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 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 both spent a lot of time contemplating this decision, and we both come 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.

Goodbye, 2020!

2020 trained me to look away from screens after office hours, so I just realized a few days ago that the third month of 2021 almost passes me by without me doing the annual tradition, writing yearly review. Even though it is way too late, here goes the story of my 2020.

I loathe 2020 as much as the next person, it locked us down in our home and threw away all hopes of flexing walking muscle (bye UK trip that already planned a year prior!), it is especially a hard year in which to lose loved ones, not that any year is better than others in this regards, but the feeling when you realize that someone who you just know will be there for a very long time, is suddenly nowhere to be found, is surreally common in 2020. However, few things still exists that I could be grateful for. 

Will tell our kids someday that there was a time that we go trekking with masks on