20. the last remnants of palembang

I had to do a three-part post of Palembang for fear of it being too draggy, as well as the pictures lagging. You can view post 1 and post 2 by clicking the respective links for better understanding of the mini getaway I did. To recap, my trip there was to attend a family ceremony for my baby nephew, called "cukur jambul" (the baby's very first haircut, snipped by close family members).

Day before the event: These "flower boards" were sent from companies as a congratulatory token. My brother and sister-in-law received around 4 of these huge boards. The "higher" you are in the social ladder, the more boards you will receive.

I decided to wear a slightly unorthodox outfit, pairing my old batik skirt with a black lace top from bajugraphy.

Me, my sister-in-law's sister, my sister-in-law holding her son (my nephew), and my sister-in-law's sister-in-law holding her daughter.

The batik skirt was getting very uncomfortable after 6 hours of wearing it soooo I whipped it off and paired comfy leggings. This was when the guests had left. I'm with my sister-in-law, my nephew, and my brother.

Me with my cute baby nephew! The cukur jambul dais was very grand.

I love this little girl's cute pink jubah! You can see from two pictures above her mom was wearing a matching one. Super sweet :)

And the above are some of the gorgeous clothes I purchased for myself from Palembang. A girl's gotta spoil herself sometimes!

19. a clash of cultures

Indonesian cuisine leaves one tastebuds miffed. It is always brimful of spices, salty, and most of the times, you can taste sugar in every dish. But all the food I've tasted thus far are delicious. Although it assaults your tongue in all ways delectable, so you can't really consume much of it, only a little.

This is kelapa susu manis. It's essentially the coconut flesh in fresh coconut juice, mixed with bendera kental manis (condensed milk) and gula Melaka (palm tree syrup sugar). In my humble opinion, this drink was so delicious, much better than jus alpukat (avocado juice). Just thinking about this refreshing drink is making me salivating. Drool!

This is pisang karamel (caramelized banana). Oh my God, this dessert was absolutely delicious. It's essentially banana fried in a crispy, crunchy batter, and topped with grated cheese and drizzled with caramel and chocolate syrup. It should be eaten piping hot. 

This is one of Indonesia's signature dish, bakso. This was from a restaurant called Bakso Malang (unlucky bakso). It's essentially meaty beefballs served in a delicious broth, sometimes with noodles, tofu pieces and so forth. Topped with their spicy chilli-soya-sauce, you could be enjoying a tantalizing mix of fiery, wholesome beef in your mouth. 

As the saying goes, When In Rome, Do As The Romans Do. In this case, when in Palembang, eat as the locals do. The top dish is a popular Indonesian dish called ikan terbang or "flying fish". My god, it was cooked perfectly; crispy on the outside, moist chunks of fish on the inside (you can see my father's impatient fingers in the picture). The bottom is kepiting masak lada hitam (crab in black pepper sauce). You know it's good spicy when you're gasping for water but you're still holding onto the crab. These dishes are from a popular restaurant, Riverside Restaurant.

The gorgeous view from Riverside Restaurant. Clear, sunny skies. What a beautiful sight to see.

18. a little change of air never hurt anyone.

For the first time in almost a year of working, I applied leave for almost a week *gasps*. Work is fun, but it was time for me to reconnect with my family, and finish off those to-do-lists after procrastinating for so long. The perfect opportunity came when my mom told me that my brother and sis-in-law, along with their 6 month old son, would be doing an aqiqah-cum-cukur-jambul ceremony in my sis-in-law's hometown at Palembang, Indonesia. I was lucky my leave was approved, as I would be leaving during a very hectic and time hurrahh!

I haven't been on an aircraft for a year (the last was Langkawi in September 2011... eww bad memories) and for my journey, I hoped to seek some inner peace, tranquility, serenity boring blahness.

When I was on the plane, there was a few seconds of turbulence where the plane kind of swooped down for a few seconds, and in that few seconds, a face immediately came to my mind. I don't know if I'll see that face again but that person means a lot to me. If it's up to Him above, God willing, it will happen. Or not, haha!

The beauty of the world from high above was breathtaking. It reminded me that we are all just tiny pieces in the scheme of the universe. That the only constant in our lives are change and our period of mortality, coming to a stop sooner or later. It's up to us to roll the dices of happiness in our hands. Though, we are all mere mortals and our temper, jealousy, and impatience are our shortcomings that will eventually lead us to our inevitable self-creation of unhappiness. 

So try to chip away those negativity, and live life with no regrets. If today was your last, what would you have done differently? Slept less? Say "I love you" to the one who matters? Eat whatever? Pray on your knees, forever? Everybody has their own keys to unlock being happy :)

17. rainbow sweetness.

I talk a bit too much about work sometimes. So here's a blog post for Sue :) I used to work at Nuffnang - great place, and I still keep in touch with some of my ex-colleagues, meeting up with them for dinners and such things from time to time.

We all met at Frontera, Jaya One to celebrate Sue's birthday :) I finally met her significant other. They both seemed very sweet together, sharing food together and all. Then I received a surprising news. :0 What is it? If you're still following my blog next year... you'll know :)

The rainbow cake from Lola was very very cute, can I have one for my birthday? I want to blow out candles to rainbow layers of wishing this and that.

It's always great to meet these girlies (plus Victor, ex-Nuffnanger I met after I left). It's always great to meet Anne and Thara (hot mama-to-be) whenever I can. Nowadays I'm super busy, cos I'm doing my full-time job and I'm handling two side projects. So yep, it's a little hectic! But I'm gonna try and stick to blogging daily (*snorts*).

That's me and boredom whilst waiting for a super long traffic light on the way to work. Nothing to do with driving recklessly; I've timed this traffic light to perfection every day on the way to work (3 minutes of doing nothing).

16. lights, camera, action

This week, the Bajugraphy team have been thrusted under the spotlight. We had a shoot for TV3's Nona on Monday, a team photoshoot on Tuesday, and on Friday we will be appearing in a newspaper :) We are also running a competition with friendlyfashion.my, which is super awesome.

Outtakes from team photoshoot.

When people ask us about what we think about our competitors, honestly, to me, there's no such thing as competitors, only that there are other fashion businesses run by people who are passionate about it, just like us, and doing what they love. It's also healthy, because it forces you to continuously improve yourself and is a gentle reminder that hey, people will always have options.

Wacky, whimsical, crazy, that's who we are.

It's ultimately the people behind the business who makes it different. I don't think of any other fashion ventures as competitors, only as similar businesses. If everybody had that kind of selfish mindset then no businesses would not be able to thrive because every business would be monopolized by one entity.

BTW, the Bajugraphy team wants to give back to the community, so in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, from 19 - 31 October, we will be giving out homemade pink ribbons and donating RM 1 for every item purchased to National Cancer Society Malaysia. Join us in the fight against cancer :)

Say NO to Breast Cancer!

15. Take 1.

Look ma, I'm on TV! 

As marketing executive for Bajugraphy, you get the crazy insanity where you're constantly chasing people to do things. You're the executor. You're the one with the axe in your hands. Granted, it took me a while to get the hang of everything because online stuff was not my forte. Not analytics, spreadsheets, financial stats and so forth.

Now I'm learning to be more organized, to stop giving my supervisor heart attacks and to communicate better with everyone. To be a team player. To write down dates and tasks to complete even if it's super tedious. You gotta be organized. I was fooling around for the first few months, but when everybody starts running to you for answers and you're like huh? you realize you gotta up the ante. 

Cardigan: Bajugraphy RM 68

White collared shirt: Primark 

Black jeans: Dorothy Perkins

Heels: From Singapore

And I gotta say, no matter how busy it gets, I love my job :) Thanks to those who believe in me.