Project 365

Welcome! This is my own 365 project of creating at least one post per day about the stuff that I learnt, achieved, and found, the stuff that made me happy, or the new thing I did every single day.

The project was started on 21 February 2010. It has stopped for few times but I am determined to continue!

This project is dedicated to myself. I want to feel grateful for every single thing I have. I want to be thankful for my own life. I just want to feel that I have enough.

Jane Austen

Jane Austen's Complete Novels

Finally! I got Jane Austen’s complete novels in one thick book! I’m so happy!!! 🙂

* Mbak Dessy gave me this book. I was supposed to pay this book but she refused!!! Thank you so much mbak! :-*

Indonesian & Columbian Dinner

BIS dinner

Vanessa and I invited some friends for dinner today at her place. Actually, I wanted to do it at my place, but there are no space to accommodate 10-15 people. So I decided to host dinner together with Vanessa; as both of us haven’t get the chance to do that since we first moved to our new place.

I cooked two different dishes. First was an Egyptian macarona bechamel which had become a famous dish among my friends. I’ve made it several times and friends have come to me to request cooking it 🙂 It is very delicious and I admit that I’m good at making it! Hahaha. That’s the only dish that I’m confident about without having the chance of cooking failure! LOL.

The second dish I cooked was ayam kecap which was the easiest recipe I had ever discovered! (And thank you, mbak Ina for publishing the recipe!). The first time I cooked it was a total failure, because apparently I put too much butter in it. But this time I knew how much I had to put and the dish turned out quite good! At least, everyone loved it! And they loved kecap tooo! (I brought a big bottle of it and told them how to eat it with rice hihihi – the Indonesian way!).

Vanessa and I cooked too much foods. We were expecting at least 15 people to show up but many of them cancelled in the last minute. So we ate too much and our stomach was stuffed! Ah, it was great 🙂

The Change in Me

I’ve been thinking about myself lately. I feel like I’ve changed. I used to be not so picky about many things, including making friends. But now I’m much more careful. I used to love being alone. I used to dream about living alone. But now I loathe being by myself. I want to be around with people I care about. I want to be with my friends all the time. I used to be so carefree, but now I’m worried about many things. I used to dream about having a successful career and earning a lot of money. But now I want to be a successful mother and wife.

In a way, I don’t mind with these changes. As long as these changes are positives and do not harm others. I’m happy with it. It’s just amazing to see my own transformation in a matter of short time. This is just my reflection to end the day 🙂

:)

Nothing much happened today, except that I was still too tired. I didn’t sleep so well and I spent my time at uni for the whole day.

Yet, I encountered someone today. Didn’t expect that I would meet him and see his smile which always melted my heart! 😀 It made my day!

The Pleasure of Working

The Book Festival @ Brabanthallen

A book that has 300 recipes for Nutella!

taking a pic with a DJ bfore he’s famous

Some ppl are working, some are posing…

Bahri & Linda working 🙂

Bosche bollen — a must eat! Super!!!

Today was the second day I worked at the Book Festival. I went to Den Bosch with my friend Bahri as well as my new friends Maureen and mbak Dessy (who stayed over at my place for few days). We decided to take a bus as it was much cheaper (although it took us 1 hour to get to Den Bosch; compared to only 20 minutes by train hehehe). Once we arrived, we went straight to buy Bossche bol, which was a super delicious chocolate ball and was only available in Den Bosch! It was my second time eating it, and I couldn’t be happier! 😀

I took few pictures today when I was working at the Book Festival. It was in low quality though, as I took them with my poor mobile phone. But anyway, that’s how the festival was going to be like. The place was quite huge. My job was to unload and arrange those books; it involved a lot of carrying, pushing, sorting, walking, good eyes, and good memory. We worked for 9 hours for the preparation of the festival and got 15 minutes break every few hours (1 hour in total). Today was the last day of the festival’s preparation (tomorrow is the opening), so I worked longer than expected and went home quite late.

The good thing was I went home with Bahri so at least I wasn’t alone and had someone to talk with. We had a good conversation on the way back and we reached Eindhoven at around 9.30pm. Quite late, huh? But anyway, there were a lot of things to be thankful for. Judging by the pictures, didn’t I look happy (though tired)? Hehehe.

Without You

There’s nothing worse than to walk out along the street without you.
I don’t know where I’m going.
You’re the road and the knower of roads,
more than maps, more than love.

Jalal ad-Din Rumi

For the sake of money…

I work at the Boeken Festijn (Book Festival) again this week. This is my third time working in this festival (I worked in Rotterdam and Eindhoven previously). I’ll be working for only three days though; trying to get money for my Easter trip. Den Bosch is only 20 minutes away by train from Eindhoven, so it’s not far at all.

Anyway, I really enjoy working at this festival. Besides having the opportunity to see the books and buy them with the discounted price, I get the chance to meet new people, including Indonesians living in different parts of the Netherlands. They are mostly students and ex-students who are searching for permanent jobs and trying to survive in this country buy being part-timers. I do admit that sometimes I’m quite hesitant to meet Indonesian students; mainly because I don’t feel that I think the same way as them. We have different lifestyles. We have different ways of thinking. We have different stuff to talk about.

But these Indonesian people that I usually meet at the Book Festival are of different category. Perhaps they’re more mature. Or they don’t mind to work and try not to spend their parent’s money. Or they’re humble. Either way, I feel like I belong into the right group.

Although the work is quite tiring, but every time I have a break, I always have wonderful time. Laughing. Cheering. Even to the point… screaming! Hahaha. It is such a joy to be entertained and to be “freshed” again when I go back to work after a 15-mins break.

I’m off to work again tomorrow. I have to wake up early and gain extra energy. Good night, people!

The Closed Door

Seems like this week is a hectic week for me! I didn’t realize it until today. I don’t know how I’m going to manage it, but I have two assignments that are due on Friday this week and on Monday next week. I also have to do the project that I unfortunately failed. Then I have to work for three days on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday for the whole day. Not to forget that I have a weekly Qur’an session on Friday night and a dinner party that I’m going to host on Saturday night. This is going to be interesting!!!

Nevertheless, I feel so thankful for I don’t end up at home — alone — complaining how lonely I am with no one around. I have so many things to do and I will keep myself busy for the whole week. The good thing is that, a friend of mine, Maureen, is going to stay with me for a week. So at least I have some company 🙂 .

What makes me feel even more grateful is that, I got a text message from him today. Knowing that there’s someone out there who’s been thinking about you is enough to make me feel so precious. I’ve been blaming this heart for not being able to open its door widely. And I am still struggling with it. My feeling can’t lie. And I can’t do anything about it. But anyway I give up on trying. I’ll keep on living my life and see where this heart will bring me. And I’m sure there’ll be time when my heart is going to open the door without the need of someone knocking it. Amin.

Chatting

Jessie: When does ur summer vacation ends?
me: Usually on August. Why?
Jessie: Day trip Barca [Barcelona]? or on the weekend? =))
me: =)) I wannnttt!!! LOL
me: Okay we’ll talk about that later :))
Jessie: It’s been 10 years since the last time I was there. The urge to go there is back again
me: Hahhahaha. Yes I wanna go there!
Jessie: Cool hahahahaa. But we will discuss that on the way to Paris… wakakaka
Jessie: And next year touring around in Indonesia!! SINCE U NEVER BEEN TO BALI
me: =)) =)) =))
Jessie: *still kinda shocked since this bule already been there*
me: Hahhahahahah. Yes u beat me!!!
Jessie: Yeah, but you’ve been to many more places. So I don’t beat u on that one
me: Hahaha.. The next thing I wanna do in Indonesia is diving! I wanna take a course and diveeee. Wanna do that? ;;) Interested?
Jessie: YES. I am!
me: Let’s do it next year! Hahahha
Jessie: Wkakakakakaa. OK I need to make a serious saving account =))
Jessie: Amel. We need to get a good side job and work our ass off and start saving money =))
me: WE DO!!!!! LOL. Saving money for traveling hahaha
Jessie: Yeah, before we get married and get knocked up and become IBU RT [ibu rumah tangga / housewife]. We still need to see the world
me: =)) INDEEDD!!!!

This the chat with my travel friend, Jessie today. Oh gosh, I can never save money for the future!!! I’m always going to travel until I’m really settled! Hahaha.

It isn’t that bad to enjoy yourself before being somebody else’s wife, right? 😉

Whatever it is… I’m excited about next year! All the travel plans. Everything. Let’s see if I can really do it (since I’ll probably be jobless LOL).

Thank You

I went home today after dinner. It was at 11.35 am. I saw not a single person on the street and only 2 cars passed by. It was really empty! And as usual – I was scared! I was scared of passing the small street to the backyard of my house. The street was even emptier and much darker than the main road. There was only one light at one of my neighbor’s backyard and the rest of the street was really dark. What if there were somebody stopping me and attacking me?!?

Just when I was about to reach my backyard, I looked up and stared the sky. There were so many stars lighting up the sky. They were beautiful! I never realized that you could actually see stars in Eindhoven!

Suddenly, I wasn’t afraid anymore. I smiled. Thank you, Allah, for accompanying me and making me feel so much better.