| Friday, February 05, 2010 |
| Crita dari Rumah - Travelling with infant (2) |
Mudik tahun ini mungkin mudik yang relatif lebih santai dibandingkan mudik2 yg pernah saya alami sebelumnya. Kesantaian tersebut mungkin lebih karna sekarang kami harus bawa Lintang, buntut kami yg masih berusia 17 bulan. Lintang sedang berada di usia aktif bereksplorasi dengan lingkungannya dan cepat bosan, maka kepulangan kali ini lagi2 kami harus mencari airlines yg terjangkau dan tak perlu transit lebih dari sekali, supaya kita semua ga terlalu capek dan repot harus naik turun pesawat beberapa kali.
Jatuhlah pilihan kami pada korean air (KE). Pilihan kami ternyata tidak salah. Walau harus transit di Seoul selama 3 jam ternyata lintang jauh dari kata bosan selama transit disana. Selain karna bandaranya besar, tempat bermain anak [semcam indoor playground] sekarang ditempatkan di banyak tempat. Tapi ada dua hal yg bikin saya seneng banget dengan Incheon. Satu makanan disana relatif ga semahal jepang. Dua, di salah satu lounge ada kursi tidur [kursi yang posisinya emang setengah tidur] yang besar dan empuk banget. Huaaah nyaman sekali tidur2an disitu. Ga heran, ada bule didepan saya sampe ngorok2 tidurnya. Ga heran jg Incheon dinobatkan jadi salah satu bandara terbaik didunia. Selain fasilitasnya yg lengkap, ada banyak distraction bagi para penumpang yg harus transit berjam2.
Walaupun service KE ga sebagus SQ [sebanding dengan ongkosnya yg lebih mahal], tapi saya cukup puas. Hal yang paling eyecatching dari pramugari KE adalah jepit rambutnya hehehe lucu bgt, jadi pengen beli kalo ada yg jual. Sayangnya yg bikin saya sedikit kecewa adalah banyak pramugari/a nya yang ga begitu lancar bahasa inggris. Jangan kaget kalo si pramugari/a bicara dalam bahasa inggris yang terpatah2 [jiaah anisa bahar kali patah2=D].
Ada kejadian yg kurang mengenakkan ketika kami di soekarno hatta, hendak kembali ke Fukuoka. Seperti yang sudah direncanakan, ada titipan teman2 berupa istri2 mereka beserta anaknya yang akan ikut bareng bersama kami dalam perjalanan. Si petugas check-in di bandara soekarno hatta, seperti biasa kerjanya menurut saya, lambat dan ga peka dengan situasi. Karna kita check-in sebagai group [7 orang], otomatis bakal makan waktu lama, harusnya mereka langsung memindahkan line antrian di belakang kami ke tempat lain. Dan karna ignorance nya mereka, akhirnya puluhan orang yg ngantri dibelakang kami ngomel2 karna antrian check-in luar biasa lama. Dan setelah puluhan orang itu protes rame2 barulah si petugas mindahin antrian ke loket sebelah.
Gimana ga lama kalo si petugas check-in minta segala macam unexpected tetek bengek yg bikin istri2 temen saya harus mondar mandir keluar masuk ruang check-in dan bongkar2 tas mereka [saya baru tau kalo check-in perlu nunjukkin buku nikah, kartu keluarga dsb ckckck] plus dia beralasan ga biasa menangani check-in buat infant [what a lame excuse....dulu waktu ditraining lulus ga sih?]. Udah gitu buat penerbangan Seoul-Fukuoka, dia salah ngeset kursi salah satu istri temen saya. Karna malu dengan kesalahan sendiri, akhirnya si istri dan putranya dipindah ke kelas bisnis. Wah sengsara membawa nikmat. Tapi lagi2 saya harus mempertanyakan training macam apa yg mereka kasih ke para ground staff ini.
Ternyata masalah saya dengan petugas KE jakarta belon berakhir sampai disitu. Ketika kami boarding, tiba2 salah satu2 mbak2 petugas KE jakarta mendatangi saya
mbak2 KE : mbak, perlu bassinet ga buat bayinya? Saya : iya mbak2 KE : Gini mbak, tenryata bassinet kita kurang, jadi mungkin mbak ga dapet bassinet. Gimana mbak pindah ke kursi depan, disana nomer 42 a-b-c kosong, jadi mbak bisa taruh anaknya ditengah? [God, another lame excuse which again prove how unprofessional they are]
Suami saya pun menatap saya, seolah bilang you decide.
Saya : ga deh mbak. kalo emang ga ada bassinet, nanti saya rangkul aja anak saya kaya gini
mbak2 KE: jangan mbak. ini penerbangan nya lama banget lho, nanti mbak capek, mendingan pindah aja ke depan (as if I wasn't aware how long this flight would be).
saya : (masih berusha senyum) hmmm ga deh kayanya, mendingan saya tetap disini
mbak2 KE : jangan mbak, mendingan pindah ke depan aja (ok,.she start to get on my nerve)
saya : anak saya masih kecil mbak, bahaya kalo ditaruh ditengah. mending saya gendong di pangkuan saya. plus didepan situ kan sempit, kalo saya perlu gendong2 kan repot, jadi mendingan saya disini.
mbak2 KE : sempit gimana maksutnya? (mikir bentar lalu diem) ya sudah kalo gitu.
Dan dia pun pergi. Suami saya lalu ngeliatin saya seolah mo bilang breath...sabar neng sabar. saya balik ngeliat suami saya dan bilang "I paid for this flight. I don't care how but they better find that damn bassinet for me. It's their duty to provide the proper service. If they miscalculated the number of infant in this flight, it's their problem not mine"
Beberapa menit kemudian, si mbak2 tadi dateng lagi
mbak2 KE : mbak yakin ga mau pindah ke kursi depan? (Boy, I already made my self clear about this, didn't I?)
saya : yakin
mbak2 KE : soalnya kita dah dapet bassinetnya, jadi mbak bisa pake bassinetnya kalo tetep di seat ini.
saya : (melongo dengan penjelasan si mbak2KE) ooo...makasih kalo gitu
Begitu si mbaknya ngacir, saya dan suami ketawa, aneh banget sih tu orang. Kalo bassinetnya udah ada ya jelas saya makin yakin ga akan pindah, gimana sih, aya2 wae.
Hal ini bukan pertama kali saya alami sebernarnya. Taun 2008 (saat itu lintang masih 3 bulan) ketika saya hendak kembali naik SQ dari jakarta-fukuoka. Saya mengalami hal yang mirip. Flight sing-fuk sudah penuh. Sehingga kursi untuk penumpang ber bassinet sudah di ambil orang. Petugas di cengkareng minta supaya saya minta tolong sama petugas Changi agar membantu saya dapet kursi bagi penumpang pengguna bassinet.
Setelah bicara dengan petugas Changi, mereka mau bantu. Tapi waktu itu mereka hanya bisa memindahkan saya dan suami plus bayi kami ke 3 kursi kosong di belakang. Dengan asumsi kita bisa naruh bayi kami ditengah. "sorry maam...that's the best we can do". walo agak kecewa ya sudah, saya sangat berterima kasih dengan usaha mereka.
Diluar dugaan ketika saya boarding, beberapa pramugari yang melihat saya ga kebagian kursi depan langsung ambil mendekati saya. "Maam, I think it's dangerous to put your baby in the middle seat, so you better move to the front seat where we could install the bassinet for your baby. I will talk to the front seat passenger and see if they willing to give their seat to you". Dan ternyata berhasil. Berkat kebaikan hati para penumpang itu dan para pramugari SQ. Dan ungkapan terima kasih langsung mengalir deras dari mulut saya buat mereka.
Jujur saja saya belon kapok naik KE hehehe. KE punya flight yg paling convenient, selain SQ, dari fukuoka ke jakarta. Dan harganya juga ga semahal SQ. Travelling with infant emang ga sepraktis kalo kita backpacker-an. Banyak hal yg harus diperhitungkan, karna salah2 si baby ga nyaman dan dia bakal rewel sepanjang perjalanan.
Walaupun sebenarnya ga nyaman, infant memang lebih aman ditaruh di bassinet daripada digelar dikursi tengah. Karna salah2 ketika kita lengah ketiduran, si infant bisa ngeguling jatuh dari kursi. Satu lagi tips bagi para travelers with infant, pastikan kepala si bayi tidak menghadap aisle ketika ditaruh di bassinet, karna bisa kesenggol pramugari yg sibuk mondar2 mandir dengan kereta makanan mereka.
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posted by ayuanggraini @ 10:53 AM  |
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| Friday, January 22, 2010 |
| January 2010 - Unhappily slacking |
Call me a bad blogger for not updating this site for two months…well…I am and I am not gonna say no. Too many things had happened after the last time I posted my last story on this blog. But I wrote some short updates for the reader [if such exist =)] 1. Our first mudik as a family ever. Although this travel had cost us lots of money, but since we did enjoy our first holiday as family, it's worth to pay I think. It was really really fun. I sort of forgot how good it felt [really good in fact], escaping from our daily routine for couple of weeks and doing nothing but eating, watching crappy things on TV while eating food I rarely eat [which is not crappy I must say], get endless sleep, get to meet old friends from high school, sightseeing with warm sunshine in the afternoon. But too bad, we [my hubby and I] didn't get to meet our old friends from university [we had planned to have some small reunions with some old friends]. Kind of sad though, but the good thing was the grandparents were happy because we gave them more time to hang out and spend some quality time with Lintang. Not an everyday experience for her to have her grandparents around and play with her, so we let them have more time together. But since everyone seemed to be happy, so there's no reason for us to be not happy too. So we postponed our reunion plan until we don't know when. 2. Rejected from school So the nursery school had successfully given us a heart attack on our fist day of work after the long holiday. I was at city hall accompanying some new comers applying for their new ID when I got a phone call from my husband and the school telling that I am not allowed to put my daughter to school unless the three of us passed the medical check up. I was literally upset and furious when I heard the news. They can not just say NO without advance notification, can they? Why can’t they mention that we [us the entire family] need to undergo some med check before letting our daughter go to school, way back before we left for holiday? Rejecting my child all of a sudden was exceedingly unfair and unprofessional. And the teacher was suddenly overly cautious for some small matters. Like the red spots [two red spots] on my daughter’s cheek. It was a mosquito bites. And she wanted that to be confirmed by the pediatrician whether it was really a mosquito bites or not. Come on people, Indonesia is a tropical country, what can you expect? Mosquito is also common in Japan during summer. I think it doesn’t take a genius to distinguish red spots from chicken pox and mosquito bites. And the weird thing was, the necessary medical check up was a bacterial test not virus as we thought. Quite surprising though considering it was winter and we all know how difficult it is to grow bacteria in winter. And to make things worst, the medical check up cost 5,500 yen per person and unfortunately our insurance doesn’t cover it. And it took five days to get the result. And before we hand the result paper to the school and confirm that we’re perfectly healthy, no school for Lintang. No school means we have to share the work time during the day. My husband worked from morning to afternoon, while me babysitting our child. And I will start my experiment from afternoon to almost midnight. So loads of works were delayed this month. Even now, even after they let our daughter to attend the class, I am still upset with the school. 3. Norovirus To complete the theme of the month, which is unhappily slacking, my daughter was infected by norovirus. I have heard about norovirus back when I was still in university, one of my colleagues doing research on norovirus. But I was not really paying attention on what he’s doing, may be because I was not expecting my daughter to suffer from norovirus nor any other kinds of it. She looked fine the night before the symptom showed up. On midnight she woke everyone up when she suddenly vomited the entire food she ate. My husband and I thought she had some food poisoning. So we tried to recall what food we had given her for dinner. But this vomit thing didn’t stop just at once. The next morning every time she tried to swallow anything, she threw up. Our pediatrician confirmed us that it was a gastroenteritis caused by norovirus. The virus is pretty common during winter time [from December to March said the doc]. The pediatrician said to us no need to worry because the virus will be gone within two or three days. Thank god now the vomit had stop. But we still have the diarrhea to deal with as the virus turns out also attacking the intestine. We have been trying to stick with the doctor's tips. Provide her with more electrolyte liquid [I didn’t know they sell electrolyte liquid for baby with apple flavor], less milk and more solid food, have plenty of bed rest and don’t forget the medicine. Lintang seems to like the apple-flavored- electrolyte-drinks, but she’s been saying no to the food she normally likes.She still loves banana though, so temporarily the normal food she eat will be replaced by banana. And before she fully recovered, again, no school for her. What can I say? This would be another delay for my job, but so long as my daughter’s healthy and merry as usual, I don’t care how much delay it takes.
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| posted by ayuanggraini @ 6:47 PM |
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| Friday, December 04, 2009 |
| Linger |
 Every year, every time my family celebrates the Eid al-Adha, there's one question that always been lingering in my head, for years. And I keep asking the same question over and over to people I assume knows or understand about this event.
I know, I know...you all gonna say...what happen to you? You've been holding this religion for god knows how long and still yet convinced? I am not unconvinced with the story. I just simply can not understand. What is the real message the prophet Ibrahim/abraham wanted to deliver to all of us by giving up his only son?
Is it really about sacrificing as every one else keep saying? Is it really about proving your love toward God is the highest? Even though the answers to all those question is yes, I still could not understand why would he did that for all the above reasons. Or may be it was one of those things in religion that incomprehensible to ordinary human perspective.
Anyway, speaking about giving up something really important, I want to share the story about my father and the little sacrifice he made.
When I was 8 [or 9 perhaps, I vaguely recall], my father summoned me to his office and explained that he just got a job offer which means we have to move out from the town I resided at that time. As an 8 years old girl, I was shock and rejected that option at once, without giving a second thought for that. My family had only just lived in that town for five years, and the idea of moving out, adjusting your self with new world again, finding friends again was just.....something I barely could bear again, little did I know that in the future I will be moving in and out of many cities without knowing where and when to settle down.
So in the end, my father decided to reject the job offer and stay. Fifteen years later I found out that it was a huge stepping stone for my father's career, if he accepted the offer at that time. And I can not believe he gave up that offer just because his stupid little girl said no. Well, perhaps my objection was not the only thing he put into consideration when rejecting the offer, but I still feel a huge guilty to know that I might be had contributed to the decision he made.
What would have happen if he accepted that job offer? Will I be like I am now? Will he be like he is now? Will everything be the same? Surely it won't be the same. or it would, who knows?
But years after years of the realization of the sacrifice that my father made twenty years ago, I still feel the guilt linger inside me. how can I be so cruel? why did he listen to me? and it made me feel even worse because I know there's nothing I can do about it.
On the other hand, I feel so proud and amazed of him. I highly doubt I could do the same thing if I was in his shoes at that time. Giving up a great job offer and choose to stay with the family in the small town and let your career goes nowhere. And the worst thing was seeing the person who made you hold your career's rein grow up and then she leave you to chase her own dream. God, writing it made me feel terrible even more.
I know my father is happy and content with what he has right now. I can see he loves his job so much and has been dedicating almost the entire of his life to this job. May be it was not really a sacrifice as my husband keep saying [to make me feel better, I believe]. Or even it was, there's really nothing I can do other than forgive myself and do my best to make my parents happier each day.
But then comes another question, how?
Labels: curhat |
| posted by ayuanggraini @ 3:21 PM |
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| Monday, October 19, 2009 |
| Unspoken |
Suatu kali saya menghabiskan hampir setengah hari memikirkan betapa menipisnya makhluk yang bisa saya anggap teman saat ini. Sehingga seringkali saya merasa kesepian. Dan di hari yang sama tuhan memberi saya jawabannya.
Sore itu saat hendak menjemput anak saya, tanpa diduga saya mengalami kecelakaan kecil. Sepeda saya ditabrak oleh sepeda lain. Bukan kecelakaan berat memang, tp cukup membuat sejumlah baret baret, lecet2 dan lebam2 di kaki dan tangan dan sukses merusak sepeda saya.
Dengan tertatih2 saya jemput lintang dari sekolahnya dan menggendongnya sampai rumah. Sekitar sejam kemudian, suami saya pun pulang. Melihat gurat2 luka ditangan dan kaki saya, dia langsung bongkar kotak P3K mencari obat antiseptik dan kapas.
Sebenanrya saya agak ogah2an diolesi obat, maklum lukanya masih nyut2. Dan benar saja, pada sapuan pertama obat antiseptik, saya harus meringis2 dan mengaduh2 menahan nyut2an. Sontak Lintang langsung beringsut ke tempat tidur mendekati saya. Ekspresinya yang tadinya ceria berceloteh tiba2 terdiam memandangi saya dengan ekspresi sedikit sedih.
Kian lama ekspresinya makin muram, dan saya pun bilang sama suami saya "Lintang mau nangis tuh" Dan beberapa detik setelah kalimat saya selesai, dia pun langsung menangis kencang "huaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa".....Dan saya pun meraih Lintang ke pelukan saya, tanpa sadar air mata saya ikut jatuh, jadi nangis bareng deh hehehe. "hmmm lintang ikut sedih liat ibu sakit ya" ujar suami saya.
Terus terang saat itu saya terharu sekali. Untuk pertama kalinya, malaikat kecil saya yang baru genap berusia 15 bulan sabtu lalu, sudah bisa mengungkapkan rasa sayangnya pada ibunya dengan caranya sendiri. Begini tho rasanya dicintai anak sendiri, bahagia sekaligus mengharukan.
Selama beberapa menit lintang menangis dipelukan saya, rasanya begitu banyak hal yang terucap tanpa kata, mengalir dari lintang untuk ibunya. Menjawab, menenangkan, menghibur. Dan satu hal yang pasti, saya bisa merasakan cinta kasih dari lintang untuk saya. Satu hal yang tak pernah saya bayangkan bisa saya dapatkan dari bayi berumur 15 bulan.
Labels: Lintang |
| posted by ayuanggraini @ 10:03 PM |
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| Tuesday, October 06, 2009 |
| The Lost Word |
 As any other Brown’s work, his latest book which deciphering “the lost symbol”, I think, will also inspire controversy. Many facts about freemasonry brotherhood will be insatiably consumed by many anti mason communities like hungry sharks and use it as reinforcement against the brotherhood. Although I kind of imagine the mason member itself will be just casually chuckle while reading Brown explaining glimpse by glimpse about their group. Some ideas in this book will also be considered dangerous by many religious groups, I suppose.
Besides telling stories about cracking codes and solving secret ancient mysteries, Brown also offered some ideas that I found somehow, let just say, moving.
- In the hands of the master, it would light the way, but it the hands of the lunatics, it would scorch the earth.
I believe this phrase is speaking about loads of things in this world, yet this book emphasized on the holy book [the torah, the bible, the Koran etc]. I have to agree with Brown when he said that the holy books rather than literally telling us the truth, it speaks in obscure language or in code for reasons I highly doubt we know. That is why we need to interpret anything that written in the holy books. Nevertheless interpretation always encourages room for different ideas and very often, it also encourages conflict over whose interpretation is the correct one.
In the hands of the master, it would light the way, but it the hands of the madman, it would scorch the earth. We know how many people had been killed because whose version of the truth is better. We know how many politicians use religion or taking words from their holy book and use it as propaganda for their political purposes. And we also know very well on how it often healed many people with its wisdom.
- The ignorance of the mankind helped the chaos grow.
Last week a huge earthquake hit my hometown. And it took its toll on hundreds of lives and hundreds of demolished building. The earthquake forced hundreds of survivor to live in shelter without sufficient food, clothes, electricity nor proper sanitation. The local government apparently has not performed a satisfactory job in handling the situation. It seems like the world has stop for couple days in that place and the chaos unstoppably grows.
My husband raised an interesting question one day, “Shall we see the earthquake as a disaster or as a blessing?” And I asked him back, “How do you see the rain? Is it a disaster or blessing?”
Light rain is harmless; even some people consider it romantic. But heavy rain with lightning bolt is scary. And the flood it resulted is even scarier, particularly if we did not make any anticipation or we made some miscalculation in preventing the damage to spread. It could be a serious disaster. When disaster comes, the chaos is inevitably emerging. And human ignorance over nature is often the source of many disastrous events around the globe.
- The holy book speaks in codes that yet to be fully unveiled.
Many people have been working hard to reveal the true message of the holy books, and yet very few people able to find it. Brown has theory that every religion in this world aimed to help mankind reach the enlightenment level. A level which actually feasible to reach if we profoundly comprehend the true message of the holy books. To this point I agree.
But define "enlightenment"! what is "enlightenment?
The reason I do not understand this perhaps lies on the fact that I do not study my holy book profoundly =)
- Does soul or spirit physically exist?
I always happen to believe that soul or spirit does not physically exist but speaking from spiritual point of view, it does exist. Spiritual and physical perspective have different notion in defining life and death. However when Brown raised an intrigue question whether soul physically exists and measurable, I start to sensed that this is going to be a sensitive and difficult issue to discuss. Once it is proven its existence and measureability, then it would raise lots of questions. A sensitive issue but also a challenging one at the same time.
As Brown said in his book,
Nothing is hidden that will not be made known; nothing is secret that will not come to light.
The answer to many questions we have today is not lost, in fact it is hidden somewhere waiting to be revealed.
Labels: Books |
| posted by ayuanggraini @ 4:57 PM |
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| Tuesday, September 15, 2009 |
| Embracing death |
I want to apologize if the title itself is already creepy. But for the first time in my life, I have some courage to talk about death. Anyway, I hope you are not expecting me to write about life after death or the secret dark passage between life and death or those mysterious things I completely have no clue about.
The idea about this came soon after I finished reading the last book of Harry Potter [yes finally, after the e-book file had been sleeping in my computer for more than two years]. The last chapter is sort of disappointing, I must say. I was expecting more man-to-man fighting between Potter and Voldemort, yet it only occurred once. But the fetching part was when everyone [including his parents that already dead] praised Harry's fearlessness of death [no surprise though, since he's the hero of the story].
His reluctance to own the deathly hallow [while every powerful wizard in the story were struggling to death to obtain that hallow] had proven his braveness toward death. Death is not something he's afraid of. As well, death is not something we should be afraid of.
I thought it is a quite bizarre remark, initially. Can we say that people who committed suicide are courage as they actually embracing death? No. Because these people thought if they scarce themselves from this world, it will help to terminate all the problems they had.
So, are you afraid of death?
Well, I have to admit that I am afraid of it, although I know when the time has come, there'll probably no chance to feel anything including fear.
I'm afraid of leaving everything I have in this living world, the people I care about, things I adore and the life itself. Death means separation. And separation is my least favorite thing in this life.
Another thing is the life after death which remains a mystery [for the living creature]. It is a fear of getting into some place you do not know and place you've never been before and you completely have no idea what it looks like. Perhaps it wont be as hideous as what some people had described, or it could be worst than that. You would not know 'till you experience it firsthand.
But since we know that our time has been set. And since it will arrive without advance notification, all we have to do is prepare ourselves for its arrival.
I asked couple of people how they prepare to face death. And there are diverse answers to that.
- Pray to God, more frequent [major answer].
- make sure you had accomplished anything you want in this life
- Convinced people you care about that you love them
- do nothing but enjoy your life
And if you had done all those things above, will death be something we're not afraid of?
PS. tomorrow's my wedding anniversary and I'm talking about death. Man, I really know
how to be romantic.
Labels: what I had in my mind... |
| posted by ayuanggraini @ 11:04 AM |
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| Wednesday, September 09, 2009 |
| Pacifying my self |
Man, I am so helpless!
What am I suppose to do with these tiny little things? This job is beyond my ability. I should have warned my boss about that. And before doing that, I should have warned my self that it is not going to be easy. He [and probably I too] expects more than he should. Can't blame him. God, If banging my head to a wall will help, I would desperately do it! and where the hell is 'patience' when I need them? |
| posted by ayuanggraini @ 11:12 AM |
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| About Me |
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Name: Sri Ayu Anggraini
Home: Tokyo, Japan
About Me: Perempuan, Indonesian, ibu dari anak saya, anak dari orang tua saya, istri dari suami saya, dan penulis untuk pembaca blog ini =))
See my complete profile
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