Who Moved my Cheese??

Who Moved My Cheese??

No, I'm not a mouse and I'm not looking for cheese. I'm not a cheese lover though I don't hate it either.
I'm talking about the book "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson.
It's a self help / business book about how to deal with change and the book tells the story of mice and little people who live in a maze, looking for cheese and how they deal with the situation when the cheese is moved unexpectedly. The cheese in this case is a metaphor of what you have in life; for example, work, money, relationships. Unlike most business books, it's very thin and use simple easy-to-understand words; perfect for a gal who reads for the fun of it.

We are sometimes too attached to our own 'cheese' that when change comes unexpectedly, we can not accept the fact that it is gone and therefore, unable to adapt to the change needed.

Change is healthy especially if you are already too long in your comfort zone, as if you have been stuck  for a while.
Gees, I sound so serious in this post. I think I better finish my mozzarella spinach sandwich before writing the next post.

Raining of books and books

A friend of mine went home for good last weekend and for the love of God, her suitcase was almost 20 kilograms overweight! Two years in Europe surely adds some pounds to the suitcase and her stuff. Sadly for her, she needs to leave some of her stuff here and fortunately for me, most of the stuff she had to leave are  books!
So suddenly I received tons of good books - she has good taste in books by the way- which will occupied me for the next gazillion weeks! Thanks friend! From "Freakonomics" to "super freakonomics" to "Three cups of Tea", can't wait to read them, if I have time of course ;)
In the meantime though, I need to finish my current book "Poirot Investigate," typical Agatha Christie mysteries with Poirot. My guilty pleasures! The book is a birthday gift from my friends anyway, thanks ladies!

Cloud Atlas

Just by chance me and husband decided to watch "Clould Atlas" on AppleTV last weekend. Not knowing the story nor reading the reviews, we have no expectation of the flick. It lasted almost 3 hours and we needed to have a one hour break in the middle just because it's too long for us to bear. By the time it finished  hubby was already in bed, leaving me alone the last 1 hour of the movie. It is not a mainstream kind of Hollywood movie - directed by or somehow related to the guys who made the Matrix- but I kinda like it. There are six stories which are somehow related to each other spanning different time periods, from  the slavery era to the distant future / post apocalyptic time.
What interest me the most is probably the way the actors play different characters in different stories, which leave me guessing the whole time which actor play which character in which story. More interestingly, the actors would sometime play characters from different races than their own, so we are talking about 'yellowface' make up here!
For example, this is Jim Sturgess and the second pic is him in character as a Korean. (pics from movieline.com and jimsturgessonline.com).

Here are some more pics I got from nytimes.com

Definitely a must watch!.

Star Trek into Darkness

Thanks to my Mom who is here on vacation, I was able to watch "Star Trek Into Darkness" in cinema last Sunday eve, leaving Rania under her care and dragging hubby of course to accompany me. 

It's probably a bit weird to see a woman in her 30's going eagerly to see a Star Trek movie. Have to admit, I'm a trekkie. I have always showed an appreciation towards science fiction movies or stories since I can remember. When I was five, I saw this Japanese robot TV show and decided I wanted to be an astronaut to explore space. I did not become one but I ended up taking Physics as my major, and graduated with a degree. Pfffuuuh. Not bad for someone who chooses physics as major, expecting to discuss warp machine, time travel and klingon in the classroom (which were of course, never discussed). Mom said that when she was expecting with me she read "Close Encounter Of The Third Kind" and that probably explains my tendencies on science fiction babble. FYI, the movie is about making physical contact with extra terrestrial. Ahem.  

Anyway, about the STID movie, I loved it, totally totally loved it. It cleverly shows a good combination of action, mystery and drama. I like the fact that the characters stay true to their known personalities and some connections to a previous movie, in this case "The Wrath of Khan", are added.  

Of course there are some inside jokes that only a Trekkie would understand, such as when Chekov is asked to put on a ‘red shirt’, but the rest are reasonable.  

A friend who happened to watch the movie in the same theatre told me, a reason she watched it is because of the actor of one of the main protagonist: 

Benedict Cumberbatch. 

He’s probably best known as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series “Sherlock.” 

I, along with other 30-40 millions female viewers who have watched the show went head over heels with his blunt, sharp gaze and deep voice. 

Here he is as Sherlock.

 And here he is as "John Harrison" in STID

He can be seen again in Season 3 of "Sherlock", but in the meantime, I will have my twinings tea and watch a re-run of Sherlock season 2. 

Another "guilty" post. What matters most.

...And it's been another 4 -5 months after my last post. *raise hand and scream "Guilty"*

It's been a little hectic nowadays, except for my home-office work, I've been busy doing some 'research' on something. I'll tell all later what the research is all about when the time comes  :))

My book has been doing well but I'm stuck with the nationwide distribution, though many have sent me their praises privately; and for me that's what matters most.

Once you get older, life is all about priority and putting what matters most upfront and what less behind. Yeah, now that I'm a year older 2 weeks ago (happy birthday to me!!), I have some thoughts spinning in my head such as, work vs Rania vs my book vs (taking care of) house vs other stuff. Of course Rania and the house should come first and the rest second and third and forth and so on.

Perhaps not everyone knows that my little cupcake is not the easiest child to manage in her pre-school, as she is unable to speak to certain teachers or adults in some situations. Since she is now 4 years old and next thing I know, tomorrow she'd start kindergarten and primary school. So I'm really thinking to 'drop' everything and focus on her and her alone. You see, Rania is different to other child her own age when it comes to personality. She's an introvert girl who sometimes unable to express her feelings to total strangers or people she does not trust. Sadly, most of the adults who sees her behaviour thinks that she has this stubbornness or resentment towards authority figures, such as a teacher. And this makes her behaviour even worse in some situations.

Now, about what matter most. During my birthday two weeks ago, I learned that it's important to surround yourself with people who are smarter than yourself, friends who love you and respect you for who you are, friends who are sincere and won't expect anything in return. Life is too short to spend it with friends or people who suck out the happiness out of your life.

Oh my God!

It's been 5 months since my last post! I'm so guilty for being lazy!

My book has been published and I'm so grateful for it. I have received my first pay check (royalty) for the book, it was not much but it gave me goosebumps, literally. The book at the moment is only available thru this link but it is in the midst of becoming an e-book and to be distributed to national book stores. Let's keep my fingers crossed!

The weather has been so nice and unnice (is unnice even a word) at the same time because we have snow though it is not so cold (yay!) but the sun doesn't shine, hence, it's depressing. But at least the temperature doesn't plunge to below zero like in Russia or Korea, I could not stand wearing thermals any more.

We went to Paris for the Autumn break and Disneyland. And for the new year we went to London, which was lovely as always.

Talk about new year, I don't have any resolution for this year; I think I have stopped making resolution since 2010 because I know I hardly hold on to it (yes, I am that indecisive). I would though, love to brush up my German thought I don't think I have the time ( and the dedication, hehehe) to attend a full time German class, but the only one-on-one tutoring offer I received doesn't come cheap either. So I have to stick with my on-line class I guess. Another thing I might do again in 2013 is Toastmaster. I used to be member of Toastmaster back in Jakarta, so it's gonna be interesting again to come to a meeting here in Bonn. Let's see.

What's your 2013 resolution?

Yay! It's finally here!!!!

Yupp, here it is... the long overdue collection of short stories about 'mommyhood'... my stories!!!

http://www.leutikaprio.com/produk/11027/kumpulan_cerpen/1207626/happy_mommies/12043912/turike

And if you wanna peek into the book, here it is, the first chapter. Sorry peeps, it's in Bahasa, not interested to translate it into English... yet :P
http://www.scribd.com/doc/100690598/Happy-Mommies

I hope you have a good time peeking into it / reading it :))

The Cover!

Last week, the publisher sent the draft cover for approval. Couldn't be more happy, seeing a book cover with my name in front of it.
This will be my first, and hopefully, wont be my last :))

Sorry, have to cover some parts as it is still a draft

Yess! I plan to write a series of books on motherhood stories - a comical one that is. However, the scientist inside me also wants to write down about science fiction tales: think Asimov, Verne, Wells, Brown and Crichton.

Well, an idea is an idea and it will be up to me to realize them. With work, home and little cupcake, it might be tough... But at least I wrote the idea here in the blog so now I can’t go back hi hi hi. 

I'm not a perfect mom. So what??

It's that time of the month again. Time when I feel tired, bored the whole day; time when I fell like I wanna eat a bowl of sushi rice with chocolate and drink wine, while reading a chicklit or watching a Nora Ephron's movie. (And maybe smoke some weed too).


According to wikipedia, PMS is :

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) (also called PMT or premenstrual tension) is a collection of physical and emotional symptoms related to a woman's menstrual cycle. While most women of child-bearing age (up to 85%) report having experienced physical symptoms related to normal ovulatory function, such as bloating or breast tenderness, medical definitions of PMS are limited to a consistent pattern of emotional and physical symptoms occurring only during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle that are of "sufficient severity to interfere with some aspects of life".[1]

So based on that, this time of the month is supposedly not a good time to Google photos of celeb moms. Excuse me......, but the first page that popped out when I opened my firefox today for work shows me this picture which make me groaned.

Can you believe that she has 6, SIX children! And can still smile after hours of transatlantic journey with 6 children on a plane?

And this one has 4, FOUR! But look at those legs! She could wear that mini I bought from H&M effortlessly I guess.

Wow. And I sometimes could not even keep up with one.


However, I never envy Angelina or Victoria ; they must have 24/7 standby nannies, private jets or PAs.

But what I do envy are mommas who never seem to lose out their temper to their children. They remind me of Carol Brady of the "Brady Bunch."


Sometimes I'm just sick and tired of hearing (or reading) that mothers should be compassionate and patient to their children's, should not yell, keep their temper, bla bla bla. Umm, hello... even when we have PMS? Stuff and saying like this made me feel so guilty whenever I got cranky (yes, I can get cranky too) each time Rania doesn't finish her fruit portion. Or when she refused to brush her teeth.

Sayings like that made me feel like I'm not a perfect mom. Not a good mom. I'm sure that 5 out of 10 moms I know feel the same way too. They are just to ashamed to admit it. 

But then I found this website, which made me laugh so hard! I'm not alone! I'm not alone! (I feel like I wanna run and show this website to the lady that sits next to me on the tram or my gynaecologist (why them? I have now idea...))

http://www.scarymommy.com/confessions/

So I guess it is okay to do crazy stuff once and a while - not all the time ya. So no need to feel guilty if we become emotional and a scary mommy once and a while. Like the SM says : Cause Parenting does not have to be perfect.


Pics from wonderwall.com and urban-hoopla; all credits belong to them.

Adventure of the Seas Day 5-6-7-8

Day 5.

As the trip to Pisa only started at around 9 AM, we had our breakfast at the main dining room. The buffet style breakfast was a 4 star hotel kind of way – one could find yogurt, fruits, pancake, to smoked salmon. Rania loved the buttermilk pancake and I opted for the sweet muesli. By 9 AM we went to the meeting point and were rushed to the gangway. One thing that I did not really enjoy was the fact that from the meeting point of the tour to the gangway, we were always escorted down to use the stairs. Luckily Rania was a no-complainer girl, but it was demanding to deck down 2 or 3 flights of stairs with a toddler. They should have also been prepared for people opting to use the lift – parents with toddler / buggy or senior with walking sticks. 

A small break before the 'photo session' in Pisa

That day, it was not our luckiest day on the bus. It seemed like a full ride; hence Rania had to sit on our lap for the 40 minutes on the way to Pisa. Our guide was a very informative lady called Simona and she literary could not only tell the history but also showing them as well. Something like, look at this wall and see the proof that building was already 500 years old. We arrived at the Pisa nature reserve and were asked to continue the journey on a small, open-style coach with a locomotive! It took us another 15 minutes on the coach and along the way Simona explained the history of the town of Pisa – which it used to be a small, independent country. We arrived at Pisa- Miracle Square and were given a 45 minutes of free time in front of the tower. When I first came, the area near the tower was closed for re-construction and I was pleased that now I could take pictures as close as possible to the tower. 

Ok, my tummy was not that big, the wind blew my top!

Tink!

After 400 photo sessions later (hihi), we went back to our meeting point and took the coach ride to the river... yes, this time we went back to the bus by taking a boat trip with free ice cream, how cool was that! By around 1 PM we arrived back at the ship and we went straight to windjammer and then to our room for some needed ZzzZZ. Later that day we dropped Rania off as it was “diego day” at the kids club. By 7 we went to the dining room for our dinner. Our waiter was a Filipino called Efren, a very funny person indeed! He would greeted us cheerfully and sang during serving us. Finished with our dinner, we dropped Rania again at the kids club and this time went to try our luck at the casino; ka-ching! All the machines only accepted US coins, hence we need to change our Euros into USD dollars at the cashier, and with the minimum value for changing was 20 USD with Seapass card. We then used the slot machines to change the bills into coins. 40 coins later and then we ended up broke (hahaha) and decided to chill out watching the show called “Can’t stop the rock.” I did not understand why the show was called like that, as the show was about a tribute to best movie soundtracks – from “Love Story” to “The Bodyguards.” I must say the quality of the singers was good, and some were as good as American Idols contestants!

We called it a night by 10-ish and went to our state room for a well-deserved snooze.

Day 6.

We were already near the end of our vacation sniff....

We woke up in the morning for the beautiful view of Ajaccio, Corsica. The tiny island belonged to the French and had 9 mountains and many kilometres of coastline – our guide told us that Corsica is the only place in the world where one could swim at the ocean and skiing on the same day! The streets were always on traffic jam while we were there and they were narrow and the land was not flat at all.

The first part of the tour was to stop at Napoleon’s statue – Ajaccio was Napoleon’s birthplace by the way.

The second part of the trip, was rather appalling, instead of taking us to the city centre, we were brought to a reserved area near some building near ocean that seemed like lighthouses. I did not understand why they would take us there as there was nothing interesting around. 

The third part of the trip was the coolest; the beach! We were given some free time at the beach and used it to the fullest. Rania was at first screaming but later enjoyed it so much that we had to drag her out of the water. The beach was clean, with grey sands; the water was clear and not too cold

I'm building my own sandcastle!

This was a candid shot! I was scratching my head I guess...

Back at the ship, Rania this time asked to go to the kids club – on her own. We picked her up at 6 to dress up for the island frenzy parade at the Royal Promenade. The parade consisted of some entertainer using stilt walkers and was only for 10 minutes – it was too short. 

After having our dinner, we had our photos taken with the Captain. Rania was curious to see the captain – as the only captain she had in mind was Captain Hook –don’t ask me why ;) The Captain was a tall, bearded fella from Canada and seemed like a nice gentleman. From there, we went to the kids’ disco time, and then the theatre to watch a show.  Rania almost fell asleep at the theatre; hence we called it a day at around 10-ish.

Day 7.

Sea- day again. That day, the ship felt a bit shaky at times but it did not ruin our last day of vacation. After breakfast, Rania asked to be dropped at the kids club. We used the time to explore the ship and my husband did wall climbing – talk about having an adventure! 

When we picked Rania up at the kids club we were informed about the talent show for kids. So off we went to the talent show and rania, along with our 3 years olds danced with pom-poms to the tunes. It was so cute.

 After lunch, I decided to have a massage. It was a decision that I did not regret. Although the massage room was a bit shaky, the head-to-toe massage was great and my masseuse was really nice. By 5ish I went to the Jacuzzi, but before that, I joined the people at the poolside, dancing to the songs from the Spanish Duo. It was very cool.

 By 6 we headed down to the Royal Promenade for a parade. The Entertainment director used the occasion to introduce the entertainment officers and casts and we used the occasion to make picture with some of the casts. Rania on the other hand, used the occasion to gather as many as crepe confetti as possible to be used as a pom-pom.

We had our final dinner without Rania as she went to the kids club again and finally, had a chance to talk with the German couple of the table. 

Our dinner for the night and for the holiday? Steak and Lobster!

Nyummy Nyummy!

Even more Nyummy Nyummy!

The dinner was closed with all the waiters singing for us from the stairs. As today was the last day, it was also the day to pay gratuities to staff that served us : our stateroom attendant, which was a very nice guy called Jerome and our waiter and assistant waiter : Efren and Joly (forgot his full name). 

The cruise had stated the minimum gratuities that we must give to each staff, or in our case, we had paid the gratuities upfront. This way, we only received pieces of paper that stated our name and room number and we simply only need to give the papers to our favourite staff.

Back at the room, we were given the luggage tags, which also corresponded to the meeting point and the time of the our departure from the ship. We packed the suitcases, pasted the tags and put them up in front of our door by 11 PM so the staff could pick it up. 

Day 8

Ah... it was the end of our vacation. We put our dirty laundry from the night into a small bag as we did not have our suitcases anymore. We had our final breakfast at the ship, and went to the meeting point in time for our tag number to be called. Once out from the ship, we were taken to the conveyor belt where it shows which tag number belonged in which belt. We took our suitcases and same as at the beginning, from point to point we were advised which way to go and which bus to board. Everything was carefully detailed and they even had some staff in front of the information board at the airport to inform us which check in desk to go to. We arrived at the airport 2 hours before our flight. I would say this best vacation ever! Thank you to Jerome, Efren, Joly (sorry forgot your name), our first waiter Elmer, Suherman, the girls and Alan at the kids club Aquanauts and most importantly, Royal Caribbean. All the best!