Camping in France

When I was still single, I used to stay in 10-12 dorm bed at a backpacker hostel when traveling. Since we got married last year, he introduced me to his family tradition, camping!

Camping sites, especially in France, are very comfortable and available in most cities, regardless the fact that the sites are usually located at the outskirt of the city. However, since we always rent a car every time we travel, then distance is no longer a problem. Besides, we are more flexible in terms of destination and time.

Apart from the blocks for tents, the sites also provide places for camping van, fully furnished mobile homes, and majority of the sites are baby-friendly, too. In most of the camping sites that we have been, the public facilities, such as toilets, showers, and washing room, are kept clean and dry. The camping sites have stars, too, depending on the facilities they have, ranging from one-star to five-stars, just like hotels. So, if you demand for a swimming pool, nice rooms, playground for children, restaurant, and everything else in your site, do not hesitate to pick the five-star ones. Our picks range from one-star to three-star sites, depending on availability and in my personal observation, those sites met our standard, so far.

From the financial point of view, camping is also beneficial for our budget since we spend less in total but we see more. This is only my personal opinion since it may be varied among travelers subject to their styles and preferences. He and I share the same level of traveling passion, therefore camping for us is obviously an exciting adventure. By camping, we are brought back to nature where we hear the chirping birds in the morning and we spend the night staring at clear skies with countless stars at the camp site. Lovely, isn't it?

Last time we did the road trip, it took us twenty days, eight different camping sites, and roughly four thousands and five hundred kilometres to visit twenty cities in three countries. Do not ask how many road maps and guide books we brought along during the trip, MANY!

Our tent at Camping de la Cité in Carcassonne

Here are some tips!

1. If you plan to do camping, it is better to rent a car for your trip. You can also hitchhike if you demand for more adventures!

2. Find the camping site from Camping France or Camping de France. Visit the nearby Tourism Office once you arrive in a city and they will provide you with a complete list of camping sites in the region. 

3. Prepare your camping equipments, including tent, sleeping bags, kitchen utensils, torches, first aid kits, rubbish bags, and cooler. Some places offer camping equipment rentals, too..try to find it by Google.

4.  Always bring raincoats as in some mountaineous regions, the weather may change unexpectedly, even during the summer.

5. Make sure that you have the latest update of the weather condition in your destination.

6. Happy camping, everyone!

Our way of life

Everyone must have particular consideration when deciding what they are going to do with their life. For us, we want to enrich ourselves with as much life experiences as possible in the coming years. Therefore, we choose not to stay permanently in either both countries at the time being. As a consequence, we have to be ready for any possible opportunities that might knock our door and pack our things right away should that opportunity arise. Since I am quite new to this world, I am currently learning my lessons in how to deal with this kind of lifestyle. What I share here are in random order and merely from my point of view and personal experiences for the last few years.  

Maturity and Independency
The fact that living far away from family requires a certain level of maturity and independency in order to be able to take necessary action or considerable decision for us to move on, especially in critical situation. 

Survival skills
Basic survival skills such as cooking and doing domestic chores appropriately are definitely compulsory for me thanks to my beloved mother who has taught me the importance of possessing these basic skills since I was still a little girl.

Self-adaptation
Living with different characters from different backgrounds in a new place is another issue. Willingness to learn the local language, culture, and enthusiastically get along with the people are the key to a smooth self-adaptation.

Courage
Life is about experience and we might encounter either good or bad ones. Be ready for the worst situation that may occur and stay alert. I once had an unpleasant experience about this and I am glad that I could take a good lesson from it in order to be more alert in the future.

Adventurous mind
Changing living places from time to time gives the advantage of seeing more and more parts of the world. Therefore, do not hesitate to explore the regions, get to know the local way of life, and learn from it. Don't leave a country without having any single traces to its rural/suburban and less traveled areas.

Open mindset
Once we are outside our homeland, we become the minority and therefore it is us who need to adjust with the majority and not the other way around. Being tolerant and respectful to others' opinions without betraying our own principles are utterly important.

Fresh from the garden

yummy..yummyy...

One of my much loved activities during our summer visit in the Loire Valley is fruit picking. In my own family, we have never had a garden planted with so many fruit trees and the only fruit tree we had was a papaya tree. So, when the first time I saw a tree full of ripe prunes at my in-laws’ well-manicured garden, I was extremely excited. As most of the houses here grow their own fruits and vegetables, there will be barters among neighbours when the harvesting season comes. As for us, we swop prunes for beetroots and greenbeans with two different neighbours. Prunes aren’t the only ones found in the garden. There are also different kinds of apples, walnuts, almonds, pears, cherry tomatoes, courgettes, and figs. The latter is commonly found only in Europe, I think. For the best walnuts and almonds, we often have to compete with the cute squirrels who definitely love them, too.

what have been saved from the squirrels

So, if many young people from Europe travel down under to work during the fruit picking season as well as to take advantage by being in the country, I am doing the other way around. My ultimate satisfaction comes from the experience of picking the fruits directly from its trees, fulfilling my imagination when reading childrens’ storybooks.

The fresh products ready to be consumed

The lure of Mele cascades

Mele Cascades is one of Efate’s natural gems. Located about 15 minute-drive from Port Vila –everything is close by in Port Vila and most of the time you can always expect for a smooth traffic– Mele Cascades offers a spectacular view of the turquoise crystal clear waters gently flowing down the smooth round rocks. Hidden in Mele’s lush nature, the waterfalls are visible after climbing some friendly steps, walking through the path, and crossing a small river for about  10 minutes walk. At the end of the walk, there is a small hut where a guard and simple storage facilities are available.

In making our way towards the waterfalls, we just need to climb the small cascades and follow the existing path. The path itself is not naturally built, yet it is blended perfectly with its natural surroundings. In between, you will find shallow ponds where people can soak themselves while having a chat in the fresh water. Nice, isn’t it?

With the entrance fee of VT 1000 or equal to AUD 10 for residents, and VT 1500 or AUD 15 for non-residents, visitors love to spend their time swimming, taking pictures, or having natural back massage under the waterfalls, just like we do.

A year in Port Vila: Honeymoon from a different point of view

As soon as we tied the knot in April last year, we spent the first three months living on our own in Jakarta, almost two months on vacation here and there, and about a year ago, we arrived in Vanuatu, a faraway archipelago, somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. He was occupied at work since day one, while I was still figuring out what I could do during the year. I managed to get some small projects to do for the first month thanks to my BFF, but that was it! I do not have my own network of friends yet. Most of the people I know were those from his office, until I met some friendly ladies in one of the functions we attended who later became my good friends.

Indeed, life is much challenging when you have to take care of your own household. To name a few, dealing with various problems in the house, maintaining relations with the landlords and neighbours, sharing domestic chores between the two of us, and hosting guests from time to time. We have a helper who comes twice a week doing the chores but I still manage to do some of the work myself considering the fact that I might be spoiled with the situation in the long term. Living an expatriate life means we may not always get this kind of privilege all the time, subject to which country we live in. After a couple of months living here, life was getting difficult for me as I used to do nothing almost the whole day and I became super duper lazy. I think I was the laziest person on earth!

When we were in Jakarta, I was already unemployed, but there were plenty of things to do so that I never got bored. Fortunately, on this critical period, I was given the opportunity to volunteer at one of the government office for about three months thanks to him, and thankfully I found another interest that has helped me spending my pastime.

There is not much difference between our life in Jakarta and in Port Vila. In both cities, we are used to take public transportation in the absence of the office car or office driver since we don’t have our personal vehicle. Some people may associate the fact of being an expatriate to a glamorous life. However this doesn’t apply to ours as we also don’t do expensive shopping on branded items, we go to cheap hairdresser to have a haircut, and we don’t occupy business class seats whenever we travel.

Particularly for the accompanying spouse like me, living this kind of life may be exciting for certain time, but when it prolongs, then it is no longer as thrilling as it may look. Some friends say that I am living such a perfect life everyone would want, but honestly, I am not comfortable with the fact that I have no job therefore I have no means to satisfy my self-existence as well as self-confidence needs and at the same time, I become financially dependent. Despite our agreement that the terms ‘yours’ and ‘mine’ have merged into ‘ours’ since we got married, in the beginning it was not easy for me to deal with. Moreover, being among a bunch of our guests talking about their work to some point has made me lose my confidence. It took me sometime to compromise with the current situation and I finally managed to put my negative thinking out of sight. Later, instead of complaining about the things I don’t have, I used my time learning new skills, reading more books, making more friends, immersing myself into new culture, and realizing my postponed plans.

As they say that honeymoon is as sweet as honey but soon it fades away like the moon, this also applies to my first time experience as an expatriate’s wife. It is still a long way to go but I do learn that independence, perseverance, self-adaptation, tolerance, conviviality, patience, modesty, and willingness to learn are some of the characters I personally need to strengthen in order to equip myself for our next journey in the near future. Being a good and supportive spouse, whether an expatriate’s or not, surely a long-life learning, and I am working on my way to get there, insya Allah.

Travel Writing

I heard this term from my best friend for the first time about eight years ago, but it was only last year when I commenced my writing exercise, learnt how a travel article should be written through various online sources, and finally had the courage to send it to one of Indonesia's travel magazines. To my surprise, they accepted my article, and here they are!

My first article about the city of Inverness in Scotland, published in Tamasya magazine May 2011.

My second article about Tongariro Alpine Crossing in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand, published in Liburan magazine August 2011.

Now, one more article is on its way to be published and few more are impatiently waiting for their turns. Travel writing is really fun, especially if you had such a memorable and exciting journey to share. Wanna give yourself a try?

My recent kitchen boosters

1. Compliments for my French cuisine from our French guests. For couple of weeks I prepared various meals from our reliable source. Some of them were first trial but all turned out to be representative dishes.

2. Happy faces of our foreign guests enjoying Indonesian dishes during the Indonesia's Independence Day celebration at our home while he proudly explained the delicacy and variety of Indonesian meals. Somehow, I often think that he's more Indonesian at heart than I am :p.

3. Great success in trying the banana purses recipe for dessert and the host said that they were very delicious.

4. Time spent in the kitchen during the last weeks was paid off.

Will share the easy-peasy recipes later when I'm in the mood :)

Menjemput Impian

Begitu lulus kuliah, prioritas saya ketika itu adalah mencari kerja. Seingat saya, dari sejak SMA, cita-cita saya adalah bekerja di lembaga internasional. Kenapa harus di lembaga internasional? Karena saya ingin mempraktikkan kemampuan bahasa Inggris yang saya dapat dari hasil kursus sejak SMP sampai lulus SMA, dan untuk saya, pergi berlibur ke negara-negara dimana bahasa Inggris digunakan secara umum bukanlah hal yang mudah. Jadi, solusinya adalah bekerja di tempat dimana ada orang asing yang bisa saya ajak berbicara dalam bahasa Inggris. Alasan yang sederhana bukan? Sewaktu SMA, saya juga berminat untuk mengikuti pertukaran pelajar ke luar negeri, namun lagi-lagi karena faktor biaya yang perlu dikeluarkan untuk persiapan pribadi dan lain-lain, niat itu saya urungkan. Sampai akhirnya saya lulus kuliah, sempat bekerja di Bandung selama satu tahun setelah lulus, lalu mendapat kesempatan bekerja di lembaga yang saya idam-idamkan pada pertengahan 2003. Awalnya, saya ingin melanjutkan sekolah dengan catatan sudah mempunyai cukup pengalaman kerja, namun pada tahun berikutnya, saya mulai terpengaruh sahabat baik untuk melanjutkan sekolah. Usaha yang saya lakukan tidak maksimal, karena masih berharap bahwa akan ada kesempatan untuk saya pergi ke luar negeri dalam rangka tugas kantor. Tahun-tahun berikutnya kesempatan itu belum datang juga, walaupun pada saat yang sama saya juga beruntung karena ditugaskan pergi ke tempat-tempat menarik di Indonesia. Pertengahan 2005, berbekal informasi dari seorang adik kelas yang baik hati, saya mengikuti program A**S*C di Bandung yang jaringannya sudah mendunia. Adik kelas saya ini baru saja kembali dari Estonia untuk mengikuti program yang serupa. Tahap seleksi sudah dilalui dan tinggal mencari proyek yang sesuai dan mudah-mudahan menanggung semua biaya. Proyek yang kemudian ditawarkan kepada saya berlokasi di Polandia dimana semua biaya hidup ditanggung, namun tiket pesawat p.p. menjadi tanggung jawab saya. Setelah dipertimbangkan matang-matang, akhirnya sayapun mundur dan karenanya harus membayar sejumlah penalti akibat pembatalan dari pihak saya. Saya pikir waktu itu, keputusan ini yang terbaik, daripada saya menghabiskan hampir seluruh tabungan hasil kerja saya untuk menutupi biaya perjalanan. Gagal lagi deh cita-cita untuk pergi ke luar negeri, tapi saya tidak menyesal dengan keputusan saya di kemudian hari dan justru berusaha mengambil pelajaran dari kejadian tersebut. Sampai akhirnya, setelah gagal pada tahap awal seleksi beasiswa ADS, Chevening, dan BGF pada tahun 2004 dan 2005, sayapun membulatkan tekad untuk serius mencari beasiswa. Saya ingin pergi ke luar negeri gratis hanya untuk dua alasan: 1) karena tugas kantor dan/atau 2) karena melanjutkan sekolah. Keinginan ini semakin diperkuat melihat teman-teman seangkatan saya saat itu sedang mengambil studi S-2 di dalam maupun di luar negeri. Sayapun ingin maju seperti mereka dan rasanya saya perlu menambah ilmu baru setelah 3 tahun bekerja. Bagi saya, ilmu terbanyak justru akan didapat di luar bangku kuliah, oleh karena itu saya bersikeras ingin melanjutkan studi di luar negeri supaya saya dapat belajar banyak hal lain di luar bidang ilmu yang akan saya pelajari. Kenapa harus di luar negeri? Karena saya berkeinginan untuk melihat dunia. Kalau sebelumnya saya seringkali mengasosiasikan diri bagai katak dalam tempurung, maka kali ini si katak ingin keluar dari tempurungnya. Akhir 2005, sayapun memulai misi menyukseskan "katak keluar dari tempurung" ini. Saya mulai banyak membaca jurnal/artikel apapun yang berkaitan dengan studi dan minat saya. Saya belajar dan mencerna kembali pertanyaan-pertanyaan dari aplikasi beasiswa sebelumnya yang gagal. Saya berpendapat bahwa formulir aplikasi haruslah diisi dengan jawaban yang cerdas dan menarik sebagai syarat untuk lolos seleksi awal. Saya juga mulai bergabung dengan milis beasiswa walaupun sebagai peserta pasif untuk mendapatkan informasi serta tips dalam berburu beasiswa. Sayapun mulai mencari universitas pilihan sebagai bekal apabila aplikasi saya diterima. Tidak lupa saya juga membuat paspor dengan alasan siapa tahu dapat beasiswa dalam waktu dekat. *optimis tingkat tinggi, hehehe..* Bulan September 2006, saya menyiapkan tiga buah aplikasi untuk Chevening, BGF, dan DAAD. Akhirnya hanya dua yang dikirim, sebab ada satu dokumen wajib yang terlewat untuk memenuhi syarat DAAD dan saya baru menyadari hal itu kurang dari 24 jam sebelum tenggat waktu penyerahan dokumen. Que sera sera, pikir saya waktu itu. Saya berusaha semampu saya, namun bukan sayalah yang memutuskan hasilnya. Bulan November 2006, saya mendapat "surat cinta" yang pertama dan begitu melihat logo institusi di ujung amplopnya, hati saya rasanya mencelos. Panggilan pertama untuk mengikuti tes bahasa Inggris pada bulan Desember dilalui dengan mulus, tentunya dengan persiapan seoptimal mungkin. Walaupun hanya tes bahasa Inggris secara umum, saya tidak pernah tahu sehebat apa saingan-saingan saya, karena itu saya mempersiapkan diri sebaik mungkin. Tahun berganti, awal 2007 surat cinta kedua menyusul berisi panggilan wawancara, Alhamdulillah. Untuk tahap ini, saya mempersiapkan diri menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan dengan melakukan simulasi di depan cermin berulang-ulang dan banyak membaca artikel yang terkait dengan bidang saya, siapa tahu diajukan pertanyaan yang di luar dugaan. Ternyata memang benar, apabila sudah kita sudah berusaha dan mempersiapkan diri secara optimal, berdoa dan pasrah menjadikan hati ini lebih tenang mengingat bahwa Tuhan pasti selalu punya rencana yang terbaik untuk hamba-Nya. Bulan Februari, datanglah surat cinta yang ketiga sekaligus terakhir. Bulan berikutnya, mulailah hari-hari saya diisi persiapan untuk mengikuti tes IELTS, komunikasi dengan universitas-universitas yang saya pilih, dan cuti khusus selama satu minggu di Bandung untuk mengurus legalisir ijazah, surat rekomendasi, dan dokumen-dokumen penting lainnya. Saya mengerjakan latihan soal-soal sepulang dari kantor atau pada akhir pekan. Alhamdulillah, nilai saya memenuhi syarat dan aplikasi saya diterima oleh ketiga universitas pilihan. Para kandidat yang lulus kemudian diikutsertakan dalam pelatihan Academic Writing selama sebulan penuh, 5 hari dalam seminggu, dari pukul 9- 15. Untuk ini, saya harus izin dari kantor kalau masih ingin mendapatkan gaji. Untunglah, atasan saya sangat suportif sehingga waktu kerja yang hilang dapat diganti sebagian dengan memotong cuti saya yang jumlahnya banyak *saat itu, dengan jatah 30 hari cuti dalam satu tahun plus 10 hari tanggal merah rasanya sulit sekali saya habiskan* dan sisanya saya bekerja overtime, jadinya datang lebih awal, dan pulang lebih lambat. Akhirnya, setelah semua persyaratan dan kelengkapan dokumen dibereskan, kursus menulis pun selesai pada bulan Juni, dan saya kembali bekerja selama satu bulan lalu menyelesaikan kontrak kerja satu bulan lebih awal demi memanfaatkan sisa cuti yang masih berlimpah. Bulan September 2007, saat itu akhirnya datang juga menghampiri saya. Di minggu terakhir bulan September, dengan diantar keluarga dan sahabat-sahabat dekat saya, perjalanan menjemput impian sayapun dimulai. Ketika pesawat British Airways BA 012 yang membawa kami mendarat mulus di bandar udara Heathrow, sayapun tersadar bahwa saat ini saya sudah terpisah belasan ribu kilometer jauhnya dari ibu sekaligus sahabat terdekat saya yang selama ini menjadi tempat berbagi segala hal. Dapatkah saya hidup sendirian disini? Mampukah saya mengikuti kuliah yang diberikan? Pertanyaan lainnya bermunculan di benak saya. Namun, semua kekhawatiran itu hilang ketika sejenak saya ingat bahwa saya ada disini semata untuk mengejar mimpi yang saya perjuangkan selama hampir dua tahun terakhir. Dan semua ketakutan pun berganti menjadi ketidaksabaran menyambut hidup baru saya sebagai mahasiswa lagi! ...and the journey continues...(si katak begitu senang ketika berhasil melompat keluar dari tempurungnya sampai akhirnya ia kesulitan berhenti) Jadi bagi siapapun yang sedang berburu beasiswa dan belum berhasil, janganlah putus asa dan tetaplah mencoba dengan penuh semangat karena: 

When you want something, the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it - The Alchemist

The Superjumbo's Story

It was winter in 2009 when I had the chance to be on the upper deck of Superjumbo flight for the first time en route from Singapore to Paris. First impression: Very spacious! Moreover, the colourful Christmas decorations all over made it more like a house instead of just an aeroplane. Firstly launched into commercial flights in 2007, the Airbus A380 carrier has been claimed to have better performance and use less fuel, therefore supporting the 'eco-efficient' campaign.

Having been curious about the history of its birth, we visited Airbus hometown in Toulouse to discover the Airbus world. Reservation had to be made prior to the visit, either by phone or online. Initially, we planned to make a booking for combined tour of Jean-Luc Lagardère A380 and Concorde No. 1 but it was already full, so we took the single tour to Jean-Luc Lagardère A380 site for € 14 each as the second option. At the admission desk, we were required to leave our cameras behind as taking films and photographs are strictly prohibited within the site.

The 1,5-hour tour begins with the visit to telemetry room,  guided by a very chic lady, showing the programming of A380, and how it is like reading all the information shown in the cockpit. During the flight, about 280,000 parameters and flight data are recorded, which is transmitted to the telemetry room. Prior to its official launch, the aircraft had been tested in extreme weather conditions from the freezing environment to hot desserts. If I am not mistaken, it took more than thousands of tests before the first aircrafts are ready to be sent to the market. And where did these testers go? As expected, they were bought by Middle Eastern billionnaires, and even though Singapore Airlines became the first company to whom Airbus sold A380, it is Emirates that has become the number one customer in terms of purchasing volume, ensuring Airbus to manufacture more airliners.

We were informed about the corporate information as well as Airbus site of Toulouse. The Airbus A380 is a result of worksharing between four countries, i.e. France (cockpit, fuselage centre section, engine pylons, mobile parts of the wings), Germany (fuselage forward, aft sections, fin, flaps and the doors), Spain (tail cone, horizontal stabilizer, belly fairing, rudder and elevators), and UK (wings). It was amazing to see how the spare parts were transported from its manufacturing companies spreading all over Europe to the final destination using aeroplane, trucks, and ships. Airbus company even created a cargo aircraft Super Transporter A300-600 ST named Beluga specially to transport the spare parts of Airbus A380! The main A380 sections arrived from the manufacturing sites by:
- air transportation (for the cone and tail only),
- sea transportation to Pauillac,
- river transportation to Langon,
- road transportation to the JLL site by an oversized convoy itinerary.

Later, we were taken to the viewing platform to see the aircraft and its overall industrial process, i.e. general assembly, general tests. At the end of the process, there are three stages, namely:
- engine tests, where the aircraft is towed to the other part of the site for engine testing at the run-up facility and then to perform its first test flight
- cabin furnishing and painting, which is done in Hamburg, Germany
- delivery, the A380s are delivered from Hamburg or from Toulouse according to the customer.

At that time, three aircrafts were in the assembling process, one of which will be delivered to Korean Air as the logo had been completely painted. Approaching the end of the tour, we were guided to visit the A380 mock up. During this visit, a visitor posed a question concerning the standard design for A380 of different airlines. According to our guide, the design is made based on the requirement of each customer, therefore passengers will find quite a variety of cabin designs when using different airlines. She even added that Airbus once received fancy requests from their extremely rich individual customers, requiring entertainment facilities such as mini golf course on their private jet, and even a swimming pool!

The entrance of Airbus visit

Jean-Luc Lagardère site from afar

Interested in visiting Airbus sites? Here's the contact details.

Village Aèroconstellation - rue Franz Joseph Strauss

31700 Blagnac - France

Tèl. 00 33 (0)5 34 39 42 00

e-mail: reservation@taxiway.fr

Technical information in this post is derived from the Jean-Luc Lagardère site visit brochure. 

Suatu Pagi di Ereveld Menteng Pulo

Foto diambil dari sini

Sewaktu masih menetap di Jakarta, tidak jauh dari tempat kami tinggal terdapat kompleks pemakaman Belanda Ereveld Menteng Pulo. Karena unit yang kami tempati tidak menghadap langsung ke kompleks makam, maka saya tidak pernah tahu persis bagaimana rupa kompleks pemakaman tersebut, kecuali puncak bangunan utamanya yang tampak dari common area dan sepintas terlihat seperti kubah mesjid.

Akhirnya, pada satu kesempatan liburan ke Indonesia, kami menyempatkan diri untuk berkunjung. Didampingi oleh bapak penjaga makam, kamipun diajak berkeliling area pemakaman yang hijau dan asri. Bayangkan saja, dikelilingi oleh gedung-gedung tinggi, area pemakaman ini tampak bagaikan oase di tengah gurun, dengan rumput hijau yang terpotong rapi dihiasi nisan-nisan yang terbuat dari kayu dengan lambang beragam agama, dan sebuah bangunan gereja bergaya arsitektur Timur Tengah. Ternyata bangunan yang dulu saya sangka mesjid itu adalah sebuah gereja yang disebut Simultaan.

Menurut bapak penjaga makam, tempat ini diperuntukkan bagi korban perang pada masa Perang Dunia II sewaktu Jepang menduduki Hindia Belanda dan masa revolusi 1945-1949. Kompleks pemakaman dibangun oleh Lieutenant General Spoor, Komandan Tentara Belanda, pada tahun 1947, dan disini pulalah jasad beliau dimakamkan ketika meninggal pada tahun 1949. Di tempat ini, jenazah yang dimakamkan terdiri dari beragam agama, suku bangsa, dan warna kulit. Oleh karena itu, nisan-nisan putih yang tertanam ada yang melambangkan agama Islam, Kristen, Taoism, dan Yahudi. Bahkan, di bangunan utama juga terdapat empat menara yang puncaknya melambangkan keempat agama tersebut. Alangkah indahnya!

Selanjutnya, kami memasuki kompleks bangunan yang sangat asri. Ada dua bangunan, yang pertama adalah gereja, dan yang kedua disebut Columbarium, dimana sebuah kolam dihiasi bunga teratai terletak di tengah bangunan, sementara di ketiga sisi bangunan dengan pilar-pilar indah yang melambangkan siklus kehidupan serta keempat agama, terdapat botol-botol berisi abu lebih dari 700 orang jenazah tentara Belanda yang ditawan oleh Jepang.

Kamipun diajak naik ke puncak menara dan menyaksikan kompleks makam dari atas. Sungguh damai rasanya berada di tempat hijau nan asri ditengah-tengah belantara gedung tinggi Jakarta, dan terutama apabila mengingat begitu beragamnya suku bangsa, agama, dan ras jenazah yang dimakamkan disini. Tempat ini sepertinya dapat menjadi contoh yang sangat baik untuk pihak yang sering sekali memicu kericuhan dengan dalih agama ataupun kesukuan dimanapun, agar mereka dapat menumbuhkan toleransi beragama serta sadar akan buruknya pengaruh fanatisme yang picik. Kapan ya pihak-pihak yang dimaksud akan tersadarkan????

Di seluruh Indonesia, terdapat tujuh buah pemakaman Belanda, tersebar di Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang dan Surabaya yang kesemuanya dikelola langsung oleh Ooorlogsgraven Stichting atau Netherlands War Graves Foundation di The Hague, Belanda. Jadi, tidaklah heran apabila kondisi kompleks makam sangat terjaga dan terpelihara rapi. Makam ini tertutup untuk umum, kecuali orang-orang yang berkepentingan dan kerabat dari pihak yang dimakamkan disana. Izin mengunjungi Ereveld Menteng Pulo ini dapat diminta ke kantor perwakilan OGS di Indonesia yaitu:

Netherlands War Graves Foundation in Indonesia
Jl. Panglima Polim Raya 23
Kebayoran Baru - Jakarta 12160
Tel: +62 21 720 7983
Fax: +62 21 725 2986
Email: ogsindo@cbn.net.id

Terima kasih untuk bapak penjaga makam yang telah berbaik hati mengizinkan masuk sehingga kami dapat menikmati keindahan tempat ini dan sekaligus juga menambah pengetahuan. Informasi lanjut dapat dibaca disini.

Honiara: the betel-nut city

Solomon Islands impressed me from the moment I arrived at the immigration. The immigration officer took only less than 10 seconds to read my visa letter, put the expiry date and stamp my passport, unbelievable!!! The second thing was the heat...o la la...it was just too much!

Notice at the hospital and most public places in Honiara

Along the way from the airport to the city,  street vendors selling betel-nut almost in every corner were conspicuous. Yes, betel-nut are very common in Solomon Islands, consumed by men and women, anytime, anywhere. I was surprised to see how this habit persists and has marked most of the streets and public places with red spots spitted by everyone chewing betel-nut.

We spent two weeks in Honiara as my husband came for work purpose. Normally, I would have explored the city by myself using public transport but this time I couldn't because I hardly found any bus passing nearby the house and the weather as well as the terrain were just too challenging for me to walk.

After what seemed a long week for me, we managed to visit the Bonegi beach, where the Hirokawa Maru shipwrecks were located. The shipwrecks were not that far from the shore, so for non-divers like me, it was perfect. The ship is approximately 172 metres in length, starts about 3 metres of water and continues until 50-m depth. Together with a friend, I snorkeled around the wrecks and so much enjoyed the spectacular underwater beauty that I did not realize we had gone quite far. The moment I realized that we were at the area where it was so deep made me a little panic, though. It was my first time snorkeling around the shipwrecks and the life down there was amazing, like swimming in a huge aquarium. I felt a bit scary when seeing the wrecks' shadow, imagining what could be inside now and what happened years ago.

Hirokawa Maru wrecks at Bonegi 1 beach

Another sites we visited were the U.S. War Memorial and the Japanese Memorial, erected to pay tribute to the the victims of Guadalcanal Campaign during 1943 - 1944. The condition of both sites was extremely different since the Allied forces (mostly Americans) won the battle against the Japanese. The U.S. War Memorial was well taken care while the Japanese one seemed to be abandoned for long time. In relation to WWII remains, Honiara has become the graveyard for sunken ships, therefore some shores are called Iron Bottom Sound due to the sound of the wrecks spreading at the ocean floor.

U.S. War Memorial

Japanese War Memorial

Iron Bottom Sound with Savo island in the background

The most crowded market I have ever seen

Betel-nut street vendors

Bag shop, quite creative, isn't it?

In short, Honiara may not be the first option in your must-visit list, however it still has its charm, in a different way.

Two experiences which have most influenced my life

Inspired by my friend's posting here, I am tempted to write my own experience, too. Unlike him and some other friends, my scholarship hunts were started quite late, about two years after completing my degree at the university. Inadequate preparation took me nowhere, neither Chevening nor BGF, so I started the process all over again in 2006 for both, this time with sufficient preparation. I might write about this in other post.

Back to this post's title, I had two things in mind when reading that particular question. So here were my answers.

1. When I entered University.

Having been accepted at one of the leading-state institutes, majoring urban and regional planning, I felt very fortunate as I had the chance to learn with other best students from all over Indonesia and lectured by prominent scholars who are internationally recognised by their intellectual capacity as well as their practical expertise. I am certain that being a student in the concerned institution could be the gateway to my career achievement in the future.

Being a student at Ganesha Campus has been my dream since I was at junior high. My eternal dream was to secure a seat with Pharmacy department. It turned out that I chose different major. Nevertheless, I never regret my decision and eventhough I am not working in the field relevant to my degree at the moment, I am always grateful for my 4,5 years there.

2. When I started my employment with United Nations agency

My initial assignment with UN body that focuses its work on science, culture, and education in July 2003 was as an intern. Taking some time to adapt with the city where I currently live in, the working environment as well as the people of more than 10 nationalities, I soon learnt how to position myself in such situation and eventually have the benefit of working in the organisation. Furthermore, I was employed under minimum supervision thus, I have applied "learning by doing" and "learning by mistakes" approach which sometimes put me in difficult position yet challenging. Despite the hardships I have had during my tenure there, I believe that they have contributed to the development of practical skills, knowledge-gained, and psychological aspects of myself.

Living a working life with the people and atmosphere completely different from those I used to have in Bandung (at that time) was not easy for me. But since being part of the UN has been my other eternal dream since I was young, then the show must go on. Well, many things were not like my expectation, but there are always pros and cons, right? Today, when I look back, I am happy to say that I was once a part of it for four years where I got to know work in its real meaning, learnt lots of brand new things, found wonderful people whom I call friends, had fun and exciting trips with them, got to know the city life with the Jakartans, immersed with other cultures, and last but not least, where I found my other half.

When I compared these answers to the previous ones for the same application that I made two years before, it made me laugh. They were incomparable! Anyway, those answers, together with others, have conspired to help me win the scholarship after one year of preparation, Alhamdulillah.

But if I had to answer the same question again today, I surely would need more than just "two". If you were asked the same, then what would be yours?

A leisurely stroll at Château de Villandry

Vegetable garden with Château de Villandry in the background

 It was his idea to visit at least one of the infamous Châteaux des la Loire whenever we are in France. I definitely said yes, who wouldn’t? On one sunny day, off we went to Villandry, known by its stunning gardens. Villandry is the last château built on the Loire banks during the Renaissance period by Jean le Breton, completed in 1536. Throughout history, the gardens of Villandry have been evolving under the influence of love-hate relationship between the French and English. I say that due to the fact that its traditional gardens were destroyed on the 19^th century to be replaced by English-style park. However, Joachim Carvallo, who bought the castle in 1906 decided to restore the castle and bring back the old French traditional gardens that we marvel at today.

There are seven gardens in total, and each of them has a different theme. We paid €6 each for the garden tour only. The first garden we visited was the Ornamental garden, symbolizing different meaning of love, i.e. tender love, passionate love, fickle love and tragic love. We did not really pay attention on the shapes in the beginning, but when we read the brochure and saw the garden pattern again, the pattern did speak out the meaning. You will have a perfect view from the belvedere, the remains of ancient fortress, overlooking the gardens. We decided to skip the woods, and proceeded to the water garden, a pond in the form of Louis XV mirror surrounded by lime trees. Next stop was the sun garden, which are divided into three different areas, the cloud room, the sun room, and the children’s room, represented by different varieties of plants.

Later, we joined a group of children in the maze, immersing ourselves for a while with the hornbeam, and found our way out towards the herb garden. You may even smell the fresh basil and mints from few metres away. There is not much to see in the herb garden as it is quite small compared to other gardens, so we continued to walk to the vegetable garden. The garden is made up of nine squares which are filled with vegetables of different colours to create the illusion of a multi-coloured chessboard.

Gardens of Villandry

The Carvallo family, the owner, must have made such a great effort to maintain their beautiful palace. Every year, about 250,000 individual flowers and vegetables are planted, 50% of which are prepared in their own glasshouses. When we were there last summer, most of the vegetables and fruits were not ready to harvest yet their beautiful huge roses were blooming everywhere, superb!

See you again at our next château tour!

Château de Villandry – 37510 Villandry, France

www.chateauvillandry.com

E-mail: info@chateauvillandry.com   

Land diving experience in Pentecost Island

At the end of June, we had visitors coming to Vila and so we planned to have a weekend getaway out of Efate. First option, the popular Tanna volcano, was declined due to its current increasing volcanic activities. As we were working on the plan B, the idea to see the infamous land diving ritual in Pentecost island came up. At the beginning, I was not quite enthusiastic with it, knowing that we would have to pay a lot for day return chartered flight to Pentecost. Nevertheless, we went to the airline office to check the price and seat availability for the flight.

Luckily, we were informed that Air Vanuatu offer a land diving package for VUV 44,000 or equal to AUD 400 per person, including return tickets (approximately cost VUV 22,000), 2 nights accomodation plus meals, refreshments, return transfer to the airport in Pentecost, fee to enter the jump site (VUV 8,000) and camera fee. This option is taken as the four of us are not willing to spend a lot of money only for a day trip to Pentecost, hence we have to make the most of our time while we are there. Again, we are lucky as the land diving ritual takes place once a week every Saturday from early April to end of June and the ritual we are going to see will be the last one for this year!

Upon arrival at the Lonorore airport on Saturday morning, we waited for the other tourists who came with the chartered flight and some others who came with their yacht. We walked for few minutes to the jump site, where some men were preparing the ritual. Land diving is a custom in the southern Pentecost, an original version of bungee jumping, where men jump from a 20-40 metre manmade tower with the vines tied to their ankles and land at soft soil ground. The tower takes about five to six weeks to build using the tree trunks and can be used several times. There were ten divers, all men, ready to jump from different heights. The first jump was done by a boy from the lowest point, and followed by the others with increasing heights. A group of men and women sang and danced with excitement, encouraging the diver who was ready to jump. It was spectacular!

The custom dance

Land diving or commonly known as naghol celebrates the yam harvest and is a fertility rite for men. It is originated from the legend about a woman who fled from her husband and hid in a tree. Tamale, her husband, chased her and begged her to go down. As she refused, Tamale climbed the tree and when he reached the top, she jumped. Tamale was shocked and therefore he followed, only to realise that his wife had tied the vines to her ankles. Nowadays, only men do this rite to show the women that they cannot be tricked again. When the divers jump, they curl up their head and touch the earth, understood as the symbol in making the land fertile for the following year's yam crop.

When the rite finished about one hour later, we were supposed to be picked up by the truck from Noda Guesthouse. As we were waiting for the truck, a couple approached us. Surprisingly, they brought the message from the guesthouse owner to collect us since the river was flooded and therefore the truck could not go through, so they planned to take us along with their....YACHT!!!! The couple, who are very friendly and kindhearted, are on their way cruising the South Pacific ocean with their yacht since last year. Few minutes later, we boarded a very nice yacht cruising for about one hour to our destination. We were so excited as none of us has ever been on a yacht before :D

The transport, the guest house, and local veggies

The first night we had Melanesian feast where the couple and their two friends came along to join. It was a traditional meal with local vegetables, taro, chicken and a whole small pig! We managed to be the first in the queue and took the chicken, which was, fortunately, cooked separately from the pig. Lessons learnt, we should seek the information about the type of food to be served prior to attending any kind of feast next time. Nevertheless, we are satisfied with the guesthouse and would recommend anyone interested in visiting Waterfall village to stay at Noda Guesthouse.

We spent the rest of the days wandering around the village and visiting the beautiful Waterfall Falls. We left the village on Monday afternoon by boat that took us to the airport. What a wonderful weekend getaway, discovering another beauty of Vanuatu islands!

A glimpse of Waterfall Village, South Pentecost

Note: land diving (Naghol) package tour between April and June every year can be booked through Air Vanuatu.

The sea turtle's story

We just arrived at the house after having nice dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Honiara, when our friend spotted something similar to a sea turtle laid in the neighbour's yard. It was dark so we were not so sure what it really was. The next morning, we realized that IT IS a sea turtle -no idea from which species- now covered with a mat. When a lady passed by, she hit it with a thin stick so I could see its flippers moving...poor animal! Not long after that, they took the turtle somewhere out of sight.

Despite the intensive campaign in preserving sea turtles as endangered species, hunting and human fishing practices have contributed to the decline of their population. Particularly in the Solomon Islands, turtles have been hunted for centuries by the islanders as their food. The demands also come for the turtles' skin, eggs, and beautiful shells. Since sea turtle population plummeted, the Solomon Islands government totally banned the export of turtle shells. However, the hunting is still going on, an obvious evidence that was seen right before our eyes on that day.

It was ashamed that we could not do anything to save the turtle, unlike our dear friend who did the real action to save them. We hail you as the real conservationist, mbak...

If you want to know more about sea turtles, just click here!

Picture is taken from here.

When you get to know more about this wonderful creature, then you will realize how difficult their life have been due to improper actions done by us, humans. Therefore, it is also our responsibility to save them from extinction.

Around Gaua in 5 days

Finally, I had the chance to visit the island other than Efate, i.e. Gaua Island in Torba Province, thanks to my current job. It is one of the remote provinces in the northern islands and is prone to volcanic hazards of Mt. Garet.

In front of our chartered flight to Gaua

After being stranded for one night in Luganville, Espiritu Santo due to sudden flight cancellation which is very common here, we flew the next morning to Gaua using 6-seater chartered flight called Air Taxi. The flight was smooth, although the bad weather and heavy rain scared me a bit, as it was my first experience seating on such a small Cessna plane flying low over the Vanuatu islands. After 35 minutes flying, we arrived in Gaua airfield before 10 o'clock. As the plane was landing, out of nowhere, people came and gathered around the airfield watching the plane to land on the grass. This may be commonly seen in small islands everywhere, but since I have never been to small islands using plane before, I found it very interesting.

We stayed in one of the bungalow near the airfield, called Wongras bungalow. The owner, Charles, lives with his wife and six children. Following a nice lunch, we decided to commence the work by visiting nearby villages and taking necessary data. Roughly four hours of the first day were spent wandering in the biggest village, Namasari. The second day, we started the island tour by boat since the island’s rugged topography does not allow us to travel by land, so off we went heading north to start the journey on one clear morning. I was amazed when we visited one village called Bushman Bay, inhabited by a family of six only. For me, it is really hard to imagine living in such a remote place without seeing anyone other than your parents and siblings.

There are seven villages we visited, some of which are located high up on the hills. Often, we had to climb, even crawl, due to slippery steep terrain in order to get to the village. Don’t ask me how the locals deal with that. While we managed to climb the steps slowly with the fear of sliding down the hill, the locals who followed us were moving in a fast speed while chatting with their friends or chanting as if they were walking on the flat shiny tiles.

The steep path on the way back from Koro village

In one beautiful village named Koro, we had a spectacular view overlooking the South Pacific Ocean. However, it is extremely difficult to access the village from the sea, let alone from other villages.  Most of the western part of the island is bordered with the Coral Sea and that literally means the sea is full of corals. Our boat had difficulties to anchor as it hit the corals few times but finally the boat driver managed to find a way where the boat could pass among the beautiful yet dangerous corals.

One of our concern was the presence of schools, and in Koro, the nearest school is located in Dorig. Let me tell you what the word ‘nearest’ means. First, the school children have to travel by sea, otherwise they will spend many hours walking from their village to Dorig. Secondly, when they arrive in Dorig, they have to climb as the school is located uphill. Last but not least, a boat is a luxury in the island. Therefore, I am not surprised if most of the people do not go to school. It is not because they do not want to. Alas, it is merely too complicated for the parents to send their children to school.

Our next stop is Biam village, the most remote village in the island as well as the place for us to stay overnight since it is not possible to travel by sea at night time. There were three women in our group, so we were given the privilege to stay at the church guesthouse, a simple hut with three rooms. The communities in Biam treated us very well. They even gave us new mattresses which were just delivered by ship the day before. Prior to our departure for the island, I was told by my colleague to be prepared in case we need to sleep on the ground. In fact, while we slept on the new mattress that night, most of the communities slept on the ground of their home. How about the toilet? It is just next to the hut. You may think that it is a separate hut, right? Apparently, the toilet is everywhere around the hut. When nature calls, find a bush toilet.

The church guesthouse

In fact, it is better to use the outside toilet as there is less risk of being bitten by fire ants which are often found inside the houses. The fire ants are almost invisible but once they bite, you will feel the burn sensation, awful, isn’t it?  One of our colleagues used the toilet inside one of the houses and later she realized that she was bitten by fire ants. So, she ran down the hill and plunged herself into the sea to stop the pain. When we asked the houseowner why she did not tell us that there are fire ants inside the house, she calmly replied that it is normal for them and do not think that fire ants’ bites are serious. Until we left the village, we couldn’t stop discussing how they manage to live with those little monsters wandering in their premises. 

Another funny thing is when we asked for a bucket of water to shower. The villagers do not have the concept of taking a shower since they consider swimming in the sea with their clothes on as a kind of shower activity. Therefore, when we tried to take shower in a very smelly place where they put the copra -it was the only feasible place for us to take a shower- a group of children followed us and got closer since they were curious of what we were doing. They remained there observing us until we called their mothers so that we could take a quick shower without being watched. What an experience!

For dinner, I had rice and nalot, a traditional dish made from cassava boiled in coconut milk with grilled coconut crumbs on top. Here in Vanuatu, the staple food varies between yam, cassava, taro, since rice is rare to get. Once they have rice, then they will eat them altogether on one plate, just like what we had, a pile of rice, nalot, instant noodle, all were served at one meal!

The night in Biam was serene since we only heard nothing but the waves and sea breeze drifting us to sleep. Wonderful, isn't it? In the morning, we left early around 6.30 am to continue our journey to Dorig village, where we met a group of intelligent women who were very critical, even the men were nothing compared to them. We received a lot of feedback about the work thanks to their brilliant comments and questions.

With the women in Dorig village

On the third day, on the way back to the east, we saw the spectacular Devil’s Point, a giant pile of lava created by the eruptions in the past. It is a taboo area, so we were not allowed to talk or point our fingers while passing. Combined with the rough Pacific Ocean, the view was just amazing and at the same time scary! Unexpectedly, the sky turned grey and few minutes later, it rained heavily. Initially there were seven of us on the boat, but since some ill villagers asked for a ride to the health centre in Namasari, so we went along with seven additional passengers, including a baby.  The weather became worse and there was no sign that the rain was going to cease. I was scared since the wave was getting wild, reaching approximately 2-metre high and the heavy rain made it worse. The visibility was very low as we could not even see the coast. We were all wet due to both the rain and the rough wave splashing all over the boat. I was so afraid that the wave could turn the boat upside down or even break the boat into two and suddenly, when the boat driver tried to slow the speed, a big wave hit the boat and our friend who sit at the boat’s nose fell down. We were so panicked and worried about him. Luckily, as he held tight the anchor rope, he was not swept away by the wild wave. After some time, I did not know exactly how long we were in that scary situation, our prayers were heard. The rain stopped and we continued the journey directly to the village, cancelling the initial plan. All we wanted to do was to go straight to the bungalow and called it a day.

The day before we left Gaua, we decided to go to Lake Letas, the largest freshwater lake in Vanuatu. We left at 8 am with our local guide, passing the coconut plantation, entering the jungle, crossing the giant banyan tree tunnel, and after four hours of walking we arrived at the lake, welcomed by this view.

Lake Letas with Mt. Garet in the background

Unfortunately, we could not cross the lake to go to the mountain as the boat was broken. So, we stayed by the lake and had our lunch there.

I was so excited about leaving Gaua on the last day. However, when we boarded the plane and saw the villagers at the airfield waiting for the plane to take off, I could not resist my tears from falling, thinking of how the villagers live their life in the village, especially those who live in the remote villages that we visited few days before. If only they knew that there is better life out there, beyond their imagination. Hey, but who am I, dare to say that our life in the city is much better than theirs in the village? After what I have seen, I personally think that life in big city maybe hard, but living in such a remote village is even unthinkable for me. At the end, it is just the matter of practice and adaptation that help us to survive. Well, another eye-opening journey about the life in a remote village.

See you again in the next adventure!

Next destination...

We were so thrilled when receiving the good news, Alhamdulillah. Our next stop is now confirmed and it is exactly the one we have been dreaming of *absolutely happy*. We like living in the country where we are now, but after what had happened in the past few months, we decided to think again about prolonging our stay here.

May Allah bless us in every way, wherever we are, and may He grants us health and protection as always..aamiinn.

Soon, we'll bid farewell to South Pacific and say hello again to South East Asia, insya Allah.

A day at the museum

Visiting museums has always been my passion whenever I go. No matter however old and obsolete a museum can be, there is always something interesting to see and learn. The National Museum in Port Vila may look dull from outside, but it becomes interesting inside since it displays various collections of the Melanesian art and culture as well as the early history of the country under the reign of French-British condominium government. With entry fee of 500 VT or equal to IDR 44,000, the visitors will be entertained with the sand drawing show, a traditional custom of Pentecost island, done by the museum guide. As he creates a very beautiful drawing, he tells the story about what he draws continuously without even pulling his finger off the sand.

Sand drawing

Cute turtle

On my first visit, I was surprised as I found a set of angklung (traditional musical instruments made from bamboo tubes originated from West Java) displayed at one corner of the museum, marked as the gift from the infamous Saung Angklung Udjo in Bandung, my hometown. Later, on my next visit, I learnt that the "Angklung Workshop" was organised thanks to the cooperation between the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, Australia. Not only that, when I accompanied my friend coming from Suva to visit the museum, we had the chance to see the performance of children playing Vanuatu's national anthem and Indonesia Pusaka song...wonderful!

Angklung instruments from Saung Angklung Udjo, Bandung

After enjoying the two main shows, the visitors can see the museum collections, including totems, shells, traditional weapons, as well as the Vanuatu custom stories, one of which reminded me of the Balinese custom in the past, where the families and wives of the great Melanesian chief called Roi Mata are obliged to follow their dead husband to the grave in order to show their devotion and therefore, they will be buried alive together with the corpse in an island now called Hat Island (as it has the shape of a hat). Due to the history and its importance value in the Melanesian culture, the sacred Chief Roi Mata Domain in Hat Island is given the status as World Heritage Site of UNESCO in 2008 making it the Vanuatu's first world heritage site.

Melanesian totem

The National Museum is located in front of the Parliament Building, about 10- minute walking distance from downtown. It is open from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm and Saturday from 9 am to 12 pm.

2,5 months to go...

Yesterday morning, our good friend left the country, back to France. I was sad but I know she is way too happy to be back and be with her beloved ones again after 15 months. As for us, in less than 3 months, it is going to be our turn. Am I happy or sad? I can't say at the moment, not yet.

Soon, my days will be filled up again with packing activities, sorting things out, making lists of things to be sent, etc. Besides, I have to finish my work at the office before end of this week and we already planned three trips between June and August, then leaving Vila at the end of August. Plenty of things to do within 2,5 months. Allez Pungky!

Time surely flies...

Rainbow at the lagoon

This is what I saw from our balcony after few days of incessant rains in Vila....such a beautiful painting made by nature. It lasted for at least ten minutes and it was so huge, really really impressive!

What comes out from the kitchen

Today's finger foods for tea time, Vietnamese fresh spring roll (Nem Cuon) and a cake that goes perfectly with mint tea :)

Vietnamese fresh spring roll

Quatre-quarts..my favorite

Recipe for the spring roll is taken from here.
Have a nice weekend!

Start from the scratch

Here comes the newbie in the blogging world...
First try was 5 years ago and the last time I updated my old blog was nearly three years ago!!!
I wish this new one will last longer than that...so let's just wait and see..