Solitary Riot

On your birthday, you can’t help being reflective, looking back at the years that you’ve been through. And my 27-year-old self, we’ve had such fun adventures, haven’t we? You’ve stepped in a new country and grasped many new exciting things in life to enjoy. You’ve been (and hopefully always will be) surrounded by the people that you love and love you. You were in emotional breakdown but managed to get up and stand up tall again. You’ve found musical love in TVXQ and JYJ (although you still deny that you’re a Cassie hahaha!). You’ve finally met someone who used to be in your heart for years and made sure that your heart is healed already. Many things in your bucket, yes?

And to my 28-year-old self, may you live your life to the fullest. May you stay healthy to go through the upcoming adventures. May you be poured with love from people to whom you’re pouring your love. May you always learn every precious lesson in life in order to be a better person.

Cheers, and let’s eat the cake!


Yes, let’s live a fantastic live, baby <3

There’s no such thing as an easy work. I believe that every profession has its excitement and its challenges. And maybe currently I’m facing one of the challenges right now *sigh* I just don’t understand how people in this field could be so selfish, ignorant and disrespectful. I mean, for one example, to keep coming in and out of the room during a thesis defense is IMPOLITE. More importantly, it was done by someone we ‘should’ respect for his position. Geez, I don’t get it why he’s still in that position. No offense, but I think there’s should be a regeneration.

Enough of the work’s rambling. Let the fangirl inside me pour what’s in her heart now. Last week I made a short trip to Bandung to catch The Horrors’ gig. I departed from Jakarta at 5 and arrived there at 8, straightly to the gig venue. The Horrors were OHHHHSOME. Their music, their energy, their sound, they’re all amazing! I’ve been following them even before they released their debut album, so it felt really great to have finally seen them live. It’s worth the exhausting trip :) [pssst, the morning after I went back to Jakarta so I didn’t have to skip the class that day. Wasn’t I a rock and roll lecturer? :p]

Still couldn’t grasp Big Bang’s new song, Blue. I like the MV from the first time but the song ... somehow I feel that the sound is too empty. On the other hand, I dig Miss A’s Touch. It’s pretty but sad, and the psychedelical MV is quite nice too. These girls can’t do no wrong, can they?

I have a vacation plan for April. Will tell ya the details later. One thing for sure is I’m hella excited because it’s the place I’ve never visited before! :D

The term has finally ended. I no longer have classes to teach, but some exam sheets are waiting to be checked. There are still some works to do before I can officially scream ‘Hey, it’s holiday!’, but at least I can wake up late lately ^^ Life has been treating me well these days. I got to hang out with my precious friends and had such a fun convo, rewarded my self with several things and have enough time to rest.

Speaking of reward, I just bought another novel by Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda. It’s a part of my literary resolution in 2012. I made a promise to myself that I would finish one more novel from Carey and will try one novel from A.S. Byatt, Virginia Woolf and one Asian/South American author (maybe Yukio Mishima). I used to be able to finish about 40 novels in a year, but recently it’s even hard to finish one (no thanks, workload!). I won’t force myself with a certain number of books this year, so I’ll just make an effort to read some works by authors I haven’t touched before. And currently I’m struggling to finish Jack Maggs by Carey. Dunno why but it’s getting boring.



Another reward is these babies <3 Found them at Summarecon Mall for quite reasonable price. I once saw something similar in a Japanese magazine and I wanted them so much! There’s no way I could buy the Japanese brand one since it’s hella expensive so when finding the much cheaper one, this shopper inside me was truly happy :D

Oh, can anyone tell me why I can’t stop talking about Yunho? Because he’s that gorgeous and that sweet, that’s why <3 (I’d better stop before this entry is full of my wild, crazy fangirl’s ramblings!)

After watching Korean Music Wave in Singapore last July, I told myself, ‘Okay, I won’t go to Singapore again this year. I should save my money for other countries.’ But then ... one day when my friend and I were really bored, we decided to have a short trip, two days and one night only. We decided that the nearest place would be Singapore (not that Indonesian cities are boring but we were also looking for some things). So yeah, we finally went there last weekend. Yet this time we tried to plan things well by visiting new places and our destinations would be bookshops, coffee shops and stationary stores. It was a really short getaway but it was hella fun :)


Our room. The wall decoration is inspired by a traditional game.

We stayed at a new hostel called Five Stones. Our bedroom was comfy and even though we had to use shared-bathrooms (my first experience), we didn’t mind at all since they’re so clean. The hostel staff were also really nice. They helped us quickly when we needed things or asked for some directions. Not to forget, with a smile~~. Not only it’s cozy, the location of the hostel is strategic too: 10 minute-walking to Boat Quay and Raffles MRT station and 5 minute-walking to Clarke Quay station. Boat Quay is such a lovely place! I really enjoyed strolling around during the morning, just enjoying the friendly sunshine and waving at some ships passing by. I just love the river bank, I don’t understand why Dickens often created it as a gloomy, creepy place.

Anyway, after checking in, we went straight to Club Street, which was only one MRT station away. Our main destination was actually Books Actually but then we just knew that they have moved :( Thankfully there were many other interesting places at Club Street and Ann Siang Hill. We visited this shop selling knick-knacks named Little Drom Store. The store was quite tiny, but I gotta say their tote bags, notebooks, pins etc are cute. The products mostly came from famous designers. I didn’t buy any though, since the price was kinda expensive for my wallet. Another store that we entered was Wood in Books, which specializes in children’s book stories. They also sell cute notebooks, bookmarkers and postcards. The last shop before we had some coffee at Shots was Trolley. The concept is similar to Little Drom Store although the stuffs aren’t as fancy as LDS. I did buy something though, a cat strap for my mobile phone. Like what I’ve mentioned before, we had some drink at Shots. They don’t sell too many choices of food and drinks, but the place is quite nice to hang out with your friends. Club Street isn’t crowded, so sitting outside to have some coffee (or any other drink) is one of the best ways to enjoy the street.


Wood in Books, pretty, yep?

Since the night was still young, we went to Orchard, particularly Kinokuniya and HMV. At Kinokuniya I grabbed some magazines (how could I say no to mags with TVXQ and Chunnie as the cover?!), and at HMV I bought some CDs for myself and for my friends. I was searching for The Secret Code but HMV didn’t have it, so I bought the blue edition of Tone (so it means I have two editions of the album teehee).

The next day, we spent our morning walking around Boat Quay and taking lots of pictures. I’m glad the weather was really friendly during the weekend since our last trip to SG was nothing but rain all day long. We went to Takashimaya again because I had a plan to meet Harm, my Singaporean friend. We had known each other since 2002 but that’s the first time we meet in person :D She’s a nice person to talk to and she shared so many interesting stories about her life. Glad to have met you, Harm! We should hang out longer next time :D


The view of Boat Quay.

Done with the rendezvous! Our next place to visit was Cat Socrates at Bras Basah Complex. And I’m sooooo in love with the store! I went kinda wild and bought some cute, lovely things like tote bags, small mirrors, and a necklace. I wish I had brought more money though, since the stuffs sold there are too precious to be missed! Cat Socrates is surely my new favourite place in town! If you like knick-knacks, that is one place you totally won’t miss.


A sweet trip, indeed!


This short-trip was indeed refreshing. I got to visit places and hip spots I had never gone before, did new things and enjoyed the city in a new way. I’ll fly there again to attend TVXQ’s fanmeeting in early December. I just hope Singapore won’t get bored of me :p So see you again with another update on, hopefully, TVXQ’s fan party!

I want to

Run between the skying sunflowers. Enjoy the sunshine with a cup of iced caramel latte in hand. Cry after reading a beautifully mushy romance. Go to a city where nobody knows me and just enjoy each and every second of the foreign place. Meet someone that could melt me with his talent and sweetness. Have someone to sing for me with a piano. Say this out loud, “Dear life, I’m hard to beat.”

And I wanna thank these guys who could always sing this beautifully.

Last week was a busy one for this lecturer. It’s already the third week for this new term and I had to juggle between lecturing, checking assignments (so many of them!) and managing my JJA application. Thankfully I could handle them quite well, even though right after I got home I went nowhere besides my bed. And I still have around twelve weeks to go dealing with this. Argh.

At the same time, it was a fantastic week for my other side of life as a fangirl. Both TVXQ and JYJ released their new albums and my copies have been shipped by Yesasia. Hopefully it’ll arrive this week :) Also, my sister bought me Hard-Fi’s new album when she went to Singapore. Killer Sounds is the third album from these Staines boys and they’re just getting better and better. Their music is rocking, groovy, rich and roaring! Knowing them from the start, I’m proud that they musically have come this far. I’ll try to find time to write a proper review about this album.

And have I told you that I can’t stop listening to JYJ’s You’re? It’s such a beautiful and sweet song sung by beautiful voices. How can I not love these guys? <3

I also had a short trip to Bandung last weekend. It’s supposed to be a place to relieve my stress but man, Bandung was really crowded and it’s not that cold anymore. I stayed at Amaris Hotel in Cihampelas, which was quite comfortable but the area around it, man, it’s packed with people! I dunno, I no longer find Bandung that interesting anymore.

Kiss Kiss by Kim Hyun Jung

I'm not a fan of Kim Hyun Jung. In fact, I used to dislike him :p but since my sis kept telling me that this is a good song, I tried to listen to it. Then hey, it is a simple yet good song! And even though it sounds sweet, it's actually a bitter song, they said. So, a soundtrack for a sad summer, we can call it?

Maybe those people are right. You shouldn't extremely hate something. You might end up loving it at the end :p

Starting from this entry, I’ll try to share some songs that have done/given something to me, either in good ways or bad ways (mostly are good, I hope). I’ll also post the video in case you wanna hear the song. Now let’s do the first one with the song that recently made me cry.



I think it was one night in June when I first listened to this song. I was alone in my room, and it’s almost midnight. I didn’t remember exactly why but I was really down and emotionally exhausted at that time, and the lyric of the song really got me. The song plus the bad mood equal tears. Yes, I couldn’t handle it anymore so I cried. Actually I was having a chat with a friend, and when I told her that I was crying, she gave me a big hug and wished that she could be there to give me a real hug instead of the virtual one. That’s very sweet, Sindi, thank you :) And until now, this is JYJ’s song that has had such a huge impact on me.

Writing has always been a therapy for me. No matter what I feel is, I always consider writing as the best way to express it. And it always works wonder everytime I feel angry or sad, in particular. It’s like, when my feelings are transferred into words, I experience this huge sense of relief. It might not eliminate the anger or the sadness completely. But it makes me feel way better at least.

Words are also my kind of escapism. Sometimes real life can be boring or frustrating, we just can’t help it. And through words, especially through stories, I create my own world where everything is so much better, everything is much more beautiful. That’s the magic of imagination, isn’t it?

When I make an imaginary story about myself (let’s just say another life of mine), I always think about happy things. Or sometimes things that I wouldn’t do in real life. Some people might think this is one form of mental disorder (hahaha), but for me it’s a kind of imagination trip: where my mind explores all ideas/inspiration that come into my brain. Yes, you can call it an escapism. I don’t mind that.

So it’s a therapy. It’s an escapism. Whatever it is, writing gives me a lot of precious things. And I’ll keep writing. I’ll keep treating words as my best friend :)