JOURNEY TO SNOWDON, EPISODE 2 : THE HIKE

Haha, it took me nearly a year to finally pen down this story. In recent months, the idea of continuing to write on this blog has been nagging at me. But what can I say? I have the intention, but no willingness due to being swamped with work, moving to a new country (more on that later), and endless scrolling, and so on. However, tonight I'm making myself sit down and write because I know I'll treasure these writings when I'm older :')

In the previous episode, "Journey to Snowdon, Episode 1: The Car," you'll recall that we encountered some drama that slightly messed up our Snowdon schedule. The plan was to drive from London to Snowdon in the Northwest and make a midway stop somewhere in Hereford. However, it was already 3:00 PM when we finally got the car and hit the road. So Junda did his best to get us there before dark.

Driving to Snowdon by car can be a bit tricky because you can't just park anywhere you like. There's one car park in Pen-y-Pass, right across from the hostel we booked, which is at the very starting point of our hike. But it costs a fortune to park there, which was around £40 for overnight parking, and you have to reserve it days in advance due to limited space. There are other car parks available, but they're a bit farther from our hostel. Actually that's not a big issue because there's a sherpa bus running around the Snowdon area. However, since Snowdon itself is a remote location, therefore the bus schedule is limited, which is why we were worried about running late since the last bus leaves at 7:00 PM.

2022

In the beginning of year 2023, I opened this blog before starting my first day of work after 2 weeks end-of-year holiday and realized that I only wrote ONE post in 2022. I feel that my life was either too packed and busy with agendas in 2022 - or I simply have no motivation to write (yeah I guess it was the later one, wasn't it). What can I say, I'm just an ordinary human who always wish that God gives me more than 24 hours a day. 

Since my intention to keep blogging is to have a living memento for me to look back to, I need to force myself to write a recap of 2022 before my motivation vanished. Here we go!

(28 January me: haha it took me almost a month to finish this draft lol)

I lost my mother in 2019, pandemic and what's with 'new normal' that forced us to quickly adapt in 2020, then we lost Junda's mother in 2021. 2022 though, were all about endless blessings. I feel that Allah has been very kind for me & family in 2022, there are still some stormy path here and there, but nothing that me and my family could not navigate.

Home Making

At the end of 2021 we decided to move from the apartment that we've rented for three years to our tiny house. Buying a house and taking a mortgage was a big, big decision for both of us. We spent a lot of time contemplating this decision, and came to the conclusion that the timing is just right. We found a house for sale in the area that we both always imagine growing old at, at a price range that is affordable to us, and at the time when there are need for both of us to expand our life a little bit.

When the renovation just started

Journey to Snowdon, Episode 1 : The Car

Episode 1: The Car

"The payment has declined", 

 said the card machine for the 20th times, I lost count, tbh.

It was our second day after we arrived in London. We were supposed to pickup the rented car that we've booked and paid in-advance, and heading Northwest to Snowdon first thing in the morning since it will be a long journey and we hoped to arrive before it gets dark. 

Breakfast in our AirBnb, and stairway to hell to the flat. I just remembered that I took this photo because Junda fell off when carrying our luggage in this narrow & steep stairs. Maybe that was the sign. Haha

All cheered up and happy when waiting for the bus. The weather was lovely.

Everything seemed smooth, we had breakfast and packed our lunch and brew our own coffee. We then rode the bus for around 1,5 hours from our Airbnb in Muswell Hill to Europcar office in Park Royale. Considering that we brought along two huge luggages, bus was the most convenient options albeit took longer than tube, but still, we managed to arrived on time at 9AM. There was no problem when we mentioned our name for the reservation, hand in our passport and driving license. The major problem revealed itself when the Europcar guy asked us to hand in our card since he needed to secure £250 deposit before giving us the key. 

We then hand in our first credit card.

"The payment has declined",

Strange, we thought. We didn't see it coming.

Odawara & Hakone

Lake Ashi

Karena belum ada hilal bisa jalan-jalan lagi, saya pun iseng buka-buka foto lama dan teringat bahwa masih banyak banget cerita yang belum ditulis di sini dari perjalanan ke Jepang tahun 2019 kemarin. Supaya tidak lupa, saya pun jadi berniat untuk mencicil nulisnya, mudah-mudahan ga wacana ya wkwk, aamiin! 

Hari keempat di Jepang, sebenarnya kami berencana untuk main ke Kamakura, namun dari malam sebelumnya saat bertemu dengan teman saya, si Martin, dia berkata bahwa prakiraan cuaca menunjukkan bahwa esok harinya akan hujan seharian. Pantai dan hujan sepertinya bukan kombinasi yang baik, sarannya. 

Ternyata benar, hari itu hujan turun dengan deras sedari pagi. Tanpa pikir panjang, kami pun langsung mengalihkan tujuan ke Odawara, yang masih sejalan dengan tempat kami akan menginap malamnya di daerah Hakone. Beruntungnya pagi itu Masaru-san, host Airbnb kami, berbaik hati mengantarkan kami ke stasiun.

Living More with Less

It's been agessss since I write the last post, due to lack of any kind of happening. I'm still working for home, although me & Junda kinda let loose a lil bit more now. We sometimes eat out, visiting friends, and various other errands. Other big chunk of my activity lately is doing massive decluttering and selling things that we no longer need. 

To some of you who might be following me on other media, you might realized that for the past few weeks I'm actively selling stuff there. Me & Junda are trying to commit more to this minimalist lifestyle, not only our dwelling is small, but we also don't really need much things anyway after contemplating. Although my version of minimalist lifestyle is not at the level of Fumio Sasaki yet, who could fit all of his belongings to a small suitcase. Mine is more on reducing redundant stuff, such as multiple shoes that all has the same purpose, or books that we already own the digital version of, or utensils that only differs in color or pattern even though the function is pretty much the same.