MONEY!

"Money can't buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery."
Spike Milligan.

To be honest, I completely agree with the quote above. Why? Because it describes how I feel about the existence of money nowadays. But in my opinion, how pleasant the misery is depends on HOW you manage the money itself. And for me, I only get the misery without any pleasure these days -_-"

Ironis emang, melihat gw yang ngambil economics with finance as major pusing tujuh keliling karena uang. Tapi perlu diketahui, hal ini bukan berarti uang yang dikirim orang tua gw pas-pasan, cuma anaknya aja yang dungu dalam mengatur keuangan. Mungkin itu salah satu alasan kenapa orang tua meng-encourage gw untuk ngambil ekonomi kali ya...

But put that aside, one might wonder how complicated is it to actually maintain my expenses. Buat gw pribadi, baju dan atribut-atribut kewanitaan lainnya bisa lebih gampang gw hindari (shoes are the hardest one though), tapi tidak untuk yang namanya MAKANAN! Bagi orang-orang yang udah kenal gw, mungkin udah ga terlalu heran melihat kapasitas perut gw yang sepertinya lebih gede dari karung beras. Tapi hal itu sama sekali tidak membantu gw dalam mengatasi temptation akan berbagai macam makanan yg ada di sini. From all kind of crisps, cakes, chinese food, you name it and I will definitely love it! Tanpa melihat haram atau halal, semua gw telen bulat bulat (I know I'm being sinful, but at least I realized the food contained with pork AFTER I finished it)

Selain makanan, satu hal lagi yang menjerumuskan gw ke penderitaan adalah biaya transportasi. Even though I love British public transportation, it rips me off! 50 pound lebih bisa habis dalam sebulan cuma untuk train and tube. One solution that I encounter is not going to London every once a week, tapi melihat diri gw yang bakal berjamur kalo tinggal di dorm, for now I'd rather go somewhere than rot myself.

So,I'll ask you, what do you think I should do to make my misery more pleasurable? Any kind of suggestions will be considered : )

Reading week (y)

First of all I'd like to say: "Yeaaaahh, blog danya yg baru najong banget - sorrey, mengganggu mood mu dan"

Anyhoo... READING WEEK HAS BEGUN! For me at least. It's basically like a mid-term break, only, it's not a break. You have to work; read mostly. And that's annoying. Reading "Harry Potter" is different from reading "The Age of Extremes: 1914-1994" by Eric Hobsbawm (I sounded so smart having just said that, but really, I only understood 5% of what the gibberish book is saying)I wonder if Hobsbawm himself knew what he was writing about. Nobody should know more vocabulary than Shakespeare, unless he right-clicked and thesaurus(ed) every word he wrote. If you can get the point across using simpler words, then why bother writing sentences like "Even the cadres of communist parties began to concentrate on the ordinary satisfactions of life once the millennial aim of earthly salvation, to which they had dedicated their lives, moved into an undefined future." [insert reference here]
What...the bloody BLEEP.
That, ladies and gentlemen, was a glimpse of torture. It's a really fun subject, but the reading ain't so fun.
Soo yeah, end of rant :D

Bon soir,
Monica

Lost in a Battle

It's finally here


Homesickness that comes after you thought you're already settled in is, by far.. the worst

Sorry to alter the mood in the blog completely, just felt that I need to write this down

:)

Danya

TRANSITION

Setelah berminggu-minggu mendekam diri di kamar dan menjadi ansos (baca: anti sosial), gw mencoba untuk nongkrong lebih lama di dapur saat makan malam. Hasilnya.... tidak seseram dan seliar yg gw perkirakan, mengingat gw pernah melihat insiden pelemparan bermacam barang jam 12 malem dari dapur gw yang di lantai 2. Walaupun gw lebih menjadi seorang penonton dan hanya berkomentar sedikit, at least they know me and we shared a nice laugh together : )


Oh satu lagi, gw baru aja ikutan kelas bahasa portugal, dan pronunciationnya ga semudah yg gw kira. Walaupun begitu, at least gw ga harus belajar alfabet baru seperti klo belajar bahasa jepang ato arab. Rasanya aneh emang belajar bahasa yang bener-bener baru di lidah maupun telinga, tapi on the bright side, seru juga belajar sesuatu yang baru, apalagi it's totally FREE : D


Gw bakal kasih tau progress gw menjadi a real university student tapi itu harus nunggu karena tugas-tugas udah mulai menumpuk,so as for now, adeus. Boa noite : )

"Home"cooked Meal

Salah satu hal yang udah pasti dikangenin kalau jauh dari rumah yaitu; makanan rumah. Dan seperti keluarga Indonesia lainnya, di rumah gue hampir selalu masak makanan Indonesia dong :)

Selama kira-kira 4 minggu tinggal sendiri, jauh dari rumah, gue selalu takut bakal indulge tiap waktu makan dengan microwave food - yang sebenernya pilihannya emang banyak dan enak-enak :p, tapi... GEN-DUT. Akhirnya, gue mencoba beberapa makanan yang sama praktisnya - karena kemampuan memasak gue masih pemula :p - tapi yang lebih sehatttt!

...dan inilah beberapa dokumentasi hasil jerih payah memilih dan mengolah bahan makanan yang sehat, praktis, dan enak:

#1 Tortellini filled with spinach and ricotta (atau cottage cheese, lupa) with Greek Salad on the side :) Tortellininya tinggal rebus 3 menit; Saladnya... ya... salad hehehe

#2 Pan-fried chicken-breast strips (bumbu seadanya, kemaren cuma ada salt and pepper hahahaha) and spaghetti with pesto sauce sama cherry tomatoes on the side, yum!

#3 Yang terakhir ini adalah achievement tertinggi gue sampai detik ini, ini adalah... deng deng dengggg... SEMUR AYAMMMMMMM!!!! Gila, walaupun idenya dadakan, alhasil g tersedia bahan-bahan yg sebenernya (not even onions) tapi... rasanyaaa beeeehhh!*

Jadi tadinya ayam-ayam cantik ini mau gue panggang, pake Rosemary utk bumbunya, terus makannya pake kentang (bosen kan?); terus tiba-tiba, menuju jam 4 sore, lidah gue mulai bergoyang saat otak gue nyebut "Semur... semur..."; jadi, dengan nekatnya, gue coba bikin, walaupun gue sadar gue g punya minyak sayur (punyanya olive oil! hahahahaha), terus berbagai jenis bawang dan pala atau apapun itu lah namanya juga g ada, akhirnya gue pake senjata andalan gue: GARLIC PASTE! sama untungnya gue blom lama beli sambel juga (bukan sambel botol, cabe yg dipotong2 itu trs ditaro di minyak)

Srang...sreng...srong...

Jadi dehh!!!

*karena bantuan Kecap Manis ABC yang dibeli di ChinaTown beserta 'makanan pokok' lainnya seperti Indomie :)


Jadi, dengan keadaan jauh dari rumah, jangan makannya malah ngaco ya... coba aja trik-trik kayak gini biar tetep nutrisinya seimbang
(emak-emak banget ya sarannya)

yak, baik anak-anakku semua,
selamat mencoba di manapun anda berada!

Danya

The underground station is really a fantastic source of entertainment

Hullo, I'm bored and I've got nothing else to do so I'm gonna tell another tube story.
This didn't actually happen in the tube, but on the stairs as we were getting out from the underground station.

There was a black man (and I'm not being racist), who was walking behind me and my mum as we climbed up the stairs from the underground station. So there was some sort of rail that divides the stairs into two, and people going up or down should always keep right. However, a lady who was rather big (I'm trying to be subtle here... She was big) who was going down took the left side, where people are supposed to go up. She realized this quite late so she kept going down anyway. The man behind me was quite agitated I suppose so he tried to block the lady who was going down, and so she was kind of pinned between the man and me. I tried moving as near as possible to the wall to give her space but the man just sort pushed her and she said "Hey! I was just trying to..." she didn't even finish the sentence, as the man walked past her she hit his bag (I think she was aiming for the arm but missed), and the man swiftly continued to walk up the stairs and said "Keep left, it says you need to keep left. And keep your hands off me or I'm going to make you lose some weight!" (He must've meant right, it says to keep right)

Toodle-oo,
Monica

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Hello all!

Hidup sendirian telah mewajibkan diri gue untuk pergi belanja supply makanan sendiri setiap bulannya (atau 2 minggu); karena itu, di hari Minggu yang cerah ini, gue pergi sendiri ke Waitrose untuk belanja bahan makanan - dan telah gue tetapkan, hari Minggu pertama di awal bulan akan menjadi hari belanja gue. Dengan membawa list apa aja yang mau dibeli dan juga perkiraan harga satuan dan totalnya (ini sangat penting, kalo gak ada, lo semua bakal kebablasan beli yang lain-lain juga), gue memulai perjuangan belanja gue! Setelah hampir dapet semuanya, tinggal daging-dagingan aja yg belum (ini mksdnya daging/ikan/ayam). Akhirnya gue ke aisle yang nyediain itu semua, laluuuu gue menemukan sesuatu yang sedikit mengagetkan:
dijuallah di sana udang kecil-kecil yang udah dikupas, dengan label "Indonesian prawn"

deng denggggg

ternyata oh ternyata, baru tau gue Indonesia eksport udang juga kesini, jauh amat tp ya
dan pas gue baca penjelasannya ternyata dari perairan di Sumatra. Sayang sekali tidak sempat gue foto - malu juga banyak orang - dan tidak juga gue beli. Gak sudi gila! Beli udang dari negara sendiri harganya 3.50 pounds! dikit lagi! haha, jadi lain kali ya gue foto kalo bisa :p

sekian dulu pengalaman saya hari ini!



oiya, selamat untuk Arsenal, kalahin Blackburn 6-2 :)