The Acne Prone Wife

Because of last month's clinical spa which I am not really fancy of , why not try spa at home, right? Selain karena ada kompetisi Create Your Own Spa At Home yang diadakan oleh Sariayu Martha Tilaar dan Female Daily http://femaledaily.com/createyourownspa/ , scrub Wardah kesukaan saya juga sudah habis dan saya ingin coba-coba scrub lain. Maklum, wanita. Semua scrub ingin dicoba. Biasanya ritual semi-spa saya di rumah cuma melibatkan scrub, lalu mandi. Tetapi ingin juga sih mencoba ritual spa yang agak lengkap. Jadi ini alat tempur spa yang saya beli di supermarket dekat rumah, semuanya dari Sariayu: Sariayu, Sariayu, Sariayu, Sariayu. Click for bigger picture. Oh iya sebetulnya produk-produk Sariayu Martha Tilaar juga dapat dibeli online di http://online.marthatilaarshop.com/ tetapi saya sudah terlalu sering belanja online. Sekali-kali ingin belanja offline supaya ingat lagi rasanya. (Will do another post on this online shopping addiction) Urutan pemakaian mari kita p...

Click for bigger picture So above is the advertisement that made me being one of the 259 people who bought the voucher. I bought the 3 times spa voucher because it's such a bargain, right? I also find that the reservation, which can be done through SMS, is very cnnvenient. They help me find a suitable time that match my 3-hour free time, which can be very difficult to find. So, let's see what they offer: a 3-hour complete spa massage body scrub body mask hair wash Now, what about my experience there? Was I satisfied and did I feel relaxed and pampered? Well, I have mixed feeling about this spa experience. For your information, I am not a spa avid. My experience of body treatment was only in a few traditional body treatment place or at times I have a beautician come to my house to give me body treatments. The Clinic Sadly, I did not have my camera with me, so let me just describe the clinic. Amethyst was a very clean doctor-feel clinic. It looked and smelled...

I am thinking that running out of town would be the best. Jakarta might be good. I know some friends there who want to help me. I can stay in one of their houses for a while before I find my own place. Or I can always stay in a hotel for a couple of days. I know a couple of affordable nice hotels. I also know some places where I can apply for work. I think I need to work if I want to live on my own. But how do I explain myself to my friends? I cannot think of a scenario where I do not honestly tell them that I leave my hometown because I cannot live with him anymore. I have to be honest. They will understand. They've seen my eye covered in bruises when I went to that party last year in Jakarta. No no no. Running to a town where I meet my friends will make it easy for him to be able to track me down. I might get caught fast. Difficult. Another option is to run away to my family's house in the same town. I can beg them to keep my hideout a secret. And even when he f...

I fancy that there is a certain part in our brain that functions as an automatic recycle bin. Basically that part helps us to forget. I imagine that if we remember everything we touch, feel, see, hear, we would be so overwhelmed that we'd go crazy. I even have this plot idea in my head for a fiction of a man who gets hit on his head and damages that automatic recycle bin. He remembers everything and soon become very brilliant and famous, but later goes lunatic. And everyone else thanks God that human can forget. Bad plot. I know. A film with a nobody-else-will-think-of-it plot about forgetting is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . I highly recommend watching it if you haven't watched it again and again, and cried everytime watching it (hey, that's me). Anyway, back to real life, I believe that the automatic recycle bin in my head has gone out of control lately. One afternoon I got a phone call from a bank customer service who explained that I left some hundred ...

So I got myself some beauty supplements from my last trip to Kuala Lumpur a couple of months ago. I meant to sell them back in Indonesia to get some profit :D  Anyway, reading the brochures and actually having the supplements in my hands lured me to have them for myself. The thought of clear skin for an acne-prone wife is just too tempting, isn't it?  If you have these problems, this beauty supplement is for you. Good job, tempting brochure! But I made it hard for myself. The supplements shall be a reward for me if I can finally realize my healthy diet resolution for a week: Freshly squeezed lemon added to warm water each morning Only fruit and/or milk until 10 am Strictly no krupuk (trying to avoid MSG here) Sambel should be only once a day  I got the idea of lemon juice and fruits for breakfast from Food Combining diet. Go google. The whole idea is very appealing, but I just cannot go beyond the breakfast. The menu for lunch and dinner are too frightenin...

 THIS PICTURE IS A LIE pic is from fotosearch.com  We all know that waking up in the morning does NOT look like the picture above. Not in a thousand year. Trying to crawl out of the bed with one eye shut and the other covered in gunk sure does not give you a refreshed, happy face. And then you decide to creep back into the blanket. Soft. Comfortable. Going back to sleep is an unavoidable decision. And then you are late. Haha. Anyway, have you ever noticed that actually after crawling out of bed, we only spend five heavy-eyelid-disoriented-minutes? After those dreadful five minutes, usually we already turn fully awake. So really, all we have to do is push ourselves to get out from the bed, getting adapted to the waking world. We tend not to do it, I know :) Is not life like that? We do not want to leave our comfort zone and embrace changes. When I moved from Indonesia to Dubai last year, I thought I would not last. For the first few weeks, all I wanted...

The weirdest feeling came to me that evening when I was downtown last weekend. Sitting on a motorcycle (my husband rode it), having nothing much to do, I looked around and felt utterly strange. How can I put it? It was like being sucked into a weird oldie movie. And a slow motion one. A motorcycle passed by and the rider sported a pair of knee-length boots. Boots in Surabaya are a rare sights, even in malls. And here was a guy with stylish boots in a shabby motorcycle. Following him was a lady in a motorcycle with very wide boot cut jeans. It was an amusing sight, as she could be a shadow from the past. As she passed by, the stores along the street started to catch my attention. Stalls selling dusty cheapo firework. Ancient stores with fading signs and interior full of dust. Grandpas with hooded eyes stood behind their displays, trying so hard to keep awake. Short time hotels with tacky old-fashioned lamp signs. It was as if the whole sleepy street tried so hard to keep awake, tr...

What is the must visit tourist destination/attraction in Dubai? People say it is desert safari. Well, where else can you experience a life in the desert rather than in a desert country? If you google the images of desert safari, yummy pictures like these show up: I got pretty low price on the desert safari package tour deal from the Internet. Basically they promised to give us: Pick up and drop from and to our apartment Dune Bashing (that car bashing in the desert sand) Sand Skiing Camel Riding Falcon Show Henna (getting your hand painted) BBQ Dinner Buffet We were so excited! I mean, look at those pictures from the Internet. The day came and our high expectations started to crumble bit by bit from the first call of the driver who was supposed to pick up us at our apartment. "Your apartment is too far, we are going to be late. Let's meet up at Deira City Center Mall." My husband then told him that we could reach Deira City Center in 2 hours by bus (th...

Walking down a street in Deira area a couple months ago, we stumbled upon this little store that specializes in selling Indonesian hair care and body care products. Weird. There are not so many Indonesian people here. So we went inside the store, talked to the store owner and asked his permission to take a couple of pictures. We were fascinated. The store owner said that business is quite good. There are always people who come looking for Indonesian products. I suddenly remember that I've been looking for hair tonic in numerous department stores in Dubai with no luck at all. They only have hair oil (sounds yuck). They do not have any knowledge of hair tonic at all. I should go visit this store again. Rudy Hadisuwarno. Who in Indonesia doesn't know him? Balsem Otot Geliga! Pegal Kembali Lega! You can even see the POM number :)) The infamous Citra (or Citra Hand Body as we know it) The store. I also heard that Sharjah (a town next to Dubai) has Indomaret! ...

It is such a cliche to say don't take anything for granted, be grateful instead, bla bla bla. The fact is that we hear sayings so many times a day (blame Blackberry Broadcast Message for that) they feel so lame and worn out. I hate cliches. And I take things for granted. But a recent stroll to the supermarket changed me. A bit ;) These pictures (all prices are approximate) show how fruits that I got so easily (and cheaply!) in Indonesia cost an enormous amount of Dirham that I don't want to spend. Papaya. IDR 67,500 per kg. In Indonesia: IDR 3,000 per kg. Coconut. IDR 20,000 per piece. In Indonesia: IDR 5,000 per piece. Rambutan. IDR 42,500 per pack. In Indonesia: IDR 10,000 per kg (less for that pack!) Durian. IDR 90,000 per kg. In Indonesia: IDR 20,000 per kg. Crazy, eh? They say that all fruits here are imported. But look at the prices! Fruits from Southeast Asia are so exotic and expensive here in the desert. No longer will I take fruits for granted when I go back to Indon...