Moving!

Dear readers,

I’m not blogging here anymore, visit: www.erwinandsandy.com instead ^^ !
Thank you !

Last coffee on my desk

until another caffeinated person moves here. It’s very tough to leave the university, especially knowing that my job leap will no longer involves teaching in any kind. No more classes, no more noisy students, no more grading craziness, and no more staying up late making modules, exams and all that. Now I know how T felt when she left the job last year! She had resigned, she had finished all the gradings needed but I found her with eyes glued to the monitor trying to make more modules ! As if she has anymore classes to teach ! I might give this syndrome a name => post-teaching syndrome. Teaching is indeed fun, your days are forever filled with non-stop annoyances, noises, and all that. But I think, I really need to take a break from it. So thank you all for being such great students ! I’m going to miss everyone here !

Overwhelmed ..

that’s me.

Be glad!

For us, the earthquake was merely a sudden interruption to our daily activity or a facebook joke. But for the others, it wasn’t. 59 people were reported dead and 37 others are still missing. More than 31,000 homes were badly damaged, 739 schools were destroyed and lots of distresses. That could’ve happened to us. Help as much as you could 🙂 !

(picture stolen from detik foto)

What I did in an earthquake

I was sitting on my desk, grading final exams, when I suddenly felt a light tremor. So I thought I had a migraine or something. But then the tremor got worse, my colleague suddenly said “It’s earthquake ! Get out !”. By then students, staffs, lecturers, etc were packed in the emergency stairs struggling to get out of the building. My first instinct was to close my laptop and carried it with me. I tried to take the power adapter with me too, but in the end, I didn’t because I got scared. I took nothing else with me, no wallet, no mobile phones, nothing! Just me and my macbook!
I hope the earthquake is over for good although the news said that there’s a potential Tsunami attack around Tasikmalaya area ( probably about 300 km away from where I am). Arrghh …I hope not !

Dogs @ Ngo Kok Ong Temple – Cibarusah

Still very very far from becoming a real pet photographer, but not too bad ^^:

The mum:

The son:

Indonesia is 64 years old!

and as usual, Indonesians celebrate this by having the good old competitions like cracker-eating(makan krupuk), pole climbing (panjat pinang), marble race (lomba kelereng), and such. The ritual is fun and some kids actually waited for the opportunity to compete in these silly games. I remembered swearing that I shall win the marble-race competition the following year! But of course, every year, there’ll be tougher opponents. I did win a couple of times. This morning, I helped organising this ritual in our local temple. Hmm, it brought back lots of happy childhood moments. Look at how much fun they had:


The goal here is to insert the pencil to the empty tea bottle:

Some people get really serious with this:


Balloon:

A variation of the usual marble-race : “pick your marbles with chopsticks”:

So yayy , happy birthday my country!! 64 and going strong! Merdeka!

What the world needs now: Pet photographers!

Forget wedding photography, there’s too many of them out there ! As pet lovers, I know how frustrating it is to not be able to capture my furry pals in their funniest, cutest moments ! Rawrrrr !! Because by the time my pocket camera snaps, the uncontrollable furries had gone elsewhere, distracted or they could smell the flash from the camera. So I always end up with blurry images -_-.
I found out that there are photographers out there who dedicated their skills to snapping images of our furry and not so furry best friends, they just don’t exist in Indonesia yet(or maybe I never met them). Just look at these pictures, cuteness !!




Anyone interested??

Domestication Process … begins ..

I think I’m quite a difficult person to live with. At certain days, I would want everything to be in perfect order(I have this urge about a week or so before my period comes, how strange), but in other certain days, I’m a living chaos. I have my books, laptop, whatever notes and exams, piled on my bed ! Yes, I sleep with them ! So now that I’m married, it’s going to be more difficult for me to do that. I think Erwin will complain if I use his side of the bed to pile my work up. So I thought, I need some help. I turned to the world’s best guru of homemaking: Ms Martha Stewart for this.

For years now, I’ve been wondering how Ms Martha Stewart can be so … you know.. Martha Stewart ! Years ago, I thought, she might be the kind of woman every men dreamt of marrying. She knows how to make everything beautifully, crafty, creative, an excellent cook, knows how to work on her drills, saws and hammer, and on top of all that, she’s beautiful and a great businesswoman too. Tsk tsk tsk … I’m nothing compared to all that. But alas, I also learnt that her husband left her for another woman. Anyway, aside from that, there’s no denying that she’s still awesome.

So, I checked her website, and figured out that beginners like me can probably start from here : “Six Things to do Everyday“. Only six and definitely worth trying.

And Martha says:
1. Make the Bed
Tidiness begets tidiness. A crisply made bed makes the whole room seem more orderly, which makes it less likely that you’ll let other things — such as clothes and papers — pile up around it.
(ohmygod, she read me ! How could she knoww…)
2. Manage Clutter
Whenever you leave a room, take a quick look around for anything that isn’t where it should be. Pick it up and put it where it belongs. Insist that everyone in the household do the same.
(well, only one person in the household that doesn’t do this)
3. Sort the Mail
Take a few minutes to open, read, and sort mail as soon as you bring it inside. Keep a trash bin near your sorting area for junk mail. Drop other mail into one of four in-boxes: personal correspondence, bills, catalogs, and filing.
(must go shopping to get these four in-boxes ^^)
4. Clean as You Cook
Instead of filling the sink with pots and dishes, wash them or put them in the dishwasher as you prepare a meal.
(good idea)
5. Wipe Up Spills While They’re Fresh
Whether it’s tomato sauce on the cooktop or makeup on the bathroom counter, almost anything is faster and easier to remove if you attend to it immediately.
(another good idea)
6. Sweep the Kitchen Floor
Every evening once you’ve finished washing up after dinner, sweep the floor. This will keep tough-to-clean dirt and grime from building up, which will make the weekly mopping much quicker.
(hey, I mop more often than once a week! I guess I’m not that bad ^^, but yes, I will clean kitchen floor every evening).

I’m not trying to be a stay-at-home housewife, but I’d like to be better. Can I be a better me soon?

Visiting my old blog!

Haven’t blogged here for quite a while. I’ve been caught up with all sorts of things: wedding, moving together with dear hubby, and of course, work. I’m planning to move my jots from this blog to another place ^^. Where? We’ll see..