HEC PARIS VISITS YUM CIPANAS

I had a moment of pride a few weeks ago when a group of Master's students from HEC Paris, a business school with an excellent reputation, came to visit YUM Cipanas. Having studied in Paris, I sometimes wonder what could have been if I had continued my studies or stayed in Paris and continued working there. Was coming back to Jakarta the right choice? But all those questions were answered when I saw that these students, some of them my age, were in awe with the projects we have at YUM, and appreciated my work and what I had to say about it. That made my day..... and my week..... and my month :))

PODCASTS AND HOW TO BEAT THE TRAFFIC

I love stories and I love hearing people have a fun conversation. What I don't love is traffic and spending an hour in my car to go to and from the office to the house. That's why I love podcasts. I don't think many people in Jakarta actually download and listen to podcasts but these are what gets me through the traffic. And honestly, I'm sure I've had people looking at me when I drive because when I listen to the stories and conversations I could just suddenly burst into tears or laugh out loud.

So I'm going to share with you my secret to getting through Jakarta traffic. First of all, get iTunes on your computer. You don't need to have an account. Go to "Podcasts" and search for my favorite podcasts:

1. THE MOTH: TRUE STORIES TOLD LIVE
The concept is simple: everyday raconteurs or storytellers get together for an event and each have about 15 minutes to tell their story. The event usually has a theme, but the stories are all different. I truly can't say I've ever heard a boring or uninteresting story. A few that I remember well is a father telling the story of his son who is into girl toys and clothing and asks for a pink bike, another one where Kimya Dawson talks about her experience working in a carnival and scaring Mariah Carey, and a really touching story told by DMC of Run DMC.

2. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD

This podcast is for mostly female and a parent, but honestly you would also enjoy it if you were male and non-married. The host are Lynette and Stephanie and they talk about everything from their daily lives to what's happening in the news (mostly in the States). They just have a really relaxed feeling to their podcast and you feel like you're there next to them, just looking at them talk to each other.

3. MANIC MOMMIES

Ok so from the title you can already imagine that the podcast is mostly for women and mothers. But what I like about this is that the two hosts, Erin and Kristin, talk about managing work and motherhood, which I'm very familiar with. Again, it's like listening to your good friends just ramble and make you feel like you're not the only one in the world who feels frustrated when it comes to balancing work and motherhood.

4. TED TALKS

There's nothing more to say except that these talks have literally changed my life. They've taught me so many things, that I couldn't have even imagined learning on my own.

Now that you've found the podcasts, click on "Subscribe" and download a few episodes. Put these into you iPod and voila, you're ready to beat the traffic :)

HAPPY WEEKEND :)

Some photos taken recently...

Homemade quiche & spaghetti at the Rekso's housewarming party on September 10th

The lovelies, Mabel and Sabine, who calm my heart whenever I long for a daughter :)

And my baby who just lost his upper tooth!

BIRTHDAY BOY

My big boy is 7 and he's really starting to act like a "little man": he knows what he wants and says what he thinks, whether I like it or not :)

This year, we had another gift hunt (his request) and I documented his running here and there and finding the gifts. He was spoilt as usual and we topped off the morning with a mini donuts birthday cake, shared between Amal, my parents and I.

In my family, it's tradition for the one who has the birthday to choose a restaurant which we go to together to celebrate so I thought it would be good to continue this tradition. So Amal, his dad and I went to a restaurant chosen by Amal for lunch :)

I think birthdays are great! It's really that one day in the year where you're free to do anything you want, choose whatever you want and not think of anything..... so I hope that's what Amal felt today (though he did say in the afternoon "this is the greatest birthday ever!")...

If you wanna see what we did last year, go here :)

HAPPY LEBARAN 2011

It's that time of year again for seeing the whole family, catching up, asking for forgiveness and children queuing for some small change from their aunts, uncles, and grandparents :)

Minal Aidin Wal Faizin to you all.... hopefully whatever we got from this one month of peace and tranquility will continue throughout the year!

JALAN PERSAHABATAN

Last weekend, the big furniture were moved into the new house so now we only have our beds, tv, kitchen and some seating in the current house. The new house is looking nicer and nicer. As you can see, my parents went with an ethnic look, a mixture of Bali, Javanese and Mediterranean.

The have a balinese gebyok as front door and windows, some lovely green-colored tiles from Yogya, and an excellent terrace where we can have barbecues and just sit down and watch the back garden. There's also an interior garden with a fountain, water lilies and other water plants.

I'll show more photos once we've settled in... Oh and one more thing, I love the name of the street where the new house is located: Jalan Persahabatan (Friendship Road)... :)

MOVING HOUSE

For the past 10 months, my parents have been designing and constructing a new house and the time has finally come to pack our stuff and move in. Amal and I will also join them in this house since they have specifically made a special area for the 2 of us. It was a difficult decision to move back in with my parents but Amal seems so happy to be with them and I have to admit that I feel more relaxed going out and having a social life knowing he's home with his grandparents. I thank God every day for the parents I have :)

So this weekend we start moving big furniture in the new house but it'll take us about 1 week to really settle in and finally physically move. It's scary knowing we'll be moving to a new area, unknown to us, in a new house where we're going to have to adjust to everything. At least the lady across the street that owns the warteg seems really nice so that's a big plus...

FAMILY HEIRLOOM

Today I went to clean up my house and saw this suitcase below which belonged to my great-aunt Odette. I think she must be around 93 years old now. She's still alive and kicking in Paris, living on her own in a small apartment on the 6th floor without a lift (I kid you not!). When I was studying in Paris, I would come over to her place once a month and have lunch with her. Before I left to go back to Jakarta, she asked me what I wanted to take from her belongings since we didn't know when I would be able to come back to Paris. Now, every time I came to visit my great-aunt, after lunch, we would open one of her many photo albums (she's travelled all around the world) and she would tell me stories about her adventures. So naturally, I asked if I could have her albums :)

But besides the albums (I think I have at least 20 of them), she also gave me this suitcase with historic newspaper clipping... If you see the photo below, she has about 3-4 newspapers for the date of May 8th, 1945 when the Germans finally surrendered and World War II ended...

This photo below is also pretty awesome, taken when Paris was still under German occupation. The sign says "Attention, if you go beyond this line, you will be shot"

The 2 photos below are part of her travel albums. My great-aunt studied art at school and was quite talented. She finally got a job making maps but as you can see, she still drew for her albums...

Here are some photos of Tati (as I normally call her) during her youth. She's not a very easy woman to be around and much preferred animals to humans, but deep down she was nice and I really hope she's doing well right now...

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

Dear friends, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas (for those celebrating) and a great New Year 2011!

This year has been full of happy moments, challenges, experiences, new friends, new family members... I don't regret any part of it and I hope 2011 will be as amazing as this year :)

If you like this photo and would like to make one similar, just go to www.picnik.com, a free photo editing application where you can do lots of fun stuff to your photos. Have a go and let me know if you like it!

TRUE LOVE

In today's society where divorce is everywhere, it's easy to be cynical and not believe in true love. That's why this movie needs to be seen by many.

StoryCorps is a non-profit that records stories of anyone who wants to talk. This particular movie is the story of Danny & Annie Perasa, an elderly couple from Brooklyn who had been married for 27 years. They recall how they met, how he proposed, how he’s a prolific love-letter writer and eventually how he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. This story will show you what true love is (and will probably also make you cry)...

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

[as seen on the Very Short List]

MY BABY IS 6!

Today, my little boy turned 6!

I prepared several small gifts for him and he had asked to have a treasure hunt, like we did last year. Last year, he looked for toys while I told him "hot" or "cold". However, this year, since he knows how to read, I made him clue cards indicating where the gifts were hidden :)

So I made a big sign that said "Happy Birthday Amal", put it on the door so he sees it when he wakes up, and put the clue cards below the sign. This morning when he woke up, he went straight to it, looked at his cards and started racing all over the house looking for the presents. I tried documenting his search for toys but he was too fast for my camera :)

The last photo is his birthday cake that we had tonight. I made the cake from scratch (proud mama) with Jamie Oliver's Party Cake recipe that I found in his book "The Return of the Naked Chef". I bought a cake pan with the number 6 and it was a bit difficult to put the cream and strawberries between 2 layers so I decided to have them separately. I highly recommend this cake because it turned out delicious!

Here's the recipe:

3 rounded tablespoons cocoa powder
200gr/7oz caster sugar
200gr/7oz butter
3 large eggs
200gr/7oz self raising flour, sifted
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
1 handful of flaked almonds
200ml/7fl oz double cream (heavy cream)
1 large handful of raspberries
1 large handful of strawberries

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.

Line the bases of 2 x 20cm/8 inch cake tins with greased greaseproof paper.

Mix the cocoa powder with 4 tablespoons of boiling water until smooth. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and butter until fluffy, add the cocoa mixture, eggs, flour and baking powder. Mix well, fold in the nuts. Divide the mixture between the tins. Bake for about 25 minutes. When cooked, allow to cool then remove from the tins.

Chocolate Topping
100gr/4oz butter
100gr/4oz best cooking chocolate
100gr/4oz icing sugar
3 tablespoons milk

Melt the chocolate topping ingredients in a bowl over some slightly simmering water. Stir until blended well and allow to cool.

Whip the double cream to soft peaks and sweeten with a little sugar.

To assemble the cake, remove the greaseproof paper from both sponges. Drizzle each one with a little sherry, if you like. Spread the cream over one of the sponges, then sprinkle the fruit on top. Sandwich the second sponge on top and press down. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to smooth it off and drizzle over the chocolate topping.