Insane Weather

Beautiful sky, hot weather

Today was a really really hot day. As much as I love the blue skies today, but the heat was crazy! So in the late-morning to afternoon, I had a guest over and I was walking around with her. Yes it was our fault, not sure why we decided to walk under the noon sky haha. The sun was so hot, it was beating on our backs. But I didn't think much about it, went home, took a shower and took a nap.

However throughout the day my body was feeling so warm! Not only that the weather was hot and humid, but somehow my inner body was also feeling hot. I'm not sure if it's a sign of heat stroke or dehydration or something like that. I spammed water, drank isotonic drinks and cool my body off (took a nap with my windows opened). But it was still super warm. The night wasn't helping either.

Well actually the weather has been -really- hot. It's the "uncomfortable" kind of hot weather, where the humidity is high and so does the temperature. See if it's not humid, the night will be cold actually! But cause it is humid, the night is so warm. Like an oven. I had to sleep with my windows opened these days heh. The rain did help a little in some days. But I miss the cold dry-season nights!

I do read in the news that El Nino is coming this year so perhaps this is one of the signs. We're also switching monsoon seasons and it does contribute to the hot weather. I hope the weather won't get worst as the year progresses. Dry season is bad for farmers as they will struggle finding water. I hope we'll get some rains too. But well well, global warming is real. 

And we're just "enjoying" the fruit we've planted.

Bakso

Who says vegetarians can't have bakso

Here's a random food post but I recently discovered a shop from IG selling... Vegan bakso! So I bought it last week and gave it a try last night. Kinda loving it! Okay the taste is like 80% similar to normal bakso but the texture in my opinion is kinda off. Although I feel this is one of the better ones I've found!

Oatside coffee!

Also this is another random one but I've been enjoying Oatside coffee drink! Sadly they're not available in my hometown yet. I bought this online. I hope they'll be available here soon!

7 Years (Ago) In Tibet

April has always been a sentimental month for me. Cause... I spent 10 days of Tibetan spring in Tibet back in 2016! Man time flies. Can't believe it's been 7 years since my trip! Probably the best trip I've ever been on. Afterall it was my lifelong dream to go to Tibet. So I'm thankful that I managed to bring myself up there. And even managed to see Mt Everest. Something I never expected myself to do.

I wonder how the people that I crossed paths with are doing now. The lovely old ladies and gents doing their prostrations and kora. The energetic kids of Basum village and so on. I hope everyone is doing well! I'm glad that Tibet is opening up to tourism again (not sure if international tourism is opened). The past 3 years must have been tough for the tourism industry in Tibet I guess.

Alright here's a photo of the highest monastery in the world, and Mother Goddess of The Universe in the background. Also known as Rongbuk Monastery and Mt Everest.

I hope I can see them again one day.

17 years

Afterlife

Today's my grandma's 17th death anniversary. Damn you time, where did you go! Haha. It feels like it was... A few years ago? Haha. Well I guess the older you grow, the faster time feels like it's flying. 

Anyway today we did the usual prayers, had drinks as usual with my uncle and cousin hah. It was a pretty chill day. As usual it was raining in the late afternoon so we spent the rest of the day at home. I also managed to do some work and catch up on my reading.

Alright just a short post for today! I'm kinda enjoying this blogging like I'm back in secondary school. Just a photo and an explanation to what I did today hahaha. I'm not lazy, I'm sentimental.

Long Long Time

It's been at least 10 - 15 years since I last went here!

So today I actually went to do grocery shopping with my mum, but we actually went to a supermarket we don't like to frequent. And this is kind of a random post but well, I think I haven't been in this supermarket for at least 10-15 years! Well it's known as Ramayana supermarket. I'm not even sure if it's still the same name haha. We went here today cause we're looking for pears for tomorrow's prayers.

And a few days ago my helper said that she found some good ones at Ramayana so we went here.

Well my hometown had its fairshare of supermarkets. We used to have Giants here but the closed during Covid. We used to go to Matahari but its location was not good. After Superindo opened, that's where we do most of our shopping. There's ample parking space, it's accessible too. So today was a very random visit to Ramayana haha. But wow, this place changed so much!

The thing is Ramayana is located near the big wet market of my hometown. So sometimes to go here, there's usually a lot of jam and cars. So we don't really like going there. But actually the situation is much better now. I guess just don't go in the morning or the evening where people would go to the market. Back in those days I would come here to eat CFC (California Fried Chicken). Yes we have that, and it's delicious, too bad I cannot eat it now haha.

We also used to have a cinema on the second floor! I watched Tarzan, Harry Potter and a few other movies there. It's so fun haha. There used to be passing news that they're reviving the cinema again, but it has never come into fruition. We do have a cinema now though, albeit a small one but it's better than nothing I guess! I do hope that one day Ramayana will go back to its former glory. I think it still has the potential heh. But I guess only time could tell. I'm not sure.

Okay that's all for the random post! And to end this random post with more randomness.

In this episode of mother nature trying to kill you
(this huge-ass log almost hit my sister's car heh)

Enjoy Your Life

 

No post today cause I don't know what to talk about haha. But hey hey this song has been on repeat ever since it's released. Such a wonderful song from Romy! I think this needs to be played in every club haha. Hope to dance to this on the dancefloor one day :')

Rain

Today has been a pretty productive day for me. I did a lot of things, and definitely ticked off my holiday to do list haha. Well actually I've been setting up some things to do everyday during the holiday. Some of them include reading a book (I'm currently reading a new book and I've been reading one chapter a day). There's my daily exercise and also there's a list of things that I aimed to finish this holiday.

Say hello to my fermentation corner

So the day started with me doing some reading. And then in the afternoon I went to do some tidying up in the kitchen with the mum. Actually we went to Ace Hardware a few days ago to look for some kitchen racks and some container to tidy up our fridge. And today's the day we tidy them up haha. Well it's not some major tidying up. I basically set up a new rack to place my bottles and scobies and so on. And then we tidy up the fridge to clean up and make way for some space.

After that I laze around in the early evening (oops) but after that I went to enter some book quotes from the Daily Stoic, and the 2 books that I have finished. I have this habit of writing down the page numbers of the book with some nice quotes on a piece of paper. When I finished the book I will write down all these quotes on a Words file and usually print them out to keep. So yep today I went to write down these quotes. After holding them off for... About 1-2 months heh.

Then went to eat lunch and yeah that's about it. But yep I ticked off a few items from my list! Tidying up the kitchen, writing down the book quotes, oh and also journaling and blogging of course haha. I would say the best part of a holiday is this: You have time to do things you want to do. Keyword is want. Hahaha. And also you can do this at your own pace and timing. Which is a privilege to me.

Alright that's all for today. Oh also regarding the title: It's been raining the whole day! Which is also something I'm proud of. Cause instead of succumbing to the weather and lazing around on my bed under the blanket, I managed to do all these things mwahaha.

rOMADhon 2023

Right since it's still day 2 of Lebaran, I'd like to talk about something I did once again in this year's Ramadhan or fasting month! Okay so as mentioned last year, I actually did OMAD for last year's Ramadhan. And ever since then I've been consistently doing intermittent fasting (IF) for one whole year! Well basically I did different types of fasting every day, but mostly a 16-8 IF.

In the spirit of Ramadhan, (or as I'd called it now "rOMADhon" haha) I attempted to do OMAD for one whole month too! I thought it's gonna be easy after one year of IF but... I was wrong.

Okay the first week was pretty easy. I pulled it off very well and it's just like an ordinary OMAD week. I didn't have hunger pangs and so on. By the 2nd week it was also okay, but my mouth was "itching" by 6 PM (oh my meal is at 1 AM hah). So that's about 17 hours fast. By the middle of third week, I was struggling hard hah. Okay actually I was experiencing some severe gastritis and diarrhea on the 13th day of my OMAD month. So I stopped doing OMAD for 3 days cause health > OMAD I guess.

I'm not sure if it's because I stopped doing OMAD for these 3 days that I "wobbled" and struggled to keep up with my OMAD habits in the 3rd week haha. But anyway I persevered again and managed to go back to my OMAD diet for the rest of Ramadhan. It was okay I guess!

Well the truth is an OMAD diet is not sustainable in the long run. This I know and that's why I don't do it every day hah. I just do this in the spirit of Ramadhan. And... Also I didn't lose weight as I hoped at the end of this. I'm not sure why T_T but I do read that there will come a point where we reach a plateau state, where we will no longer lose weight. I think I need to exercise more.

Talking about exercise I've actually added jump ropes to my exercising regime! I came across a jump rope video on YouTube and thought it'll be a great exercise to do. I bought one and I was like "Meh this looks easy, I'm gonna do 500 for my first time!". Oh my goodness HELL NO hahaha. I couldn't even do 50 in one go! I read up more online and it's not good for beginners to jump a lot straightaway. I built myself up from 200, to 300, to 500. Now I do 700 on alternate days.

My aim is to do 500 everyday and hopefully 1000 soon. It's quite challenging in some ways. Like now I can do 100 in one go but sometimes it's hard to keep up. The positioning of the hands, and the height of the rope and so on plays a HUGE part. So I've been experimenting myself. 

Alright that's all for my OMAD post this year. I'm going to continue doing IF for the rest of my life. Maybe until I reach a healthy weight haha. IF to me has been super helpful in maintaining my weight. Like I never increase my weight the past year even though I don't exercise. So perhaps I should do more exercise so that I can lost more weight faster. Jump rope come to daddy.

Silence

Today is officially Lebaran and so wishing all Muslims around the world Eid Mubarak 1444H! I hope everyone is having a great time with their family and loved ones. I would say it's finally a wonderful Eid all Muslims deserve after 3 years of Pandemic. So yes I hope everyone's having a great time.

One of my favourite things about Lebaran here is the sheer silence that we experience on this day. 1 Syawal is always a very very quiet day. I guess everyone is celebrating at home, and doing home visits. And after that usually they will rest at home. We usually spend this day at home to enjoy the silence. So I don't know how the road condition is. It's probably quite empty too.

I would say it's a stark difference between yesterday and today. Yesterday the Takbiran was roaring from the late afternoon till late at night. And today suddenly everything is so quiet. So yeah it's quite huge difference. At times the silence feel very eerie but it's also something I enjoy and look forward to every year. See the thing is Saturday nights here are pretty quiet too. When there's no one working and no activities around too. But things just feel different. I can't explain it in words.

Anyway today was a pretty chill day for us. We spent the day at home. I took turns taking care of my baby niece with my sister and parents. My cousin came for a visit too so my dad, him and I had a conversation too and we talk about many things. And I spent the evening watching TV with my nephew Stefan. We're fighting over the remote cause I want to watch Fantastic Beasts while he wants to watch Looney Tunes hahaha. But being a good uncle I gave it to him.

Alright I guess that's all for now. I've been enjoying these chill blogging!

Takbiran

So it's official, Lebaran will be tomorrow! The mothers are thankful that they don't have to panic to cook rendang and others suddenly yesterday night I guess haha. 

Anyway it's the eve of Lebaran now and my house is surrounded by the sounds of Takbiran. It's always a nice scene to be in. It's like a time of celebration and gathering and so on. A yearly tradition that I look forward to every year heh. The sounds of Takbiran always makes it feel like there's a lot of people in my hometown, and they're all gathering together and just having a good time.

But strangely the roads were kinda empty just now. I went around town with my dad at night earlier and the road was okay. It's not very crowded. Perhaps it's also because we went at like 11 PM heh. But I do realise that the barbershops were full. So do the eateries selling bakso and snacks and so on. We were also doing "Bedug hunting" and sadly only managed to see 2 bedugs this time. And they're not even in town but on the outskirts of it. I guess time has changed a lot.

Lebaran in a way always makes me feel old too. Cause you know it's something that I look forward to every year (except when I'm in Singapore, since we don't have a long holiday). So it's like every year we experience Lebaran and we just realise how much things have changed. And of course how much I've grown older. I guess it's just the simple inevitability of time. 

New Moon Shopping

Today is the first day of the 3rd Lunar month and I went to the temple as usual. I went in the afternoon and the road was kind of packed with cars already. In fact I was driving through this road and I thought it's gonna be a smooth passage but oh hell no. I was probably stuck in a 100-200m long jam! Well yesterday was officially the start of the Lebaran holiday in the government sector, and most other businesses follow the same day. So I guess it's just a "right" timing for the jam to happen hah.

I went to the temple first and along the way home I decided to do some shopping first. Actually I was just planning to shop for some dehumidifier (serap air in Indonesian). You know that calcium chloride crystals your put in a container where you put inside drawers etc. Cause I realised my stock just finished! But err lo and behold I decided to spent 500k worth of drinks and snacks and chocolates.

I hate my lack of self control sometimes hahaha.

After that the day was spent at home. I guess we're too lazy to go out knowing how jammed up the road will be. It was a pretty relaxing day one where I spent it just reading books and also just lazying and laying around my bed. Gosh I love this period of time, where I can do this without feeling guilty and also without being chased by time cause I'll have to do other things and so on heh.

Anyway the government is carrying out Sidang Isbat today. Or the meeting where they will carry out the sighting of the moon to determine when will Ramadhan officially end. It's kind of like a yearly practice and everyone is waiting for the result. There's one Muslim organisation here which has decided that today is the last day of fasting and tomorrow is Eid. So there's a chance that tomorrow may be Eid (instead of Saturday). I can't imagine the panic of the mothers if Eid will fall tomorrow haha.

Alright I guess that's all for now! I guess I'm just waiting for the result of the sidang.

Holiday

Nope I'm not going for a holiday nor am I in a holiday elsewhere but hello hello it's the Lebaran holiday finally! It's one of the period of time that I look forward to the most every year haha. Cause I get to rest, reset and recharge. It's just a period of time where I don't have to do anything. Or should I say... Where I'm not expected to do anything heh. But just a wonderful time to rest! Something very rare.

Anyway as you can see I haven't been blogging here and as usual I'm not gonna give any reason but I was just very busy! As usual the weeks leading to Lebaran is always a very busy and hectic period. So glad that it's over now and we went through it smoothly (again) this year. 

Anyho I'm just thinking, now that it's the holiday, and my blog post number is really depressing this year hah, maybe I should liven it up a bit! I was reading an article a few days ago, and also was just reading a book and I'm thinking of doing a Stream of Consciousness blog post. Basically writing whatever that is coming to my mind. Or whatever things I want to blog about anyway.

We're having a long holiday here until the 2nd of May so that's not too bad it's about 13 days worth of post. I know I told myself that I'm not going to pressurise myself with blog posts number this year but somehow I feel kinda guilty when I realise my post number is so little haha.

Okay I'm not sure how this goes but hello holiday!