Extension

It's the last day of February oh my goodness. Actually you know what, I never feel like February is a proper month. To me February is a month "that doesn't exist" heh. It feels more of like an extension of January! Hahaha. Not sure if it's the 28 days, or just me growing old and being more busy. But then again well, can't deny the fact that 59 days of the year is gone. Phew...

Anyway 2018 has been a pretty happening year so far. I would say it's indeed going to be an exciting year for us. At the same time I feel sad too because I realised I've been spending my rest time for work more often these days... Well despite the habit change, I still have to do some work I guess.

But thankfully it always happen during the end of the month. Not every time.

Well alright just a really short, random post to end off February. Time to March forward to better days!

Count To Five

Hello hello hello. It's the 2nd last day of February, gosh where did you go time! Been quite busy with work as usual since it's the end of the month. Hopefully I can wind down in the weekend. Alright time to get down to business! Didn't expect myself to discover some new music in February but I did.

Great Music of February:

- Fireworks by First Aid Kit

- Rebel Heart by First Aid Kit

- Ruins by First Aid Kit

- Waste by Rhye

- Count To Five by Rhye

- Softly by Rhye

- Get Out by Chvrches

- Don't Bring Me Down by PREP

- Ayahuasca by Vancouver Sleep Clinic

Song of the month: Don't Bring Me Down by PREP

Recevied my copy of First Aid Kit's Ruins and Rhye's Blood in this month finally! Both are amazing albums to start the year with really. Ruins is a pretty beautiful album in my opinion. The lyrics are amazing as usual from First Aid Kit. And as usual, Klara and Johanna's beautiful voice really sends the album into a whole beautiful package. Although however I prefer their previous album "Stay Gold", well simply because I can connect more personally to that album heh.

I was pretty excited about Rhye's Sophomore album because I really love his first album! Milosh is such a talented singer. And his voice totally compliments his music. I feel that Blood is an incredible album on all sides. The music, lyrics and the story behind the album as well. 

There's some singles being released. And they are releases I've been expecting this year! Let's start with the first one from Chvrches. I love how Chvrches used FB Messenger to tease us with new materials. Get Out is a pretty catchy song. I thought it was a pretty decent song at first but towards the middle things get pretty nice. Especially the lyrics though! It's so...... </3

And finally a song I've been waiting for almost a year, it's Don't Bring Me Down by PREP! I first listened to this song when I caught them at Kampoeng Jazz last year. I didn't know the title of the song. I know it's just "Don't bring me down song" haha. I fell in love with that song the first time I heard it. I've been repeating their live video of the song on YouTube! And now it's here :D 

Also I can't wait for their new EP in April wee!

Last but not least Vancouver Sleep Clinic released a surprise song on YouTube! I was quite shocked cause the song is 8 minutes long but man, it's such an intensely beautiful song. I am kinda hoping that it'll be broken into three songs? Cause the first segment is a beautiful melancholic song. But man VCS just did it again. I love their music, they give you a feeling you can't describe really.

Alright that's all for the great music of February! Here's to more discovery in March. See ya :)

Chamomile

Continuing from my previous post, about chamomile.

So as you know I'm sadly allergic to paracetamol/ibuprofen since 2012 ish hah. And ever since I discovered this sad trait of mine, I've been looking for alternatives to cure my fever. Usually when I have an inflamed throat, flu etc, I will easily pop some medicine and feel better. But most flu medicines contain paracetamol/ibuprofen and thus I can't take them. Well there's one flu medicine that I take but it's just nasal decongestant. It doesn't bring down the fever. So not that effective.

One of the alternatives that really work for me is garlic. I usually eat like 2-3 cloves of raw garlic three times a day when I have flu/sore throat. And it really works, I'll feel much better within a day or two. However garlic has a bad side effect of giving me a gassy stomach, or gastric itself. Also it makes my mouth/breath smell wonderful. There's one time when I ate garlic before dinner. Note that my stomach has been empty for 6 hours. And I got a horrible gastric that accompanied my bed time.

Recently I was reading up on a few articles about herbs that help infection. Garlic is one of them. Others include tumeric, ginger, fennel, thyme, rosemary. One ingredient caught my eye and it is chamomile! Well I'm not a huge fan of chamomile but I'm okay with it, since it's readily available and easily consumable as well. It's just in the form of tea and I can drink it easily, throughout the day.

So last month I had a really bad sore throat and I was also coughing badly. I had fever on the first day and so I decided to put chamomile to test. And it really worked! Well not quickly but okay here's how it went. On the day which I had fever, I drank lots of water, and also drank three cups of chamomile tea. After my second cup my fever actually went down a little. I drank it again before bed and the next day the fever was gone. But my annoying sore throat was still there.

So I continued drinking chamomile and in 2 days' time, the sore throat improved a lot actually. Well I was still having cough but it was just like those lingering and remaining cough. I continued drinking chamomile for the next week and the cough subsided eventually. No medicines, nothing!

Okay I'm not really sure whether it was just my body that fought the infection, or if chamomile does indeed have medicinal and anti-inflammatory properties. I do read that Native Americans used chamomile to heal wounds by applying crushed chamomile flowers on the wound. And they also brew the flowers to drink to aid in healing. So it does work I guess? Well I'm just happy that I have an alternative now. I'm eager to explore more alternatives, since I really rely on them! :P

I'm quite intrigued by tumeric because in traditional Indian medicine practices, tumeric is like an awesome herb that treats almost everything haha. There are articles on treatment of diabetes, anti-cancer properties and also anti inflammatory ones too. There's even a study in India where two groups of patients with flu were treated, one with tumeric only, and the other with normal flu medicines. 

And the ones treated with tumeric has a faster recovery.

The only "side effect" that I get from chamomile is... I feel more relaxed throughout the day. Well it is good, but sometimes I become so relaxed to an extent that I feel sleepy haha.

Alright that's all for this random post on chamomile! I hope you can give it a try too, if we can go back to nature to heal, I don't think it's a disadvantage at all. Hope you had a good week and here's to another fantastic week to end off February! :) Take care everyone.

Aromatherapy

Just as I thought that I was getting better from my insomnia in January... I started to get it again in February hah. I have no idea why, I've been having an on-and-off insomnia. Like I said previously, I knew that I usually get insomnia on the two solstices of the year. But hmm sometimes I will get a period of that once in a few months or so. Maybe I'm just fated hahaha.

The thing is it's not that I can't sleep at all. Or that I don't feel sleepy. I still feel sleepy and I usually go to bed at 5 AM. But then I will just be awake until about 6.30 or so. If it got worst, I would sleep at 7/7.30! There was even a time where I only managed to fall asleep at 9 AM. The good thing is that once I fall asleep, I will sleep well. I won't constantly wake up etc. Although of course, the later I sleep, the more tired I'll feel when I wake up, and throughout the day.

I didn't take any naps before this, didn't drink any strong tea or whatsoever. I don't know what's going on. Maybe it's my sub-conscious mind. Or maybe it's just my body. Also the weird thing is that... I did once try to go to bed earlier (like 4 AM). Things got worst, I became restless and couldn't sleep!

So yeah I've been trying alternatives to this problem. I tried chamomile but hmm it doesn't work that well. It does work, but I gotta like drink chamomile tea 3 times a day heh. Cause a few weeks ago I was having a bad sore throat and I just spammed chamomile. 3 cups a day! It does make me feel more sleepy, but it's quite bad to an extent that I feel sleepy throughout the day hahaha.

Now I'm trying a new method: aromatherapy! Well I tried this 7 years ago back in Singapore and it kinda worked. Now I used candles. I bought this small Yankee candle sampler. Been using it for two nights now but ehh... Okay either I did something wrong, or I got cheated, but the smell isn't that strong! And also the smell is only wafting on-and-off. Pretty weird. Any candle expert?

I want to try going back to burners though, that's what I used in Singapore and it helped quite a lot with the sleep, and also the smell is constant throughout. Was reading online last night and lots of articles say that diffuser is a better choice since it doesn't emit smoke. Might want to do that as well! Diffusers are kinda expensive though. But no harm trying I guess. All for sleeeeep.

Okay just a short and random update. I wanna talk about my chamomile experience on another post!

Happy Chinese New Year!

 Happy Chinese New Year for the cool uncles and aunties of Baros United!

Hello first of all I just wanna wish you a Happy Chinese New Year! May you have a wonderful and prosperous year of the dog ahead, and may you be healthy and happy always! Hope the year of the rooster has been treating you well. It's the year of the doggies now I guess. Not sure how it's gonna be!

Anyway the past two days have been a busy and eventful one as usual, with my family gathering together for CNY. Yesterday we had the prayers and reunion lunch as usual, and then we ushered in the new year at the strike of midnight together. As for today it was a pretty chill day (thank the universe) with not so many guests coming over. So yeah not as hectic hahaha.

Yesterday was the reunion lunch and as usual I cooked something for my family. This year it's kimchi-jeon AKA kimchi pancake! I had some kimchi at home and decided to make it. It was okay but I didn't taste the kimchi first... And it was pretty sour oh dear. Hope my ancestors still like it heh. 

Spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and catching up with the rest of my family, cousins, aunts and so on. Then went to the temple in the evening. I don't usually do this, but I've been doing it for the past 3 years or so and it has become a habit. Well, just to give thanks to the deities of the temple for guiding me in the lunar year, and praying for a good and smooth year ahead too.

After that I joined my aunt and cousins for a porridge meal at our favourite porridge restaurant!

Then spent the night working with some calculations oops! Well we're not supposed to do it but I was just rushing to finish it to join in with the rest of my cousins and family haha. Managed to do it in 45 minutes so yep! After that we started to prepare for the midnight prayers and we ushered in the new year! Ended the night with a good laugh, love it when all of my family gathers together. 

An awesome way to usher in the new year. May this year be filled with happiness and laughter!

As for today, it was just the usual day of receiving guests and relatives over to my grandma's house, where the altar for my ancestors is located in. However it was a pretty chill day for us heh. Kinda same as last year or in fact even better! Well I hope it's another sign that it's gonna be a chill year mwahaha. Well definitely going to be an exciting year for us! 

And as usual we went to my grandma house in the evening. My cousins are there too and oh my goodness they're so tall. Also now that my grandma has three great grandchildren, the house wash filled with noise of my nephew and niece playing together haha. Man time sure does fly. I wish my grandma the best of health and longevity. Also she's been having dementia so it's kinda funny how she always ask me to eat more food even though I ate a lot already :P

Yup that's all for the first day of the new lunar year! It was a good break definitely. A good time to just slow down and recharge before going back to work. I wish everyone a wonderful year of the dog ahead. And hope you had a great CNY with your loved ones if you're celebrating! :)

Rezeki

This post is actually a continuation of my post last Wednesday, about the online-haul rides!

Except this time round, I'm not going to talk about it anymore. But I'm gonna talk about the quote inside the post, about how life is going to take care of your livelihood.

Ever since we opened the farming utilities shop two years ago, this quote becomes more and more real and blatant to me. I realise how true this is, because when you open a shop, your "livelihood" will depend on the customers that go to your shop in each day right. And yes, there are weeks where very little people come to the shop to buy stuff. And there are weeks where there are a lot.

For example I had a few occurrences when I had very little sales in one week, only to earn 2-3 times more on the following week. Sometimes I have a stable income, sometimes not really. In the retail industry, you can really feel the ebb and flow of life. And after experiencing this, I firmly believe that well, don't worry so much. Life is going to take care of you in one way or another.

Take the farm as another example. Okay we did quite a major mistake back last August which resulted in us not having a lot of flowers for December. And thus because of that... Err, business was quite bad for December haha. But guess what, we earned 4 times more than what we earned in December! In a way, we covered the loss that we made in December mwahaha.

So yeah, this quote really speaks a lot to me as life goes by. Sometimes I feel we worry too much. Yes, it's in our nature to do so. But if we learn to let go, life is going to helps us around I guess.

Tidying up

This is a continuation of the random post yesterday. But I just finished tidying up my room! I was actually planning to just nua and relax tonight cause I'm done with work. Also the night ended quite late today so I was just feeling really lazy. Didn't even want to blog even though I was supposed to heh. But I just finished meditating just now, looked at the clock and also looked at how messy my room was. So I decided to pick myself up and just tidy things up. I'm so glad I did haha.

I am quite a huge procrastinator. I need to dedicate a special day for myself to do the things I've been planning to do. I'm not that kind of person who would you know, like perk myself up to do things (when I'm not planning to do it). But tonight is different. I decided to clear my shit up ahaha. 

Like I've been planning to remake my table, cause I've used the surface of my table to paste my monthly calendar (instead of placing a desk-calendar on my table,which takes up a lot of space). I bought all the materials needed, like scotch tape, double-sided tape etc. And they've been laying around my room since Saturday! Gosh. So I finally managed to do that just now.

And I was also refilling the moisture absorber thingy, which I placed in my drawers, cupboards etc. I did this on Saturday but I was left with two more, cause I forgot to buy them. My mum bought them on Sunday and yes, same, they're just laying around my room again urgghh.

Okay of course I have my own reasons as well. I was really busy the past weekend and so on so I didn't really have the chance to accomplish my task. Also I'm considering to do a spring cleaning part two tomorrow night. Realised I have lots of things to clear inside my drawers... Hmm.

Alright that's all for now. Will continue to blog tomorrow, I've something to talk about! :)

Timing

Hello, man I was really planning to blog back a couple of days ago. But guess what? The internet died for the whole weekend and thus I wasn't able to blog! It's quite funny how I always tell myself not to rely on anything to make me occupied or happy. But part of me dies whenever the internet is down on weekends. Cause... I've always loved to chill during these times of the week but, nope!

Nevertheless, I feel that the internet dying during the weekend yesterday was kind of a blessing in disguise. I managed to complete a lot of work, and also to accomplish things I was planning to do! Also I was so busy yesterday with the harvest and end of week errands etc. The absence of the internet has allowed me to focus on these tasks, and I did finish them weee.

Like on Saturday I did some spring cleaning as usual, before CNY. And on Saturday night I managed to finish some work I was planning to finish on Sunday. And similarly on Sunday, I finished my work which I was planning to complete by Monday. All thanks to the death of the internet for these two days hah!

I've always believed that things happened for a reason and yup. Here's the reason.

Kinda reminds me of one particular day in Singapore where the internet at my house died too when I reached home. I was feeling annoyed cause I was planning to relax and chill before I start doing work. But since the internet died, I managed to do work and study etc, earlier than I was planning to. And right after I was finished with work, the internet went back to normal hahaha.

Well yeah I always remind myself to make the best out of everything. Every moment that we have, which we'll never get back in return. So yup! Another blessing in disguise. 

Okay that is all for this seriously random post. I will blog in the next couple of days since things have kinda wind down a little bit. Been busy with deliveries and lots of other things last week. I'll make up for the posts I didn't do in January. I'll see you soon and have a good week ahead :)

Change Is The Only Constant

 Change // Constant

I went for the xx concert two weeks ago and I returned home from Jakarta via train. To get to my hometown I have to go to Bogor first from Jakarta, then catch a train to my hometown. On Wednesday, the day I returned home, I reached Bogor at an early time (my train is at 1 PM and I reached at 11). So I decided to go to a nearby mall in town for Starbucks to wait for time to pass by.

I've done this a few times before. Usually I'll take the angkot (a common public transportation in Indonesia) or just take an ojek (motorcycle taxi). However this time round, I tried using Grab! In Indonesia Grab doesn't just offer a ride-hauling service, but it also has Grab-bike. Which is essentially an online motorcycle taxi. There was a booth at the station where you can order a Grab-bike service.

So I tried it out. And it was pretty convenient, and cheap! A 2km ride (I think) costs 7000 Rupiah. That's like 70 cents heh. I have the Grab app on my phone, was using it while I was in Singapore. So I ordered another Grab Bike to go from the mall to the train station. Same, it was 7000 Rupiah.

While on the motorcycle, I took a random photo shown above. It was meant to be for my Insta-story. But after a few weeks I realised... This is actually a very interesting photo. As I was riding the motorcycle, I looked around me and see other forms of transportation that seem to slowly being replaced with this new format. Like the trishaw beside me, in the photo. The angkot, and the ordinary ojeks. And even people prefer to use Grab/Uber/Gojek instead of taxis now.

I used to feel concerned about these people, who offer transportation services in the "old" format. But then I'm reminded again of a quote by Muhammad Ali:"A man who views his life at fifty the same way as he did when he's twenty, has wasted thirty years of his life".

Time keeps on moving and life keeps on changing. When we don't keep up with it, or when we go "against" the flow of time, we'll find everything wrong with life. But when we go alone with it, things will kinda make sense eventually. Even though it's quite tough to do this.

When Uber/Grab/Gojek was launched in Indonesia, they receive quite a lot of backlash from people. Saying that these companies are trying to snatch their livelihood away. Well here there's a saying that goes "Rezeki sudah ada yang mengatur". Rezeki means livelihood/earning/blessing. The quote basically means your rezeki has been taken care of by someone/something (i.e: God).

I share the same view as them. But then again I'm reminded of the quote above. I always believe that as long as you do good, life will take care of your life and your livelihood. And I don't think they will run out of business either. Cause I'm pretty sure their service is still needed by others.

Change is truly the only constant in this world. 

Well this is just a really random thought of mine. I do enjoy my first Grab-bike experience though. I tried Grab in Singapore and Uber in Australia before and they're pretty convenient. I definitely will use Grab again in the future when I'm traveling out of town. Or basically I'll choose whatever form of transport that's most convenient for me haha. Alright that's all for this post!

Silencing

It's been a pretty hectic week, and a busy weekend for me too. Pretty relieved that everything is over, although I do realise that another week is looming over. I didn't have the chance to blog a lot in January although I have lots of things to talk about. Being busy and being sick are not really a good combination really. Although I do feel a tad of guilt to know I didn't blog ten posts last month!

Nevertheless like I said previously, I don't wanna make blogging a competition haha. I'll just go with the flow but I will try to blog as often as possible as the year moves along.

January has been quite a pretty weird month.  Or should I sad, a pretty weird entrance and beginning of the year. Lots and lots of things were going through my mind and I can't seem to silence them. Spent lots of sleepless nights, wonder about a lot of things. Just a weird feeling really. Feels like I'm being bombarded with a lot of things from the inside. And I don't know how to stop them.

Meditation has been going fine too. In fact the change of habit (chanting every morning) kinda helps too! I think I'm more focused throughout the day. And I really enjoy the idea where my nights feel pretty relaxed and chill. And not rushed. That's the most important thing I guess.

Well February is here now. I hope I'll have a better month ahead. Just keep moving on.