Darla!

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Random Thoughts

I’m back… again. In yet another attempt to be back to regular blogging. I have so many post ideas in mind but can’t seem to put them into neat, readable formatted words for public consumption. Blogger’s block has never been this strong. Ugh.

Anyway, allow me to share several thoughts I’ve been having lately. Perhaps some of you can relate to one or more of these?

I’ve been wearing a lot of pink lately. People has started speculating that I’m pregnant, specifically with a baby girl. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not pregnant. My cheeks look chubbier but my stomach is as flat as an ironing board (or maybe not really).

I love napping with Miss Jess and often get worried if I’d crush on her while napping and she’d die. Today I found out that that is something which will unlikely happen. I accidently kicked her head and she bit my foot. She always puts up a fight (and ends up winning).

After seeing the news about my country’s economic situation, I realised how dynamic life is. And even though my little young family has to strive harder now, I see hope in everything. I feel so energised and full of life right now that I start to think I’m being silly and naive.

I have a new found love for Eka Kurniawan. Earlier this month, I finally gave local novels a try after years of being disgusted at how silly their back cover synopsis are. I picked three books, one that of Eka Kurniawan, the other two are by Dwitasari “and friends”. I stopped reading Dwitasari’s Jatuh Cinta Diam-Diam halfway through, but I fell deeply in love with Eka Kurniawan’s Perempuan Patah Hati yang Kembali Menemukan Cinta Melalui Mimpi. I love his writing style and his stories are very unique. Two of his novels are going to be published in English next month: Beauty is a Wound and Man Tiger (you can pre-order here and here).

Did you know that my husband is a blogger too? I hadn’t read his blog for a while, but yesterday I went and saw this post about his first Ramadan with me. I might have cried a little. He is very amazing. I love him. And I’m glad I did well in our first Ramadan living together.

I miss reading your blogs. How are you? Tell me one of your random thoughts right now!

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

19 August 2015
13 Months Planner from Etsy

It wasn’t until July when the long holiday was over and I got to get back to work that I realised I needed a planner. It was too late for me to buy one at the bookstore, because they only have the January to December ones. It would be just a waste of money, buying a whole year planner that can only be used for five months. So naturally, I looked up cute planners online. I fell in love with this Ban.do planner and this Erin Condren’s LifePlanner, but when I checked out the shipping fee for both of the planners to my address… well, let’s just say it made me want to pack up my bags and move to Canada. Because seriously, why is the shipping fee more expensive than the items I want to buy? It’s so unfair *cry in the corner of my room*

And then, I browsed Etsy and found several fancy looking printable planners for less than $20! I found several designs that I liked, and based on several consideration, I chose 2015-2016 Daily Planner from The Nifty Studio ($14). I love the colourful design. It’s also super simple and doesn’t have too many pages. It really suits my needs.

For the cover, I wanted something personalised. I found several Etsy shops which offered personalised planner cover, but I chose this one from Clean Life and Home ($3,75). As you can see, the polka dot design looks quite similar with the Erin Condren’s planner that I originally wanted, but not identical. So I guess it’s a win-win for me. Yay!

I had it printed and bound in a local printing company, Angkasa Putra. It only costed about IDR200k (about $14,75). So the total cost is $32,5. It’s way cheaper than buying from Ban.do or Erin Condren (plus the shipping fee. God!)

Here are some pages from my planner:

I really like how it turns out! It’s very unique and very “me”. I’m 99% sure there is nobody else with the exact same planner like this one. Haha 😉

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

6 August 2015
Weekend Links
Happy Sunday, friends! After weeks of drought, it finally rained last night. My plants are all happy and this morning the cold wind was blowing. While I know the dry season is still here until November (or so the weatherman said), the rain last night brought so much joy. It was much needed; a proof that small happiness matters.

Right. Now links!
- What are your interpretations of online “success” and “failure”?
- Here’s why the Oxford Comma is very important.
- Is it too late to create a successful blog?
- Recently, Ally posted something controversial on her blog. She then posted an apology the next day. I love how she handled the issue maturely 🙂
- Do you know how it feels like to be a blogger boyfriend?
- My new favourite comic strips: Maghfirare.
- And speaking about comic strips, Cat vs Human 2016 calendar can already be ordered now!
Tomorrow is Monday again! I wish you a productive, yet fun, week 😉

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
2 August 2015
Dinner in Donwoori

All things Korea have been popular quite a while now in my country. I remember all the hypes were started when I was in junior high. One of my best friends introduced us to Super Junior, a Korean boyband. Since then, everyone seems to be infected by this Korea fever, except me. I can even say that I hateeeeeeeee this trend. I can’t stand K-Pop and K-dramas. To me, all those Korean celebrities look like the same person. I really can’t wait for this trend to end already and being replaced by the comeback of Bollywood or telenovela trends (Thalia, anyone?)

Besides the rise of fame of K-Pop and K-dramas, K-food becomes popular too. Many Korean food restaurants start their business in the past years. And because of my hatred towards K-whatever, I’m not interested in trying any. However, I finally give Korean food a go when my girls met up for dinner in Donwoori last night.

Donwoori is a suki and Korean food restaurant located in 53 Lombok St., Bandung. The menu consists of all the popular Korean food like (bear with me, I don’t really know how to correctly spell them) Topokki, Bibimbap, Kimchi, Ramyun, and the likes. We ordered one plate of Topokki, which was enough for the four of us because the portion was quite large. Surprisingly (to me. Haha!), it tasted good! Not really unique because it tasted similar to a local dish called ‘seblak’, but still good. I may buy it again someday. May. Haha!

We also had Suki with Tom Yam and chicken broth sauce. The Tom Yam sauce was super yummy, while the chicken broth was so so. If you ever come to Donwoori, I suggest you try the Tom Yam sauce because it’s the best Tom Yam sauce I’ve ever had so far. No kidding.

The place was quite packed as it was Friday night, but it was cosy. The waiters and waitresses were very nice and we didn’t have to wait for too long for our order to come. The food and drinks were a bit pricy but still affordable. I’ll definitely come back, specifically for the Tom Yam sauce! 😉

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

1 August 2015
Likes & Dislikes: Ant-Man

For the very first time in years, I didn’t watch Marvel movie on its first showing day. Ant-Man was released one day before the Eid. There was no way for me to go to movie on Eid eve, so I had to skip the premiere. It was such a bummer, given the fact that I had a straight record of seeing the premiere. Haha!

Ant-Man tells the story of Hank Pym, who invented a substance called Pym Particle which can shrink human into an ant-like tiny form. He shut down his own research because he saw that his invention could potentially create chaos in the world. However, he needs to use the particle again when his protegee, a young scientist named Cross, gets closer to finding hiw own shrinking substance. Hank is already too old to become Ant-Man, so he chooses Scott Lang, a criminal freshly out of prison for burglary. The two men along with Hank’s daughter create a plan to steal Cross’ invention to stop it being exploited by Hydra.

Likes

+ It’s refreshing to see smaller (both literally and figuratively) Marvel movie. After seeing London and Sokovia being destroyed in previous MCU movies, seeing Ant-Man saving the world by fighting Cross on top of Thomas the Tank Engine is super entertaining. Ant-Man is a proof that superhero movies can be fun and don’t always need to be depressing (remember Age of Ultron?)
+ I love the father-daughter relationship in this movie. Not only the relationship between Scott and his daughter, Cassie, but also the one between Cassie and her mother’s fiance, Paxton.
+ I know both Hank and Scott are good looking as hell, but my all-time favourite character is Luis! His best scenes are the Dubsmash-like ones. Haha!
+ I also love the part where Falcon shows as a cameo. “It is really important to me that Cap never finds out about this.” Hilarious!
+ But my version of the best scene is of course the one when Siri plays Disintegration by The Cure. Classic yet techie joke.

Dislikes

– It’s less funny than any other installment in MCU. It’s even less funny than The Amazing Spider-Man.
– I don’t really know Paul Rudd. I didn’t even know the name Paul Rudd before Ant-Man. And I think his acting is flawed. There are several lines which should have been funny but came out just wrong, IMO.

That being said, I’m glad Ant-Man will be joining the Avengers in the next movies. But I’m also sad because Ant-Man marks the end of MCU Phase 2 and the Phase 3 won’t start until next year. That’s okay though, we will have Mockingjay Part 2 later this year 😉

Image via.

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

27 July 2015