CNY Is An Inch Away

Another new year with another long weekend. Added holiday—

most of us will take a leave to have a longer break esp combined with CNY holiday — i’ve gotta start packing 😍 Happy (another) New Year! dream come true!
seeing solanum in a flower arrangement is rare blessings
2023 is my year; major dreams come true! 💝

It Does Well

It sways flexibly
In stormy days.
It grows calmly
In sunny days.
It roots perennially
In the meadow.

It sings;
It hums;
It mutes;
It sees;
It hears;
It touches;
It tastes;
It smells;
In silence
Perfectly.

It does well.

these flowers survive the storm and continue living in bright days on and on and on between those two situations only through a friendship with the meadow 💝

Charlie Chaplin to Us

Laughter is the breeze caressing the hair waving to the morning sun.

A posting landed on my Instagram’s Home, it was Charlie Chaplin’s small details that are meaningful to me who love to laugh but often fail to make jokes. Most of my jokes are garing (crispy-dry, not funny; Bahasa Indonesia slang). 😁

Salaam.

Sweet Day

Any day can be sweet with some setting on the tongue. Avoid chilli.

was craving for sugar at around 3pm in the office, about to have this…. no no no
this? no no no
decided! chocolate brioche — chocolate never fails me!

Fast Food

No food for dinner, no food tapao (take away food, Singlish & Manglish) from office cafe…. So, I was thinking of buying food online.

Um…

I found some chicken in the freezer, a lot of herbs in the basket and coincidentally picked some blimbing wuluh from the condo’s public herb garden on my way home. So garang asem or chicken in herbal coconut milk was the best decision for (late) dinner. While ideally garang asem should be wrapped in banana leaf, it was not today in my kitchen. All was just my style…. 😘

So is there really fast food? To me fast food is whatever can be cooked from whatever in the storage with no rush. 30-45 minutes is almost the same with the length of delivery time for a bowl of pho or ramen or a plate of biryani or a box of Korean chicken or a package of Indonesian anything food.

And it was super freshly fragrant delicious chicken in herbal coconut milk in the universe! 😁

I love Javanese cuisine!

Thank you for today!

💕

there’s public herb garden right above level 1 parking area and anyone can enjoy the crop reasonably – thank you for your idea, blimbing wuluh

More pictures of blimbing wuluh

while waiting for lemongrass to arrive, other ingredients were sitting nicely on the cutting board 😍 not so fresh yet i love all of them 😍
this chicken from the freezer must come out before the CNY holiday next week! 😘
it should have been wrapped chicken in herbs but no fresh banana leaves to wrap and the amateur chef was too tired to go detailed 😁
tada! chicken in herbal coconut milk was served for dinner; the left over? for tomorrow’s lunch box 😘

About garang asem

Pink Roses

Pink roses in a vase welcome seven cold guests, turning them to smiles.

an innocent staff put these roses in a vase to welcome us; she said the roses were grown in the dorm garden, which we found true; what a sweet gesture 💝 (Nagano, 2014) — we should have smiled more widely to her 😁 see you again this year

Love Birds Tweet

Silence sits among storm, won’t sit in a temple. She’s been far away happy, leaving two love birds tweeting noisily.

Some people don’t want happy ending for everyone but themselves and won’t stop communicating their hostility in any other way even when they know they have won the game. Oh! Perhaps they never know what victory is, they misunderstand it with justification.

Salaam…

is it the note, the clef or the heart shape or the space the illustrator wants to emphasise? many will (mis)interpret based on their own experience or even assumption, exactly like a literature which is interpreted differently and the literary person smiles wide as she knows the more interpretations are awarded to a poem, the more successful the poet is — 😘😎

Ode to Day

Dear, day.
Do you know that I never stop waiting for you?
When my watch ticks a second,
My heart drips a note,
My pulse vibrates softly,
I know I am closer to you.

Dear, day.
Do you know that every part of you blesses me?
When morning breaks,
Noon flares,
Dusk fades to night,
I know the next you is waiting
For me.

Day oh day
Many I can’t understand,
Much I can’t decipher,
Little I can see,
Very few I can give
Yet I still hope
To meet you again.

Dear, day.
How I am blessed with family,
Gifted with friends,
Sufficed with this self,
You are still the one
Sung by this heart.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
All have been today
And never faded away.

I am blessed, day
With another you
In the best way.

And for you
I am grateful.

as dark as serene night
as shadowy as calm dusk
as bright as each and every morning
she is well protected under the shade of glorious sunflowers 💝
dear sunflower 💕
and the white drops of details
when all glass vases are prioritised for orchid roots, fondue pot be today’s best choice 💝
all must be got rid of in order for the flower arrangement to get a spacious and “clean” background — there is always thing to prioritise; if it is not you, don’t feel bad — it’s just like that everyday so just be blessed with becoming either 0 or 1 in this binary world 💕

Love Diaries in A Library

This life is a library
Keeping all collections,
Reference to public,
Exclusive to a lover,
One lover.
The
Beloved—

Read,
Beloved
Any scrolls
In this library.

Read,
Lover
The diaries
In the secret dungeon.

Read,
Beloved
With naked eyes, or
With any glasses on the shelves.

Read,
Lover
Through letters and numbers,
Shapes and colours.

Read,
Beloved
This library is open
As long as you are awake.

Read,
Lover
Before you sleep
When I’ll be reading you through.

my earlier diaries are true stories through naked eyes; the later are colours, shapes, numbers, words in various styles and figures of speech needing some tricks and tips to sense layers of meanings and information — we are all writers, librarians and readers 💝

About the photo

Free Will

Free will? What is that? This breath is what you blow in to me to love you.

Realising more and more that her life is free of free will; she needs causes and reasons to do anything she does even for her brain to think about what things to think of— there is a bond invisible and invincible.

She surrenders to the bond. 💝

Happy weekend.

Salaam.

two new buds not coming out of free will 🥰 there are reasons, there are causes

Corner

In a bright corner she’s seen. The sun sends her light reflecting bright life.

this is more than enough to put me in a good mood after a long trip; she delivers a stem of buds after moved to a corner where sun greets her directly — thank you!

Taste

How many tastes can she experience in joy? 5 or 7?

Realising that the best taste is not any of those 5 or 7; the best taste is only 1: to love. 😊

Days of love be like…

well done beef
sate kambing (lamb skewer)
ayam geprek (smashed chicken)
nasi rames (combined dish riced)
gado-gado (vegetables in peanut sauce)
lumpia sayur (vegetable spring rolls)
pisang goreng (fried banana)
the baked and cherry
the baked and blueberry
mango 💝 and pumpkin seeds

Friday

Friday, this bright light blinks to the eyes not stopping staring at the heart.

Masjid Istiqlal — after more than 10 years
shollu ‘alannabiy 💝
waiting for a friend who said “let’s meet up in Istiqlal Mosque, Thursday night welcoming Friday would be a good night to pray for beautiful 2023” 💝

Dancing Dolls

Dolls dance following the rhythm of the carver’s breath. Standing ovation—

dancing dolls, how attractive you are! i enjoy watching your unmoved movements then applaud as that’s what you are made for 🎎

Lazed

Is it lazed or slowed? The day seems long without you around the pink sky.

indomie is the best in lazy day 😍

doesn’t look amazing but tastes like soul! 🥰

Home Missed

There’s home that’s missed lingering around the heart. Let it in with joy.

slightly boring, yes — back home is the happiest 💝 i miss the kitchen, the orchids, the bikes, the books, the canvas, the paper and all that I can do in that tiny space
oooh and time to bring my luggage to its repair center 😘

Reflector

Reflection kills her night.
The tower dramatically sways,
Dancing with the street light,
Gleaming with the moonbeam.

She grabs a cloth
To wipe her mirror.

Oye, her little heart.
You need a janitor.

one Petronas tower reflected perfectly through a skyscraper’s glass in a dim evening 🪞 dramatic yet poetic and romantic 😎

Old Friends

There is memory shared around a round table at a starry night.

so blessed to meet friends — they said “Chinese food for dinner ok lah, Rijk, no pork lah no pork!” ok lah, everyone…. 😘 thank you! 🙏🏼

Two Towers

Towers will mostly collapse of weak foundation…. Or the strongest quake

Petronas Twin Towers from taxi 👍🏽
solanum on the reception table 💝
no one can make me feel not good if I don’t allow myself to – it’s a commitment as strong as tower with solid foundation, not only a lip service. KL, see you soon 🔥

Nothing Is Left

She travels light.

She brings a few packed
And you, in a locket
Kept safe with a chain
Worn around the neck
Reminding the traveler
That nothing is left.

dear river, this is my empty jar with which i keep your water before it flows back with you to the vast ocean – nothing is wasted, nothing is left 💝

A Home (ranting)

A bird builds a nest in what its mother describes a home. Protection—

No one is truly detached from one’s root and that is a foundation that should not be shaken. Foundation is the last and foremost protecting part of a building. When others try to shake adult mature’s foundation principles, they are sooner or later surely destroying a construction that has been built carefully and systematically through parenting, education and culture especially in early age.

Still want to change your friends to be like what you want them to be? It is either killing them inside or killing you inside. Worse is both don’t realise that the other is dying or dead inside; even think there is a good change considered “a success to educate (wrong) friends”. Ah….! Illusion.

Solution? Eh? How would you treat a beautiful gift given to you? Don’t try changing others’ foundation principles. Instead accompany them grow to their best version as they are.

And for those not even appreciating their own or others’ roots: congratulations, you are doomed. Oops! I mean it takes longer time for you to reach true goals. 😁

Salaam.

💝

fly, achene. find a home where you rest your dreams.

Ceremony

There’s fire kindled, prayer sung, fragrance bellowed in ceremony.

Life is humble as a simple smile at the same time sacred as a ceremony, enjoy it with bare heart (RC Gorman’s Ceremony)

Deep Sea

White foam on turquoise sweeps back to dark blue deeper to where secrets are.

dive more deeply to this deep sea and let yourself be greeted by the calmness and warmth of your own honesty and acceptance — there is something that doesn’t demand you to be anyone else but you 💗

Angels (sharing)

The wings are flapping sprinkling blessings through the air. Breathe them. Be blissful.

In Arabic angel is called malaaikatun or malaaikah or simply malaaikat (الْمَلٰٓئِكَةِ) literally meaning “power that governs”. In Islamic tradition the “power that governs” are grouped based on what type of assigned power they govern that are many and one of them is “power to govern protection”.

I always believe I am fully protected through the existence of the angels surrounding me although I am not interested to discuss about their form; people say angels have wings, others say they are made from light, some say malaaikah are systemic laws to run the universe, and so on and so forth. It doesn’t matter to me. That they exist and follow the assigned “power to govern” is enough for me.

Only when we listen, we will hear. We will hear the songs of the angels, the songs of universe, the songs of the heart, the songs of the soul. I prefer my angels to sing jazzy songs in this end of long weekend. 😁

Listening to heart…. 💗

Salaam.

‘ve met feathers almost everywhere walking recently; i took it as a sign that protection is everywhere and decided to always wear this silver pendant this year as an appreciation of the protection — thank you for the protection

Heaven & Earth

Does heaven and earth exist other than in a lover’s smile? Yes. Dream.

although not there, I still seek heaven and earth in you through my dream 🥰 happy new year to the other time zones until every spot on earth is covered by Jan 1, 2023