Oops

Well, oops indeed. Didn’t realize I did multiple post on a topic. The mobile app is partially to blame. The other part is my bad connection. Sorry.

Taking A Break

Well, I’m going to be busy this weekend. So I’m taking a break from posting. Gonna resume as promised on Monday.

Snap! WordPress Desktop Screwed!

Well, you read that right.

I tried to post a long post that contains 1010 words. The Publish button says right. Already changed into Update button. And the green pop up saying that it’s been published was there. But what happened? All’s gone. I visited my blog few times and yes, it’s not there.

The hell.

Here We Are Again

Well.. It’s been quite some time since I posted something. I think I’m just exhausted of everything. I can’t even be able to express my thoughts correctly. They are all messed up. Like spaghettis.

What You Sow is What You’ll Harvest

Well, as the title says, I learned that the more you keep distance from people, the further away they will keep their distance from you.

For all these years, I’ve learned not to rely on other people. I learned to do it on my own. Only approach people when I really need. I thought it as professional relationship with no personal feelings should take place whatsoever.

As result, I don’t really have any friends. And I don’t think they’ll ever miss me when I’m gone for good. I know I’m being an asshole for doing this. I’m becoming more opportunistic. And don’t really care about others. People are getting away from me. Even those who I really care about. Too bad huh? I know. And I’m trying to figure out how to fix it.

But it’s really hard to unlearn the things you’ve been doing for almost all of your life. In one side, I like to have relationships. Especially with those who have the same hobbies and backgrounds. But on the other side, having people around me really make me feel uncomfortable. To the point of pissed off. I am confused.

New Start

Well, I got a new phone. Namely Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro. Quite good. Not a flagship standard obviously. But still better than anything I’ve ever had. And to commemorate it, I decided to make this post and make up my mind. I will blog regularly. Unless the connection doesn’t permit. Yeah. I’m experiencing bad, very bad connection problems. So much for a market leader of mobile internet provider. Boasting that they have the best quality, best connectivity, best coverage, best deal, etc. But actually as bad as rotten tomatoes. Wondering what provider I’m using? No other than the infamous Telkomsel. Or Telosel, as I prefer to call it. Telo is a mild insult word.

Another Life Rambling

Well.. Things are going worse for me. The source of the hardships? No other than my very own mother with all of her massive amount of negativities and worries. Also her hard hearted behaviors.

Lately, she started to worry about the past, when the particular people still buy stuff from our shop (now, the particular people do not). Also mentioning that my father now has no worries about anything. She also loves to gossip about anything and comparing her life to others. She always say that people’s lives are better than hers. Even worse, the market where we place the shop is going to be “renovated” (mind the quotation marks) due to the image-building efforts of the newly voted Mayor of my city. And because of the nature of political move which motivated the effort, you can expect it to sacrifice all people who have their business there.

Let me give you some insights. The market is roughly as big as a football (not hand egg) stadium. They took a great deal of time, two years or so, just to renovate a tiny (approximately a tenth or less) part of it. So you can imagine how much time it would take to renovate the whole thing.

Honestly, it also has been a concern for me. But as a Christian, I decided to put everything in Christ’ hands. I even am doing a period (gonna be a long time period) of fasting and praying for the matter.

But I seriously had enough. I’m fed up with my life. In the aforementioned period, I also ask Dad to take my life away. A quarter of a century is enough for me to live. I can’t take it anymore.

Sharing is Fun!

Well.. Merry Christmas. Thank you for everything you have done through this blog. Thanks for visiting my random rambling. And I want to say sorry for anything I posted which may be offensive to you.

End of words, happy holidays!

BTW this picture is my own creation. And I still receive commission works I you’re interested in my work.

The Customs of Thanksgiving

Well.. I’m in the mood for posting. So here’s another one.

The place where I live now is called Patik Village (pronounced as puh-tick). Located in Pulung district (pronounced as poo-loong) of Ponorogo City (all the o’s pronounced as the a in ‘want’) in the province of Jawa Timur (East Java).

As any other village in this district, the people like to hold a syukuran (thanksgiving, pronounced as syoo-koo-run). The thanksgiving can be held by any reason. Your cow just bear an offspring? Let’s have a thanksgiving. Your son just arrived from abroad? Let’s have a thanksgiving. You just had a great harvest? Let’s have a thanksgiving. Basically, anything can be the reason for the thanksgiving. Great, huh? Just wait and see.

Typically, the stuffs served are Nasi Gurih (rice cooked in coconut milk and some salts, pronounced as nuh-see goo-reeh), Tahu Kare (fried tofu cooked in coconut milk and Javanese yellow seasonings, pronounced as tuh-hoo kuh-ray), fried chicken (whole, without any powder), Serundeng (seasoned grated coconut, pronounced as se, as in ‘the’ – roon – deng, as the a in ‘man’), Sambel Goreng Kentang (spicy seasoned potatoes cut into cubes, pronounced as sum-bel, as in ‘the’ go-reng, as in ‘man’, ken-tung, as in ‘the’, as in ,’run’ ), Apem (sticky rice-cake, pronounced as uh-pem, as in ‘the’), and sweet tea. And by sweet, I really mean it. It’s so sweet that my sweet tooth can even take it.

And, no wonder most old people in this village have diabetes. Coconut products plus sugar is a deadly combo. Seriously. I hate coconut products besides Degan (young coconut for drinks, pronounced as the-gun) That’s why I avoid the thanksgiving if possible. But due to the local customs and my respect to the community, I often force myself to attend.

One more thing. Before the foods are distributed, there always will be a small prayer. Unfortunately, the prayer always in Islamic way. Well, Indonesia is a country with huge deal of Islam population after all. And I am the only one who is non Islamic.

It may be the best chance I’d get to be the Light and Salt. But since I’m a newcomer, and the customs prohibited me from doing so, I’ll just be a praying warrior. The prayer of a Christian is really powerful, you know. Our God is the only one true God, for the record.

[Indonesian] Uniknya Kuliner Ponorogo

Well, this post is intended for  visitors from Indonesia because there are terms exclusively Indonesian. But you can always use Google Translate if you want to read anyway. So, here we go!

Well, saya sekarang sudah tidak lagi berdomisili di Surabaya. Paling tidak sampai beberapa tahun ke depan. Alasannya sangat personal. Jadi maaf kalau saya tidak bisa mengungkapkannya di sini. Walaupun mungkin ada beberapa followers saya, baik di Facebook, Twitter, maupun Instagram yang tahu karena saya sempat posting.

Jadi, di mana saya sekarang tinggal? Seperti judul postingan ini, saya sekarang tinggal di Ponorogo. Kota di mana orangtua saya tinggal selama tiga puluh tahun terakhir. Ngomong-ngomong, mereka asli Kediri.

Lalu, apa yang unik dari kuliner Ponorogo? Bukan Ponorogo secara keseluruhan sih. Lebih tepatnya, kuliner Kecamatan Pulung, Kabupaten Ponorogo.

Keunikannya, masyarakat di sini senang mencampurkan potongan tomat segar ke dalam sepiring soto ayam berkuah bening, maupun rawon. Dan ternyata, mereka tidak hanya memasak daging sapi sebagai isian rawon, tetapi juga daging ayam. Menarik, ‘kan? Apa cuma itu keunikannya? Tentu saja tidak.

Orangtua saya berjualan di dalam Pasar Pulung. Jadi sedari kecil, saya sudah akrab dengan budaya tawar menawar. Di pasar tradisional ini, ada banyak penjual tahu. Kebanyakan menjual tiga jenis tahu. Tahu mentah, tahu setengah matang, dan tahu matang (tahu goreng). Semuanya tahu putih, bukan tahu kuning, apalagi tahu sutera. Loh, bukannya semua pasar tradisional ada penjual tahu semacam itu? Lalu, di mana letak keunikannya?

Tentu saja semua pasar memiliki penjual tahu. Keunikan penjual tahu di sini adalah pada tahu matang. Tahu matang yang dijual ada dua macam. Tahu matang asin, dan tawar. Saat proses penggorengan tahu, seluruh tahu, baik yang akan berakhir menjadi tahu tawar maupun menjadi tahu asin, seluruhnya digoreng bersamaan. Setelah semuanya matang, barulah tahu dipisahkan. Setelah itu, seluruh tahu yang akan berakhir menjadi tahu asin dimasukkan ke dalam ember bersih berisi air garam yang kemudian dibawa ke pasar. Sesampai di pasar, tahu dalam ember air garam ditiriskan dan diperas, sebelum akhirnya diletakkan di dalam tampah (wadah bundar besar yang terbuat dari anyaman bambu) dan siap ditawarkan ke pembeli. Unik, bukan?

Setelah kita membahas makanan, tentu saja kita juga harus membahas minuman. Agar tidak haus. 😀 Ada satu minuman endemik Kecamatan Pulung yang saya tidak pernah temui di tempat lain. Namanya Es Cao. Eits, jangan samakan Es Cao dengan Es Cincau ya. Namanya memang mirip, dan ada sebagian daerah yang melabeli Es Cincau sebagai Es Cao. Tapi secara bentuk dan bahan, amat jauh berbeda.

Es Cao terbuat dari air, gula, dan essence frambozen merk tertentu (maaf, merk tidak disebutkan karena saya tidak di-endorse oleh merk bersangkutan 😀 ) yang ditambah sedikit (serious, cuma sedikiiitt) air perasan jeruk nipis. Bahan utamanya sih hanya itu saja. Untuk isian Es, bisa ditambahkan serutan daging buah blewah (atau ada yang menyebut sebagai garbis), potongan kolang kaling, dan biji selasih, bergantung si penjual dan ketersediaan bahan. Rasanya? Jangan ditanya. Manis menyegarkan. Apalagi dalam suasana musim kemarau panjang seperti ini.

Tertarik mencoba? Silakan kunjungi Kota Ponorogo, dan rasakan keunikan kulinernya. 😀