Mbah Putri ngambilin nasi buat aku trus aku jawab, ” Eh buset, masa cuman segono bae nasinya, tambahin dikit ngapaaaa ” Alamat ditampol nih mulut sama Mbah Putri. Dia bilang bocah gak ada sopan santunnya. Hahaha.

Selain kata kata buset, bujug, engka (gak ada, habis), empos (cubit, dipakai buat ngancem si Ita kalo dia nyakar), et dah, aku juga selalu menyisipkan kata “ngapaaa” di setiap kalimat. Nah perubahan jadi anak berandalan ini yang bikin nyokap akhirnya ngelarang aku main sama bocah bocah Betawi yang menurut beliau bawa pengaruh jelek. Padahal mah aku sendiri asik asik aja asal gak dicakar sama si Ita. Lama lama si Ita nggak nyakar lagi sih, gara – gara nya nyokap ngadu ke emaknya Ita, trus sama nyokap Ita dikasih baju lungsuran aku yang gak muat lagi sama aku (si Ita ini lebih muda umurnya dari aku). Jadi deh dia ga berani lagi nyakar dan lama – lama mau pake celdam.

Ada cerita lucu tentang si Ipan dan Tubi ketika mau di sunat. Kita kita nih udah pada duduk manis sambil makan pisang emas di hajatan Ipan, eh tiba tiba pas mau disunat sama Pak Mantri, Ipannya kabur cing. Seluruh kampung nyariin Ipan ga ketemu akhirnya adeknya, si Tubi dengan sukarela menyerahkan diri untuk disunat. Hajatan kembali meriah dong.  Itu kayaknya pas aku kelas 1 SMP. Ternyata si Ipan ngumpet di kandang kambing, jadinya gak ketemu!Giling.

Pas aku SMA, si Ita yang lebih muda dari aku putus sekolah. Trus kerja di Ramayana department store. Dia sempet nanya nanya tentang aku juga sih..Dia pada waktu itu nanya gimana rasanya sekolah di SMA Unggulan kayak aku, miris ga sih? Aku bilang ya biasa aja, cuma bete banyak ulangan. Lalu dia bilang, “Ita mah bego mbak Nopih, Ita mending kerja bae dah otak Ita mah kaga sanggup yak disuruh belajar lagi mah” . Tau tau dia gak lama kawin dan punya anak deh. Sedangkan Subur, Ipan dan Tubi denger denger jadi kuli di pasar atau kadang jadi tukang bangunan ngikutin bapaknya. Gitu deh mereka semua gak ada yang nyicipin bangku sekolah SMU…putus di tengah jalan. Si Dedek yang bukan bocah Betawi dia lulus kuliah dan dengar dengar mau kewong taun ini. Nah, aku miris aja sama temen-temen maen waktu kecil mereka masa depannya gak jauh dari orang tua mereka. Yah, mungkin juga orangtua nya ga pernah mensupport mereka untuk sekolah karena buang buang duit, katanya. Sayang banget ya?

Begitu deh kisah masa kecil yang banyak suka nya. Lucu kalo di inget, karena aku belajar banyak kosakata betawi dan gara gara suka maen sama mereka kadang aku dikasih makan siang dengan lauk jengkol dan nasi garem. Mungkin itu juga kenapa aku suka jengkol LOL. Ga terlalu lama sih maenan sama mereka sebelum aku di kerangkeng sama Mbah Putri karena jadi ” liar” padahal ya namanya juga anak – anak ya? Kayaknya sih cuma beberapa tahun aja maen sama mereka. Setelah itu aku punya sahabat baru, namanya Nora yang tinggalnya di kompleks seberang.

Kalian juga punya cerita seru gak waktu masih kecil? Bagi bagi ya :)

We Are Young and We’re Restless

I am not secretive about my age, I never was. I was born in Jakarta, in the year of 1983. I was born in West Jakarta to be exactly, in an area called Kemanggisan. And funny enough, I then kinda came back to this part of city when I went to high school. Our home in Kemanggisan was a rental, nothing fancy. I am not sure when we all moved to the suburb of West Jakarta in a little house my parents had bought. My mum had always a dream that she really wanted to have a real house with a huge backyard where she could plant some vegetables and had a chicken coop. Of course she never planted any vegetables, not even once since we lived in that house. Our grandma who took care of that. She planted a rambutan tree, a mango tree, a star fruit tree, some papaya trees and cassava. We ate a lot of cassava back then :) My mum only had some Orchids planted for herself because that was her fave flower. I think I was about 4 when my mother, father and grandma (mother’s mum) moved in our little house with a huge backyard. The closest neighbor’s house was 200 metres away from our front garden. My mum was at my age back then, 29 or maybe 30 years old. She was happily married and had a little daughter (me), she had a house she wanted with the huge backyard. I think she was very content of her life at that moment :) my dear mum.

And now, me aka the daughter. I am married too, but I do not have everything all figured out like my mum had when she was my age. I do not want a house with a huge backyard because it is impossible to have it that kind of house in the Netherlands (it would cost more than 1 million Euro, I guess..) And I am not even planning to buy a house in the near future, we are just happy to live in our rental with our two useless (sometimes can be really cute) cats. It does not mean I do not have “ambition” like my friends back home, who already have 2 kids and bought their own KPR houses in the suburb or just out of Jakarta. We still do not have kids because we do not want to have kids just for the sake of it, or because of my biological clock is ticking.

Thus, what is the standard of success among people of our age? To own a house and not to rent? I think that is one common thing young people have nowadays. Kids? Though I am not a parent yet I am sure, life will be merrier with kids. Good jobs that bring you to places, and with sophisticated (and difficult to write) function carved in your business cards?

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Finally Done

Have been meaning to post these pictures since 2 months ago, but always forgot it somehow.

When I moved into this apartment building 1.5 years ago the lower part of this building was under construction. They were building a new lobby and a new shopping center. I did not know what kind of “shopping center” they were making, I thought it would be some tiny stores like a supermarket, a bakery and maybe some clothing stores. Just so you know, a shopping center in Holland is usually just a small area contains some stores selling veggies, fish, and a medium supermarket chain and maybe some shoe reparation store and if you are lucky, maybe a pet store.

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Before

However, the last 1.5 years was hell for us! When my parents came here in August they were at their busiest! They started working at 7 with their hard tools and finished at 4 in the afternoon. I never really could use some sleep when I got my day off on Fridays. I was really fed up with all the noise and dust!and could not wait until it was done. I almost lost my patient I even tweeted the municipality house about the noise we all had to suffer from the construction. We then got some chocolates from the municipality as their sorry.

And as of February 2013 they were finally finished with building the lobby and major part of the shopping center. What a relief!! We now can sleep in and no more dust nor construction workers walking around in the building anymore. Finally, some peace :)

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After. The pic was taken in the afternoon with my mobile phone so sorry for the quality ! That high building is our apartment building!

This is how the entrance looks like now. Those big automatic doors with lights are the entrance for the shopping center and the doors next to it are the stores and an entrance to our apartment. The shopping center itself is brilliant. It has many small stores, all what you need is available in that mini mall, for example; a pet store (really important because I have 2 cats), a huge supermarket (Albert Heijn XL), a couple of drugstores, a vegetable store, fish store, Douglas, clothing stores, hardware stores, banks, jewelry stores, and maanyy more. And we also have a food court! :)

Below is the before picture of our lobby

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After

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Our new lobby got a makeover :) So happy with the result. Now we got an intercom system instead of just a door bell and new mail boxes. Besides that, we got also a new and modern elevator which operates faster and of course better.

J and I are super happy with the changes, and what makes it more convenient is that the supermarket opens daily from 8 AM to 9 PM. That is cool! Because many of the supermarkets close at 6 PM. It makes our life so much easier :D :D I am loving it! And every Wednesdays we have an open market downstairs on the square, vegetables and organic cheese are sold with cheap prices. And also fresh flowers and clothes.

With all of these perks, we will be definitely living in this town for a longer period :)

Penggalan Cerita Roti

“Kerja di restoran mana mbak?” Pertanyaan ini sudah beberapa kali aku alami selama tinggal di Belanda. Emmmh, ditanya pertama kali sama mas mas di tram dan jawaban aku pertama waktu itu adalah, “Ga di restoran mana mana mas” hehehe. Namanya orang rantau di luar negeri pas ngeliat perempuan yang duduk di sebelah berparas Jawa manis nan ayu Indonesia begini langsung pede bae ya nanya. Sebenernya ga salah sih wong mas mas nya ga kenal gitu loh sama aku, dan memang muka ikke waktu itu mungkin kusut banget abis lembur ya! Jadi nyangkanya pasti si mbak abis selese masak deh :D Dia sok kenal sok dekat, generalisir pekerjaan rata rata orang Indo yang merantau kesini memang banyak yang kerja di restoran entah jadi koki atau jadi waitress di restoran indonesia. Tapi ga semua orang Indo di Belanda tuh cuma kerja di horeca kok. Banyak banget student Indo di sini dan kerja di berbagai macam bidang. Contohnya selama kerja di Belanda aku kenal beberapa orang seumuran aku yang kerja di satu perusahaan tempat aku kerja. Lagian gak ada yang aneh dengan pekerjaan koki atau pun waitress, sama sama menghasilkan uang halal gitu loh.. Aku sebenarnya gak mempermasalahkan pertanyaan basa basi mas di tram itu cuma yang membekas di hati adalah kenapa juga orang Indonesia dikenalnya tukang jago masak ya? Ga jauh jauh dari dapur. Kenapa juga ga di identikkan dengan ilmuwan gitu huahahaha! <–mulai ngayal. Tapi aku beneran deh gak underestimate in orang berdasarkan pekerjaan mereka.

Boleh bangga juga sih ya sebagai orang Indonesia yang bermukim di Belanda, orang sini pasti nganggep nya semua orang Indo tuh jago masak semua. Aduh, pertama kali datang ke sini aku boro boro bisa masak waktu itu masih cemen banget deh keahlian memasak nya..cuma bisa masak nasi goreng sama tumis kangkung! Parah. J malah lebih jago masak, waktu baru baru pacaran doi bikinin dinner dengan menu masakan hindi-Suriname (Roti) yang rasanya alamaakkk endang s taurina banget. Lengkap dengan pancake dan ayam curry nya…Malu ati deh.

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{ Roti, hidangan dari suriname yang asalnya dari India }

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Beneath Your Beautiful

Today we went to a wedding party of our cousin (from my husband’s family side of course). So far this is my 3rd wedding parties since I live in the Netherlands. So much different from what I am used to in Indonesia, where you can go to weddings (without exaggerating) at least one wedding every weekend during period where people usually held their weddings. Good months for moslems are usually after Eid al-Fitr ( please correct me if I am wrong people :D ) The ceremony was beautiful, very intimate and it was held at the city hall of Amsterdam.

Why there are not so many weddings after years living here? Well because unmarried cohabitation is way more common here. Thus, I was kinda excited to attend weddings in the Netherlands because once there is a wedding we do not know what to expect. Will it be a traditional one? Like a matrimony at the church and then follows by a party somewhere? Or will it be a garden party only and sing along karaoke? The way they celebrate it is varied, the more personal the event the more unique the experience is for the guests. The party today was really nice and really personal, which reflected the personality of the couple and it was quite unique. We stuffed ourselves with delicious macarons and then ate as much as we wanted from the buffet..hehehe…

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The Stopera is a building complex in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, housing both the city hall of Amsterdam and the Muziektheater, picture is taken from here

 

From all 3 weddings I have gone to, I noticed that it is not very common to bring gifts, they usually prefer a fund (salam tempel) for their wedding gifts. It is very practical, just like Dutchies themselves, practical and pragmatic people :D

There was something funny happened, J and I we both noticed it after we came back from the wedding. We thought about our own small wedding which was held 6 months ago. We think, we did pretty well for our wedding..not too bad actually. See, this is the thing with going to other wedding after you had your own. You compare it with others but not in the bad way you know. We now can see that our was pretty much what we wanted and we could see how beautiful it was because we just experienced it as guests at other people’s wedding. Truthfully, we never thought about it until today! I think we should give ourselves some credits lol.

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{ the happy couple }

And, TGIF! I have been listening to this song so often for the past days. And I hope you like this Friday tune from Labrinth feat. Emelie Sandé :)

Minggu yang Aneh

Sudah bulan Maret tapi masih ajaaa dingin disini. Malah turun salju…haduh. Kirain udah mau spring ga tau nya edan, dingin masih merajalela. Stok kesabaran lagi di uji (ciee mendramatisir). Baru baru ini login lagi ke facebook, udah tau belum sih kalo aku ini ga demen banget sama facebook. Kayaknya udah gak ada privasi banget, dulu kayaknya masih simpel. Di set sekali langsung beres ga perlu bingung. Lha sekarang ini ada aja yang mesti di set berulang-ulang settingan privasi nya. Mana kalau kasih comment, nge – like status or foto orang bisa keliatan gede gede gitu. Hadew capeeek deh. Sutralah, jarang login ajah. Nah sekarang jadi mampir ke facebook gara gara anak-anak massage workshop kemarin itu ngebentuk group namanya Massage Freak. Jadi pada ngobrol deh disana :P Ada yang udah mijit beberapa orang segala dan masih ada yang nyari massage bed..macem macem. Lucu aja ngedengerin kabar mereka, hehehe. Tapi ada satu yang profesi nya aktris gitu anaknya seumuran aku..cantiiikk banget, sayang dia kayaknya rada sombong karena gak pernah mau ikutan topik tapi sering banget posting status di facebook profile nya dia yang gak penting-penting. Hihihi kok aku yang nyinyir sih? Mungkin dia sibuk berakting jadi nya malas gabung kali ya. Tapi pas aku lihat friend list nya, banyak seleb belanda gitu..jadi kepo banget deh browsing-browsing profile orang.

Suami sekarang lagi heboh sama Champion League, oh my God..berhubung punya TV cuma satu di dominasi lah sama dia nonton segala macam pertandingan sepak bola. Adoohhh, saya ga suka bola kaakaakk! Beneran deh, duluuu banget suka bola pas masih di Indo karena kayaknya ga gaul kalo ga suka bola, padahal mah cuma nonton pemain nya yang ganteng, pertandingan nya nomer dua. Yah gitu deh suami kayaknya mumpuni dan kayak orang kesetanan nonton bola terus malah kadang temennya dateng sambil bawa bir, niat banget ya mas? Sebenernya sih aku asik asik aja karena bisa nonton TV dari iPad atau internetan. Yang ga tahannya tuh adalah, sorak sorai bergembira nya itu loh gilingan kenceng bangeettt! Kucing – kucing pasti langsung lari terbirit – birit trus ngumpet di bawah kolong meja kalo suami dan teman nya mulai teriak teriak gol…hadeew. Kalian juga ngikutin bola champion league gak sih?

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Holistic Weekend

I have been wanting to write a post about my holistic weekend since 2 weeks ago but I’ve never had a chance because we were too excited planning the weekend getaway.

Oh well, let me start this! I had been wanting to attend a massage course but found the course fee was always too expensive. I could save up but since we were busy first with searching for a new place and then all the wedding shebang, I never got back into it anymore. When all things finished, I started doing some research to look for the best massage school/academy..oh well, a reliable and a reputable massage academy in Amsterdam. I found several that were interesting for me. Jeezz, there were so many course offers in Amsterdam and the more I looked into it, the more overwhelming it was. I saw that every 20 meters in the centrum itself, there was a massage practice opened. They offered shiatsu, ayurveda, relaxation, hot stone, Swedish massage, Thai massage, classic chinese massage, lomi-lomi massage….you name it. We have all sort of massages in this city. But all of them were expensive and often just a rip-off.

But after reading so many massage course offers I ended up choosing a holistic massage course offered by a reputable massage school in Amsterdam. The idea of holistic really fascinates me. Holistic derives from Holos means ” whole “  in Old Greek. A holistic practitioner treats the client as a whole, taking into account their emotional and spiritual well-being, as well as their physical body. I enrolled for a two-day-course so in total 16 hours lessons. J saw how enthusiastic I was with this course and he offered to pay the course, I was over the moon!

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Last Weekend

We were lucky that it was not hailing, raining or snowing. It was a nice weather though it was a bit cold for my taste, but it was OK.. We wanted to get out from the buzzing “big city”  thus we were headed to East. Just a couple of kilometres from the Netherlands-Germany border we found a cute village and springs thermal pools. Sightseeing was a must, thereafter we went for a dip or two in the pools and just relax enjoying the warmth of the water :) It was such a great weekend getaway.

Look, what I have found!

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  countryside’s charms.

and my fascination for big horses!

Curhat Aja..

Weits, udah mau Maret aja niihh..Gak kerasa bentar lagi musim semi. Tapi kok ya masih aja nih salju bleberan dan eksis banget? Sebal tingkat tinggi. Jarang curhat tentang kejadian sehari – hari tapi udah beberapa minggu terakhir ini kayaknya apes terus mendera suamiku tercinta. Dimulai dari usaha jual mobil nya yang ga kunjung usai..ada aja halangan nya dan setiap mau kejual eh si mobil memutuskan untuk mogok aja dong. Trus kalo kita pake sendiri dia lincah banget..Eh buset. Tapi memang ini mobil udah tua jadi mau gak mau harus dilenyapkan karena ga aman buat dikendarain. Ini mobil pertama suami yang dibeli 3 tahun lalu kado dari oma nya karena doi gagal ampe 2 kali ujian SIM. Akhirnya yang ke 3 berhasil :D Itu proses nya ada kali 4 tahun :0 hehehe. Dan si mobil VW tua ini sukses nemenin kita liburan winter ke Luxemburg menembus salju tebel, dan jadi alat transport utama waktu kita beli meubel buat rumah baru…Pokoknya berjasa banget lah. Tapi sayang, mobil tua jadinya kalah saing dijual sama mobil-mobil cakep yang lumayan keluaran tahun baru yang dijual dengan harga murah.

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Luxemburg

Udah gitu scooternya dicolong. Yah, ampun apes banget. Dilaporin ke polisi tapi yah ga yakin juga kalo bakal ditemuin. Ya udah deh si J merenung meratapi nasib kok bisa ya apes terus gini? Tapi yang namanya jodoh, ketemu aja gitu tuh scooter di Bijlmer sono (wilayah ghetto nya Amsterdam yang sebrangan sama kecamatan tempat kita tinggal). Mana masih mulus (yah gak nambah baretannya gitu maksudnya). Sekarang sih udah ceria lagi, karena udah lah terima nasib bae.

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Going South

My apology if I may sound like whining, but I personally think winter in (northern) Europe is too looooonngg. One day the temperature can be mild (around 8 degrees or 10 when we are lucky) and the next day it can drop to -3 degrees! WTH. Like today, I did not check the local weather forecasting homepage and went to work with my winter attire (a thick legging and knee socks, a knit dress and a tee underneath it, a thick woolen scarf and wrapped myself in a bulky winter jacket) but I forgot my beanie and gloves, darn..it was so cold outside! I mean it was way colder than yesterday or the day before. I immediately got a headache when I was waiting for the tram to my work. A moment like this, me, a tropical creature trapped in a cruel winter in Holland, can do is daydreaming and reminiscing the past spring/summer holidays ..Just to distract myself for a moment from the reality :) Please allow me.

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 cute little terraces in Maastricht

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40707_422858878116_4327594_nRetiro Park in Madrid. Madrid has some beautiful parks. I kinda fell asleep when I sat down here.

5480_116776408116_8065561_nMaastricht :)

7518_161209433116_3085886_nMerbabu, Indonesia

7518_161217108116_5052612_nUrban delicacy: Soto bang madun, Blok M Jakarta!!! J sits next to me enjoying his first experience makan di emperan :p

311_27516063116_5591_nSuper cozy cafes (somewhere in Greece)